Hello 2014. Bye 2013.

2013 had been a very challenging year for my family. Since the beginning.

After my son was born, I realised it wasnt easy to have 2 kids. With the car, their ever- increasing expenses for milk powder & diapers caused a strain in our financial.

But we managed. By not even enrolling my son to the usual gym class that my daughter went to. In fact, i didnt even manage to renew her gym lessons.

Then, the financial crisis came. I even had to stop going for facial & massage.

Had to take on another job, in the verge of quitting aia now as my boss had gave me a deadline that if I cant meet my targets by feb, im out.

The new job that im doing really keeps me very busy from mon- fri. So busy that i didnt even realise how fast time flies at work. So busy that sometimes i didnt realise it is beyond 6pm already.

How to make time to meet new clients? I am preparing mentally to let go of my 5-year job. Looks like i didnt even able to get the long term service award.

The rest is history.

So today is the first day of 2014.

Husband did overtime today while i spent the day at home. Cleaned the room, pestered my dad to cut my kids hair and just spent time with the kids. Prepared for tmr, settle the bills and so on.

Tmr will be my daughter's first day of school for the new year. She will be attending playgroup. New class, new teacher & probably new classmates.

At the same time, I need to put aside a bit of money for my son. He'd be starting childcare in june insha allah.

Yes, I deprived him of early enrichment classes. But i cant deprive him of school right? So im starting to set aside $$ for him starting this month. May allah provides me rizqi for him insha allah.

So what will be my resolution for 2014?

- Be a better muslimah. I wanna prepare breakfast for my husband when he's on morning shift. N i want to start learning to cook for him& my kids.

- Pay off my debts diligently so that it can be settled by june 2015. And i'll be financial-free from then.

- Spend as much time as I can with my kids as they are growing up too fast! My firstborn will be 3 in 10 days time! Can you believe it?

Husband & I discussed. Looking forward to may 16, insha allah!

Till then, may 2014 brings us better health, wealth & all the good things in life. I pray for you, too.