This post is going to be all over the place because I was so used to having an outlet (or more) for bits and pieces of my daily thoughts so please bear with me. I am one hundred percent looking through my notes and I am going to word vomit in a bit. So hear me out.
Before I start, I finally made a No skip tay’s songs playlist on Apple Music and they are literally my no-skip favourites because I haven’t skipped any of the songs–not even once. So yeay me. And yes, I’m listening to the playlist as I’m typing this.
My husband got me coffee. It’s 11:42 pm and I’m drinking coffee and I am already sleep-deprived after pulling an all-nighter watching Shukri Yahaya’s drama and I just know, deep in my heart, that I’m going to be even more sleep-deprived tomorrow.
You know, I did a social media detox once. It was March 2022, I had just given birth six months prior to my youngest, and I was at the lowest of lows with two kids under two at just 26 years old. I was seeing all my friends having the time of their lives without kids and I was coming from a place of inadequacy I guess. Like why was I in this position (I was prepared for one baby, my second one is totally an accident uhm). I quite literally wanted to die. I lived in an apartment at that time. I called my mom screaming and crying one too many times. She had to come and helped me. I wanted to jump off the balcony. It was that bad. I am traumatised until now. That might be why I don’t want anymore kids. I mean if God blesses me with one more baby then that’s fine by me but I am actively not trying to get pregnant. My kids are 6 and 5. I am 31. I am too old to get pregnant. My back pain is killing me every day.
So anyway, the detox lasted about three weeks. I came back stronger and better. This time, though, I’m planning to quit social media indefinitely. I am not going to disappear forever–God forbids I stopped blogging–I just don’t want to chronically be online and give people an easy access to reach me. Instagram and Threads are the worst. My tapping on those app icons every time I unlock my phone is muscle memory by now. It’s the worst thing ever. I do not need to know most of the things I consume on those apps. Proof? It’s been five days since I quit social media and I am still breathing despite not knowing what my friends are having for lunch or what kind of coffee they buy or whatever mundane things they are up to on the daily basis. Although, I must say that I love seeing those updates. I don’t follow strangers on my Instagram. They are all my friends whom destiny line intersected mine, once upon a time. It’s nice to see them all happy and thriving in their lives.
I am a stay-at-home mom. I do not work from home. I don’t have a side income because I am lazy. I own a blog since 2008. That’s 18 years ago. Can you guess what I am? A chronic oversharer eldest daughter who thrives on spitting words out for the whole world to read. In a way, posting on social media is a medium for me to vent and rant. So quitting them cold turkey might seem outrageous at first. It was, though. The morning after I deleted those apps, I made breakfast bagel. It was so good, I wanted to share it but obviously I couldn’t. So I took a photo and sent it to my husband. He should be my outlet for now.
(I finally learned how to use a lighter so now I’m lighting up my candles regularly. I love it. Why didn’t I learn sooner? The risk of burning my fingers is totally worth it.)
BTW, please watch Running Point on Netflix if you love a badass female CEO. Nevermind it’s Kate Hudson. It took me a few hours to binge season 2 in one sitting. It is that good.
Here’s what I wrote in my small notebook the first morning of my detox.
day 1 social media detox 1. always reaching for my phone 2. feels like my phone has no purpose 3. made my bed, did some reading, catch up with gossip harbor game, wear mask. came down at 8:45 am. 4. read while having breakfast 5. feels like updating my daily life, so I updated hubs instead 6. mind feels clearer. I feel calmer. 7. I don’t need to know about everyone.
excerpt from everyday ereen’s muji pocketnote dated april 23rd 2026.
I love re-reading my Little Loves posts and reminisce through things I have cherished in the past. I keep a small notebook to make a list of things that are dear to me to which in return are featured on my blog. It’s been a while since my last one and since then I have loved so many.
Nonetheless, here’s a collection of all the little things I’m fond of, at the moment:
01. To me, making time to do my skincare twice a day is an absolute must. I genuinely love all things skincare related and I love trying out new products and sharing my thoughts about them on my social media.
