2021 reflections

1. roadtrips and staycations
2. experiencing school with Noel
3. dates with hubby.
4. meet ups with friends. the few i have here…. but we only need a few, dont we?
5. journaling. back to paper and pen. (which explains my absence from blogsphere…)
6. Noel turns 4. and what an amazing age this is!
7. bento making which gives me some strange satisfaction.
8. sewing creations.  re-learning how to use the sewing machine. and actually selling some!
9. everyday moments with the family – be it out at the park or beach, or creating & learning at home.

Happy Mothers’ Day

being a mother is a crazy journey, an almost impossible role to be in … but its incredibly rewarding and extremely heartening watching a child grow and being central to his development.

thank you for making me a mother.

I’m lacking in so many ways, but thank you for loving me anyway.

SAKURA Japan 2021

our 4th year in Japan.

our 4th spring.

our 4th sakura viewing.

it may be our last year here, so we took tons of photos…

but like the transient nature of sakuras, our beautiful stay here will end eventually, and other seasons will come.

Road tripping (Noto)

Thanks to Covid, we were advised to remain within prefecture during this school hols, so we decided to explore the northern part of Ishikawa, which we haven’t done so before. Northern Ishikawa is made up of mostly coastal cities, small and rural, without any big malls or establishments… in fact, trying to find hotels was also quite difficult as many rooms were made unavailable probably due to covid with hotels closing off rooms or certain floors to reduce manpower, especially since not many people would head to coastal towns during winter.

Nonetheless, we managed to find available accommodation and had a blast of a time, especially since in most places, it seemed like we were the only people there! We had lots of good food, spent lots of time at the beach, explored coastal formations, and the son totally loved his hotel stays – getting excited by the simple things like bedroom slippers, shoe horns, free water!

We stayed a night each at Nanao, Suzu, Wajima and Shika and I’m glad we did because it gave us lots of time to take things slow and enjoy each place.

sunny winter days

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We spent the weekend outdoors because the weather was great! Picking pinecones, riding his bike, kicking a ball in the park.

Lovely memories are made of these!

new ride

someone’s got a new ride! purchased from Toys R Us…. after weeks of searching for a suitable one!

ride free little one!

sunny winter day

Today is a sunny winter day and we finally had our first picnic in the park. N was so excited and nagged us all the way there, even as we made 2 stops at the combinis to pick up food for our picnic.

It was good to be out and about in this glorious weather of 12 degrees.

Today is also my mother’s birthday. And my prayer for her is that she will live an authentic life, and that God will be her source of strength, joy, peace and comfort.

a keepsake journal

I’ve decided to start a keepsake journal (or a memory journal) for my son. I should have started it properly when I was pregnant, but instead, I have random pieces of memories stored away in scrapbooks (1 for all the ultrasound pictures!), in social media (poems I’ve written for him on facebook), daily instagram pictures with captions..etc. And tens of thousands of photos in my phone and computer! I have no idea how he is going to look through them in the future, coz i basically take photos of him EVERYDAY! 😀

So, the idea of keepsake journal is born. In it, I’d write him letters, stick photos, write down my thoughts about certain situation/events/actions, etc. I hope it will be meaningful for him when he sees it as an adult – his mother’s heartbeat.

CPF and etc

Yesterday while watching kdrama, i felt inclined to check my CPF, thinking if i should do a top up since we used most to pay for our house.

one thing led to another and discovering about acrued interest left me sleepless at 3am.

😳

putting it up here to acknowledge how unadult i feel.

more snow

the kid loves playing in the snow. the hubby is getting lots of exercise. and i’m just enjoying huddled at home, unless totally absolutely necessary. We realise that the key to winter dressing is not the more the better. It’s really the quality that matters. A gd jacket(over a simple long sleeve tee, or for extra warmth, a heattech or shirt) and gd thermal waterproof pants is really all that is need at temperature around zero degrees. Oftentimes, the kid comes home after playing snow all hot and sweaty. He has stinky beanie head, and stinky gloved hands.

Enjoying all the white beauty before spring comes, and all the bugs start appearing! yikes.