I'm Reorganising

the nesting phase came a bit early this time. or very late if you look at the four seasons, since its way past spring. everyone seem to be sharing ways to organise the wardrobe on fb recently. i took in some i thought would be good for the family. the boys are now choosing their own clothes to wear (i used to do that for them, to save time mainly, and of course to ensure clothes are not jumbled in the cupboard and also to make sure they wear different clothes all the time - if up to them, they'd take the same thing again and again!)

after i saved some of the pictures i saw on fb, i started to psych myself up to actually sit down and start organising. that took a (whole!) lot of effort. i had 6 sets of drawers and i was just so, so, soooo lazy.

then one day, the urge just came. it was a weekday afternoon. akmal did not want to sleep and was obsessed with watching bambi for the 4423894th time. i pulled the curtain, switched on the fan at high speed and sat in front of my chest of drawers. after an hour, i ended up with clean, organised, easy to see drawers. it was actually easier than i thought…

unfortunately, not all of my tudung can be folded facing up because of the silky material, so i pushed them to the back. still look pretty good and i can see all the shawls better now.

it took another 2-3 weeks before i finally got the spirit to start the boys' room. that would take more energy. i sat alone in ariff's room first one friday morning, before moving to amir's room. all the drawers and cubicles were finally sorted after a little over two hours. i felt like throwing up when i reached amir's cupboard.

i sorted the t-shirts, pajamas and shorts facing up in their drawers and their jeans, long pants and towels rolled up in the cubicles. at least now they can see their clothes and (hopefully) are able to pick out those they have not worn in a long time. it seriously made a lot of difference.

akmal's before and after…

 ariff's before and after...

asyraf's before and after... 

amir's before and after...

the cubicles look much more organized after the whole exercise…

however, there is a bit of a drawback doing up the drawers and cubicles this way. firstly, to put in the clothes need 2 hands. one to hold the clothes already in the drawers in place, another to put in the newly folded clothes. putting them in a stack just require one hand to place each folded item back into the stack. the second drawback is to keep the rolled up pants intact. i usually fold clothes in front of the tv. and then i would put them into the laundry basket and bring them to each room. rolled up pants is more difficult to keep in the laundry basket and i would end up folding them the normal way first and then continue to roll them up once i reach the respective room. kind of double work.

but the drawback are minor and i don't mind facing them to ensure the clothes are maintained this way in the drawers and cubicles. i know some are skeptical and don't think it will last but so far, alhamdulillah, the boys are quite reliable in taking the clothes out of their drawers. its lasted two weeks now and insyaAllah will continue to last.

continuing the room reorganising theme, hubby and i went for a quick stop at ikea one weekend. we got hooks and stuff for the boys' rooms. and other rooms too but mainly for the boys' rooms. i was tired of seeing their school bags everywhere. i saw on fb to use hooks or towel rails to hang their bags, so i followed that idea. their bags are now kept neater near the study tables.

i also got hooks for their rooms. i love hooks. the boys recycle their pajamas and day clothes regularly and keeping them on hooks make it easier for them. i first put only one hook each but realized it wasn't enough so i added more. one would be for school uniforms and the other for pajamas / day clothes that they recycle.

after the few hours spent, we ended up with more organized rooms which are easier for the boys to maintain.

what i found out after this reorganizing exercise:
1. hubby has a lot of tshirts! and half of them are hard rock tees.
2. he also has a lot of football jerseys.
3. akmal has lots of everything - from shorts to jeans to pajamas to tshirts, everything. maybe its because he gets all the hand-me-downs.
4. asyraf also has quite a bit of clothes but not as much as akmal. he actually gets hand-me-downs from ariff.
5. ariff has the least clothes. maybe because he outgrow them faster than the other three.
6. amir has ok amount. not too little, not too many but he wears the same thing again and again. he's starting his own football jerseys collection, like his daddy.
7. i don't think i have enough clothes.

Raya Celebration

we had the odd raya celebration here and there over the past couple of weeks. all three schools have had their jamuan raya over the two fridays after the long holiday.

first was the boys' primary school to have their jamuan. the morning session had a specific menu for each class so whatever amir's class had to bring, his two brothers would be bringing the same, to ease the burden for their mummy. amir's class had to contribute nuggets or drummets with kuih raya. good, those seem easy enough. so i didn't have to spend a lot of time preparing and just had to chuck nuggets into the airfrier before school commenced.

the boys' class teachers were kind enough to share some pictures from the jamuan they had in school. guess they had a blast by the looks of it.

the week after was the jamuan raya in agama school and in akmal's kindy. akmal's extremely excited because he's been waiting a week after seeing his brothers in their baju melayu, bringing food to school and coming home with all the stories.

this time around it was asyraf and ariff who had specific list of food for their classes. asyraf was to bring a heavy dish so i prepared baked pasta. akmal also wanted pasta so that's one meal for two classes. i prepared the pasta and the sauce the day before. the morning of the jamuan, i just combined both into the containers i bought, spread cheese on top and put them in the oven. ariff had to bring nuggets and i added fries to that just to give some variety. amir, who goes to the afternoon session of agama school, had to bring packet drinks so that's a big relief.

the boys were absolutely over the moon with their jamuan raya. they're also asking for more baju melayu because they don't want to repeat the same outfit at both schools *sigh*

as for us, we've been attending a few raya open houses on weekends. we try not to accept too many invitations, i'm not up for going from house to house but we are extremely grateful for the invites we received and are able to attend.

