Three birds in one stone

Da and I managed to meet up with three groups of people today. I would call this a very fruitful day! Very often, people complain about there being "not enough hours in a day". I believe that it is all a question of time management. Have I succeeded in managing my time effectively every day? No, but I am trying. Now, when I wake up each morning, I give thanks to the Lord for His mercies and ask the Lord to grant me favour for the day. Before I go to sleep, I give thanks to the Lord for a wonderful day. The Lord gives us grace on a daily basis. We should therefore not worry about tomorrow because there will be grace tomorrow for whatever challenges that we may face tomorrow. Let us enjoy each day and live life to the fullest.

As Da had to work today, I was "home alone" this morning. While some air-conditioning servicemen were at our home today to service our air-conditioners, I was busy baking. I was in a "chocolate" mood today! I baked:-

(a) yoghurt chocolate chip cookies;

(b) light chocolate bread; and

(c) peanut butter & chocolate chip bread.

My mother, my brother (LB) and LB's wife (MF) came over to our home in the early afternoon because we had arranged to have lunch together. While waiting for Da to finish work, my mother, LB and MF sampled the yoghurt chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter & chocolate chip bread that I had baked. The light chocolate bread was still baking in the oven and it was not ready yet.

When Da returned, we went to fetch him from the nearby MRT station and thereafter proceeded to Katong Shopping Centre for lunch. Everyone was in a "healthy" mood today. My mother, LB and MF ordered yong tau hu while Da and I ordered mini hot pot.

After lunch, we parted ways with my family. Da and I proceed to the hospital to visit MIL. When we arrived, we were happy to see FIL there. He had arrived shortly before us and he had not eaten his lunch yet. As such, the four of us went to the housemen's cafeteria on Level 1 so that FIL could eat his lunch. While we were chatting, MIL's face lit up when she saw her sister, AS approaching our table. AS lives near the hospital and she has been visiting MIL on a daily basis ever since MIL was warded on 16 March 2009. We discovered that AS is a budding writer. She has published a book of rhymes and the cartoon illustrations in the book were drawn by her two young grandsons. AS explained that although the book was a book of rhymes, each rhyme has contains life lessons (hence the title of the book, "Nurtury Rhymes"). As such, parents and teachers would find the book an invaluable teaching tool. She has just finished writing her second book on Bible rhymes and she quoted some examples of the rhymes in her new book. I found her Bible rhymes very interesting and I would be keen to purchase her book of Bible rhymes when it is published.

As MIL will have to be on antibiotic treatment for several more weeks, she has opted to have "home treatment" instead of staying in the hospital for the next few weeks. What this means is that she can be discharged early next week but will have to strap a bottle of antibiotic to her body (which bottle would have to be changed daily) so that antibiotic can be injected into her body (via a tube) on a 24-hour basis. Although it is inconvenient to do the "home treatment" (not just in terms of the medication but also daily necessities such as meals, laundry, etc) and it is in fact more costly to do the "home treatment" than if she were to continue staying in the hospital, MIL has opted for this because she would prefer to be back in the home environment. Notwithstanding the "home treatment", she will still have to go back to the hospital every few days to change the tube. Several relatives and friends have advised her to continue staying in the hospital. However, in her inner spirit, she felt led to opt for the "home treatment". As her sister, AE advised her, if the Lord is leading her to opt for this, listen to the Lord for He will do what is best for us and He will always show us the way.

After we left the hospital, we proceeded to the home of the Three Musketeers. We had not seen them in several weeks, so it was good to catch up. We brought along a loaf of peanut butter & chocolate chip bread that I had baked this morning.

During dinner, Supercute asked why some people give thanks before they partake a meal. I believe that if we live a life of thanksgiving, we will count our blessings and be grateful for whatever we have. Envy eats at us like a cancer and it is not healthy. When we know how much the Lord loves us and we love the Lord because He first loved us, we will learn to love others as well.

After dinner, while Supercute was busy playing "Pet Society" on Facebook and Tau Suan was playing another computer game, Nining asked me to accompany her to the bedroom where she demonstrated her alphabet learning skills. We had fun playing games with the set of alphabets that she had. As we spoke about anything that came to our minds, the conversation became animated. For example, when SY announced, "Coffee time!", Nining and I looked at each other and said, "C for coffee!".

The fact that SY was able to slice the bread into so many slices (see photograph below) is a testament to how sharp her knife is. I was struggling to slice the other loaf of peanut butter & chocolate chip bread (I had baked two loaves) at home earlier today with my knife. My mother mentioned that she may have heard from my cousin, HL during Chinese New Year this year about a Japanese brand of knife that does not require sharpening. Hi HL, what brand of knife is this? It sounds like the solution for me. No matter how I sharpen my knifes, they are still not very sharp.

While ET and Da watched the Chelsea vs Newcastle United English Premier League match on television (by the way, the ex-Newcastle United player, Alan Shearer is now their manager and he looks as gorgeous as before), Nining decided to display her photo-taking skills using SY's digital camera.

Ah... what is a lazy saturday night without a bit of snacking? After her shower, Nining ate durian. The rest of us declined as we were watching our waistlines. *grin*

Nining asked ET to give her a shoulder massage. While it is not advisable for young children to go for reflexology, a gentle shoulder massage does wonders to relax them and to ensure a good night's sleep.

Post-script

Thanks to Da for the song choice for today's post. As I listened to the song, I thought of our friend, SNC who loves rhythm & blues songs. Rest in peace, SNC.