Recently I've had many compliments on how good my skin looks. Seriously, I'm not really big on commenting on my own looks n stuff but I thought this might make a good post.

I think part of the reason is the glow that comes with pregnancy (YAY! More reason to have babies!) and part of it is just good genes (Dad's skin is great!). I've never had big problems with pimples and acne even though I'm terrible with all the cleansing, toning and moisturising.

However, I've always been plagued with eczema since I was a kid. I spent most of my teenage life with two patches on my face because I started wearing glasses and somehow it reacted with my face. Recently, it attacked the area around my eyes. Those who saw me back home probably saw how bad it got! Red, itchy and patchy!

I started to try all sorts of stuff, asked around a bit and realised there are so many Singapore kids that are plagued with eczema and allergies! Poor things, I can totally identify!

Then I chanced upon a Singaporean website selling organic products for eczema prone babies on Angie's website (Angie's website is my constant reference for homeschooling references and ideas) called Bellygoods. So, I decided to contact them and give it a try! They had products for adults as well. Val from Bellygoods was really sweet and posted me a sample of Sun*Si'Belle Organic Triple Action Moisturizer with SPF 30+. I needed a moisturizer and sunblock that did not react with my skin while allowing the eczema to heal.

The product is not as smooth as the Biotherm moisturiser that I normally use but it is also a sunblock so it kinda coats the skin and makes it look a little pale. Once I dust some face powder over it, it's great. Another plus factor is that it helps to even out my skin tone so my skin actually looks almost flawless without foundation! Woopee!

After using it for a month or so, the eczema died down. Of course in addition, I've used some eczema cream and Avene spray to reduce the itch before I put on the moisturizer.

I've not used the other products from Bellygoods but I'm sure it's just as good. I think I might get the baby products when baby arrives. The best part is that Val also sells samples so you can try it before you buy the actual product which can be rather costly. But totally worth it in my opinion!

The weather has been great the past few days. It's still cold at 4-15 degrees but lots of sunshine instead of rain!

We celebrated Jed's 6th birthday at the base playground and went to Hamilton with the Freestones over the weekend.

We've dried up all our PlayDoh stuff after frequent playing over the past year and I finally allowed Sophie to mix all the colours up and of course, it looks awful!

So I finally decided to junk all of them and MAKE OUR OWN!

The recipe looked really easy but it took a lot more time than I thought. But the results were AMAZING! The texture is even better than PlayDoh! We love it!

Got this recipe from the Freestones:
(To be cooked in microwave)

1 cup of water
1 cup of flour
2 tsp tartar
1 tbsp oil
1/2 cup salt

1. Cook for 1 min. Stir.
2. Cook for 30 seconds more, or until the dough rolls up into a ball nicely. (I found that it took at least 3-4 minutes more of cooking for our microwave)
3. Add food colouring (Sophie's fav part! It's fun!)

Now we've got 3 good blobs of playdough and it hardly cost us anything! PlayDoh is just too expensive to upkeep.

Sophie also inherited our tiny wooden chopping board (YA! Can't imagine how we used this tiny chopping board over the year. We finally got ourselves another bigger one for this year.) and I got her a rolling pin from Melissa and Doug (love their stuff).

Love how happy she is!

Last week, we went to visit the much talked about NZ Fieldays (about an hr's drive from where we are) – it's Australasia's definitive agri-business exhibition! The exhibition is to the local farmers what the IT expo is to Singaporeans. Where everyone goes to, whether or not you're into IT and where the gadget lovers gather once a year.

Most of the expo would have been boring to city people like us e.g. tractors, milking machines, tools and stuff. But the atmosphere was amazing! I've never seen so many Kiwis gathered at one place before! It's like the whole of NZ was there! Most times when you drive along NZ roads, all you see are cows, horses or sheep so it was pretty unusual to see so many cars and people. Even got traffic jam!

Sophie got to ride on a real huge farm tractor, ride on kid sized tractors, see horses and other farm animals (we even saw a real highland cattle, not cut up in the supermarket! It was HUGE!), eat an ice cream, sample NZ's latest gourmet food and beverages (my fav part!) etc…

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was momentous! I drove to town and back on my own! It was all great except at one point, I bumped into an elderly man's car bumper a little trying to reverse out of a parking lot but thank God no damage, phew!

