Monday, August 31, 2015

Simple Pleasures in Life of Abundance

Waking up with a hazy, lazy state of mind, I kept thinking of how nice it would be to just skip work, call in sick, and curl back under the duvet. Then as part of my morning routine, my hand automatically grabbed my still in plane mode cell phone to read my daily portion of daily bread, aka the Bible, and the apps opened up to this page:
 
 
It's a neat little reminder that I was to get up, do the work that has been assigned to me by the Lord, use the talents that He has given me, for His glory, for His name sake, which He deserves. With no complaints. With a joyful heart. With a cheerful disposition. I was blessed to be alived, awakened, and healthy. So I hauled off my lazy bones out of the bed, took a shower, and prepped for the day, which, I must say, felt so great and rewarding afterwards!
 
***
 
This is a picture of me and my friend, Fitri. She was an old coworker of mine at my previous office. When I moved to my current place, my company were looking for someone in Procurement, so I submittted her resume (with her consent, of course), and she got in! So once again she became my coworker, twice over! She had been staying with the company until about two months ago, when after five years, she finally resigned and moved to a better opportunity in a multinational company.
 
Last week was her birthday, and I posted this picture of us, taken during a reunion dinner last month, and wrote her a happy birthday post on Facebook. Good friends are hard to come by. Much success for you at your place, Fitri!
 
 
***
 
One of my current favorite YouTuber is Elle from Elle is For Living. She is a fifty-something lady who looks beautiful, always fashionable, and offers a lot of wisdom through her channel, including loving the make stash up that you have (contrary to all the haul videos on YouTube), saying a kind word, be content, and live happily. Her videos are such a breath of fresh air amongst all consumerism-style videos around the internet that promotes continuous buying and shopping habit. Now, this is a lady who has something worthy to talk about other than stuff, stuff, and more stuff!
 
However, in one of her video, she shared about this gorgeous, geometric, silvery necklace that she purchased on Ebay, and I was hooked. The geometric design is not my cup of tea, and if I had not seen how beautiful the necklace looks when she wore it on the video, I wouldn't have even thought to own such a piece. The price was less than two dollars, so I snatched it, and it came even better than the picture!
 
 
It's not a style that I usually wore, but I totally love it! I especially love that the patina has a textured finish to it, hence the patina catches and reflects light beautifully.
 
 
***
 
We can learn a lof from children and how joyful they can be with just about anything. Look at this pictures. I guess Michael looked at his reflection on the mirror, and was pretty pleased with how handsome he looked wearing his new "hat"!
 
 
Yep, it's an old plastic bucket, that he was wearing as a helmet. I don't know how he got the idea, since he usually use the small bucket to play many other activities, but never before he wore it on his head!
 
 
Happiness can be as simple as dancing around with an old plastic bucket as a hat to the theme song from the King and I playing on CD player! Good for you, Son! Always keep that positive attitude with you all throughout life, and you'll live a much happier life!
 
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Thursday, August 27, 2015

Week in Recap: SeaWorld

Hi, Friends!
 
 
We've been having happy, busy, productive week and I'd like to share it with you.
 
 
First of all, I totally forgot to write anything about a reunion I attended a month ago! It was a reunion dinners for ex-employees of my previous office, which was held in the other side of the town where I live, about 90-minute to two-hour driving, minus traffic jam.
 
 
Hubby knew that most of my friends, both high school, college and ex-office friends live in another side of the town. Reunion events are usually held there where the majority of people live, so naturally most of the time I always skipped attending. So imagine his surprise when I told him that I was going to attend this particular one!
 
 
Despite the long drive, the traffic jam, and the fact that the reunion dinner was held at a Japanese restaurant - and I totally dislike Japanese food - I ended up having a great time. There were about fifty people or more coming to the dinner, so quality conversation with every single one of them is impossible. Yet, the atmosphere was alive and vibrant, and everybody looked happy to see each other again. I'm not a very social person, nor do I like being in the spotlight. I don't even have many friends. Yet it was really good to see all my old coworkers again. They haven't changed a bit, yet they also changed a lot. Many of them have become successful in their career, or switched to be having their own businesses. 
 
 
 
Weekend was slow and relaxing as usual. Church, trying out restaurant around the neighborhood, chilling out at home.
 
 
The economic situation has turned worse and worse, with stock index plummeting to all time low point and going lower still. I had not checked the stock index for quite a while, so I was shocked to see how low it had become since the beginning of the year. I manage our family investment porfolio, but I don't read news except financial news, because reading the news affect my mental state badly. However, I had not been following financial world for several weeks. Though the prediction is gloomy, I have a tendency to be positive and think long term, so I put a status on my facebook, a caption next to a picture shot of the stock index: "Stocks are on sale! Shopping time, Friends!" ^__^
 
If the news influences your mood and makes you view the world in a negative way, I'd suggest you go on a news diet. I have stopped reading the news for several years now, and if there's anything important going on in the world, I still know through social media. It has worked wonders to my happiness and sanity level. The news is almost always negative, and it affects our mental health and happiness. Especially political news and celebrity news that highlights things like celebrity divorces, the latest skimpy fashion trend, etc.
 
