Currently...

I am currently...

READING: Montessori, A Current Approach by Paula Polk Lillard
WISHING: that there is a good school with good pay which is near my house. Btw, in a nutshell, my definition of a good school is enough space and enough time for children to play and choose own activities.
LOVING: cheap and cute stickers and washi tape
DREAMING: of my house, my wedding, my next job

:)

Cooking!

I think it's the first time I'm cooking this year. Other than my cookie flop turned into muffin. Haha. I like cooking actually, but it's just so tiring. My parents are away so I finally convinced myself to cook.

Tried a new recipe, altered it and...success! S yummy, but wasn't enough for all of us. Had to eat cereal and instant noodles to fill up our stomachs haha.

Tada...my ham bacon mushroom spinach crustless quiche.

Dumb blond

I'm kinda dumb blond-ish sometimes. Just sometimes.

Case number 1
Driving out of Selangor, I realized, hey got so many mountains. So nice one. I asked Randall, eh why Klang got no mountains leh? He was like, duh, it's called Klang VALLEY. Haha.

Case number 2
I wanted to do lotus root stamping with the kids, and I rarely eat lotus root. I was looking around in the supermarket and went to the rooty veggies area. I saw the sign saying lotus root so I picked a couple. When I went home, then only I saw the label: SWEET POTATO. Opps hahaha.


Other than these instances, I'm actually quite smart. I think...

Why I Love Reading!

Choices

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 

Robert Frost

I am glad that when I asked my students (11-13 yrs old) to rate what they feel indicates success, most of them chose being happy and enjoying life at the top of their list, and placed making money at the bottom. Idealists? Yeah. Randall says they are young. They don't know yet. But I feel that they've got it right. Their young not-quite-adults-yet minds got it right. Well, as long as you have enough money that you can feel happy. 

From the beginning of my job, I've been contemplating quitting. Why? Because this job has turned me into a teacher I do not like, and I find my self thinking that if this is what being a kindergarten teacher is like, I don't want to be a kindergarten teacher anymore. I keep thinking of the opportunities that I did not take. Julia Gabriel, Waldorf, TweedleWink Playschool, Montessori... And I keep trying to convince myself to stay. For the sake of the children. And then another offer comes and it definitely would be better for me, but would it be selfish and irresponsible for me to quit? How much impact would my quitting be for my students? Will they find it easy to adjust to a new teacher? I don't know what to do now...

It's Official Now!!

It's not that he suddenly "popped the question"

We have been talking about it for a long looong time. I can't remember when we first talked about it. He proposed to me when we were out dating. In the car. At the park. After movies. Grabbing a bite after classes. At the pasar malam. While window shopping. It has never been about whether I will marry him or not. The answer has always been yes. It's just about when we will get married. :) I can't wait to start this new chapter of my life!!! He is the One I want to spend my life with. Grow old with. Wake up to. Come home to.

The Cookies which became Muffins

I have always baked the same chocolate chip cookies. So, this year when I saw this awesome recipe for Nutella chocolate cookies, I wanted to try them. Only I forgot the Golden Rule of baking for amateurs like myself: ALWAYS FOLLOW THE RECIPE.

I was kinda sorta embarrassed by this stupid mistake, but oh well, this is a lesson I won't be forgetting haha.

The dough

It could have been the cake flour, or the Nutella, or the brown butter, but honestly, I don't know what actually made it go all wrong. The cookies just melted on the tray into one huge flat blob within minutes of being in the oven.

The scraped off stuff from the pan.

I started adding more flour and still it melted, but tasted ok. So I put them in muffin trays.

Thats how my cookies became muffins.