A Simple Gal's Journal: Inhale Only The Good Things! (N Weekly To Do List)

Friday, May 2, 2014

 

I knoooooowwwww... I don't like the S wording, either. But I saw this posted by a friend on Friday afternoon, and I realized how true that phrase is. Even the Lord created human's lung to inhale the good air and exhale the bad air, so I guess that's the way we're supposed to do, naturally. That phrase somehow got me motivated after an annoying Friday afternoon at work, so I braced myself and went to the gym after 5 pm. I'm not a gym freak, but I do try to discipline myself to go at least twice a week because I know that's good for me. I even do some yoga stretching at home once a week, so that's exercising three times a week, which I think is enough.

 

I was very thankful that I did go to the gym, though! The gym that I go to is located at a mall nearby my house, and when I walked past the mall piazza after gym, there it was, factory outlet clearance sale. If you read my previous posts, you will know how my parents and husband encouraged me to buy some new additions to my wardrobe, since I haven't been shopping for new dresses since 2011. I planned to do it, but I also don't want to spend a ton of money on them. Still, I know good quality dresses don't come for cheap, so I was thinking to buy some online to get a better bargain. I had been eyeing some nice pieces online which don't cost an arm and leg, and was considering buying them. Yet that evening, I found three very good quality dresses that have been marked down to about ten bucks a piece! The factory outlet is not even located in our part of town, so there's now way under normal circumstances I would drive to the other side of Jakarta just to do some clothes shopping, but somehow they conducted the clearance sale at the mall near my house! The sale only lasted from Friday to Sunday, so I was lucky because it was Friday and there were many good stuff available to pick out. One particular dress is a gorgeous cobalt blue that I plan to wear for my birthday. I tried it out at home and it fits beautifully. Hubby loves it, too! 

 

Saturday, May 3, 2014 

 

We planned to have homemade fried chicken for lunch, but we wanted to eat some specialty porridge at this Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood, so we went there, bringing our son with us. Look at him acting so grown up picking out items from the menu.

My Husband said that in this picture Michael was asking the waiter, "Excuse me, Sir. Can I have refill for my ice tea?" That's a joke among our circle. I was known as a frugal soul who always, always ask for drink refill at restaurant, whether at a family restaurant, or a fancy restaurant. I also often bring my own water in a bottle if that's possible! Well, it's good to learn about being frugal, even at such a young age, right. And a little bit of side note, I mean frugal, not stingy!

In the evening after Mass, my parents in law came over to visit their grandson. We ordered takeout since my father in law wanted fried noodles with pork. It was a cozy family dinner, and I was glad they; made the time to visit. 

 

Sunday, May 5, 2014

 

I did told you about Hubby's childhood friend who just moved back to the city, didn't I ? Well, it's so happened that not only he just moved, he also just started a new job, AND he and his wife just welcomed their first baby, a baby girl named Carol. Yayyyy!! I love giving gifts to people, so naturally I wanted to give something for Baby Carol. Look at the wrapping paper, isn't it adorable? Hubby will make a visit to the hospital tomorrow to congratulate the father and see the new baby, but I won't be coming with him. I will just stay at home with Michael, because I don't want Michael to go to the hospital when it's not really necessary. There is a high risk of contamination for a small child when he or she goes to the hospital, so I don't want to add to that risk when it's not something unavoidable such as having his regular immunization shots. Besides, the baby's mother had a C-section, like I did, and I remember how sleeping and tired I felt about a week or so after the surgery, that I didn't care for visitors. All I wanted to do was to rest and sleep and recuperate and spend time just with my newborn baby and close family. I didn't want to meet people when I was feeling tired and looking like a mess. Hubby had the same opinion and we plan to visit the new parents and Baby Carol after a couple of weeks, when the mother has fully covered from the surgery, and both mother and father have adjusted to being new parents, including lack of sleep!

 

A little funny story here, the parents, and even the doctor, were not so sure whether the baby is going to be a boy or a girl, but most likely it's going to be a boy. Hence, the parents prepared all blue, Doraemon themed thank you souvenirs for friends who families who stopped by at the hospital to pay a visit to the new baby and parents. Alas, the baby turned out to be a girl! Here's the thank you souvenir. Very cute, nevertheless!

 

 

 

On Sunday evening, out of the blue Hubby wanted to eat, of all kinds of food available in our neighborhood, he wanted to eat burger! Hubby is usually not into junk food, except for one weakness: Kentucky fried chicken, so I was amazed. Of course, I didn't mind, though I don't really care for burger. We ended up going to Carl Jr. Burger.

 

I think I did wrote that Michael is the kind of toddler who doesn't care for toys very much. We tried taking him to a toy store once so he could pick his own toys, and he couldn't care for less. He just prefers to play with whatever everyday things he can find around the house. I thought it would change as he grew older, but he still prefers spoon and food container over Hot Wheels and Teddy Bear and talking toys! At the restaurant we got him a free baloon, and he did play with it for a while. Then he got bored and asked for my (already empty) mineral water bottle. Well, son, Mommy doesn't know whether she should cry or be proud of your recyling hobby and creativity!

 

 

Last week personal to-do list:

• Update our family insurance.
• Read, learn and contemplate on The Book of James.
• Prepare bank requirements to apply visa for my and Hubby's upcoming holiday.
• Prepare transportation plan for the aforementioned holiday.
• Meet architect to talk about renovation project.
• Reorganize the linen closet.
• Read one chapter of Robert Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad Poor Dad" and one chapter of Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle".

As you can see, I didn't finish all of my to do list, but that's OK. Some items I scratched off anyway, because it's not the right time to do. For example, I can't prepare bank statement for visa application before I get the exact date of the interview at the embassy.

This week to do list:

• Reread, learn and contemplate on The Book of James.
• List point of interests to visit in Part 1 and 2 of our upcoming vacation.
• Coming up with final layout with architect for renovation project.
• Reorganize my purse collection and clean out the bags I no longer want to have.
• Read one chapter of Robert Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad Poor Dad" and Chapter 1 of Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle". (the one chapter I read last week was the Prologue, kind of introduction for the book, which is extremely interesting, but quite long).
• Updating our family's filing system that I created where I keep all the scanned versions of our important documents, such as birth certificates, so just in case something happens to the original hardcopy, we will still have the softcopy version.
• Start preparing one healthy meatless family dinner per week. We don't eat meat all the time, - I mean, who would eat meat for breakfast - but starting this week, we will intentionally start eating one home-made, meatless, dinner per week.