My Big Book of Bible Stories by Phil A. Smouse

Title:        My Big Book of Bible Stories SubTitle:  Bible Stories! Rhyming Fun! Timless Truth for Everyone! Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc. Imprint:    Barbour Books Pub Date: 10/01/2011 ISBN:       9781616262372 Author:     Phil A. Smouse If your kids love Dr. Seuss, they’re sure to enjoy My BIG Book of Bible Stories—17 favorite stories, featuring hilarious rhymes and bright, fun illustrations, for preschoolers through early readers. Brand-new from award-winning author and illustrator Phil A. Smouse, My BIG Book of Bible Stories includes clever retellings of key scriptures, from Creation, Adam and Eve, and Jonah through the New Testament stories of the Good Samaritan, Jesus and Nicodemus, and Peter. My BIG Book of Bible Stories is perfect for reading to younger children, while early readers will enjoy working through the brightly-colored pages all by themselves. About the author Phil Smouse has written and illustrated numerous books for children, including Jesus Wants All of Me, an award‐winning adaptation of My Utmost for his Highest. But, he says, “Despite my best efforts to fabricate an impressive résumé, other than the books, etc., I’m just Daddy.” Phil and his wife have two children and live in Monroeville, Pennsylvania.

This is a paperback book with 256 pages. I would say each story is given sufficient attention and details that it is not too brief and yet not too much for the little one to understand the full story. Each story rhymes. So it is easy to read. I like the illustration in this book, big and clear picture with vibrant color. Usually half or 2/3 of the page is filled with picture. And yet the text is not too small. I enjoy reading it to my kids at night before bedtime. And they love the story too and fascinated by beautiful illustration. It is a good gift book to give to young children.

I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.


Note: I receive the ARC of this book from the publisher via Net Gallery. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

OMG Pancakes!

Do you like pancake? It was not my favorite until I met my hb and after we have got married. Pancake is not really one of my mom's menu in her kitchen so I seldom eat it. But after tasting the pancake that hb made for our breakfast, I started to love it. Hb was a scout. And he is the type that cannot go hungry. So die die also he would cook something whenever he went camping with the scout team. And the easiest thing to cook when you were camping? Pancake. That's how he started to cook pancake. And since he can make good pancake, why should I bother to learn to make, right? *Wink* (I'm sure you know what I mean, LOL!)

We used to have pancake for our breakfast every weekend. But not so frequent anymore. Our kids do love pancake. Sometimes hb will add raisins to the pancake; sometimes we eat with peanut butter and jam; and sometimes we just eat the plain pancake by itself. And since pancake is selling so expensive outside (I cannot understand a simple food made with the cheapest ingredient with just flour, egg, milk, sugar and some butter can cost so much?), we hardly buy the pancake to eat. I still love the soft yummy pancake made by hb. :)

And when I come across this book from Net Galley, I could not resist not to request it. I have never expect it can be so much fun making pancake!

Title:         OMG Pancakes! SubTitle:   75 Cool Creations Your Kids Will Love Publisher:  Penguin Group (USA) Imprint:     Avery Pub Date:  10/04/2011 ISBN:       9781583334430 Author:     Jim Belosic When Jim Belosic started making pancakes in unusual designs, he was just trying to earn some cool cred with his daughter, Allie. Little did he know how happy he’d make her—and the millions of fans who eagerly await his latest creations on the Internet. Pancake unicorns, beehives, and even bridges, ferris wheels, and construction cranes have all risen to life through Jim’s artful use of squeeze bottles, tasty and nutritious coloring and flavor techniques, and fearless creativity. Now—with a little help from Jim—everyone can turn breakfast into art. Filled with delicious recipes, four-color photos, and step-by-step techniques, OMG Pancakes! will be devoured by families and crafty foodies alike.

Note: The images taken are from the uncorrected advance proof for reviewing purposes and author may make changes on the final printed book.

The book covers the tools required for making pancake.

Recipes for making standard pancake and other types of pancake, for example pumpkin pancakes, banana pancakes. It also tells the natural food coloring used for the pancake.

