Kids Project: I took it for granted...(and a bit of house update)

Sebelum tu.

House Project Update.

 

Aku dapati, ramai yang datang sini disebabkan "house projects".. hehe... Aku fahamlah camner hal rumah ni adalah satu hal yang sangat mengujakan. You just want to be right the first time and to have to have more information before you proceed with the project, kan?

 

If you ask me, I did a couple of mistakes along the way also. Satu lampu putus (the highest ceiling) manampakkan kerja si David electrician yang pakai bantai asal siap.

 

Inilah sorang cina yang aku rasa kerja tak berapa semenggah. Tapi disebabkan dia telah di recommend oleh electrician developer, aku rasa aku dah buat yang terbaik untuk memilih contractor. Cuma maybe I am unlucky. 

 

So my advise, dun go for cheap quotation, rather assess his past works. In my case, I have limited time so I trusted the recommendations by the electrician developer.

 

Jiran aku tengah giat renovate rumah. Tapi disebabkan urgency tak sama macam i, dah dekat 2 bulan jugaklah project dia. I nampak lampu dan kipas dah pasang. They are nice and frendly, cuma aku worry, anak2 aku bising dan mengganggu derang... hopefully mereka tak kisah.

 

Jiran lagi satu dan jiran belakang macam tak ada bibit2 atau tak pulak menonjolkan diri... Cuma rumah bungalow tu developer siap pasang air-condition da. wow. best ya.

 

My kitchen.

 

So far so good. Cuma malasnya nak bersihkan. Pacifica hood pulak buat pasal now. patah seribu. so rapuh.

 

I regret a bit on my decision to use granite top. The quality not so good maybe for mine. Asyik kena lap jer...

 

Or maybe memang normal gitu, aku jer wish for miracle.

 

 

Phase 2 update.

 

No aggressive plan for phase 2 project to continue. The good news is maybe we might be getting extra cash , dengarnya bonus will be in at the end of the month, so maybe I could continue a bit of the plan with that cash. Selebihnya kalau ada pun I need to put in project : Umrah DIY.

 

 

Backyard update.

 

I am still clueless how best to put up with the backyard. I want a nice backyard but i just need a time to plan it.

 

I need to do more research and design it properly.

 

 

Erm. panjangnya selingan.

 

 

What I want to update is actually on kids development.

 

 

Yesterday night we were having a quick revision on the subject for today's exam.

 

 

And I was shocked to know that DD has little malay vocab!

 

 

Ibu, what is curam?

 

and cerun?

 

pengetam tu apa plak?

 

kelat?

 

apa tu alah bisa tegal biasa?

 

 

apa tu jeruk? mak ai! jeruk pun tak tau???? oh lupa masa aku kat kampung, kan ker activiti orang kampung buat jeruk mempelam.

 

 

I answered "jeruk tu asam masin... atau buah yang kita peram lama dengan cuka n garam dan gula"

 

"asam masin tu apa?"

 

 

hehehehehee... just coz your child is from malay speaking environment doesn't mean they will automatically inherit your language.

 

 

I came to conclusion.  Educating and nurturing is a never ending tasks. So embrace it dutifully.

 

 

Kids Project: How to teach your kid mandarin when you are NOT a mandarin literate...

We have hired 2 mandarin tutors previously.

The 1st one is quite good but our schedule was quite pack and with her, we can only do it at night time. So that makes it so susah as DS usually penat and demotivated to do the exercise, or even to learn.


The 2nd one is good also. But DS's result in chinese is worst than before he has the tutor. So I decided that maybe she is lack of something. She might not focus on the right way to tutoring the kid.


For eg, focus on topics, do more practice on soalan tubi and identify his weaknesses (in DS's case is the writing) and focus on strengthening it.


So I decided that we should not continue with her and I think I should do this as I know DS better. Not in terms of "teaching him how to contruct sentences in chinese" but on how to study effectively and how to answer those questions correctly and diligently. Nevertheless, I still think he needs a mandarin tutor to enhance his skill and knowledge.



But for now, I practice with him and even though we made mistakes along the way at least I can see that he picked up faster and he has "initiative" now on "trying". So I am successful in a waylah. Dulu, cuba pun tak mau. Tak ada confidence langsung. And he always thinks he will fail. Dahsyatkan? How I have neglected my kids' progress in education huhu....


