Busy Me.

An idle mind is a devil's playground. A reason why I keep going out of my way looking for things to do to occupy my already busy schedule. However, having an almost 2 year old constantly in my shadows does limit the kind of activities that I would like to be involved in. The task of finding someone to care for her while I busy myself with activities that does not involve my children just doesn't seem right to me. I've heard of the guilty working mom syndrome. Maybe this is the guilty stay-at-home mom syndrome?

I had jumped up at the chance to do the monthly bus roster due to several reasons. Firstly, I wanted to be able to help a friend out as I was aware that doing the monthly bus roster was taking up much of his time especially since he had a very busy work schedule. He had put in so much work, time and effort into getting the whole bus service up and running that I thought it was the least that I could do to help out.   

I had also wanted to be more involved with the school bus service since I couldn't do bus duties being the sole carer of Baby H. Bringing her along on the bus wasn't an option as she will not be covered under the bus insurance. This was what I thought to be a way for me to contribute and show my appreciation towards a most valuable service. The bus had solve a huge dilemma we had faced previously when I was unable to drive (till like 2 weeks ago! lol). We had a hard time figuring out the logistics to sending and fetching our children from school each day. Tried car pooling but since the dads involved had erratic work schedules, we would find days with no one to drive the kids to school and catching a cab with the children and the baby became a nightmare for me.

The bus roster was also a good distraction for me. Children, family and house chores keeps me busy enough, but the distraction provided an escape outlet for me to unwind from my monotonous daily schedule. Trying to fit in erratic work schedules and requests while allocating equal amount of shifts to each family each month is like trying to solve a puzzle. Challenging, sometimes fun but most time quite tiresome. LOL. However, when it all comes together, I feel satisfied.

Now that I can drive, I look forward to the days I need to pick them up from clubs and ferry them around for their extra curricular activities. It gives me a sense of purpose and I have a reason to go out. I love being in the car with them talking or just listening to them chattering away.

In future, I plan to join the moms coffee mornings, arrange playdates and volunteer for school activities. It would also be nice if I could involve myself with some NGOs as well but that would have to wait till my little one is off at school which won't happen till 2012.

Presently, I'm running my own community website (which unfortunately is not as active as I would want want it to be), managing this blog, doing lessons and revisions with Dearest S each day, creating my own materials, teaching aids and methods to teach Cheeky M and Baby H to read, trying out new recipes, figuring out activities to do with the kids during the weekends  and the latest, planning a community garage sale. Why do I keep myself as busy as possible? So I could avoid the one thing I loath doing the most, the laundry. ;)

The Return of Aunt Flo

I can't believe I am actually writing about this but I guess in my life, this is as exciting as it gets. :P

Aunt Flo is back. Who is Aunt Flo? She's that monthly 'inconvenience' that all women of age goes through each month. The last time I had it was...uh...hmmm...well, lets just say it has been awhile.

I have always been a hardcore breastfeeding enthusiast. I had breastfed my first two children up to the age of 2 and my youngest is a month short from being weened off for good. The best thing about breastfeeding exclusively on demand for me is, Aunt Flo disappears from my life for a long, long time. When I first began to breastfeed, from the time I gave birth, Aunt Flo was gone for a good 21 months. Second time around, she came back after 19 months and now a whopping 23 months!

Every time a friend asks how long it's been since my last monthly visits, they are usually flabbergasted to hear that I haven't seen her yet. My favorite reply has always been "I'm still waiting for puberty to hit me" Hehe. ;)

However, the downside is, she'll be coming irregularly for a couple of months and based on my previous track record, I'll have her in my life for 2 or 3 times before I get knocked up again. That's another thing, somehow I become really, really fertile.

This time around though, I'm planning to see as much of Aunt Flo as I can. No more baking buns in the ovens. I'm welcoming Aunt Flo with open arms. For her sake, I will endure the bloatedness, cramping and crazy mood swings without any complaints. Hope she feels really welcomes and from now on, comes to visit me each month without fail. Welcome back Aunty dear! LOL

I Passed! Yippee!

I thought this day would never come. I passed my driving exam! I am now truly and officially a UAE driving license holder. I'm over the moon!

No more fretting, no more anxiety attacks and pounding headaches and best of all no more mood swings (well, at least the ones related to driving exams). My life can resume back to normal.

The exam wasn't at all what I had expected. The whole thing lasted perhaps 2 or 3 minutes. I had to do a normal U-turn and another U-turn around the roundabout. The police officer was unusually friendly and helpful (perhaps that was due to his superior being chums with my hubby but never mind that).When the test was over and I received a paper stating I passed, I seriously can't believe why had I fussed so much over it.

Gosh. I'm feeling quite elated that I'm actually speechless. Can't wait to hit the road! :D

One down, one more to go.

I did it! I passed my theoretical driving exam. I'm half-way to getting a valid left-hand driving license. Yee haw! I was a little nervous before the exam. One of the main reason being, I didn't even bother studying for it. My so called studying consisted of scanning through the notes and glancing at the road signs in the span of 30 minutes right before I was to take the exam. I'm happy to say that my almost non-existing effort in preparing for the exam scored me a 28 over 35. I can't believe that I had only just made it. One more mistake and I would have failed and had to redo the exam. Thank goodness.

After waiting for more than 2 hours, I finally got my certificate and the date of my practical exam. Looks like I'll be sitting for that in a little over a month from now. Thinking about that one is giving heart palpitations. Looks like it'll be another month of anxiety for me. Seriously, I'm so hating this. The things that I have to go through just to be able to have a little piece of freedom. *sigh*