It's only the first week of the four-week school holidays. It's business as usual for me with my early morning Grab duty, sending the SPM girl to sit for the most important exam in her life. Her SPM schedule is pretty wacky and I have to be around to fetch her back from school at different times every day.
Cass has been hounding me in all my waking hours with her figure skating matters and stories, from attending extra classes (extra classes = extra money!) to attending class on a weekday at NIGHT now. She talks so much about figure skating techniques that I now know what some techniques look like and how difficult it is to perform them. Figure skating is just like gymnastics and ballet on ice and Cass has no background in any of those, yet she managed to pull off some of those 'stunts'.
I told Cass that when her dad agreed for her to learn figure skating five months ago, we never agreed for her to attend weekday classes. And never a night class as this would interfere with my bedtime at 9.30pm, as well as her dad's work. On top of her night classes, Cass also wants to be at the skating rink on Sundays for practice. And today she told me that she even wants to attend an extra class on a Saturday -- which means being at the skating rink on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday!
NO!
As Cass has now passed her first test, she has progressed to the next level and has to be put in a class with students of her level. And this class is on a weekday NIGHT. Her class would start at 8pm and end at 9pm. The distance from the skating rink/mall to where we stay is about 15km and almost twenty minutes to half an hour of drive time one way. No way am I going to chauffeur her to and fro on a weekday night. And I have problems with driving at night with my high astigmatism power and night blindness. I cannot rely on hubs 100% to fetch Cass as he most likely still has work to do.
SIGH!! 😪😩
I have now arranged for something which is quite workable but would still interfere with my bedtime. And I'm always the one who has to sacrifice my sleep for someone. Sleep is very important for me now as how I feel the next day is dependent on how well and how much sleep I get at night. I also realize that getting sufficient sleep is very crucial for my overall health.
This year I realized that Cass is just like her second sister - she's a very competitive girl by nature who likes competing. As she has had issues with her health since birth, her talents and passion have been largely subdued and restrained. Now that she's in better control of her health, getting fitter, more sporty, and more mature, her passion, interests, and talents are slowly starting to unbridle.
I still have to nag this girl over many things pertaining to her health and she keeps reassuring me that she will take care of her health. Yet, I am still not convinced and worry a great deal about her health. Dealing with her recurrent UTIs, kidney infections, surgeries, and hospital stays since birth has made me a super paranoid mom. I still cannot let go of her as how I do with Alycia and Sherilyn.
Besides aiming to compete in figure skating, Cass has also signed up to compete in athletics events on her high school sports day. This is another worry on my mind now.
Besides having to listen to Cass prattle on figure skating the whole day, another activity that we do during the school holidays is cooking. This week I taught Cass how to cook bolognese sauce.
 |
| Cass is thrilled that she now knows how to cook yummy bolognese sauce and very glad to know that it's actually pretty simple. |
 |
| A simple bolognese sauce made using Ayam brand tomato paste, lots of Shimeji mushrooms, carrots, onions, frozen veggies, a can of Ayam brand tuna, and loads of dried herbs and spices. |
 |
| Cass' meals for 3 days. Bolognese sauce is her absolute favorite as it goes well with everything. Cass ate the sauce with konjac noodles and crackers. |