Marsha Maung: I write. I love. I live

While many of my friends are experiencing parenting problems like potty training, selective eating, weaning from breastfeeding, going to kindergarten, smacking of other kids in the face when their chosen toys are snatched away, and playgroup politics.... ...my kid got his first cut while trying to shave. I. Don't. Know. How. To. Shave. My. Face. Because. I. Have. No. Facial. Hair. He told me 'I made a mistake while shaving'. I said, 'It's OK. It's a cut? Is it bad? Ah well....now you know better. Don't be so vigorous then. Just GENTLY shave, I told you that!' I don't know how to explain it as a mom raising these men. They are going to be men to the world but they are forever my babies. I wish I could give them all the answers in the world but....I guess it is going to take a few cuts here and there to grow up...without my help. Love, Marsha p.s. I bet he is gonna boast about his scar tomorrow. What? Teens. Men. hhhmmppphhhhh

Today was a bit of a last minute, phew! I forgot to drop by the market in the morning so, I had to make do with whatever I can find in the freezer again. This time, 3 perfectly-sized chicken chop. I force-thaw the chicken...lol. Didn't have much of a choice since I really was short of time. Did the min 20-minute marinade in whatever I can find, including rice wine, soy sauce, oyster sauce, pepper and salt, of course. After digging feverishly into the freezer again, I found some Goji berries (I love wolfberries to bits!) and decided that it was going to have to do. So, today's last-minute creative kitchen post involves last minute everything and my trusty slow cooker turned on fast mode. Put together some broccoli and carrots cooked with some garlic. Eat, everyone. Just eat. Don't ask any questions. And they didn't, so, all's good. Love, Marsha p.s. Sorry, it's so short and not much effort in putting together clever words and fancy descriptions...

Last night was so spontaneous. Many of my friends were saying that they were catching Avengers 2 in cinemas or saying that they can't wait for the chance to watch it themselves. Personally, I can't wait for it either. But I will wait until everyone's watched it so that I don't have to fight for the best seats. LOL So, the best I could do was watch some trailers on Youtube and Son 1 was just saying that he can't wait for the 'Hulk-buster' that Iron Man's going to be donning and I was like why would Iron Man wanna bust Hulk?!  and he explained it to me. Then I went on to say shikes, how come there is so little Captain America in this trailer and why is Black Widow being so 'romantically' funny with Hulk?!?!  and then some Captain America is so hot ! My Captain America comment led me to google Chris Evans which led me to explain that Chris Evans had the best lines in Fantastic Four. He was this fire ball person  which led me to Youtube searc...

Marina Abramovic quotes - People like to create the best image of themselves and then hide the shit, but my whole idea is to expose everything. Human beings have to be honest about themselves and others Create the best image of themselves and then hide the shit....one of the biggest reasons why I have decided to call it quit on Facebook. Marina Abramovic wrote something about vulnerability, humor, and failure on TED so, check out the link. And another lovely quote from her is this, in case you do not want to read up on the link I just gave you. Don't not cry. Cry. But cry in front of everybody TGIF, tweeps! Love, Marsha

I used to post home-cooked food pictures under this 'Creative Kitchen' tag because I thought it was possible for anyone, including working people and mothers/fathers to 'creatively' come up with something home-cooked despite their schedule. Have no idea why I stopped posting them. Anyway, with the rising cost of living, I have decided to revive the tag simply because I don't think paying 16% extra for 'service charge' and 'government service tax' is justifiable. Am going to reduce the number of times we eat out straight away and start posting home-cooked meal pictures again. I work from home which means that I have very little time to plan for meals, just like you too. After all, the laundry and floor do not do themselves for me, either. So, here we go and I hope people will start coming up with their own creative ways to cook their meals too, if not to start saving some money, to eat healthier meals. For soups and healing Chinese herbal me...

Today, my son asked me a very funny question. His curiosity is sometimes funny like that, it knows no boundaries. How much money does an average person have? Instead of putting a number to it (which is nearly impossible for me, anyway), I gave him some examples. Some people make money really easily and don't have to worry about paying bills or born into a rich family or born with a silver spoon. Some have to work hard and have lots of bills to pay so, they probably don't have very much to spare. Some people have very little but they probably have very few bills so, they probably have 'enough to get by' sometimes. And then you have some who are living like this. Love, Marsha

If you are have 20 minutes....no, 21 minutes to spare, have a look at the following National Geographic video. Some comments on Youtube were brutal and harsh on these people, especially the men and religion but I agree with the photographer and writer about how complex the situation is. It is almost impossible to disrupt the marriage without shaming the family. And that is because they do not see, or rather, they do not have the opportunity to see beyond merely being 'marrying off'. I would even venture out to say that, perhaps, it could be their only life mission. To get married. Every other girl has gone through it, otherwise, they risk being raped and shamed for the rest of their lives. The video is haunting but it is a reminder to the rest of us that we are lucky enough to be seeing and understanding what we do and have today. Education. Freedom to choose who we get to spend the rest of our lives with. Opportunities to pursue our dreams. A chance to be happy. The righ...

It's never a nice feeling to watch people suffer. We are all human beings and sometimes, seeing someone in pain as you watch helplessly at the sidelines can be one of the most humanizing things to experience. To top it off, to watch someone else suffer (apart from the victim) out of circumstances is just as heartbreaking, as much as we try to understand what is going on and happening in front of our eyes. And yet....there is absolutely nothing you can do about it but to watch, hope, pray and be there....just in case. Nothing. It's frustrating and disheartening at the same time. But as with everything else in life, no matter how many times you ask 'why', the world will answer you with a thundering 'why not?' The best I can do is to add their names to the list of people I pray for everyday and thank the-powers-that-be for blessing me with the opportunity to do that little bit. Love, Marsha

The other day my friend paid me a compliment....and a rather depressing blank fact. 'Your face looks the same but...well, your body shape may have 'altered' but your face remains the same'. The funny thing is that it didn't make me want to wolf down slimming pills or go for a marathon. It made me feel like I didn't want to undress and look in the mirror and I DID for a fraction of a second think that something should be done to 'correct' this situation. Maybe something should be done...but not for the reason I started to believe about myself. The truth is, however, I snapped out of it and laughed along with my friend who was being frank with me. I decided to accept the 'your face looks the same' compliment (I hope and pray to God that she also meant that my face has not been mangled by age and the evil that is gravity). Maybe a little, I mean, come on. Hashtag #RealityCheck (Can't believe I just did that in a blog post! LOL) I am no l...

The whole country's been going on and on about nothing else but GST, GST and GST. April 1, 2015 is the date that everyone would have to pay extra tax on top of the service tax that we are already paying. The price of (almost) everything will go up by 6% - understandably, nobody likes that kind of news. To add salt to the wound, we don't exactly know what is taxable and what isn't. It's really confusing and Malaysia has a tendency to leave its people like that. Fun. lol It's, however, my kids' and mom's birthday.....and everyone (in my country) hates it. Anyway, had a massive meat-packed BBQ dinner the night before April 1 and then on the day itself, had another packed meal for their birthday too. Not sure why but there is no celebration of any other sort this year. They are OK with that, not every year has to be like gold flakes, confetti and fireworks. They know that most people go to school on their birthdays, work on their birthdays, are treated no ...