Showing posts with label weekend. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weekend. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Week in Recap: The Vessel of His Bounty

This week...

Gifts

First, Michael got this old, yet pretty cool, electric keyboard - which he keeps referring as 'piano', from my mother-in-law. It used to be Amanda's - Hubby's little sister - when she was little, and my mom-in-law was planning to give it away to a friend with little child, yet when Michael came to visit her, he loved the 'piano' so much that she promised to clean it up and send it over later on. Well, last week, my father-in-law really came with his little truck and the organ in tow, and Michael couldn't be happier. He loves to "play" tunes with it, or play the cheerful demo song and dance to it. Thank you!!


Second is a gift for me. Sometime in the afternoon during the weekend, I stayed home and napped due to a slight headache while Hubby took Michael out for a short drive around the neighborhood. After an hour or so of napping, suddenly I was woken up by Michael, home already, with a present for Mommy that he had painstakingly carried while climbing the stairs to my room, very carefully, in his little hands. This cute red Strawberry Hello Kitty mug! Turned out that Hubby and Michael went to a nearby mall to buy dinner, and they made a quick stop at a stall that sells "kawaii" kitsch, and knowing how much Mommy loves Hello Kitty yet she is much too frugal and practical to buy such fancy stuff for herself, they decided to buy me one! I am a truly blessed wife and mother!

I often see some women in social media, proudly displaying their luxurious, expensive, branded bags and shoes from their spouses. Well, Hubby often say that he cannot afford to buy me anything expensive, since, well, since he gives me all his income and he only gets a small allowances every month. Of course he can no longer buy me expensive things like when we were still courting and he still kept all the money he made on his own! But I don't care whether it's something expensive or not that he gives me. The fact that he remembers me, and is thoughtful enough to take our little one for an outing so I can rest awhile, and that he brings something home to cheer me up, that's the most important and what I'm cherish most!

The mug has no handle, so I don't feel comfortable to use it for drinking. Instead, now the cutesy thing sits nicely on my work desk, carrying my pens, colored pens, and pencils. Everytime I look up from my laptop, I felt warmed inside from the love and thoughtfulness that my men has shown me. And that's so very precious!


Third is a souvenir from a sweet coworker who just had a business trip to The Land Down Under. Ms. Lucy is also a dear neighbor as well as godmother to our son Michael for his baptism. She brought me this lanolin cream that I love sooooo much! The tallow-like cream is so smooth and smelled exquisitely lovely, it makes my hands feel so smooth and velvety to touch, and I'm a sucker for moisturizing cream. A good friend is hard to find, and we are lucky to have her as our family friend!



Fourth is this cute, electric blue mini folding table with little Winnie The Pooh prints on it! It's not new, actually I have been having the table since high school, sooooo it's been like... well, twenty years? Anyhow, I have been carrying this mini folding table everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. I brought it when I moved to the US for college, and it had been used a lot in my apartment as a bedside table to hold my landline phone and make up table. Then I carried it to another town for internship where it was used as a mini dining table in my bare, temporary apartment. After graduation I moved again, and this time I used it for some sort of dinner table where I ate while watching TV after work every evening. When it was time for me to return to Indonesia, I could not part with it so I carried it back to Indonesia, across half the globe, It's been moving around Jakarta with me eversince, continued to be useful, and now I'm passing it on to my son, who happily use it as his writing table! The size is just perfect for Michael, and we invent all sort of games using this old-but-still-useful piece of furniture: cashier, count the Pooh, etc. At the price of less than three bucks, it is a very very good investment!


Several things that made me happy....

First, going home to this cute face!!! When I reach home in the evening, and I hear this little voice calling out excitedly, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy's home!"; then all of sudden I felt like all grime and anxiety and tiredness from the day is just melt away.



