Gimme A Break

When it comes to ‘fighting’ for a parking spot, I’m always the one to give up and drive away. Even if I was there first and I know I should get the spot. Sigh! So I end up driving around needlessly for ages JUST BECAUSE OF my giving nature.

Well, Chinese New Year is coming up next month, and goodness knows I’ll soon be going on yet another shopping frenzy to stock up on the festive fair and the buy-aheads (like presents for family and friends whose birthdays are coming up).

I always try to get to the mall at opening time to avoid getting into traffic snarls and parking problems. Sometimes that’s easier said than done, and we inadvertently end up at the mall at the craziest time of all – lunch hour. This was what happened some weeks back during the holidays and of course, that meant I was circling around the parking lot like a hawk .

After a half-hour, I chanced upon a family leaving and almost jumped for joy. But before I could even bat an eyelid, another car drove up and was challenging me to a ‘fight’. I was torn between fighting and fleeing… but decided I’d stay and fight. Okay, so I was frustrated that we’d been circling for a half-hour with no luck. And now this…

Cheered on by my kids, I edged closer to prevent the other guy from beating me to that just-vacated spot. I’m pretty proud of myself for not backing down this time. I think I’ve given up the ‘fight’ once too often at my own expense.

When we were leaving the parking lot later, there were three cars ‘fighting’ for my spot with horns blaring, headlights flashing and clenched fists out the window!! I’m just glad we were leaving .

• no place to park
• a world of difference
• the rhythm of the mall
• Tuesday morning blues
• the weekend has flown

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There’s a very good reason why I love Wednesdays. Well, that was until I started having to work Wednesdays which kinda killed the mood for me. Guess what? I got today off and it’s Wednesday.

So I went out and did my Wednesday thing. One hour dancing followed by a one hour workout at the gym. Hmm. Now that was nice. Nothing like getting the endorphines on overtime.

Now I’m feeling much refreshed and have just gobbled down some Thai tuna pasta, yummy.

• my plan-ahead menu
• Wednesdays
• want to live to be 125? try this!
• pasta cravings
• you go, girl!

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Just heard an apparently true story about a guy with high cholesterol who started eating four eggs a day. Now he’s rid of his cholesterol problem.

I’m going, huh, are you kidding me? For a long time now, I’ve been told eggs always been the source of cholesterol problems. I have held on to that belief ever since. I love eggs but I don’t eat it every day.

I believe in moderation so I’m really not sure if I want to go ahead and start on four egs a day every day! A bit much, don’t you think?

• much ado about movies
• stinky fish
• darn the crawl!
• something for my new niece
• easy displays

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On a bad day, it can be so-oo hard getting the kids to do their chores sometimes. I’m happy when they get it done on their own, most days. But there are days when I want them to specifically do one chore outside of their routine and that can turn out to be an uphill challenge.

But here’s a useful article I found. I hope it helps.

Raising Responsible Kids – How to Get your Children to do their Chores

by Jean Tracy, MSS

Are you raising responsible kids?

Do you come home to kids watching TV, playing video games, or chatting on cell phones? Are the morning and afternoon dishes stacked in the sink for you to do?

Do you want help with laundry, vacuuming, and fixing dinner? Let’s find out how to raise responsible kids and get the help you need.

To raise responsible kids, be kind and firm:

What you say to your kids and how you say it must reflect your inner conviction that you are the parent. With that inner conviction your words will be more effective. You won’t be complaining, yelling, or feeling mean when telling your kids to do their chores. Your kids will sense you are in charge.

3 steps to experiencing your authority as the parent:

• Ask yourself, “How would I feel inside if I calmly and strongly felt my authority?”
• Take quiet time to imagine and feel that authority.
• Practice experiencing that feeling before confronting your kids.

When it’s time to tell your kids to do their chores, take that inner conviction with you. Make sure it’s strong, serious, and calm.

To raise responsible kids, avoid this mistake:

A young boy named Tom, whose father was a preacher, asked his dad on the way home from church, “Dad, were you telling the truth today or were you just preaching?” (A true story from Kidwarmers)

When parents lecture, kids don’t listen. Preaching wastes your time, alienates your kids, and increases your tone of helplessness. Instead use few words and speak with a firm voice.

Raise responsible kids with rules and expectations:

Parents make a big mistake when they fail to draw the line. My friend Roberta, who raised 5 children, talks about eliminating “the control that a child likes to have in raising a parent.”

When kids leave dirty dishes, keep messy rooms, and play on the computer without helping, they’re raising their parents to be their servants. Roberta believes that responsible parents draw the line. That means they follow through with rules and expectations.

To raise responsible kids, use this formula:

• Develop a calm inner conviction that you have both the authority and the responsibility to be the parent.
• Avoid lecturing.
• Use few words.
• Speak with a firm voice.
• Follow through with your rules and expectations.

Practice using the above formula consistently. You’ll be teaching your kids to be responsible. You’ll be getting the help you need, and you’ll be building character too.

About the author:
Jean Tracy, MSS, “Granny Jean” publishes “Tips and Tools for Character Builders,” her Free top-rated Parenting Newsletter. Subscribe at her web site http://www.KidsDiscuss.com and receive 80 fun activities to share with your kids. Treat your children to Jean Tracy’s Weekly Chore Chart Kit at http://www.KidsDiscuss.com

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The Monday blues are here. I forgot to pick up the bacon when I did my groceries during the weekend. So I thought I’d just nip out to the store and grab it real quick.

