...and so much more: May 2017

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

School Lunch Box - March, April & May 2017

because of the march exam & school holidays, the laziness of april and the may exam, fasting month & school holidays, i am able to combine 3 months of the #eaislunchbox journey into one entry.

my mood have been going up and down with regards to the lunch box. on days i am so not in the mood, i will be soooo not in the mood. on days i'm a bit energetic, i could fried up things at 6.30 in the morning. because of that, the boys get simple sandwiches or fried noodles / rice or something baked or just good old ringgit notes.

the easy peasy sandwiches, there's tuna, sardines, turkey, chicken, beef and good ol' nutella spread...

quesadillas and wraps that i actually enjoy preparing...

french toasts on days i have craving...

puffs with the assorted fillings of tuna, sardines and cheese...

mini pizza that turns out quite easy to prepare...

they love this but i try not to indulge, once a month is more that enough...maggi goreng...

and fried rice and pasta goreng made their rare appearances...

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Week 32 - Slowly Getting There

this is probably the final 4-week check up before i start my two-weekly check ups.

the last 4 weeks have been a bit hectic. with packed weekends of Raya shopping and football, packed weekdays of exams, a few public holidays here and there that we used to go out and settle many errands before i put up my white flag and say no more!

i had a bit of wheezing and nightly puffs the past month and i had asked for seretide from my gynae. the wheezing have disappeared and i sleep much better now. well, better if you dont count the times amira kicks and hits my head as she now sleeps on the same pillow as me. bye bye baby cot - you're now serving the new baby, bet amira says that.

the baby's been pretty quite the last couple of weeks. she was extremely active before and i could see every movement she made. but now she's mellowed down and i can only feel her kicks and punches inside my tummy instead of actually seeing them move under my skin.

the baby's growing really well. she's almost filling up the waterbag with a bit of space left for her to grow a bit more the last stretch of weeks. she's not yet engaged but i can feel tightening, particularly when i put my feet up after doing so many things. braxton hicks, the doctor confirmed. she asked if i wanted some meds to ease the contraction but i said, let's just roll with it. if she needs to start practising now, then we'll leave her to it.

and its obviously a she, from the scan that was done at the check up. she could be clearly seen yesterday, her spinc, head, features, arms and legs and everything else. another possible 4D scan...she's really tempting me. she's on the green track as her weight has been increasing per schedule. she weighed 1.8kg at the check up. let's hope she puts on the same every week for the next 4 weeks, then she'll be in the ideal weight area of 2.6kg.

on the home front, i washed 3 loads of baby clothes and put them nicely in the ikea containers i got a couple of months ago. i have just 1 more load for towels, swaddling blankets, cot bedsheet and the mittens i got earlier in the month. i'll probably do them the week before the baby is due.

as for me, i've settled purchasing all the toiletries and postnatal care items that i need. all that's left is just to relax, enjoy Ramadhan and i'll worry about the hospital bag after the next check up.

Monday, May 15, 2017

Asyraf the Junior Footballer

its always been our dream to have all boys, all football-crazy, football-loving and most importantly, football-playing boys. alhamdulillah, we got the first part, we got four boys - to nicely conquer each part of the field; a striker, a midfielder, a defender and a winger. well, that's as far as we got actually. amir and asyraf love and are crazy over football, they could play for hours everyday. but ariff and akmal, we're just happy they occasionally mention arsenal or united or leicester or selangor. ok maybe akmal can be groomed to love it a bit more but ariff...forget it!

hubby recently had an opportunity to enter a team into the newly-formed malaysia junior premier football league. he would be ecstatic to have amir and asyraf take part in the 8-month long league and cup games but they only had an under-10 and under-8 league to start with, so it would only have to be asyraf.

so hubby put together a team of 10 boys, which slowly grew to 12 registered boys. these boys played together week in, week out for 8 months. they formed a terrific team, they have excellent camaraderie, they would hang out at each other's houses, they have sleepovers, they are the best of friends. i'm happy asyraf found this group of friends as they are really nice and well-behaved boys.

after 8 monthly, the boys did us proud by finishing third in the league, fourth in the league cup and were the plate runners-up for the fa cup.

asyraf's statistics were something to shout about too, he scored 7 goals, out of the team's 27 goals, and provided 7 assists.

on the last day of the season, the U10 team and their parents convened for lunch at the nearby KFC to celebrate a successful season and to thank the boys for the hard work they put in.

let's hope the team stays together and will win more trophies together, insyaAllah.

Monday, May 01, 2017

Innalillahiwainnailaihirojiun Mummy

it is with great sadness i compose an entry of the passing of a life. it is even sadder that the passing is of my mother, allahyaharmah puan sri faridah mohamed. my mother left us on 19 april 2017, the day amira turned 18 months. i am unable to compose a new entry therefore i'll paste what i had written on my facebook page, a day after her passing...

"Its been a tiring 4 weeks, trying to slot hospital visits in our already-busy daily schedule and getting daily updates. Everything escalated on Tuesday when the four of us received phone calls from TSSC breaking the bad news - it doesnt look good & asked us to make a decision on what to do next.

We convened outside the ICU Tuesday afternoon to get a clearer picture from the specialists. The anesthetist told us, Mummy suffered a stroke post the major surgery she had the previous week, the stroke attacked half of her brain, she also had pneumonia that attacked her right lung. She was on support and had no chance of waking up. The neuro said, even if she did wake up, she would be in vegetative state.

We discussed and came to a decision that she should not suffer any more than she already had. We called her relatives, they came that evening, to see her, to read the Yassin, to say goodbye, and stayed on till well into the night. We agreed that the support will be eased off the next day, Wednesday.

We all went in to see her before we left the hospital. Tiza & I looked at the machine and said, her BP is high! We kissed her hand, said goodnite, see you tomorrow and went home.

We were on NKVE when the hospital called asking us to come back quickly. We drove back to the hospital, it was almost midnight. The ICU nurses said her BP crashed after we left. We cried, read the Yassin to her, whispered our last words to her, whispered the Syahadah to her. We waited by her bedside for an hour and she finally left us at 12.40am. Maybe she wanted to go on her own, without us having to ease off the support.

We had very little sleep that night. We prepared the boys and left for the mosque Wednesday morning. Everything went smoothly and on time that morning. The boys finally got the chance to see Nenny, after not being able to the whole time she was in the ICU. They cried (Ariff was inconsolable) and they kissed her before she was fully covered.

Despite the sad occasion, it was wonderful to see so many familiar faces, faces of friends and teachers and neighbours I have not seen for years. At the mosque, there were primary school friends, secondary school friends, office mates, current neighbours amongst Mummy's friends and family. So many came to pray and pay their last respects to her, she was loved MasyaAllah. The skies were blue and clear and the burial process was smooth.

I did not get to say thank you to those who came, to those who helped us, to those who offered prayers, kind words, to those who spared us a thought, who spared Mummy a thought. But please know we appreciate them all. Alhamdulillah, she was blessed to have such wonderful family and friends and we hope prayers for her wellbeing will never cease."

my mother's life in pictures...

on our last family outing, to celebrate tiza's & amir's birthdays & mummy & tssc's anniversary...

although i was only 6 years old, i clearly remember this birthday celebration. we had it in kota bharu during the school holidays, and i remember mummy and her sisters going all out to prepare for this celeration. i even remember the mihun goreng.