New Year's Eve Resolution for 2016

So much to be thankful for as we draw 2015 to a close.  We had a terrifying health scare this year and by the Grace of God, it was non-life threatening even though the symptoms were not looking that way. That in itself reminded me again to never take life for granted and to always treasure the precious times with loved ones.

So thank you God to good health, loving family, good job, great friends and plenty of travels!

In 2016, I will be more vigilant. To never judge the book by its cover, to stay humble and outwardly focused.

To end 2015, here's what the fam & I got up to. We tested out our Sunnylife Christmas present. A good chuckle all round alright...

Have an awesome 2016 Everyone!

Welcome to our Nappy Free Home!

I finally got my lazy a$$ to toilet train our baby of the house. Usually the process takes 3 steps (eg. teaching them how to wee in toilet which is usually the first thing they learn, then it's number 2 which is 3-6months later and finally toilet training for night which toddlers tend to learn around 3-4y.o). 

To my amazement, Mak just got all 3 in the period of 5 days at the age of 2.75y.o! I started to toilet train her from Christmas Eve onwards until Sun 28th, she just got the hang of all 3. This funny little girl actually learned how to go poo first in the toilet before wee. So learning how to wee was a breeze. Then when it came to toilet training for night. She got it straight away. I only had to change the bed once because she had asked to go to the toilet from her room and we didn't hear her cos we were to tired to wake up!

So..  finally, Mr M & I are NAPPY FREE after 6.5yrs of nappy changing!

Mind you, I still have a storage full of nappies cos I didn't think Mak would learn so fast.

Here are my tips to toilet training:

1) Go straight to using undies. Forget the pull ups - This means it's better to train them during warmer days where they can wear shorts or skirts so less for you to wash if they ever do an accident. You will need to be prepared to mop the ground at least 3 consecutive days. Each time they leak and make an accident, make sure you take them to the toilet and let them know they need to it here in the dunny. 

2) Forget the potty, go straight to the toilet bowl using the toilet trainer step seat - If you use the potty, then it means you've just created an additional step for them to ultimately transition to the toilet. So I say remove this step and go straight to the toilet bowl.

3) The key is to forecast when they will be doing their wees and poos - With wees, they will probably want to go every 3-5 hours depending on how much they've drank. So always ask them every half hour if they want to go to the toilet so it sets as a reminder that they no longer can wee in their 'undies' but rather in the toilet.

4) Let them make mistakes & be patient - they will probably make at least 3-6 accidents. Let them as the wetness will cause somewhat embarrassment for them to learn faster the next round.

5) Give praise when they've done their thing in the toilet - always be super proud and rejoice when they eventually do their thing in the toilet. Continue to praise to reinforce this behaviour.

6) To train them on doing poos in the toilet, take a note of when they usually do their poos when they were in their nappy. For Mak, it was always around 5mins after dinner time. So once she was in her undies, I made sure she went to the toilet 5mins after dinner. Lo and behold, this new routine worked and I think that was why she learned how to do poos in the toilet before wees as it was always at a consistent time.

7) When you are sitting on the toilet - sing a song or read a book so it helps them to relax to do their thing. For all of my 3 kids, I made up a song using the 'Happy Birthday tune'. It goes like this:

Xiao Mei and Mama, we do a kaka (which is Africans for poo), 

We sit on the potty and do a wee wee! 

Or you can alter the song to say and Mama, we do a poo poo, 

We sit on the toilet and do a wee wee! Hippip... and wait for your child to exclaim ' Hooray'! It always works and they always ask for me to sing them the song while they sit on the toilet! And when you do hear the ke-plonk in the toilet bowl, you giggle with excitement over... poo in the toilet!

Ah.. another chapter over in the joys of parenting!

For the greater good

One of my favourite past time is ironing. This is usually done any time past 9pm (ie. after I've put the kids to sleep). Not so much for its ironing but because that really is the only time I am able to listen to the great preachings of Pastor Phil Pringle (Oxford Falls) through the C3 church app.

He is not the best public speaking Pastors of all time. However, what I love about his preachings is that he is sincere, prophetic, spirit filled and always outward looking.