 The author also shares the tips and tricks, on adding juice coloring to the batter, how to draw with the squeeze bottle, guidelines on cooking etc.

For each recipe, it shows the preparation  needed, step-by-step how to create the pancake shape, and how to fit those pancakes into the plate for the intended shape.

The author has divided the recipes into 5 categories:

• Animals (Real and imagined), Insects, and Ocean Life (e.g. alligator, lion, caterpillar, crab)
• Pancake Food (e.g. bacon 'n' eggs, spaghetti, ice cream cone, hotdog)
• Holiday Themed Pancakes (e.g. pierced heart for Valentine's Day, Easter chick, ghost and pumpkin for Halloween)
• Activities and Adventure (e.g. kite, football, tic-tac-toe, wand)
• Just for Fun (e.g. balloons, earrings and bracelet, flower pot)

I think this book is a must for those dads and moms that love to cook for their little one at home. I'm sure kids going to enjoy eating those pancakes! And you can use your own imagination and creation to come out more pancake recipes for yourself! As for me, I'm going to ask hb to make some pancakes from this book this weekend. :D



Additional info about the Author

Jim Belosic is an advertising and marketing specialist and founder of Belosic, ADG, a boutique advertising firm in Reno, Nevada, where he lives with his wife and two children.

• www.JimsPancakes.com has 25,000 Facebook fans and has received more than two million views there and on YouTube

• Jim and his pancakes have been featured on Rachel Ray

• The perfect gift for the winter holidays and Father’s Day

Note: Note: I receive the ARC of this book from the publisher via Net Gallery. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Removing Stitches

After the accident, Lynn was behaving well for quite a while. I did not let her go to school. Doctor said we should not touch the wound, and keep it dry at all time before removing the stitches. She should not do any sports for now too. We know most children are very curious. Instead of worrying her friends at school may want to touch her wound, pushing around while playing etc, I do not want to burden the teacher to look after her at school. So before removing the stitches, I took leave to stay at home with Lynn. She was very good girl for that few days. We spent some time watching TV in the morning, then I made sure she took a nap in the afternoon after lunch. She complained her hand was pain from the needle. So I did not really get her to do any writing. Just want her to relax and rest at home. She also did not touch the wound as being told by the doctor. (But for that week only! *facepalm*)

Soon 5 days had past and I needed to take her back to hospital to remove the stitches. We reached there slightly past 9am but the parking lots were full already. I parked at the side, waited for more than 30minutes for a parking lot. Since we were not waiting for seeing doctor, we did not need to wait long for getting the stitches to be removed.

I took a picture after the nurse had removed the plaster, but before removing the stitches

Lynn cried seeing the nurse holding a scissor. After the stitches were removed, the nurse put a new plaster on it. And this one she said let it comes off by itself. The plaster is water proof too so less worry when washing her hair.

The wound bled a bit after the stitches were removed. But there is no infection. She told me it is not pain anymore. Her next appointment with the plastic surgical clinic is January next year. Lynn has back to school as usual, but I still refrains her from joining the sports activities until her wound is fully healed. Until today the plaster still has not come off yet.

Many thanks for everyone concern! I do hope her wound is fully healed soon.

A Trip to ER

Since young, Lynn always has this tendency to show interest to do things by her self. Thus when she shows the sign to learn, Hb and I always teach her and let her do things herself. Before 2 years old, she can eat by herself, wear her own shoes. Before 3 years old, she can change her own clothes, bath herself, and even help me to feed Hao eating porridge. Since then, she and Hao have been bathing together. While I apply soap for Hao and she applies soap for herself. If not mistaken approaching end of last year, or maybe early this year, Lynn requested to bath by herself. And I think maybe it's time to separate them from taking bath together. However as she is not tall enough to turn on the water from the water heater, so I will make few trips to the bathroom to check on her as well as turn on and turn off the water for her.

