Our Gardening/ Farming Experience Thus Far

When NParks launched the free seeds programme in June, everyone was clamouring to get a packet of the free seeds to grow. I am not sure why, but everyone, even people who have no interest whatsoever in any form of gardening (ie people like Dear1, haha) were the first people to quickly register for a pack. After 2 months of checking the letterbox daily for that packet of seeds, a record number of people finally embarked on their first gardening experience. Us included.

As we received our seeds pretty late, I have seen many people’s seeds failed to germinate or did not progress beyond the sprouting stage. “It’s not so easy to grow these seeds de,” Granny proclaimed. Indeed, all of us novice gardeners either (a) do not have the experience or know-how like farmers do, or (b) do not have the resources (like soil, space, sunlight, fertilisers etc) to succeed in this endeavour. While Nparks truly hoped to inculcate a new spirit of gardening among Singaporeans, it is indeed not easy to grow living things from seeds.

I have almost wanted to give away my tomato and kangkong seeds (already gave up before trying, lol) when Baby1 insisted that we try planting them first. Oh well, let’s just do our part and attempt to help Singapore achieve her 30-by-30 goal. And so, I got Baby1 and Baby2 to sow out 2 trays of seeds on 29 August.

2.5 weeks later, I must say that all of us (me especially!) are having fun with this gardening. We now have:

– 2 “pots” of kangkong, each with 6 sprouts ranging from 1.5cm to 10cm tall (that makes 60% germination success), though not all are looking very well now
– 1 cucumber sprout (10cm) + 1 new sprout which just sprouted overnight this morning (so 20% germination success)
– 1 (very weak looking, 4cm) tomato sprout + 1 new sprout which just sprouted overnight this morning too (10%)
– 3 sprigs of spring onions, tallest 14cm (100%!)
– 1 new 18-hole lettuce bed (started yesterday on the Smart Garden)

It is so satisfying and fascinating to see these plants grow up and bigger and greener day by day and even throughout the day. I would very much hope that we will be able to harvest these fruits (or vegetables), so that we can contribute towards Singapore’s goal of producing 30% of our nutritional needs locally by 2030, but my confidence is still not strong at this stage (all our regrow-xiaobaicai-from-scraps have failed). Regardless, I hope to use this as teaching opportunities to teach Baby1 and Baby2 about plants and gardening. “There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments.”

Some notes which I have learnt so far:

1) Germination works better on warm days (our 2 new babies today sprouted because yesterday was finally a warm day after a week’s of continuous rain and cold weather).

2) Indoor sun is possible, but you will have to place them where there is sunlight (ours is just the morning and afternoon indirect sunlight through the window panes). On the floor beside a window wall is not enough light. And when people say indoor plant, they probably meant “indoors, but with constant lights on, like in an office”. Perhaps that is why our Fittonia could not survive when we place it in the living room last time though it is supposed to be an easy indoor plant.

3) Be careful when repotting the sprouts; the roots are surprisingly long beneath all that soil.

4) The Smart Garden promises more returns and less fuss. Constant red and white LED lights which can be set on a 16hr/8hr timer, sensor to indicate water top up needed and no soil.

So far, the outlay costs are not too excessive (except for Dear1’s Smart Garden which cost $51.90 after all the Q0010 coupons. But then again, it will be interesting to see if the higher costs of “smart technology” really is better than the traditional manual, low cost farming. Let’s wait and see!). I’ve spent about $30 on a IKEA 3-tier trolley, $0.50 each for 4 hanging IKEA pots, $2.50 each for 3 packs of soil from Cheers and $2.50 on a water spray which is actually not required at all. My old pots have not been used yet as I am using those disposable plastic square food containers which are the perfect fit on the trolley, and disposable plastic spoons from takeaways as gardening spades. The seeds are all free from Nparks, and the spring onions are from 2 leftover shallots that have grown long roots and which I would have discarded anyways. The spring onions are in fact the strongest performers now!

I have always find it a hassle to do gardening; all that daily care and effort just to grow some plants to look at!? That is why I have entrusted Baby1 to be fully responsible for her succulents (present from her teacher last year as Children’s Day gift), and I do not really care much for our rosemary and fern on our corridor outside. Farming seems to be more meaningful (and fun), cos there is a chance that you will get to eat them! Speaking of which, I should find a Rosemary Chicken recipe soon, keke!

It is very heartening to see new sprouts grow out, especially those that painstakingly push out from the soil after a long while. What resilience!

– Dear2

On a side note, because of travel restrictions and we cannot go overseas at all, we are able to do gardening and water the plants everyday because we are home everyday. :|

On another side note, where are we going to place the cucumber plant if it grows to such a humongous size? Hmm, it will be a good problem when we come to that.

