The Familiarity of Home

It's been a whole week of rush, rush, rush for me. Had to fly in to Kuching & then Sibu in the middle of the week to get 5 sets of Agreements signed by 4 different clients. It's been utterly stressful. This was especially painful for me because it's fasting month and I just hate to be away from home. I missed the sahur, berbuka and solat Maghrib berjemaah with AZ and the kids..

Being away from my family for just a couple of days was enough to make me really appreciate being home more, even if it's just doing nothing particularly special. The familiarity of home, the love and acceptance, precious moments with the kids and the comfort of being with AZ, all adds up. I guess I'm not cut out to be one of those high flying people who live in a suitcase, going for business trips from country to country. I think I was born to be a housewife :)

I sound so sappy here.. please excuse the ramblings (^_^)

Cherryl Alya Abdullah

Cherryl on her last day

It is with a very heavy heart that we let Cherryl go today to pursue her career in Singapore and be with her mom. Cherryl is family. She has been with us since 2005 and we have gone through so much together. In the years that she has been with us, I've had the priviledge to watch her grow and bloom. Almost 2 years ago, Cherryl made a life changing decision when she embraced Islam. We were so proud of her. We still are. It is just too difficult to say goodbye.

Our lunch before Ramadhan

Dear Cherryl, wishing you the very BEST in your new place. May you have a lifetime of success and happiness, and always be in Allah's protection. Farewell my friend. We will miss you much. Take good care & keep in touch..

Anas's First Ramadhan

Anas managed to puasa for the first time ever yesterday. Alhamdulillah. 

When I told him that he could take a day off today & puasa every alternate day, his response was: I want to puasa for the whole month, Mama..

We are so proud of you, Anas (^_^)

PS: Adlina, mama is also proud of you & I know Anas is able to puasa because of your strength & encouragement. You are a GREAT big sis for Anas, darling <3

4 days to Ramadhan

It's 4 days to Ramadhan. Somehow this year has gone by so fast. It's the middle of August, with just over 4 months left to 2009. And the fasting month seems to come so soon.. 

Wishing everyone a blessed holy month filled with love and submission to Allah. Selamat berpuasa bersama keluarga tersayang (^_^)

Adlan the Cake Baker

There's been a flurry of activities in the kitchen of Danau Kaseh. Adlan has shown a sudden interest in baking cakes which is fantastic for everyone (we are a household of cake-lovers!).

Here are some of Adlan's creations in the past few days. The marble cake is soft, smooth & lovely. Adlina helped with the colours :)

The delectable blue, pink & cream Marble Cake

These cupcakes were baked yesterday by Adlan & decorated by Mama. Perfect with a cup of tea.

Adlan's delicious cupcakes

(Extremely easy) Recipes as follows:-

Marble Cake

180g butter

3/4 cup caster sugar

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

3 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

food colouring

Method:-

1. Cream butter & sugar until light & fluffy. Add egg, one at a time. Add vanilla essence.

2. Fold in sifted flour and milk in 2 batches. 

3. Divide mixture in 3 bowls & add food colouring to your liking.

4. Bake ring cake tin in oven at 180c for 40 minutes.

Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

2/3 cups castor sugar

125g butter, softened

3 eggs

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

Icing:-

100g butter, softened

1 cup icing sugar

1 1/2 tbsp milk

food colouring

Method:-

1. Cream butter & sugar until light & fluffy. Add egg, one at a time. Add vanilla essence.

2. Add sifted flour and milk in mixture. 

3. Drop 1 1/2 tbsp of mixture in paper cup cases.

4. Bake in oven at 180c for 20 minutes.

5. Mix all icing ingredients in bowl & beat with electric mixer until fluffy.

6. Decorate cupcakes only after cake has cooled.

The Chef & Sous-Chef 

(Adlan used a face mask when preparing his cake!)

Have fun baking (^_^)

Working from Home

I've been working from home for 3 days since Tuesday. Files are piled up on the dining table, mostly completed but some still needing attention. Since Adlan spread the flu virus to Hakim & Anas, my schedule has been chaotic. I wanted to be home to monitor the kids, but at the same time I had 13 sets of Agreements which were due to client by yesterday. It's been a nightmare! 

Alhamdulillah Adlan and Hakim are a lot better today. Unfortunately Anas is still struggling to keep his body temperature down. He has also developed a nasty cough. This morning I brought him to Pantai again when his temperature peaked at 39.2 Celsius. He is now on Relenza, an anti-influenza prescription. His temperature has gone down to 38 after taking the paracetamol. But he still refuses to eat. It's painful for me to see my little boy just lying down in bed not wanting to do much when normally he would be running around driving everyone crazy. Really pray that he will get better soon.

It's been quite good working from home. Yesterday Adlan, Hakim & Adlina joined me at the dining table with their notebooks & did their own things ranging from playing their favourite games on the Internet to working on their workbooks & test papers on Score A. Surprisingly, I got a lot of work done. Managed to email to my client all the Agreements within the dateline. The kids were so good, they knew that I had work to finish, and they were just happy to have me home. No disturbance. I'm comforted by the fact that I'm with all my kids & checking on their condition every now and then. Real peace of mind. 

Thanks to modern technology & the Internet, you don't have to be in the office to get your work done & communicate with clients. It's times like these that I am so thankful to Allah for endowing me with the blessing of having my own Firm, where I am able to decide and prioritize on what is important in my life.

Thank you God, for all your blessings.. Please take care of the residents of Danau Kaseh..

H1N1

Adlan was down with a very bad flu last night. Very high fever at 39 degrees celcius & terrible coughs. I started getting really worried when he started to feel lethargic and refused to eat his dinner (this is very unusual!). 2 days ago 18 students from his class were absent from school due to severe flu. So, I knew we had to take him to the hospital immediately.

Putra Hospital A & E was packed with people, mostly down with flu! It didn't look good. I was informed that the night before, 70 students from a college were brought into the hospital with flu symptoms & it was chaotic. When the doctor examined Adlan, he said that it was possible that Adlan might be having the dreaded H1N1 as the virus is just everywhere now, plus the fact that St David High School had a few suspected cases. I felt so weak when he said that. But he reassured us that complications only happen in 1 of 500 cases. In most cases, the virus will stay & die off after 5-7 days. He prescribed Adlan with some medication, some strong antibiotics & requested that he be quarantined at home. He finally said that if Adlan starts vomiting, we have to immediately send him to the General Hospital.

Apparently the swab test to determine whether or not one has H1N1 is only available in government hospitals. The test kit is expensive, costing about RM1,250 per person and it takes 3 days before the result can be confirmed. I guess this means that the numbers of people infected with virus in Malaysia must be so much higher than the 1,400+ as published by the government. I'm sure there are many more people who must have been infected but didn't get the chance to undergo the swab test to confirm their status! This is so worrying..

Well, at home, Alhamdulillah Adlan is feeling so much better today. His fever has reduced to 38.2. He is still coughing with some runny nose, but no vomiting. He has started eating again at lunch time, although much lesser than normal, at least he is eating. I hope he will completely recover soon..

Just pray that the rest will be spared from the flu.. Shoo, Shoo H1N1!!