Style N Season: Week in Recap: Preparing for October

Hubby doesn't believe to take it easy on the weekends. On Saturdays, he has me up and about since early in the morning, after his early morning run and strolling at the park with our son. Last Saturday, we visited the construction project site, then we went home playing with our son, then we went out to have pork knuckles for lunch. We had been eating lots of vegetables throughout the week, so on the weekend he wanted to splurge and eat something delicious and unhealthy. Come to think of it, why should most yummy food are usually unhealthy? Sigh.

I love taking selfies and many have teased me about it, but I don't take their good-natured teasings to heart. Look at this photobomb here! Haha!

In the afternoon, Hubby went out to have a foot reflexology massage at a nearby spa, and I decided to change our living decoration according to the changing season. There is no autumn in Indonesia, but I thought it would be fun to incorporate the orange and brown colors into our living room scheme, just for the pure fun of doing so! I'm writing a different post with more details about how I decorate our living room, so please stay tuned! Here are some teasers.

In the evening, Hubby went out with some of his friends to watch soccer match on TV and having good ol' boys time. I was glad because after tucking Michael in for the night, it means I will have several hours of me time for myself. Hurray!

With husband not being home, I had enough time to read, did some yoga stretching, putting on yogurt mask on my face, and organizing our wine collection. Hubby loves wine, and after our Italy trip, where we visited several vineyard and learned how to make a good bottle of wine, I came to appreciate wine, as well. I don't drink wine, but I came to respect the many hours, hard work, and meticulous attention to detail that it took that will go to make one bottle of good quality wine. It's an art in itself, and I appreciate anything and everything that takes time and ritual to produce, like handmade things, good ground coffee, high quality tea, paintings, and wine.

I did mention that I plan to start reading one new book this week, and I decided to tackle this:

t's a book about an Amish family, and I'm interested to know more about how Amish people live. I watched a BBC documentary about an Amish family on YouTube, and I like the idea of keeping out distraction so they can concentrate on two things: the Lord of family time. I think it's a wonderful principle to live by which we all should strive to remember every second, eventhough, sadly, I stumble in that department more than once everyday, focusing on more on being busy than the Lord and family. Hopefully, reading this book, a bit of it each day, would be a daily reminder of that. I keep my fingers crossed because I don't know whether or not I'd enjoy this story!

On Sunday, we decided to go to the mall. Hubby wanted to eat duck porridge at a Chinese restaurant named Duck King (of course, duck is their specialty!); and he needed a new pair of brown working shoes; and he also wanted to buy some books recommended by friends. I decided to go casual with a red T-shirt, a black pleated skirt, some heels, and my gold sequined Hello Kitty purse. Outfit post coming soon!

On this particular outing, we came to the realization that Michael could no longer fit into the restaurant high chair. So he sat on the chair just like adults and playing with duck spoon and plate and bowl.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm a sucker for taking selfies! Not that I'm obsessed or anything, there's a line to that, but when I feel like I look good for the day, I like to document it and see how I changed from year to year. I also try to judge objectively of how I look. You might think I'm vain, but having a younger husband definitely gives me extra motivation to try to look not too shabby for a thirty six year old woman! My husband always tells me that I'm a beautiful woman, but come on, he even says it when I have pimples, when I just wake up from bed, when my hair is disheveled and I haven't taken a bath, so basically it's his love for me, not his being objective, that makes him say it! Not that I'm complaining of course, I'm very grateful to have husband who thinks that I'm pretty, but I know that I should not get carried away and take his compliments for granted and let myself go with dirty hair, crumpled clothes, and no effort to look nice, clean, and presentable!

This is a closer look of what my gold sequined Hello Kitty bag looks like. Again, some might say it's tacky, but anyhoo, I love it! It makes me happy and cheerful! It's so delightful that there are now Hello Kitty things for adults like me, like bags and accessories, not just for little girls. Perhaps I'm a verrrry late bloomer. When I was a little girl, I often got secondhand things passed up from my older brothers, boys things, stationeries, backpacks, even some T-shirts, so I was a tomboy through and through. I didn't have anything pink nor frilly nor Hello Kitty back then growing up. Perhaps that can explain why after I work and make my own money, I release all my inner girlieness with a plomb, going for ultrafeminine look and knick knacks!

