Most people do their spring cleaning before CNY. We did our before the CNY but it was just a minor ones because I was not fit enough for it and hubby has to work the whole week before the CNY. A week after the CNY, hubby was home most of the day time and he decided to clean up the store house. They (hubby and the children) found lots of treasure. One of them is one of those schuberth helmets. We thought it has gone missing. The children got lots of “new” toys. And they threw away lots of broken toys too. I have a bonnet full of soft toys to be given away!

With no maid around, I have to do some spring cleaning myself to prepare for the CNY. Due to my health condition, I can only do some minor ones like cleaning the window panes and wiping the dust and lizard shit stain from our wooden walls. The dust on the ceiling fan will have to stay until someone besides myself is free enough/willing to get them clean. I do not want to risk loosing my baby just because of a few dusty ceiling fan.

Even cleaning the window panes, I did climb on a chair with much prayer. My hubby doesn’t know this. If not sure will get scolding. Well, he doesn’t want to do, I do lar. He got free time, either he will be snoring away or playing games on the internet. Can’t he sacrifice that just for this CNY?

Get a screw driver, unscrew the screws from the switch plate be it a plastic ones or an oak switch plate all must have screw right and then fix the new switch plate.

I hope it is as easy as that. Actually, I have no idea on how to change a switch plate! Does it involve any wiring? Anyway, I am gonna learn it tomorrow coz hubby has a switch plate to change. The switch is not working so we are going to get a new switch plate. Then I’ll share it here ok.

I have not been receiving any letters for the past few days. This is out of the norm. Mr. Postman sends letter to my house almost every day. I was thinking that maybe Mr. Postman applied for an extended Hari Raya Haji holiday and they couldn’t find a replacement for him. But then yesterday I saw a postman sent letter to my front neighbour. Could he be a new postman? Could it be that he can’t see my house number on my house plaque?

I am waiting for one of my credit card bills which is due by 27th. If I still don’t receive the bill by 23rd, looks like I have to call the credit card company to check on my outstanding balance then go make one of those huge house plaques. Just in case my new Mr. Postman is short-sighted.

I appreciate the guest post, Jewel Rodgers.

Why in the world would anyone choose not to have air-conditioning? I mean, I guess I understand if you live somewhere like Canada, but I live here in Texas… I don’t know how the previous owners of my house possibly made it through one summer without AC. I didn’t even think to check when I bought the place since the idea of not having air conditioning was so absurd and I bought in December when it wasn’t needed. It’s been really expenses putting in a brand-new air-conditioning unit but I think it’s finally installed correctly and now my home is cool. It runs off of electric, so I did some research on sites like http://www.texaselectricityproviders.com/stream-energy-texas/Texas/A/Aransas-Pass/ to make sure I was getting the best electricity rate for my money. I was so sick of walking around my house sweating, and I couldn’t understand how anyone had ever lived here before. Thank goodness all this is getting resolved just in time for summer since last week this adventure was over 90° every single day. Crazy people!

Guest post written by my buddy Franklin Davenport

Watching the NFL playoffs is a great way for you to be able to enjoy yourself in the company of other people. There are so many people who love to watch the playoffs, so it is not going to be difficult to find friends to watch with you. I started watching the playoffs this year. In fact, just the other day I was watching the Colts vs Jets game. This was a game in which the Colts were suppose to win, but the Jets have been known as a spoiler team lately. As it turned out, the game lived up to everything that it was suppose to be.

The Jets were able to upset the Colts by a single point. The Jets will now! advance to the next round of the playoffs. I got to enjoy watching the whole thing on Direct.tv in HD (high definition). That is a great feature that is coming to a lot of the games lately, and I think it is just wonderful.

Having everyone over and enjoying a football game is certainly a great American tradition. It is something that you are going to want to make sure that you are doing on a regular basis if you want to understand why there are so many people who love to do this. Try it for yourself today.

Today my newborn is not so newborn anymore. She is 44 days old and it also marks the end of my confinement period; officially.

I am back to doing things that I do before giving birth that is getting my hands wet. I bathe my own kids, wash their bums, soiled diapers and wash my own clothes too.

When I started putting in my laundry into the washing machine, I realised a few things that my maid does and doesn’t do.

1. She does not turn my girls’ socks - no wonder their socks (the bottom part) is still dirty even after washing.
2. She did not check and also turn back my boys’ t-shirt to check whether they need scrubbing - they t-shirts still looks dirty after washing.
3. She dumped in all the panties without checking whether there’s poo stain on it. My 2nd girl likes to hold from pooing and she often stained her panties. - for the past one month our clothes has been washed together with poo poo!
4. I also discovered that she did not put my bras in the netting - no wonder my bra’s strap is loosen now.
5. She washes my laundry every day instead of twice a day. Even when there is only 4 pcs of hubby’s clothing, she will wash them in the washing machine. I told her to accumulate but she did not listen. Such a waste of water, electricity and detergent.
6. She uses more water to wash the clothing than needed. Like when the amount requires S, she will use M. I think she wanna make us pokai!

After a month of confinement and my newborn nurses less often, I told my maid not to touch the dirty clothes laundry in my laundry basket anymore. I will do the washing and she will do the hanging.

My clothing are cleaner now and my washing machine does not have to work hard anymore.

