A Half-Vegetarian Experience

Yay, it’s the last day of the Nine-Emperor God Festival today or also known as 九王爷 (Jiu Huang Ye). Why am I so happy? Because I no longer need to be on a vegetarian diet anymore. You see, hubby was on a 3-day strict vegetarian diet, and I joined him for lunch and dinner. Yes, only lunch and dinner and I’m already complaining ;P

I don’t know why, I’ve joined him for the last few years, but somehow this year, my hunger pangs were somehow more profound. Could it be because I’m still breastfeeding? But last year I was too. I didn’t recall feeling so hungry then. This time, it was so bad, that even after I finished my meal, I didn’t feel full at all! I even had gastric pain, sigh. Another immediate side effect that I experienced was low breastmilk supply. Funny, I have a vegetarian friend who's still breastfeeding - I wonder how she managed? Hmmm...so in the end, I cheated – I took some non-vegetarian food as snack (LOL!). Well, not really the meaty stuffs, just the dairy products only. They are so strict that not even diary products are allowed – even the utensils used for eating shouldn’t have been touched with meat/diary products before.

Just yesterday morning, I was buying breakfast for hubby and myself. I went to tapau something from the Jiu Huang Ye stalls for him, and then I gleefully went to the stall besides that to buy some other non-vegetarian food for myself. The lady seller told me that she also sold vegetarian nasi lemak. I hastily told her that I didn’t want vegetarian nasi lemak, but the normal ones! She smiled at me understandingly, and pointed to a variety of nasi lemak with ikan bilis & egg, with fish or with prawns. I chose the one with ikan bilis and egg, and my, how satisfied I was with my breakfast that day, before having to go for another round of vegetarian lunch later.

Well, last night however, hubby bought a variety of vegetarian goodies for dinner. We had vegetarian curry me, with thong sui. He also bought some vegetarian delicacies, gong tang. And surprisingly, I was full immediately, and there was still a pack of vegetarian rice waiting for me – I guess my stomach had adapted to the new lifestyle afterall. In the end, we only ate that rice for supper.

No doubt, being a vegan is very healthy. And good for the soul too. But then again, I still think that what comes out of the mouth matters more than what goes into it. Which is a very good excuse for me, whenever I failed to fast or abstain during the Lentern season.

Have You Ever Unconsciously Love One Child Over The Other?

While we’re busy pumping one day, one mother put this question to us. A few mothers answered right away without a second thought, “Never! I love both my children equally well.” While some said that they seemed to love the younger one more, their husbands would tend to love the elder one more because they took care of the elder one more when the younger one came along.

As for me, after I presented my case to them, which only consisted of two or three of the below scenarios, where sometimes it would seem that I showed more affection to the younger one, while at different times, I tend to give impressions that I doted on the elder one more, they pointed out that I might have unconsciously love the younger one more, even though in my conscious mind, I tried to be fair to both. That got me thinking a lot after I went back. I even put that question to hubby (whom I observed doted on the little one more), but he told me that he loved both equally well. Then, after thinking awhile, he said, “Well, maybe I gave more material love to the elder one, I bought a lot of toys for her, but I didn’t spend time to play with her, I bought a lot of books for her, but I didn’t spend enough time reading them with her. As for the younger one, I didn’t buy that many things for her, because she had got those from her Jie Jie’s hand-me-downs”.

When I was preggy with my 2nd child, SJ, I had always wondered if I could love the 2nd one as much as I’ve loved the 1st one. That time, SY (my 1st child) means the world to me. She’s like a perfect child for both hubby and me. I didn’t know anything could be more perfect than her, because we gave her our very best. Maybe she’s our first born, as we’ve started giving her the best even before she’s born. Hubby would talk to her nearly every day, and I would let her listen to music as early as when the book said she can hear. I followed all the pantang-larang strictly even though I didn’t believe it. Where as during SJ’s time, we didn’t do as much, because SY, being an active toddler then, had occupied too much of our time, and we didn’t have anymore energy left to do all that for SJ. Maybe that’s why, I didn’t know how I could love SJ as much as SY then, and I was really worried.

