Limau kasturi (Calamansi)

It’s limau kasturi harvesting season!

A little someone simply can't resist plucking the limes!

Alhamdulillah, my efforts of fertilising my calamansi lime trees (there are 3 plants altogether) have paid off! I’ve used fish blood and prawn (kulit dan kepala udang) as the main fertilisers. Tak sia-sia menebalkan muka minta perut dan insang ikan kat penjual2 ikan di pasar tani dan pasar malam.

The weight of the fruits are pulling the branches down.

However, it’s taken quite a while for the fruits to fully ripen. It’s probably due to the plants not getting the full sunshine they should be getting. I’d have to change the position of the pots so that they’re not in the shade. Hmm….

What do I do with all those fruits, you ask me? Well, I make calamansi juice (air limau kasturi) which my children love. I also use them in my cooking (have you tried slicing the skin thinly and adding it into your sambal belacan? Yummy!! Go give it a try!). And of course, I gave some of the fruits to my neighbours as well.

Curcuma

Locally known as kunyit, we usually use the rhizome as a food colouring and flavouring. Considered as a spice, the kunyit is often used in cooking curries and masak lemak kuning. The leaves are also added into some dishes to bring out the aroma and flavour.

For me, apart from the above, the leaves are also used as a wrap for my ikan bakar (particularly as a substitute for banana leaves). The young shoots can be eaten raw (ulam), dipped into sambal belacan. The flower can also be consumed in the same way (although it’s not often you find the bunga kunyit). The young rhizomes taste good too (go for the whitish coloured ones - the darker orange the rhizome, the more ’spicy’ is the taste).

Kunyit from my edible garden

The photo above shows the kunyit rhizomes harvested recently. All that was obtained from only ONE  polybag of kunyit, planted about a year ago.  Too many to be self-consumed; most were given away to friends and family.  Tak rugi berbudi kepada tanah

Our new family member

My three Zufayris.

Alhamdulillah, we’ve got a new family member now. Let me introduce: Razin Muqri Zufayri. Born on Tuesday, 08.09.09 (18th Ramadhan), at 3.30pm, weighing 3.61kg!!! No wonder I felt extra large! haha.. Well, considering his older siblings who weighed 2.78kg and 2.65kg respectively at birth…but then both Syakir and Izzah were induced at 37wks of my pregnancy. Razin Muqri cukup 40 minggu.

This is how he looks like, at 40mins old... err.. young :)

Razin Muqri will be 40 days old this Sunday (boleh la kot pergi open house. hehehe). At one month old, he weighed 4.6kg. The paed said he looks like a two-month old baby! Alhamdulillah, so far he’s a healthy baby. He’s feeding well, could already return our smiles when he was 3 weeks old, and is currently practising his vocal cords; charming people with his coos and gurgles..

Kenyit mata kat sapa tu?

His birth was quick. Extra quick!
I started having contractions at about 12pm that day. They started coming at 5 minutes apart - no earlier warnings. Just to make sure it wasn’t a false alarm, I busied myself (earlier I was on the computer, facebooking ), but the online contraction timer I used told me that the contractions were still on average 5 mins apart. And I felt them getting stronger! So at about half past 12, I sms-ed hubby to come home (he was in a meeting, but thank God his office is nearby). He arrived home just after the azan Zohor, changed his shirt and off we went to the hospital.

He could lift his head at 8 days old!

There I was checked by the midwife who told me that the opening was just 1cm!!! (The time was roughly about 1.45pm). I kinda felt disappointed, considering the pain I felt. She said, based on her experience, it’d be in the middle of the night when I give birth. So she gave me a choice of either returning home (she said I could come back after Maghrib) or staying at the hospital. I decided to return home (didn’t want to be bored waiting at the hospital room).

Sweet dreams, baby?

At home, I decided to break my fast, but I could only go for a glass of Ribena and a piece of chocolate (quick energy fix). The contraction pain suddenly got more intense. So intense that I had difficulty in even standing up! Syukur alhamdulillah, ada insan bergelar suami disisiku

In his baju raya (sempat jahit malam sebelum Hari Raya tu!)