Coffee and Games Addiction

Coffee addiction is real, and so is games addiction.

During our Malacca trip last December, I was struck with food poisoning on the second half of our trip. No stomach for anything, so I missed my morning coffee for 2 days. Throughout the second day, I felt restless all over. I couldn’t find a place to put my hands, and my whole body just felt limp. I concluded that was because my body was lacking in coffee. Nowadays, I drink a cup of coffee black at home every morning – no sugar, no milk. It’s actually okay palatable, but of course I still love a kopi siew-dai whenever I get a chance.

Baby1 and Baby2 get to play the Nintendo DS on Sundays. We always tell them, “time to work, work; time to play, play”. So weekdays are strictly no games, and when all work is done before the weekends, they get to play games. Sometimes when we see that they have completed all their work, or when we want some quiet time, or when they have been doing well in school so give them some slack during the weekends, we relaxed the rules and they get the DS on Saturdays too. And when that happens, both of them will be looking forward to the weekends, on Sunday nights!!

Can you imagine that? They will already be looking forward to the following weekend when they go to bed on Sunday night! And they become lethargic on Monday (they are already experiencing Monday blues at this age!). And by Thursday night, they feel energised because it’s Friday the next day (1 more day to weekends)! They’ll jump out of bed on Saturday morning (which is the total opposite for weekday mornings!), and be all ready to start the day early in the morning (hello, it’s the weekends, Mummy and Papa want to sleep in!).

OMG, these kids are dreading the weekdays, and they want everyday to be the weekends. Why? Because we allowed them to play DS on both Saturday and Sunday. To me, this looks like real games addiction. So the solution is, no more games on Saturdays. I do believe that some games is okay, they are afterall still kids, and we adults need some peace and quiet too. However when their whole mind is on games all day long, all week long, we have to put a stop to this.

I know how easy it is to give in to games. Just throw an iPad/ handphone/ DS/ any electronic or TV game to any kid, and we adults get much peace. Instantaneously. I know world wide, many parents are resorting to this because of all these lockdown/ stayhome restrictions we are currently still facing. It’s not easy, to be a parent, and in these tumultuous times, but let’s just be a little more mindful towards our kids, especially when they are becoming too addicted to games.

– Dear2

I made Icing Sugar from Sugar

Now that we have come out from the 2 months Circuit Breaker, I am beginning to feel that daily hectic rush again. While there was some anxiety, some frustation, much restrictions and some boredom during those 2 months cooped up at home, there were actually many silver linings for us.

First and foremost, I made icing sugar out of sugar. I’ve been wanting to try making pineapple tarts for Chinese New Year for the past few years, but every December was so busy and by the time January comes, I didn’t want to risk a new recipe to serve my beloved relatives and friends. So when I saw pineapple paste in NTUC, I decided to make pineapple tarts (in May!?). Can get the kids to roll out everything (good activity to pass the time, keke), but the problem was, I couldn’t get icing sugar. I know that the melt-in-the-mouth effect of this tart comes from the icing sugar, so I can’t just replace icing sugar for normal sugar. Then I remembered something about blitzing sugar to get icing sugar. I did just that, and our tarts turned out to be good enough to sell!

Baby1 and Baby2 also progressed much in their piano during this 2 months. Their piano school held a 50 days marathon challenge, and that “forced” them to practice piano every day. So they spent much of their 2 months lockdown mornings at the piano. First, they really improved lots during these 2 months; both of them finished learning all 3 exam pieces in just 50 days. Second, they get to pass the time meaningfully. And third, they even did piano-jamming together. That is what I call “playing with music”. :)

I also discovered some new recipes during this period. In line with the Government’s rules, I only go to the market and NTUC only once a week, so that forced me to come up with ingenious ways to use up whatever remaining ingredients at home towards the end of the week. I am never a creative person, so was very surprised when I whipped up a dinner of baked skewers with leftover odd numbers meats and veggies, topped with rice, dried seaweed and various sauces.

Now that life is progressively returning to normal, kids going to school (alternately for now), enrichment lessons resuming (virtually though), I am feeling busy again. The first weekend after circuit breaker, I flared up big, something which surprises me even, cos people were complaining of cabin fever earlier but I felt more peaceful and relaxed then actually. There’s more clothes to wash now, more food to prepare (for kids to bring for recess; they even need recess food for HBL days!), more lessons to go to (ballet, piano, Google Meet on HBL days, and even eCCA!). Even though we still do not need to step out of the house for those online lessons, but rushing for those commitments still do take a toll, physically and mentally.

