Mama's Bag Of Tricks

Last Tuesday we sent in our car for service at Proton Edar and we waited for 3 hours for it to get done. 3 very, very looooong hours. AND I had the baby with me. Thank goodness she didn't really put up a fuss. And thank goodness there was a food court nearby. Unfortunately there wasn't much food left to eat but it was good enough to keep us going until evening.

When it comes to car repairs, it is so important to find a mechanic that you can trust. There are so many "con-men" out there waiting for gullible victims. They will either do a shabby job, use cheap lousy spare parts or simply change parts of your car without your permission and then charge you a bomb.

When we were living in PJ, my DH sent his car to a mechanic in Taman Paramount. He was a really trustworthy guy. Sometimes he won't charge us for little problems. Then we moved out here to PA. We were lucky to find another trusted mechanic. He and my DH built a good relationship. He would even treat my little boy to roti canai and milo.

Since we are moving soon to another town, we have to hunt again for a trusted mechanic there. If we were in U.S., it would be easy because there are websites like RepairPal that allows you to find a mechanic in your area and you can also get repair estimates. For example, if you lived in Dallas, you could get from the website a list of Dallas auto repair. Plus, if you want to get more information on a certain type of car like Chevrolet Silverado, you can read reviews, problem reports and questions posed by other people.

I have to send my car again to Proton Edar because the brake fluid is slightly leaking. They didn't have the spare parts the other day and so they will schedule another appointment for us. I dread the idea of going back there. Hopefully it won't take another 3 hours to do the brake job.

*This post brought to you by your friends at RepairPal

Jiejie-K is my #1 kitchen helper. Now I have a #2 kitchen helper - D1


Here he is helping to cook the spinach. When I was plucking off the leaves, he said he wanted to help. So I showed him how to do it. He mutilated some of the leaves but that's okay, for the sake of education. Then I showed him how to wash it. He learned how to gently wash them so it doesn't end up as mush as the end. And he learned he has to wash them 3-4 times to get all the dirt and sand out.


This is him cooking baked beans with scrambled eggs. This is his 2nd time cooking this dish. He learned that there is an order in the way we cook. Like here, we cooked the eggs first and then put it aside. Then we cooked the other vegetables before cooking the baked beans last. This way, we don't have to wash the wok until the end -- save energy and time.

D1 also cut the egg taufu for me. He can also cut long beans for me too. This boy of mine sometimes has his "I want to help" moods. When he does, I take advantage of it. Helping in the kitchen is part of their education.

PLR? Do you know what that is? It's short for Private Label Rights. If you are trying to make money online, then PLR is something you must consider.

You probably already know that to make money online, you need to publish good content. Why? Because good content will bring in the traffic. And the more people you have visiting your site, the more chances you have of making a sale. It is also important to keep your website or blog updated regularly. Like a bee who won't come back to a flower that doesn't have nectar, visitors won't come back to your blog if there's nothing new.

Another way to use content is to compile it into an e-book that you can give away for free. People love free stuff. So, if you have good information to give away for free, you can attract visitors to your site.

Since we are talking about free but valuable information, you can craft content into a e-course too. Giving away free e-books and e-courses is one way to build a subscriber list. Once you have a list, you'll need content for a newsletter or to keep them updated. Good content will keep you connected with your visitors.

So you see, writing good content is very important if you want your online business to strive. I'm sure you've heard this phrase before: "Content is King"

Unfortunately, not everyone is gifted in writing. And I'm sure everyone, including you, would jump at the idea of someone offered to do the writing for you. This is where PLR comes in. It is someone writing content for you. You can use the content as is or modify it to your liking. It sure saves you lots of time and headache. A PLR package can help you churn out content faster. That means you get to spend more time on important stuff like marketing and also family.

If you want to ease up your work load, learn how to use PLR.

Happy Birthday BabyK. So quickly 1 year has past by. Let us do a quick development check.

• Walking yet? No. Still prefers crawling.
  
• Talking yet? Not really. There's mamamam and babababa. We would like to think she is calling mama and papa, but maybe that's just our interpretation of her babbling. She does call for her siblings once in a while. She just yells "Aaaah".
  
• Can grab and release things? Yes! To keep her happy, we'll give her things to hold like straws and spoons. She's not really into toy stuff like teddy bears. If she's done playing with the "toy", she'll just throw it. BUT if you ask her nicely to give it to you, she will (80% of the time she will).
  
• Pincer grasp is developed? Yes. Usually it's used to pick up small tiny pieces of rubbish on the floor like paper. She also uses it to try to turn pages on a book.
  
• Opening cupboard doors and drawers? Unfortunately yes. Have to get some locks soon.
  
• How does she communicate? By pointing. She will also pat your hand as a way of saying "I want something".
  
• Favorite food? French fries, keropok and jelly. I'm still impatiently waiting for the day that she will eat normal stuff like porridge, rice, noodles. She does eat a little but the quantity is so minute I don't think you can even consider it as eating. Give her good food and she will end up sticking her finger into her mouth to dig it out. Then she will appear like a bulimic baby trying to induce herself to vomit.
  

Okay, that's a little bit about 1 year old babyK. Here are the birthday pictures. We didn't have a BIG celebration like we did the other siblings. She can't eat yet and she can't walk yet, so we figured we'll postpone the BIG birthday party to another time.

BabyK is going to turn 1 very, very soon. We've been coaxing her to walk. She took her first 2 tiny steps last Saturday. Since then, we've been having "practice sessions". As you can see from the video, it takes almost the whole family to motivate her to walk.

Mamas Parenting Tip

• Baby will walk when she wants to. There really isn't a magic formula to get them walking earlier. My first 3 kids started walking around 9-10 months old. This one wants to be a late bloomer.
  
• Teach your children to help, support and encourage one another.
  
• One reason for sibling rivalry is jealousy. Many times my children will talk in a way that they try to put down the other. They feel they have to be better than the other. It is important to teach children that they are not in a competition. They do not have to compete for your love and attention. On the contrary, they should be happy for one another. One sibling's success does not mean failure for the others. On the contrary, one sibling's success is a success for the whole family.

Babies these days have a natural inclination towards gadgets and stuff. Besides the remote control, babyK loves to "hijack" my computer. Here she is messing around with my keyboard (probably trying to chat with someone on FaceBook) and exploring the mouse (even licking to see how it tastes). Her octopus hands at work. She's definitely going to grow into another kid who'll bug me with the question "Mommy, can I play computer?"