Dipendekkan cerita, at about 2.30pm I began to feel the urge to push. Oh oh! And there was some bleeding. Less than half an hour since we reached home, we were already making our way back to the hospital. In the car, it was agony! Only God knows how painful the contractions were! And the urge to push kept coming! It was pure agony trying to hold it back. I repeatedly told the baby (myself, really), “Not now. Please wait!”. (Encik Suami kata, nasib baik tak bersalin dalam kereta. Kalau tak, kereta tu takkan dijual sampai bila-bila. Nak dijadikan muzium :P)

What shall I be when I grow up? Hmmmm...

We finally made it to the hospital and I was wheeled to the ward, initially. But looking at how far I had progressed, the nurses immediately wheeled me to the OT (the labour room was full. There were two patients waiting to give birth. They were already in there when I came to the hospital earlier). The OT wasn’t even ready yet. Hubby had to wait outside while the nurses prepared everything for the delivery. Once I was on the bed, I was told not to push just yet (Doktor baru selesai solat and was on her way down to the OT). Oh dear, when could I get this over and done with??!! They finally let hubby in, but I was almost oblivious to what was going on around me. I was relieved when I realised the doctor has arrived. Yeay!

Practise jadi muazzin.

In just a few pushes (can’t remember how many exactly, but hubby said it was at most 2 or 3 pushes), Razin Muqri finally arrived into this world! Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, it was such a big relief!! And I was surprised when the doctor announced “3.30pm” as his time of arrival.  Everything happened too quickly; which in a way is good coz I didn’t have time to take any epidural. Haha. The other two patients in the labour room still haven’t delivered their babies yet, when I was wheeled out of the OT.

At one month old.

Right. Enough about Razin Muqri for now. InsyaAllah will upload more photos (taken during Aidilfitri) in my next post.

Ramadhan

Gosh! When was the last time I updated my blog?… It’s halfway through Ramadhan already. How time flies!

I have been unwell several weeks ago, then Izzah caught the bug (thankfully she was ill for only one day) and on the last day of school prior to the start of Ramadhan, Syakir came home with a fever. His temperature shot to almost 40C that night. All in all, it has been a busy time, along with a few sleepless nights for me. Alhamdulillah, everyone is fine now, although hubby and I still limit the children’s activities outside the house. We haven’t brought them out much lately, what with the H1N1 thingy going around. I myself still wear the face mask when I go out coz I’m not taking any risks, being heavily pregnant.

Yes, I’m now in my 40th week.  Baby is due to arrive this Thursday, 10th September, but you never know when exactly the stork is gonna land. Things are alright so far, apart from yesterday’s scan which showed baby to be slightly inclined towards facing upwards (posterior). But from his movements, I believe he’s currently lying on his side, with his limbs to my left. I hope and pray things will be ok. I so do want a natural labour, not an induced one (what more a Cesarean delivery)!

In the meantime, I’ve been keeping myself busy, sewing dresses for Izzah (she gets excited when she sees me cutting new fabric, asking me who is it for and if I tell her I’m making her a dress, she’ll say “Nak pakai sekarang!” (”I want to wear it now!”)), a few little pillows (thanks to an aunt who supplied me with the ‘kekabu’), a so-called messenger-type diaper bag, and even four pencil cases.

On a different note, I lost a beloved uncle two days ago. The whole family, especially my father, is shocked by his passing. He met my uncle who was still tending to his ‘kebun getah’ earlier in the day before my uncle lost conciousness later in the afternoon. He was brought to the hospital but was pronounced dead just before Maghrib. I feel guilty, not being able to pay my last respects, since I’m not able to make the 4-hour-long journey back to my hometown. We will certainly miss Acik Hassan, what more with Eid-ul Fitri just two weeks away. Al-Fatihah…

Community Gotong-Royong

About two weeks ago, the community where I currently live held a ‘gotong-royong’. It’s kind of a get-together where everyone teams up; this time to clean the neighbourhood. There are about 60 houses in this housing area, so we were divided and assigned specific tasks to ‘beautify’ and ensure the cleanliness of our housing area. For your information, a few months back, we were awarded ‘Taman Perumahan Terbaik Daerah Sepang’ (Best Housing Area in the Sepang District) for the year 2008. I’m not sure what the criteria were for marks awarded, but I know among them are ‘community’s activities’ and ‘cleanliness of housing area’.

Below are some photos I took on that day.

The men cleaning up the pond.

Cleaning up the surroundings.

Sweeping up the rubbish.

The kids had fun.

Pulled out from the pond... too many of them..

The guava tree near the pond is flowering.

We ladies also prepared food to be consumed after the gotong-royong.