Mid-Year School Holiday

the normally two weeks holiday in the middle of the school year somehow became two and a half weeks, this year. i'm not entirely sure why the holiday started on wednesday instead of saturday. oh well, more time at home for mummy to enjoy, yeah right!

to me surprise, the holidays this time around have significantly improved (as it should!). two and a half weeks seem to fly by when you actually know what to do with the stay-at-home kids. the first half week, ariff and akmal went to bicdc's holiday camp. so i was at home with only two who were stuck on their ps3. alhamdulillah.

pictures courtesy of the teachers in bicdc.

during those two days i managed to settle quite a bit of school stuff - i washed the school bags, washed and ironed all school uniforms, washed school ties, got the cleaners (cos i don't do this) to wash all the school shoes, cleaned the boys' school book shelves, replenish school stationeries and bought some activity books with the intention of doing some activities during the holiday. by the time the weekend came, all school stuff have been ticked off and can be put that aside until the last weekend of school holidays.

for the earlier part of the second week, i had to fast. the boys were wonderful to leave me alone with my migraine attacks and weak moments. they let me sleep the afternoon away with very minimal crying, hitting, smacking, fighting-over-toys outbreaks. thank god for the ps3 and playdoh. the later part of the week, we went down to melaka for a much needed break.

the third week of the holiday began the same way, i fasted for three days and asked the boys to leave me alone as the heat were unbearable. towards the end of the week, realizing the holiday was coming to a close, i took the boys out. on thursday, we went to klia to send off my mom, aunt and cousin who had to attend a funeral in kota bharu and on friday, we went out for movies and swimming to counter the hot weather.

i am a bit upset i left a couple of things til the very last minute - haircut for the boys, which means we had to be part of a long, long queue, and ariff's pendidikan islam 80-page homework, which means asyraf had to shadow him while he tried to finish it, after school had resumed.

alhamdulillah, they're getting much better at being at home during holidays. much better than the first holiday we had together back in 2012. that was a horrible time to think about. i can count on one hand the number of times i had to pick up the cane and that made me less stressed.

A Family Wedding

been a bit quiet lately. april and may were long, long months. with schools in full gear post holiday, sports practice on a daily basis at kindy and at the primary school (guess they're trying to settle sports day before the fasting month begins), exams at primary and agama schools, weekends of football friendlies, agama school competitions, add to those the very painful water rationing exercise, the at-times-unbearable heat, blog updating just seem to take a back seat.

as all those start to wind down, it was things at the home ground that started to take off. after 10 years, the house was abuzz with preparation for a wedding. at 40 years old, my older brother, the boys' pappy, decided to settle down with the lady of his dreams.

our family from kota bharu came down for almost a week to help out with the preparation. with the boys' agama school holding exams on the last week of school, we were tied up and could only help out the day before the wedding.

the wedding was held on 24 may, beginning with the akad nikah in the morning, followed by a lovely, lovely lunch (with gorgeous butter haha!) and the tea ceremony in the afternoon.

the day closed with a dinner reception, all held at the same venue, carcosa seri negara. alhamdulillah, all three events went well. it was lovely to see family members and tssc's friends coming bearing doas and well-wishes.

the boys (3 smart, 1 very messy) led the bridal procession into the dinner hall.