The Last Of The Good Days

I’m desperately trying to get better quick from the flu I picked up last week so that my blood test tomorrow gets an A+ from my onco, resulting in me getting the go-ahead to proceed with chemo. (What a mouthful of a sentence!)


That means lots of rest, lots of water, and lots of YLEO oiling all day yesterday and today. Overall, the rest has been good but I must admit, I feel like I’m just “wasting” away my “good days” by staying at home and lying in bed doing nothing fun and/or productive. 😕


Also, I’ve been getting subtle waves of emotional lows on and off throughout the day at the thought of this being my last good day in at least a week from tomorrow. Like, already?!? Has 3 weeks gone by ALREADY??? No way!! Where did all the good days go?? And then I remember:

 Oh yeah, I squandered them away

by getting the flu. Bah! 😒

Making A House A Home

The Husband and I have been living in KL for about 5.5 years now. (I moved back down to be with him a few months after we got married.) In these 5.5 years, I've moved a total of 4 times. Yes, FOUR. FREAKING. TIMES. 😅 Crazy, right?


The first move was from Penang down to Mont Kiara in KL. 4 months later, we moved to Subang cos ugh, don't get me started on the MK jam. We lived in Subang for about 2 years then moved to our current condo. A year later, we moved down the hall to another unit in the same block of the same condo. LOL. #gila


Anyway, I've kinda unintentionally resisted setting up home in these houses cos... well, we've somewhat always talked about moving back to Penang someday. So, at the back of my mind, I thought – why put in any effort or throw in any money into a place we won't stay very long at? Doesn't make sense, right? At least that was what I thought at the time.

But now, I'm beginning to think differently. 

Mainly cos my dream of moving into our own home back in Penang is very quickly becoming a reality that is always just beyond my reach. 🙁 That one dream that still eludes me and escapes my grasp each and every time. 😔 It always seems like we're making plans to head back this year. But "this year" always turns into "next year" and then "not now" and "see how". 😢 Still, it's a dream that I hope never becomes "never". 🙏

So yes, it looks like we're here to stay for now.

It's a little of a "yay" and a little of a "nay" for me, to be honest. I've always loved being in KL because my church, my friends and my work are all here. But there's just something about having your own home, decorated with your own stuff, in your own style, with everything placed, set and done your way, that's just so deeply fulfilling and satisfying for a woman. Plus, the feeling of permanence that comes with living in your own home just makes a big difference.


Thing is, although the store room in our Penang house is filled with boxes upon boxes of MYSALE steals, Daiso buys, random decorative stuff and other kitchen knick-knacks from everywhere possible by now 📦📦📦 – household hoarding is my secret joy and financial Achilles heel 😅 – I've not unpacked any of it. Why? Cos I've always wanted to unpack it all in my own space. Very idealistic, I know. So I've waited. And waited. And waited. ⏱

Until now. Cos... screw it lah!

I'm tired of waiting to be happy. 😤

Some of my latest buys are still in KL so I've decided to just unpack and use them NOW rather than later. It's time to make this house our home. #determined

Side table and geometric tea light holder

from MYSALE. Potted plant from SSF.

Kids organising bins from MYSALE.

I really love how easy and convenient preparing the kids for school is now that I've started using these bins. JZ's stuff are on the left half and JJ's stuff are on the right half. This includes school bags, library books, uniforms, PE attires, socks, underwear and diapers – everything in one place without me having to run in and out of the bedroom for anything before rushing them off to school. A winning buy that's totally worth the money! #score

Serving tray, wooden brain teasers and wooden tissue box

from MYSALE. Table from IKEA.

Some brain teasers in the middle of the hall to entertain the guests we're looking forward to having over now that we've integrated ourselves into our cell at SIBKL. (We ended up hosting hangout night with some cellmates 2 weeks ago.) God has really been good to us. He brought us to the perfect cell with all right dynamics, the same maturity, and the perfect psychographics for us to thrive and feel comfortable in. Yay! 

Anyhoo, I digress. 

Back to the subject at hand.

Tray table from MYSALE.

 Glass vases from MYSALE. Photo frames from IKEA.

Lavender potted plant from SSF.

This is a difficult wall to address cos it's right next to my bedroom door. Put anything too big there and it blocks the entryway. Anything too small, and it seems odd and out of place. I can't decide if I want this setup here permanently cos it's a little low but, it'll do for now. I think the pictures help breathe a little more life into this little corner of the house, though. I'm kinda glad I decided to remove them from our bedroom bookshelf and put them out here. 

Table and colourful kiddie bookshelf from MYSALE.

Table lamp from IKEA. Diffuser from Young Living.

