Ways to show your mother that you love her

Just a couple of weeks more and it'll be Mother's Day! Some may have already prepared a gift for mum, some may still be cracking their brains over what to give.

To be honest, birthdays and special occasions like these always give me a big headache because of the gift involved. Buying a gift for someone else is just as good as telling me to finish a Maths or Science paper. It eats the energy out of me. I'll do it because I have to, but will avoid it if possible.

Personally, I'm not a gift lover. No cards, no flowers, no chocolates, thank you. The cards just go straight into the bin the next day or my daughter gets to cut them up with scissors in the name of developing her hand-eye coordination skills. The flowers only get left in their packaging till they die and wither. The chocolates will most likely be sitting in our fridge or pantry (depending on whichever one has space) for a few more years before it goes out into the bin. So, yes, don't waste your money on me.

Anyway, when it comes to showing love to someone dear, gifts may not be the only answer. Here are some ways to show your mum that you love her.

1. Prepare a good dinner for her and the family, with enough to bring for lunch the next day. After all, mum had been cooking dinner and getting lunch the rest of the year, so, make this day an easy one for her and give her a little more time off.

2. Rent her favourite movies and have a movie marathon at home!

3. Get all the housework done before you have the movie marathon. Mothers fret about not getting housework done.

4. Have a topsy-turvy day and swap roles for the day.

5. Give her a hug if you haven't done so since you started primary school.

6. Let mum have an early night and do all the washing up for her.

7. Let mum and dad have a night out for themselves.

8. Make a donation to a children's support service in her name.

Hope you'll enjoy this Mother's Day with your mums!

Uses for unused CD/DVD

Do you have old, scratched, music CDs that you cannot use? Or the movie DVD that just was not fated to be watched ever again? What about those old installation drivers for computer use? How many do you have?
Recently, when we did a clean up of the cupboards, we threw away a lot of the boxes that had these old CDs, DVDs and installation drivers. I kept the discs. Did a few things with them.

As a sun catcher / reflector - If you have many to spare, glue to pieces of discs cover to cover, allowing the shiny side to reflect the sunlight. String a few of them together and just watch the sunlight bounce off. Or if you are one to be out till late, why not hang a CD from your bag and it will reflect light off oncoming cars.
As an activity toy - Teach hand-eye coordination. Get children to spin it on the ground, or roll it on the floor as far as they can.

As a fan - Glue (hot glue works best or double-sided tape) a pop stick between two discs. Allow to dry completely before fanning. It is up to you to decide whether you want to have the covers glued together or the shiny side glued together. Or, one of each.

As a jewellery holder - For necklaces and bracelets, simply cut away two strips from the CD at the 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock marks. How deep into the disc to cut depends on how many necklaces or bracelets you would like to hold on a disc. Hook your necklaces or bracelets over the cut areas. To hold earrings, use a craft puncher and punch holes in sets of twos for pairs of earrings. The CD can either be laid flat on the dressing table or buy one of those adhesive hooks and stick it to the wall.

As a coaster - Leave the discs as they are as coasters or you can stick on non-slip mats on both sides of the disc.

And my personal favourite is :

As a mirror - Stick the discs shiny side up on a wall or cupboard or tuck one in the car or handbag. They are really compact. So thin and light and do not take up much space either. Children will enjoy looking into the discs and see their reflections. It is much safer than buying a mirror which would have cost more anyway. These discs will not break when children hit them and are very hardy against throws.

It is quite surprising what these round little things can be used for and it helps to reduce landfills too.

Ideas inspired by Make Stuff, "Recycling Those Old CD's"

Cutting and Chopping Onions

Onions are not the best vegetables to chop up and I avoid them at all cost, until recently when I discovered that they don't make me cry anymore!

If I had the time, I'll peel off the layer of skin and leave it in the fridge overnight.

Otherwise, if I forgot about it, I'll still do the same with the skin, chop it up into quarters and rinse it in cold water for a few seconds.

No more problems with my onions anymore!

Try it and let me know if it worked for you!

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.

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.

Blocked nose and VICKS

It's almost winter and the weather has turned cold. For some reason, everytime there's a change in temperature or season, children tend to have runny nose. Mine has and so did all my day care children.

Sometimes, they get blocked nose, especially when they sleep and that doesn't help them to fall asleep or have a good rest.

Found this really great way of unblocking their noses with VICKS! Or, whatever brand of vapour rub that does similar things.

Well, before you condemn me for rubbing it on them, please wait. I'm not too fond of having these rubs under my nose nor on any part of my body and so I have no intention of putting others, especially little ones, to such ordeal.

With Vicks, I heat up a jar of water (250ml), stir in 1 tablespoon of Vicks and leave it in the room. We have a lot of those empty sauce jars and I just took one for this purpose. Depending on the size of the room, I adjust the water and amount of Vicks.

The vapour helps to clear the blocked nose and the children get some peaceful rest.

If you've tried this before, let me know how it went!

Soothing Insect Bites Without Medication

Yesterday when I brought my day care children out to play, a garden ant (those huge black looking ones) crawled up Phoebe's little toe and bit her. I've had one of those bites before, and boy, they sting. The first time I was stung, I couldn't walk for 2 hours.