However, after I’ve delivered, it seemed that everything just came about naturally. SJ happened to be much more ‘kuai’ and easier to take care than her Jie Jie, so everyone in the family doted on her right away. And after SJ’s born, Amah naturally became SY’s primary care-taker, while I was in-charge of SJ fully. That, somehow implant in me that if I didn’t take good care of SJ, nobody would. Where as, SY would be in good hands under my MIL's care. So I didn’t need to worry too much about her. Also, most of the time, SY would follow Amah back to her house, so that means, hubby and I would need to be more independent in taking care of SJ. That gave us both ample opportunities to learn from scratch how to handle a newborn, because before that we relied too much on MIL. Sometimes, I couldn’t recall things about SY because that was already taken care by MIL. With SJ, it’s different, I need to be in-charge of every single details. Also, since hubby needed to back me up often and relieve me because there’s no one else, he was also more involved when it came to taking care of SJ. During SY’s time, he didn’t need to handle a lot of things, because there were enough people (women) fighting to take care of SY then (LOL!)

So, the first scenario explains why Hubby and I were more inclined towards SJ”s well-being, and that didn’t mean we’re not loving SY as much.

A 2nd scenario – When I was back in Ipoh with my family members, both girls wanted me to carry them at the same time. And most of the time, I would carry SY while leaving SJ crying under hubby’s care. After observing this several times, my Mom confronted me, saying that I seemed to love SY more. I explained to her why I did that. It’s because hubby, like everyone else would seem to think that SY”s big enough, and didn’t need to be carried. Also, as she’s rather a difficult child to handle then, he often lost patience with her. So since I was the only one who could handle her (and I was sure hubby would willingly carry SJ), so I normally would choose to carry SY then. That’s my reasoning, even though my action seemed to show that I might prefer one child over another. In actual fact, I wanted both child to be attended to (and I knew SJ would be in good hands under hubby’s care).

The 3rd scenario – When both the girls were playing on their own and fighting over something, I tend to side with the small one, because I felt that the elder one should give way to her sister. My reasoning, the elder one should understand things by now, while the small one’s still too young to understand. Also, my first natural instinct was to protect the small one from being harmed by her Jie Jie (even though now, the small one would be the bully – she hit, bite and pull her sister’s hair!)

The 4th scenario – When we went out shopping, we tend to buy more things for SY. Most of the time, it’s because SJ could still use SY’s stuffs, while there’re more things related to SY that we would like to get. For instance, SY’s starting school, so most of the things that we got for SY, SJ didn’t need it yet. Although once during CNY last year, MIL and hubby wanted to get SY a new pajama while they felt that SJ didn’t need one since she’s too small (the kids grow so fast that it’s a waste) and also she could still use her Jie Jie’s. As I was also the 2nd child, I disagreed with them because I remembered last time I didn’t like wearing too many hand-me-downs all the time. So I got SJ quite a lot of clothings too, which became a waste now because she really did grow up very fast!

The 5th scenario – Most of the times, I would let SY played on her own while I attended to SJ. That time, we felt that SJ needed a lot of attention in case she fell down or pick up stuffs to eat. But to others, or even SY, they might think that we didn’t love her as much as SJ because we didn’t play with her as much. Most of the toys I got her, I would either ask hubby or MIL to play with her first, or let her experiment on her own. Sometimes, by the time I had time to play with her, it’s already not functioning ;P

The 6th scenario – When it comes to reading or things that need a lot of focus, I would ask hubby to attend to the small one, while I read to SY. That’s because SJ couldn’t sit still with books and she wouldn’t allow me to read too. She had torn away SY’s 3-D butterfly book and I needed to fix it up again. That’s why she had to be taken away in order for me to actually start reading with SY. Maybe you would wonder why this time I didn’t ask hubby to read to SY while I took care of SJ. Well, that’s because I felt that I had more patience than hubby when it came to reading, while hubby’s better with toys. See, everything had a reason :)