I love reading and consider books as my greatest and number one hobby. Hubby doesn't share my love for books, but I was amazed when he told me that he wanted to go to the bookstore to buy some books that his friends recommended. The title is "Three Elderly Men On Roadtrip". Hubby has two childhood friends that he's been hanging out with for more than twenty years. They go wayyyy back when they were very very young, they are still a tight knit, and when they are together they act like the Three Stooges. Hubby jokingly often say that being with them is like his Silly Vitamin dosage, because with them he can talk about the silliest things and the most not-funny yet funny jokes. He often say that he pray that the three of them will grow old still being tight friends. The book pretty much encompass it: three friends from three different backgrounds and ethnicities, going on a road trip, with lots of funny, silly conversations and comical jokes. He practically roar over reading the book, saying that the author must have put a webcam where he and his two friends hang out, because the characters practically are pretty much like them!

At work, my Boss wanted me to learn and do some research about the ultra expensive wagyu beef and how to cook and serve it, Japanese style. The owner of the company I work for is a billionaire (his networth is estimated around USD 11 B), so spending as much as USD 2000 for one meal of grilled wagyu and kobe beef with his friends means nothing to him. I was supposed to know how to buy the beef in the right cutting and teach the girls to serve the dish properly. So, one fine afternoon, I booked the company car and driver to take me and some of my Penthouse ladies to Plaza Indonesia, the poshest mall in town, to eat at Gyukaku Restaurant, an expensive restaurant that serve wagyu beef with astronomical prices.

I ate there before with my boss, but I didn't pay much attention because I don't have the taste for beef, prefering chicken instead, and I prefer simple food like fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and homemade Indonesian food than complicated, sophisticated looking, five star hotel food. That day I learned about how the butcher should cut the meat so it could be easily cooked and flipped on the burner, how to stack the carchoals in the best position to generate proper heat, what kind of cooking utensils I should purchase for the Penthouse, and what salad and sauce to be eaten with the dish. The bill was USD 3000, yet I still didn't enjoy the food and didn't understand what the fuss is all about this famous wagyu beef. To me, it's just meat. Perhaps I'm not sophisticated enough, but at least I learned enough to carry our my butler responsibility well! On the next day we did a little try out with the in-house burner at the Penthouse dining room, and after much trial and error, my girls finally got the hang of it. Bring it on, wagyu beef!

On a more favorite subject, which is family, I'm so glad that since coming back from our Italy trip, Hubby is determined to spend more quality time and attention to our son, having father and son bonding time together. Here's a picture of my two beloved "dancing" to the nursery rhyme played on YouTube.

And here's a picture of our son laughing at his father during one of very early morning stroll to the park that my husband is now insist on doing several times a week. He wakes up extra early to be able to do this before work, like going out of the house around 6 in the morning, and I love him more for it! I'm so blessed to have these two in my life!

Last week's to do list:

~~Begin to read one new book.~~ Beverly Lewis' The Sacrifice about an Amish young lady.
~~Read and contemplate on Matthew 20:1-16: The Workers in the Vineyard.~~
~~Renovation project: laying down the concrete foundation, week three of renovation permit.~~
~~Upload 2 Michael's videos on YouTube.~~ I uploaded one, actually.
~~Frame my embroidered picture for main bedroom.~~ It's still at the shop, waiting to be picked up.
Purchase baby girl pajamas as present for a friend's new daughter.
Prepare and send care package for a friend.
~~Take care of family investment plan.~~

Next week's to do list:

Read Chapter 1-4 of Beverly Lewis' The Sacrifice, a story of an Amish family.
Read and contemplate on Matthew 20:1-16: The Workers in the Vineyard, AGAIN, because I was pretty much touched by the verses eversince I heard it during mass two weeks ago!
Renovation project: putting up roof foundation, week four of renovation permit.
Upload one more of Michael's videos on YouTube.
Grocery shopping.
Pay monthly utility and credit card bills, as well as other monthly bills.
Purchase baby girl pajamas as present for a friend's new daughter, as well as new shoes for Michael. (His old pair is already tattered and the material gets peeled off)
Edit some outfit pictures, at least for two fashion posts, for this blog.
Visiting our doctor for health check up.