One of his recent preachings talked about a book he read. Successful business leader all shared one common theme: their primary motivation is never about profits first. Rather, it is always about finding ways to bless others first with their idea. That got me thinking that in order to be successful, one should always be passionate about blessing others in the journey. Going 110% to help others or help improve their life some way or another. A note to self for 2015!

You can listen to Ps Phil's awesome preachings here.

Well...Hello 2015!

There's something about the birth of a new life that makes you appreciate time with close friends and more importantly, family. When you have kids, you are time poor. So when you do find time, you want to spend it with people that matter in your world.

When you have a family of your own, you realise how important family means to you and how you can not live without them. Every moment spent with family becomes photo album full of memories for the next generation to flip. 

On NYE, we invited our close family friends and their family over for our last supper of 2014. We had lovely food, wine and the kids had an awesome time playing with their version of fire crackers. They had a ball! At around 9:30pm, our friends left our place, the kids went to bed, leaving Mr M and I to prep for all the dishes we were to cook on New Year's Day for 16 members of our family! And in the stillness of the final hour of 2014, Mr M & I spent the romantic night de-pooing and cleaning 1.5kg worth of prawns. Oh the life of old married couples! You just had to laugh.

Lots to achieve this year for both Mr M & I. Feeling anxious and excited at the same time. 

In 2015, here's to being less stressed, time poor and enjoying all the precious moments with loved ones! Emmanuel.干杯!

Farewell 2014!

After a turbulent start to 2014, I have witnessed first hand of God's sovereignty and faithfulness. To think what could've been a long, tough, trying year, God turned it around to be one of abundant blessings.

As 2014 comes to a close, I am reminded of God's love, grace & goodness. I thank God for His protection, deliverance & guidance in our family.

Thank you Lord for being our Jehovah Rapha, God our healer. When tragedy strikes and there is nothing in this world we can cling onto, you are there. You remain Sovereign & faithful. In your name we trust.

Thank you God for all things new this year; a new job, a new boss who is such a great one too I might add, a new work life balance (finally), a new car, new destinations (11 countries, 3 continents traveled in 1 year alone!), new QFF status (finally made it to Platinum! woo hoo!), new house, new family members (a niece & nephew) and these are just to name a few..

Here is a snippet of our final few moments of 2014. Happy New Year's Eve everyone!

 

 

 

 

 

上海市

After more than 3 decades of my life, I've finally been given the opportunity to visit the place where my ancestors are from. This was not at all by choice but for work. I was fortunate enough to be sent by our agency on an all expenses paid trip to Shanghai (inclusive of my business class fares!) to get the job done.

As soon as we landed back from our Europe trip, I made my zombie husband (God bless him) to drive me to the Chinese embassy to get my Visa as I would be flying in less than 2 days time. To my absolute horror, they were closed due to Mid-Autumn festival. Who would've thought the Chinese embassy also honour Chinese public holidays in Australia?!!  So the next day, here I was again by myself this time, lining up amongst the 100 to get my Visa which mind you costed over $200 as it was a 'RUSH' Visa as well as 1hr of my precious time! On Day 3, off I went back there again to pick it up! The whole process was so tiring just to get a sticker on my passport. Nonetheless, we got there in the end.

I must admit, I did not enjoy China much at all purely due to two things:

1) Air Pollution - this was absolutely suffocating. If you thought Shanghai is bad, wait till you see Kunshan (industrial area, about 1hr drive away from SH). After 3hrs in the office, I was already having shortness of breath & a headache. The hotel I stayed did not have good ventilation at all and that is largely due to the bad outside air.
2) Food safety - everything you see on social media about how the Chinese make fake food is all true. The scariest of them all is the making of gutter oil. It's so true that my colleague in China told me that they recycle oil from their neighbourhood as they can't even trust the oil from the supermarkets! I remember watching this on Youtube over a year ago and those images of the aunties pulling used oil out of the gutter re-played in my mind as I took a bite of my Xiao Long Bao which mind you oozed out of so much oil! I remember my local tour guide looking at me asking me how it tasted and all I could do was give a smile  and wanting to vomit.  Each time I ate anything in China, all I could think of was where the food came from and how safe or more so unsafe it was to eat it (eg. raw carrots, which could have been sprayed with so much pesticides that has not been regulated by the government).