The 7th scenario – When it comes to feeding, it’s easier to feed SJ. She could finish everything in a short time compared to SY where we need a lot of patience and have to keep chasing her. Also, since I supplied SJ’s raw ingredients to the babysitter, I could make sure that she eats nutritious stuffs. Where as for SY who had both lunch and dinner in school, also she spent quite a lot of her weekends at Amah’s house, I didn’t know what she ate most of the time. So whenever there’s an opportunity I would scoop more of the fish or anything that I felt she’s lacking for her compared to for SJ. Also, since she’s rather a picky eater nowadays, so whenever she showed any interest on the food that I prepared, I would give her more (and tax SJ’s share in this case) even though both girls would fight for it. Now, would you call me bias?

The 8th scenario – Last time I used to travel a lot during SY’s time. I could go travelling without her (guilty, but still I went), leaving her in the care of MIL. For SJ this time, if Hubby even mentioned any plans of travelling without SJ, I would be the 1st one to back away – because I don’t have the heart to leave her with MIL or the babysitter. Why? Because I knew she couldn’t cope without me, since she’d been spending all nights with me (except for a couple of days when she’s 3 months plus – I left her with hubby and MIL when I went for my sister’s convocation). During SY’s time, she’d been sleeping with me and MIL on alternate nights since MIL didn’t want her to disturb hubby at night. So, the reason I could leave SY behind last time was because I knew she could still sleep even though I was not around.

The 9th scenario – Now, most of the time when we took out the camera, we would want to take photos of SJ. And SY would surely asked to snap her photos instead, or blocking us from taking her Mei Mei’s photos. Maybe our reactions made her think that we didn’t love her. On the other hand, we felt that we’ve not been taking that much pictures of SJ compared to SY’s time, and we really wanted to catch up with it, especially when she’s doing some new stunts.

The 10th scenario – SY being the first grandchild, MIL had a lot of say on how she should be taken care of. For instance, I didn’t get to give her organic food, because according to MIL, if a child was given organic food all the time, her body wouldn’t have the resistance to fight the chemicals when she consumed processed food later. Where as during SJ’s time, MIL didn’t seem to care so much. So I had the chance to do a lot of things which I didn’t get to during SY’s time. So, if you’re comparing what SJ got and what SY got during the same time of their growing years, it might give you the impression that SJ got more than her Jie Jie!

Well, after analyzing all the scenarios above, I would say that I do love them both equally well, even though my actions didn’t really show it. Everything has its own reasoning behind, and they all stem from having our child’s best interest at heart. Don’t you agree so?

No, I’m not trying to justify myself, because, I really think that after becoming a mother of 2, I could now understand how great a mother’s love is – a mother with 5 children could love them all equally well ,as a mother with 2 children. SY always asked me, “Do you love me, Mommy?” or “How about me?” everytime she heard me telling SJ that I loved her (I have the habit of telling them now and then that I love them without any apparent reason). And I told her, “Yes, dear. See the water at the ocean – after we take out many, many, many buckets of water from there, there’re still so much water left still. That’s like a mother’s love, we kept on giving, but it’ll never be drained.” Maybe, she didn’t understand that then, but hopefully when she’s bigger and read this later, she would. A mother’s love is not something like a cake – you either divide it equally or someone would get a bigger portion. Instead, it’s really infinity, the more you give, the more you have. And now, I think I could understand better my mom's actions too last time.

So, what’s your take in this? I’d love to hear about your experience and your analysis.

How To Make Yoghurt Without A Yoghurt Maker

I must thank Pei Sze for this tips because I've been contemplating whether to get a yoghurt maker which would have cost me approximately RM80. I feel that this is really neat because I didn't even need a thermometer and it's so easy to make, so I wanted to share this here.