The weekend before last, after I have bathed Hao, it was Lynn's turn to shower. As usual, I went to check if she had finished apply shampoo and soap. And seeing her still applying soap to her body, I came out. Within few minutes, I heard a loud "bang" and followed by a loud cry. I dashed to the bathroom, and to my horror, I saw a very big cut right above her eye brown and blood flowing out like pipe water. I quickly called hb for help. I was actually panic not sure what to do with her. She was standing there with whole body full of soap and blood on the floor. Hb quickly gave her a hug to calm her down. Then I quickly wash away the soap and shampoo for her. I dared not touch the wound. It was very deep cut. I did not take a picture; do not want to take a picture also. Trust me; you won't want to look at it. It is as big as her eye, exactly same size. She told me she fell down and hit the tile edge below the shower screen. (Later she admitted that she was twisting there and thus explained the fall.) Hao was frightened seeing so much blood. 

After cleaning up Lynn, hb tied a tower over her head, trying to stop the blood. Seeing Lynn in this condition, I did not want Hao to distract us in the hospital. Luckily our neighbor was at home and they were willing to help us looked after Hao for us while we attended the gal. It was past six o'clock in the evening. Traffic was smooth. We did not take long to reach the hospital. We went straight to the Emergency.

At ER, Lynn was attended immediately. The medical officers put a bandage on Lynn's head to stop the blood. Then a nurse came to take her blood for testing. The doctor said the cut was very deep until can see the bone. Thus they wanted to do an x-ray on her skull. I was very worried and prayed it was nothing serious. I also want to thank the friends who were praying for us too. I could not think of anything besides praying for her safety. Right before going to the x-ray theater, the cut was bleeding again. And thus another round of wound cleaning and bandaging.

Lynn while waiting for x-ray to be taken. She has stopped crying before we left the house. 

See the needle on her hand? Poor gal, she was poked twice (one on each hand) as the first one, the needle was out of position after the nurse took the blood, thus the injection did not get through. 

They took 2 x-rays in total. One from the back view and one side view. After the x-ray, we back to ER to wait. Not too long after that, the doctor came told us the x-ray results. Thank god nothing happen to her skull, so they were arranging Plastic Surgery doctor to come over ER to do stitches on her cut. We felt a little relief upon hearing this but still we were worrying. It breaks our heart when we thought about the nasty fall. Hb said the amount of blood that Lynn had lost was equal to the amount of blood that I lost during giving birth. 

Due to Lynn's young age, they wanted to sedate Lynn for the stitching process. Unfortunately, this gal has strong will and fight to fall asleep. Eventually she did not sleep at all throughout the whole stitching process. They wanted me to accompany her at her side. For the first time in my life, I watched how a stitching done on human skin, on my daughter some more, right in front of me. And how I wish Lynn does not have to go through this kind of pain. The plastic surgery doctor first stitched the inner layer, using absorb-able thread. And then he stitched the outer layer with not absorb-able thread. I did not count and did not ask how many stitches were done for the inner layer. But there were 10 stitches for the outer layer. Since Lynn did not sleep at all, she knew something was done to her. But she could not see it. I asked her to close her eyes; the doctor also put a paper to cover her face and head leaving only the forehead visible for him. There were moments where she complained pain and at one time, she even lifted up her arm trying to stop the doctor but we managed to grab her arm and calm her down. Whenever she was complaining, I would talk to her trying to sooth her. Despite some complain of pain, she did not cry at all and did not struggle or give any hard time to the doctor. I should feel proud of her for giving full cooperation to the doctor. But my heart was so heavy at that time. I really wish this whole thing never happen. :( If I did not let her bath herself, then this won't happen. But then, should I take away her wish to be independent? This is so contradicting. I remember my mom stopped bath for me before I reaching 5 years old. And I did warn both Lynn and Hao that they should not play inside the bathroom with wet floor. It is dangerous. That is another reason I separate them from bathing together because they tend to play together while bathing.

Waiting to go home after the stitches. Doctor put back the bandage as there was a vein at the wound (which explain why she bleeds so much), the bandage is to help to stop the blood.

This was taken the next day after removing the bandage. I have to take good care of the wound. Cannot touch it and cannot make it get wet too. 