Another way that I tried is to let him practice with the exercise book and for any questions that he doesn't know to check the answer and learnt from it. Some mothers took away the answers, but I teach them to read the answer, but ONLY on questions that they are not sure. As you know from my experience as a student, if we tried to answer wrongly, our mind could not remember the correct answers. So to me, I need to ONLY know the right answers.

But depending on circumstances, there are exercises that I need them to try first before they could look into the answers. Hmm.. am I contradicting? No. It is called, MOTHER'S INSTINCT :P.


So, let's wait till they get the results before we assume that my methods works. It works for DS on his last exam kat sekolah lama. But NOT tremendously. So let's see.

Kids Project : Exam Week

It is not a project on its own. But it is within "my personal project" and my personal goal for the kids to be able to excel in their educations. My focus is for the kids and their education for this year.

I invested almost RM500 just for books alone. (remember that we put investment on BESTA dictionary for RM1.6k earlier).

So weekend in between servicing car, and other chores I instructed them to do some exercise.

Secretly I am proud of them as they are able to do it "independently" now just occasionally they need me to explain about a chapter ie. Science "what is food chain or they put it "rangkaian makanan"...


(God knows I was so blur also) rupanya it is about consumer and producer, primary consumer and secondary consumer.


ie. rumput ialah producer and primary consumer is deer. Since a lion eats deer, that makes lion the secondary consumer. Hehe....


DS has never got his confidence that he could acquire no. 1 position in class. But sejak pindah sekolah, his level of confidence just increased. He confidently said he could do this. Dulu, kalau tanya dia, dia akan tunjuk muka tak confidence dan muka down. So I am grateful that he is now "knows what he is doing"...


DS juga bercerita that he got "hadiah" from teacher the other day because he is the only one who got all correct in science. Wow! I was so impressed with this change. Alhamdulillah.


DD to me is not a problem dari dulu. She could do this only that she needs me to guide her and teach her the "easy way" to study. She also needs me to teach her "quick way" to understand a questions...


Otherwise, she can do it on her own.


So it has been about 2 months since we move and we have little complaint about "the move". So far everything is good. The kids tak ada problem except for DD yang occasionally kena buli dengan budak lelaki. We have complained to the teacher.


The teacher said if her exam goes well this week, maybe she will be transferred to a better class (now dia kena masuk kelas yang last sebab budak baru).. The teacher has also given good feedback on her performance so oklah. Apparently according to DD and DS (which joint her during sekolah agama) , budak2 lelaki tu suka dia... maybe budak kecik, bila suka budak pempuan dia kena kacau to get attention? hehe funny pun ada geram pun ada.


Siapa yang nak tau perkembangan Bau busuk - occasionally saja ada. Masa raya cina hari tu, our sis in law stayed with us and no bau at all. AT ALL TIMES. percaya tak?

Lately ada plak. So alhamdulillah our guests are comfortable during their stay.

Weak sign

Yesterday I was sobbing dari tengahari, petang, bawak ke malam, dan bawak ke tidur..


Pukul 2am baru tidur.


I was angry.


and frustrated.


so bila 830am punya meeting dengan my boss or let call him now the "higher authority", I was provoking him on his decision. sambil mata tu merah dan kejap2 i keluar kesat air mata.


air mata geram.


tak nak surut plak air mata tu.


haha! giler bodoh la kan, ko nak nangis depan ceo ekekekeke! it shows your weaknesses!


I think ceo maybe terkejut dengan reaction aku. haha ambekkk ko ingat aku tak lemah???


hahaha!


Mata merah tapi garang haha. soklan2 aku macam ni,

"why do you NOT have the confidence enough to push this back to xx dpt. they are also direct report to you?"

bila dia kata board of directors are pleased with our changes in "whatever that I undertake", i rebutted him with "yes but that sentiment is not shared with people on the floor" yelah sebab semalam hr share ngan aku yang it is not effective "breathing down the neck" of the head of dept and sadly still "not much changes". hampeh kan ? so aku naik angin dari semalam, ha amekkk aku provoke terus ceo.. just to be synical about it.


at least now 2 others manager understand and get the message directly from the "higher authority".


lantak.


the closing remarks aku ialah..bila dia kata "bear in mind kalau u buat "kerja lain" you will still facing the hod and it is equally tuff... " and i said "just because i cried infront of you does not mean I cd not do the job" hahahahahahahaha!


kan? aku tak senyum pun! aku tak marah pada dia. but I am just making a BIG statement supaya kedua manager lain tu dengar dan boleh la ko nak gossip2 liar kat bawah tu.