The only thing I liked about Shanghai was a place called YU YUAN. This, I called it the Chinatown of Shanghai. It would be the place to buy Chinese scarves, traditional Chinese outfits for the kids/ladies at only AUD$10/$20 and lots of traditional Chinese souvenirs. It's the only place in Shanghai that I truly felt like I was in China.

Now that I've been to Shanghai, I can say without a doubt I would never pay to go to Beijing (even though seeing the Great Wall would be totally awesome) as everyone tells me the pollution in BJ would be 20 times worst than SH. So very sad to see a country that has so much culture and history could totally be ruined by its pollution/population and food safety!

Until we meet again... farewell 中国

Falling in love with Europe.

Hubby and I recently came back from a 1.5wk tour of Europe. Each time we come back here, we fall more in love with Europe (vs our first time there together where we had thought US 10 times better vs Europe).  It wasn't quite for pleasure. I had to be in Athens for our annual cosmetics conference which was an amazing experience in itself. Mr M decided to come along to eat the gyros  'protect' me in case of any dangers that may come my way. So we thought why not make it an European holiday? This was our first time traveling without the kids since being pregnant with Makayla more than 3yrs ago!.

1st stop: Dubrovnik, Croatia
I've always wanted to go to Dubrovnik for its picturesque cliffs overlooking the sea. It is about 2.5hrs flight from London. The city reminded me a lot of certain places in Italy (Isola Bella) cross with Greek Islands (more so Mykonos). Everything about it was great except the food. The food there are all Italian influenced however it was no where near the quality or taste of Italy. It was rather quite a huge disappointment. The cost of a meal was similar to back home in Australia. A Main would set you btw $15-$33 (Depending on where you go).

 

2nd Stop: Berlin, Germany

I really loved Berlin. So much history yet blended with so much modern art. The Berliners are so artistic and really knows how to enjoy their outdoors and art. I absolutely loved shopping in Germany especially their scarves! Every Germans I see on the streets just know how to wear their scarf in all sorts of ways. They also have like over 1000 designs and every store you find sell scarves! I also love shopping in C&A for kids & women's clothing whenever I'm back in Germany (which is like a Mid-Tier department store). I don't know... there is something about Germany that makes me want to go back all the time. I think it's because I studied the language and its culture back in High School from Year 7-10 and it fascinates me when the text book finally comes to life! 

If you are ever in Berlin, make sure you do the Brewers Free Walking tour. Also shop at Primark at Alexander Platz for some great designs and yet cheap clothing as well as amazing collection for boys clothing!  oh yes and coffee in Berlin is also unsurprisingly good!! One of the best place we had coffee was at Einstein Kaffee which is a chain but they have really good coffee that doesn't taste like the chains! They also have the BEST Apple Strudel w the yummiest custard EVER at their Checkpoint Charlie branch. 

3rd Stop: Athens, Greece

Out of the 4 cities we went in Europe (London included), both Mr M & I agrees that Greece has the best and most tastiest food not to mention the cheapest too! We really had only 1 day to explore this ancient city given that I was attending my work conference for 3 days. So the best way to explore is to hop on their Sightseeing tour bus (red double decker ) which you can buy at Intercontinental hotel (where we stayed) at a discounted price.

Surprisingly we absolutely loved Acropolis. It's quite a walk to get up there but once there, the view is simply breathtaking!

 
The best Gyros in town has got to be in a restaurant called O'Thanasis in the heart of Monastraski. There are two O'Thananis restaurants so make sure you go to the one that sells gyros.  For 2.60euros, you can have a delicious pork or chicken (which was our fav on the right) gyros and slightly cheaper if you have a takeaway. The restaurant is very clean, fresh ingredients and most importantly the meat has a very nice charcoal (but not burnt) taste to it!

We then caught out flight from Athens to Dubai and by the favour of God, He helped upgrade Mr M's economy class ticket to business so that he could sit next to me! Gosh you should've seen his face! By the time we boarded the plane it was like 11:20pm and instead of going to sleep for 5hrs, Mr M was utilising everything in business class. When we finally got onto our next flight which was for 13hrs, Mr M was stuck in Economy and for the entire flight, he could not sleep. So when we got off our flight, I looked so fresh and awake (thank you flat beds on Emirates business!) while Mr M looked like he hadn't slept in 40yrs! too funny!

So that ends our 3rd time journey back to Europe together!