Mum's the word: February 2013

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Wave Goodbye!

There’s this thing about waving bye bye to your child.

It starts when the child can barely speak. I’m not sure why this is one of the very first milestones we expect of our kids. Mind you, it’s not just “WAVE at mummy!” it’s a “Wave BYE BYE!” Poor kid, after achieving this, we actually go off! (maybe to work, maybe to run an errand.. but definitely not hang around!)

Now that my kids are up and about and going to school, we hardly get a wave. Thank God I still get to kiss them goodbye, but to get a wave? Here’s what I got today!

I realised when the wave is from a further distance, the enthusiasm increases. e.g. waving from a moving vehicle, or waving beyond a glass panel or door. I hate goodbyes, and I think kids too!

Do your kids still wave goodbye? Or do you?

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Friday, February 22, 2013

Fit & Fab Friday: When is the best time to exercise?

It’s coming to two months of keeping fit and trying to look fab!

One of the issues I’m battling with is WHEN to exercise.

Have you thought about it? Here were some questions I had:

When we exercise, we burn calories. Are these the calories that we’ve already consumed, or are they the ones we will be consuming?
If I exercise at the end of the day, it seems logical that all the calories consumed in the day would be burnt off. Is that true?
If I exercise at the start of the day, does it mean I switch on the ‘burn calorie’ mechanism in my body for the rest of the day?
After exercise, can we eat? If yes, when?

Plagued with all these questions, I thought for a while that perhaps exercising at mid-day would be best! You burn the stuff you ate in the morning and get to burn the future calories in the afternoon. But I decided it’s best to ask the pros!

So I emailed the trainers at Insane Home Fat Loss and this was their reply:

We recommend to perform these workouts first thing in the morning on an empty stomach (have plenty of water first), the reason why is because your body is on a deprivation mode at that time, which means your ability to burn body fat as energy is highly increased. Don't worry about losing muscle, the workouts are short and intense and as long as you're eating a full meal right after, you're on the right track. Also i suggest to perform these workouts about 6 days a week and taking one full day off to allow proper recover to occur.

Woah!! It made sense! And certainly explain what many fitness articles say about having adequate sleep, that’s when our body replenishes, and in turn does some burning too.

My schedule, as many of you have read starts at 6 a.m. (My daughter did an article here) With this new initiative to start my day with exercise, check out my alarms for the week:

Life has changed! Here’s to a fitter and more fab me!

What time do you do your workouts?

Join me below for this week’s Fit & Fab Friday!

Technorati Tags: Fit & Fab,Time to exercise,Morning Exercise,When does calorie burn,Morning workout,Morning insane home fat loss

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Parenting with Love

We had this on our church bulletin last weekend.

Isn’t that what parenting is like too?

With faith, we trust that our children would grow up strong and healthy, have the fear of God, have favour with people around and excel in school. But we know for that to happen, there’s tons of tough love and discipline along the way.

Thank God, love makes all things easy. It really does!

Do you agree?

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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Giveaway: Build a camera workshop

Do you know you can make a pinhole camera out of cardboard and sticky tape? And with it, you can take photographs and learn to develop it using traditional darkroom methods! We learnt this recently in the Build A Camera Workshop at Npower Education.

Here are the materials you need for PART 1

Cardboard Box (insides should be dark coloured)
Pencil/Ruler/Penknife
Thick aluminium sheet
Pin (to make the PIN hole!)
Sticky cloth tape

The workshop we attended was for Primary School kids. Together with a friend, Isaac (10 yr old), Nicole(8 yr old) and Nathan (6 yr old—specially squeezed in attendee) had a blast! I honestly thought it looked a little too challenging, but the kids really rose up to it, cut out the necessary, stuck on the sheets and followed the clear instructions easily. Check it out!

Part 2: In the Darkroom

This was an eye opener for me! We go to see the chemicals that professional photographers use, and stick the special photo paper onto the camera.

And so the kids were excited taking the photos! The trainer gave tips to compose nice photos. One tip was to stand very still if you are the model while the camera ‘captures’ the shot. That takes a full 30 seconds, or in some cases 90 seconds!!

And the final product? After developing them in the darkroom themselves, ta-da….

So cool ya? The models looked blurred cos they moved (haha obviously!). But they were such great shots! The kids were so so proud of themselves for making the camera and taking their own pictures! And I am so so proud of them too!

And the trainer was great with kids, knowledgeable and clear in her instructions. I have to give her credit for trying to explain the physics of making a camera palatable for the kids. The theory lesson was necessary, but it made the workshop a tad bit too long.

