Capricious Spontaneity

Early last December, we went kite-flying on a whim and fancy at the wide expanse of meadow around Tanjong Rhu. The skies were brilliantly beautiful, painted in stunning hues of ultramarine and splotched with beguiling rounded masses of altocumulus clouds, always a favourite cloud type of mine. The meadow was lightly tinted by the resplendent amber setting sunlight.



The Bees immersing themselves in the gorgeous surroundings.

Hubby and Big Bee had a grand time trying to get 2 of their kites high up in the air, whereas Little Bee and I strolled around, admiring the breathtaking bay and enveloping ourselves in the rejuvenating riverside breeze.

The Bees also ambled around the expansive field, trying to spot mimosa leaves, and making them curl up in docile shyness. Little Bee had been fascinated by the mimosa plant ever since I showed her how the leaves close up with humble quiescence when we prod them gently.

From an unexpected turn on the road to visit the riverside on a whim to an extended 2 hours of kite-flying and relaxation on an enchanting Sunday evening. I love spontaneous moments like these :)

Making Corn

We made a simple corn craft out of cut handprints from yellow paper and 2 strips of green paper for the leaves. 

Big Bee's corn

Little Bee's corn

Then the Bees decorated their respective corns with multi-hued finger paints of red, orange and brown to symbolise the little bits of corn. It was an immensely fuss-free craft yet they enjoyed themselves to the max! 

Big Bee's corn

Little Bee's corn

The Last Frontier

Our homelearning "Farm" theme culminated with a farm stay in D'Kranji Farm Resort, right in the midst of the Kranji countryside. I thought this would be a gentle introduction to the Bees on the rigours and characteristics of farm life, since they had been brought up as creatures of comfort in an urban environment, despite our regular jaunts to the great outdoors. 

We set off with much excitement on 20 December towards Singapore's wild North. It was a Monday, hence we noticed vehicles gradually dwindling in numbers as we approached Kranji. We heard the Kranji countryside could be rather crowded on weekends, so we deliberately selected 2 weekdays to spend in Kranji. 

For 2 days, we immersed ourselves in the luxuriant greenery and last frontier of Singapore's rural countryside. We did not feel like we were in Singapore at all! The eloquent silence of the lush virgin rainforests, the regular sightings of wild animals (including a wild boar galloping at top speed into a wide expanse of field!), the rare notion of driving along empty roads without cars for almost an hour or of driving leisurely along meandering country roads with dense vegetation around us - these were poetic moments for me. 

For the Bees, let's just say it was an initiation of fire. For the first time, as they were showering in an open-air bathroom, they had a few millipedes and worms for company, much to their hysterical chagrin. Big Bee has an irrational fear of worms (much like my similar fear of butterflies and moths!) so she was terrified half the time in the countryside. But the Bees loved to chase chickens around, visited dairy farms and witnessed birds of all species doing funny things around us (including one small woodpecker pecking Hubby's car one morning!). 

All in all, it was a staycation that rejuvenated our tired urban souls, that invigorated our jaded cosmopolitan minds. A breath of salubrious, sylvan air to renew our beliefs that life consists of so many multidimensional facets! 

Some highlights of our staycation that I love: 

Day 1

1) Driving with dense anticipation along the immensely expansive boulevard (aka reserved military runway) of Lim Chu Kang road, and along unknown meandering roads with nothing but the trees, birds and blue mottled skies as company. 

2) Entering into a villa of D'Kranji Farm Resort to be stunned by the extremely small room, despite the illusion of physical space from the gate! Yet, we were aptly impressed by the automatic gate, the private car porch right inside our villa and the roomy balcony that allowed us to sit and admire the primeval forest right in front of us. 

Granted, the service, cleanliness and facilities within D'Kranji left much to be desired, but we were not expecting a five-star resort, and I think these were positive ways to introduce the Bees to the (dis)comforts of living in the countryside! Such traits of the resort slowly grew on us, and Hubby and I grew to enjoy the idyllic but sparse restaurants, scanty farming facilities and sleepy service. 

3) Hubby and I loved the open-air bathroom with dense verdant vegetation, although the Bees were not that thrilled with the prevalence of millipedes and worms around the shower cubicle!

 

4) Running after a big fat chicken and observing its every move in the almost-empty farm site of the resort, and witnessing shrubs of plump, purple brinjal growing in the resort. The Bees also observed how farmers toiled on the farm land - watering crops, weeding and harvesting ripe plants.

