Last night I made Pork Chop for dinner by using Kentucky Kernel Seasoning Flour.  I know seasoning flour are typically high in sodium, but I just couldn’t resist the temptation of cooking an easy fix dinner.  It’s very easy to make.  

Ingredient:

• 4-5 Pork Loin
• Kentucky Kernel Seasoning Flour
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 2 jalapeno 

1.  Wash pork loin and pat it dry. 

2.  Dip pork loin into Kentucky Kernel Seasoning Flour.  Make sure the loins are dry.  If it’s too wet, the flour will be too lumpy.

3.  Heat olive oil in a large frying pan and fry pork until cooked thoroughly.

4.  Add jalapeno pepper for seasoning.

5.  Serve over rice with steamed broccoli.

Finally after two weeks in-absentia due to computer virus, I’m back to life again.  My biggest daily challenge was trying to get myself and my son ready in the morning and still made it to work on time.  Every day was a constant battle between me and my son.  I am always on the clock every morning; every minute is precious that I tend to rush my son, and I think he hates it.  I even made him eating his breakfast in the car.  For the longest time I refused to have my husband taking him to daycare because he normally doesn’t get there until after 9:30 am.  By that time my son typically misses his morning snack. 

This past couple weeks my husband has been taking my son to daycare almost every day, because either I have to be at work early for a meeting or woke up so late that I didn’t even have time to get my son ready.  Turns out my son really loves his new schedule.  He wakes up by himself, walks into our bedroom and cuddles with daddy for a few minutes.  After they cuddle, my hubby gets ready, changes my son’s clothes, brushes his teeth, and they both eat breakfast together.  No yelling.  No rushing.  Everything was done in pure fun. And the most important thing, my hubby gets to spend quality time with my son.  Yes he may miss his morning snack, but how much does it really cost compare to spending father and son quality time?

The point of my story is that we, women, complain and nag a lot that our hubby doesn’t do anything in taking care of household or raising our kids.  But if we step back and let them do their way, you’ll be surprised of what they can accomplish!

Now that I’m a parent, I can’t help but thinking about how my parents raised me and how I’m planning on raising my son.  There are certain things that we wished our parents would have done or not done to us.  My goal is to look back on how we were raised, apply all the good things to my son and leave out the bad ones.

Here are the things I dislike about the way my parents raised me:

I wished my parents didn’t force me to do things I dislike

I went through five years of hell on taking piano lesson.  I’m not talented.  I don’t like playing piano.  I took the lesson because my parents wanted me to.  Their dream was to have their daughter becoming a piano teacher so that she can work from home.  I think parents tend to force what they want their children to become and forget what their children actually want or need. I wished my parents put me in a ballet lesson. I also struggled a little bit in math back in grade school. I wished they signed me up for extra course or something to help me studying. Lesson learned: I’m going to introduce my son to any possibilities he can have, soccer, karate, or even dancing, and let him choose what he’s best at and enjoy the most.

I wished my dad was around more
My mom stayed at home and my dad worked a lot. I remember growing up my brothers and I had to be quiet while we were playing when dad got home because he had to take a nap. It got better once we got older, but it was too late. My brothers and I didn’t really know how to communicate with dad. Even though I know I’m daddy’s favorite, I still don’t feel emotionally connected with him. Lesson learned: children grow up too fast and you can never go back to the past. What children want is just simple; they just want you to be around.

I wished my dad didn’t treat me and my brothers as employees
It’s his way or no way. My dad owned a construction company for commercial properties. He built apartment complex, subdivisions, and retail properties. He’s the boss, a decision maker and he applied that at home too. We never had a voice. We weren’t given a chance to raise our opinion as disagreement means trouble. Each kid reacts to this type of behavior in different way. I become indecisive and my brother becomes rebellious.

I wished my parents taught us to be humble
I was raised in a family where looking rich is a way to be respected by the society. Designer clothing and accessories, luxury cars, big house are the sign someone is successful. I remember when my mom had a high school reunion, dad told her to drive our nice car. My hubby would never do that. Once I got married and got to know my husband’s family, I saw a different kind of living that I had never seen before. My in laws are my true inspiration on how to become humble. They don’t have a luxury car. They don’t live in a mansion. But they are financially secured. My parents lost everything but the house during the Asian Economic Crisis back in late 90’s. Although they are not in debt, God forbids anything happens they will have to sell their house. Lesson learned: You can never judge a book by its cover.

