Happiness is... refocusing on the truly important things in life

Happy 2018, everybody! I know I know, I've been less active on the blog recently. Let's see, my last post was on 27 Dec and the one before that was... 8 Dec! Considering how I used to churn out two, or at the very least one, posts per week, this is definitely way less and I'm not sure if anyone misses me but I do miss blogging for sure.

Yet, a part of me says that this is probably the way it should for this new year because I find myself finding so little time to do the things that I want to. I want to catch up on the kids' growing up videos, I want to do more art and craft activities with them, I want to do spring cleaning before CNY, I want to help the big girl settle down in her new school, I want to make sure that the little sister learns her K2 spellings which begin next week, I want to do more constructive stuff with the baby boy during our one-on-one mornings, I want to search for more recipes and cook more fuss-free meals, I want to do so many more things but guess what, they don't revolve around blogging, but they do revolve around my kids, my family, my everything.

December has been a month jam-packed with Christmas parties, gatherings with friends and families, and birthday parties for each of my kids. I have to say it was so exhausting yet so fulfilling, to the extent that it reminded me of my priorities in life and how I need to learn to let go of some things that don't, and shouldn't, matter and instead use my limited 24 hours a day to focus on the ones that really do.

In this post of "Happiness is...", it's about refocusing on the truly important things in life, about making use of my time and energy - which depletes faster the older I get - and realising that some moments are just worth cherishing more than the rest. Wait, am I saying that I will stop blogging altogether? No, of course not. This is a much loved hobby and one that has brought me joy, friendship, satisfaction, motivation and more, so I'll be keeping up with it but I'll also be mindful and selective in the things I choose to talk about from now. I still have a lot of heartfelt topics I wish to share with you, so no worries if you have been an ardent fan of this humble blog. Here's sharing more of what we did in the last month!

The kids have been wanting to visit "the playground with 26 slides" so we finally found time to visit the popular Admiralty Park playground. It was quite crowded and we had to queue up for some of the slides! Nonetheless, it is definitely a unique playground where kids are guaranteed lots of fun and we hope to be back again because the sudden drizzle made us unable to finish exploring the whole place!

A visit to Universal Studios always brings us lots of fun and laughter! I've never brought the kids there without the hubby because it doesn't really make sense since the boy cannot take most of the rides and the little girl needs to be parent accompanied for a good part of them. So, it was really awesome that we had their cousins and grandpa with us that day, and they even went on roller coaster rides and screamed their hearts out together. Yup, even the downpour couldn't stop us (thankfully we brought our ponchos) and it was the first time we got so wet at the Water World show! By the way, we watched the movie Water World on Netflix (starring Kevin Costner) and I must say it is quite a thriller with all the action and stunts, definitely show worth watching as a family!

I brought the kids out to do Christmas shopping on several occasions and it always delights them to see any festive decorations in the malls. This one at Compass One was really cute! By the way, I was also the one who set up the Christmas tree with the kids (while the hubby chose to sleep) and the one who took it down with them (while the hubby was away). Haha. Yes, that is something to be proud of and might jolly well become a tradition in our family. I'm just glad to do it because it's something we look forward to every year and gives me a chance to bond with the kids and have fun together.

Thanks to the kids, we wrapped dozens of presents to give to our family and friends and there was so much love and warmth under our Christmas tree. The kids were eagerly waiting for Christmas Day too so they could finally open up their presents. This year, we also put some cookies and milk on the dining table - and the girls even wrote personalised notes - so you can imagine how stoked the kids were when they realise Santa did come to visit, ate the cookies, drank the milk and left them gifts under the tree. Awwww.



Thanks to AIA, we won tickets to visit Kidzania Singapore, which never fails to provide fun and laughter while letting the girls have a go at all the different occupations. These two are now distinguished citizens of Kidzania and they had so much fun trying out all the activities that they didn't get to try previously.



As for the boy, well, he will just have to wait a couple more years before he can join in the activities at Kidzania. But for now, he is very happy to stay in the baby and toddler zone and have fun playing in ball pools and jumping on bouncy castles.

Being the school holidays, December was really a time where I got to spend my day in day out with the kids. You know, unlike some parents who don't look forward to school holidays as much, I actually enjoy the holidays more than school days because it means that we get to wake up later, do more things together, have time to explore and basically just spend our 24 hours together. When better to do it than when the kids are still young and look forward to spending every brand new day with Mama?


While the hubby went for his badminton training at Temasek Club, the kids and I had a karaoke-cum-dinner session! You know, now that my kids love singing as much as I do, it seems like I'm going to have very little chances of hogging the mic. Haha. The one thing that impresses many is how they actually sing lots of pop songs, and not nursery rhymes. Yup, some of our favourites are Fight Song, Girl on Fire, Can't Stop The Feeling, Baby, What Makes You Beautiful, Shake It Off and so on. I've also been introducing JJ Lin's, Jay Chou's and A-Mei's songs to them recently so that we can sing together next time. Yup, for good or for bad, that is how we roll in this family.