5) Hubby and Big Bee indulged in prawning for the first time! Seeing Hubby cut a chicken heart into tiny pieces as bait for the prawns made my hair stand, but it was gratifying to see Big Bee sitting patiently with a fishing rod, excitedly calling out whenever she thought a prawn had been hooked. Sadly, we only caught one prawn! 

6) Walking around the resort's farmland in the setting sun, hearing nothing but the incessant yet soothing calls of cicadas, inhaling the sweet smells of plants and forests and seeing the workers on the farmlands ambling back after a long day at the farm. 

7) Driving around the Kranji countryside in the descending lavender dusk, and crossing the Kranji bridge with a clear view of both the Malaysian and Singaporean waters and coastal skylines. Utterly charming. 

The Singapore coastline

The Malaysia coastline

8) Indulging in a dinner at a cosy cafe at the Turf Club Riding Centre, where Big Bee's perpetual interest in horse-riding was enlivened again. Despite her constant requests to resume her riding lessons, we are still very hesitant after what happened in a riding accident in 2009. 

9) Sitting in a short session of deafening getai singing at the beer garden in the resort, with Hokkien and Chinese singers dancing to a revolving disco ball on stage. So retro! The Bees were so thrilled that they were dancing and running crazily in front of the stage - probably the most ardent audiences these getai singers had seen in a while! 

Day 2

1) Waking up to a heartachingly gorgeous azure sky speckled with feathery and fluffy white clouds. And upon hearing a mysterious pecking sound from the porch, only to find a mini blue-yellow woodpecker pecking with much perseverence on Hubby's car! 

2) Taking our breakfast at a cosy Malay restaurant, reminiscent of kampong days. We were particularly impressed by the friendly Malay female boss who gave us a last, complimentary plate of nasi-lemak after they heard us lamenting that they ran out of nasi-lemak! Such warm and affable service, just like in kampong days! 

3) Adjourning to Hay Dairies, where the Bees understood how goats are milked for our consumption. They got to see bounteous udders in full, close-up view, as well as learned the repercussion of milking - a shrivelled udder! So we went around identifying those goats that had been milked or not milked, haha! 

We walked around the goats' pens, observing their behaviour at close range, and ended the visit with drinking chocolate goat's milk, which tasted immensely muttony to me. Big Bee liked the drink though, whereas Hubby and Little Bee could not stand it. 

4) Driving around the deserted Kranji countryside with no end in mind, and eventually ended up in a certain university in the West where Hubby and I first met! How nice! So we strolled around that exact venue a bit, telling our girls excitedly about that fateful first night way back in 1992 :) The Bees were rather nonchalant about it, though! 

5) Visiting the Lim Chu Kang jetty in high noon, thus seeing the waters in high tide, and looking at fishermen working. We explained briefly to the Bees how these fishermen worked with the distant kelongs to catch fish, and then trucking these fish to the markets. 

6) Hunting around Kranji for several cow farms that I heard exist in Singapore. Sadly, none of them are open for public visitors, and we were even shoo-ed (albeit very politely of course) by one proprietor when he saw us snooping around his dairy farm! However, I was very adamant to show the Bees that big dairy cows exist in Singapore, so we sneaked around the boundary of one dairy farm, hiding behind bushes and ankle deep in rural grasses, and we caught glimpses of the colossal cows in its compound! In full glory - of cows with black-and-white patches and even a pristine white cow! Big Bee was thrilled!  

7) After we checked out, we proceeded to Farm Art for lunch, and we all loved this quaint zichar restaurant that serves the most divine coffee-flavoured pork ribs! The Bees and us devoured our lunch in ravenous speed. We then sauntered around the somnolent Farm Art and fed some poor caged-up farm animals (goats, rabbits, hamsters, frogs, tortoises, etc). The Bees enjoyed the feeding session immensely, though I still think there was a certain amount of cruelty to these animals.  

What a memorable holiday - it is possible to escape into the great farmland in Singapore and be lost amongst all the meandering roads and little nooks and crannies of our last remaining rural scape.

I thought it was eye-opening for the Bees to see for themselves how certain farm products originated (milk, crops, fish, etc). They enjoyed themselves, albeit not liking the ubiquitous creepy-crawly inhabitants in the agrarian countryside.  