 
Michael goes to school three times a week now, and sometimes Mommy would surprise him by showing up at school to pick him up. It's during my lunch hour, so I usually will eat very quickly, then make a quick trip to the school, which is conveniently located within walking distance from my home. I usually will wait for him outside the door, and seeing his face lighted up when seeing it was Mommy who popped up from the office to pick him up, brings me such joy.
 
 
August is the month of Indonesian Independence, and on the day I posted this on my personal Facebook: "Bring yourself travel around the world, but always focus your soul to God and your country Indonesia." As a woman who loves traveling, and had an experience living overseas for several years, I can totally relate to that saying!
 
 
On Independence Day holiday, we took Michael go to SeaWorld. I thought, the popular place would be less jam-packed comparet to other holidays, since on Independence Day, all school children and government officials are required to attend flag ceremony in the morning. We arrived early right when SeaWorld is opened at 9 am. It was a good decision, because when we left around 11 am, the place was full of people!
 
Michael only knows small fish in grandma's fish pond and fish that he sometimes eats as fillet. That day he learned that there are fish even bigger than him!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Monday, August 24, 2015

Beautiful Clothes for Boys?

 
I'm a firm believer in modest and beautiful dressing, for both men and women. I also believe that the earlier a child learns of modesty and beauty, the better. As I have a son, of course, beauty for boys is different than that for girls. I wouldn't dream of dressing my son in my favorite pinks, ruffles, and laces; however, I try to introduce some order and beauty into my boy's young life. For example: I taught him the difference between clothes for home, for sleeping, for going out, for school, and for Church. I also taught him some frugal living style via the "hierarchy of clothes": older going out outfits can be worn longer as house clothes, then when they start to disintegrate, they can be cut into squares as house rags.
 
We have lot of children clothing stores that sell numerous clothing for boys and girls here in Indonesia. Yet of course, when we travelled to Europe, we wanted to buy something to take home to our little boy. In Munich, I shopped for some new shoes for Hubby, as well as several pieces of clothing for my son. I bought going out clothes, since I figure he doesn't need brand new house clothes just yet. In fact, with the new going out clothes I bought him to replace his older ones, he can wear the older going out clothes for nice house clothes!
 
I stayed away from T-shirt styles with profanity or harsh words emblazoned on them. I don't understand how a T-shirt for toddler can boast "My Daddy Can Kick Your Daddy's As*" or "Too Cool for School" on it, and I don't care for that kind of trying-to-look-cool but totally wrong fashion style. On the same note, if God ever grants us with a little girl, I would never dress her in clothings that scream "Sexy Gal" or "Heartbreaker" or something like that. It just won't do for my family, or for anyone, I think!
 
So I opted for innocent, cute yet masculine characters and prints in happy colors: red, tosca green, deep ocean blue, sunny orange, aquamarine. I picked dinosaur, shark, motorcycle, car, buses, and stripes for my son. I bought some in his current size, and and some more in slightly bigger size, so he can wear them sometime in near future instead of all of them now.
 
Look at the T-shirts. Aren't they adorable! I'm so happy I can find such nice outfits for my son, because usually there are many style at the stores for little girls, but there are not many choices for little boys!
 
Michael is almost three years old now, so I thought it's about time he wears underpants like grown ups when he doesn't wear diaper. Mostly he's not on diapers anymore except when we go out for a long time at a place where I'm not comfortable with the toilet hygiene. He still wears diaper for sleep, though. Michael has been potty trained since he was five months old and can sit on his own. Hopefully next year when he turns three, he will successfully get potty trained during night time also!
 
Here are the underpants that I got him, with colorful car prints on them. So cute. I feel bittersweet when he paraded around in his jeans and his underpants inside, announcing loudly that now he was wearing underpants just like Daddy! My boy has grown up.
 

Here are some pictures of my boy wearing one of the new T-shirts that we got him, the tosca green one with motorcycle print it on. He wore it two weekends ago when we took him riding the choo-choo train at a nearby shopping center then playing swing at the park late afternoon.







And this is me and Hubby sitting on the park bench like young lovers while watching our son playing with the oldfashioned swing! I always enjoy this kind of easy-breezy late afternoons of taking short walk to the park, breathing the fresh air, enjoying the clear weather, blue sky, warm late afternoon sun, and having a quality time with my loved ones.

I'm linking up to these wonderful Ladies:

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