Second: this boxes of super delicious melted chocolate brownies! A friend of Hubby makes and sells a special kind of brownies. I love chocolate, but I'm not particularly fond of brownies. Except for this one. The brownies is soft and chewy and melts in your mouth. I don't know how it was made, because I know that it was baked, and when you bake something, it's not supposed to be soft and chewy and melty, rite. Anyhow, for our wedding more than three years ago, they brought their special home-made, heart-shaped melted chocolate. I politely thanked them, and took a bite. And I was hooked for life. The funny thing is, I never managed to buy one from their bakery, because the bakery is located at another side of the town, which is a loooong drive, especially with all the traffic jam. So for three long years, I never had a bite of this delicious delicacy.

Just like week, suddenly I had this very strong urge for these brownies! What to do? There's no way Hubby would drive ninety minutes or more on weekend to get them for me. The man might do anything for his family, but catering to his wife's whimsical appetite is not one of them. So I use this new, popular apps called Go-Jek. It's like an apps for taxi cab, but the taxi is motorbike, not car, so the "drivers" could navigate though Jakarta's traffic much more quickly than a car could. They were having a promo of USD 1 for any location within 15 miles, so what I did was asking the driver if he would go some extra miles and I would pay him extra. I ordered five boxes of those delicious brownies: four for me (and Michael, he loves chocolate), and one to share with my coworkers.

Fanny, a coworker of mine, happened to be having a bad day on that particular day, so when the packages arrived, I called her phone extension and invited her over to my floor to taste a bite of this tasty delicacy, and how glad I was to see a smile began to form on her face. No bad mood that chocolate can not make a little bit better!


Third, family time, doing local culinary short trips around the neighborhood. We tried some new noodle shops that we like, and had a great time as a family. And it's a pretty cheap family date!




 Appointments with The Lord

Again, Monday blues came around and I stumbled to another verse that got me up and dashing to the shower. I think the habit of reaching my iPhone first thing in the morning when my eyes opened and read the Bible apps is really a good way to start the day by listening to what Lord has to say to me that day. On one particular lazy morning, He said:

 

Jesus didn't say "doing haphazardly", he said "accomplishing". God is result oriented! He wants us to accomplish whatever task He has given us to finish! That means, if we are supposed to do the laundry, it means not getting the clean clothes out of the laundry machine and just let them piled up on the bed. It means we should sort, fold, and take each item back to its respective closet or drawer. Finish whatever it is you're doing, and do it well! Accomplish the task!

Second, since I had finished "The Wife Who Prays" by Stormie Omartian devotional book, now I begin this one:


Of course, I still pray for my husband everyday though I'm no longer praying from the book. If you want to pray for your husband, I would totally recommend the book to act sort of guideline. It will give a good idea what areas you should be praying for your husband: his character, his faith to the Lord, his strength, his fidelity, his leadership, his parenthood, even his sexuality! I will let you know how this one goes, but I've flipped through it before buying the book secondhand, and I think it's pretty good.



The vessel of His bounty


Hubby and I have been praying so that the Lord allows us to be the vessel of His bounty for people around us who might need help. I believe that there are many good, kind, generous people out there who actually want to help others, yet they have no idea how to do it, where to send help to, and who to help. I don't want just send money to some foundations or charity organization. We do that, but we also want to help a person directly. However, I don't know anyone who needs help at the moment. So I asked some cleaning ladies at my office if they know anyone who needs help.
 
Lo and behold! First, a cleaning lady told me that she has a neighbor, an old widowed grandma, who takes care of two toddlers aged two and four. Their father is in prison, and the mother has left without words; so the poor old lady took both children into her home and gives them love and food and clothes and shelter as well as she knows how. She does ironing for her more affluent neighbors to earn a living, yet she is quite old and she has bad eyesight so she cannot work as much as a young, healthy woman can.


I gathered some toys from Michael's stash, a big box of his formula, and told him about the poor children. Michael agreed to give them some of his toys, as well as a box from his powdered milk inventory, though he asked anxiously, "Will there still be any left for me, Mommy?" I assured him that even if he runs out, Mommy will buy him new ones. Michael is not even three years old, so he has difficulty to understand what an orphan means. He asked a bunch of questions: "How come they don't have mommy and daddy? Where did the daddy go? What is a prison?" Ah, how to satisfy the curiousity of a toddler?