Walking into the store, I passed by a small eating shop and decided to stop by for a quick bite to eat. After my two-hour gym workout, I was running on empty. I ordered some fried noodles and they took longer than the 10 minutes the waitress told me I’d have to wait.

By the time I was done eating, I had to make a dash to the bakery to pick up some pastries, and then to the deli to get the bacon. By the time I left the store, it was time to pick up my daughter, Daphne. Well, actually it was the time I would normally be waiting outside her school.

Realizing that I was going to be really really late, I sped out of the store and headed straight to the highway. Would you believe it, there had been an accident further along and the traffic was building up. Yikes! What terrible timing!

After what seemed like ages trying to get through traffic, I arrived at Daphne’s school. What was supposed to have been a quick dash to the deli turned out to be an hour and a half! Grrrr!

• a day in the life of a mom
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Oh no, the weekend’s coming to an end! Already? Why is it that time always flies when you’re just starting to kick back and relax?

We spent the morning at the mall. Got there at 10:45, a full 45 minutes after it opened and already there was a huge traffic jam leading to the parking lot. Looking for a parking spot took 30 minutes by which time our breakfast had long been digested and we were hungry again.

We wasted no time over the usually long and hard decision about where to eat, and headed straight for the food court. We’ve recently discovered they serve the yummiest food there, very affordable too.

More importantly, they serve local food which I really want to get the kids to learn to enjoy. They eat too much fast food which is very fattening. My fault mostly for introducing them to stuff like burgers and hot dogs when they were little.

We didn’t shop much. Got most of our Chinese New Year shopping done over Christmas. We were just there to enjoy the air-conditioning (it’s a furnace outside) and do some healthy window-shopping and people-watching :lol:. Ah, if only tomorrow weren’t Monday and we could go hang out at the mall again. Wishful thinking!

• Japanese buffet, really?
• mommy time
• secret pasta bar
• the rhythm of the mall
• weddings

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I woke up with the sniffles, the result of sleeping directly under the fan with the air-conditioning on. Yep, the hot spells are here again and the temperatures are almost unbearable. At certain times of the day, the grey clouds accumulate overhead and threaten to rain. But they’re only teasing. It almost never does.

With weather like this, we were constantly made to drink ‘cooling’ drinks when we were young. Now it’s my turn at ‘forcing’ them down on my kids. They’re supposed to cool down the body and prevent fevers and other heat-related sicknesses. They take hours to simmer and boil, and hours to cool dow afterwards.

But for some reason, this generation of kids doesn’t seem to like these ’cooling’ drinks. Maybe sodas are to blame. Cooling drinks like chrysanthemum tea, barley water and soya bean juice are clearly not their cup of tea.

They’re all sweet-based so it’s not like they’re that hard to swallow. Yet modern kids run for their lives when they smell these drinks brewing and you’d almost be inclined to think we were trying to make them drink poison.

• point collector
• water on the go
• eight glasses a day
• super hot days
• save our tongues!

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I’ve been feeling guilty about not making proper lunches for the kids when they get home from school. By the time I get home from my part-time job, I’m either too late or too tired to get a real meal going. Well, it’s time for a change.

What I’m going to do today is a plan-ahead menu for next week. I’m not sure how this is going to work out but let’s give it a shot anyway.

Monday – chicken chop with roasted potatoes and buttered broccoli, cauliflower and carrotsee how it goes.

Monday’s my only off-day so I guess I can do something more elaborate.

Tuesday – fried rice

I can chop up the ingredients the night before, and boil up the rice in the electric rice cooker before I leave for work.

Wednesday – hot dogs

Wednesday is my busiest day. I can boil up the franks pretty quick while I chop up the onions and tomatoes.

Thursday – pasta olio

Have the pasta boiling while I whip up the rest.

Friday – egg mayo and tuna sandwich

Pretty easy to throw together, this one .

Okay, that pretty much covers the week of lunches, I think. Wish me luck with my menu next week. Will let you know how things turn out.

• how to vary your menu
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I know we’re all busy bees here. But hey, we too need to dress up and get out sometimes, right? So we really should keep up (even if it’s just a little) with what’s hip and what’s not.

Righty-o, all you busy men and women on the go, here’s the good news and the shortcut to getting in the action without getting a single hair out of place, no matter how busy you may be.

Celebrated fashion designer, Peter Belisi who has started a new blog that’s simply pulsating with what’s hot on the runways, what celebrities are wearing and everything else that’s happening in the world of high fashion.

What I really like is that this is a fashion blog, not a website we’re talking about – which means it’s updated frequently in short snippets so you can now catch fashion news on the run. Come on, check it out.

• our project runway (2)
• reading the news
• why read the news?
• not too ambitious
• fashion shoots

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These days, I honestly can’t wait till Friday. Not that it’s any less busy than the other 4 days of the week. But it’s a day when I can breathe easier knowing that the weekend’s almost here.

I only cook one real lunch a week this month since my job got busy. The other days, I get home after 12:00pm and have to pick the kids up in one hour. So lunch is just a hurried grab-whatever-I-can-get-my-hands-on kinda stuff.

The good thing is the kids have gotten less picky about food and are just happy they even get lunch On the other hand, it makes me feel like a bad mommy because I’m either too rushed or too tired to make a proper lunch.

• mommy time
• what’s for lunch?
• yucky meals
• madwoman
• an alarm clock with a personality

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