Ingredients:

1. Dutch Lady Fresh Milk (any fresh milk will do)

2. Plain yoghurt from the supermarket as the starter

Method:

1. I used the jam container (preferrably glass) to estimate how much milk is needed.

2. Pour the required amount of milk into a saucepan and heat it up for it to ferment. I waited until I saw bubbles, then I stir it and leave it to cool down until it's just warm (estimated to be as warm as when we warm up our EBM). If you want to expediate the cooling process, you could also pour the milk into the jam container and immerse the bottle in a bowl of cold water (the reverse way of warming up the EBM).

3. When the milk is warm enough (not too hot and not too cold), transfer it into the jam container (if you haven't done this in step 2 above), and add ~2 tbs of the plain yoghurt as the starter into the milk (the amount of yoghurt to add depends on the size of your container). Seal the container with the lid.

4. Place the jam container into a thermos-like container (Pei Sze uses cooler box filled with warm water, while I use my thermal cooker filled with warm water) for ~6hours. Don't shake or disturb it during the 6 hours' period because it could disturb the incubation process.

Note:
The container must be able to maintain the temperature at ~37 degree Celcius or our body temperature for at least 6 hours.

I think the information below would be useful before you start making your own homemade yoghurt:

General idea on how yoghurt is made:

Technically, yoghurt can be made from any sort of milk – cow, goat or ewe – but it must be fermented before it can be called yoghurt.

A small starter culture of the bacteria is added to fresh, warmed skimmed or whole milk and then the mixture needs to be kept at about 37 degrees Celsius for about 12 hours.

The bacteria multiply in the warm conditions, feeding on the sugars in the milk. They ferment lactose, the disaccharide sugar in milk, producing lactic acid. This causes the milk to curdle, forming curds and whey. The curds are the yoghurt and the whey is the watery fluid that is poured off, leaving a rich, creamy thick yoghurt.


Great tips that I find helpful:
1. If after 6 hours, you find that the yoghurt still hasn't really formed yet (still in liquid form), you can actually wait longer (leave it overnight or another 6 hours). Maybe the 'live' culture needs more time to grow.

2. Also, if you want to add fruit flavours to it, especially from fresh fruits, you need to add this after the yoghurt has incubated. That's because the acid content of some fruits can curdle the milk-yoghurt mixture and prevent proper fermentation.

I find this process rather easy even for busy moms, and I've been blending them with fresh mango and even dragon fruits for my kids. They loved it! If you want it instant, that is without the fuss of blending the fruits, Pei Sze shared that it could be eaten straight with any jam directly! I was rather surprised, but when I tried this with the blueberry jam, it tasted really great! Even SY loves it!

Here's the finished product from my 2nd attempt - my pictures are rather blurry because I took them with my PDA phone (my first attempt was not succesful because I added the yoghurt culture when the milk was still rather hot).

My finished product with my thermal cooker

Yes, indeed yoghurt has many health benefits, among some which include improved immune system and also suitable for those who has lactose intolerance. So, besides being cheaper than buying them directly off the shelf, this easy home-made yoghurt also has less sugar content and no preservatives - most suitable for kids!

The Cake Story

During the long Merdeka weekend, I made this...

It was my 2nd attempt at cheese cake, and since hubby's birthday was around the corner, I decided to try my luck. My, it was not easy. I sent SY to Amah's place, and got SJ to sleep rather early that day - at ~8.30pm! I thought I could finished baking the cake before midnight - it's only a Saturday, the first day of the weekend.

Well, I had only finished preparing the biscuit base when SJ woke up. So I stopped and soothed her, breastfed her till she fell asleep. Once she drifted back into dreamland, I continued on with my cake, only to be stopped again about 1 hour later. This time, when I tried to unlatch her after I found her drifted back to sleep, she wouldn't want to let go, as if using me as her pacifier! But as I tried to wriggle myself free, she would bite me, so I decided to let her suckle longer. In no time, I drifted into dreamland myself!