Life may not always be sweet as sugar, but if we can somehow find little joys in life to celebrate, just like how I was so overjoyed to get icing sugar from normal sugar (btw, icing sugar costs twice as much lor!), I guess there is much to be appreciative about.

– Dear2

May School Holidays

This is a weird May School Holidays.  Our mid-year school holidays usually fall in the month of June, yet this year has been so extraordinary, I wonder if the world will return to normality soon, or even at all. Indeed, this is supposed to be the third week of the mid-year school holidays, but why do I have the feeling that both kids have been very relaxed and have playing for many many weeks? Indeed, both Baby1 and Baby2 have not stepped out of the house since 1.5 months ago, except for those trips to the clinics for medical treatments, and the morning exercise along the corridor when they had Full HBL earlier. 6 weeks at home so far, I am fairly grateful that both of them have been playing well together most of the time, phew.

Usually for the month long June or December holidays, I’ll usually arrange some out-of-the-house activities to occupy the kids. We’ll go for holidays, or chalet, or bring the kids out somewhere. Plus the usual enrichment classes of ballet, piano and swimming, and going over to granny’s house, we were kept pretty busy and tired on most days.

But this May has been so different. We do not have to step out of the house for enrichment lessons, and we cannot go out anywhere at all. The kids spend 1 hr on okto everyday, plus 1 hr on k drama, and a couple other shows that they want to watch (subjected to Mummy’s approval). In between the daily piano practice, meals, some chores, some work time and daily bedtime of 9.30pm latest, the rest is free time. And they have found a very interesting activity to do: building a hideout!

One fine day, I found them sneakily hiding under the study table behind some books and cushions. They have discovered that this hideout is very fun. So I gave them a few blankets and some laundry pegs, and day by day, they kept on improving their hideout design, from being intruder-proof to dinosaur-proof. I’ll usually disapprove of such play – so messy, “why are you hiding under the table!”, “you are too big to be sleeping under the chair” and “it looks like you will bump your head”. But seeing the girls having fun in their hideout reminds me of the times when I used to build a “house” under my double decker bed, me below and my brother on top. Because we are different gender siblings, I usually play Barbie while he played Lego. But it had been fun childhood memories for me, and also comforting to have a near-age sibling to grow up with.

So when I heard Baby1 and Baby2 whisper under the covers, working together to protect their fort, I felt grateful that they have each other to play with. And perhaps this comradeship was forged because there were no classes to rush to, no places to go to, just lots of time on our hands to enjoy each other’s company, and lots of creativity to build whatever we can imagine.

Incidentally, IKEA also recently released a catolog of 6 ways to make forts out of furniture and home objects, and it’s first item HOUSE really does look like the kids’ hideout. I am not sure if other families play these pretend houses during normal non-lockdown times, but it seems that during these “bored” times, we parents should relax our rules and let the kids have a “childhood of their lives”.

• Dear2

Of eBooks, Audio Books and Old Books

Today is the third week of Singapore’s Circuit Breaker, as well as the kids’ full home-based learning. Since all of us have been immobilised in our homes for the past two weeks and we can’t go to the library, Baby1 and Baby2 had ran out of storybooks to read. We like the kids to read storybooks, firstly, because it enriches their knowledge and English, and secondly, it keeps them quiet so that we have peace in the house, keke!

Alas, with no books to read, I decided to let them read ebooks borrowed on the NLB app. Each kid gets an old handphone and they can use that phone to read their own ebook in their free time. Poof! What tranquility in the house again when both of them are engrossed in their own book world.

I also accidentally stumbled into audio books and discovered a whole new world of the advantages of reading, or listening to an audio book. I can do my housework while listening to an audio book, I can cycle on the stationery bile whike “reading” (achieves two activities with one time block), I get some titles which are not available on ebooks, and we use the audio book to read bedtime stories to the kids – saves Mummy the energy to have to read them out aloud.

Meanwhile, we also found some old books which have not been read before. An good opportunity to get them to read those books!

The past few weeks have been enlightening. Because of this unprecedented Covid-19 situation worldwide and in Singapore, we have been forced to learn new tools and use new ways of doing things. It’s good that we embrace the challenges, and find fun in being outside our comfort zones.

May the virus situation improves soon.

– Dear2

From West Coast Park to East Coast Park

On the first day of the March school holidays, we brought the kids to West Coast Park to fly kite. This has been on my to-do list for a loooooooong time, and we finally took the chance to do it. Most of the time, Dear1 prefers indoor/ air con activities, so I’ve never managed to persuade him to go outdoors. In the current Covid-19 virus situation, he decided that outdoors is safer than all those indoor and crowded places, so we forsake all the promotions of USS and Kidstop and headed out into the open instead. Boy, what fun we had!

