A friend told me this morning that 40s is the best decade and yes, I am so on board with this. And not in a let’s try to make the most out of this situation by forcing myself to believe it’s great when it’s not kind of way either. I actually do think it’s one of those secrets people who have turned 40 keep to themselves and I’m pleasantly surprised at how nice being 40 is. So I read this article recently about a lady who signed up with a dating agency and was unhappy with her potential matches so she wanted a refund. Granted, she had a list of demands that made her seem borderline persnickety ..read more

We’re approaching the end of October and it has been one crazy year. After a shaky start and a very rough middle, I feel the the next two months has the potential to get better (come on, phase 3!) or much worse. In any case, this year has certainly been one for the books. Although there has already been some unexpected bright spots these past months. One of best things to have come out of all this circuit breaking is the extra family time we get to spend with the kids. Look at these babies. Have they all gotten big or what? So Truett survived his PSLE. We experienced the entire spectrum of em ..read more

I was watching yesterday’s lunchtime speech by PM Lee and as usual, it was a clear summary of why one should vote for PAP this coming Friday. Then at one point, he said “If you think we have delivered and made your life better, please vote for us. If you think we have not, then by all means vote us out.”  Okay, hold up. It seems to me that this presents a false dichotomy where we have to either take every single PAP candidate or vote them out completely, as if this is a reductive “would-you-rather” game with only 2 choices. If the PAP did a great job, vote in every single candidate. If th ..read more

It’s day 23 of the circuit brea…wait, it could be day 25, 28, 45? Feels like 400. I’ve lost track of how long it’s been and I woke up this morning confident that it was Wednesday until I realised that it is most definitely only Tuesday. When the circuit breaker was first announced, I had some concerns but mostly, I was feeling rather hopeful. It couldn’t be that bad, certainly I can do 4 weeks of home-based learning with all the kids at home 24/7 without losing my mind<?> Yeah, I realise that came out more like a question than a statement there. But I was optimistic and I had i ..read more

These are some strange times. We were supposed to be in Austin for the South by Southwest conference and 3 days before we were scheduled to leave, the whole event got cancelled and everything escalated so we decided it was best to stick around at home instead. The kids are pleased about that development. Well at least my 3 babies are pleased; they were like “You’re not leaving anymore? I can spend all my time with you now? YEAHHHHH!!” while the 2 big kids were all “Ummm, so does that mean we won’t have 2 whole weeks without parental supervision? Aw mannn, I mean…yay??” Sigh, almost-teenagers ..read more

So last November, we brought all the kids over to the US for 4 weeks. After one relatively easy trip with 5 babies under our belt in March, we were feeling pretty confident about doing something ambitious. While discussing which parts of the US to visit, it went something like this: “Babe what do you think about doing the west coast this time – it’s a little more laid back and easy on the kids.” “But then Disney!!” “Is it crazy to do both? We go California then Orlando. We’re saving 5 hours flying into SF anyway, we can definitely handle a 7-hour domestic flight. From there we can wrap up ..read more

A little late, but happy new year!! I’m excited about 2020. We were away for almost all of December last year (more on that!) and in the midst of the mayhem that comes with traveling with 5 kids, I got some time to think about my life up to this point and what I wanted it to look like in the next 10 years. I can see myself approaching a version of midlife crisis and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’ve done all the predictable things people do in their late 30s – exercise, eat better, worry about health, question things, make plans and then question those plans, try to figure out what’s ..read more

We made it to the end of exam season and just look at the happy faces around here. I don’t remember Primary school exams being this big a thing back when I was a kid. There were papers at the end of every semester with grades attached but they were pretty much nbd right up till the PSLE. Sometimes my mom would present us with gifts of assessment books and we would have to make a show of getting through them but there was a lot of phoning it in without much consequence. Helping the kids navigate their exams has been a learning process for us. We started out trying to be all chill about exams ..read more

It’s children’s day today and the kids were like “WE SHOULD CELEBRATE!” and I asked them what they had in mind and they were all “how about some snacks and we can have fun together maybe go swimming or the playground” and then I was like “this is your entire life, guys – having snacks and having fun hanging out together” and they thought about it for a moment and were all “yeah ok, good point! let’s get on it.” As it turns out, they’re all headed for a super fun children’s day carnival at church and for the first time this morning, Hayley announced that she was going to partake in this big ki ..read more

Remember when you were young and everything seemed possible? When I ask the kids what they would like to be when they grow up, none of their dreams seem ludicrous or out of reach. Pro gamer? Yes! Vet who specialises in treating frogs and lizards and turtles? Oddly specific, but sure! Firefighter? Nice! Comic book writer? Go for it! Artist? Great choice! (*5 points for anyone who can match the answers to the right kids!) But then time goes by and with every decision we make in life, we start eliminating options from the realm of possibility. Choose a major in humanities over triple science – st ..read more