A Homemaker’s Diary

Being a mother of 2 boys are exhausting, and since I am a homemaker, I have no break.

So what do I do to keep sane? I shop. No, I don’t go out and shop because going out with these boys will somehow be an additional stress (I am not ashamed to admit it) so the best way for me is to shop online and wait for the postman to send it to my doorstep the next day.

If you are a book reader or perhaps a keen book buyer ( I still have like 100 unread books on the shelves), this is your chance to get an additional 15% discount on any purchase at NoQ online book store. Never heard of it? Me, too!

If you are a veteran in online shopping, you will know what to do.

First, go to the website NoQ store.

Then, create an account and log in before applying Voucher Code and Checking out.

Simply enter the Voucher code HOMEMAKER under the ‘Voucher and Promotion Code’ tab during checkout.

You will be entitled to an exclusive 15% discount on all purchases at NoQ Store when you use code at checkout.

This discount code is valid from 4 September – 31 December 2014.

Now, which book I should choose?

I’ve written before about how my plant got attacked by caterpillars : The Attack of Caterpillars on Pokok Susun Kelapa

This time I noticed there were 3 brown caterpillars eating the curry leaves. So I quickly snip the small branch of the curry plant and put them inside an old plastic aquarium.

For those who are interested to breed your own butterflies, make sure you have ample supply of the same kind of leaves where the caterpillars first eat. In my case, I was fortunate because I can simply buy curry leaves and feed them when those leaves on my plant ran out of supply. They will not eat other kind of leaves apart from the one that the mother butterfly first lay her eggs and eventually will shrivel and die.

After they eat enough, they will turn into cocoons like the one in the picture. Notice that one didn’t survive and fell out from the branch.

Oh, another tips..make sure you put the leaves together with branches or stalks so that they have place to hang their cocoon.

After about 4-5 days, the cocoon will break free and out emerge the beautiful butterfly.

Once they start flipping their wings, which means it is already dry and ready to fly, set them free.

Oh, do you know that on average, some species of butterfly has an adult life cycle of 2 weeks or less. Some only live for 2 days. Interesting, right?

The other day, a journalist and a photographer came to my house for an interview and photo shoot session. This time the article will be featured in Malaysian Airlines in flight magazine, Going Places for September issue.

As I was showing them how I make a bunga telur from basic materials, she asked how I start the business 8 years ago, why I choose the name bungatelur.com and what it takes to make a good bunga telur.

I was trying to answer her questions as intelligently as I could while my hands were busy assembling the pieces. My baby was crying in the other room while my husband was trying his best to entertain him, and at the same time preventing my autistic son from escaping to the craft room. (Well, I am after all a Work-at-home-mom as I have warned them earlier!)

And then one unexpected question was asked..

“What’s the hardest job you have ever done?”

My quick answer was “raising my children”. And then I realized she was referring to the bunga telur custom made order I’ve ever done for a client.

I gave her my business related answer and then she replied “well comparing this to raising the children, making this bunga telur is just like a piece a cake for you..”

True enough!

I am a work-at-home mom, so my views and answers regarding this bunga telur making business is definitely different than those with shop, overhead cost, employees and monthly commitment to pay 🙂

(Picture taken from susiesbigadventure.blogspot.com)

It’s 3rd day of Ramadhan here in Malaysia. I hope it is still not too late to wish all the Muslim readers, selamat berpuasa 🙂

It’s kind of hard for me to cook this year since the baby is really clingy. I even have to break my fast in the room since he doesn’t sleep during the berbuka time.

With two kids on tow, it’s even harder to go and buy food at Pasar Ramadhan. I guess it’s all in the parenthood experience. Once they all grown up, life could get back to normal pace, hopefully.

May this Ramadhan brings the best of everyone this year, and may all our amal ibadat will be accepted by Allah.

I was shocked to see my pokok susun kelapa like this a few days ago. I knew that it must be the attack of caterpillars again. Last time it was my curry leaves plant which became the victim..huhu!

The next day when all the leaves on the plant were gone, we saw this fat caterpillar. It even have the guts to pose for this picture..sigh!

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And then we saw another one on the hippeastrum’s leaf.

By afternoon both caterpillars were gone. I thought they have turned into chrysalis but after thorough inspection all around the plants, I couldn’t see any sign of it. Hubby said maybe the birds have found the fat caterpillars and had them for lunch.

There goes our plan to breed our own butterflies..huhu! Son #1 was sad because he planned to send the butterflies to Butterfly Park. Maybe next time, Son! For now, Mama needs to revive the susun kelapa plant so that it won’t die like the previous curry leaves plant..isk!