Mervyn Hoe: My Daily Happenings

Yes! 2020 is the new decade! It is the year of refresh and new beginnings. Honestly, I will pray that I will continue to strive for God and for my family. I am very thankful that I am blessed with a wonderful wife, Eve. She is ever supporting and forgiving towards me. Things have happened for the past 2 years. And I will feel that the only thing to do is to look forward! She is definitely my pillar of support in my life. I chanced upon a phrase that TIME is the only thing that keeps going forward! It is so true. Every morning when I wake up, I will tell myself to be thankful for what I have. My house, my children, have food to eat and to breathe! It is a year of change for me. Last year I stepped up as Assistant Vice President in my organisation and I ended the year with 4 agents! I am certainly very thankful for that because this is something not to take granted of. The agents were god-sent and they just messaged me, agreed to come and join me! I am really very very thankful. ...

Recently, we have dismissed our helper (21 Aug 2017) due to theft and things are back to normal. Now, we prepare meals for everyone, and do the marketing, household chores etc. Yes, we had much more things to do. However, we were pleased. We have gotten back our control of the house! The cooking In fact, I have missed cooking and preparing of the food for lunch and dinner. Most of the time, the helper had been preparing and I would do some of the cooking. For the past week, I managed to whip up 4-5 dishes within 30 minutes! It's amazing! I enjoy cooking so much! We grew our own mushrooms too!! It's really amazing! They took about 1 week to grow to this size Look at the amazing mushrooms! Breaded Almond Chicken Fillet Boiled Organic Asparagus, Potato Salad and the Breaded Almond Chicken Fillet  A meal served with brown rice The dining table Josh and Kate will assist in the laying of plates, utensils and making sure that the din...

This year has certainly zoomed past so fast and there are so many milestones in my family that I want to acknowledge. 1. Josh has entered his first year in Primary School and I'm really glad that he is coping well. His piano skills has improved tremendously and he is able to grasp and experiment to play the song he had heard on the piano! This is something that I am unable to do. He is able to swim well in free style and is confident in swimming. He enjoys gym session too! Thank God. He is interested in flipping the bible and noting down the verses in church. Anyway, he is growing well and now he has reached my Primary 4 height. Can you imagine! 2. Kate has improved in her writing skills and counting! She is able to ride a bicycle successfully! I'm really proud of her! And she is definitely a safe driver in the future. She also learns piano and with her hard work and consistent practising, with the guidance of Eve, she is able to perform well in her classes too! She enjoys...

2015 had been a fast paced year for me and my family. The weeks just zoomed past so quickly, and Monday to Sunday, Monday to Sunday and Monday to Sunday. And the children shuttling from one place to another. Josh has graduated from K2 and now entering into his new phase in Primary School. I could still remember the very first day as N1 student, we were filled with anxiety of how he could attend his school. And now, a primary 1 student. How time flies! In 2015, he improved his piano skills, swimming and also gym. He has great interest in counting money and very excited in playing games that involves maths and money. Kate has improved tremendously in recognizing Chinese characters, and her speech has improved. She is able to converse her thoughts and feelings to us. She is creative in telling stories, that seemed illogical to Josh. It's fine. She was so excited in her N2 performance that even both of us know the songs and actions too! She is also all diaperless completely already...

Wow! I'm just so thankful that 2014 has been an awesome year for both Eve and I. It's tough, hectic, happy, enjoyable, tired, excited.. All these feelings are felt day in and day out! One thing for sure, I want to thank God for all these to be possible.  Family Eve is able to help in the house budgeting. That up her skills in the area of finance in the house. She breaks them down into detailed weekly regular expenditures and we are able not to over spend every week! It's indeed an accomplishment! The daily tracking of the 'outs' is a joint effort and this is really important in every family, to minimize unnecessary expenditure. We have also increased our frequency of home meals, and cater more to our liking too! I should update more often in that blog of mine. I have collated quite a number of pictures! I must have better time management to blog more... Josh This year, we have enrolled him to a few new classes such as piano lessons and gymnastic lessons. He managed ...

Cooking together in the kitchen with a grandparent is a gift that we should treasure while we can. Today Eve's grandmother (Ah-Ma) came and stayed over with us for a few days. And at the age of 89, she is still active and is a good helping pair of hands. For example, she will help us to prepare the food, as well as demonstrate her good culinary skills. I was amazed by how she carefully washes the vegetables and then arranges them neatly on the plate. She really takes pride in her task no matter how small it is! Doesn't she poses like a fantastic cook? I got to learn some ways of how she effectively wash the greens and mushrooms! A good chef learns from a greater chef! She really knows how to pose! And most people can't tell that she is 89! Amazing!  The first dish she cooked: stir-fry asparagus with shiitake mushroom, fresh brown mushroom and canned button mushroom.  Second dish: Stir-fry Chinese spinach  Even the chilli padi prepar...

General Wow! Thanks readers for coming to my blog even though it has been awhile since I have blogged. Honestly there are so many thoughts running in my head, and how nice if I can just transfer it into my blog automatically. Family On a positive note, my children are growing well and I'm just so amazed of how God has entrusted both Eve and I to be parents for them. Food wise, we honestly PREFER home cooked food and last week, our grandmother actually came and stayed over at our place. She is really an asset to the house, helping us with ironing, cooking and folding the clothes, and all these is just done out of her great heart. Really felt so thankful for her to come and assist us.  Her style of cooking is different from mine and definitely better. Her fried egg is so much more delicious than mine even though we use the same amount of eggs, same pot and oil! How can it be?! Maybe it's her 89 years of experience adds to the flavor of the egg. She also c...

It's indeed a feat to bring three children out. It's even amazing when you are eating in a restaurant with 7 children! And there are only 6 adults. The number of children outbeat the adults! How cool is that? We went to Paradize Inn at Marina Square to have an impromptu gathering as there was a Mid-Autumn Festival at Esplanade. We invited one family, and thereafter, invited more and more, and became 13 of us! It's a fun gathering and I was the photographer! Find that my photography skills are getting better and better! (SELF PRAISE) 3 generations. Josh looks like a big boy! Charlotte and Kate. They are both so cute and adorable! What a great group picture and managed to get all the children's smiling faces inside! Love it! This is the only picture with myself inside on the outing that day. Josh waiting for the food to come, and he's self entertaining by himself. They are cousins and hopefully we ...

Today, I fetched Josh and Kate from my in-law's place. And they were so happy to see me from a distance! I'm also so happy to see them too! I have decided to either bring them to Sentosa or Botanic Gardens. And guess what is their pick? Sentosa! The reason is because Josh remembered about the Sentosa train toy that we promised to get for him at the next visit. Lunch We munched at QQ rice at NEX. It's actually the healthy option for the children. Josh is able to order himself. What is required at QQ rice is that you have to choose your type of rice, and 5 ingredients! He told the lady that he wanted purple rice 紫米, and the ingredients are seaweed chicken 紫菜鸡, carrot 萝卜, chicken floss 肉松, corn 玉米 and silverfish 银鱼. I'm so proud of him! Sentosa   It's a fine weather today and they are also holding their annual event of Sentosa Busker's festival. We reached around 2pm as we didn't know that they only starts at 4.30pm and ...