14 years anniversary

21st November was our 14 years anniversary.

This year I prepared a 3 course meal for Love. So, that Saturday, after we were done with our dishes and laundry, we left the girls at parents' and had our little date.

I cooked Love's favourite appetizer onion soup, steak for main dish and blueberry cheese tart for dessert.

We had a wonderful lunch and back massage at Reborn afterwards :)

14 years and counting, Alhamdulillah.

Onion soup recipe (From Masterchef's website)

1 tablespoon olive oil
50g butter
2kg brown onions, peeled and thinly sliced (chill to minimise vapours)
200ml dry good quality cider (I used Heinz Apple Cider)
1L homemade beef stock (Obviously I used beef stock I found at supermarket, Knorr)
2 fresh bay leaves, 2 thyme sprigs, 2 sprigs rosemary (I just used McCormick's mixed herbs)
8x1cm-thick slices of sourdough ficelle (Iggy's bread) or small baguette, lightly toasted
250g coarsely grated gruyere
100g finely grated parmesan

1. Heat oil and butter in a large saucepan over a medium low heat. Add onions, cover and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove lid and cook for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions are soft and caramelised.

2. Add stock, the bay leaf, thyme and rosemary and season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, reduce heat to a simmer, simmer soup uncovered for 10-20 minutes or until slightly thickened.

3. Ladle soup into ½ cup capacity oven-proof bowls set on an oven tray. Sprinkle a little gruyere and parmesan onto the top of each bowl of soup. Top each with two slices of toasted ficelle then sprinkle with remaining cheeses. Place under a hot grill for 3-5 minutes of until cheese is melted and light golden.

Aisha's flashcards progress

By now, Aisha is 15 months old.

Similar to Khaira during her age, she is at a stage where she is learning hijaiyah flashcards. 

Although this time around I've learned that we should start earlier, I found it less easy to commit with the two girls. Love arrived from work around 9pm everyday, I arrived around 6.30 pm. So I was rushing like mad everynight to find time to teach Khaira and Aisha before Aisha fell asleep. But after she turned 1 and has a fixed sleep time, I became more discipline.

Back

Front

For Aisha, I tried a different set of flashcard which suits her personality more. The flashcards are from Little Qari.

These flashcards are equipped with images at the back to assist you on what to act to that particular letter so it would be easier for your children to memorize. 

Example; dzho for zikir.

She's still progressing so far. Able to pronounce a few letters, Alhamdulillah. I hope to be more istiqamah after this. 5 minutes a day in shaa Allah.

Khaira turns 4

Last month, on the 17th October, Khaira turned 4.

We planned to have tea at Hello Kitty Gourmet Cafe, Sunway Pyramid, but needed to queue for 90 mins as per estimated by the hostess, so plan B --> Allowed her to pick anything she wanted from Toys R Us. She chose some Robocar Poli's stuff; we received RM30 off if we purchase above RM 150 since it was her birthday. Rezeki Khaira. Alhamdulillah.

We celebrated her birthday at her kindy where I bought her a Barbie cake from Shaery's Cake. Cost only RM 70 and always happy with the outcome :)

Goodies were chosen by her where we bought some stationary for her classmates. Pencils, rulers, erasers, etc.

Her class teacher sent me the pictures, they were precious..

Khaira looks so happy in all the pics. That was her happy smile. I did not get this kinda smile back when she was in her previous kindy.

Everytime I look at these pictures, I feel so thankful, so humble, so blissful.. I must have been blessed.

Thank you, Allah!



P/S: Happy birthday, Cinta Hati. I hope you have the chance to read this one day. We have been through a lot; a lot of ups, unfortunately the opposite as well. You are something new to me. Everything you do, is always new to me. It is only natural for me to take time on how to react. Bear with me, because I will never give up on you. Sending my love and prayer to you, wherever you are in the future. *hugs*

The guest of the Almighty

When my bimbo girlfriend (she's super genius by the way, we love calling her bimbo because.. well she acted like one.. happy, chirpy, loud girl, hehe.. and you know we love you for that, S!) went back from Umrah a couple of years ago and I met her, she said..

"When I first saw Kaabah, I cried and I don't know why.."

You know how when someone said it so sincerely, you could just feel it and kind of went "Awww..." and get all teary like that.. this was one of those moments.

And this came from, like I mentioned earlier.. happy, chirpy non-emotional bimbo friend of mine.

From that day onwards, I knew I just had to.

And things went smoothly afterwards in terms of financially for me. I made super easy money by involving in stocks. Alhamdulillah. We thought of leaving the girls to both my parents while we were gone, and it is only fair if I let my parents go first. They have never been there before.

Parents supposed to go this year, and both Love and I were supposed to go next year (Could not take too much leave in a year), but Dad had a hectic year at work this year. So, they had to postpone to next year.

Sedih? Of course because that only meant we could go the following year. I was so so down and of course mad at the same time.

During this year's Matta fair, Love had to visit his booth. Love is a head in Avis now, so Avis had a booth there, we came to visit. There was an Umrah fair as well, I decided to drop by.

Upon discussing with the Ustazah, suddenly Allah SWT opens my husband's heart to bring the girls. In short, it means we can go next year with both of my parents.

The rest is history and in shaa Allah we will be leaving on the 13th January. Mashaa Allah I'm beyond excited. At first I was nervous to bring the girls, but I know that if Allah brings me to it, He will surely brings me through it.

Doakan ye kawan2. I really need your doa so that everything is smooth sailing for me. I have been wanting this for years, really wanting this, I could cry thinking of it. Doakan ok :) In shaa Allah.