Michael has about a dozen of boxes of powdered milk formula, since I always buy them on sale. He drinks a lot of milk, a box for like five days or so, hence I always make sure I have enough back ups for at least two months to last him until the next sale.

I also gathered a couple bar soaps and a big bottle of shampoo from my household toiletries stash. I know that when a person is very poor, cleanliness is not top priority, that's why I included the cleaning products. I ended up giving the children two more boxes of milk, once they confirmed that they like the brand I gave them.

They don't know it yet, but I plan to make this a regular donation. I don't want to help them once just to make myself feel good, then forget about them. No. I really want to make a difference in their lives, ensure that at least they get some additional nutrients on a regular basis. For that matter, I also included some rice. Rice is a staple for Indonesian people, but poor people usually only eat very low grade, poor quality, rice. I want them to be able to enjoy good quality, delicious rice once in a while. Just to add more fun, I threw in some cookies in the donation pile, for the children.

Have you ever given a donation directly to the poor? GIve it a try! It feels so much real compared to giving a cheque to a charity organization. If you don't know where to start, pass around the information. Someone might knock on your door with an opportunity to become the vessel of the Lord's bounty!

I'm linking up to these wonderful Ladies:

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Monday, September 21, 2015

Week in Recap: Gift from the Heart

Hello, Friends!

Last week was yet another happy humble good-ol-times in our home. On Friday Hubby came home late because he was going to meet an old friend who lives out of our state and who happened to be having business trip to Jakarta. Actually, I only met Youdi and his wife, Adys, once during our honeymoon. We went to a popular vacation spot for our honeymoon, Bali, and at that time, Youdi was being stationed there for work. The beauty of social media is, we were able to connect throughout the years via Path, a Facebook-like social media which is quite popular in Indonesia. Though I had not yet to meet them ever again since then, we were pretty much updated on each other's life, and we have a common hobby: traveling! Last year when we vacationed to Italy, they were backpacking around China. Last summer, when we went to another Eurotrip, Youdi and Adys were traveling to Japan.

Adys is pregnant with their second child, so I picked a sweet-smelling soap from Hallstat, Austria for her, hoping that she would enjoy taking some luxury bath time in the convenience of her own bathroom. Huby picked something for Youdi, also. Unbeknownst to us, Adys also picked some things for us - or for me, actually - from Kyoto!

The funny thing is, Youdi came to Jakarta for business about once a month, and he did remember to bring Adys' gifts for us, but he always left them at his hotel room, and failed to give the gift to Hubby! So, Adys said, that this gifts had been flying back and forth from Jakarta to their city for about three times before I finally got them!

This is what Adys picked for us... Or for me, actually.... I cannot imagine these are gifts for a man! A Hello Kitty T-shirt, in a very soft pink color that it looks like strawberry slush ice cream. A cell phone charm with a tiny, kimono-wearing Hello Kitty doll.  A cute maiko (apprentice geisha) fridge magnet that I absolutely adore, because I collect fridge magnets.

Seeing all these cutesy-cutesy things, I asked Hubby, "How come does Adys know that I love Hello Kitty and the color pink?" And Hubby looked at me with amused expression and said matter-of-factly, "Honey, how come that she does NOT know? EVERYBODY who knows you personally or through social media must know that you love pink and Hello Kitty!"

Oh, OK. I guess I posted a lot of pictures of me wearing pinks, my pink stuffs, and Hello Kitty. Mind that I am a 37-year-old mom, not a seven year-old little girl!

Thank you, Adys and Youdi! I love them all! They are all so cute!!!


Weekend is noodle time for our family, so we went to try out yet another noodle shop called A Bun. Actually, I had been there once, but Michael had not. It's not my favorite noodle shop, though Hubby really likes it. Here's another common episode of our family while going out, practically anywhere.

Mommy: "Michael, let Mommy take a picture of you, OK? Smileeee...."


Mommy: "Michael, smile at your reflection while Mommy is taking picture. OK.. One.. two.. three!"