02. Getting takeout coffee adds up, hence why I’ve been making my own when I need a quick pick-me-up throughout the day. I still get takeouts–don’t get me wrong–but it’s exhilarating to know that I can just go downstairs and make my own caffeinated drinks in less than five minutes.
03. New makeup! Oh MY GOD. I have so many new makeup purchases that are just amazing. I tried new brands, bought a lot of new blushes, and found some holy grails! I would love to make a post about it soon.
04. I am obsessed with 5Luxe Scents Co. products. It’s Malaysia-owned and I truly love everything I got from them. I have their room and linen spray, which, BY THE WAY, lasts longer than those mega brands you can find in stores. Their candle is amazing, and their body wash is better than BBW, hands down. My skin feels softer and the scent lasts longer.
05. Gossip Harbor game on App Store. Literal bane of my existence because why am I spending hundreds of ringgit on in-app purchases?! I am on level 99 and trust me when I say it’s addicting and I got my mom hooked on it as well.
06. One day, my daughter played with my phone and accidentally spilled some juice on it and it got into the charging port. When it was time to put it on charge, I got the liquid-detection alert that just threw me off. I left it overnight but it still wouldn’t charge the next morning. My husband quickly brought my phone to his friend’s shop which repairs techs and gadgets, and suddenly it charged just fine so maybe it needed more time to dry. Since my phone was at the shop already, my husband opted for a battery change, yeay! They delivered my phone that same evening via Lalamove.
07. I had a great Eid celebration with loved ones! I love all the outfits I got for this year (no fast fashion and nothing above RM300!) and I truly enjoyed our trip hometown to see both of my husband’s grandmothers. I have none left, so, yeah.
08. Super thankful for this year’s birthday. I celebrated my 31st birthday on March 29th. I love everything I got (something from Chanel Beauty, Nars, and Rhode) and my husband did it again with buying me a new bag this year. Well, I chose and paid using his card, LOL. And I also received cash which is always exciting, so thank you! Blessed. Eternally grateful.
09. At the start of the year, I created a 2026 Bingo using a freebie from PaperNRoses, which I have crossed off at least three things! I’m on my way to crossing off more things. 2026 just you wait!
10. Sometimes I feel like my life is so disorganised and trying to keep up by having multiple notebooks and planners and journals isn’t doing it for me. I am always rummaging through notebooks trying to find things I need. So I ended up purchasing a Life Organizer by Dash Planner–a digital notebook with so many templates to keep up with different areas of your life. It’s so helpful and I just know that it’s going to serve me well in the future.
11. XO, Kitty on Netflix. Oh, my god. I binged all of season 3 in 24 hours because it was THAT good. I am glad that [redacted] and [redacted] are endgame (hopefully). I’m looking forward to season 4 at Kitty’s family home. It’s going to be amazing!
12. I got an AirPods 4 a few months ago. I had the 2nd generation a few years back but for some reason they don’t keep any charge anymore and I tried resetting etcetera but to no avail. So here I am with a new AirPods and I love it so!
I am more of a mood reader, hence why you’ll be seeing five different books with differing genres in my currently reading list. I could read a book and still be reading it two months later but I could also start a book and finish it in like, 12 hours. It all depends on the mood and how immersive the book is.
Absolutely Not in Love by Jenny Proctor, 46% through // I keep hoping that this book would give me some type of giggling and kicking my feet situation but so far… nah. It’s not bad per se but I’ve read better romances.
Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber, 21% through // The premise of this book is really interesting but I am reading on a physical copy instead of on my Kindle, so it’s taking me a little bit longer to finish it. It is a trilogy book series that I’m hoping to finish this year.
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas, 33% through // I’ve read Fourth Wing, and ever since finishing Onyx Storm I am searching for the next best thing. ACOTAR is okay-ish but it’s not giving me the high Fourth Wing gave. I know I’m only on the second book but I’m hoping that the pacing will pick up soon.
