Guess what????? We found a RC (Residential Commitee) ran vegetable patch at our estate! How cool is that when we have been longing for more green since we got back?

It’s not exactly a patch anymore. It used to be a patch where some old guys hung around and grow plants but it’s grown! It’s about the size of a playground. There is now an enclosure and the residents can apply for an area to grow whatever they like!

It was such a treat for Sophie and I. We met Uncle Yip who showed us around. He even carried Sophie to see the taller plants. She was thrilled to see baby pumpkins, lady’s fingers, chillies, bittergourds and so much more. Apparently they are going to make a little fish pond too for the kids to catch fish and play.

Woo hoo! Rural right at my doorstep.

I think we’ve officially ran out of space in our house.

There is really no more space to stack any more baby clothes or toys. I like it when my friend told us in her kids’ birthday invite not to buy anything because there’s simply no more space. I can totally identify.

A few friends and I have started a toy exchange program (not so serious). Our kids are the same age so we’ve been going to each other’s place to check out the toys and exchanging them. It’s been really great coz Sophie saw the newly borrowed toys and went "wah!" really loudly. I was so pleased coz I didn’t need to pay a single cent for it.

On a more serious note, it’s really time to simplify and live differently. By creating less demand and wastage, hopefully we can help save a tiny bit of the world’s resources. I had a little chat over MSN with our beloved Pastor Dan recently and we talked about how the world is potentially heading towards anarchy. There is no way we can continue to maintain our current lifestyle in the near future. With resources running out and world population increasing, the prices are going to increase (as already predicted for next year) and people are going to feel the lack and fight over the little that is left. By the way, our fav mutton kway teow soup increased from $3 to $3.50!! Our weekly indulgence has just gone up by $1! This is just a small indication of what’s going to happen in the near future.

As Christmas approaches and as the year comes to an end, maybe it’s time to reflect on what is truly important. Maybe, just maybe by reducing the things in our lives, we create more space in our hearts for God, ourselves and the people around us.

Our new gate
Originally uploaded by sophie8mths

Did i mention that we changed our gate?

This was just before we left for Aus. It’s a nice gate. BLACK w bits of green to represent mould. ?!? Ya. It’s quite nice. We decided against the bronzy one coz everyone else has it and it was just too predictable. It was really instant decision. Like the guy came by to ask if we wanted a new gate and we said yes. Just like that. It’s really not like me to pay a large amount of money without thinking much. But I just thot it’ll be nice to have a new gate.

It’s amazing how a new gate makes everything looks nicer. I really like my new gate.

…. those are our little neighbours that always pop by. Their mum just gave birth today! Sophie has a new playmate.

Doesn’t always go together.

Since I’ve been cooking for the family, I’ve been so much more aware of nutritional values. Everytime i’m at the supermarket, you’ll see me scrutinising at the Nutrition Fact section of every product i pick up. How much Sodium? Trans Fat? Sugar? Coz No Added Sugar doesn’t mean no sugar. Preservatives? I take a really really long time to pick up stuff, esp for Sophie.

I’m learning A LOT about food. It’s really scary what goes into our diet nowadays. Everything is loaded with salt and preservatives.

If I’m cooking, I try to cook without salt as much as possible. Just a bit for taste. Recently I’ve taken to making my own stock. It’s so yummy. I use it for Sophie’s porridge and dishes BUT i always steal her food coz it’s just SO YUMMY! I’ve also taken to VEGGIES! Yes Ai Ling eats veggies now! With joy! It’s all because of Sophie. When she started eating solids, we are to introduce each veggie one by one so I got to taste each veggie for its original taste - without butter/salt/oil etc. So yummy! I started experimenting with different veggies cooked different styles using stock/herbs instead of the idiot proof oyster sauce or salt.

My aim is to ultimately prepare/cook all the stuff we eat including snacks and drinks SO THAT i can to some extend control the nutritional value of our diet. I hope lah… in my ideal world. Maybe in 10 years. Heh heh… I keep looking at the Amabel Karmel cookbooks and wish it’ll come alive. Hahaha…. Slowly but surely….

June’s visit
Originally uploaded by sophie8mths

We’ve been having a whole host of visitors over the past few days.

Genie came by with baby Evan on Mon.

Kel n JY are back from their honeymoon so they popped by yesterday morning. Soon after Don came by to meet w James. We had lunch w Don n his wife. After that June (see pic) came by and then followed by Vic.

This morning the SOL editorial team came by to round out our upcoming issue (sneak preview ….. it’s a MEN’S ISSUE. will be out in June) and to plan for the following issue.

