Style N Season: Gratitude Journal: Children N Beauty Ritual

This month, I'm so thankful...

That I live in such a nice, tranquil, sustainable, stress-free neighbordhood.

We live in an old, upper middle class neighborhood with good facilities: parks, malls, hospitals, schools, grocery stores, traditional markets, lots of nice stores and restaurants, and of course Churches! Though considered to ba an affluent neighborhood in Jakarta, people here are mostly businessowners who live simple, unpretentious, unglamorous, frugal lifestyle. They might live in large and opulent homes, but they drive old model cars. The women might carry a nice, branded purse, but they don't show off and dress simply and comfortably. (The house price, though, is astronomical!)

A huge plus point of living in a relatively well-off neighborhood with such frugal lifestyle? The prices of daily neccessities like food and clothes are pretty affordable. My neighbors are the kind who will spend a lot on education and travel, but they chose to eat good, simple food and purchase the whole family wardrobe from outlet stores. They don't dress to impress, but to look good AND feel good. That translates to our daily expenses to be quite low, we can save a lot, and we don't feel like we have to "keep up with the Joneses".

Also, in a city with traffic jam as bad as Jakarta, it's such a luxury to live where everything is only a 5-minute drive away. Grocery shopping? Want to watch movie? Want to eat out? Hospital? Michael's kindergarten? They are all only require five minutes drive, and in Jakarta, where spending four hours a day commuting to work is considered as normal, it IS really something.

Another very important thing: Church is only a short distance away, like five-minutes drive. So there's no excuse not going to Church!

And I'm very very very grateful to live in such neighborhood, with work only 15-minutes away.

Thank you, Lord.

***

Sweet-scented shower gel.

Need I say more? Shower time is my me time. Husband nor son is not allowed in the bathroom when Mommy is taking shower. Of course.

Usually I just use simple bar soap and try to shower as fast as I could so I can get to be doing the next thing on my to-do list, but when I want to feel special, or on two days of the month when I have my period migraine, taking a showering with a loofah and with the luxurious felling, bubbly, lovely-scented shower gel is a soothing ritual that I enjoy and appreciate. Besides, how can it NOT be a luxurious privilege? Our mothers and grandmothers didn't have stores like Bath & Body Works or more affordable brands like Suave or Olay or Queen Helene or Palmolive with an array of delicious and exotic scents and pretty packaging, that we can so easily get. A lot of people talk about the good ol' days, but I sure love the conveniences of modern life, despite everything! ^__^

Let me tell you a secret: shower gel is a luxury buy for me. I never buy shower gel. Yes. I'm so cheap, I would buy them for my husband and son, but I refuse to buy them for myself, choosing cheaper bar soaps instead. Yep, I know. Mommy self-sacrificing syndrome. However, for my last birthday, I receive TONS of scented shower gel! Well, not tons, but about eight bottles of them. They smelled sooooooo good, and eight bottle will last me a looooong time. Especially since I don't use it everyday. Perhaps about twice a week.

And when I do, o la la! I'm so thankful and grateful to be living in this modern era where such luxury is widely available and pretty much affordable for about every woman.

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Monday, September 28, 2015

Gratitude Journal: Children N Beauty Ritual

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