Persuasion by Jane Austen, 21% through // Ah–my favourite title by Jane Austen. I detest reading this book on my Kindle for obvious reasons. Reading on an actual book is the only proper way to read Jane Austen’s–honestly–any classic books, really. Second chance is my favourite trope and Persuasion is the embodiment of it. The angst, the yearning! Oh, my lord.
The Book of Azrael by Amber V. Nicole, a few pages in // My friend loved it and of course I know I will love it too. The female main character is supposed to be this badass girl making a deal with a monster to save her sister. I’m excited to dig into this book once I’ve lightened my reading list.
I am an avid planner and note taker. I take my planning system very seriously—as seriously as only skipping my skincare routine once or twice a year, because I am a creature of habit and what am I, if not a routine addict.
Though I might not always write everything on my mind on paper down to the T because (1) privacy concerns, and (2) I am not attached to my notebooks as much as I would have liked but in the morning, when the house has quietened down and it’s just me, myself, and a cup of green tea, when the voices inside my head have calmed down, I reach for my pen and paper and begin jotting down whatever tidbits in my head are in desperate need of attention and organisation.
For list-making
The Muji Pocketnote and Muji 0.7 gel pen in black never fails. It’s small enough to fit in most of my bags and for short-form note taking. A great tool for a catch-all notebook and brain dumping. I would appreciate it even more if they come in a hardcover version because the cover for the one I have is just too flimsy for my liking I had to resort to wrapping it with a clear film.
For deepest thoughts and emotions dumping
To be quite honest, I rarely write when my life is in order and looks picture-perfect (on the outside). I write when I need to emotionally unload like that time in December last year when we were debating to change my daughter’s school to somewhere nearer and my emotionally-attached-to-the-current-school self wrote a six page of pure “..I keep crying on and off..” and “..I am still sad today..” and “..I couldn’t stop crying..” and rewriting my thank-you messages to the teachers on paper so I wouldn’t lose them on WhatsApp.. just in case. The notebook that had to suffer through this is mentioned in this post from Buke Notebook and a Pentel Energel 0.7 in black as my writing tool.
For monthly and weekly planning
No matter how busy I am with daily chores–sometimes there are months where I am too busy I don’t have time to take out my planner–I always make sure to at least have a monthly calendar with important events all set up so I can get some semblance of stability like, “okay, breathe, this is what’s going on this month.” Besides, I love looking at all the fun stuff I have going on at that month. Breakfast dates. Lunch dates. Kenduri this and that. I love every single thing, even the smallest ones like grocery shopping and getting food afterwards. My planner of choice will always be the Ana Tomy 2026 planner, with a bunch of coloured pens from Uni-ball One.
I think over time my style of planning and note taking have gone from aesthetically pleasing to pleasingly functional for me. Sure, all the cursive writing and whatnots are gorgeous but at this point in life I just want something that functions. I need to be able to write on all my notebooks and begone with my day. So what do you use for planning?
To say that my life was hectic for the past couple of months is a little bit of an understatement. Hi, hello, it’s me from 2026. It feels so good to be able to write on here when every bit of my life has fallen into place and I’m in the right headspace to write. To readers who check on my blog regularly for new posts, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I feel like I owe this blog (and you!) a recap of my life since September 2025–where I suddenly vanished from the face of this blog and only existing on Instagram stories and a couple Threads here and there.
So here goes…
September ’25
2nd // My son turned 5 years old! We celebrated his birthday after school with dinner at Secret Recipe, buying him (and our daughter) a slice of cake of their choice.
5th // My in-laws held a surprise birthday party for my kids. Just a small celebration with families and my kids loved it so much. Today was also in fact the day we unofficially not sleeping at our apartment anymore and moved in with my in-laws.
6th – 7th // My girls and I went on a staycation at Imperial Lexis, Kuala Lumpur. We had so much fun and the best thing was all my girls made it this time. We had lunch at Ben’s, bought some snacks before checking in and spent the rest of the day at the hotel gossiping and snacking. We need another one pronto.
10th – I went on an usrah talk at IOI Conezion. It’s been a while since I went to religious talks and I would love to go to more in the future.
