Category Archives: Journal

Blog. Diary. Rants.

Week 8 of ISO

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Currently playing : Hwasa – Orbit

Yay to the weekend! How time flies! It’s been two months since we started working from home and in ISO. Usually after Sahur, I will complete my Fajr prayers and Quran reading. On weekdays, I felt a little rushed. On the weekends however, I can take my time and as long as I can hold my Wudhu to read the Quran. And…..

Thereafter I have my weekend KDrama; The King: Eternal Monarch to watch, a date with my LMH on weekend mornings. Looking extra forward to every weekend now. If you haven’t catch it and hate cliffhangers, probably wait till the whole series is completed on Netflix.

Been feeling under the weather since Tuesday. Can you tell?

It’s been a super tiring week to be honest. Since last week, I was a little under the weather and lost my mojo can you tell? I just want to stay in bed all day. If I can homeschool Ayden on my bed I would! And call it “Alphabets Bed Session’! It happens I’m sure. My creative juices are not flowing, my usual “go-go-go” self is absent. I was bleargh.

Grateful that hubs managed to do some of the Learning Adventures with Ayden.

I picked myself up this week. Been reading the Quran on a daily basis even at least 5 verses (A goal I set for myself!). I’m still reading Surah Al Baqarah and it’s day 4. Still on it. Slowly but surely. I’m not good with resolutions. I told myself I am going to complete these books, this Ramadan. Hopefully, I can InsyaAllah. But my ultimate goal is to read as much of the Quran this Ramadan. May Allah makes it easier for me. Amin.

PS: Thank you Arina for the Quran translation and that scent for Mecca 🕋 it’s super calming. Love it!

Another cook out weekend in this household! We’re grilling Nandos Chicken tonight and cook up a storm of East Coast Favourites tomorrow!

xoxo

Planting Seeds

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They say spending your day under the sun improves your mental health and immunity; I can’t agree more. It’s just amazing. With bare feet on the grass and just feel reconnected… revived… recharged.

Last summer we had a major hail storm, it was the most terrifying. It was so loud from inside the house, it feels like the windows were going to be smashed. There were big and hard balls of ice shooting down continuously for a good 10-15minutes. Our cars and the patio roof were damaged too.

Since then, Ayden has this fear of wind, when the leaves of the trees rustle, he will ask, if it’s going to be a strong or tiny one (in his words); or if there’s any wind at all. He will run and hide behind someone. And if he’s playing outside and there’s a big gust of wind, he will run into the house. We are slowly trying to help him overcome this fear. InsyaAllah

Since it was a sunny day on Monday, we decided to shift his “classroom” outside. It was nice and warm. We get to do a little grounding, jump on the trampoline and focus on the letter E. Ayden loves doing Mazes and Dots so much, I had to buy a book of them. He already gone through half the book!

As a family, we have been praying Maghrib together on a daily basis. When Ramadan, started it was my goal to include Ayden into our congregational prayers. As a four year old, there are no expectations. I lay his mat beside mine and he follows as and when he wills. And he does (partly!) but MasyaAllah a good try on his part. We do this for Ishaq too before we start our Terawih. He will have his “solat pants” and songkok on and his mat ready. When I hear him shouting out loud Amin after Ali finished his Al Fatiha and Allahuakhbar at each prostration, I am already ecstatic and grateful. I always mention this after our prayers how proud I am of him and so is Allah.

I often think, I don’t want Ayden to feel like he is forced to pray. I want to instill love in him to make him want to pray. I am sure we have been in households or in one ourselves where we were nagged constantly to pray by our parents that it became a chore, there’s no questions ask and to just do because we must. And I don’t want it for Ayden. I want him to love it, to love Allah without being forced to.

This is an article which I find amazing and have such great and helpful advice about planting the seeds of prayer in our young ones. May we find what’s good and what works for each of us.

https://seekersguidance.org/articles/prophetic-guidance/parenting-planting-the-seeds-of-prayer-in-our-young-ones-by-hina-mukhtar/

xoxo

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Ramadan Hiatus

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I am taking a break from Instagram and Facebook this Ramadan. So I can focus, or more like forcing myself to; read more, see more, learn more and enjoy more of my surroundings. I hope you continue to be part of and enjoy my daily ramblings on my blog. I want to document as much as I can in this pandemic in writing to look back years on. For Ayden too!