Our home feels a bit like a community centre. Thank God we’ve got the office space as overflow room… wah hahah… Don kena relegated there w James. Hiak hiak.

So, Sophie n I have been pretty busy. She really enjoys the company and attention although recently she’s gotten very sticky to me and super whiny. It’s great that we have different pp over coz then hopefully Sophie will realise that the whole world doesn’t revolve around her. But still it’s quite hard to move away from her as the centre of attraction. Oh wells…

Yipeee! We had such a fruitful day today.

We got our furniture from a garang guni man, my FIL’s lobang…. super cheap cheap! Super happy about that… I had such a good time rummaging thru stuff that people threw away. Am such a garang guni gal at heart… haha…

After that we went to Toyogo warehouse at Toa Payoh, PLASTIC PARADISE! Got big one small one. Even more shiok than Daiso! WAH! Think i went a bit mad. Or at least my FIL was so amused to see me so excited.

Sophie was such a good gal today… such a trouper… just followed us from place to place. Happily eating her healthy broccoli & pumpkin while rest of us had unhealthy MacDonalds. My MIL was happily carrying her most of the time so that left me to happily shop shop shop.
 

We got the cleaners my parents recommended to come clean the house today. It’s the most amazing experience! They are really good, efficient and very clean! My house has never been so clean before. i even got them to help iron our bedsheets! Wow, nicely ironed bedsheets!

Why did i wait so long to get them to come?

Our home was transformed into a photo studio yesterday for fruits and
veggies! Dan n Shaowei spent the whole afternoon here shooting for
James’ latest project for a veg distribution company.

We’re well stocked for veggies for the whole week. Compliments of the
client. Happy is my mum in law, happy are Dan n Shaowei’s mums.

Oh btw, carrots also make good juice.
Beetroot was a bit suspicious.

I finally have pictures of the couch and shoerack that James made, with
the help of Josco! Oh… and check out the new plants and doormat…
nice touch.

I would love to do this with pics but this will do for now…

Our blue couch outside our apt has been replaced by James’ ingenious
carpentry work. He’s transformed the precious single bed from his old
room that made its way to our guest room. The same bed that Nick, Mark
B, Yvonne n Stephan slept on when they were guests (at diff times.. :))
at our place into a COUCH with storage space! He’s also built shoeracks
etc… James never fails to amaze me. My husband is a super handy man.
And of course he had the help of Josco (I better mention this or else
he’ll kick us… )… And i must say Josco is a really good handyman
himself!

Baby’s room is now painted lavender, tinge of light green and cream…
very sweet… the new cupboard is cream, the cot and changer are
white… 

Despite the reno and mess, we’ve been having friends over on Sat nites
for home group, also celebrated Wan Lin’s 21st bday in style (early
childhood style) and the last party will be held tomorrow for the
cluster.

ok need to go prepare for tom! Write more later…

We’ve been on a roll this week… started off with taking out all the
stuff that we’ve been accumulating in baby’s room and removing the old
cupboard. Got the aircon moved and cleaned up. Even the next door uncle
came over to help. Now our house looks like a refugee camp… bad time
for guests… but if you are an old friend, we don’t care.

Our plans for baby’s room…
We’re planning to build a new cupboard where the old single bed was.
That means no more guests… sigh… we miss having guests staying
over. Hopefully that’ll make room for baby stuff and some extra storage
space for James’ comics… haha. The cot is coming in 2 weeks.

It’s amazing how God is concerned about even the most littlest things
in our lives…. we were praying for inspiration for the wall painting
and i just kept thinking fishes over the past few days and last nite,
during the cell leaders’ training (teaching on prayer!), this lady
prayed for me and saw a vision of a whale playing happily in shallow
water and she had the impression of fullness of joy! Yep! So we’re
gonna have fishes - a “underwater victorian-scandinavian country” feel

Next up… painting… if you wanna help, say aye!

James and I took a little walk around the block today coz we were at
our desk working for 4 hrs straight. That’s the problem w us, once we
start, it’s really hard to stop. So we had lunch n got out of the house
for a little walk. I figured we needed some fresh air.We found this real cool blue couch (next to a lime green old sch
washing machine with a beige single seater couch… almost like a scene
out of Growing up, 70s style) that someone threw away! James was going
to carry it by himself on his back! But some students came along w a
trolley and they helped us bring it up to our place. Thank God!

So now it is outside our flat…. the idea is for us to be able to sit outside to drink tea n read newspapers…. haha…