Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Week in Recap: Easter Care Package, Learning N Giving

 
This week...
 
I found this quote:
 
 
How many times have you felt that the world is so unfair since those who are obviously wicked and do bad deeds went unpunished, sometimes even thrived and unjustly rewarded - at least in monetary and recognition value - instead of others who obviously do good deed but went unnoticed because they're not good in self promoting? Too many times. How many times have you felt that all your good deeds were unrecognized and unappreciated? Again, too many times, I'm sure. It happened to me, too.
 
But remember, the thing is to be a good person, not proving that you are a good person. The Lord - who sees all - is not blind. Even if somethings it seems like He is not present in our everyday lives. He sees everything. Do good because you are good and because your Father in Heaven is good, not as a proof of your own goodness.
 
***
 
I realized that Michael is not so little anymore. I mean, hello, where did the baby go? Suddenly he grew so tall! Time does flies, as cliche as it might sound. On Saturday we visited a kindergarten where we plan to send Michael to. Michael is not old enough to enter kindergarten, but we want him to join some sort of preschool where he goes to a playgroup of ten toddler three times a week for ninety minutes, where he can socialize and play with children his own age. We are not the kind of parents who believe that children should be taught to read and write at a very young age. We believe that children should be active and play and do simple chores instead of being cooped up in classroom for hours. They can learn so much from such simple activities such as hand-eye coordination, motoric skills, manners, etc. However, we also realized that Michael lacks socializing with childen his own age. That's why we want him to join playgroup close to our house. It's within walking distance. Unfortunately, I didn't do enough research. We ended up at another children language center that is closed on Saturday. The kindergarten we were supposed to visit is located at the other side of the mall, but I didn't realize that. I phoned them again on Monday and made another appointment this coming Saturday.
 
 
 
Though sometimes I feel like Michael is no longer a baby, there are times I like to tell myself, "Well, he's is a baby, afterall!" At least when he talks he still sounds like one, hehehe... 
 
***
 
I was in the mood for doing spring cleaning and organizing, so I reorganized my purse, and divided the content of my purse into four small bags and pouches. I like using small pouches because it makes changing bags extra easy and you know where everything is. For example, if I'm looking for my phone, I know it's in my pink pouch. Wet wipes? The white flower pouch. House keys? In my pink bag organizer. The small trick helps a lot. No more rummaging around the huge bag looking for something.
 
 
I repurposed a Body Shop gift box from Christmas as body care container like this. I love repurposing things, especially containers, because I hate to waste the money to buy things as well as littering the environment with too many (cute) packaging. Nowadays, products and gifts come in pretty baskets and boxes, which in mind are perfectly okay to repurpose instead of keep buying new containers.
 
 
In this digital era, many people don't make photo albums anymore, because they keep all their pictures on computer. We have one album, which is our wedding album. After some pondering, I decided that the album did no good just sitting on the shelf gathering dust. So I took it down, wiped the dust clean, and put it on display on our living room coffee table. I created this photo album stand from a piece of company merchandise sample that is merely almost thrown away, which I decorated with these paper red flowers that came with a Christmas package.
 
Because the album is there for everyone to see, now Hubby and I remember to flip through it once in a while when we feel nostalgic. Michael loves to flip through it, too. The funny thing is, because he was not in the pictures, he said that he was "waiting in the car". He still doesn't understand that when his parents got married, he was not born yet. Guests are also welcomed to flip through the album, and it serves as a good conversation topic. Who knows, I might be inspired to create an album every several years or so and put it on display like this!
 
 
***
 
As parents, we try to guide Michael as well as we could. For example. how to be brave and try all sorts of games by himself (with our supervision, of course). And if he falls down, we encourage him to try again, but "Next time, be more careful!"
 
 
We taught him about grocery shopping and the value of money. He even created a game of ATM machine, mimicking me taking out cash from the ATM! So many things can be taught and learned doing grocery shopping with a child. We taught him to only buy things that we need, put those UHT chocolate milk back on the shelves because he's already got many at home, and we taught him to help carry a bit of the groceries.
 
 
Michael learned that he should not be selfish and only buy things for himself. I told him, "Let's buy some bananas for Daddy!" and that's what he did putting in the bananas inside the shopping cart! "It's for Daddy!" he said.
 
 
In addition to learning how to haul and navigate a shopping cart, Michael also learned that he should wait patiently and guard the cart when Mommy was inspecting other produce.
 
