:: And The Journey Begins ::

hats off to our moms. they were truly the super moms.
recalling my mom's life:

wake up to prepare breakfast for the whole family.
wake the children and prep up for school.
chuck clothes in the washing machine.
get ready for work.
make sure the kids are all seated at the table for breakfast.
get the husband to come down and have breakfast together.
train the kids to slowly bring their own dirty dishes to the kitchen sink, and wait patiently as they wash.
send kids to school. go to work.
make sure bus driver picks up kids from school in the afternoon.
come home and do some cleaning - be it the floor, toilet, etc.
bathe, cook for family. dinner has to be ready before 8pm.
get everybody to wash up and ready at the table by 8.
clean up by 9pm. get children to do some school homework if they hadn't done much in the afternoon, or light revision.
do some ironing.
get the kids to bed by 10pm.
LIGHTS OUT.

despite my mom having a maid (or two at one point), most of the chores and cooking are done by her, as she believes women will always be women. they belong in teh kitchen, and they have to be modest enough to master the house chores.

i've been trying to do all that, but of course really drained myself out for the first few months. and that, given the fact that i dont have kids. i dont know how our mothers did it back then. i cannot imagine myself doing all those with kids around. alhamdulillah as time goes by, i kinda get the hang of things a little bit, and with the help of the husband, the house looks neat :)

i do not understand people out there who claimed themselves SUPERMOMS when all they did was taking care of the child, entertaining their husbands and doing business at home, in their own sweet time and pace, at the comfort and expense of their parents (STILL!). I mean come on, you barely get your hands on house chores, u LIVE still with your parents, you live LAVISHLY at their expense (whilst your husband sweats their bums off trying to "provide" for you and your expensive style of living) and you have people taking care of your child while you go off and have your husband-wife time off, girls night out, girls breakfast outing, girls retail outing, girls coffee break and girls mani pedi. and you have the balls to self-proclaim SUPERMOM? seriously? i'm sorry, but from what i see, you're nothing but a brat. on top of that, you have the guts to be telling people how greaatt and carefree life as a husband and wife is. knock knock, are u even real? stop giving people false expectations will ya? of course it's easy on your side, coz you've got "slaves" serving you.

but then again, what on earth are these self-proclaimed supermoms' parents doing? aren't they supposed to teach their children to manage their own lives? i mean, as a parent, you're supposed to teach your child how to fish, instead of bluntly giving them a fish, right? no wonder divorce cases plummeted over the years. these sort of married couples are the ones (to me) contributing to most of the cases. not just because maybe something bad happened and they couldnt cope on living below their usual par, but also maybe because they led people to become "victims" of translation, upon their exaggeratingly portrayed contented, carefree lives - which indirectly of course led the victims onto filing for divorce. u get my drift?

then comes juvenile cases. from rape to murder. what shall become of the future, our kids. it's so painful to see human intelligence being wasted. an outcome of simple and "harmless" injection of technology. the irony. how bad can things get over the years.

i had a somewhat contentment when i went for my 1-week leadership camp. a week in the jungle, sleeping in the camp, cooking my own meal the military way, drinking fresh water from the river, appreciating every bit of food and liquid that goes through this throat and keeping the tummy out of hunger. i felt that every part of my body were given turns to be appreciated. i, felt appreciated. and so i brought that vibe home. and i have since swore to aggressively minimize my complaints and do whatever i can to maintain a healthy home, and a healthy relationship with everyone around me. literally because i felt appreciated, out of my own efforts. my motto form now on is "just do it. complaint less, and enjoy everything that you do". insyaallah you'll be fine. well, alhamdulillah, i'm doing fine so far :)

as to the newly weds out there, there isn't anything specific for you as an advice. though my only advice is, once you've got involved into something, take new challenges as it is. live your life day by day, enjoy it. do it slowly, staggeringly. take your time. once u complaint, that's when negativity swoops in. smile, breathe, recite your bismillah, recite your alhamdulillah, recite your "istighfar" - astaghfirullahal'adzim. no matter what religion you are, try to thank god for everything, always. ask for forgiveness, ask for strength, ask for faith, ask for calm and peace. hopefully we shall all minimize the negativity around us.