The poor little one simply sat and cried. It hurt her to walk, so she had to be carried. Remembering advice from friends and family about insect bites, I quickly brought her into the house and applied the home remedies.

First, I soaked her foot in white vinegar. That really caused the swelling to subside considerably. Don't think soaking was necessary, but with a squirming baby who wouldn't let me touch it, pretending to have "water play" was my best strategy.

Then, I sat her down for morning tea (even though it wasn't time yet), strapped her into her high chair and rubbed banana skin on her toe while she eats the banana. Again, I was told that leaving it on is good enough, but with her kicking her legs every other second, I figured it is best to rub it on. Amazingly, that seem to stop her from crying. Perhaps the itch and pain is more bearable.

Check out this video from About.com for Natural Itch Remedies.

Fun foods for children

Do you have picky eaters? Children who would only eat certain colours of food or vegetables only or meat only or must-have-milk...

I'm fortunate to have a little one who eats all the food that we place on her tray as long as she can chew them.

Have found a few websites that have very interesting food that will appeal to children. Easy to make, appealing and fun to eat. Well, could be a little too nice to eat. =)

1. Familyfun.com
This site has just about everything from main meals to desserts to snacks and finger foods.

2. Milkdeliveries
Have children who can't have enough of dairy or don't want to have anything to do with dairy? Try these.. Main meals, desserts, shakes, smoothies and more.

3. Pork 4 Kids
Well, the name of the site said it all. Pork recipes for children. They're categorized by age group, so starting from 6 yrs old to 15 yrs old.

4. Kidspot
An Australian social networking site for parents, it has foods for all occasions and ages.

What To Expect After Giving Birth

You've packed your bag ready for baby's birth, bought enough diapers to fill up a guest room, learnt how to change a diaper, probably even started expressing milk to get your supply going.

But what about you, the mum, after birth? What about you, the dad?

With all the attention given to the newborn, it can be very overwhelming for the new parents. I felt the same. I wanted to give the baby away, even though I loved it at the same time.

I'd like to make a few suggestions :

MUM -
1. Have lots of sanitary pads handy. You'll need them after giving birth because of the bleeding. It'll take a few weeks to clear up.
2. As much as breastfeeding is recommended, don't stress about it. The more tired and cranky you are, the less likely you're able to provide. A bottle or two of formula a day won't hurt bub.
3. Take time to go out with your partner. Having a new person who doesn't talk is difficult. It can affect your time with your partner. Going out together helps to keep the relationship going. And while you're out, talk about yourselves. Not the bub.
4. Have some time out with friends. Invite them over or go out and have a cuppa. You'll need it to keep yourself sane. That's right - caring for a new baby can eat up a lot of you (physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally). Taking time to keep up with friends give you something else to think about.

DAD -
1. Be patient with your partner. It's not an easy time for both of you, but the women have to cope with hormonal changes, settling bub, breastfeeding and they don't need additional pressure.
2. Keep an objective view on things. It helps the mum to see things in a different perspective. Mothers get so caught up with doing things well for bub that they sometimes don't see things the way they should.
3. Bring your partner out on a date. Arrange for a trustworthy babysitter. Let her relax and just have a chance to talk to you.
4. Have a paper and pen handy at all times. If you think a pregnant woman has a short memory, a new mum who is breastfeeding and lacks sleep is no better. Help her to remember things by writing them down.

Do you have other suggestions for new parents?

Hard Boiled Eggs

I've boiled eggs countless times. I've been disappointed and annoyed by them just as many times.

The traditional way of boiling eggs was to put the eggs in cool water, then bring to a boil Depending on the hardness of the egg, you boil for certain amount of time. Some egg lovers have also poured boiling water over raw eggs, cover up and wait about 7 minutes for a half-boiled, very soft egg.

This method is very costly in many ways:
1. Water wasted.
2. Time wasted.
3. Energy wasted.

I was sent an email some weeks back and since then, I cooked my boiled eggs differently.

Try this and you'll love the simplicity and efficiency!
1. Place a paper towel in your rice cooker.
2. Depending on the hardness and number of eggs, either sprinkle water or put in 5tablespoons of water.
3. Turn on the rice cooker to cook.
4. Once the rice cooker indicates it's keeping warm, you can remove the eggs and enjoy!

There's a bit of trial and error here with the number of eggs and how cooked you want it to be.

Try it, test it and you'll come to see what I mean.

Not going back to the water boiling method anymore.

Tips for the day - Plastic Bags and Pizza Cutter

Plastic bags : other than being useful for garbage, they're a ceasaerian mum's best friend apart from the painkillers. Lay them on chairs, car seats, anywhere that you'll be sitting, and you'll find that it's easier swivel yourself out of the position. The cut for birth will take time to heal and these plastic bags are real handy for those tough-to-get-out-of spots.

Pizza Cutter : What other things can they be used for other than cutting up your pizza? Omelettes, of course! When you want them in strips. It's faster than running a knife through them.