When I woke up at 1.30am, I went on to continue with my work. Luckily this time I managed to finish up and just in time to put the cake into the oven (around 3am) before she woke up again. By the time the cake had finished baking (in water bath), it was already 4am in the morning. I thought I wanted to prepare the ingredients for decoration while waiting for the cake to cool down, but halfway thru, SJ woke up again (it was 4.30am). In the end, I just put everything into the fridge and went to sleep.

The next day, I was hoping to assemble the cake and decorate it, but I just couldn't free myself from SJ. She was too clingy, even when she's sleeping. And since I was too tired from the night before, I ended up napping with her in the afternoon. When I woke up to start the decoration, she woke up too. So, I could hardly complete the whole thing at one time, but had to break them into several short sessions.

This was how it looked like halfway. Why I said halfway? Because there's only 1 bear at the right side :)

And here's the final one - with 2 bears finally :)

Since I was not confident that the cake would turn out nicely, I had a backup plan. Didn't want to spoil hubby's birthday with my not-so-perfect creation. Ta-da!

I ordered the mille crepe in advance, which was delivered right at our door step on the actual day itself! I came across this when my colleagues ordered this for me on my birthday and it was really nice! Very special too, I even joked that it had the same number of layers as my age :)

I had tried Swiss Chocolate Velvet and Coffee Bliss, so I was itching to try the Matcha Latte flavour, but since the man told me that many still prefer Swiss Chocolate Velvet (which was also what I had for my birthday), I decided to stick to the same flavour too. And it was great! Very special indeed. See the hand layered crepes!

Well, so we ended up having so many cakes to eat for that whole week. And surprisingly, hubby prefered my peach marcapone cheese cake as I noticed that he would choose that between these two when he's hungry and was looking for something to eat. At least my sleepless night and effort didn't go to waste :) And much to my consolation, even MIL who didn't really like cheese cake told me that it tasted very nice! Nothing beats the feeling of triumph at my 2nd attempt, although the deco was miserable :P Haha, and hubby also said that this was much better than my first attempt on Father's Day. Looking back, I think the deco really sucks last time, wonder how I had the guts to post it up! But then again, it was for my own records, and I silently congratulate myself for this small little improvement...

The Witch of Portobello

How do we find the courage to always be true to ourselves – even if we are unsure of who we are?

These are the words that caught my attention when I visited a book fair 2 years ago. As a woman, wife and mother who’s trying to grapple with my own identity and what I wanted from life, I was naturally intrigue as to what this book had to offer. Since the book was on sale, and I was quite impressed with another book by the same author, Like the Flowing River which was a gift from a colleague, I went on to make this purchase. However, after I bought it, I just put it aside and never had the chance to touch it until recently, when I ran out of books to read.

I felt connected immediately when I read about how Athena, who always felt restless despite her having a contented life. Like her, when I was not doing anything, my mind would start wandering – worrying about little things, or thinking about future things. When I was small, I even made up stories in my mind of how I wanted my future to be. I didn’t know why I did that, and I had no way of stopping my thoughts from flowing. In other words, my mind was always on the go. I couldn't really relax or not think about anything at all. Hence, I was deeply touched when I read of how she went in search of something to fill up the blank spaces in her life, only to discover that the silences between the notes were what make the music more powerful, and the pause between the letters that’s what made the calligraphy more beautiful. When she learnt to embrace the silence, the spaces, she experienced a different aura. This, I have not learnt how to master yet :)

The whole story was told in a very unique way, with a twist at the end. Coehlo unfold the tale from a few narrators, allowing us to interpret the story by piecing up all the details gathered by different people and forming our own impression of the main character, rather than being clouded by one narrator's perspective. Some of the conversations discussed made me reflect about many things in my life. I really salute the author, Paulo Coelho, for his ability to present the story in such a way that touched about the actual reality in life. However, I do agree that some of the things being discussed were rather abstract, giving us a very new-agey kind of feeling. Maybe that’s why some said this is a story of a woman of the “twenty-second century living in the twenty-first”.

