Our Saturdays..

Last Sat, I plan for an impromptu trip to the nearby beach with my girls, this time very odd because without the daddy. You must be wondering why eh.. because daddy went for training with uncle Richard to prepare themselves for the charity ride the next day.

Early in the morning after the usual errands, I woke the kids from their slumber, rushed them to finish their milk, packed a bag of stuff (some snacks, tools for sand castle building, water, a change of clothes) and off we go.

Since the entrance to the beach are without any proper tar road, I decided to drive daddy’s super road bully (the Prado), was drizzling on the way, I asked the kids to pray and when we reached God stopped the rain and we began our fun time.

Chose the perfect spot, spread the mat and we start building whatever that comes into our mind. Later, hand in hand we went down for a stroll, let the sea water washed our feet, collected memorable from mother nature and decided to make our move.

It’s great spending time with the girls… I’m already planning what to do this coming Sat and again without daddy because he will be away for a seminar….hope daddy is having a super duper time just like we would enjoy our super duper time together.

Michelle Vs Emily

A friend told me that you can actually get your kids' finger prints scanned and intepreted e.g. their character, learning style, potential future vocation bla bla bla. Ah.. to me that's equivalent to fortune/future telling which sort of against my principles and beliefs. To me I don't need to go to so called "experts" to do the intepretation about my kids.. this is my observation about my princesses so far and the differences are quite obvious, of course for they are uniquely fashioned by God eventhough both are being produced almost the same way (I think! ha ha) and obviously from the same "factory" and resources (ha ha).

Michelle vs Emily

1) Followed by the rules vs Rules? What are they, I play by my rules! (pengsan)
2) Systematic, organized vs Free flowing of ideas and creativity and most of the time the destroyer
3) Her love language is words, spending time with her vs Lots of kisses, hugs and play time together
4) Love to read and write vs Draw, draw and draw
5) Dress conventionally vs Fashionable
6) Could not be bother much about her appearance vs Won't leave home without looking at the mirror twice or more
7) Stick to her ambition (teacher) vs An English teacher, nurse, art teacher, now a doctor wor..
8) Learn faster through reading and writing vs Learn through action
9) Future vocation: Teacher vs Artist

What about your kids, are they totally different?

Squirel in the garden

No, not squirrel in my garden but the college's nursery. On my way to class this morning, I dropped by at the college's nursery and see what I could possibly "possessed" for my new garden, I spotted a squirrel (or it spotted me) with its long bushy tail and holding some "stolen" food leaving the nursery in a hurry. Ha ha caught it red handed. I used to spot squirrels balancing its act on the telephone cables back at my parents' house whenever I stood by the balcony to enjoy my "lau jia's" scenery. They are indeed cheeky, swift little creatures which reminded me of the Disney's character, Chip & Dale which are crazy over Donald's nuts. They are also hubby's favourite Disney characters.

Updates on my princesses

I realized I've not been blogging about my 2 princesses lately... here's an update of them.

Lil Emily:
5 years, 7 months and 27 days old as of today.
Lost 2 of her bottom incisors last week, blame on me lar, she asked for an apple, normally I cut for her, this time I was too lazy, washed it and asked her to bite it, the green apple proofed to be too hard for her tiny teeth, both incisors were badly shaken and permanently removed last week, one by MIL and the other one in my hands...
Completed her 2nd assessment on 4 subjects, as of now she said she got two 100%, happy go lucky and now enjoying her holidays already, everyday drawing, dressing up, building blocks, cutting the barbie's doll hair and anything that she could lay her hands onto...
Growing well and certainly is catching up real fast, about inches shorter than Jeh Jeh, her palms and fingers are basically longer than the Jeh Jeh already, face also slightly bigger than Michelle already. I believe in a year or so Emily will be on par or bigger size than Jeh Jeh...

Michelle Jeh Jeh:
7 years 3 months and 8 days old as of today.
So far lost all her 8 front incisors (top and bottom, 3 grew up from the bottom row and 2 coming up soon from the top row, can see little tiny white spot protruding from her gums.
Completed her 4th assessment and performance so far is quite inconsistent with position 20th, 11th, 3rd and this time maybe 15th or so in the class... Primary 1 is so competitive, the average marks is by 2 decimal points.
Growing well, eating more nowadays with good appetite, when I bathed her I realized she's expanding side ways with her round figure, still petite for her age. I asked her to jump and stretch her hands and legs so that she can grew taller and maintain as a Jeh Jeh physically.
She dislike it when people asked if they were twins and vowed that she will eat more to grow up quickly.
Plays well with lil Emily nowadays but still act like the big sister with her demanding tone and bossy attitude (what to do, in fact she is the big sister mah).