Back home, the urban girls were quickly back to their favourite activity of conquering metropolitan plots of land though - through a game of Monopoly! 

Harvesting

We learned about the concept of harvesting through some "before-and-after" craftwork for our "Farm" homelearning theme. It was really fun and thrilled the Bees to no end. Furthermore, the action-based learning allow them to deepen their understanding of cultivating and harvesting, resulting in the end products we use in everyday lives. 

1) Sheep

The Bees worked on a sheep craft with cotton wool, black construction paper (for the sheep's body!) and some crepe paper for grass. I cut out separate sections of the body, legs, ears, head and mouth, and the girls assembled everything together, in addition to drawing the eyeballs. They had the greatest fun sticking on the cotton wool to make the sheep so fluffy and pristine white!

 

Big Bee's sheep

Little Bee's sheep - can you spot the difference?! 

We displayed their completed artwork around the house for more than a month before I encouraged them to start shearing the sheep fleece to make wool. They had a most mirthful time snipping away, pretending they are real farmers shearing fleece! 

As they snipped their scissors around the "fleece", we talked about New Zealand, the entire process of shearing -> creation of wool -> end product of woolen cardigans, gloves, scarves, etc. They seemed fairly intrigued.

The aftermath!

After the shearing, we bunched up the cotton wool together and created a wool bale, which almost felt rather woolen and real! 

2) Fruit orchard

The Bees created simple fruit trees from recycled toilet rolls, construction paper (for the shapes of the trees) and crepe paper which they rolled up to resemble fruits. They created apple, orange and lemon trees, and again, we displayed the trees for a couple of months before harvesting the fruits. The long wait resembled the true cultivation of plants in a farm, where patience is a true virtue. 

On harvesting night, the Bees were eagerly plucking out the myriad apples and oranges from the trees. Big Bee persevered till the end, whereas Little Bee lost focus towards the latter part, exclaiming it was a tiring task. I told her that plucking apples from trees is not exactly a rosy task after all. 

"Fruits" of their labour

Barren trees!

After these crafts, the Bees are now bugging me to go for a farm holiday with fruit orchards and sheep! Whilst it is sad that the girls can only role-play harvesting at home, it is a good way to demonstrate to them the effort it takes to work on a farm. What I find most meaningful about both crafts is that the Bees get to understand where their foods or other products (like woolen mittens) originate from. 

Ushering 2011

New Year's Eve

We spent a peaceful, quiet New Year's Eve at home, preferring to spend the last day of 2010 in the warmth and cosiness of our home with the Bees. We prepared mushroom soup, roast chicken and some vegetables. Hubby laid out the table in the balcony with a lovely lustrous candle and sparkling apple a la white wine. Then we dined in serenity alfresco-style. Lovely! 

Big Bee wanted to count down to the new year so badly with us and stayed up till 11.30pm. Even Little Bee was up and about till then! However, the poor girls could not keep their eyes from closing, and even when I tried waking Big Bee up at 11.55pm, she was oblivious and apparently still immersed in her dreamland.

With the girls fast asleep, Hubby and I then watched the fireworks from the comfort of our sofa, snuggling against each other, ready for a new year ahead :)  

New Year's Day

My maternal cousins and I had a dinner gathering near Irene's and my mum's homes, together with all the maternal uncles and aunties. It was such a jolly potluck get-together, with so much food as usual. The 7 kids (all girls!) played so well together, while older relatives ate and chatted. Our generation of cousins were either busy chasing after our children or chatting away, and it was so fulfilling to see all our kids playing so well together! Thanks to Irene for bringing out the electric car, bicycle and alphabet mat so the kids had a blasting great time from 5 to 9.30pm! 

Past The Point Of Fatigue

2011 had been a tough year for me thus far. Since last week, my home-work-weekend schedule had been frenetic. Work is (still) like an abyss of dark whirling cyclones, the kids are back to their busy schooling schedule, and with them crossing new thresholds in school, I need to spend more time teaching them. Furthermore, their social life over the first weekend of 2011 had been nothing short of spectacular - they attended 2 birthday parties and a birthday lunch over the weekend! 