At some point, I felt that things were just too simple in the story. When Athena’s marriage didn’t quite work out, it’s so easy to just divorce, even though she’s a Catholic. Catholics forbid divorce, "But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." Mark 10:6-9

After her divorce, she was shunned by her church because she was not allowed to receive the Holy Communion. Having no other means to fulfil her spiritual needs, she went on to learn trance dancing, and from there moved on to calligraphy, etc. All this while, her son was tagging along with her. I was marveling at such possibility, because having children myself, I could not fathom how her child could be so obliging. And that led me to wonder if Paulo Coelho had any children of his own. I searched his biography but couldn’t find any mention of the word children. Only his wife was mentioned. Aha, maybe that’s why? Hmmm…

Anyway, I enjoyed the whole story very much as I read how Athena, or also known as the witch followed a winding path to enlightenment in the form of a female deity. She went on to find a job after her divorce and then influenced the people around her as she was searching for the 'light'. She managed to inspire her colleagues to perform above expectation, and the results attracted the upper management. That's the start of her carreer path, and she was capable of earning enough salary to support both herself and her son for 3 years without working. However, despite all that, she's still not contented with life, and that led her to continue searching for the long yearned-for satisfaction.

In her struggle to transcend society's expectations of her, this book reminded me of the power everyone had but refused to invoke in order to find their own spirituality. She even went to find her birth mother (she's an adopted child) because she thought she wouldn't have peace unless she was reunited with her origin. Despite that, she still couldn't satisfy her restless state. Finally, she took a student, following the advice from her spiritual teacher, and from there, she also learnt things from her student's perspective. Yes, even though both she and her student disliked each other.

"How can you teach me if you don't like me?" Her student asked.

In the reality of life, no man is an island. No matter how we dislike the other person, we couldn't live alone. Athena showed that it's still possible to impart her knowledge to someone she disliked, and the experience had enrich her tremendously.

How was the ending like? Read for yourself! A great aplause should be given to the author, for the way it was ended. The story started with the witch being brutally murdered in the first place, but the ending was not that gloomy. Even though I was hoping for a better ending, I could not agree more that this was the best way to end the tale of the Witch of Portobello. Yes, a happy surprise, so that’s why the twist at the end. Now, if you're wondering if I find that a worthwhile reading, what would you conclude if I tell you that right after I completed this book, I went on to purchase another one of Coelho's masterpiece, “The Alchemist”?

A Child's Prayer

One night, my little girl asked me to say a prayer with her. This time, however, she said everything on her own. I listened and was amazed at what was going on in her mind. Here are some of the things that touched my heart most (of course I've changed some of the wordings here to make it more understandable).

"Jesus, please don't let Amah become old. Let her be a young lady again. Don't let her be sick sick. "
--> Some time back, when she requested to go back and stay with Amah, Amah told her, "Amah is old already, Amah can't be taking care of you forever."

"Also, please don't let her walk like an old lady, but like a young person again. Do not let her leg pain pain."
--> Sometimes when she's naughty, she likes to imitate her Grandma walking and make fun of that. Ended up being scolded by Grandma :)

"Jesus, please let Mommy and Daddy can continue to work so that they will have enough money to bring Juin Juin and me to play Kok Kok Beh. Please let me go to Full Day and Juin Juin to Aunty's house."
--> Just right after we switched her to full day upon her request (and also due to some other reasons), she wanted to switch back to half day. She's so unhappy that she kept telling us and her teachers that she wanted to go back to half day right away. I nearly accomodated her, but thank God after the 3rd day, she'd learnt to accept it. I could see it in her prayers when she actually mentioned it - she knew that she had to go to full day so that Mommy and Daddy could continue to work. Before that, she even requested me not to work but to take care of her instead. And I nearly resigned too!

If only, things will really go the way how a child see it.... How nice if life is so simple.

