Light, fluffy eggs

Cooked an omelette a couple of days ago. Had some cream on hand, so I stirred in 2 tablespoons into 4 eggs. Love my eggs! So light, fluffy and melts in the mouth!

It'll work with scrambled eggs too.

So, next time you want to enjoy some fluffy eggs, try adding in some cream. Milk will also work, but you might need to put more because milk isn't as thick as cream is.

Oh, and by cream, I meant the ones that are still in their liquid form. Not whipped up cream.

Increasing child care cost

I'm a day care mum. I run my own family day care and sometimes I wonder if it's worth people spending the money putting their children in care.

There are parents who can well-afford child care 5 days a week for more than 10 hours each day.The child gets to the carer before the sun rises and only reaches home after dinner.

Then, there are the upper-middle-income families who send their children to child care so that they can work to feed the whole family.

Thereafter, you have the lower-middle-income families who work to send their children to child care so that they can work some more to cover household expenses.

And then, there's the lower income family who need to send their children off to child care so that they can work to earn a living.

But with the Australian government introducing new regulations for all child care workers to at least be diploma trained, parents will be paying more for child care. What a viscous cycle.

All around the world, educators are recommending focus on teaching children under 7 years of age as this is the time where their brains are actively soaking in information. Children learn the most between 1-7 years old. There are parents who want experienced and qualified teachers and educators to care for their preschoolers, but not willing to pay for the work.

Governments are also encouraging couples to give birth to keep the population going but not really helping with child-rearing costs.

I don't know how difficult it is to teach school age children, but as a day care mum, I am for the child care costs to increase.

I have my reasons for saying so. Preschoolers are not easy to teach. Probably as with all other age groups. However, try, or volunteer, to help out at a local community group or centre for a day. 8-10 hours. Energy wise, they drain you faster than running a marathon.

A good centre or educator will plan the day according to the children's needs : story, songs, active play, sensory play, constructive play, role play, etc. In family day care, we plan our programmes every day if we get different children throughout the week. Can you imagine how tiring it is at the end of the day, after looking after them and then having to jot down your observations to plan for their activities the following day?

If parents find it tiring to look after their 1 or 2 children at home, it is the same for child care workers. Yes, we may be trained in this area, but hey, we're humans too! We need rest and time for other things.

Early childhood educators not only teach textbook knowledge, they also impart manners, habits and life skills.

Many people think that learning through play is easy to do. But what do you play to learn? Every activity laid out during the day is a planned play. Children develop mentally, physically and emotionally through play. There is an objective behind every activity.

For example, playing with water is not just throwing water everywhere. Children learn to take turns with water toys, they work their hand-eye co-ordination in scooping and pouring, they learn about volume and weight in filling up containers, they learn about wet and dry.

So yes, if anyone is in favour of increasing child care costs, I am.

Green Parenting : Water

Keri Greenwald from Responsible Mommy shares ideas on how to save water on a daily basis.

Marriage Maintenance

I was driving to the doctor's this morning for my health check report when I heard this marriage tip on the radio. It said to have regular time-outs as a couple, no matter how long you've been married.

The broadcaster raised a very valid point : If we will take time to give our cars a repair or maintenance, even more so will we need some repair work to make our marriage last.

In every marriage there will be its positives and negatives. When couples first get married, it's all rosy and compromising. After a few years, a bit of her changes, a bit of him changes and one suddenly finds that both are not on the same wavelength.

Here're some suggestions :
Take time to have regular dates to keep the freshness going. Remember the dates before the wedding day? Remember how much you look forward to meeting him/her again for coffee, movie or dinner?

Sit down and update each other on anything and everything. Your thoughts and feelings about issues that had occurred, both your plans for the future and even present ones. Get your calendars together.

Just like the car that needs to refuel regularly to run, so does the marriage. Encourage your partner, do things for him/her, say a word of thanks in appreciation even if it's for something simple like a home-cooked dinner.