Moments in My Life

The first week when I returned from my trip, my MIL gave me these:

Two Japanese cucumbers and a beef tomato. Both grew from her own garden.I don’t know what else to do with the cucumber and asked for her suggestion. She told me she usually eats it as a salad. So I came home and clean the cucumber and tomato, slices them, and add a dash of thousand island dressing on the side. I made this:

The tomato is very delicious and sweet. But the salad had too many slices of cucumber and I wasn’t able to finish the whole plate.  Towards the end I got a little yucky because of over eating too much cucumbers.  LOL! Want to share what else I can do with cucumbers as in a recipe? 

I was born and raised in Malaysia and I have never known anything about hard water until I came to Los Angeles. My skin is not comfortable with the hard water and everytime after shower, I have to put on body lotion. It is a hassle. I really prefer the soft water feeling on the skin and I feel it is much cleaner when we wash with soft water.

So next time when we got a new home, we will definitely install a water softener. We can’t install it now at our current home because it is a lot of work as this is an old home and water pipe system wasn’t prepared for a water softener unit. So we would need to do a lot of re-piping work to install a water softener.

Since I am not an expert in this area, I may sort the help from the professionals at Expert Water Solutions. I didn’t know that I can request from the municipal water company for a copy of the water report until I read their website. According to their water hardness map, Los Angeles has very hard water between 10-14 gpg.

Let me briefly introduce to you Expert Water Solutions.  This company specializes in all area of water treatment including well water treatment, water filtration and water conditioning from residential to commercial. Their line of products includes water softeners, all type of filters (iron, carbon and others), chemical feed pumps, drinking water filter and more. They offer free water test and all you need to do is to give them a call at their toll free number.  I’ll be sure to have my water tested before purchasing a water softener so I know which type of water softener is best to suit our city water.

Before, my son’s afternoon nap was from 3pm onwards (could be 3:30 or 4) till around 5 or 6pm.  Now I am trying to get him sleeping earlier at night, I have to move his nap time earlier too.  He has been napping around 1-2pm.  It is better if we have an active morning and that will tired him out.  But sometimes even how tired he is, he still want to fight to nap.

I am also trying to get him taking his nap independently.  It works out fine today after a lot of eye to eye serious conversation as well as a door closing session for 2 minutes.  Initially, he wanted me to sit next to him. I did it for a little bit but he was not much into sleeping so I walked out. Then again he pulled me back inside. Then again requested for me to sit next to him. I could but I didn’t want it to build up as a habit. So I told him NO! Firmly! Then I walked out. He came running out to the dining room (where I work) to play but I again told him is nap time with very close eye to eye contact. It happened 3 times. I repeated the same thing for 3 times. After the last time, we walked back to the bedroom together.

Not too long after that, he left his bed again. I gave him another warning - if he leaves the bed again, I would close the door. I had to close the door for that short 2 minutes. He was asking for potty immediately the door was closed. He knows what to get me to him. I went inside and took him to potty, he did go. Then I took him to the bed and ask him to pretend the ducky is me and the moo is Daddy. I asked him to hug the duck to sleep and pretend that it was me cuddling him. Before I left his bedside, I told him I will be busy making dinner so don’t get up from the bed again. I walked out.

Five minutes gone by, it was very quiet and I knew he fell asleep already. I peeked inside and saw him in the same sleeping position as the moment I left his bedside.

We are trying to save up more money for a down payment of a new home. I think my husband and I probably need to sit down one night (after son sleeps) and put our financial planning together to see how much we have now and how long more to go before we have enough down payment for the new place.

Lucky for us, we are able to manage our own finances and we owe nothing except the mortgage. I know some other people whom don’t even know what is saving up for the rainy days. Someone I know spends as much as he earns. Even he was making a lot of money, he doesn’t know where his money goes. He almost busted all his credit cards and now he only manage to pay the monthly minimum. He doesn’t own a home which is sad but he can’t afford it. I think the best way is for him to have Debt Relief Help from some place like Freedom Debt Relief.

Freedom Debt Relief offers a 10 free minutes of consultation at their toll free number. After the consultation, if you feel they are the company that you can work with to help with your situation, you should sign up and let them assist you with the financial debt problem. With them working with you, you can be out of debt within 12-36 months. They also can help to lower what you owe by as much as 50%. I am thinking to recommend this place to my friend and I do hope he will get things work out or else, one day he may need to file for bankruptcy which I hate to say.

Logo credit: Copyright © freedomdebtrelief.com

When my cousin sister told me that she was annoyed when her brother texted her telling her to wash her hands with soap before touching the baby, I could immediately relate (to her brother that is).  It turned out that his daughter was having diarrhea and my cousin sister was playing with her niece before that.  But it was definitely not my cousin sister’s fault because she knows to wash her hands with soap before touching any babies. 

Now, why can I relate?  I witness it myself.  My in-laws likes to work in the garden.  That’s good.  Sometimes we go over in the evening and upon entering the front yard, FIL/MIL will be working in the garden.  But once we go inside the house, he/she will join us too. 

However, I notice that both never wash their hands with soap.  FIL doesn’t wash the hand at all.  Even after he brings out the garbage from the kitchen to the trashcan.  MIL washes her hand with water only.  Both likes to caress/stroke Brandon’s hair, body and hands upon coming in from the garden.  I do not know what is the best way to approach them to tell them wash their hands with soap before touching little kid because it might transmit any germs/bacteria/parasites from the garden to my son.  Both also work without gloves.  Even with gloves, I would wash my hands and arms with water and soap immediately after I am done with garden work.

Today when they both came over to my house, they saw me putting cream on Brandon’s back and asked me what’s wrong.  I told them he got some tiny pimples on the back … but don’t know what it is.  Then MIL said yes, bugs like to bite on little kids because their meat is sweeter.  Then I told her, kind hinted her that he won’t get much bugs because he never spend time in the garden/outdoor.  And whenever he is outdoor, he wears shoes most of the time.  MIL then said, “Ya, even us, we changed new clothing, wash our hands and make sure we are clean before we come over to your house.“ 

That’s the part that gets me.  She might just say it but never really practise.  She may washes her hands but with no soap.  Is that clean?  I witnessed it myself during the week, how many times they worked in the garden but never wash their hands with soap.  Sometimes I kind hinted when I was over there when I see them returning inside from their garden.  I tell Brandon to stay away first because grandma/grandpa needs to wash their hands (with soap I was hoping) … but that didn’t get to them.  *sigh*