Zakat & Income Tax

Syukur alhamdulillah, time of the year to fulfil my dues in this world to the government of the day and more importantly my dues to the Lord of the Worlds has arrived once again.

Syukur alhamdulillah, both can be done online in the comforts of my own home without having to brave any jams, look for parking or climb any stairs (style of income tax season from yesteryear when I first paid income tax!).

Just be sure to read my niat for zakat and say Amin! Just be sure to keep my receipts for 7 years and submit my digital signature for personal income tax. 

If you haven't done so yourself, please do. Set aside 20 minutes without any interruption. It took me less than that to settle mine (including time to retrieve a link for forgotten password). 

Well, if you work for a large organisation and are still waiting to produce the EA form to be transmitted to your staff, then, may I politely suggest that you get it done so that you too, can close this chapter and move on to more interesting matters like the impending GST.

All the best!

It's a Wrap!

Lions pranced steadily on stilts.

Masked magician with many tricks up his sleeves and, especially, layered multi-colour masks.

Many mandatory mandarins to cool down.

The annual features included tok-tok candy stall, kuih kapit stall, wishing well, traditional games, arts, crafts, calligraphy and more! You cannot not understand Chinese New Year festivities after such a comprehensive interactive encounter! I am glad the culture and meaning are well-preserved, accurately observed and generously shared. 

That was how we spent our last Saturday morning with our Playschool family where many nations come together in a cocoon of harmony, friendship and love.

What a great way to wrap up Chinese New Year! Goat Xi Fa Cai, my lovelies!

Easy Peasy Recipe: Steamed Chicken With Vegetables

1. Chop vegetables/fruits of choice, and arrange them at bottom of bowl, with ginger slices where chicken will sit on.

2. Place marinated chicken (we used sesame oil, sea salt and pepper this time) on top of ginger and garnish with one piece of star anise. 

*If you prefer your vegetables not as soft, you can steam it for only 20 minutes (by steaming the chicken and vegetables separately, adding the vegetables at the last 20 minutes interval).

3. Steam for 35-40 minutes.

Serve hot with noodles or rice.

We very nearly roasted this dish earlier but the weather was scorching hot we decided to steam it instead. We would have omitted the sesame oil, ginger, wolfberries and star anise in the roast version. 

Bon appetit!

Room With A View

This tree is special.

This tree was just a newly planted sapling when The Little Girl first joined The Playschool at 23 months old. She used to look out of this window forlornly to wave her sad goodbyes at me and watched me leave; and then gleefully anticipated my return at noon to bring her home.

Bean is now 20 months and The Little Girl is 59 months.

He gets a much prettier sight out of the same window, in my opinion. I cannot help but feel the passage of time when I saw this soothing mass of green foliage this morning. Indeed, blessings are not always monetary if we care to ponder.

Oh, how this tree has grown, syukur alhamdulillah. And will continue to grow, in sha Allah.

"While he is in such pursuit, all in the world even fish in the sea or any in the hole seek pardon for him, and when he walks, Angels spread out their wings for him." Hadith from The Holy Prophet Muhammad saw, regarding education.

Digression:

*recalling bittersweet tales from FIL how the kampung folks used to measure their children's age by planting a designated coconut tree upon birth of each child*

**that would mean having two coconut trees in our "imaginary kampong garden", visually estimating leaf scars to guesstimate age of each tree and noting the differing heights, if that were the case - how unscientifically sweet!**

End of digression.

Have a nice day, my lovelies. 

Easy Peasy Recipe: Stuck In A Rut

The magic of 1 Pasta + 1 Protein + 1 Vegetable. Well, 2 Protein in the case below.

Plenty got done here in the piano, homework and play department with the kids though, so I am not complaining since they lapped all their dinner up.

I promise NOT to update anymore on this staple and simple dish *haha* Please do share which are your overused/often-repeated/highly successful recipes!

Next up, roast chicken, beef stir fry sort of dishes lined up on my roster *sigh of relief* in sha Allah! May my cooking skills and repertoire expand for everyone's sake *beaming*

Bon appetit!

Gratitude: Rain

Today, I am grateful for rain. 

It has been scorching hot with 36-38C and high humidity of above 70% lately so when some rain fell, I almost knelt down with gratitude.

A portion of Surah An-Nur Ayat 43 of The Holy Quran states, "Do you not see that Allah drives along the clouds, then gathers them together, then piles them up, so that you see the rain coming forth from their midst?"

In Surah Ar-Rum Ayat 48 of The Holy Quran,"Allah is He who sends the winds, so they raise the clouds, and spread them along the sky as He wills, and then break them into fragments, until you see rain drops come forth from their midst! Then when He has made them fall on whom of His slaves as He will, Lo! They rejoice!"

Indeed, the wind You created has brought clouds to form and shower us with some rain, SubhanAllah Your presence is eminently assuring. Thank you, my Lord. 

The New Routine

"Education is compulsory both for males and females, and that it should be searched even if it is available in a distant land as China." Hadith from The Holy Prophet Muhammad saw regarding education.

We have a new routine starting today. 

Bean is 20 months 2 weeks. His sister is 59 months. It took us this long to finally have a somewhat sane morning routine. Syukur alhamdulillah for this Ease.

Bean has enrolled at his elder sister's former Playschool (and he is loving it!). 

Syukur alhamdulillah separation anxiety is manageable but we will see how this develops. In sha Allah it will not get too difficult. The Other Half generally manage the kids much better than I do; the kids get slightly over the top with display of their attachment and emotions when it comes to me *I wonder why*

Our new school run routine will see The Other Half getting the honour to drop Bean off in the morning as I am already at The Big School with The Little Girl,

and braving the traffic into the city again with the rest of the workforce. 

The Other Half and I will then reunite, finish some work in the morning, have brunch, run errands and prepare for weekday homecoming of our 2 kids. Solid few productive hours!

It makes more sense for me to stay with Bean at home after he comes home while The Other Half goes to pick The Little Girl up from The Big School daily except Fridays. We will see how Friday goes. Friday is when they both finish at noon and we have to fetch one kid each from separate locations. Wish us luck!

Well. That takes care of school run. 

How was Bean's first day you'd ask? He mostly observed, ate and played. Although he knew most of the hand movement songs and phonics because we do them at home, he observed in awe today how differently it sounded like in the presence of new teachers and peers. Circle time was something new to him because this time it involves real children and not 18 of his soft toys and an elder sister!

A small incident of tripping over a ride did not mar his first day at all. No tears, just ice pack on cheeks and he carried on. Such a trooper! I am of course thankful it wasn't a serious incident.

The teachers were satisfied with his food and drink intake, and he knew to request for second helpings at lunch. He enjoyed his spagetti meatballs, papayas and watermelon. Good on him. By the looks of menu rotation, and comparing it with his sister's, I am going to adjust our family dinner menu rotation to avoid clashing.

The first thing he did as soon as he got home was to nurse to sleep, exhausted from his new stimuli and environment. 

Here's praying and hoping Bean will make the best of his childhood carefree days at Playschool, may Allah swt keep him safe and happy always. Amin!