Hip to be Mom

I was pretty much stuck in this chair all of yesterday. You may have swung by recently and noticed a bit of a mess here. Maybe we were missing a sidebar here, some graphics there. Pretty much the sort of stuff you expect when you’re moving to a new “home”. Been working very long hours with the most patient support guy ever (thanks again, Scott!) to get stuff ironed out.

Apart from that, we’ve just been hanging out. Food is the really big thing this time of year. For us, not so much. We haven’t been out to a restaurant yet. Instead we’ve been feasting on these incredibly scrumptious leftover turkey sandwiches. Never mind that we ran out of tomatoes.

And we got to the gym yesterday which was near-empty. A gym where you can actually make out each piece of equipment instead of seeing a blur of movement – priceless! Great workout yesterday, so happy about that. And planning to hit it again early tomorrow morning .

Got a few more hiccups to sort out, then we’re out of here. Going to make the most of the rest of the holidays and just kick back before the insanity starts all over again Monday.

From as far back as I can remember, the first day of Chinese New Year has always been a vegetarian day for us. The whole idea of going vegetarian is to start the new year by abstaining from killing/harming any living beings in accordance with the 5 Precepts of the Buddha’s teachings.

My grandmother would be up at the crack of dawn to prepare a big (and I mean, huge) bowl of a mixed vegetable and mushroom stirfry. This is the staple dish eaten over rice every single year, even now, and also a regular dish on other vegetarian days of the year.

My kids never really liked this dish. But they’ve been very good about it and have been eating it year in, year out without complaints. Until this year, that is.

Recently, I replicated Chili’s classic nachos at home and it was such a hit that my girls have been calling for an encore. So this year in lieu of that veggie stirfry my girls so dread, we had homemade nachos which are as colorful and glam as disney hotels?

The good thing about making these nachos at home is that we can have, like Skye happily announces, unlimited lettuce, salsa and sour cream unlike at the restaurant where we have to split hairs over the small portions of toppings. Their nacho slices are considerably larger than ours so we have to make a little go a long way.

For my nachos, I use cheddar and mozzarella but you can pretty much use any cheese you like. Bake till lightly golden, and top with sour cream, shredded lettuce and homemade salsa.

So so delicious and so so glamorous you barely even notice it’s vegetarian. I mean, look at this, there’s just no way!

Okay, so our reunion dinner is done for another year… and just in case you’re wondering what we ate, well, I’ll let the picture do the talking.

Scrumptiously moist roast turkey with brown gravy, roasted carrots and potatoes, a simple salad of lettuce and mandarins and red wine

Simple and refreshingly different. Our ancestors are no doubt frowning down on our bold deviation from tradition going, where the heck is the food with auspicious names y’all? With all due respect, somewhere along the line, someone must’ve been born with a non-conformist chromosome!

Long story short, my girls loved our Christmas turkey so much they got me to go out the week after Christmas to grab another frozen turkey for the reunion. Which is a very simple affair as there’s just us chickens at our dining table at home.

For the next 15 days, we’ll be avoiding Chinese restaurants like the plague, unless we get invited out and someone else is footing the bill. A girl friend of mine started this tradition and I must say it’s a darned good one. If you can have Chinese on any given day of the year, why pay double or triple to eat half the regular portion of the same, probably poorer quality food with souped-up auspicious names? Makes no sense.

On that note, here’s to good food, good health and a fantastic year of the water dragon .

Valentine’s Day is just a couple of weeks away. It would be nice to give the ones we love a little gift of love. I know when my kids were younger, they often looked forward to getting a little something, no matter how little. And even mothers and grandmothers appreciate a gift from the heart, if for nothing else, just for the fun of it.

Fossil Jewelry Heart Wrist Wrap (Silver)

This would make a great gift. I love how funky it is, and with an adjustable wrist length too so it’ll fit any size wrist. It even has the key to my heart .

Dillon Rogers Jewelry Love With Heart Bracelet – Medium (Bubble Gum)

I love leather accessories so you can definitely count me in on this one. Suited to teens whom I’ve noticed are really into multiple bracelets.

Bling by Wilkening Jewelry Couture Heart Earrings (Silver)

More for the discerning woman, this one! Very classy and can be worn with practically any outfit.

You can check out more of my Valentine’s Day gift ideas for him and her here.

Raine is taking a Public Speaking class at college this semester. I’m so excited for her because it was one of my favorite classes in college too. In fact, she’s preparing her first 2-minute speech, even as we speak.

What’s even more exciting is that she has to dress up in a suit. Pretty cool, huh? As I was rummaging through my collection of suits from my corporate days, I couldn’t help but smile. My sweet baby in a suit? Who would’ve thought?

I mean, when I was wearing them to work, she was just a toddler playing with her Lego and reading fairy tales, and now she’s going to be wearing my suit jacket and standing up there in front of her class, giving a speech!!

In a few years, she’s going to be sitting in her office with one of those fancy desk name plates on her shelf. What a proud day that’ll be! It’s amazing how quickly kids grow up. So hug them and kiss them every day, and take your time to enjoy them because before you know it, they’ll be wearing your suit.

More and more, I’m observing that moms (not everyone, of course) seem to be leaving kids to their own devices these days and keeping mum when their kids behave badly. And why is that, I wonder?

Last weekend, we were seated at a table next to 2 moms and their 2 daughters aged about 5. We were trying to have lunch (key word trying). But with these 2 little girls singing and shrieking on top of their voices, at a super-shrill super-high pitch, non. stop, it was impossible to have a meal without being driven up the wall.

We would’ve moved to another table further away but since it was lunchtime on a weekend, there was no escaping. All this time, the 2 moms are sitting there, eating and chatting, completely (repeat completely) oblivious to the ear-piercing shrieks and how everyone around them was grimacing.

Pretty soon, those 2 girls who incidentally were dressed like little tarts (hate to say this but are little girls becoming more sl*tty or what?), were yoyo-ing between other tables disturbing the diners (yes, they even climbed in and sat with the other diners) while their moms said and did absolutely nothing. at. all!

After the meal, the 2 very modern, dressed-up mothers got up, gathered their shopping bags and promptly started walking away. The little girls, noticing this, skipped and danced after them.

In another incident the same weekend, a balloon that a toddler of about 3 was holding had gotten away. We picked it up and were about to hand it back to him when his father came up, took the balloon off our hands and gave it back to the kid. No word of thanks. No eye contact. No acknowledgement. I would think this would’ve been the perfect opportunity to train his toddler to ‘thank you’, for instance (no brainer).

At these young ages, parents should be guided and taught simple manners and courtesies. In the case of the 2 girls, they’re old enough to be made to understand that it’s not okay to go around disturbing other people and acting loudly.

I think there’s a fine line between giving your kids the independence and freedom to grow and develop, and allowing them a free hand. And when they overstep that fine line, someone (and hopefully it’ll be their mom, not me!) has to put them in their place.

So why are we so afraid to reprimand our kids if we notice rudeness and other socially unacceptable behaviors? If the moms are not correcting them, who is going to do it? Should we really be surprised when our kids turn out into young adults who have no respect for others?