To a slower 2018.

Taking a few steps back, live a little slower.
Looking back the past year, I felt that a lot of my energy was poured on social media and online reading. Somehow, the more I read/watch, the more drawn I was to read/watch, afraid of missing any news feed/article. As I grew older, time are so precious to me that I want to focus on things that are important: my family, my health, my work, my mini goals to be better. I will venture into making food (& coffee) more, read a little more and just basically go a little slower whenever I’m not working.

Taking baby steps on sustainability.
Instead of focusing on ‘zero waste’, I would like to start by ‘reducing waste’. It’s rather challenging for working mom like me to discard all food that comes with packaging (whether it’s bio or non biodegradable materials). Instead I’ve decided to take baby steps, consuming less, conscious buying and generally remind myself to reduce carbon footprint wherever possible. As small as it is,  we’ll make gradual shift in our in our habits to safeguard the planet we call home. Some tips here if you’re striving towards reducing waste like me.

Taking on slow parenting.
Slow parenting cherishes quality over quantity, being in the moment, and making meaningful connection with your family,” an excerpt about slow parenting in this article. I loved the idea about simply watching your children. I’ve been showering both JH & JN together during the weekends, it started all because I wanted to cut short the time, but they ended up giggling and having so much fun scrubbing down each other, playing with water, buckets and empty shampoo bottles. Its these moments that I take my time to just look at them, to soak up all their innocence and goofiness that it breaks my heart from overflowing sweetness. Those precious moments made me feel like the luckiest person be their mommy.

There, these are my 3 little resolution towards a slower (hopefully better) 2018. What’s yours?

 

 

 

 

Baby No. 2: Cloth Diapers

I started using cloth diaper for JH when he was taken care by his babysitter back then. When he started to crawl, we started to use these so that his cloth diaper wouldn’t fall off easily. I chose to use cloth diaper mainly for its gentler environmental footprint. Though it requires an extra step in terms of washing and drying, in the long run it saves tonnes of money. I think I bought a total of 4 dozens during JH’s time and added another dozen before Junna is born. I love the fact that it launders & dries easily, get softer as it wear and last forever.

I uses these cloth diapers as:

• Blanket/Pillow
• Burp cloths; wiping spit ups
• Lining in a bassinet/car seats/strollers
• A fold up under my elbow for comfort during nursing and feeding.

Also highly recommends must-haves are cotton muslin for swaddling. Though we only swaddle Junna for the first few weeks (she still uses it sometimes during nap time), it also comes in handy for blocking sun, extra wrapping when the wind and rain comes when she’s outdoor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Go Green. It’s Important.

As I’m taking Sustainable Construction as one of my subject this semester, I start to get very self conscious on getting ‘green’. Before this, I’m not exactly a tree hugger/green-advocator and go all out on being ‘green’, because I always thought, the change in me alone won’t make any difference. However, after taking this course, I realize that if all of us can do our part in saving mother nature, especially when we have the little ones who will models upon us, as the saying goes: Monkey see monkey do. Hence, I had decided to start small, right here at our little home.

1. Packed lunch. I try to use as much food container as much as I could for everyday’s lunch. How hard is’t to just give it a wash when you’re done? I love these containers from IKEA.
2. Wear it twice. Although I’m not used to wearing any of my garments repeatedly/more than once, I shall try it this time (only restricted to trousers, jeans & cardigans).
3. Digitalised it. When it comes to reading materials, I always had the habit to print out all my notes & do all the highlighting & sticky post-it notes on it. Now I tried to digitalised it through IPAD and limit hard copy printing as much as I could, especially with my current company is encouraging us to go paperless.
4. Use cloth diaper. I’m pretty proud that i had been using this for awhile now, ever since my baby started crawling. Although I’m not a full time user, but I’ll try to use it as much as I can. But looking at Ju-Hann’s age now, maybe I should start potty train him?
5. Save Electricity. Needless to say? Ever since I started to diligently switch off lights/fans whenever I’m not using, I notices our bill does reduces quite a bit.

Mental note: need to remember to bring my own shopping bag during weekend.