 
Of course, when I do my biweekly grocery shopping, I go alone! I only carry Michael along when go shopping within walking distance from home to buy some neccessities that we ran out and it's not time yet to go for "real" grocery shopping. I schedule my grocery shopping twice a month, because the more frequent I go, the more money I tend to spend. For fresh produce, since they won't last two weeks, I buy additional vegetables from street sellers and this nearby grocery store.
 
***
 
Learning is not only for children. It's a lifelong process for us to grow continuously. Education doesn't stop at school, and it's not only about math, language, and science. You might know that one of my job is managing our Penthouse floors and in-house apartment. I have a team graduated from some of the well-known three-star, four-star, and five-star hotels in town. It's a good opportunity to learn some practical skills used in running a hotel that can be applied at home, such as housekeeping, pantry inventory system, fancy coffee making, etc. Last week, I had a bit of free time before going home, so I asked one of the girls to teach me to fold napkin for fancy dining. It took me a while, but I finally was able to make my own masterpieces. Here they are! I love entertaining at home, and next time when I do, I can add a little bit of fancy touch with my own newly-acquired fancy napkin folding skill! Thank you, Sandy! From left to right first row: fleur elis, Padang house, cove. Second row: Sydney, fan, and candle. I might be a career woman with my own track record, but I am still a homemaker at heart, and I love learning new skills that I can carry with me for many many years to enhance and beautify my home. ^__^
 
 
As a relatively new mom, I also learned one thing about this little human being I called my son. I think I have shared with you how a human being recognized beauty from a very early age, but I got yet another confirmation last week. Michael loves music and watching nursery rhymes on YouTube, and I let him indulge once in while. Once he asked to play the song "You Are My Sunshine" and since there was a new video that I wanted to watch first, I played this song titled "Love Story" by a beautiful Japanese singer Namie Amuro. She is a beautiful woman with small stature, powerful voice, and long thick mane of hair. I expected Michael to protest, instead he watched unblinking, mesmerized by Namie Amuro's lovely voice, pretty face, fabulous ballad song, and luxurious long hair. Michael likes women with long hair, perhaps because Mommy has long hair. After the song ended, I asked him, "Isn't she gorgeous?" And his answer was a definite yes.
 
 
Michael has a neighbor friend, Emily, who is a pretty child with shy demeanor. She is three years old, a year older than Michael. One afternoon, Hubby and I took Michael to play the swing at the park and we were joined by another little girl named Michelle. She is also three years old, but being a tall toddler, Michael is just as tall as she is. Actually, Michael is the tallest two year old among our neighborhood, people always assume he is three years old, until they hear him talk. An interesting story, we asked Michael when we walked home, "Isn't Michelle pretty?" Michael answered, "She is." Then I asked him again, "Who is prettier? Emily or Michelle?" And Michael answered again, "Emily is prettier."
 
Now, don't get me wrong. I don't intend to teach my child to judge a girl by her look alone. As precious as beauty is, it does fade away. What surprised me was, even a two year old can make such a distinctive comparison and preference. As a mother, I learned new things continuously which remind me again and again, as small as a child is, he is a full, different, separate human being. He is not an extension of yourself. He is an independent human on his own.
 
 
***
 
Being a 37 years old mom, and as skinny as I was before giving birth, my body shape changed. I'm naturally small boned, but I have gained some extra weight for the past year. Most of my jeans no longer fit me, and I need several pairs of comfy, stretchy, lightweight pants to wear for our upcoming summer vacation. So I went online and bought this pair of mint pants. They only cost about five bucks and turned out to be a good buy. The material is extremely lightweight - perfect for travel -, they are comfortable to wear, and the color is very pretty. I plan to give this pair a try out for several wears before making decision to buy some more pairs in different colors.
 

I wish I could get my old body shape back, because my skinny frame used to be able to carry many many styles of clothes, but hey, let's get everything into proportion, shall we. I'm not a celebrity who makes a living from my look. I can get away looking like a real mommy and a woman almost 40, as long as I don't let myself go completely. There are more other important things in life that deserve my attention than trying too hard to lose weight: God, family, home, work, reading a good book, preparing a healthy meal, decorating my house, hanging out with friends and family, writing a post for this blog, walking through the park on a sunny day, drinking tea with my husband, ...
 
Irregardless, I still love to maintain my look. Haha! This is one of those selfies I sometime take to send to my husband at work. He loves to see his wife looking presentable everyday.
 
 
 
***
 
I have an auntie who lives alone. She has been having numerous hard times and trials for the past several months, and she was rather depressed about it. I thought I wanted to do something to cheer her up a bit. Easter basket is not a common thing here in Indonesia, but I thought I would prepare some sort of care package, an Easter gift basket if you will, for her, just to show that I care about her. She lacks nothing, and I don't want to give her "yet another thing that requires dusting"; so I bought some new things and gather several things around that house that I thought she might enjoy and won't create clutter at her house. Some girlie thing that she can actually use.
 
