9 years passed

It was one fine summer day. The sky was all blue, the sun was bright and proud, but it wasn't very hot as the wind was generous with his cooler breeze. Yes, I remember it well. We were walking along the beach as we held each other's hands. The alluring water was blue and clear, enticed us to touch it with our feet. I gracefully dance in rhythm with the music of the water as the waves kissed the sand. There was an old nipa hut, (it is a little wooden shed with a roof made of coconut leaves). We sat there for a quick rest before heading home. He, (my man), knelt on one knee and asked me to be his eternal wife. A few months after that, we married. We've been blissfully married for 9 years and we are blessed with 3 boys.

We celebrated our special day with a simple dinner in the backyard. And we had a little candle-lit dessert to make our night memorable- not just for us, but also for the kids. The night ends beautifully with our belly filled, and our  hearts full of gratitude.

Witlof and anchovies with chili salad

Cacao mini-meringue with mascarpone.

You'll need;
5 egg whites
1 1/2 caster sugar
2 tbs cacao powder
1 tsp cornflour
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla

for the sauce
6 tbs butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
4 tbs of mascarpone

For toppings
mascarpone
raspberries
2 tbs icing sugar for dusting

Turn the oven to 150C for fan-forced. Line the baking tray with baking paper. Add egg whites and a pinch of salt into the bowl, and mix them using electric mixer, until soft peaks form. Gradually add caster sugar, continuously whisk it until thick and glossy. Add cacao powder, vinegar, cornflour and vanilla until well combined. Into the lined tray, drop 3 spoonfuls of the mixture and use the back of the spoon to create texture. Change the oven's temperature to 120C . Bake for 45 minutes. Check twice just to make sure you don't burn it. Take out to cool, or you can leave it in the oven to cool completely.

For the sauce:
Place your pan on a low heat. Place butter, sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add the mascarpone and simmer for 2 minutes until golden. Set aside to cool completely.

To serve:
Top each meringue with mascarpone and berries. Drizzle with the sauce and sprinkle with icing.

Family home evening about Creation.

 As a family we regularly hold Family Home Evening. Family Home Evening is when we gather our whole family and enjoy our time together. We discuss things that are important to our family. We set aside work, phone calls or technology. Other families might want to go to movies together, have a little stroll at the park or anything they want to do together. In our family we decided that our family home evening should focus more on spiritual lessons.  We commence our program with a hymn or a song that is related to the lesson that we're going to discuss. After the hymn is sung, we have a scripture-reading, lesson, activities, closing prayer and then treats. This year I thought it would be nice to learn more about the Old Testament, since we always read other scriptures. Our kids are still little, so lesson discussion depends on their  attention span. Sometimes, at the commencement of our discussion, we see them giggling, talking to each other or just plainly not listening- but we always remind them that what we're doing is very important and that it should be treated with sanctity and reverence. Our reading started with Genesis Chapter 1.

Creation of Day and Night was the first day.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

For our activity: We painted a styrofoam ball to represent Earth's day of creation.

6 ¶And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

9 ¶And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day

14 ¶And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 ¶And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good..

26 ¶And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

We talked about how important it is for us to be like our Saviour, because we are created in His image.

In this activity we all did some colouring of representations of ourselves.

The Sabbath Day is a day of rest. We discussed
Genesis 2: 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which He had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.

3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all his work which God created and made.

For our activity: Each one of us drew the things that we like to do on the Sabbath day.

Till next time

From our garden to our table

My veggie garden is producing vegetables for my family. As gardeners, (an amateur one), when we see that our plants start to bear fruit, we feel a sense of pride in our little accomplishment- most especially because we dedicated our time and effort to nurture it. And when it will not produce well, we'll despair. My little ones also find joy as they get involved in the process, and the excitement in their eyes is evident. I love how their little hands work intricately as they peel and cut the vegetables. And they remind me that- although they're tiny now- they will one day become big, (maybe even bigger than mine!), and that they must learn to love and enjoy work.

Nate harvesting broccolini

These were the ingredients for our pea, yoghurt and lamb curry

Nico enjoyed peeling pea pods.

Pea, yoghurt and lamb curry

Our ingredients were:

2 tbs of rice bran oil

1 medium eshallot

2 tbs of finely grated fresh ginger

3 tbs korma paste 

1/2 cup of natural plain yoghurt

500 grams lean lamb meat diced

cup of peas

a handful of coriander

Add oil to the pan on a medium heat. Saute onion and ginger till smooth. Add korma and stir until fragrant. Place the meat in the pan, continuously turn the meat till brown. Slowly add the yoghurt and stir until mixed. Bring to boil. Lower the heat to simmer. Cover the pan and simmer for about 30 minutes or until meat is tender. Add peas and cook for further 10 minutes. Sprinkle with coriander, (save few for garnishing), and cover it for 1 minute. Serve. Best served with steamed rice and steamed vegetables.