We've also been keeping up with family movie dates, be it at home or in the cinema. Thanks to Golden Village, we were invited to check out the newly opened GV Paya Lebar which is located at SingPost Centre. I've been looking forward to the release of Jumanji 2 for the longest time because of how the original movie by Robin Williams is one of my favourite movies of all time. Yes, I even let the kids watch it too so we can look forward to the sequel together. While it is totally different from the first, I love the cast in this second movie and we were so tickled in our seats the whole time because they were just too funny (Thankfully the toddler fell asleep and I could sit back and enjoy the show, woohoo)!

I used to grumble when the hubby suffered from a hangover on weekends because to me, weekends are meant for family and I would think it was a waste if we couldn't head outdoors because he drank too much. Perhaps you can call it a sudden awakening or just a dread to whine about the same thing all the time, I offered to take the kids out early one morning so that he could sleep in peace at home and recover. We were at Marine Cove early one Saturday and the kids were happy, the hubby was happy (of course, he got to sleep till past noon) and I think that arrangement did everybody some good that day.

It's been really hard trying to find time to craft with the girls, really really hard. I keep wondering how I managed to survive with the Creativity 521 series for so many years but recently, with the very active and attention demanding toddler, I find it so challenging to properly sit down with the girls to do something creative and fun. Anyway, they have been wanting to do this art activity in the mall for long so we finally did it this school holidays. One of my new year resolutions is to hopefully find more time to craft with them for sure!

I brought the kids to Suntec one day and we visited the fountain of wealth, made our wishes, took wefies, had dinner, played at the arcade before we called it a day. Some friends and readers write in to ask me how I manage to bring the kids out so often without help and my answer is always the same - Practice makes perfect! In fact, I was out with my bestie recently and she was very impressed by how Asher could eat by himself at 2yo because her son of similar age can't do it at all. She was also amazed by how I always bring the trio out myself and she said "You one adult bring three kids out, I need three adults to bring my one kid out".  That's the thing, right? If you don't try, you never know. If you don't keep trying, you'll never get better too. So you just have to keep doing it again and again till you gain the confidence and get over your fears.





On Asher's actual birthday, the hubby took leave and we brought him to a place that we knew would delight him - Jurong Bird Park! Yup, this boy always gets excited when he sees any bird on the street so it was a treat for him to be able to feed the lories up close and also watch the show where a parrot actually sang him the Happy Birthday song!

Like I mentioned before, we've been trying to save up since we moved to a bigger home, which also means we have to cut down on family holidays because the expenses are really too hefty. Thanks to Radisson Batam (again!), we were invited for a 4D3N family retreat at their lush hotel and it was such a memorable experience that I will be sharing more with you in detail soon! Pretty sure you saw pictures of how the kids got to come up close with geckos, iguanas and pythons, right? That was the main highlight of the December holidays for them. I'm also giving away family stays which include couple spa treats so do keep an eye out for that soon too.


On Ariel's birthday, we did something meaningful and that was making our way to SPCA to personally pass them the cash donations the girls raised for their animal friends at their birthday parties. We donated a total of $350 ($80 came from their own pocket money) which was indeed quite an impressive and admirable effort by the two of them.

The twist of the story was that we initially planned to visit a pet shop after that to buy them hamsters as their birthday gifts (they have been asking and patiently waiting for years) but when we saw that there were hamsters up for adoption at SPCA too, it was quite impossible to say no because we knew we would be doing something good for these pitiful, abandoned creatures. So, the girls each chose a hamster from a total of eight of them and guess what, the staff did a check for us afterwards and revealed that they were sisters! Yes, so destined, isn't it?



So, we have two more babies in the house to look after now - they are fondly named Nella and Nolla by the girls - and I'll be sharing more of their story very soon!

December was also a time where we got to catch up with family and friends so I'm glad we did that aplenty. In fact, we hosted parties every weekend, had playdates in our house and also were honoured to be invited to family gatherings, baby showers and friends' meetups too - it was indeed a month of celebrations for us and we were reminded of how blessed we are to have friendship, kinship, our lovely kids and each other.






Yes, it's time to feast! I have to shout out to my hubby on how great a chef he is because I can never do what he did with all this fresh seafood he bought from Sheng Shiong. Yup, fresh oysters, fresh prawns, fresh fish, fresh lobsters, fresh crabs, fresh mussels and more! Without him, we would never have been able to host so many big-scaled parties and have such a spread on the table when our friends came over. Thanks, dear!

All my kids turned one year older this year end and I can't believe they are growing so rapidly fast! Seriously, I always wish time can slow down for me as a mum. Some of my friends can't wait for their little ones to grow up yet I sometimes hope mine can stay little for as long as possible. Some don't want to have anymore kids because they can't imagine having to take care of newborns again while I crave for that newborn scent and the chance to cradle a baby in the crook of my arms once more. Oh well, three is just the right amount that I can handle in my life now and so I guess I will only dream on while busying myself taking care of these three every day. Happy birthday, my darlings #1, #2 and #3! Mummy loves you all so, so, so much and I'm glad you all enjoyed your simple but fun-filled birthday celebrations!

Here's wishing everyone a happy 2018! May the new year be filled with lots of joy, love, peace and all things good for all of you. Thanks for all the support you've given to A Happy Mum all along and I hope you'll continue to stay around too! Till more updates!