21st – My sister had a content creation she needed to do at a newly-opened Seni Playground in KL so we brought my kids there to have fun and then we had lunch at K Fry, Sunway Pyramid. It was a fun day for my kids and they had a good sleep afterwards, haha.
17th – 27th // We stayed with my mom for a while.
October ’25
9th // I went out with my mom but I had no recollection of what we did on that day. Yikes.
12th // Spent the day at Pavilion Bukit Jalil with my sisters from another mother. We had Suki-ya and karaoke session afterwards. At night, we all had dinner together with our families at Meq Nor Kitchen in Seremban to celebrate a birthday.
15th – 26th // My son started having fever and it soon affected my daughter, my husband, and I. It was a hell of a week. My son had bacterial infection and honestly I didn’t know where he might have gotten it from.
24th // We had a late lunch at Canton Boy, Majestic Labs with some friends. It was a good lunch but my husband didn’t like it.
26th // We have officially moved to the new house! For the record, My in-laws built a house so we were moving in with them.
29th // I went to IOI City Mall with my husband to buy some stuff for our room. We had Dubuyo for lunch.
30th // The official last day of the lease of our apartment. March 2021 – October 2025. You will be missed, D’Cassia.
November ’25
3rd // Took an MRT ride to IKEA Cheras with my sister-in-law. And then we had lunch at Serai. We bought so much stuff and I can’t believe we lugged all that on the train.
7th – 9th // It’s our sixth wedding anniversary weekend! We checked in at Royale Chulan Kuala Lumpur and had lunch at Nasi Lemak Burung Hantu. And then we went to IOI City Mall, had coffee and pastries at Paris Baguette and watched the new Fantastic Four movie. We met some friends and got back to the hotel at around 4 am. The hotel breakfast was okay. We checked out and went to Pavilion Bukit Jalil and met some more friends and had lunch at Seniman. The food was so so so good it was unreal. We went to Alamanda after that to buy some stuff for the kids. We checked in at The Everly Putrajaya for the night. Breakfast was good. I love their scones. We checked out, went to IOI City Mall and had Seoul Garden for lunch and shopped a little bit before going home. I really enjoyed spending time with my husband, eating out, and shopping. Highly recommend.
15th – 16th // Hometown bound for a family wedding. Visited my husband’s aunt and then we all had dinner at this Middle Eastern food place and oh my god I loved it so much. I forgot the name of the restaurant. We checked in at 1969 Business Suites for the night. The wedding was on the next day. We went home right after the wedding and had dinner at Buburlah, my husband’s friend’s eatery. I love their rice porridge with chilli beef.
24th // Another IKEA run and this time with my husband and daughter who was out of school. Had lunch at Sushi King.
30th // My son’s award’s day. He received the award for the best phonic reader. So proud of him.
December ’25
6th // Report card day for my daughter. We had brunch at Glaze Eatery.
9th // Pavilion Bukit Jalil with my sisters from another mother. We had lunch at this sukiyaki place and spent the rest of the day shopping. I bought a makeup product from Chanel and oh my god I love it. We met our husbands and kids for dinner at this Arabian food place and went to one of their houses just to hang out. We arrived home at 3 am.
13th // Kids concert and graduation day. We had dinner at Homst afterwards. They were so tired.
16th // My son got accepted to government school’s preschool program, so we had a registration day today.
17th // New school visit for my daughter. I didn’t like it because it wasn’t as clean and tidy as I hoped for.
20th // Report card day for my son. We watched the new Papa Zola movie at IOI City Mall. Before that, we had lunch at Para Thai. Bought some books!
24th // I went out with my mom and brother. We had lunch at Dubuyo IOI City Mall and shopped some stuff. It was so fun I love shopping oh my god.
26th // Had breakfast with my mom, aunt, and cousin at Luthfi Tang Kopitiam. Spent the day at my mom’s before my husband fetched me to get the kids.
