Weekends

Weekends - What does this work evoke in you? For most people, weekends mean lazing around, getting up late and having long afternoon siestas. In our home, weekends are probably the most hurried day. A typical weekend looks something like us....

Saturday - During term time the Piolet and the Princess have Hindi classes from 9 am to 1 pm. This means that mom has to wake up atleast by 6 am so that I have some sense on the day's meals before the mad scramble starts at 7 am when I wake them up. If hubby is around, he will drop the kids to school and I have some time to finish my chores, otherwise I try to complete my cooking and bathe and start the machine before we leave the house at around 8:30 am.

Once I am back from dropping them, I start tackling the week's ironing and then cleaning the house. This keeps me busy till around noon when I have lunch and then go and bring them back.

After they are back and are done with lunch, at this point, there are no more classes till evening, but there was a time not so long ago when we used to go to art classes at 3 pm. Now there is just the Princess's ballet - which should also end in November 2009 as this class is her exam class. Ballet ends around 8 pm when it's time to get home, have dinner and go to bed exhausted.

On Sunday the pace is slightly slower as there is only the Princess's ballet class from 10 am till 10:45 am. Once that is done, we're home for lunch followed by some lazing around. Although this Sunday, we did anything but laze around - I'll talk about it tomorrow.

So what do you do on your weekends?

Happy New Year

A very Happy New Year to everyone at blogoshere!

I know I haven't been posting in a while, but that is gonna change this year. Have you made your resolutions for the year? Here are mine (hopefully this year will be the year I actually stick to them :-()

The first is a perennial favourite - lose weight! I want 2008 to be the year when I finally shed this layer of fat and come out as the person I was meant to be. I also have oher ulterior motives for this - the ones that come to the mind immediately are to be a better role model for my children and to look more professional in my work. If I want to get a better job (more pay and a better profile), I know I better become thin pronto - coz this is Singapore we are talking about - where women routinely wear clothes with single digit sizes...

The second one is to write more - even if it is a couple of sentences. I started this blog mainly to chronicle my children's growing up days and by not writing, I feel I am failing in my task....

The third is not be negative (or failing that to avoid negativity) and be more positive in life. I want to do whatever that I am supposed to do with enthusiasm and a joi de vivre!

I'll write more tomorrow about the kids - today was for me - a lot has happened in their lives in the past month or so and I'll write all about it tomorrow.

Here is something that was in my inbox today. I get on a daily basis small notes from a service called The Daily Om. I liked what it said today and so here it is....

Starting New

A Moment Of Choice

There are times in our lives that lend themselves to starting something new. The beginning of a new year, finishing school, leaving a job, or changing homes-these all are times that turn our minds to fresh starts. Their advantage is that they bring with them the energy of that event, creating a tide of change around them that we can ride to our next shoreline. But we can choose to start anew anytime. In any moment we can decide that a bad day or a relationship that's gotten off on the wrong foot can be started again. It is a mental shift that allows us to clean the slate and approach anything with fresh eyes, and we can make that choice at any time.

Starting new is most powerful when we focus our attention to what we are choosing to create. Giving all of our attention to the unwanted aspects of our lives allows what we resist to persist. We need to remember to leave enough room in the process of new beginnings to be kind to ourselves, because it takes time to become accustomed to anything new, no matter how much we like it. There is no need to get down on ourselves if we don't reach our new goals instantly. Instead, we acknowledge the forward motion and choose to reset and start again, knowing that with each choice we learn, grow, and move forward.

Making the choice to start anew has its own energy-it's a promise made to you. The forward momentum creates a sort of vacuum behind it, pulling toward you all you need to help you continue moving in your chosen direction. Once the journey has begun, it may take unexpected turns, but it never really ends. Like cycles in nature, there are periods of obvious growth and periods of dormancy that signal a time of waiting for the right moment to burst forth. Each time we choose to start anew we dedicate ourselves to becoming the best we are able to be.

Happy reading...

Reminiscences

It's kind of weird! I posted a piece on Friday (July 13) and now it doesn't appear in the blog. But what is really funny that when I try to edit my posts I can see the post and the picture with it. Let me see if this post also has the same fate, if yes, then I will have to ask the good people at Blogspot to help me out.

Yesterday I had a cleaning frenzy and decided to clean some closets of mine. I also wanted to put the Princess and Pilot's night clothes in seperate bins, so that they can look for their own clothes to change into after they brush their teeth. Also the Pilot keeps saying that there are no "boy dresses" and I wanted to check if this was really so. When I was cleaning up the closet I came across heaps of their stuff when they were babies - the swaddling clothes, their blankets, their cloth nappies and towels. They clothes and nappies were so small and I remembered them at 1-2 months old. Life was so much simpler then...

Kids grow up so fast that their childhood seems to be so fleeting. I have decided to stop and enjoy their toddlerhood and the years of pre school as much as I can and while I can. Too soon they will be in Primary school and then life will be one busy whirl of school and activities with no time for a cuddle!

Keep smiling people!

Triple Seven

First things first, you must have noticed that I have been putting up images for the last few posts. Well the only reason is that I was playing around with Blogger and saw this. So I decided to upload the snaps I take of things around me. It's a conscious decision that I will only put up pictures which do not have any people in it so that I can maintain mine and other people's privacy! This one is a picture of a cracker going off in honour of all those people getting married tomorrow. For more, read on...

So what is this triple seven? Well it's a a play on tomorrow's date - 07-07-07! Since this is a which will come probably once every hundred years, it's a date most people (especially couples) are making full use of. I read in the papers recently that about 700 couples are planning to get married tomorrow - come to think of it, we also have an invite for a wedding tomorrow - and so hotels, caterers, photographers, make-up artists and other people servicing the wedding industry would probably be inundated with orders. Phew! I do not wish to be in the shoes of a wedding guest who has to hop all around town moving from one wedding reception to the next!