Week 28 - Will It Be 'I' or 'S'?

this week's check up was much calmer than the previous one. i brought asyraf and ariff again, skipping agama school again. we left the house pretty early considering. the traffic was smooth and we got to dsh in 25minutes. getting a parking space was another story, unfortunately. the valet service was full, outside was full, inside was full. we had to make 13 rounds (asyraf kept track) before i decided to park right in front of the parking attendant's booth and wait for cars inside to come out. taking pity on us, the parking attendant lifted the barrier and asked us to look for a space. alhamdulillah as soon as we drove in, a car came out. phew…and right in front of the door too. ok, just another 2 weekday check ups before we move on to saturday appointments and me not driving.

i went in to put my name in the queue, i was 6th in line, before going to grab food and drinks for me and the boys. we had to wait less than an hour before my name was called. the boys settled themselves on the couch (after stern warning from me not to run around the doctor's office) and the doctor proceeded to ask how the past month have been. alhamdulillah, all's good on my part except for a bit of sniffles, which she prescribed antihistamine for.

she asked me to lay down for the scan and asked if we've established the gender of the baby. i told her, the last we talked about gender (which was 3 months ago) she said high possibility it was a girl. we didn't go into gender discussion again after that as the baby was either facing the other way or there were complications. she checked and said, ok number 5 is a girl. and i went into immediate depression after that. i really, really wanted (still do) a boy. i had names all picked out, clothes all bought. but alas…we can only pray and plan, the final say is up to Him. it's going take me a while to accept this.

she proceeded with the scan. the said, placenta have moved up. the area have stretched and placenta moved with it. while i can rest easy now, i should still be aware and be concerned of bleeding, discomfort and anything out of the norm. she says, like the previous pregnancies, my stomach is like a ball, right in front. i don't carry anything on my sides, i carry everything in front. a maternity belt is necessary at this point. gravity is also distorted (i remember feeling almost falling down the escalator once) and pressure is all on my pelvic which i am already feeling especially when i get into the car - soon it will be time to change cars with hubby. i think, if i'm not mistaken, its called symphisitis pubis, i can't read the doctor's writing.

other than that, everything looks fine and on track. the baby weighs 1.2kg, a good weight for a 28-week-old baby. she estimate late-ish october for the delivery (based on size and history) but again, He sets the plan. so that's about 10 weeks left for me to prepare for delivery. there's still loads to do as we have not started on anything. i got to start my list now, can't believe i have started.

Aidilfitri 2015

our aidilfitri preparation began early this year. even though i was completely knackered towards the end of Ramadhan, i pushed myself to get the boys into the raya mood with some cookie making. they started their raya break about 2 days before Ramadhan ended and i kept them occupied, making 2 (very easy) cookies - cornflakes and peanut butter. peanut butter cookies are a favourite of asyraf's and he's been bugging me to make it since last year. because of that i doubled the recipe and made 4 batches. both cookies turned out yummy and the boys stuffed themselves with them once the call for maghrib prayers was heard.

the day before was filled with hubby running around getting the wet groceries and then running around to send some parcels and then running around to cut and prepare the wet items for cooking, with me cooking for hours and with the boys helping (sans asyraf who never helps) to clean the house.

it was a hot day and we opened all the windows and sliding doors and aired the whole house. the boys were being extremely helpful, maybe a bit too helpful, probably since the last day of the fasting month. the cleaned the outside of the house in the morning and the inside of the house later in the afternoon.

hubby went out to the hypermarket to get chicken and beef and veggies (and some stuff for the cats) in the morning and went out to send some parcels during lunchtime. he came back to cut the meat and veggies for me to start cooking once he came home.

i was in the kitchen almost the second half of the day. think i had cankles the size of a globe by the end of the day. i started with making beef rendang and pulut kuning. that was to be our iftar meal so i had to get that out of the way first. once those were done, i had to start on the aidilfitri meal.

we had a quiet and quick iftar. hubby even bought lemang to accompany what i had prepared earlier. once the meal was over, i went back to the kitchen to start on my nasi tomato and dalca. i had another dish, ayam masak merah, but that i kept till the morning.

the boys were treated to an hour of fireworks and sparkles. we didn't take them out during the fasting month. i know some had started on them earlier on but we were pretty knocked out after iftar everyday and fireworks and sparkles with the boys need a lot (and i mean a lot!) of energy. it was nice though, being in the kitchen and hearing them scream and shout with laughter and running around with the sparkles. of course, an hour is more than enough, they were starting to get on our nerves. we quickly got them to take a shower and change into the pajamas and go to bed as we had a full day ahead of us.

the morning started with me getting up very early to finish the meal for the day. i had the rendang and pulut from the day before on the table for hubby, amir and asyraf to have before going for their prayers. in the kitchen i was busy finishing up the beef dalca and the chicken. rice was cooked the night before, so one thing's out of the way.

while the three were at the mosque, i woke ariff and akmal up and gave them a light breakfast. once we were all at home, came the customary aidilfitri morning picture taking. how was this so easy years ago? why is it so difficult now?

we had our meal after that. i didn't know i can make something so delicious!

and then we made our way to damansara to visit my parents.

we were there till after asar and came home to clean up the house and heat up the food as my brother and sisters would be over for dinner. good thing they came as they helped finish most of the food and after a month of a fridge full of food, i wanted to finally see a clear fridge.

on that note, selamat hari raya, maaf zahir batin from the 6 of us to anyone out there reading my posts, if there are any.