back to basics

Dear blogger friends,

thank you for expressing your concern on my recent encounter with yet another maid problem. i really value your sympathy. the bad experience has definitely made me turn into a paranoid person, but nevertheless, on a more positive side, i now get to look after my own kids and household, sans the fear of having my children left behind ever again. of course, i don't mean that i quit my job or anything to that extent, but from the moment i get home, my time is fully devoted to the kids and house chores.

my routine now goes something like this. wake up around 6 something, get ready for work. kids are sent to in-laws' place while nazim goes to school till noon. they stay there till about 5 or so then i come home, with them and start preparing for dinner (although i've been very lucky to have such a nice mom in-law who packs up dinner for all of us). so i have yet to prepare dinner myself. plus, when the kids get home, they're all nice and ready in their jammys! aaahh..now that's what i call quality day-care! and the packed dinners? now where can you get that kind of deal?! so, basically what i'm left with is bottle-cleaning and sterilizing, laundry, and cleaning up after the mess made by kids after their done playing with their toys. and this happens quite a few times a day. so i'd normally just wait till they go to sleep to clean up the mess. by 8.30pm, i must put the kids to sleep. this is a must! to enable hubby and i to have some quality time either watching tv or just surfing the web. at times, i'd doze off as well while putting them to sleep, like tonight for instance...which would leave me all bright-eyed and bushy tail at 2 in the morning! which leaves me to do none other than blogging, and emailing...etc..

and the cycle continues...

it's not that bad. i just notice one significant difference from having a maid and not having one. i'm on my feet almost every minute of the day while i'm at home. the chores just don't seem to end. everytime i'm done with something, there's always another thing to do. and living in a double storey house adds up to the challenge too. i now find myself playing the memory game. everytime i make my way downstairs, i'd be scanning the room for anything that might need to be brought along like bottles, or dirty laundry, or just anything that would save me from going up again. same goes when i want to make my way up...my mind would immediately try to remember whatever things that need to be brought up. sometimes i even make use of the helper upstairs (hubby) to chuck the dirty laundry from upstairs, just so i don't have to go up. so nowadays i can see my feet get a little swollen by night time. so i try to raise them a bit just to reduce the swelling. i don't have much complains, really. i'm quite domesticated, and i like to keep my house cleaned, and laundry done at the ideal pace...and done my way.

despite the not-so-favorable incidents with the recents maids, we are still applying for a new maid. and this time, we hope to get someone older, and more mature, and thru a more established agent. so insyaAllah, all will be well.

Oh! in a few weeks, i'll be going for a trip to the land of the free. hmm..i kinda have mixed feelings about this trip. for one, we have NOT made any hotel bookings whatsoever! but kinda excited too to go back to the place i used to live for 6 years but can't stand the anxiety of long hours in the flight and for a first, with a kid tagged along. Hmm..it's going to be fun, i hope.

adios amigos!