A typical weekday schedule for me since the start of the year had been:

6.30am: Up and about, ready to stroll with Big Bee in the invigorating morning air to school

7.30am: A bout of restorative yoga before I head off to work (and Little Bee tends to sleep in quite a fair bit this fortnight, which is a blessing, I guess)

9am: Wooooorrrrrrrkkkkkkkk *yawn* (I do try to come home for lunch at least once a week to spend some time with Little Bee, if work is not too overwhelming) 

7pm to 7.30pm: Back from work, and a mad rush to finish dinner so I can spend time with the girls

8pm: Indulging in some learning and fun activities with the Bees (how pathetic that working mums only spend a couple of hours with our darlings at home, sigh!)

9pm: Get ready for bed, storytime!

9.30pm+: The girls are off to Lala-land! And I am off to mark Big Bee's assessment books or plan some homelearning stuff

10.30pm: More work (which was what happened for the past 2 weeks!) with some me-time or couple-time in between

2.30am: Heavy head, end of work...and I usually need 30 minutes to wind down after work

3am: ZzzzzzZzzz

So, these 2 weeks, I had been sleeping an average of 3-4 hours a day. And I am way past the point of fatigue. Which means I don't feel tired anymore these days, but I am sleeping for the mere sake of preventing aging! 

However, I do see the faint light at the end of the tunnel tonight. Work is ebbing, albeit only so slightly...and I think I can count my blessings that I am now blogging instead of working! :)

I guess my new year resolution should be trying to sleep early - for beauty's sake! And of course, trying to reach home by 6.30pm instead of 7.30pm for the sake of my beautiful girls. 

In dark times like this, I always take deep breaths and count my blessings:

1) For having a wonderful Hubby whom I treat as my best friend and love spending every waking moment with (except on occasions when we are both grouchy!)

2) For having 2 of the most amazing beings in the world in my life, who bring such immense joy to me perpetually - my 2 Bees

3) For having such a strong support infrastructure with my mum helping to care for my kids so I can work in peace

4) For having fantastic close friends whom I can share much laughter and gossips with! 

5) For travelling much much lesser in this job so I can sleep with the girls every night  :) 

6) For living in a gorgeous world we call planet earth (which, incidentally, is our current homelearning theme!)

Despite the lack of sleep, despite the vile stress cortisol wreaking havoc in my mind, when we count our blessings, life seems immensely magnificent after all :) 

Pet Adventures

Hubby and Big Bee came back on Saturday afternoon with an exotic pet, much to my chagrin - a baby octopus! According to Hubby, it is a 2-month-old female octopus. Big Bee was immensely delighted, and always kept an eye out for it. Little Bee insisted that we name this octopus Angie, so there we are - a pet Angie in the corner of our dining room, complete with wriggly tentacles! 

4 facts about octopuses (according to Hubby!):

1) Octopuses are highly intelligent creatures

2) They are mild predators that are very territorial, so they are better off living alone

3) Recommended diet is live, fresh shrimps (yikes!), and they love to put up a good chase for their food. So the Bees were witnesses to some rather exciting battles between Angie the octopus and a few active shrimps a la National Geographic. 

4) Octopuses love to play, so Hubby bought a dozen tiny balls for Angie to juggle around with!

*********************

On the hamster front, Hubby found Furball, our white hamster, peering at him right outside our bedroom late on Friday night! According to Hubby, when he ambled to the kitchen to take a plastic box to scoop up Furball, it scurried right after him, following him into the kitchen! As Hubby reached the kitchen, Furball looked at him expectantly, as if asking Hubby to bring him home! And true enough, when Hubby held out his hand, Furball scampered right onto his palm obediently before Hubby brought it up into its cage! How cute!

We suspected that Furball could unscrew a security cap on its cage, and true enough, 2 mornings later, as Big Bee strode sleepily to the bathroom, we heard her exclaimed excitedly, "The hamster is here!" Once again, Furball veered towards Hubby, and calmly let Hubby carry it to its cage, which is on a high ledge. We decided to switch it to another cage to prevent it from constantly falling off from high grounds. What a smart hamster! It knows how to unscrew caps from within its cage!  

To The Park We Go

On a warm, laid-back afternoon on 19 November, YM and I brought the kiddies to West Coast Park for a jaunt. Sophie and the Bees were energetically clambering around the sprawling playground, trying everything from netted bridges, flying fox and balancing ropes. YM and baby David, who was just learning to walk, were ambling alongside the shady meandering pathways. Going to a normally crowded park on a weekday was bliss - people were few and far between, the place was quiet and tranquil, and we could hear the birds singing! 

