Herb "Angel"

Three in the family suffered series of indigestion that resulted in vomitting,diarrhea and windy stomachs. Guess who? Answer: DEM (daddy,emily and mummy). Happened on different timing but not far from each other, 3 of us were down in bed most of the time, I slept from 3 - 6pm, then 9pm to 6am yesteray, Emily basically the same while daddy sort of recovered as he had it earlier.

On 1/2 medical leave yesterday and when I got back from class this morning, a colleague placed a container with leaves soaked in water on my desk with this note:
"Ms. E, chew this and digest it, drink the water after that , from your angel".

Earlier on this "angel" of mine was suggesting that there was this plant on the way to the library building (my college has a collection of spice garden), asked me to pluck some of the leaves, chew it, supposingly help to relieve my digestion problem. I was quite skeptical and just ignored him lar.

After lunch, he insisted that I tried the remedy, well... I suppose nature is better than swallowing some pills from the doctor eh, chew the leaves (super bitter), swallowed it and after 3 hours I'm still okay, so guess it's not poisonous. Between 12noon to 3.30 pm, I took my lunch, finished my 1/2 cup of ginger tea, ate 3 "paus" and still feel hungry. I think the leaves must be at work!!

Time with God

When we were childless, we prayed that God would bless us with children, now that we have children; we prayed less to God and spend less time with Him. There was one occasion that a voice in me prompted me to think “When God bless us with children, He does not mean that children and family take over our time with Him” which triggers me that being a mother does not give me the right to reason that now my hands are full, God will have to take a back seat.

I also understand that mothers are born with the nature to attend to their families’ needs but I realized this should not be done at the expense of our quality time with our Creator. I thank God that He made me to realize I need Him even more for the roles He entitled me to be in - a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a teacher. But before I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister or a teacher, I’m first a child of God.

God has been gracious to me that He gave me a wonderful and understanding husband, additional hands through the unconditional care of my mother-in-law and my lovely children. They gave me rooms to be alone and wings to reach my Heavenly Father.

Raya @ Taiping - Part 2

I believe for those who have been to Taiping Lake Garden would totally agreed with me that the place is a nice spot for photo shooting with its rich lush greens, ponds and well kept environment. No doubt that it is also a popular place for couples to take nice cool walks and have long conversations.

So this is what we did... (it all started by a picture that a friend took using hubby's camera, all agreed that it was a nice shot with the perfect angle). We decided to rewind 10+ years back and created below shots.

In the beginning...





Time past and soon we realized it's time to commit our lives as couple in everlasting union....


Then... time flies, soon we produced a flock of..........


Yeap, you are right 8 of us produced 9 PRINCESSES, can you guess who belongs to whom??

Ha ha ha, we had fun, hubby and I even make a shot of a romantic scene just like what you would see in a typical Bollywood movie... (I'm not releasing the version here... those who are interested may contact me personally for the copyright..)

Yvonne Foong

I’m here reaching out to all of you in the cyber world out there who have been accessing my blog and facebook to venture into Yvonne Foong’s blog and see if you are touched to do something for this young, brave, hopeful and gutsy lady. As a start I suggest you ordered her books and explored some of the products she’s selling on line not for the sake of making profit but to raise enough fund to regain her sight. Please put your time online doing something worthwhile and let your humanity visible by putting your care in action. Thank you all… and thanks to Daphne who leads me to her.

Games that we played..

Games that we played as a family:

1) Building blocks – we will build anything and hubby will ask each of us to tell a story out of the things that we have built, during this process creativity sips in and Emily is real good at this.

2) The stack – stack them up, remove each block at a time to increase the height, this test our patience, motor skill and create some tension during the course of the game.

3) Dance – hubby will play fast music and we will dance our heart out with really funny and ridiculous moves… (only for personal home viewing, lest we will be labeled as psycho!)

4) Act it out – hubby make it an effort to lead in weekly family devotion, tells a story and teaches biblical values, we take turns to act out the story, I always have to act the “bad/naughty” character…

5) Guess what am I? We think of an object/animal/type of food/anything and describe the item, the rest take turns to guess… builds imagination! The girls can’t wait to tell us the answers!!

