questions to ask yourself

(to make yourself sound smart. also good for self-reflection)

What do you want?

What are you doing to get it?

What keeps you awake at night?

What makes your heart heavy?

What lifts your spirits?




And now, a little bit of humor...


What do you want?
Food.

What are you doing to get it?
Browsing Pinterest recipes.

What keeps you awake at night?
Whether or not to get up and eat something

What makes your heart heavy?
Bacon running low

What lifts your spirits?
Knowing that I buy more bacon tomorrow

My weekend in mid-May

1. Learned how to play Bang.
2. Had a piece of wire embedded in 6 of my teeth.
3. Had a glorious nap.
4. Revised some tambourine patterns with the young ones at GHM.
- as I was doing this, I came to a realization. Give more of yourself, and you'll never lack.
5. Helped to iron down Elyon Kedah. God be with us!

Hope your weekend was good!

Music: Thank you lah, Spotify.

I really, really, really like Spotify. Without it, I would not have re-discovered this jewel of a band. You know how you grew up listening to some songs by some bands, and they disappear because they weren't popular enough, or you didn't pay attention to them enough?

Oh my gosh I love Fuel.

Falls On Me is one of my top 10 high school songs, hands down. Guys, I cannot tell you how happy I am to find this song again! Hitz was always playing it back then. I associate this song with good times with friends, cutting out newspaper articles on weekends and swimming. Nerd, I know.

What God is doing

When I thought I was supposed to be encouraging, I ended up being inspired. God is moving, you guys. You may not see it, but it's happening within the young and old alike. He is alive and He is moving mightily.

The little things count. Anybody can take a big step, but it takes perseverance to make many small ones consistently. Keep on the path! Life's destination is awesome, but the journey matters more. If you're not on the path, you may not even end up at the ending point.


"Now may the God of peace...equip you with all you need
for doing his will
May he produce in you, 
through the power of Jesus Christ,
every good thing that is pleasing to him."

-Hebrews 13:20,21

DIY: Simple Gift Bag for Mother's Day

Mother's Day is this weekend. I am blessed to have one biological mother and many other "mothers" in my life! So, don't forget to give your non-related aunties and godmothers a hug tomorrow! This is not really a DIY, but it's something simple you can give for Mother's Day. 

Simple Gift Bag for Mother's Day

A box of cookies (for nomming)

A bar of chocolate (because moms also deserve a whole bar to themselves, teehee)

A small tin of cream (for pampering)

A paper bag

A note

A clip

Assemble contents.

Arrange into paper bags.

Write a note.

Clip note to bag. 

Ta-dah! 

Blessed Mother's Day :) 

Cooks: Minestrone Soup

Last Saturday morning was a nice day to sleep in but I told myself to get up and go do something. So, half-asleep and still groggy with sleep on my mind and eyes, I shuffled to Tesco to get some ingredients to cook Minestrone (Mee-neh-sthron-ee/Mee-neh-sthron, HELP I still don't know the correct pronounciation) soup.

So like an aunty I went with my canvas bag (Saturday mah) and gathered most of the ingredients I needed fairly quickly.


At the vege section, I saw this tall rack of trays that had many people swarming around it, and found out that it was the fresh produce clearance/markdown area. So (like the aunty that I am) I went through one tray and saw rosemary. I dug a bit more and found basil! One pack of it for RM 0.45! PTL! So cheap ok, normal price is like RM 5 for one pack. And it's quite hard to find basil leaves, so I was very happy to find it :D


This recipe that I found in a cookbook of simple Italian dishes is ridonkulous. It says serves four, but it can definitely serve up to six. Here's the amount & ingredients, in case you're curious:

Minestrone Soup (from Food Lover's Italian)
Serves 4-6
Prep time: 15 mins 
Cook time: 15 mins
Difficulty level: 1/10 (5/10 for chopping the carrots)

4 tomatoes (dropped into boiling water for a few seconds, peeled, deseeded and chopped)
2 carrots
2 small zucchinis
2 onions
600g canned butter beans (substituted with chickpeas)
250g sieved tomatoes/passata (substituted with tomato puree)
750g vegetable stock (substituted with chicken stock - I used the Maggi stock cubes!)
Basil leaves

Chop the first four ingredients into cubes.
Heat 2 tbps of olive oil, then sweat the onions.
Add in the carrots and zucchinis and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Add in the tomato puree and cook on very low heat.
Add the broth/stock and bring to a boil
Stir in diced tomatoes, simmer over low heat for 10 minutes
Stir in beans and chopped basil leaves, cook for 1 minute
Season to taste.

This chunky soup is great to eat with crusty bread. To beef it up, you can also add a cup of cooked pasta (like bow ties or spirals, cos they're cute) to the soup. It was an almost vegetarian dish...I just couldn't find vegetable stock cubes.