I thank God for my angels...

Will you give?

For the past weeks, the following verse kept coming back to me:
Whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? —1 John 3:17

I remember this phrase while doing my devotion the other day “The word of God are not meant to inform us but transform us”. Hubby also shared with me that each biblical teaching besides rooted from the word of God should direct us back to God, it’s powerless to do thing on our own but we need the ever empowering power from God to live a life He called us to live.

I consider myself a person of action, I can relate better to Martha rather than Mary but often God reminds me to be like Mary who sits at the feet of Jesus, feed on what is more important and then only go forth, transformed and empowered to do what God wants me to do. (Luke 10:38-42)

I believe that through His empowerment and outpour of love to me, then I’m able to love others in return…. Recently I found myself……

Touched to stop by at a bus stop seeing 2 elderly couple waiting for a bus, since I’ve drove passed them, I took a big turn, hoping to stop and ask if they needed a lift and only realized that the turn that I took could not possible reached the bus stop again…since I don’t have time to make the correct turn all over again (excuse!), I drove to work thereafter…. For the next few days, I was unable to sight the couple again… (Lesson learned – Don’t hesitate, if you can offer help at that moment, please do it as you may not have a second chance.)

While msn with my ex-colleague, we found out another ex-colleague’s father had passed away recently, somehow it just occurred to us that we can still do something so I organized a lunch, shared how I felt that we still can do something, together we came out with a love gift, bought her kids two packet of KFC snack plate and just dropped by for a surprise visit. We were comforted as we comforted her. That’s what God says about giving freely without expecting anything in return, I felt joy.

Calling a friend who is having tremendous stress in her current job, called her but she was too busy, she returned my call and I slept, I sms her and finally we were able to talk…listening is just what we need to do at times.

Listening to a friend’s call as she is going through a very difficult situation, she shared the ordeal she had gone through, I supplemented with my own experience, now I knew why God put me into certain situation, so that I can comfort others in similar situation.

Surfing the internet and got myself a good book by Yvonne Foong, this is the very first time I bought something over the internet, issued her the amount and slipped a card just to encourage her to continue to be hopeful. I’m encouraged by her life.

Receiving a bad news that one of my student’s father had passed away in a car accident. I dropped a mail to her, expressed my sympathy and gave her additional week to work on her assignment, I cannot remove her pain but I hope this will encourage her to complete her 100% based assignment and move on…

I’m no angel and definitely not in a position to change anything by myself but it’s God who is at work.

Home Improvement 2

I've been busy scribbling and sketching nowadays. I keep a notebook, scrap paper with me so that whenever idea came by I just got to jot them out because I got to accept the fact that I'm a late thirty something woman with depleting brain cells. I've been having these random home improvement/deco ideas pouring in lately, whenever we find time especially the weekends, hubby and I will scout around searching for the best deal and going to and forth our new home taking measurements here and there (with the previous owner still around! what a nuisance are we, Ha!).

Below are WIP projects! When we are truly done, I hope to post a before and after post for you all yeah!

Herb "Angel"

Three in the family suffered series of indigestion that resulted in vomitting,diarrhea and windy stomachs. Guess who? Answer: DEM (daddy,emily and mummy). Happened on different timing but not far from each other, 3 of us were down in bed most of the time, I slept from 3 - 6pm, then 9pm to 6am yesteray, Emily basically the same while daddy sort of recovered as he had it earlier.

On 1/2 medical leave yesterday and when I got back from class this morning, a colleague placed a container with leaves soaked in water on my desk with this note:
"Ms. E, chew this and digest it, drink the water after that , from your angel".

Earlier on this "angel" of mine was suggesting that there was this plant on the way to the library building (my college has a collection of spice garden), asked me to pluck some of the leaves, chew it, supposingly help to relieve my digestion problem. I was quite skeptical and just ignored him lar.

After lunch, he insisted that I tried the remedy, well... I suppose nature is better than swallowing some pills from the doctor eh, chew the leaves (super bitter), swallowed it and after 3 hours I'm still okay, so guess it's not poisonous. Between 12noon to 3.30 pm, I took my lunch, finished my 1/2 cup of ginger tea, ate 3 "paus" and still feel hungry. I think the leaves must be at work!!