Mothering Corner

I’ve just made my order at Bentocraft.com yesterday, and I’m so excited to get these 2 items:

Tomica Fire Engine BentoAnimal Picks

Animal Picks

There are a lot of new bento boxes, especially sandwich bento box. I was tempted to get Shinkansen and Cinnamonroll sandwich boxes, but I know that I’m really running out of space to keep more bentos! So, if you are interested, do take a peep at BentoCraft.

I found a few new picks at some Japanese bento blogs, and maybe Carmen, the owner of BentoCraft, will bring them in soon. I just can’t wait to get the picks with the cute characters with custom hats. I have seen them somewhere, but I can’t remember which blog it was.

Anyway, it’s nice to have a few more cute items added to my bento tools collection!

Hubby’s been away for a few days, but the kids are behaving quite well. They do make me lose my cool some times, but kids are just kids, I can’t expect them to be totally “good” 24/7.

I only drop by the office in the afternoon, so I will have more time to settle some chores at home. I feel like a better mother this way, at least I’m not getting too tired  trying to get things done by the end of the day. Since the kids are having their exams this week, they don’t have any homework. Besides that, I don’t do revision with them. Come on, they are only 5 and 3 years old, how much should I care about their exams now? *ok, I’m a lazy mom is some ways. *

As for work wise, things are slowing down again this week. Maybe it’s due to the “predicted political turbulence” on Friday, so most Thai people are getting nervous about this. I shall put away the new product specs and whole life insurance, which I’m supposed to read about today and follow the news closely. Sigh, there it goes again.

I fixed something simple and easy this morning. It’s been awhile since we last had SPAM, so I felt like having SPAM sandwiches. I cut the SPAM with a flower cutter before frying it.

The bread was cut with the same cutter too.

Cut some cheese with this Rilakkuma cutter.

Then, I stacked the cheese on SPAM sandwiches.

Some details were added with bits smoked cheese and kamaboko.

More details are added in, including punched nori.

After that, I slotted in some corns and fruits in the bento, and here they are:

My gal’s bento

This bento belongs to my boy.

Most of my friends are still enjoying their CNY holiday, but over here in Thailand, we don’t have public holiday during CNY. Our kids can’t skip school for too many days. Their teachers reminded us that they will be having their exams next week, and it’s best to be back to school for revision. As you know, our kids are in Thai school, so we rely on the teachers to blush up their Thai language. I certainly can’t help them much with their school work!

So, we’re sort of like getting back to our normal routine, in a holiday mood. I was having a hard time getting out of bed early this morning, even the stainless steel drums won’t wake me up because I’m still pretty tired after the trip to Hua Hin. But anyway, today’s bentos are not complicated, and I managed to get them ready just in time.

What I had in mind  was Humpty Dumpty, and I fixed the character with quail eggs. I added a heart candy in the bentos, and my kids were thrilled with it.

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall in my boy’s bento.

My gal’s Humpty Dumpty

As you can see, I was going through some blog diarrhea these 2 days. I’ve almost done with all my pending blogging job, so next will be my office work.

If I have some time this afternoon, I will start sorting out the 700++ photos taken over the weekend. I’m in charged of creating and printing our annual family album again, and distributing them out to other family members. What a heavy task huh? LOL!

It’s going to be a busy busy day for me.

I hardly care much about money as hubby takes charge of this “department” in our family affairs. Even if I’m helping him at work, I don’t have my own salary due to some restrictions on hiring a foreigner here in Thailand. Our company is not running in a big scale, so we can only hire one foreigner, which is hubby.

But if hubby is passing over to me, I will be able to get my own work permit and monthly salary, if business is running well. Hopefully, he will still be giving me my shopping allowance, and the extra salary will be safely kept in my account. Come to think of it, maybe it’s time to buy gold bullion when I have sufficient amount in the account. LOL!

This year is going to be a busy year for hubby and I. He has some other plans which he likes to venture into, so I shall be taking over his existing business. I was in doubt at first, considering that I can’t speak much Thai, and I can’t read Thai at all. But if hubby can pick up the language in 6 months all by himself, I should be blushing up my Thai too.

Looking at it from the bright side, taking it over will mean that I’m owning the job and back to the workforce “officially” again.

Hubby might be traveling more frequently, and I will be busier than ever. Frankly, I wonder if we need a maid, but after not having one for almost 2 years, I’m not too used to having a “stranger” at home anymore. I will probably have less time for myself, more stress to handle, and I hope that I can face this new challenge well. Hopefully, I won’t have any outbreak and need an acne face wash. LOL!

It’s a Chinese custom to give out angpao money to young children, or elderly during Chinese New Year. My kids love the angpaos, especially since there is money in it! Normally, I will take out the money and let the kids keep the red packets for fun. I’ll get hubby to bank in the money back home, in my boy’s account, when he’s going back this weekend. We let the kids share one account so far, and haven’t got one for my gal. I know it sounds unfair, but we will get this done in the future. If I manage to get a work permit here, after taking over hubby’s company, I will try to get an account for her in Bangkok. So far, I can’t get my own account here either.

I guess we will bank in the equal amount of money into her account, just like her brother’s. By doing so every year, the kids might have quite a lot of money by the time they are 18 years old. Then, they can decide on what they want to do with the money. Hopefully, my boy won’t spend all on Ferrari parts and my gal won’t spend all on design brands.

I woke up with a bad sore throat. I didn’t drink much water over the past few days, and the only drink I had was Barcadi, which is an alcohol drink. Oh well, we were celebrating CNY, so having healthy food is way out of our minds. LOL!

BTW, I noticed that going for a swim after a bottle of alcohol is a bad idea. My SIL insisted that we had our drinks in the afternoon, under the sun and by the pool. I went for a swim after some drinks and got up with a bad migraine. So, I’ve learned my lesson. No alcohol before a swim! Besides that, I’m a lousy drinker and I can’t drink much. I get drunk very easily. How lame huh? LOL!

MIL always suggested that we take some vitamin B and C before a drink. Maybe the best multivitamin pills might work too. That’s what I will ask hubby to do before he’s going for his social drink. For me, I prefer to have my nice cup of coffee, instead of any alcohol during outings.

My kids arrived at school late today. They woke up early, but I didn’t. I got up at the same time with them so I didn’t pack them any bento. My boy did ask why there is no bento today, so I will go grab them some fresh fruits from the supermarket during my lunch break. Frankly, my fridge is kind of bare to come out with any bento!

All of us slept early last night. We were very exhausted. I’m so glad that I look fresh this morning, even the best eye creams won’t get me that kind of effect. We were late because we had just realized that our kids didn’t do their homework. O.o

So, the kids got to rush their homework before going to school. It’s our first working day at the office after CNY. Gosh, working is really piling up!

I love going to the beach, but I hate the after effect. It’s like months of whitening effort goes down the drain faster than you can save it. I apply tonnes on sunblock with SPF50 and PA+++ on myself, but still, I get darker after a few hours in the sun. Maybe I don’t reapply it more often.

Hubby is going away again this week, so I will be rather busy, work wise and at home. I’m not sure if I can sneak out some time for a nice facial and the laser treatment which I’ve longed to go for a year. Maybe I will check out skin id review or any beauty blogs for a good whitening range, and get the products first. No matter what, I still think laser treatment is the most effective one.