Project Kids and Cooking

Aku baru jer berjanji nak jadik ibu yang mithali..

 

In a way Allah bagi aku dekat sebulan medical leave was a good way to do the improvement. I am so much happier, the kids was also more.... well managed.

 

Tapi, once I get back to work. Janji2 tu semua, menjadi janji2 palsu.

 

I am so into the job. So sometimes, nak balik pukul 5pm jadik 6pm, jadik 8pm... So plan cooking guna air tangan dengan doa2 semua tu pun dah masuk dalam bakul sampah balik...apatah lagi nak read to them bagai....

 

Aku pun tak pahamlah....kemana perginya my determination. Why am i still putting priority to my work.

 

Masa drive semalam I was just thinking. dalam pada aku bersedih kehilangan the key personnel dalam company tu, aku tak ada mood, aku demotivated, aku still on the go jugak. Tak adanya nak slow down...

 

Why?

 

Macam it's an auto reflect gitu.

 

I am not sure whether I can train myself to slow down and shift my gear on work and start to focus on other priority other than work.

 

Or maybe conciously I am waiting for the oscar and right after that I will shift my gear and adjust accordingly?

 

I am still figuring this out.

The Oscar part 2

The problem with "outspoken" or "speak my mind" person, they say their piece there and then.

Most of the timelah.

I am not sure if "the oscar" is still bothering me.

It was surely the hormone at that particular time.

When I get back to work, I am back on the game.

I heard that a lot of incidents of "whatever I heard during my medical leaves" are not true anyway...

This particular person called me during my sick leave telling me of his concerns over the new org chart.

and ding ding ding! It means whatever his plan was and whoever the ally recommended him to, it just doesn't come out as plan. By calling me, it shows of his vulnerability. So there you go! Allah helps me with my doubts.

So after that, I just go, go and go.

What is there to worry, Allah is here, as long as you are doing the right thing with the right intention.

 

One day, all of sudden, the "higher authority" was telling me he has concerned over this person's project. Ok so the true color of this person has slowwwwly been shown by the person himself. We were so contemplating on telling things about him to the right people. I personally wouldn't want to be known as gossiper or "backstabbing b*tch". Not nice.

There are reasons behind my worry. Integrity.

With few incidents of him, we, (macam gaius dalam merlin la , ala2 advisor hehe) felt that there might be some issues on integrity with this person.

A person with integrity issues, are not the best candidates to be in the management team. It will harm the management later.

Sometimes, some people can really put up a fake front to make the others believe that you are good, can be relied on and so on... that is the problem during interview sessions. Once this type of person knows that he has the power or he has made power connection with the right people, there goes. The true color shown.

 

So sad right? Why do you put so much effort to do that? Isn't it better if you channel it to be continuously on your toes and help the organization and staff grow?

Hmm... heavy stuff to wonder.

The oscar

Hehe....

If you think that I am going to write about the academy award 2013, my apology, I won't. However, what I am going to write here is inspired by it.

I was listening to the morning radio show today and they are talking/reviewing about the oscar winners.

And I was thinking...... "I am worrying about getting "the oscar" too".

Years of working or months of working in a project.

Personal time being sacrificed.

Family being affected by your lack of time.

Your emotion being affected and so on.


All are similar.


I will get assessed too. And I need the oscar. The recognizition, the award and the acknowledgement.

Most of all, I need the increment. It is a material thing that would benefit my family.

It is the ability to further improve our living quality. At least, they are being rewarded indirectly for their sacrifices "on the lack of me" around.

During my sick leaves, with the unstable hormone, something happenned in the office that worries me (at that time). I am not sure why I worried. it is Allah who will give me everything that I want. But I was still worried.

Sampaikan I could not rest well. Dahsyat sungguh.

ok sambung...