A bottle of shea body lotion. A new house dress in cheerful yellow color. A baby blue silk scarf with lovely flower pattern that is extremely soft to touch. Some necklaces - because I remember that her favorite accessories are necklaces. A fancy gold metal belt that she can wear to the office. She loves to read, so I gave her two books: one is one of my favorite reads - The Red Tent - a historical fiction based on a passage in the Bible. I have one myself and when I saw another one at a used book store, I snatched it, intended to give it as a present to someone who enjoy reading, though at that time I had no idea whom I would give it to. Hubby suggested a funny book titled My Stupid Boss. It's a collection of hillarious stories about life at the office that I bought for my own Boss - just for the humor of it. The later book is not new. I have one and Hubby also had one, so I gave his extra copy for Auntie. I hope it can make her laugh because the stories are quite funny and entertaining.
 
Preparing a gift basket or a care package is so much fun! I might write a separate post about this topic later on. 
 
 
***
 
Last but not least, happy belated Easter from our family to yours! Here's a picture of the three of us after Easter Sunday Mass. As you can see, Hubby wore a nice handpainted batik shirt with jeans and a pair and shoes, which made me quite thrilled because usually he prefers casual look with sandals! That's my Easter present, I guess, seeing him (a bit) dressed up for Church.
 
And no, none of us wore new clothes for Easter Sunday. We wore good clothes, but not brand new. We didn't feel like we needed purchasing yet another new things to celebrate Easter. After all, Jesus Christ has made us all new with His death and ressurection, hasn't He? ^__^
  
 
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Monday, March 30, 2015

Life Lately: Bringing A Toddler To Church


Even in the busiest of times, make a priority to stop for a moment and smell the roses. Or in my case, enjoy a beautiful sunset.

Hi, Friends!

Life has been extremely busy lately. Work has been crazy that I arrived home late in the evening everyday. On top of that, the weather has been pretty unpredictable: nice and sunny in the morning, scorching hot in the midday, and pouring rain in the late afternoon!

One day I managed to get home early and it was a beautiful twilight. The sun almost set and the sky is the colors of jewel: gold, deep blue, pink, lavender and purple. It was a rare occassion during the busy week that I could come home when the sun is still in the sky that I snapped a picture through my car's sideview mirror and said a little prayer of thanks that I have eyes to savour the precious view. Sunrise and sunset is an everyday occurence, and quite often - it provides a magnificent, magical, serene moment. Unfortunately nowadays people are too busy to appreciate such beauty. Next time, why don't you take the time to watch the sun sets over the horizon in a good weather? It's uplifting to the spirit and makes one feel calm.

It was only fifteen minutes after five when I snapped the picture. I live in the tropics, so the sun sets at six o'clock in the evening pretty much all year round.
  

"She is not concerned for her household when it snows -- all her charges are doubly clothed." (Proverbs 31:21)

As busy as I was at work, and as much as I love my job, I never forget that being and a wife and a mother comes waaaaay before work. So when I saw that my husband's only proper sandal looked like they have been attacked viciously by a big cat, I bought him two new pairs of Crocs sandals. Crocs are expensive, but I managed to find an online outlet store that sell them at a fraction of the retail price. Crocs are comfortable and durable, they protect the feet and look a bit like shoes which make them versatile. Hubby loves seeing his wife all dressed up, but he dislikes being dressed up himself. Being his wife, I want him to look nice, so knowing his penchant for casual and comfortable outfits, I got him Crocs so he can wear them shoe-style for Church and at least they will look better than him wearing sandals! I am still working at persuading him wearing more formal shoes for Church. Sometimes he complies, more often he doesn't. Well, at least Crocs are not open-toed sandals.

I got him two in different colors: black and camel for nightime and daytime. Also, black is just suitable to wear when he goes off to construction projects because his feet will be protected.



Let children play! Let children be children!

I'm firm believer that the ability of using gadgets 'fluently' at young age is not a big accomplishment. On the other hand, I believe that gadgets are a negative distraction for children's learning process. Do you know that Steve Jobs didn't give iPad to his young children? Some time ago, I read an article about Waldorf School in the US that supports my gadget-limitation for children policy. Waldorf is a school that is computer and gadget free. They believe that technology is supposed to aid the learning process, but introducing them too early will hinder and distract the learning and creative process. The odd thing is, high executives from high-tech companies such as eBay, Google, Yahoo!, Apple and Hewlett-Packard send their children there. A Google executive parent stated, "We at Google, as well at other tech companies, created such a user-friendly devices and system that using them is just like brushing your teeth. There is no way a child will not be able to master gadgets later on when they're older."