As you will know, to fly a kite high into the sky is not easy, and that goes for us too. Nonetheless, the kids had more fun running around trying to fly kite. They went round and round the vast open field running at top speed, with the kite barely 2 metres above their head. Though the kite was not really flying on its own, it was such pure and innocent fun for both the girls. When the evening sky got too dark, they were still asking for more. Glad that they had enjoyed their first proper kite flying experience.

On the last day of the week, we went to East Coast Park. As the weather forecast was thundery showers in the late afternoon, we reached at 11am, pitched the tent and had our picnic lunch of bread from the bakery, Rocher soy milk and fried food, fried sweet potato, grapes and snacks. We brought our 4 DS along, and the kids started our “Games Camp” after food. Alas, the connection was weak and the outdoors too glaring and reflective for the DS screens, so Dear1 and I ceased playing after a while and just relaxed ourselves in the breezy shade listening to music from our speaker.

After an hour, I told the kids to put the DS away, and we played some frisbee, but as the wind was too strong for the frisbee to fly properly, we had to stop soon too. The kids were itching for DS again, so we relented in order for Dear1 and I to regain the afternoon tranquility. An hour later, eye break again, and the kids were asking for DS again. Sobz, kids these days are really so addicted to screens. Our kids only get to play handphone or DS on Sundays, and they are already so addicted. I cannot imagine those kids who get to have their own handphones and have a wide variety of consoles at home.

Since it was getting more cloudy though it was 3pm, we threw out the sand toys and the kids had fun digging sand, phew. Shortly after, I checked the weather forecast and true enough, dark clouds are approaching from the North. Packed up, and it was a long drive home to a huge downpour in the West.

In the virus situation now, we ought to minimise going to crowded and enclosed places, and have more outdoors activities. Make use of this opportunity and bring the family out to the various (outdoor) attractions of Singapore and enjoy Singapore nature in its finest.

-Dear2

Stool Nirvana

Dear1 and Dear2 have been having lots of bloat issues recently, and borrowed this book from the library “Gutbliss” to find out if there’s any remedy. We’re going to embark on the book’s proposed 10-day gut bliss plan after and before our birthdays in January, so I thought I’d better jot down some useful tips from the book too.

First of all, eliminate SAD GAS:
Soy
Artificial sweeteners
Dairy
Gluten
Alcohol
Sugar

Limit:
Beans, broccoli, cabbage (cause gas)
Carbonated drinks
Caffeine (limit 1 cup per day)
Fatty foods (especially the fried ones)
Meat (go organic if possible)
Processed foods
Salt

Include:
Lots of green leafy vegetables
High fibre foods
Papaya and pineapple
Coloured produce (think: rainbow)
Water

All of us know that what goes in, minus absorption, will have to come out. If it doesn’t come it, it means that it’s stuck (somewhere) inside, and which means that it is no good. Every time you excrete, you are ridding your body of unwanted waste and toxins, so excretion is good! But, not all stools are created equally. The best stools are:

1) A deep brown colour that looks like chocolate
2) A continuous thick stool that is several inches long
3) A stool containing plant matter eaten in the last 24 hours and which sinks to the bottom and does not float
4) A soft bulky stool that sends a strong “need to output” signal and exits easily, but is not loose
5) No smell and no messy clean up

Gambatte everyone!

– Dear2

Sky Castle + Lion Mums

I have been bingeing on the above dramas recently and boy, are these two shows very good! Good story line, good acting, good sound tracks.

While watching, it brings to mind, why did these dramas command such high viewership in South Korea and in Singapore?

According to entertainment news, they reflect the respective country’s views towards our children’s education and success in life. With murders, sensational love affairs and accident plots, both dramas made it quite clear that these are really just dramas, aka fictitious, not real stories. But the underlying message about the competitiveness of our country’s education system was a rude shock to many parents. How parents today spend loads on their children’s education so that they can get to the top of the pyramid; how parents today need to play the system in order not to let the system play you. Scary….

Inevitably, parents tend to pass their own unfulfilled dreams to their children. All of us has only one life. Good or bad, the past path has been threaded by ourselves before, and we think we know whether is it sweet or bitter. For our children, of course we want them to take the flowery path, and not veer into the treacherous ones.

Our inner selves often have such tussling moments. We have been through those trying, excruciating exam-mugging phases, but we also love our children so much to not want them to suffer if they ever perform poorly in school. What is the right balance, what is the right dosage? This is indeed a very tricky subject which is not taught in any schools.

Haiz, let’s not worry too much. I know life is real, but for the time being, let’s just enjoy the dramas while keeping the reality in mind at the back of our minds.

• Dear2