The Modern Mom

When I was in high school, I watched this movie entitled, “The Joy Luck Club”. I think I was with my mom and sisters when we watched it. The movie tells the story of four women who escaped their difficult lives in China, went to the US, had daughters who all seem to inherit their weaknesses and how they all were able to rise up to their shortcomings and get better. There was this part where everyone was having dinner and they were eating crab. June, who thinks her mom always compares her to the beautiful Waverly, got angry at the latter because she thinks that she is never good enough. Her mom told her that it’s not true and uses the sample of the crabs they had for dinner to emphasize. At the table, Waverly immediately gets the claw, which is the best part but June gets the smallest piece because she wants others to get the better ones. Her mom says that it’s because June has a good quality heart. It has been a running joke in our family that my eldest sister, Cla, is June because she...

In welcoming the new year, I try to clean the house and get rid of the junk I've accumulated throughout the past year.. and by get rid, I mean put them in boxes and store them. Hehe. In our household of two humans and two dogs, we hired a full-time helper (FH) to assist us in our daily chores. The dogs require constant care and since hubby and I both work, we decided this is the best way to keep our sanity. We also have a stay-out helper (SO) whose (real) primary job is to keep our helper company every other day. SO was our saviour when our string of helpers quit one after the other so when we were able to hire someone full-time, we continued her services, thanks to H. :) This has been our set-up for the past six months and it has been smooth sailing until the holidays. Because SO couldn't come, FH was left to clean the house for the past two weeks. Mind you, I do the cooking of main meals at home and I don't expect the house to be sparkly clean but she didn't even try....