I let my two-year-old son play with my iPhone once in a while. Michael is also alloted some time to watch chosen YouTube videos, mostly children nursery songs. However, Hubby and I don't let him play games on iPad like we see with other children. We do notice that families who hold a gadget each don't communicate to each other, they do with their gadgets instead. That's not the direction that we want to go.

Also, we limit TV time. We are firm believers that children should be children. They should jump and run and play and be active to develop their motor and coordination skills, as well as teaching them a lifetime of healthy habit and active lifestyle. Children should not be cooped up for hours watching TV and stare at smartphone screen.

Therefore we often take Michael to the park. Last weekend we went to the mall to visit an event by Morinaga, a baby and children's nutritional food company. A friend of ours work there. They created a colorful playground in the mall piazza where children can play hide-and-seek, climb, play with swing and other stuff. Michael was ecstatic! He was a little bit scared at first, seeing so many people and children in one place. But five minutes later he ran and climbed and play with other children, laughing and giggling with joy that was so fun to watch. We always encourage our son to take yet another step towards independence. With our supervision, of course.





Let your children take part in the decision process that involved them, and most likely they will be more willing to stick with it.

Morinaga just launched a new product: a line of pasteurized milk. Michael was given a sample and at first - being a suspicious child - refused. I encouraged him to give it a try and promised him that if he didn't like it, he didn't need to finish the cup. He drank it all and asked for more! So we decided to buy him half a dozen bottles to carry home with us, in his favorite chocolate flavor.


Lately we have been adding UHT ready-to-drink chocolate milk to Michael's daily milk portion, in addition to his formula. Every evening, one or two hours after dinner, we give him a bottle as a treat. Michael doesn't like milk all that much, so our goal is giving him an option - or an additional portion if you will - of milk that he would enjoy. And he does like chocolate milk. Also, it's very convenient when we travel. All we need to pack are some ready-to-drink milk that we can also buy at any convenience and grocery stores.

Last week, we took him for a walk to a grocery store in our neighborhood so he can pick and choose his own ready-to-drink milk supplies.


Teach your children from an early age that it is a courtesy and good manners to dress up for Church. And more than that, it shows respect to Our Lord.

One dressed up for a date and job interview, so how come one doesn't to go to the House of The Lord? As mentioned, Hubby is not a believer of formal dressing, and I try to keep my tongue to constantly 'harass' him about his Church clothes pick outs. Instead, I'm trying to teach my son to dress properly for Church.

On the other hand, I didn't expect perfect manners and behavior from him. Afterall, he's two years old! He did whine and asked many times: "Can we go home now?" And we do let him play a bit with Mommy's bag, stand and sit then stand again then sit again, then walk around a bit. We know that being a usually active toddler, he's bored, and we want him to be excited to go to Church. Or at least, not refusing to go or making a scene when it's time to go to Church.

I try to get him involved in the procession, explaining with simple words. For example, during the Bible reading, I told him "Now we're going to read from the big book." Then when it's Holy Communion time, I told him "Now everyone will go up front and eat bread." He remembers about the breaking of bread among everything else, that the last time we went to Mass, he asked, pointed to the Pastor "Where the baker keep the bread, Mommy?" And yes, he asked with a loud baby voice that made adults around us smiled!



Being a Mommy doesn't give one an excuse to being frumpy!

In respect of my Creator, myself, and my husband, I always try to make myself look at least presentable. Not glammed-up at all times, mind you, just not sloppy-looking. Most of the time I try anyway! Here's the batik dress I wore to Church. After Mass, we went home, tucked Michael into bed, and went out for a late night date. 

Dressing up always makes me feel good. Also, seeing Mommy looking pretty delights Michael as well as his Daddy. Of course, small children will love Mommy regardless how she looks, but we notice that Michael prefers seeing Mommy wearing nice clothes than old clothes. I guess God instilled in us human the love of beauty from a very early age. No wonder, sine God Himself created such a beautiful world for us to live in!




Date night with Hubby doesn't equal extravagance.

We had finally finished our construction project. Our property was now ready for sale. Hubby and I celebrated in a very modest, simple way. After checking the property, we went to a local convenient store and ordered some hotdog, instant noodle, and cold drinks. Wonderful evening, nice conversation, happy mood, awesome husband. Cheap date can be so much fun and memorable and meaningful!

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