6) Outdoor – Hubby loves nature and always bring us out either for a stroll, cycle, beach…anything outdoor

7) Memory card – We arrange the cards/patterns in a matrix, memorize them for a minute, flip the card over and find the pair by opening one card at a time, the girls always win… our brain cells are depleting each day… got to accept that!

8) Badminton – Mummy play with Michelle, daddy play with Emily, change partners and mummy play with daddy under the car park below our condominium.

9) Soup boiling – Mummy bring out all the ingredients, children clean them, mummy cuts them, children place them into the pot, add required portion of water and mummy takes care of the rest…

10) Colourful sticks – I played this more than 30 years ago, we group all the sticks in different colours together and hold them vertically, release our hands and let the sticks fall free, each takes turn to remove individual stick without touching other sticks nearby.

11) Scrabble – I end up forming all the words, Michelle and Emily arrange them on the board, Emily helps to draw the tiles, (we’ll improve on that later…)

12) Scrapping – this is new, we went out, find a spot and scrap whatever that is in front/around us….

How about you? What are the games that you play as a family?

Help Yvonne regain her sight!

I'm touched to lend my helping hand to Yvonne and read about a book review on her life, I'm ordering one and if you are touched too, please go to this website to understand more and how you could be a part of the project. Let us who have sight not forgetting those who have not or in the threat of losing it... God keep Yvonne and watch over her fund raising to a better life.

Note: Added information, for those who are interested to get the book, please write a cheque out to FOONG MING NIANG and mail it to

Yvonne Foong
166 JLN SS15/7
Subang Jaya
Selangor 47500,
Malaysia

The book costs RM20.00 plus a minimum fee for normal postage, blessed is he who give without expecting any in return... :)

Raya @ Taiping & Kuala Sepetang - Part 1

We went for a 2 days 1 night trip to Taiping and Kuala Sepetang with three other families last Monday and Tuesday. It was a fun-filled trip packed with delicious food, educational tour, water fun time, lots of laughter, jams, sweat… you name it we experienced it.

If you were thinking how on earth do 4 families with 9 girls managed the trip and achieved so much, come tag along on our adventure trail…. Followed by pictures later ya!

Day 1
8.00 -9.00 am – Dim Sum at Pekaka Square
9.00 – 10.00 am – Journey to Taiping with songs, quizzes in the car packed with 4 talkative girls
10.30 am – 12.30 noon – Taiping Zoo
12.30 – 2.00 pm – Lunch at the hawker center, near Taiping market, they served fabulous Koay Teow Soup…
2.00 – 4.00 pm – Check in at Taiping Golf Resort, swimming and water games (the men are rough!)
4.00 – 5.30 pm – Rest (Super tired!)
6.00 – 9.00 pm – Dinner at Siong Leng restaurant (the food plus the bill were a total disappointment! Bad recommendation!!)
9.00 – 10.30 pm – Chatted…
10.30 pm – Completely knocked down for the day

Day 2
8.00 – 9.00 am – Breakfast in the hotel
9.30 – 10.30 am – Taiping Lake Garden for photo shooting and a stroll around the lake, superb view and nice weather
10.30 – 12.30 noon – Back to hotel for a dip in the pool again…
1.00 – 2.00 pm – Trip to Kuala Sepetang (Port Weld)
2.00 – 3.00 pm – Lunch opposite the KTM Port Weld signboard (A hut selling superb curry mee, Loh mee (Penang one much better), Chai Kueh (this is good), Curry Puff (thumbs up too), Cucur Udang (we saw many people ordered this but too full to stuff in anymore…)
3.00 – 5.00 pm – Mangrove Forest Boat Ride (Sun bathing.. the kids enjoyed it)
5.00 – 6.30 pm – Early dinner at “Restoran Tepi Sungai” (We ordered octopus dip with grated nut chili sauce, deep fried baby crabs, deep fried shrimp, buttered prawns, siput, steamed fish, stir-fry lettuce, char mee and bihun (for the kid’s table), fried egg, 6 bottles of herba tea, guess how much is the bill???)
6.30 – 8.30 pm – Back to Penang…

I extracted below photos from some of the website, ours one yet to be downloaded..
From top left and in clock wise direction... mangrove forest, Taiping Lake garden, Port Weld curry mee, Taiping Golf Resort (where we put in).


From top left, deep fried shrimp, octopus, stir-fry mee, buttered prawn..


Stay tune for more photos in Part 2.