Peace... at last...

You don't know the pleasure of having your Saturdays off until you get stuck with a 5 1/2 day work week. Seriously.

Had taken the day off, planning to leave for Rantau Abang in the morning. However, due to rumours of banjir in Kuantan, plus Sali's brother actually getting stuck there earlier, 3 of us decided to cancel our plans. Feel bad about letting down En Razali and Eyeda, but I'd rather not have to take emergency leave in case it flooded on the way back. Also have an interview I'd rather not miss on Tuesday afternoon. Cari makan and all that, you know...

It feels good to be home with time to spare, actually. Managed to do a bit of this and that and finish reading "The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood". At first I thought it was some nonsensical book about idiotic American girls. The first few chapters certainly portrayed the girls as frivoulous, but it turned out to be an essential background to what the Ya-yas became later in life. If you read it to the end, you'll find the book to be very insightful and touching. Am now itching to get my hands on a copy of the DVD. Tu la, dulu benda tu on sale tak nak beli...

The past week had been busy babysitting my 3 anak buahs. Due to my brother being away in Taiwan and sister-in-law busy with an event, I was Shanghai-ed into picking up the kids after work and keeping them until sis-in-law makes her way home.

Once they were home, it was pretty easy - let them watch TV while I do other things. But my choice of 'things to do' had to change pretty drastically when you have 3 enfants in the house. Thank goodness they had already bathed at the babysitters', so I had one less thing to worry about. Getting kids to bathe when they want to watch Naruto is no easy task.

First, make sure they drink and have something to snack on until Mama comes home. The catch is, I don't have much in the way of kids munchies at home. So made do with fruits and milk on the first couple of days, then took them grocery shopping to get some suitable stuff.

Next, make sure house is germ free. I sure don't want the kids to get sick on my watch... So cleaning and mopping went higher up the charts and miraculously got done. Such is the power of necessity...

Then, figure out dinner. The main challenge is buying or cooking something nutricious that the kids would eat. Thankfully, Amar & Aina are sensible eaters. They love fruit, veggies & chicken. Only Anis a.k.a. Princess Pinky-Winky yang susah sikit. Getting her to even TRY a veggie is an accomplishment!

But by and large, it was more of doing whatever needed to be done. And using your wits to decide what is important and fair. Like whether you should buy them those doughnuts or buy Adik that party pack just so she wouldn't cry. Or play mediator when the 2 elder ones fight over my precious sleeping bag. Soothe the princess drama queen when she had a stomach problem etc.

Abang came home on a morning flight today, and the whole clan on the other side took off for PD for the weekend. So here I am, at home, with time to actually blog, and take care of chores, and read, and swim, and pay bills, and whatever else needs to be done. May watch a movie if I feel like it later. Might even buy some paint and deal with my moldy wall now that it's finally dried-up. It's kind of quiet though without the kids squabbling and crying every few minutes.

Hope I get that job in PJ. I don't like commuting and I like being close to base just in case one of the kids need a hand. Wish me luck, peeps :-)