We then brought the kids to MacDonald's for a quick bite where they were busy playing and giggling with each other before YM had to leave. 

Thereafter, I brought the Bees around the peaceful park again, imbuing myself with the peaceful silence enveloping us. The Bees were happily fooling around, cooperatively and stylishly posing for pictures whenever I whipped out the camera! They were both ecstatic at a surprise afternoon gathering on a weekday! 

I shall make it a point to visit more places on serene weekdays :)  

Season's Revelry

One of the best part of the December holidays is that most of us were on leave and the kids were free from school and other enrichment classes. Which left us with much time to catch up with good friends and indulged in some jolly bonding sessions. 

Which was what we did in the last 2 weeks of December. Lots of gatherings with close friends. Plenty of gossip, catching up and laughter. Abundant action and giggling from the kids, some of whom made new friends. 

22 December 2010

We went to Viv's house for a long-awaited gathering - because Fon and Angela happened to be back in Singapore at the same time! So, Viv, Fon, Angela, Annie and I had a fabulous dinner at Viv's beautiful house - with the most scrumptious hawker food to satiate the tastebuds of our friends from far far away. Thanks to KL for putting so much mouthwatering food in front of us!

The 8 kids made new friends. As it had been years since we all gathered together, some of our kids played with each other when they were little toddlers and had clean forgotten each other (like Big Bee), some had never even met each other (like Little Bee!). Big Bee was very charmed by Andrea, and wanted to meet her again - they both got along mighty well. Children are so adaptable when making new friends. In no time, the 8 kids were zooming around Viv's house, jesting about, playing hide-and-seek, exchanging iPhone gaming tips and creating a merry din. 

Which left the 5 ladies (and KL) much chance to sit and gorge ourselves silly at the dining table, gossiping the evening away! I don't think we ever left the table except to go to the kitchen for drinks! 

Thanks Viv, for hosting us. We should do this more often! And it was truly great fun catching up with the ladies - I miss the gossips! 

30 December 2010

PF invited our family to her estate's early New Year's celebration, and we had another marvelous time feasting again! The kids went wild with balloon sculpting and games, and sped all around the function room. The 4 adults had a fulfilling time chatting and eating, while observing the crazy antics of our children with much amusement. I guess one of the joys of having big kids is that we now have a lot more time to spend with our spouses and friends - no more running after our children continuously! 

After the party, we adjourned to PF's house where the kids indulged in a game of Castle Panic (yes, Eugene bought that game after experiencing how fun it was when he played with Big Bee and Claire at our house on Boxing Day!). We left them pretty much to their own devices, and we adults continued our chatting and gossiping, before calling it a night at almost 10.30pm, which was way past the girls' bedtime! 

What an enjoyable week, filled with convivial bonding sessions with friends and merrymaking! 

Back To Reality

Gone are the carefree days of sleeping later, of waking later, of lazy mornings and long languid afternoons where the hours seemed to overflow into timelessness. For school had started in full swing since yesterday! Little Bee started life as a K1 big kid yesterday, and Big Bee stepped into the threshold of a tween as a P3 kid. 

Life seems to slip past us rapidly. I can vividly remember the days when Big Bee entered into her K1 stage of life, with Little Bee as an infant - almost as if it was yesterday. And now...they are both big girls with independent thoughts of their own. Such thoughts never fail to make me misty-eyed and a wee bit melancholic. 

Feisty Little Bee started school with much aplomb and a dash of audacity. She bravely bade farewell to us, although she did try to hug us tighter and wanted us to stay in class with her. However, the moment we stepped out of her class and peeped in, we saw her telling her friend who accidentally sat at her place with a frown on her face, "Ehhhh, that's my seat!"  The poor boy hurriedly scrambled away. This girl can definitely stand on her own anywhere. 

As for Big Bee, I am back to enjoying our early morning walks to school at 6.55am - breathing in the crisp dawn air, observing how the sleepy sun slowly awaken and feeling the entire world rousing from a long night's rest. I love these morning walks because I can have some private time with her, quietly chatting and jesting. 

This year, she will have one additional subject - Science - so I am finally succumbing to tuition for her, after coaching her entirely for the past 2 years. So, I am now shopping around for Math tuition, but I will still attempt to teach the other 3 subjects. Plus, I would need to instill more learning activities for Little Bee as she is now in K1. Hence, those couple of paltry hours after work never seem to be adequate!

