I'm a full-time mummy

For this post, I am sharing my drink recipe, my mum in law make this for me occasionally when I was in my confinement phase (well, we DIY our confinement and don't follow the practises so this is the only herbal thingy I took) Apparently, this concoction helps to increase breastmilk production on top of nourishing our body after giving birth.

Do note that the version that my MIL made is very easy to follow that I am now following every other day - especially now that I have my jug of Tupperware thermos! Anyway here goes my post on Black Bean & Red Dates Drink:

Ingredients:

Methods:
* Rinse a handful of black beans and some red dates in a container for a few minutes.
* Cut the red dates, remove the seeds (I remembered my MIL telling me the seeds must be removed as it is toxic)

* Drain the black beans, placed into thermos together with red dates.
* Add boiling water until the maximum level you can for the thermos.
* Cover up the thermos and leave it overnight.
* Your black bean & red dates drink is ready to drink by the time morning comes! Yummm!!

Outcome:

Do note that I'm trying out this recipe using the Tupperware thermos, which can yield just a cup of the drink. If you want more, you can actually slow cook or boil the ingredients in a pot for few hours. In the meantime, do read up the links below for the benefits of black beans and red dates.

Resources:

• Health benefits of black beans
• Red Dates: The Healthiest Fruit on Earth
  

To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!

I have previously shown some YouTube videos on butterfly life cycle and after our 2013 year end family trip to Penang which we visited the butterfly farm, our almost 5 years old seems to be more and more interested in caterpillars and butterflies.

On 14th January 2014, we found this caterpillar earlier in the morning and I told Benjamin that we will leave it where it is and continue to monitor it until it becomes a butterfly. Noon came and we saw the caterpillar on a leaf lying on the porch floor, torn away from the plant. Grandma wanted to get rid of it.

As much as I'm feeling the chills seeing creepy crawlies like this, the sight of Ben's sad face that his caterpillar is homeless and possibly facing death soon made me decided to give it a home, I have no idea how to keep it (alive that is) and haphazardly found a small container, plucked some leaves from the same plant where we found the caterpillar and chucked everything inside, covering the container with a mesh cloth for air circulation. I also took a picture and posted it on my Facebook page asking what else I need to take note of in caring for the caterpillar. Some fans shared some website links on raising a caterpillar and soon, we gained more information and when daddy got home, he took charge and adviced us what else to take note of - No caterpillar in our bedroom ESPECIALLY when the air-conditioning unit is on.

Btw, Ben named the caterpillar Ernie and says it is his pet. It's about half an inch long only when we found it on our lime pot plant. By day 3, it grew to about an inch long, much plumper and greener. I just shivers everytime I see it.

Now aside from the ewwwwww effect Ernie gave me EVERYTIME I looked at it, as a parent, I do think raising a caterpillar as a pet is good because:

* Our boy has been bugging us to get him a puppy and we think he is too young still to take care of a puppy, so a caterpillar is an easy starter (I hope!)

* Our kiddos can see with their own eyes, the life cycle of a butterfly and the transformation of its life phase.

* Teach our kiddo how to take care of another life being, to be responsible, maintain cleanliness and hygiene. Every morning before I send him to his preK, I would cut a fresh batch of leaves (still attached to the twigs) and ensure that our boy cleans up Ernie's tank (daddy normally helps and supervises the cleaning process)

* Teach our kiddo on basic necessities to survive - water, air, space, food, etc.

* Teach our kiddo to be patient, to wait for each transformation and not be in a hurry to see the final results, to slowly cherish each moment and to know the fact that it takes time for something to grow, change, etc.

So there you go! Thanks for reading my post! Wish us luck in raising a caterpillar!

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

We had our final family holiday for 2013 in Penang and managed to squeeze in an outing to the Penang Butterfly Farm before we head back home.

Before I begin, I just want to note down that prior to this visit, the other butterfly farm I've been to is the one in Kuala Lumpur long long long long time ago, when I was a pre-teen and I totally can't recall much of that visit anyway... Anyway, this post is to document down our thoughts and feedback on our visit to the Penang Butterfly Farm...
 

We reached the Penang Butterfly Farm around 2pm. Not enough parking lots available but thank God we managed to get a very nice parking. The queue to buy the tickets was fast.

Once we got into the Penang Butterfly Farm, we saw butterflies EVERYWHERE. Up, down, left, right, on you, over you, EVERYWHERE. Oh boy... the paranoid side of me started freaking out a wee bit.. I'm not like allergic to butterflies or anything but the sudden thought of their legs and wings touching my skin just gives me a sudden chill. But gotta brave on and show happy excited face to our kiddos!

Armed with a stroller (our 3 months old Carolyn was in it) and hubby carrying our 2 years old Alyson and our 4.5 years old Benjamin walking next to us, we strolled in further.

You can push your stroller on the pathways around the butterfly farm though some areas would require some sort of ninja skills to maneuver the stroller around.

There are loads of butterflies all around though I started noticing the same species (colors) after a few minutes. Meaning, not much varieties though the quantity is a lot. We also get to see the butterflies eggs, larvaes, etc.

I'm happy our kiddos get to see all these and hopefully they learned something from this trip. Other than butterflies, we also get to see other reptiles (lizards, snakes, etc) and we also checked out the nature guided tour inside the farm (it's a spacious air-conditioned hall where you can watch videos, see the many exhibits and then exit out of the farm)

To sum up our review on Penang Butterfly Farm:

PLUS POINTS:

• Reasonable entrance fees

• A lot of butterflies in the farm

  

• Other insects can be seen: dragonflies, milipedes, scorpions
  

• Opportunity to see monkey cup up-close
  

BAD POINTS:

• Limited parking lots

• Not enough benches for people to sit and rest
  

• Walkways are stroller friendly though some paths require skills to maneuver
  

Overall, a very nice place to visit, even though the farm is small, everything inside makes you feel it is worth paying the money to check out the site. The experience of walking inside a place where butterflies flutter around you and even landed on you is priceless!

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.