Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Motherhood | Reprieve

Nos. 1, 2 and 3 are now effectively away at college. Who's left are Nos. 4 & 5 under my wings.

Now with no adult help I have no choice but to make the household management more regimented.

Wake up at 5.20am, get on the schoolbus at 6.10 (for No. 4). Wake up No. 5 and get her ready & send her to daycare at 8.30am. When they return from school, dinner should be ready. After dinner we have short review session (of the daily activities) and sleep by 9.30am.

Wednesdays and Fridays are our washing nights & by the next morning, the clothes are out to dry.

Saturdays are clean up days/ Spring cleaning and for the girls especially: shoe washing.

Not exactly rocket science but routines help with my sanity.

As for me, as there is no more babysitter at home, no more late dinners or night outings. Which I do not mind not going to. Due to age I tend to want to sleep and wake up earlier. Staying up late messes up my schedule & I wake up like a zombie in the morning.

AND thank goodness for moments of quiet. Thinking moments. Moments when I can do some reading and chill. By myself. A moment to recharge.

Once we marry we will make some little tiny adjustments.

May we ALL be granted abundance and positivity and sufficient drive to embrace this experience 💗

Sunday, January 13, 2019

Things Left Unsaid

One wise colleague once told me: Choose Your Battles.

I can no longer remember what I had wanted to battle for. Something related to work. But his words I will always remember.

As we progress in life & in age, remember our priorities. And spend the energy where it makes most impact, because our time is very limited & is running out as we speak.

Leftover Day

Sometimes when we have a lot of leftover food in the fridge, we will allocate one specific day to clear everything (meaning: heat up & eat them).

On that day, we may have a little bit of everything: soup, noodles, vege, gravy or grill. Some repurposing may take place too. Bolognese gravy will be matched with bread instead of pasta OR we  do a simple grilled cheese bolognese sandwich OR cut the grilled/ fried chicken for fried rice OR mixed with mayonnaise for a chicken sandwich. Sambal may be reheated, paired with boiled eggs.

We get to choose our meal. Nothing goes to waste UNLESS it is something that nobody can fathom.

Then that unfathomable dish gets composted. It contributes back to the Earth in its own way.




Saturday, January 12, 2019

Membership Comes With Privileges

Backstory/ Context:

Our School Alumni Group have been in existence for 25 years.
Last year a website was created to gather everyone in a single portal.
To date we have more than 11,000 members. Not a lot yet, but enough.
The portal has listing of members, events list & business directory.
Costs 300k to build but the cost was borne by the developer (since he is an alumni & it is his way of giving back/ paying it forward).

It is a working functioning, searchable, usable, attractive portal.

Issue(s):

We have an "Entrepreneurship & Economy Bureau" that handles the business network.
They sent out a google form to collect data of all business to create a network.
Data requested is personal (IC number) apart from the business details.
[First Devil's Advocate Question: Why share personal details like this, when everyone can register on a secure site?]

When queried, the Communications Bureau (on behalf of the Economics Bureau) responded "not everybody wants to be a member." [Second Devil's Advocate Question: So why are we chasing after people who do not want to be associated with the rest of us?]

The makeshift google form (no offence to Google though, because I personally LOVE the google form) will still be launched to attract businesses to form an external network, THEN they'll be channeled to the membership portal. [Third Devil's Advocate Question: Why not lead them to the portal straightaway instead of putting them through TWO processes (one of which was unnecessary)?]

My Ramblings:

My "Save the World" instinct has to be turned off this time as I have many other pressing things to attend to. If only I get paid for these problem-solving stuff. 🤔