Big Bee's P3 textbooks

A new school year with brand new challenges. I am confident my girls would rise up to the occasion independently. 

Meanwhile, Big Bee had written down her impressions of 2010 and hopes for 2011: 

5 things I love about 2010

1) It was a fun year

2) My hair grew! (At last!)

3) I made new friends (she particularly highlighted Andrea, Angela's girl whom she played with at Viv's house near Christmas!)

4) I finally went to Universal Studios

5) I had a fun time in Japan

3 things I want to achieve in 2011

1) Have a nice happy time

2) Work hard and play hard

3) Be a good girl

I think I might have to ask Little Bee verbally about her thoughts and hopes as well! 

P/S: Expect LOADS of backdated posts as November/December were such busy and eventful months!

Taking Stock Of 2010

New Year's wishes and crackers from Big Bee at a New Year's Day gathering with my cousins 

On the first day of 2011, I would like to wish all my friends and family a glorious New Year! I thought it might be rather meaningful to list down the top 10 most momentous events/achievements of 2010 to help me take stock of the past, and get ready for yet another exciting year ahead. I had asked Big Bee to write down her own list of top 10 most memorable moments in 2010, and 5 most important things to achieve or change in 2011, so it will be interesting to see what she will write down :) 

As for me, here are my favourite top 10 most significant moments:

1. Seeing both my little darlings proceeding to primary 2 and nursery 2 respectively, and observing how fast they grow, not just academically, but in terms of maturity and articulation, in becoming much more sensible girls with a strong grasp of worldly awareness. 

2. Big Bee's blossoming independence, as she started attending more parties on her own, and chilling out with her best friends, sometimes not seeing us for almost a day! This created waves of bittersweet emotions in me - on one hand, I am happy that she is now growing up fast, on the other hand, I am starting to understand the ramifications of a potentially empty nest in the very near future! 

3. Little Bee's natural showmanship on stage, and her emerging gregarious nature. She has no shadow of shyness in her, and veered towards everyone with trust and vivacity. She has also progressed to become a sunny chatterbox, commenting incessantly on almost everything. Her maturity and articulate nature never fails to amaze me. 

4. Big Bee's ardent love for reading. She had already devoured umpteenth books by Enid Blyton (her favourite), Roald Dahl and CS Lewis, amongst others, and read and re-read many of these books up to 10 times or more. I simply could not borrow or buy story books to match her pace of reading. She would be reading when chomping on her meals, reading when she just woke up and all of us were still snoozing on lazy weekends, reading outside when she is stuck in boring parties with us adults, reading in restaurants with us (I had since banned this!), reading all kinds of materials with words on it, right down to food labels! She gives new meaning to the word bookworm!

5. Spending wonderfully romantic time with Hubby in 2 getaways - to Bintan for a weekend getaway as his birthday treat, and to Beijing last month as part of both our work trips. The giddy happiness, delicious yet delirious emotions as well as spirited contentment we experienced with each other on both trips indicated that we just might be able to grow old together with a good amount of enjoyable and exhilarating passion together. Let's hope this zest for spending couple time with each other will last through the years :)

6. Our 2-week whirlwind tour of 3 cities in Japan, traipsing around the country by ourselves with an immensely heavy luggage, 2 impetuous little girls and countless train rides! It was wonderful to spend time in a foreign land, immersing in their culture. 

7. Other short trips this year to Bintan with PF and family, at a cruise with our parents, as well as other staycations in lovely spots off the beaten track in Singapore - at Changi Village Hotel with my cousins and D'Kranji Farm Resort with ourselves.

8. Many many bonding sessions with family, cousins and close friends at home, at short getaways and all around Singapore! The Bees had a grand time making new friends sometimes, and sealing their own friendships with their cousins and other children of Hubby's and my close friends! 

9. Our 10th wedding anniversary celebrations at the Fullerton Bay Hotel. It reinforces our love affair with each other, which had started more than 18 years ago, and had gone through much adversity. I do hope both Hubby and I can be invigorating life-long companions for each other once our nest is empty :)

10. Staying home for an entire month in June, as well as other shorter breaks on a frequent basis with the Bees. I had been balancing work and family very well, tilting more towards family life...and enjoying every minute of it:) 

Happy 2011 - may it be filled with love and laughter, significance and intensity just like 2010.