Happened to read a couple of instagram posts that absolutely resonated with my life, that I took a double take. It’s 24th Jan, the year 2021. My kids have been in school for the past 20 days (well, less the weekends). How has life been so far?
Busy. I had an awesome 1st week. Dropped the kids off at school, then went for breakfast with Daddy Ting, before coming home to start on work, meals and you know, SAHM stuff. I was doing pretty well.
Then I started getting orders for some hae been hiam cookies that I had been R&D-ing for fun. Friends ordered and more friends ordered and they told their friends about it, then BOOM. What had I created? Hahaha. What a steep learning curve into the F&B industry. It was insane the first week, I was surviving on fumes, then I finally settled into the 2nd week and now we’ve got a system going on.
Donald and I started getting some time to ourselves as the kids stayed over at their grandparents’. One weekend, we slept in till 11am before we roused ourselves up. It had been YEARS since we slept in so late. We went out for meals a lot more, debating if we should try this cafe or that, before ending up at the food centre with a teh-c and a bowl of noodles. Cheap and good. It was the company that was important.
It made me wonder if this was what life was like without kids. And would we be happy without the four kids? I dunno. It’s hard to imagine life without the kids. That honeymoon period of 7 yrs together seemed another lifetime ago.
I told Donald this morning, I must be crazy thinking I want to do more, and I probably have the capacity to do more. Just like how I told him I must be crazy to want to do this cookie business, on top of running two other businesses and the four kids. There are some trade offs, but I would like to think I am getting better at managing it now. I hope! Okok, I really need to get back into the exercising game. All those food and tasting is gonna make me fat soon (as if I have not put on enough weight).
2020 went by in the blitz. Was it forgettable? No, in fact I am in wonder at the type of stuff we encounter, not experienced. Our grandparents went through the war n post war, but our encounters are one of a different kid. It was also a year I cooked so much stuff that I never knew I could cook. Talk about stepping out of the box! It’s like cooking just so I can and can say I did it LOL. I’m glad the kids took the food gamely, we had some fun, especially making pearls for our BBT, and having churros and muah chi.
It made us closer as a family. Because we wanted to reduce as much contact with others as much as possible, it was really just us. We only started heading out in July and we took the kids to a secluded park to get some air (Tampines Eco Green) and then it sparked other walks and outdoor experiences, cycling distances got further, the boys endurance was tested. It was amazing.
The kids are growing up alot more. The boys have their birthdays in the next couple of weeks, Alex started school and is adapting well. And Sarah has gotten taller (FINALLY).
What about me? I’ve finally scored some me-time for 3 hours, still trying to manage my projects and life. But definitely doing more self-care. Not about the spas, facials type of self-care, but taking rest when needed, making sure that my sanity is suitable to raise kids (not be all shrieky and screamy), and definitely making sure there is ALWAYS ice cream in the freezer.
Hope all of you are coping well at the beginning of the year.