I drove all three of us to town to have brunch at the All Day Breakfast place in town to celebrate Father's Day (erm, NZ doesn't celebrate Father's Day today) and then to New World (supermarket) and Warehouse (like Kmart) for some shopping before we headed back home. I was a bit tensed the whole time coz it's the first time I'm on my own for almost 10 years since I got my license. And it was raining quite heavily at some point. In fact, I'm not sure if I've ever driven on my own before without a seasoned driver!

Anyhow, it's great! Looking forward to more! FREEDOM!!!!!

As the first born in the family, Dad and I share a very special relationship. I can't really explain what exactly it is but it's just special. Maybe coz I had a good 5 years alone with Mum and Dad before Kelvin came along.

I grew up knowing that we were not rich and couldn't afford most things that Sophie would now take for granted. I knew that Mum and Dad had to work just to make ends meet. When I was growing up, they had to work long hours and I hardly got to see them. Yet during the weekends, we would spend lots of time together going to the beach or the gardens.

I also remember the times that Dad will attempt to teach me Math in primary school using Algebra (which I only figured out when I was in Sec sch! So that was what all that A+B=C was all about!). He's REALLY good with Maths being an estimator and involved in budgeting for million dollar projects like building huge oil rigs and all. I guess I kinda took after that. Although I'm a bit rusty now and need the calculator to figure 8×7.

He's an organizer – since he became a Christian (the year I turned 11), he's always woken up at 4/5am to spent time with the Lord. He's always on time and loves to put things together. Guess I took after him in that aspect too. Ok, not that 5am quiet time BUT I'm definitely more an early bird and I love to organize.

Dad loves to read the papers and watch TV, just like every other Dad. He doesn't talk very much but when he does, he always makes a lot of sense. Even though he doesn't talk very much, it helps that he smiles a lot and always give us quiet assurances that he loves us by asking us if we got enough pocket money or asking Mum to make sure we have this and that.

As I grow older and older, I'm more and more thankful for my Dad. He's 61 this year and he's still working. He and Mum just made a career move to Brazil to help to work on the shipping projects there. I think he's super brave. His tenacity for hard work always amazes me.

Dad, you are amazing and I'm so thankful to God for you. May the Lord bless you on this special Father's Day and even though you are far, pls know that we love you and miss you VERY much.

In a world where many are growing up without fathers or absent fathers, Sophie is most blessed to have James as her Daddy!!!!!!!!

Happy Father's Day dear one! You are so precious to the both of us and we're SO glad you've come home just in time so we can celebrate you!

The kitchen is closed SO I've been cooking at home everyday!

I've been craving Tau Yew Bak (Soya Sauce Stewed Pork) so I dug out the slow cooker that Gin left behind and made it! Shiok……… Sophie loved the meat coz it was so tender. And ooo the tender fat…….. Had good three meals out of that, ate it with rice and porridge.

I also made chicken curry (thanks to Prima) for the base dinner last weekend, ba cho mee with mee pok (minced meat noodles) to share with our Korean friend who left yesterday and stir fry beef with Korean marinate today.

Nope, don't miss home food that much this time.

Mama and Yeye, thank you for the Strawberry Shortcake books! Sophie likes them VERY MUCH. She's been reading them everyday.

Sophie is really into Strawberry Shortcake, princesses, dress ups, make up, jewellery and being Cinderella at the moment. I donno how many times we've had to act out the Cinderella scene where she drops her shoe and the prince asks if the shoe belongs to her and they live happily ever after. Btw, she's dropped her shoe on purpose in public many times so that we can reenact this scene! It's super funny!!

She's also been asking me to get her a ballerina outfit! I'm starting to get all influenced and attracted to fairy costumes and frilly frilly things I see on Trademe (an ebay equivalent here)!

Oh my! Oh my! Never thought we'll get here – the day when pink is the only colour on earth.

Thank God she's still wearing what I choose for her to some extent. (Love the tights that the Sept Mums got for Soph! Thanks girls!)

The weather was wonderful today! It was 15 degrees but the sun was shining bright and strong.

I took the opportunity to bring Soph out for a sun bathe! She played in the sand pit with Toby and Eli for a long long time before lunch. We spent most of the day outside. It was great fun.

This is the class that James is teaching this week! Everything is going great and God is moving in amazing ways. Praise God!

Keep on praying pls, two more days!