my love/hate blogging site

Hello Internet,

As crazy I am, at this time I have moved back to my old Wordpress ( yes, again! ). Sorry for my changed of heart. I just still can't decide 100% if I like Blogger better than Wordpress. 

So, I am not brave enough to ask you to follow my blog  but if you miss me and want to know what I've been up to, please visit me in www.ohdearria.wordpress.com 

Meanwhile I still keep this site, just in case! :) 

Good night or maybe good morning! 

restless soul

 

Sometimes mister hubby asks if we would be willing to pack up and travel around in our ute for a year.  I don't take him seriously and I can't say I am entirely keen on the idea too.  But lately I have been thinking about packing up the house and just go.  More likely actually I have been wanting to live somewhere else.  I am itchy to move out of this city life to somewhere new, new scenery and experience.  With that, I want to build a new life, life that I've been dreaming for so long. I always want to do something besides being a mother.  But this something at the moment is a bit absurd, impossible, uncertain, to be achieved.  

Maybe I am a bit of hippy or what, or maybe I am bored ( but I am not allowed to be bored because my life is wonderful and easy! ) and just feeling a bit low.  I always feel like I want to move after couple years of living in the same place.  When I was a couple months old my parents moved from the town I was born to another town.  We stayed there for a year or so then we packed up and moved to another island.  Couple years on this island we moved to another town before we made our way to the big city where I spent most of my childhood and adulthood.  When I got married, my newly hubby took me to this city where we live now.  Though we then moved to another country for couple years then we came back here with a new additions to our family.

being a solo traveler

I am writing this at Changi International airport, waiting for my connecting flight to HongKong. I travel a lot lately. For pleasure and family purpose. From one airport to another. I get used to the hustle  and bustle of airport atmosphere. 

I love traveling. I love going on holiday with my family or just by myself. You might think I am weird, but I am a loner so it's no problem for me eating by myself or noone to talk to. 

Taking a trip by myself can actually be empowering. I can set my own schedule, do the things I would like to do, and embark on my own personal adventures. Plus, I don't have to worry about anyone other than myself. 

I don't mind  traveling with friend/s too. Though I will feel sorry for them, because I can't tolerate lazy and un-cooperative travel companion, and high maintenance ones. I travel on budget so I won't stay at five star hotels and eating at expensive diner. I would love too, of course, if someone generous enough to pay for  me .

this mama life

This week feels forever.  Shorter day light longer night time.  It is official that summer is end and winter is creeping in.

 

I am back to the usual bump and grind.  Back to being solo parenting again.  Back to do every thing by myself.  Make all the decisions and responsible for almost every thing. And back to those anxious feelings at night time.  I am alone and there is no one to tag me out or give me a hug at the end of the day.  On the good days, when I was asked how I cope with this pattern of life I would say, invite some friends over for dinner or go for shopping, on the hard days, I just want to cry and scream!

what's for dinner : salmon & broccolli pasta

I normally don't blog about food here.  As I have my own space for all the recipes on my other blog.  But since I am still in two minds about merging my recipes into this blog or not, I thought why not give it a try and have a look!

This recipe is actually for toddler.  I used to make this when my boys were about 2 until 4 years old. But, because mister hubby and I also eat toddler food ( why not, they are yummy and healthy too ) so I modified a bit for this recipe.  Still use the same ingredients only adding garlic + salt + pepper.  I apologize as the photos are not a good quality ones.  I really didn't have time to take picture with my camera so my Iphone did the job.

Ingredients:

20g butter

3 garlic, diced

3 green onions, chopped finely

1 broccoli, roughly chopped

8 tablespoon water

100g spreadable cream cheese

1 can drained red salmon or 2 pieces fresh salmon (if you using fresh salmon, just lightly grilled it first)

200 g pasta

Method:

1. Heat butter in small saucepan.  Cook garlic, onion, broccol and the water, stirring, until broccoli is tender.
2. Add cream cheese, cook, stirring until melted.  Stir in salmon. Salt & pepper to taste.
3. Meanwhile, cook pasta in medium saucepan of boiling water, uncovered, until just tender; drain.
4. Gently toss pasta in a bowl with salmon mixture.  Add Parmesan cheese before serving.

 My boys love it.  We love it too!

camping with kids

This is part two of our school holiday-extravaganza!  Yes, after a trip to Bali, my darling husband decided to spend his two weeks off bonding with his lovely sons and gorgeous wife.  He opted for road trip to down south.  As much as I would love to stay under the five star hotel or resort I was presented with camping at the caravan park under the blue sky or dark actually at night time, with a star :)

 

After we had organized who was going to look after all our animals, got stock up on food etc, checked the engine and tires of our Ute, as early as 5.30 am we were all up and off we went! It took about 5 hours or more to Bremer Bay.  Stopped at Williams for fuel and yummy pies, then Kataning to let the snot-gobblers ran wild at the cool park!

bali with kids

The school holiday that just passed was pretty full on.  My boys and I went to Bali for couple days.  The main purpose of the visit was to attend my cousin wedding.  Mister Hubby was busy with work so unfortunately couldn't join the fun.

We flew with Jetstar as usual, thank God it was punctual.  We arrived in Bali past noon and went straight to the hotel.  This time I chose Seminyak area to stay, where all other families from Jakarta ( including my mother ) and Manado were staying too. The boys went straight to the pool and didn't come out until we almost left for dinner.

 

Over dinner I had been thinking what was I gonna do to keep the boys occupied during this 5 days.  For sure I couldn't drag them around Kuta Center every day or along the Seminyak road to check out the gorgeous shops.  I was very glad that I found this book! It packs with practical information and activities for kids from all aspects, i.e.; nature, art and culture, action,water sports plus the kids friendly restaurants as well.  Highly recommended!

lust after

I love this buckled leather heels from Karl!  A bit too avant-garde to be school pick-up appropriate, but these shoes would look amazing with skinny jeans or legging, day or night.

the day mums get breakfast made & served

Well, I don't know about you but I had a good time yesterday. No, I didn't get breakfast made and served in bed ( first because they forgot, second I hate eating in my bed ) in fact I had to make them quick breakfast before we headed to a footy game.  

While making their breakfast and a quick sip of coffee for me, I asked them where's my Mother's Day kisses and cuddles? T1 gasped and ran out quickly and came back with a big parcel wrapped in blue polka dots paper.  While T2, as always a cuddle and kissy person gave me big hugs and a wet kiss :) I was presented with beautiful home made card that this year there were less spelling errors.  My T1 did himself painted and draw this cute fishy that I guess it resembles myself? I love it! It had been weeks that I wasn't allowed to enter/clean his room because he was making something special for Mother's Day.

home tour: living room & dining room

Inspired by one of those blogs that I blog-walking, I decided to de-clutter and re-arranged our living room.  This is the problem with me, when I decided to clean up the house that means some furniture would move from its corner place, a lamp would be replaced with a candle and if I could re-locate the fire-place I would!

 Mr. Hubby often complains, every time he comes home something will be moving away from its previous place make it difficult for him to navigate where's the best angle to watch telly and/or to get easy reach for a remote control!

Today I'll be sharing the living room and a bit of dining room. Enjoy!