Here are the workshop details:

3 hours workshop (There’s Primary School edition & Secondary School edition)
Available Dates:

2 March 2013 (Saturday), 930am to 1230pm
2 March 2013 (Saturday), 1pm to 4pm
9 March 2013 (Saturday), 930am to 1230pm
16 March 2013 (Saturday), 10am to 1pm
16 March 2013 (Saturday), 1pm to 4pm
23 March 2013 (Saturday), 930am to 1230pm
23 March 2013 (Saturday), 1pm to 4pm
30 March 2013 (Saturday), 930am to 1230pm
30 March 2013 (Saturday), 1pm to 4pm

Venue: Npower Education, Blk 157, Ang Mo Kio Ave 4, #01-578, S(560157)
Cost: $45 per participant
For more information, click here

And for ALL Mum’s the Word readers, there’s a special discount packages for you!

20% discount for Build a Camera workshop (Key in Discount code “mumseword20”)

-GIVEAWAY-

But wait!! There’s more! I have TWO passes to give away!! Here’s what you do to take part in the giveaway. You have till 24 Feb to join in!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Technorati Tags: build a camera,pinhole camera,npower education,primary school project

Thursday, February 14, 2013

What is the perfect gift?

As many of you know, Nathan just turned six. And as the month goes along, I realised we have a few more kids’ birthday parties to attend.

Wanting to buy the *perfect* gift, we asked one of the birthday kid’s mummy, “What would your girl like for her birthday?” We got some good ideas after chatting a while, BUT I realised this is one tough question to answer for a parent!!

Come on, do YOU know what your kid wants for his birthday? I’m not talking about generic answers like, “Anything Thomas” or “Rainbow Magic books” or “Hot Wheel cars”. I mean, do you really know what your child likes? Right down the to colour and model? Can your answer actually help a friend buy the perfect gift?

It ain’t about a big big budget to buy the gift. Rather, it’s about the big big description of what your child wants. And I realised to do that, you need to know what your child is missing in that avalanche of toys/clothes/bags/shoes that you’ve already bought. And it shouldn’t be what you want your child to get like that new book!

Well, I’m determined to be more involved with what my kids love and dislike now! It’s challenging cos they change their minds so fast! But I think having a baseline would make a big difference! For a start:

Nicole: Purple and anything Blingbling. This kind of works for clothes, shoes, bags, files, stationery etc

Nathan: LEGO!! The City series—he already has the Helicopter & Ambulance!

Nadine: Angelina Ballerina—DVD. This girl’s easy. She likes repeats too!

Do you know what your child likes? List it out! Give it to a dear friend or a kind uncle who wants to buy something for the kid. Or better yet, go to the stores and just surprise your child! It doesn’t have to be expensive. Even for kids, they do appreciate your thoughts!!

Linking with

Technorati Tags: perfect gift for child,perfect gift for kid,what kids want,what child want,best gift for kid,best gift for child,valentine for child,valentine for kid

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Six years parenting a boy

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Yes, that’s my boy. At six years old.

He can’t stand taking pictures, would never look at the camera in the eye if possible. He says stuff like, “I don’t know how to smile” when the photographer coaxes him.

He is heavy (I can’t carry him any more) and he is larger than the average pre-schooler (wears size 8 clothes!).

He likes fishballs, noodles (with a little chilli), spaghetti carbonara, chocolate milk, bak kwa, fries, chicken rice and beef steak.

He is afraid of butterflies, spiders, cockroaches, snails, ants, dogs, cats, (actually any insect or animal!)

As he grows up, I’m not sure what would change from the list above. Lest I forget, this is a glimpse of Nathan. At six years old.

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Technorati Tags: six year old birthday,heavy preschooler,preschool birthday

Friday, February 1, 2013

Fit & Fab Friday: Evaluation & Insane Home Fat Loss

It’s evaluation time as we start a new month. I’ll do the technicalities before touching my raw emotions.

TECHNICALITIES

No. of days since I started: 31 days

No. of days I ran at least 2.4km: 16 days

Longest distance ran: 5.99km

Shortest distance ran: 2.34km

Fastest pace: 7:23 avg. min/km

Weight loss: 2.7kg (so pathetic!!)

FOOD

Breakfast: Cereal with low fat milk or 2 slices wholemeal bread plain and an apple

Lunch: Fish soup or Yong Tau Fu soup or 2 popiah with 1 siew mai

Dinner: Clear soup (all kinds) and a punnet of blueberries or half bunch of grapes

Snack: Plain cereal or grapes

MY EMOTIONS

Quite estatic when my legs don’t hurt after I run now.

Getting a little narcissistic cos I like to look at the mirror now just to see if there’s that little big of fat that left or melt away.

I’m reliant on my buddy chat group to keep me going. Cos 2.7kg for a month’s work seem really slow. I’m comforted to know weight is not everything.

NOW WHAT?

I purchased the Insane Workout by Mike Chang. I am on Day 3 now…. and it’s a killer!!! So I do the run and workout on alternate days. That makes it nearly a daily exercise! Woohoo!! Again thanks so much for the buddies that cheer me on!

Leaving you now with a snippet of the Insane Workout. It’s different each day. Just take 20 min of your time, wear a pair of shoes at home, and have a towel on standby. haha… try it!! Let me know how you find it!