the real picture

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Hrm. Epiphanies always seem to occur when I am feeling a tad overwhelmed with the things around me.

behind all the cute pictures of my kids, and anecdotes that I post on Facebook, is at this point a somewhat scattered-brained mother, wife and friend, with a messy household and equally messy work study. there are toys EVERYWHERE. OMFG. and it shits the hell outta me. There are toys in the bathroom, toys on my bed, toys in my room, toys in QT’s cot, toys in the hallway, toys in the dining room, toys on the dining table, toys in the living room, toys on the shoe rack.

but on the other hand, I am soooo sick of picking toys up all the time that I leave it there.

Yar, so you see the conundrum I face each day? ARGH. *breathes* I think we need to work on getting Ollie to put away his toys.

And I am torn between QT and Ollie. Ollie…needs a lot of mental stimulation each day. He is the kind who loves doing activities and stuff that requires a fair bit of mental power. I mean, great for him! He is like this super sponge that absorbs everything. Just this morning, I was explaining to him how plants grew and how fruits and veggies came about, using my awesome drawing skills. He was really curious initially, watching me draw. Then gradually, towards the end, you can see his attention wane. But! This evening, he recounted EVERYTHING I explained to him to his paternal grandma!

oh my. I mean, he explained it in Ollie-speak, but yeah, he pretty much got the picture. and then this afternoon, he kena complained by the form teacher. alamak. okay, not really complained. I was sorta waiting for the teachers to say something about Ollie when he started school. It was along the line of what I was expecting the teachers to say.

mature student. smart. don’t listen to instructions. he walks around when supposed to be seated, other kid will follow him..etc.

Now why was I expecting it? Hahaha..because..*bashful* Ollie is a replica of me. Hahah. Personality-wise. Temperament, I think QT is more like me. Hrm. Never mind, we’ll see. But yes, I could see myself in Ollie. Ollie did what I was doing when I was in kindy. Up to mischief. Argh..my history is coming to bite me in my arse. We’re working on it! I swear! Not really down to curbing a lot of Ollie’s personality but just gotta guide him very gently into listening.

..where was I? Oh yes, torn between Ollie & QT. Where Ollie needs mental stimulation, QT is very emotional. So I tend more to QT’s emotional needs than to Ollie’s mental needs. And then there’s my needs, and my business needs. And the household needs.  And this blog needs! So hard to divvy the time!

household needs basically takes the backseat. QT hates being in the play yard cos he wants to play what kor kor is playing. I have to admit, it is quite nice to hear the both of them squealing and laughing away, especially with Ollie laughing his head off at what QT is doing, and QT getting tickled at his brother laughing. I’d hear the pattering of Ollie’s feet together with the squeaks of QT’s crawling. And QT’s crawling leaves prints ALL OVER THE GLOSSY TILES.

Word of advise, if you EVER plan to have kids, please do not use glossy tiles in your house no matter how much nicer it makes. Once you have kids, everything goes downhill. And the hand & foot prints will shit you big time, especially when you turn on those down lights. FML.

On the home front, before Ollie came along, I meal planned religiously. I would scour my food magazines and go through recipes. It was awesome. We’d have something different each week, with Donald as my chief critic. If the recipe was good, we’d repeat it a couple of weeks later. When Ollie came along, it took awhile to sort ourselves out, but I managed to get back to meal planning once Ollie was on more solids. With the addition of QT…we were on repeat menus most of the time. And they were generic dishes. You know..三菜一汤 kind of menu. On the rare occasion I find a nice menu that would be easy to put together, usually the kind where it is mix everything together and throw into the oven/electric steamer/claypot kinda dishes.

Did I ever say how awesome timers are on these kitchen appliances are?? Set timer on rice, set timer on washing machine, set timer on oven, set timer on electric steamer. Life saver man. I love you guys sooo much. *smooches all over kitchen appliances*

I survive a fair bit on frozen homecooked meals. Double quantities and tadaah. Meals for days where I get brain dead. Cook a huge batch of chicken stock for macaroni days, keep a portion of oxtail stew for rainy days. Brain drain these few weeks. End up just buying the essentials to whip something up. Donald was all happy to be eating food that has been cooked 1 hour before instead of 5 hours ago now that I have more time with Ollie at school. But I do miss it. I miss taking the time to find a nice recipe and then having the time to whip it up. Now every meal I cook is dependent on koala QT. So hard when he gives you the plaintive “mama, mama”. Argh..how to resist. Sibeh buay tahan. 

And time! Hah! I seriously thought that I would have more time now that Ollie is in school for 3 hours. Pfffffpt. 3 hours is nothing! Nothing at all. Thank god for Bedok Mall, where I can grab almost everything I need. Drop Ollie off at school, quick dash to Bedok Mall to grab some groceries, and oh hey! it’s almost time to go home & feed QT, and then pick Ollie! FML. Or if I have everything on hand, it takes me nearly one hour to fry char kway teow cos of koala QT. It went something like this:

Fry garlic. QT wakes up crying. Turn off fire, go in to pacify QT and put him back to sleep. Come out, faffing garlic is soggy with oil. Re-fry again. Add noodles, add soy sauce & seasoning. QT wakes up crying again. Turn off fire, go in to pacify QT and put him back to sleep. Come out, faffing noodles is fried/crispy/hardened at the bottom. Stir vigorously. Crack & beat egg, about to pour egg in..waaaaahhhh. FML. Oh bloody hell, you can fry the faffing noodles together with mommy.

So much for 3 hours. But hey, not bad hor. I can whip up something quickly (if I have all ingredients) in 30mins! Just wait for it to cook in oven, rice cooker and stove. Haha.

business needs? Hah. We have already “dedicated” the guest room to be the store room, and work room. The…inventory is slowly piling up *looks awkwardly around*. Depending on how business is growing, I think we will eventually have to start looking to place stock elsewhere. But the accounts and stock take. I seriously need a better way of doing it. Excel sheets are soooo primitive. But I am not eligible for PIC grant leh. Darn.

Anyhoos. So, yes, this epiphany. I decided that because of my expectations of my life, I need to step up the game and prioritise big time. Call it a life goal, or mission, or whatever. I need to remind myself that home and the kids come first. We can slowly build the business up. At the end of the day, if it doesn’t work out for us, it’s just money. It will still be an awesome experience. For now, I gotta get more sleep, work things round a bit. Focus a little bit more.

And then we’re good to go. Just..one step at a time. For now, this is us in the Tings household.

just the tings in the morning, sans daddy

just the tings in the morning, sans daddy

Category: Daily
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