I'm a full-time mummy

Last year, I wrote about a look back into my home-cooked journey so far. Then shortly before the end of 2014, I wrote a post on my preparation when cooking. Then I thought, "Why not snap a picture of before start cooking and the final results after cooking?"

So, here you go..

Top part of the picture is the ingredients all ready to be cooked on 13th January 2015. From top left (clockwise): An Asian seabass (or we called it siakap here in Malaysia) cut in half with chopped red onions, sliced garlics (about 5-6 cloves), minced pork marinated with sugar, sweet soy sauce and cornstarch, preserved radishes (soaked and washed few times) and 3 eggs beaten.

My dinner dishes for that day? Click on the dish name to check out my recipe.

• Stir-fry Minced Pork with Garlic
  

• Stir-fry Eggs with Preserved Radishes

• Pan Fried Siakap (Asian Seabass)

In case you are interested to view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!

** 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.

Ever since I started kindergarten at 6 years old, I have been attending public schools (main language is Bahasa Malaysia) and during my earlier years, I mixed around with a lot of Malay friends and even spoke Bahasa with my elder brother at home (he also attends public schools), even to this day. So Bahasa Malaysia used to be my main language other than Cantonese and later on English (brushed up more when I met my hubby then boyfriend through snail mails, I had to practise and brush up my English as he doesn't speak Cantonese) Anyway, I think it is fun to be able to practise back and sharing what I know with those of you who are interested.

And so, here goes our next lesson: WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

For those of you who are more often on Facebook, you can also find the tutorials on my Facebook fan page. I have created a "Let's Learn Bahasa & Cantonese!" album to store the phrases. Enjoy learning!

 ** 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.

I have been cutting down on doing product reviews ever since our 3rd kiddo came along in end of Sept 2013. I do still accept review pitches but only when time permits and if it is something that I can see it being useful and beneficial to our family. Also, as busy as I am with 3 kiddos, home cooking, taking care of hubby's administration site of the business and swamped up with managing my FB page and blog, I just can't say no to reviewing good books! Reading is my passion and coupled with books that are of parenting or religion or educational genre, all the more I gotta say yes!

Title: Have a Happy Family by Friday
Author: Dr. Kevin Leman
Publisher: Revell (September 2, 2014)
ISBN: 978-0800719135
Paperback: 304 pages 

Description from the product page:
"Every member of a family plays a vital role in the health and happiness of the household. Everyone is important, deserves to be treated with love and respect, and needs to know that when they make mistakes they will still be loved unconditionally. And when every member of the family is pulling for each other and on the same team, everybody wins. But is this kind of family life even possible?

Parenting expert Dr. Kevin Leman says it is, and he's ready to show moms and dads exactly how they can make it happen in their family--in just five days. He shows families how to
· communicate honestly and kindly
· prioritize the right things
· maintain great attitudes and behaviors
· determine the role they play in the family structure
· make family time count

As always, Dr. Leman's outstanding advice is laced with humor, great stories, and the wisdom that comes only from a lifetime of experience. For parents who've had it up to here with bickering, hurt feelings, and emotional exhaustion, Have a Happy Family by Friday is just what the doctor ordered."

Firstly, I am very glad to be able to review this book as I fell in love with the writing style of this author. I ended up buying 4 more books from this author! Okay, back to the review of this book.. when I saw this page in the book, I immediately snapped a picture of it and posted one of the statements on my Facebook page, the one where it says 'Everybody wants a piece of you, and there's nothing left to give'. Wow! I often find myself thinking these exact same thoughts!

This book comes with a few categories:

• Introduction
• Monday - Choose Your Words, Change Your Family
• Tuesday - The Big 5: Time, Priorities, Activities, Work and Finances
• Wednesday - Navigating the Perfect Storm
• Thursday - Why Dad Can't Be Mom and Mom Can't Be Dad
• Friday - Mission: Possible
• Ask Dr. Leman - Some Q&As from parents
  
• Bonus Feature from The Secrets of Birth Order

The picture below was taken from the "Wednesday" chapter (page 88). I even shared this on my Facebook page and it received a number of likes and shares. I am guilty of some of the things listed here, especially speaking on behalf. Oh boy, countless times I just can't wait to answer questions directed to our kiddos. Sometimes I was worried that they might answer wrongly or answered with silly responses but after reading this book, I am going to try my best to withhold the urge to answer for our kiddos.

In the "Thursday" chapter, it talks about marriage, factors to a great marriage, critical needs of women and men, top stressors for women, what our children needs from mum and dad and what are the benefits and differences noted when mum and dad is present in their life.

Another chapter worth to read from this book is the "Bonus Feature" which has some brief info from "The Secrets of Birth Order" book from the same author. In this chapter, it highlights how the birth order of each child reveals their characteristics and personalities uniqueness and how we as parents can use that to our advantages. I find myself nodding and agreeing to almost everything listed in this chapter, so much so that I even bought the complete book which I plan to read next.

In summary, it is a very inspiring book with good parenting points to take note and applied to in a family. Highly recommended!!

The book is available at all major bookstores in Malaysia.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a copy of the book in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"