The Imam of our house, is finally home. Alhamdulillah.
Bonding
I’ll try to be independent as much as possible when Hubby is not in town, in terms of going to places. I foresee that Hubby will be travelling very often, and I do not want to be stuck at home, going nowhere, just because he’s not here to drive me around. I need to be fair to my children. It’s not that I’m against the idea of staying home, but IF they stay home, their companion will be either the TV, PC, Ipad and handphones. So they need to go out.
Like today, all of us went out, even though not together. My KSS sisters and brothers came for a visit, to bring Afrina and Affandy to a Selawat Session at Ustaz Shafi’s house at JB. Afiqah and I had to stay behind as Afiqah could not afford to be absent from her tuition.
At the same time, my KSS sisters actually wanted to take a look at my new kitchen. Haha! They even took picture with R E D…. 
They were all dressed up in black for the Selawat session. If it’s not because of Afiqah’s tuition, I would dress like them and join them.
But nevertheless, I had fun with Afiqah today. After her tuition, we watched the movie “Mirror Mirror”.
She said she loves it when only the two of us go out. No interruptions. I get what you mean, girl. I feel you, too. But I still miss my two other muchkins. Err….three actually, including Hubby.
Abah is out of town, sisters are in school for the whole day. So only left with Ummi and son. Out we go for a quality and bonding time. We hold hands all the way. We have lunch and a little of shopping. We talk, joke and giggle. We have an awesome time together.
Today is a very tiring yet very satisfying day.
We did not go out today as I was expecting some guests to come over. I was in the mood to do some cooking and was in the kitchen for solid 3 hours. I was very satisfied with the end results of the food that I prepared : Spaghetti Meatballs, Really Spicy Tomyam Fried Rice, Curry Chicken with French Loaf and lastly, Roti Boyan with Sambal Tumis Ikan Bilis. Buah Duku was on the menu too. I prepared everything with my bare hands, except for the Roti Boyan which I ordered from a friend and I just need to fry them.
Guests started to arrived from 2 pm till my last guests left after Maghrib. By then, my right arm started to ache due to strenuous movement, I guess. I rested while watching TV with my family, then I started cleaning up the mess. Truly dead beat at the moment.
Nevertheless, the satisfaction is there. Seeing my guests and my family enjoying, savouring my cooking is priceless….
IPad Gathering....
Some of my relatives
...and this is a must - ROMOS!!
Every Raya, we will go visiting to Hubby’s side of relatives with my in-laws. This somehow strengthen our ties, not just between me and my in-laws, but also with Hubby’s relatives.
My in-laws came to my house first before we proceed to other houses. Since we only get to meet Hubby’s uncles and aunties once a year or so, we stayed quite late in each houses. So end-up we could not complete all houses for visiting.
After visiting six houses, we called it a day. InsyaAllah, we tend to continue our visiting tomorrow.
I really miss my Ramadhan routine. Today marked the second day of Syawal, but I feel that I am still in the month of Ramadhan as I’m fasting today. I do not have to cook any dishes as there’s lots of Raya leftover dishes in the fridge. Just need to cook rice, and that’s it.
Not much activities in the afternoon as the kids are in school and Hubby is at work. So today is just like any ordinary day. Except that the Raya mood is lingering. I think only for this period of time, my whole house is in its cleanest state. Love it! Let see for how long it will last….
Today I received my first Raya guests. I belong to the third generation of my grandparents’ family. Normally my relatives will visit my place after one or two week of Raya as we will go to our aunts and uncles’ houses first. But today, my sister and one of my aunt came to my abode. I’m so happy!!
And of all days, today my left eye catch an infection. It’s red, swollen, watery and pain. Ouch!!
My one and only sibling is another year older today. I personally dated her out so that we could have special bonding moment together. Just the two of us…..
Happy birthday, Kakak!!
It was a last minute decision to join my two very closed cousins for lunch. One of them suggested that we met at T3 Changi for lunch but I was not sure if I could make it as I need to send Affandy to school. But somehow I decided to join them. Right after I sent Affandy to school, I hailed a taxi and headed to T3. From Woodlands to Changi Airport, taxi fare $19.40. Because of you cousins, I sanggup you…. 
But it’s so worth it as one of them gave us a lunch treat. A BIG lunch treat. Soup of the day, set meal, free-flowing of salads and ice cream!
I wrote this before but I’m gonna to write this again. I HEART my two cousins!! No, it’s not because of the free lunch. We are very close since we were very young. Daily lives and marriage lives do not keep us apart. These two persons know me inside out. We can talk about anything and everything. We can criticize and kutuk one another all that we care. We may have differences in opinions but we are always honest about our feelings and thoughts. We may have hard feelings towards one another but it always won’t last long. We will be normal and crazy the next moment.
The three of us have a project in mind for the moment. We even plan to recce together. I am so excited about this. Girls outing again.
It’s a Saturday and we had no specific plan for today. We drove all the way to Ang Mo Kio for our lunch at Popeye’s, window shopping and ate ice-cream at Bishan Junction 8, and lastly since the weather was great, we went for a evening stroll at the beach. Simply bonding and quality time.
Today was one of the days where we went out and go to places from one end to another end. Tiring but I felt some kind of accomplishment and satisfying. The beauty of having a husband who drives and what I need to do was to tell him where’s the destination and I duduk diam-diam kat kreta…
First stop was a wedding invitation by one of our Hajj friends at Jurong West. We met with lots of our other fellow Hajj friends there. We went out from our house at 12 pm exactly and the weather was scorching hot. Even if its rain or snow, I still want to fulfill every invitation that I received. So the hot weather will not stop me from going out. And I had these to cool down the heat….
Some delicacies and cold Cheng Teng.....
Since we were already at Jurong area, Hubby suggested to go to the cemetery to visit some of our relatives’ graves. I think it’s a good idea since our kids are with us, might as well bring them to see their grandparents’ graves. With two big umbrellas to shelter us from the heat, we walked from one lot to the other. We only managed to visit my mom’s, dad’s, aunt’s who recently passed away and my brother-in-law’s graves. Hubby asked the kids to give salam to all the occupants of the cemetery, saying that each of them can answer our salam but we cannot hear them. Afiqah and Affandy asked lots of questions pertaining to the graves – why are there plants and flowers on the graves, why there’s different colours of graves, why we must recite Al-Fateha to them etc. We also showed them the cemetery where children are buried. An innocent question was raised by Affandy : “Budak-budak pun boleh meninggal?” Yes, Affandy. Allah can take the lives of any of HIS servants when it’s time…..
My Mom's....
My dad's....
From the cemetery, we drove all the way to Jalan Bilal to perform our Zuhur prayer at Masjid Al-Taqua. All of us, except Hubby, dozed off in the car with the air-condition on to the full blast. The beauty of having a husband/father who drives, yes?
Next destination – Metro Sale at Expo!! Some retail therapy is good for the body, I believe. Anyway, not much damaged were done, just birthday gifts and some basic stuffs, mainly for Hubby. I managed to grab a grey pants for myself, love the colour, love the material and love the price – $19.90 only. Usual price was $42.90. So worth it, right? Like a close friend once said, “It’s a sin not to buy.” LOL!!
After our shopping spree, we went to visit my aunt and uncle again at my cousin’s place at Sengkang.We don’t need reasons to visit them. We just want to spend time with them, especially my beloved uncle. My kids also had fun playing with my cousin’s two-years-old daughter, Nisa. I just feel that as we grow older and wiser, we tend to appreciate our precious knitted relationship more. Moreover, I have lost some of my loved ones. Hopefully, my children and my generations will value the loves for one another and continue and make effort to know and love their relatives.