Mommy: "OK, now the three of us as a faaaaamily... Smillleeee..."
(Look at Hubby's and Michael's expression, LOL.)


Michael and Hubby, " ......"


And finally, Michael: "Mommy, can we order food now and stop taking pictures, please? Daddy looks hungry..."

Saturday is worship time at the Church, and Michael was wearing a brand new shirt with "woof-woof" prints all over it. My Mom sewed the shirt for him last year, from a piece of fabric she bought from the US, but it had been too big for Michael until now. Michael loves dogs, thus naturally he loves his new shirt!
  

After Church we went to eat dinner at a soto shop. Soto is a kind of Indonesian chicken soup, eaten with rice, cracker that we call "kerupuk", and "chicken satay" or kebab with peanut sauce. I wish I had taken a picture of the dish to show you, but we were so hungry we forgot! Michael had already had dinner before Mass, but we always try to introduce him to a new dish each time we eat out, so this time he got to try the soto soup and peanut sauce. He liked it!


Before heading for dinner, we visisted a little bazaar held at the Church back yard. People had set up some tents there with several vendors selling religious goods: crucifixes, books, rosaries, posters, etc. We have several crucifixes hanging on our walls at home, but we had been looking for table crucifix for our praying corner stand for a long time now, yet we had not found any that we liked. We even looked for it during our trip to Vatican and Assisi, and still we could not find a suitable crucifix for our praying corner. By the grace of God, that evening, we stumbled accross this one! 


The size was correct, not too small, not too big. The silver color was just perfect to match our praying corner. There were other, grander, more beautiful table crucifixes in wood and gold, but we knew right away that this is the one! The price was just right, too! We brought it home with us, and now it stands on our praying corner.


"That's Our Lord Jesus!" Michael exclaimed each time he saw a crucifix. I also dusted and cleaned everything on our praying corner, and washed the table cloth on Sunday, while Michael and Hubby played together.

 

I'm not a morning person. It's getting better now, especially since I incorporated one habit per month challenge into my life. Yet, I'm not one who will wake up at 5 o'clock in the morning everyday. I wake up earlier than my old habit, yes, but not before sunshine comes pouring into the bedroom windows! There are times when I feel like crawling back to bed after hitting the off button of my alarm, yet the Lord has many ways to wake me up. One of the habit I have developed over the past several months is reaching out for my cell phone, still in plane mode, and read my daily portion of Bible verses. Last week, I stumbled upon this verses of Matthew.


Whoa! Jesus' words were really tough, aren't they! Yet, they still ring true even to this day. So I'd better wake up and do my part being the salt of the world as well as I can if I don't want to get thrown out. Haha! That's a great motivation to get up and go and glorify the Lord in whatever tasks He has assigned to us in our everyday life.
 
On a lighter note, Hubby got this cute Winnie the Pooh torchlight for Michael, and he was ecstatic. One evening we turned off the living room lights, and showed our son how to make "moon" on the wall with the torch, as well as making funny shadows with our hands, which made Michael laughed hysterically. He thought it was hillarious!


 
Michael also loves using the Pooh as "model" or passenger for his building blocks. Here he was building a "car" for Pooh and put a block behind him to "support his back so Pooh won't slouch". Hahaha!
 
 

Michael also "made" this colorful house with construction paper at school. He made three, the next one is better than the last one. He gave one for me, one for his father, and kept one for himself. They were really gifts from the heart! At first Hubby thought he would bring it to work, but then he changed his mind since he was afraid the "house" will get torn apart with time. So what I did was laminating the "house" with clear plastic, glued an old, unused fridge magnet behind it, and put it on our fridge. Now we can see it everyday and because it's covered in plastic, we'll get a higher mileage of it! I never thought I'd be one of those mothers who proudly display their crooked child's art on the fridge for all the world to see, but now I'm becoming one, and having a blast! ^__^
 

I'm linking up to these wonderful Ladies:

Monday


Tuesday

Wednesday


Thursday


Friday

Saturday

Sunday
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