If You Thrive On Being A Multitasker, Read On…

Do you do multiple things at a time? Such as launching several browsers with different addresses while waiting for one to load up, or cooking a few things at a time since your gas stove comes with 3 or 4 burners anyway? Or calling up someone on the cell phone while driving, especially when the traffic’s really slow? Hmm… what else? Reading while pumping? Having dinner over a television program? Snacking while reading? Or clearing your emails while waiting for your simulation to complete? The list can continue on and on.

Well, if you did any of the above, and felt that you’re actually saving some time accomplishing more than one task at one time, think again. To be honest, I did some, if not all of the above - multitasking. First, I thought I could accomplish more. Second, there were just too many things to do that I had to squeeze some things in between. And thirdly, it’s so boring doing a certain thing alone that I find it easier to pass time when I multitask that with another more interesting activity.

Let me elaborate. I have this habit of calling my parents while I am driving, just for chatting. I find talking to them a great relief, because I could just pour out everything to them and listen to their advice, or just checking how they are doing back home. Since I could not find other time to talk because my hands would be full then, I felt that driving is the best time. I have the speaker phone on, and I’m using my mouth to talk, while my hands would be free to drive. Yes, so I thought that gives me a license to talk while driving without getting into any trouble with the police. Also, especially when the traffic is bad, it’s not so boring queuing there all alone, when we have someone to take our minds off for awhile. Until one day, something happened that made me think twice. I realized that even though I could accomplish two things at a time, or removed the boring element away during that period, I was not focusing on what I was doing. When we lost focus, we won’t be able to do something well. And we might end up doing mistakes, which could actually waste more time in the long run. I have experienced making the wrong turns while I was talking while driving. That means, I needed longer time to arrive at my destination. I’ve also experienced leaving the parking ticket in my car because I was not concentrating, so I had to make additional trips to my car to retrieve it. These are just small incidents which haven’t involved life yet, such as an unforeseen accident. I also heard that robbers aim at people on the cellphone because that's the best time to attack - when people are off their guards.

But, despite all the awareness, it's still hard to change. Because it has somehow become my lifestyle. Another good example - I have noticed all along that when I was reading and pumping at the same time, I took more time to accomplish the main task, which was pumping. But since it’s boring to just pump, so I read anyway. It's better to be slower when I could read at least one chapter a day. Better than never get to start at all, I reasoned. It's like pumping has given me the justification to read, because when I pump, I could not do any other things except reading. Strange mentality I have, yeah? Ok, back to our original discussion. When I am reading, I actually spend more time to express the same amount compared to when I am just purely focusing on pumping. That’s because, while I am digesting the material, I actually slowed down a bit. Or, sometimes, I continue pumping even though I am actually done, just because I have to read a few more pages to complete that chapter. So I dragged on.

One day, while I was multitasking (cooking dinner and doing the laundry at the same time), my daughter was vying for my attention too – she wanted to tell me something. I told her to go on, I was listening. But that’s not enough for her. She wanted me to look at her before she actually started, “Mommy, you’re not looking at me. Mommy, look at me.” I told her I could hear her even though I was not looking, but she’s not happy. So I had to put my things aside, and look at her, before she actually talked to me. See, even a child could understand that. By looking at her, I could focus on her, and could see her expression when she’s relating something to me. It means she’s special, she had all my attention. Even though that also means dinner would be served later. That didn’t matter to her at all.

So, focus is indeed the keyword here. If you can still focus when you multitask, then please go ahead. I am not someone who could listen to the music while working or reading on something that requires a lot of concentration. But many of my friends could. I guess it still depends on what type of tasks that you’re multitasking; some can be done in parallel without sacrificing the quality. But I learnt something today, that when I multitask, I couldn’t give 100% focus to both things at the same time. Somehow, I would need to slow down a bit to get one task started, before moving on to the next. So even though I could complete two tasks in a certain timeframe, it would still be slower compared to if I just focus on one thing and get that done perfectly. Meaning putting my soul into it and not merely for the sake of accomplishing it. That makes a lot of difference.