Till next time :)

Wanting to blog again.

I haven't blogged for a while, partly because I was busy at home, with kids and on Facebook. I thought, Facebooking would be enough for me, since all of my siblings are on Facebook. But I realized that blogging is quite different to Facebook. So, I'm a little motivated to blog again- fingers crossed that I will stay here for a while. I just wanted to share what I made today.

Sticky date pudding

You'll need
4 tbs of butter
3/4 cup of fine caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups of finely chopped dates
a cup of boiling water
1 tps bicarb soda
1 and a half cup of self-raising flour
drop of vanilla extract

For the sauce:
1/4 cup of maple syrup
1/2 cup of butter
1 cup of brown sugar
3/4 thick cream

How:
1 Place water in the pan and bring to boil. Add dates and bicarb soda. Set aside to cool.
2 Preheat the oven at 170 C. Beat together butter and sugar with electric mixer till smooth.
3 Place one egg at a time and mix well.
4 Sift the flour into the bowl of butter mixture and add dates and a drop of vanilla.
5 Grease and line the baking dish with baking paper and pour the mixture.
6 Bake for about 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown.
7 Let it cool and cut into different shapes using cookie cutter.

Sauce: Melt butter, sugar and syrup til smooth and the sugar is dissolved. Add cream and pour into the little sauce jug. Add the sauce on to the pudding just before serving.

Till next time :)

Beta carotene eventually becomes Vitamin A

Hello there. Today we discussed Vitamin A and Beta carotene. I think, it's important for my family to know why we eat certain things- not just because they're good for our bodies but what specific benefits we can get from them. So I did some research on Vitamin A and beta carotene. I'm glad we researched it because I, myself had limited knowledge about food and its vitamin content. These were the things we did today:

Kids helped me cook our breakfast- with my supervision of course.

Our lesson for today: Vitamin A

List of food containing Vitamin A. At the bottom section I showed them food from our fridge that has Vitamin A.

Food with beta carotene

Underneath were the real fruits and vegetables we can see in our fridge.

Their snack: food that has vitamin A (vanilla ice cream) and beta carotene (water melon and carrot).

They were eating while we were having a discussion.

My eldest was answering some of my questions.

We also learned about the health benefits.

Well that's all for now. Till next time :)

Monday is fun

Hello there. Okay I have to say being a full time mum is not easy. Our duty doesn't always end up washing dishes, laundry, house chores, putting kids to bed. I guess there is a deeper meaning to being a mum. I am still searching for it. I can honestly say, I was exausted doing a lot of activities with my kids today, apart from their an hour nap which I always find time to relax and give time for my self.  And still there is plenty of things to do and so little time. I am proud to be a full time mum. The time I spent with my kids is worth it. I love teaching them. I feel proud when I know that they actually absorbed what I taught them. It feels good when you realise that your part of their development. Here's what we did.

We read books.

They did morning yoga.

Triangle pose

Cobra pose

Bow pose

Butterfly pose

Lotus pose

Yoga is a good excersice for kids. It helps them to be creative and at the same time helps them  understand that their body needs excercise to keep it healthy and strong.

My youngest helped my with the breakfast.

My eldest helped prepare the snack

We did experiment today.

We wanted to test the conductivity of wood, plastic and metal.

We had a jar, hot water,peas,butter, metal and plastic spatula, and a wooden spoon

We stuck butter and pea on each utensils

We left it for few minutes.

The results: Metal conducts high temperature quite quickly compared to wood and plastic, causing the butter to melt easily as the temperature rises.

Experiment #2

Mixing oil, water and detergent

We needed jars with lid, oil, water, and detergent.

We poured oil into the jar of water.

As we can see oil and water did not mix.

We gave it a shake.

The result was the same.

Water molecules are strongly attracted to each other, this is the same for oil, because they are more attracted to their own molecules they just don't mix together. They separate and the oil floats above the water because it has a lower density.

We added detegent.

They gave it a shake.

The result: Detergent is attracted to both water and oil helping them all join together and form something called an emulsion

Kids were making sushi for lunch.

Our lesson for this week is about Nutrition.

We made a digestive system model out of playdough.

The kids named the parts of the digestive system.

My eldest actually enjoyed the lesson.

Here's the finished product.

They helped me baked the FHE treat.

My favorite part of the day was our family home evening. Our topic was about "I can do many things"

We played the story of David ang Goliath. We learned that we can always rely on the Lord no matter how how difficult the task would be. And that we can do many things as we seek the Lord's help and guidance.

Hubby playing Goliath.

My eldest tried to swung the paper stone.

He was seriously thinking that this throwing thing might hurt his daddy. He's very sensitive child. He said he did not like David at the end of the play. We tried to explain to him about what  really had happened in the story, that David was a good boy and that Goliath was the one who attacked the Israelites.

David smote Goliath with the paper stone.

That's it for now. I hope you had an enjoyable monday.