At the moment I'm reading the Syamail Muhammadiyah, a recollection of the Prophet's Hadis, which I totally recommend by the way, I rate this 5/5. The more I read, the more I feel that I want to go to Raudhah and meet Rasulullah, rindu yang I've never felt before. So your doa means a lotttttt to me, I really really want to go there!!!!

**Pics from Google

THREE ZERO, may I have a concealer please?

So.. I turned 30 on 12th October, just last month.

Yup, 3 series yo.

Both Love and I took a leave on Monday as usual and we were all over the place.

1) Woke up very early and went to KWSP. We decided to withdraw our Account 2 KWSP to pay for monthly installment of our home. Basically what you need are just the letter from the bank where you have your loan with and your sijil nikah if your loan is under both names. And you can opt for one of these two ways;
     a) to pay lump sum to your loan account (But you still need to pay monthly)
     b) to pay monthly to your own bank account
We opt for option b and in less than two weeks, they banked in to both our accounts the monthly installment and this will continue for the next 60 months as per instructed.

We put aside the money and aim for major renovation for Homer, in shaa Allah.

2) From Jalan Reko, we went to Ampang to have my Medela looked at.

3) Then to the tailor to pick up my altered jubahs. (Currently obsessed with Jubahsouq)

4) To IOI City Mall for a movie (The Martians, fun but mengarut) and Magnum Cafe.

My sweetheart

Both Love and I would so much prefer the usual Magnum than this one, hehe.

Arrived home super tired but happy to spend time with my girls.

Love bought me a new mini lappy since I'm always on the go with work nowadays. So. Worth. It. Tq Love!

How was it being 3 series?

Well.. I'm more comfortable with my body, healthier Alhamdulillah. I know what product suits me best and what not. Same goes to style. I know which friends to stay, which friends come and go. I know what pissed me off and what I could tolerate. So I'm happier day by day.

But, there is always a catch.. my eye bags annoy me every single time.

I seriously need a concealer guys. (T_T)

My Medela Story

When I was heavily pregnant with Aisha, I bought a new breast pump. I have mentioned previously that I was not happy with my Spectra 3. Reasons were:

1. Big and heavy, not portable for me as I always have meetings and conferences outside my uni.
2. Need power supply.
3. Not hands free
4. Most importantly, the suction is not able to clear off my milk. At the end, when I marmet, I still manage to get around 4oz.

I am so so happy with my Medela Freestyle despite the cost; seriously I could fly to Europe with that money ;p. It manages to solve all of the above problems except number 3. I don't know how to make it hands free. So technology savvy, right? Sigh... But, I managed to solve the problem using hands free bustierre I bought from My Little Iman Store.

The best investment after my Freestyle

I love everything about my Medela Freestyle. It first stimulates the milk production and then after 2 minutes it changes to normal suction. It doesn't hurt. I have one whole freezer of milk stocks for Aisha which I cashed in during Ramadhan, bit by bit.

But after Aisha turned 1, I started to realize that my milk decreased at every pumping session. Until at a point where I needed to use my stocks even after Ramadhan. At one point, I was running out of stock and pumped to get only 2oz per session. Then, I realized that I still feel heavy. I tried to marmet and true enough, within 20 mins, I managed to get 4oz of milk.

Then, I realized, my pump sounded funny. No more warranty after a year. Bertahanlah I marmet for a week.

Was googling like crazy to find a Medela service centre, I don't really fancy their after sale services. Found one next to De Palma, Ampang. But only open during working hour. Both Love and I took a day off and sent my poor Freestyle. Before explaining what was wrong with my pump, the salesperson said, "Just looking at your pump, I think you have an accessory problem".

I kind of doubt her considering my pump had lots of funny noises. So, she calibrated my pump. Motor is perfectly fine, just a bit noisy and true enough! My accessory!!! There was only 10% suction happening ok. *Salute salesperson Medela*

I could buy a new cheaper pump for a pair of these!

After RM280 damages done, my milk production is normal again, stocking up for the baby again. 10 more months to go, may Allah swt ease up everything for me. Ameen.

Contact details for Medela Service Centre Ampang:


MEDELA SERVICE CENTRE AMPANG
Lot B2-G, Jalan Selaman 1
Dataran Palma Off Jalan Ampang
68000 Ampang Selangor
Tel : 03-4270 1128
Email : cs.ampang@lacta-equip.com

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell: A review

"How did you finish your PhD part time in three years?"

I received that questions A LOT

From almost everybody who knows about it.

And my answer is always the same..

"Alhamdulillah, I have a great support system."

And that's when the interrogations happen. I guess there's no magic in my answer, hence the probing.

Then, I read Outliers and somehow I can relate to it very very strongly.

It has been a while since I last read Gladwell's intelligence. For me personally, among the four books I read: Blink, The Tipping Point and What the Dog Saw (click each book for my review), Outliers is the masterpiece!

In Outliers, the best and the most successful people are picked and studied to see what made them.. simply the outliers.. the outstanding ones.

Great soccer players mostly are born in January, because the intake for good soccer club is in December. Hence, those born in January have more time to practice compared to those, say in November.

Bill Gates is worth million dollars now because he used to have 24 hours access to computers, when computers back then were so expensive and only few people have the opportunity of using them.

Most lawyers are Jewish because their immigrant parents worked in garments industry. How does it relate? Go read Outliers, please! And why us, Asians are good with maths?

You see, of course it takes hard work and determination to achieve something. But we have too often focus on what successful people are like and too little attention to where they are coming from. Because, it matters.

Honestly, I have learned a lot from this book. In a sense of parenting as well.

I learned that it matters to send your children to good schools, because good schools produce good education system and good environment and support system.

It matters to train them in whatever skills we want them to excel daily although as short as 5 minutes a day.

It matters for them to have a good support system in order to make them the outliers.

In shaa Allah. Ameen.