The past ten days has been a sick season for the whole family. The kids are down with diarrhoea. Kaku hissed at me today when I went to feed her although later she watched me serenely from her perch. I've been down with some strange upper respiratory throat infection with a thick cough, laryngitis, a twisted shoulder, and an odd head pain like there's a tumour in it. The doctor says I strained some neck muscle while coughing but it hurts like thunder in my head when it happens. Jack escaped the worst of it with only a polite cough, thanks to him guzzling gallons of my milk every morning and night.

Still we managed a children's party on Sunday where we bumped into two unexpected acquaintances and their families. A not unpleasant encounter, I must say. Jack charmed everyone with his gentle manners and cheery independence, and even the host's mother who was astonished that he delightedly ate green capsicums.

I've tired of eating out, paying an extra 17 percent tax for mostly non-organic unsustainably produced and usually over enhanced food. So to eat in more, I have to actually produce a repertoire of edible, actually enjoyable healthy foods. Hastily thrown together pastas seem to elicit ecstatic cheers from the hubby while grilled and fried combos a usual hmm-nice. Thankfully Jack loves my cooking, regardless of how it turns out. My spanking new cast iron pan has become my new best friend. I even give it a little caress with extra virgin olive oil after the meal is done.

In being homebound the last 2 weeks (plus my housekeeper also homebound too after breaking a rib - poor thing), I've begun a routine of doing laundry every 3 days, folding them after 2, and fastidiously reorganising the clothes in the wardrobe according to categories of use. In a week, I was cooking 3 things at a time, making tea, and running laundry at the same time.

I've even started taking stock of our groceries and tracking which items are gone and to be replenished, which are low in supply, and which are well-stocked. I think I can run a supermarket! Oddly enough, as much as I had loathed being domestic, I found a certain pride in feeling like Martha Stewart. Now all I need is to write my first book and go on TV.

Technorati: cast iron pan, day with baby