Put these in one corner of our bedroom. (That wall was left empty before and the diffuser was diffusing from the floor.) They help make the room feel more organised, personalised and lived-in. I plan to get a 2-seater sofa and/or a work table to effectively use up the rest of the space in front of our bed. Hopefully I find something nice and cheap! Haha. SSF, maybe?

Aiya, there's more ID and sprucing up to be done once I get my stuff from Penang back to KL la. I can't wait to get to it! 🤗 But bringing all back down is going to take a whole lotta trips up and down the North-South. Not an easy feat considering we always travel back to Penang with the kids and a helper so there's hardly any empty space in the car to begin with.

Also, filling in the little gaps around the house will require spending more money at SSF, MYSALE, IKEA and Daiso. 💸💸💸 (These seem to be the only places I shop at, eh?) You'd be surprised how much the miscellaneous things can cost! So, Imma really have to pace myself on that one lest I go broke trying. 😁

Oh well, at least I'll be a happy woman

eating white bread and plain porridge

in my very pretty home. 😝

LOLOLOL! 

Recycling Bottles... Again

Came home after sending JZ to school and quickly got to doing my monthly ritual of cleaning my used #YLEO bottles. Too many already! Makes all my counter tops so messy and cluttered. Beh tahan. So... clean, clean, clean! Wash, wash, wash! Scrub, scrub, scrub! It's always better to recycle than to toss! ♻️

p/s: Lemon EO removes grime and glue like a charm. 😉 One drop and everything just melts away. Try it! 

The Gift Of Sight

...from myself to myself. LOL.

Yours truly in bug-eyed eye covers – compulsory bedtime routine

for the next 1 month 😂 – just 6 hours after having undergone

Customised IntraLase Lasik at Vista, The Curve

under the care of Dr Aloysius Low.

Thank God for His provision and blessing. If not for my monthly Young Living cheques, I would never have been able to afford the luxury of waking up to clear sight. Tomorrow, that is. 😅

A Foreigner In Familiar Territory

Back when I was blogging a lot, I blogged whenever I could, and wrote about whatever I wanted to. Effortlessly. But after not having blogged for... I dunno,... 1 year? Maybe more? It feels so... foreign to start up again. Foreign but familiar all at the same time.

I find myself feeling that way a lot these days.

JJ is now at JZ's old pre-SCHOOL. I used to feel so comfortable there with my other mommy friends. Just chilling, laughing, and catching up after drop-off and pick-up. That was our place. Our hangout spot. Our zone. Now? It's cold and unfamiliar. All the more so because I don't have time to linger. I don't even go in anymore during drop-off because I have to zoom off to pick JZ from his "big-boy school". Doesn't help that we're also told that school is now a no-parent zone during school hours. So... yeah. It's familiar, but it's not the place I remember it to be anymore. 

But people change and FRIENDSHIPS evolve, too, I guess. My mommy friends and I are still good friends. In fact, I'd say they're my core group of friends at this juncture in life. But having our kids in different schools all over town, that start and end at different times, have made it difficult for us to meet up as regularly as we did before. Now, catch-ups are always rushed. We all arrive and leave at different times. And it's difficult keeping up with what's happening with everybody's life and kids and holidays and helper problems. LOL. WhatsApp chat groups can only do so much to help keep the friendships alive; it's time together that helps them thrive. 

Then there's CHURCH. It feels good to finally find a place that we feel comfortable in once again. It's also great cos The Husband is now on fai-yahhh and is keen on serving. But oh... how long it's been since we've served in church. I don't know about him but I don't even know where to start! Worship team? No way they're gonna let a newbie up on stage immediately. Dance ministry? I can't tell for sure yet but it doesn't seem like they have one at the church we're at. Sunday school? Sure, I've served there before at CHCKL but... I'm not so sure it's for me. #zeropatience I can't wait to step back into things but I don't know where I should place my steps anymore. 

And PENANG. Oh, Penang. I've started to look forward to the fact that we're going to go back to Penang. But I also wonder how things will be when we eventually do up and leave KL. I've not lived in Penang since The Husband and I got married. And from what I can remember of the 1 year and a handful of months that I lived there before our marriage... I didn't at all feel at home then. I missed my friends, I missed the work that I did in MCKL, and I missed my freedom. I was in the place I grew up in, but I didn't feel like I settled in very well at all then. What if I end up not feeling completely at home this time around, too? 

Going back to Penang also sounds like a great opportunity for me to start exploring DANCE again for fun and for exercise. I've got the contacts and the people to dance with all settled already. Seems like I can just go back and jump right in. But gosh, I don't think I even groove to the same music them kids groove to these days anymore. "Can't Stop The Feeling" from Trolls is about as groovy as this mom gets these days. And them sexy, rolling-on-the-floor, body-roll stuff... I don't think I can do that anymore.