There's also the Live Earth concert across the world tomorrow. My piece on saving the earth is fodder for another post, so I'll end this post here.Happy weekend people and see you real soon!

Before I was a Mom

I got this from a board that I am a part of. It's something that all of us moms will relate to:

Before I was a Mom I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom - I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep

Before I was a Mom I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put them down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom - I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom - I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Some thoughts

Two days into my long holiday and I am soo bored! Just how much TV can someone see. As I write this I am seeing the movie "Bhagam Bhag". This is Govinda's comeback movie and stars Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal and Lara Dutta. It's a sort of a murder mystery movie with some good comic acting by Akshay and Govinda. It's a good movie to see on a rainy day like we are having right now. We are also planning to join some other families for a picnic but with the sky being so dark and it raining I am not sure if this picnic will pan out as planned.

The Pilot and the Princess fight like cats and dogs at times. Other times, they can't be away from each other. There are times when DH or me want to take them out seperately, but they won't come without each other. I usually feel very proud of my children that they are so close to each other, and then also want this closeness to be there all their life. Every day in school, they have this little ritual which now even their teachers like to see. Since they are in different classes, we usually go first to one class followed by the other. On reaching the first class, they will give each other a huge hug followed by a kiss and say byee to each other. Aww it looks so cute daily and gives me this huge smile which I take to school with me.

I have some readers now! Thank you Orchid and mommyof2 to visit me regularly. I love reading your blogs and hope you like reading about our life here also.

Gotta get ready now for a wet picnic. Will be back later....

Bits and Pieces

Hmm, what should I write this warm and nice Friday evening. I know - this post will be about the little bits and pieces that I was thinking of today but didn't think would make a full post.

First - today is my baby sister's birthday! Happy Birthday sweetie. Although she is not little any more - but I always think of her like that! Since she moved away far away, I've been missing her a lot. We just spoke on the phone and this brought back loads of memories. Have a great day sweatheart and a fabulous year ahead!!

We are off to a long weekend ahead! Singapore and parts of Southeast Asia will be celebrating the Chinese New Year from tomorrow onwards. To anyone who does celebrate this and happens to see this post, Gong Xi Fa Cai to you and your family. This year will be the year of the Pig and apparently this pig year is supposed to be very auspicious - something that comes only once in 60 odd years according to some Korean experts. So expect to see a lot of little piglets as the year goes on. Thank God the Princess and the Pilot were not born in some very auspicious year like say the year of the Dragon as that would mean a bumper crop that year and lots of competition when it comes to school admissions. As it is I have nightmares about the ballot process and what would happen if one of them gets in and the other doesnt. More about this in another post.

I better stock up on essentials and groceries today and tomorrow as from about afternoon tomorrow, all shops and services will be closed as people gather for the Reunion Dinner. Then the first two days of the New Year are traditionally for visiting family and friends and we get to some sort of normalcy only from Tuesday onwards. Guess I could go to Little India if I was desperate but the thought of driving there really puts me off. I'd rather just stock-up.

I have nothing else to add (probably a first in my life!), so I'll end this here....

Have a great weekend everyone and see you tomorrow...

Musings

I finally have my first readers! Well I bit the bullet and told my sister and dad about this blog and they have read it. I was expecting comments, but no such luck.

Last week I finally enrolled the Princess into Ballet Dance Class. She was asking me for these classes for a while but there was no space at the class where I enquired and it was just last week they called back saying that there are slots open for a class which starts in April. So the Princess and her friend who stays close by and who is her age will be ballerinas come April. The class is for a total of 11 weeks, so lets see how long this ballet craze goes on. On another note, the Princess has decided that she will be a doctor when she grows up. I don't know from where she got this in her head, but she has been pretty consistant with this for almost 4-5 months now. On day I casually mentioned to her that her aunt R is also a doctor so now if anyone asks her what she wants to be when she grows up, she immediately pipes out "A doctor like R aunty"

The pilot as it is clear wants to be either a Pilot with SIA or a doctor (this depends on his mood - or whether he is aping his sister or not). He, as most boys would be - is machine crazy. He loves all vehicles - be it planes, cars, buses, trains. Even if the vehicle in question is a cartoon, he will see it and come to me exclaiming about it. One thing for sure, he shares this love for vehicles with his dad and I can forsee the future where father and son will go happily to motor shows and leave us girls at home.

Speaking of girls and boys, nowadays the gender distinction has come to stay in our house. For practically everything they do, it is either a girl thing which boys can't do or a boy thing which girls cant do. For me who believes in equality of the sexes, this is something I just can't let my son or daughter grow up with. So I keep telling them - "no it is not a girl/boy thing, everyone can do it".

I'm a blogger too

I am not sure if this will ever be read by anyone other than me, but after reading scads of blogs and getting addicted to them, I also decided to blog.

I used to keep a diary when I was younger, and lately was tempted to start writing again. Believe it or not, I used to be a pretty decent writer in my teens and in my twenties, but lately, career and motherhood have pushed it all to the backburner. I still have dreams of writing that novel, which is buried deep in my mind one day though. Coming back to my diary, now that I am online practically all the time (whether at home or at work), putting words on paper isn't as easy as using a computer and so here I am trying to chronicle my daily life.

I won't blog everyday - somehow that pressure will make me not do it, but will try to write something as and when the urge strikes me. What I will be blogging about will be my life - my kids and dh, my work and my attempt to finally get thin.