27th // We had a late lunch at Balqis Restaurant at Shaftsbury. The bread was so good. And then we brought the kids to Dino Desert at Monkey’s Canopy. They had fun but it was tiring to walk.
28th // An eventful day for me. I had my cousin’s wedding day at noon and my friend’s wedding at night. Suffice to say all I ate that day was wedding food.
28th – 2nd // Stayed at my mom’s for a few days.
30th // Another religious talk at Bangi Convention Centre with my mom. And then we went to Alamanda. Shopped some stuff for my kids’ farewell gift for teachers and had tea at Oriental Kopi. We fetched the kids at school and brought them to dinner at Glaze Eatery.
31st // Had lunch with my mom and went to get groceries.
January ’26
1st // Started the new year with breakfast buffet at Rebung Chef Ismail and brought my mom along. For dinner, we had White & Black Restaurant where they serve Thai food. It was so good.
2nd // Had Inside Scoop ice cream with the kids. And then we had dinner at Mohd Chan with some friends.
3rd // It was my brother-in-law’s birthday so we had dinner at Mr Kabab Putrajaya.
4th // Went out with my girls to Fennel & Co Bukit Tunku. The pasta was scrumptious. And then we had coffee at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. I, of course, had to have scones.
5th // My sister-in-law and I went to IOI City Mall with my kids. We had dinner at Oriental Kopi and shopped a bit.
6th // Personality test review with the kids. We did the test just to know more about their personality, etc. We had lunch at The Chicken Rice Shop.
8th // Pool party and barbecue at a friend’s house. We reached home at around 5 am the next morning. Yup. I know.
12th // School started! My son’s first day at government preschool and my daughter FINALLY went to school at her old school. She didn’t wanna go if the brother doesn’t go so…
16th // Breakfast with my husband and had the tastiest carrot cake. Spent the morning at my mom’s before fetching my son at noon.
17th // We went to Palm Garden Golf Club with my sister-in-law and cousins for the kids to play in the pool. We had dinner at Celsius Coffee IOI Conezion. The butter creme latte was um delicious. The almond croissant was so good.
18th // Lunch at Buburlah with my husband and kids.
And that was it! Phew. Took me a while to refer to my planner and IG story archives. I have one more event this month which is this Sunday. We’re having a housewarming party and it’s also my husband’s 32nd birthday. I am grateful for all the places I get to go and the things I get to do alhamdulillah. I am looking forward to what 2026 have in store for me.
One of my goals for this year is to regularly write again but one can only wish for the best. It’s time to start brainstorming posts for this year and I have so much to write about on this blog. Whoever is reading this now, I’ll see you soon in the next one.
One of the reasons why I love writing so much is I love revisiting past memories be it online writings through my blog or pen and paper via the countless journals I have accumulated over the years. I have been blogging since 2008 and for the past 17 years, this blog is not the only blog I have ever created. I created many. I had a bunch of blog addresses that I may or may not have forgotten, and with the help of the internet (literally nothing is ever gone from the internet), I want to try and retrieve as many posts as I can and backdate all those posts in Everyday Ereen. It pains me that I was not disciplined enough to stick to one blog, but hey I was thirteen when I first created a blog, and boy I have changed. A lot.
Everything before February 2016 is From The Archives, and I honestly don’t expect people to read them once I’ve migrated all those posts. I’m doing this for me to reminisce. They are all part of who I am now and I am flippin’ excited to treasure them all here.
Cheers to the numerous coffee I’m about to consume and the Spotify playlists I’m about to devour throughout this process.
Also, can I just say how ‘easy’ it was to blog 10 years ago? It was effortless. There was no pressure of trying to post curated, polished contents that felt like they could be on magazines. Honestly speaking, I felt happier blogging 10 years ago compared to now because everything has to be perfect. The photo needs to be perfect. The grammar has to be errorless. I am bilingual, and to attract a lot of masses I need to be using my second language so I could have wider reach and not a native one (my native is Malay). I mean, I’m okay with it but I just miss the feeling of using two languages on my blog.
On the other hand, this is my blog and I can do whatever I want with it, right?