Above the fun and play and dance and doodles, there's the worry of how BUSINESS is going to fare for me once I head back to Penang. YLEO has been a good source of income for me and it's been going swell thus far but with the impending move, a lot is going to change. Processes remain the same but I won't be able to pick up orders for friends and family, and a whole bunch of us will have to resort to shipping our monthly orders up to Penang. The increase of cost is not going to be good for business; and neither is their recent announcement of price increase come April 2017. Sigh. 

I guess the problem is this:

I have too many unanswered questions

because of the state my life is in now – in limbo.

What if my kids can't get into our school of choice in Penang by the time we need to move? Where will they go then? Are the international schools in Penang better than KL or at least as good? Should we go with American or British syllabus? Will they have a spot midway through a term? 

What are my friendships gonna be like once I move back to Penang? Will we be able to last the distance? Or will we just draw apart, move on and forget that we ever were? Will I be able to find another good set of friends back there? 

Why did it take us so long to settle into a good church and find a cell? Why do we have to leave so soon after we've found one? Is 6 months long enough for us to root ourselves in SIB? What will uprooting be like when we have to leave? Will we be able to find a good church in Penang to root ourselves there? 

Why does Penang feel foreign to me? When will I feel like Penang is home once again? Why does renovating a home cost so much? Should we do more cos we plan to live there? Or should we do less cos we'll eventually move again? Will we move again? 

Can I still dance? Can my 32-year-old body still move the way it did?? Do I still have the moves??? What if I can't bend that way no more?? What if I can't even keep up with the class cos of my #mombrain and lack of stamina?? 

Will I still be able to be financially independent when I'm back in Penang? Will my YLEO business survive the move? Will my downlines continue to make their monthly purchases without my help to bring their stuff back for them? Will the price increase cause them to stop buying YLEO altogether??

Everything is so overwhelming!!!

ARRRGGHHHHHHHH!!

But then again, I guess the human mind and body

can be about as resilient as a cockroach when it needs to be.

Persistence. Patience. And lots of Prayer.

*deep breath*

I choose to believe that that's all it takes. 

Well, I didn't think I could write long, grandmother, emo posts like I could before. But I guess that blogger hasn't died; she was just hiding somewhere deep inside me. Just like my inner pre-school mom, social butterfly, servant of God, Penangite, dancer and businesswoman. Just gotta lure them out. I'm gonna lure them out. Just watch me do it. 

"Mozzie Off' Takes Flight!

OMG, I did it. I finally did it! =D

Ladies and gentlemen, my personal blend of mosquito repellents, made only with 100% pure Young Living Essential Oils is now on sale on Facebook! This is the full excerpt of the post I wrote:

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Mozzie Off Mosquito Repellent, made with Young Living Essential Oils
RM50
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Hi Mommies!

I started using this blend of Young Living Essential Oils for mosquito repellents to use on my kids about a year ago. I trust the #YLEO promise of purity and decided to use only the best and most natural for my kids, especially since this is something we apply directly on their skin, numerous times a week, and sometimes, even numerous times a day!  

So far, it's worked like a charm on my family and we can really see the difference whenever we use it and when we don't. The plus point? It smells amaaaazingggg and my son never fails to remind me to give him a spritz before school even if I forget! Even my friends' kids prefer the smell of this blend to other family favourites like Badger Balm and Buds Baby!  

Recently, with the rise of Zika, a friend of mine who saw my mosquito repellent recipe wanted the convenience of a pre-mix so I decided to start selling these Mozzie Repellants about a month back, but only as a courtesy to friends I personally knew. Somehow, business grew through word of mouth and I started wondering if I could start selling this mosquito repellent on a larger scale. =p  

Anyway, to cut the long story short... with the support and encouragement of my husband, family and friends, I've decided to just go for it! My personal blend of #YoungLiving #essentialoil mosquito repellent, called "MOZZIE OFF", is now on sale! More details below!  

WHAT IS THIS? A homemade, spray-on mosquito repellent using only 100% pure Young Living Essential Oils. 

WHAT YOUNG LIVING ESSENTIAL OILS DOES IT CONTAIN?
Citronella, Lemongrass, Purification (and exclusive YL blend), Lavender and Peppermint.  

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
RM50 for 50ml in an amber spray bottle.  

HOW QUICKLY CAN I GET IT?
I can Poslaju (add RM7 for WM / RM10 for EM) within 24 hours, Mondays to Thursdays after payment is received.  

HOW DO I GET ME SOME OF THIS AMAZING MOSQUITO REPELLENT??
Reply to this post and I'll PM you! =)

Thank you in advance for your support!

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Now, to sit back and wait to see
if business jalan ke tak jalan.
And wait. And wait. And wait...

*twiddles thumbs impatiently*