We have 3 fish ponds in our backyard. The ponds are huge that we need one of those commercial pumps to pump out the water during rainy season.

We used to sell the fish to friends and church members but now, the 3 ponds are kinda abandon due to no manpower to manage it. Now the ponds are opened to friends and relatives to fish during the weekends and school holidays.

Today is the first time we host the Men’s fellowship in our home. I really look forward for today especially the refreshment preparation part. I made tuna sandwich with mayonaise, minced carrot and onions, Leng Chee Kang, Coconut Pudding and my mom helped to make Kuih Bongkong; a Nyonya delicacies. We also served some bananas. BIL brought butter cake too. We prepared Milo and Nescafe too because according to hubby, the adviser needs a certain level of sugar in his body but the drinks were untouched. I think the refreshment I prepared are all sweet stuff; more than enough sugar for him! hahaha. As for the rest, they better go look for fat burners if they do not want to increase the size of their spare tyre.

We built a pangkin in between a durian tree and a rambutan tree last Chinese New Year and wrapped it with the rubber mat. It was the best outdoor furniture they ever built. Hubby slept on it when we gave our rooms away to his sister’s who are back from Australia and UK. I went to sleep at my mom’s with our children.

After the Chinese New Year, it was kind of abandoned and the dogs took over it and make it their bed! The puppies torn the rubber mat and it needs replacement if anyone plans to sleep on it this Chinese New Year.

Two Saturdays ago I suffered so much pain on my lower abdomen. When bathing all my 4 children that evening, I thought I was going to die coz it was really really painful. I gave a call to hubby get him to find out the funeral costs just in case my time is going up that day. No lar, I called him to come home to prepare dinner for our children coz I can hardly stand to cook. Sadly, he can’t come home coz his part-time has not come in to work yet. So, I bore the pain a lil while more and prepared a quick dinner; hamburgers.

Last Saturday, the pain came back again but it was not as severe as two Saturdays ago. Well, I am most busy on Saturdays and the children are home. I go more work and cleaning to do and I get easily stress up when they mess up the house and when they had siblings fight.

Now, my toughest assignment is to stay cool on Saturdays despite the workload and screaming children.

Just as I thought I have to work hard doing all the chores in the house, I am forced to rest. I should look at the operation as a blessing in disguise. It gives me the reason to rest, rest from doing household chores. I think I will ask hubby to buy for me the outdoor pillows so that I can also rest outside the house when the weather permits. It’s no fun being stuck in the house all the time. Comfy comfy pillows, where are you… .

I love to multitask but there are certain jobs that are out of my capabilities. Changing the lightbulbs or repairing the broken chair is way out of my expertise. Those are for my husband to do. It is his job to make sure all the appliances in the house are up and running well. I know he has been wanting to buy a few of the industrial products that he says would be useful to do his job but so far he managed to maintain the house using whatever tools he already has. Well, maybe in future, when the need arises he will get some of his wishes.

Looking for durable outdoor chairs? Check this out.

Do you think this is durable enough?

We are in the midst of a big project whereby coconuts trees, starfruit trees and bushes has been uprooted to give way to this new project.

As not to waste the coconut trunk, hubby cut it into smaller parts and make it into a chair. So now we have a few chairs outdoor to sit on to enjoy the cool evening breeze.

I asked hubby whether he plants any tree on the family’s land. He said, “No.” I asked him, “Why?” He answered, “So that my wife doesn’t have any tree to boast about.”

Don’t worry lar hubby. Even if you plant a mangosteen tree (my favorite fruit), not that I can eat everything single mangosteen that grew on that tree. Life is no fun and meaningless when you don’t share.

The previous tenants for hubby’s apartment left with quite a mess. The place was loitered with cigarette butts and unwanted things like dirty clothing and broken equipments. And not forgetting a big outstanding bills. We were getting tired of having these kind of tenants. Hubby had to install the undermount sink for the apartment and change the wiring for the air-conditioners. Now that it is done, the apartment is up for rent again. Hopefully, God will give us a really good tenant this time.

I thank God that he placed me in a village to grow up and live my life now. Not only that the cost of living is lower compared to those who live in town, I get to breathe clean air and see greens all around me.

I may not have hostas growing in my compound but I am blessed with fruit trees and other plants. Just now, I sat on the swing with my son and enjoy the smell of budding durian flowers. God’s creation is wonderful.

Hubby is in the mood of downloading movies again. And we have been watching movies after movies at home. When we do not have extra to spend, we will just make do with our home theater seating that is our bed instead the stiff theater seats at the cinema.

More movies is coming. Some old ones like The Perfume, Step Up 2 and news ones; Iron Man, National Treasure etc.

Since we are already spending money in paying for the internet, might as well make it to full use.

Since they cannot afford to pay for the apartment, we suggested they move to our another apartment which is cheaper which is slightly further to the university compared to the existing one but fully furnished compared to the current apartment they are staying in.

They agreed. So went to the apartment to clean and change the floor pvc mat. I bought one whole role of the pvc mat and changed the pvc mat in all the rooms. Balance we used as our outdoor furniture covers.

Unfortunately, they still have not paid the deposit or even this month rental. Promises after promises, still not paid. I guess we will just forget about taking pity of them. We do not want to go to the stress of “begging” for the rental month after month.