As I finished taking my wudhu for Subuh this morning, my little Spider-Man prop up from his bed asking if I’m going to Solat. I nodded and he said “I want to solat too!” My heart is just so full, and there he stands next to me imitating my moves (Well, Almost!). My heart just exploded! MasyaAllah. As we entered our 3rd day of Ramadan, I am beyond grateful and blessed to be home with my little family.

Our morning and hearts was about to get so much fuller, with this superhumans surprising us at our doorstep with treats. MasyaAllah! Thank you Azrina, Moey and Zakh for the Kurma and Ondeh-Ondeh rolls that we couldn’t wait to eat! Really appreciate the Card/Drawing too! May Allah bless your family with abundance of Barakah, rezeki and Joy this Ramadan. Of course, May He accept all your prayers and deeds as well! Amin 🤲🏼

MasyaAllah such generosity!
Amazing ♥️

It was indeed an eventful busy day! We decided last night that we are going to make Wonton Noodle Soup for Dinner. So we went out to Westfield to get all the ingredients, pick up my purchases from Big W (eeks! Super excited!) and since we were there got my GongCha fixed too! Yay! The whole family was so involved with the cooking and preps. It was amazing! Making wonton from scratch, I definitely would do it again! If you in need of Chinese cooking recipes – Maggie is your go to! Definitely need to bookmark https://omnivorescookbook.com

Amidst the preps, cooking, prayers and getting everything ready, by the time we eat, I didn’t managed to capture the end result. It was all gone by the time I remembered! It was quite satisfying making and eating your own wontons.

Cantonese Wonton Noodle Soup

While watching Masterchef with the family, we had Kunefeh that Muni made earlier in the day for dessert! Omg it was the bomb! Freaking delicious! This time I managed to capture it!

Kunefeh

I must say, Terawih prayers tonight was a tad slower than usual with all those delicious food! Well back to being a full time employee, mum, wife, teacher, cleaner…

As I take a hiatus from social media, my online shop is still active and so is my business Instagram account. We are still doing deliveries. So if you need any gifting needs, please email us at create@anathyst.net, DM us on Instagram or go onto our website at http://www.anathyst.net

Stay Safe xoxo

Ayden’s Learning Adventures

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So this is the 5th week of ISO. On the third week of ISO, I vow for a change! I named it Ayden’s Learning Adventure! Just the sound of an adventure, pumped him up!

Day 1 was a disaster! I got to laugh it out looking back on that day. I was going through 7 Alphabets with him in an hour! Much to some of my teacher friends dismay, they said, “Ermmmm we do an alphabet or two a week! And you do 7 in an hour! This is not Singapore LOL” I realised I was never meant to be a teacher that day! My patience went from 100 to 0 in less than 15mins!

Ambitious Lion Mum

With the help of fellow mums, we got some resources for Ayden in Numeracy and Alphabets. I don’t think I ever memorised as much Letterland Songs as I ever did now. The past three weeks we just focused on 3 Alphabets, 2 numbers and heaps of colours and shapes. (also the fact that my workload has been crazy!) Can you tell which is his favourite.

After three weeks, he knows that for an hour or two at 12pm every day except for weekends we’ll do something academic and he looks forward to them. Thank God!

Also we did end up doing an IKEA run (Mummy needs some IKEA therapy too) because Ayden needs his own desk; we grabbed some paint, markers and drawing paper while we are at it and try to make the environment more conducive for him.

Thankful for E Learning that his Kinder organised daily at 1:30pm so I can catch up on my emails too!
Sometimes, KMART creative sets makes life’s easier when I have back to back meetings! $5 each!

We try to do one theme at a time be it alphabets or numbers and we will chat or reference to that particular theme the whole day. Thank you to my teacher friends for all your advice! Ayden doesn’t seem to be overwhelmed. And also not forgetting my amazing mummy friends who constantly forward us worksheets and links, thank you for all the love! We appreciate it!

I’m slow to this, we stumbled upon a Play-Doh app that allows them to have their creations as the main star or their obstacle game. So Cool! pprettyamazing! Play-Doh touch.

Since Autumn is here, we use the brown leaves to make up the Alphabets. It’s beautiful when you try to incorporate the environment around you with your activities.

I find some of my friends pitched their tents for Easter, that’s totally awesome! And got their kids doing heaps of fun stuff with crafts and dance. We just got to do what we have to do and with all the resources we have.

The downside of this is sometimes I find myself wide awake at night trying to find materials and resources for the our next learning session. #mumlife

Here’s to many learning adventures indoor and outdoor!

xoxo