Doctor gave antibiotics for one whole week and fever medicine to stand by. The antibiotics do not have nice smell and after 1 day, Lynn started rejecting it. She would stare at the medicine for very long time before having the courage to swallow it. At one time she even threw away the medicine and told me she had taken it. But I did not get cheated by her. I told her that it is very important for her to finish the antibiotics. Since then she obediently finished all antibiotics, and I also make sure she took it in front of me giving her no chance to cheat. 

We spent total of less than 4 hours in ER and it costs us RM 55. We are required to go back to hospital to remove the stitches after 5 days. And there will be a follow up appointment with the plastic surgery clinic 6 months later.


Next post: Removing stitches

Are you a risk taker?

** This post is solely personal thoughts and not directing to anyone.


Just now during lunch time, when I was taking the lift I overheard 2 Chinese men talking loudly inside the lift. Not too sure what exactly the things they were talking about, but related to buying things. One man was saying he has no money. The other man was saying sometimes we have to take risk. Buy first, after that think of getting more money. For example the property value has increased lately; those people who bought the second property few years ago are making money now. The first man replying his friend saying it is not possible for him as he's a coward. He won't think of getting a house if he can't afford it.

When talking about spending money, I'm a coward too. Buying things out of my capability definitely is not my style at all. And I'm glad that is not my hb's style at all too. When come to buying things, both of us definitely will budget for it. And we don't spend if not necessary. For example, both of our old hand phones that we bought more than 4 years ago had been giving us problem for months. So we thought of it was time for us to get a new phone. We spent months on researching what phone we wanted to buy, comparing prices, features, phone plan etc. We wanted to get a phone that we can enjoy and yet within our budget. And I never regret getting a smart phone as I fully utilize it to track my monthly expenses, my monthly cycle, checking email, accessing social networking websites, create and track my To Do List, appointments and more frequently, I use it to read eBooks. Unlike most other people, I don't really play games using my phone. I also don't allow my kids to touch my phone to minimize any risk the kids may spoil it. As I intend to use the phone for a couple more years to come. However those do not know us well thought we are one of those people who follow the trend of high-tech gadget and always spend money on getting the latest gadget in the market.

We don't buy things on an impulse. We plan and we work hard on it. Both I and hb are not from wealthy family background. We practice thrifty lifestyle. We believe spend within our capability. Whatever that we are enjoying now is all from our hard work. We seldom go shopping. Since I have to take off my shoe in the office, so there is no reason I need multiple pairs of shoes to match with my clothes. Thus I only buy a pair of shoe a year. I rarely buy new clothes for myself, not to mention any accessories. I can go to work wearing jeans and t-shirt. So I save a lot from buying different sets of clothes for leisure and for office wear. Ever since I give birth to my first child, I have stopped visiting beauty saloon. I also only visit the hair saloon once or twice a year to get my hair cut. I also don't buy expensive toy and clothes for children.  We desire for a family trip but we have been holding back of it. The only thing that we are more willing to spend is spending on good food when there is any celebration with the parents. But those are budgeted as well.

Once I read from a Financial planning section in a parenting magazine, it is strongly recommended that we should have cash reserve that can support at least 6 months expenses on stand by, in case anything happen. While we are still working hard on building the case reserve, early of this year we had been hit real hard on it. I'm really glad that we manage to survive this long without asking money from family and friends, or getting personal loan from bank. Although at times both me and hb are feeling very stress and worry over the financial issue as our reserve are depleting month by month.

While we did not ask for any money, do not mean we have extra cash to lend or make any investment. Despite hb got a new job and steady monthly income, but we are depending on his single income now which barely enough to cover our monthly expenses. Though we did not ask money from anyone, but I also do not expect some of them who know about our situation, approach us asking us to lend money to them.

Both hubby and I are the type that prefers to rely on ourselves than borrow money from family or friends. If we want to start any business, we prefer to get our own capital from our savings, or get a loan from bank, instead of asking family and friends. I'm sure everyone save some money for the rainy days, to standby. How many of us really have the surplus to lend money to others? Like my case here, I really cannot imagine what if we have lend our cash reserve to others, how we going to survive in this half year. Sometimes I just wish people stop thinking that we are rich. 

When come to money, I'm definitely NOT a risk taker. How about you?