The things I appreciate from my parents:

Open communication is the key to healthy relationship.
Whenever we had problems, my parents always encouraged us to talk about it. My mom never gets upset for no reason. She always tells me everything. If we have a problem, we can also come to them and talk about it. A lot of times the conversation went back to “When I was your age”, but we know our parents always give the best solution we always need and never have to handle the situation ourselves. Dinner time is when we talked about what was going on throughout the day. Sometimes we gathered in our parents’ bedroom and just talking.

A loving family never fights in front of the children
I grew up in a loving family. Hey, my parents have been married for 35 years and they’re still together. I’ve seen my parents arguing, but not fighting, yelling or even worse cussing. Hubby and I argued a lot, who doesn’t? But so far hubby and I are pretty good in managing ourselves not to fight in front of our son.

Exploring the world through food and travel
My dad loves trying all kind of food. Growing up I’ve had all kind of Asian, American and European cuisine. We didn’t have African or Mexican cuisine in Indonesia back in the days. If we did have, we probably would have tried it. My parents always told us to try different kind of food. Don’t like it? Don’t eat it. Now I can’t stand picky eater.

We grew up in a modest home for years, and then we moved to a bigger house in my senior year in high school. Prior to moving, I have traveled about 17 countries in Western Europe at the age of 13, and probably about 10 states in the US at the age of 15. For my seventeenth birthday present, I went to Australia and New Zealand as a part of exchange students. You have no idea how much you learn through traveling. Here people tend to spend money on a big house. For us big house equals a lot of maintenance. I’m glad both hubby and I love traveling, and we’re planning on introducing the world to our son through travels.

Regardless of how my parents raised me, in the end I know they did the best they could. Even though they never said anything, I know they are proud of how I turned out to be. :)

A high school friend of mine decided to change career by going back to school full time and get a degree in psychology. I chatted with her last night and she told me she’s studying hypnotherapy. Being curious I asked her what can she hypnotized me into? Can I be hypnotized to get more memory in my brain? She chuckled and said she can try. Our conversation was ended and I had a list of things that I wished for and hoped it can be cured through hypnotherapy.

Hypnotherapy for overeating
I would love to be hypnotized so I don’t crave for junk food. Wouldn’t it be cool if I lose weight through hypnotherapy?

A Better Communicator and listener
I was wondering if hypnotherapy can cure someone to be a better communicator and listener. I googled it and found out that the benefits of hypnosis are to overcome phobias, sleep disorders, depression, stress, post trauma anxiety, grief, and habits such as smoking, overeating, biting your nails, etc (http://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/guide/mental-health-hypnotherapy). So it doesn’t sound like it can be used to change your personality.

Expand My Memory Capacity
Being a parent and over 30 years old does give a temporary memory loss. Everyday there are so much going on I have to do or think about, I’m having a problem remembering things. This really annoys me. I could run downstairs and all the sudden forget what I was about to do. I wish hypnosis can help me with my memory. One can only wish!

Anyway, I told my friend I will contact her when I’m in town and see what type of hypnotherapy she can do to me.

Growing up we’ve always heard our parents telling us not to do something because there are some consequences of those actions, aka old wives tales.  Don’t we love them?  I made a list of the old wives tales that my mom used to tell me that are completely false.  Some of them are just plain funny and some I will use it to my son.

1. When eating orange, don’t eat the seed because it will grow on your head.  I really have no comment on this.  She could have said not to eat the seed or I might get choked and it would’ve made a little more sense.
2. Swimming and eating vegetable makes you taller.  The truth is your height is determined solely by your genetic.  If you’re 5′ 1″ tall and your husband is 5′ 6″ chances are your kids will likely be short.  If the mother is short and the father is tall, your kids can be a mix of both.  My dad is 5′ 9″, my mom is 4′ 11″, my older brother is 6′ 1″, younger brother is 5′ 9″ and I’m a 4′ 11″.  Certain activities like swimming and eating a good nutrition food do help boosting your height, but only to a small percentage.  The funny thing, I found out about this when I took biology class in college.  Clearly eating vegetable didn’t help me at all.
3. Carrot is good for your eyesight.  I found out about the truth while reading yahoo news.  Sure carrot does have vitamin A that is good for your eye.  However you have to eat plenty of carrots that turn your skin orange in order to get the benefit of it.  Some people like me were born to wear glasses.  It’s called astigmatism. 
4. Don’t swallow gum, it takes seven years to pass through your digestive system.  Totally false, but swallowing gum is nasty anyway.
5. Eating chocolate causes acne.
6. Reading in a dim light and watching tv too close cause a bad eyesight.  Reading in a dim light and watching tv too close don’t harm your eyesight, although it does cause eyes to be fatique.

I know for sure that I will be using the “eating vegetables will make you taller” myth on my son to get him eating vegetables.  Anyone else want to share your old wives tales?