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Write 31 Days Challenge 2018.
Day #22
Vitamins
Some people say they are scams while others swear by them. Me? I like my vitamins and take them regularly. Even if they work because of the placebo effect, they are still “working”, know what I mean?
I bought these containers from Daiso and each person has one, except the older two who can’t be bothered. I pack all the vitamins I want them to take every morning and it has become a habit for them to take it with their water after meals. And I pack our vitamins and bring them along even when we travel.
But while I like them, I do try to reduce the pills we pop on a daily basis so that we only take the bare minimum. We don’t want to become too reliant on anything.
Day #23
Peanut Pancakes
I grew up eating peanut pancakes made the traditional way with real peanuts. But I can’t seem to find them anymore. These that they make nowadays look the same but they don’t taste the same. Peanut pancakes sold at this little store tastes the closest to what I remember. Also, this lady uses real ground up peanuts and not a mix of peanuts and peanut butter that some other places do. Yucks!
Interestingly, the lady who makes and sells it is Vietnamese! Her shop is located at Bishan North Shopping Mall at Block 282 Bishan Street 22. It’s $0.80 for one pancake (peanut/coconut/cheese/red bean filling). And she has a bulk discount price if you buy 5 or more. She is only open in the mornings though. And her off days are not consistent.
Day #24
Date Nights and “Or Luak”
In this season of our lives where the children are all old enough to fend for themselves, going out for impromptu date nights aka suppers have been a blessing which I do not take for granted. And our date nights are very simple affairs. Sometimes it is eating or luak (oyster omelette) at the hawker centre at Toa Payoh Lorong 7 (or is it 8?!) and other times tau suan (split mung bean soup with deep fried dough fritters at the coffee shop near our place). The point is to spend some time reconnecting.
When the children were younger, date nights were spent at home after the children were all in bed. That was back in the day where the children had 8:30pm bedtimes and we had no teenagers who stay up later than me!
While I appreciate the commonly given marriage advice of having date nights to strengthen one’s marriage, it puts pressure on a couple to have one or have their marriage doomed to failure! So there can be a lot of guilty feelings to deal with when they cannot find babysitting help to have one.
Grateful as I am that we get to go out of the house to have our date nights, let me encourage those of you without babysitting help to think out of the box to have your own date nights in my post How to Do Date Nights With No Babysitter. It really is about connection and not the date itself.
Day #25
Vegetables
This is the mountain of vegetables we need to cook in order for each of us to have a decent portion of vegetables for dinner at each meal. Actually, we should be eating more but I’ll settle. I am just grateful that everyone eats their vegetables without much complaining. And one child actually asks for more!
We’ve come a long way indeed. So I am grateful. The children all start out eating vegetables without any complaints. And then somewhere around the age of 2, they all develop a strong aversion to it. They will pick every. single. strand out of their food and their mouths!
But it was a hill I chose not to die on. However, after they turn 5 or so, I would insist that they eat some. And I really mean some. Like a teaspoon. Or 5 strands. And when we ate out, they were given a pass on vegetables.
But fast forward to today, by God’s grace, all eat their vegetables without any sour faces or gagging, even vegetables they don’t like, such as broccoli and cauliflower. And they eat salads now. Some actually like salads which helps me immensely because it means one less dish to cook! The other thing I am always grateful for is the wide range of vegetables available in Singapore. So many types to choose from.
Day #26
Maths & Science Tuition
It was really a God-arranged setup. I had been looking for help for P6 Maths back in 2000. Maths is not my forte but Henson’s. But he was often not available so I needed external help. I started asking around and my friend, Sam, told me about Perceptum Maths and Perceptum Science tuition centre located at the bomb shelter of the block of flats next to mine! She said that the teachers were formerly from Catholic High School. So I made an enquiry and voila! there were vacancies! Since then, 6 of our 7 children have been with them, through their split and move to another location.
People ask if they are good. I tell them that our children have found them helpful. I definitely have found them helpful. But I cannot compare them with other tuition centres since we have not been with any other centre. For what it is worth, five of our children have gotten As and A*s with them.
Just in case you are wondering, we start Chinese tuition from K1. But with Maths and Science, we only start them at P5. For more on my take on tuition, check out my post on TUITION.
Day #27
Abeka Academy
I was introduced to Abeka Academy very early in our homeschool journey. However, we did not go with it back then for a variety of reasons, one of which was that it would not prepare us to clear PSLE since it runs on a different scope and sequence from the local curriculum.
But post-PSLE, we decided to go with it. Yes, it can be boring but it has helped us to be able to continue homeschooling past PSLE without me going too crazy. And I am grateful for it. Especially when they switched to digital assessments. Less grading for me! More on our decision can be found on Choosing Our High School/Secondary School Curriculum.
Day #28
Vacuuming
I had been using our trusty Roomba 90% of the time from 2008 to the middle of 2018. It has been such a great blessing in the season when there were a lot more children who make messes than help to clear them up. But when it finally died after many repairs, I decided to get a Philips SpeedPro Max Stick Vacuum Cleaner instead. Why? Mainly because it is cordless and powerful.
Handling a cordless vacuum cleaner is much easier than dragging a corded vacuum cleaner. This helps the children and me. Also, it also means that vacuuming the entire house takes about 45 minutes versus the 2 hours with the Roomba. And now that I have 5 teens in the house, they definitely can handle a stick and even corded vacuum cleaner.
While I am ever grateful for gadgets that saves me time and energy, I sometimes wonder if we are overly reliant on them and will forget how to do simple chores as I wrote in Gadgets – A Boon or A Bane?
…to be continued
Related Posts
Write 31 Days Challenge 2018: Week ONE
Write 31 Days Challenge 2018: Week TWO
Write 31 Days Challenge 2018: Week THREE