Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

 
Happy Chinese New Year, everyone! ☺️

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Too easily (often unconsciously), Chinese New Year day turns into a day of ‘gaining money from others’.

In other words, many may see it as an occasion to hunt for money from relatives and friends.

Instead of counting how much we get this year, let’s count our blessings, instead?

And really, God’s blessings can take many forms.

Good health.

Family.

Children.

Opportunities to learn from the many incidents that take place in our life, be it good or bad.

And many more!

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Let’s count our blessings as we enter the year of the dog.

*woof*

 
Not our anniversary day, but it’s nice to remember the different lands we have explored and the memories we have created together as hubby and wife, not just on Valentine’s Day 😍

Let’s spread love to others …

And of course, happy Valentine’s Day to everyone!

 
What Chinese New Year craft would you make for the Year of the Dog?

This was what Vai made at school during his arts class.

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His classmates were asked to vote for two crafts they most liked, … and guess what?

Levi came 2nd!

He was SO happy, and was even more excited when he was awarded this Rembrant pencil from his arts teacher! Thanks, Pak E! =D

Little kind gestures like this really encouraged students to keep creating and experimenting!

 
Welcoming the Year of the Dog!

Four more days and hope we can do more Chinese New Year crafts at home!

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What we used for this craft:

– Used hong baos
– Used paper
– glue stick and scissors

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What we did:

– I drew an outline of a dog (referring to the internet, as I’m not that creative!=)

– Brie stuck hong baos on the other side of the ‘dog’, making sure the outline is covered with hong baos

– Brie cut the dog shape

– I cut square shapes out of hong baos

– Brie stuck the squares on the ‘dog body’

That’s it! Simple to make! =)

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Have fun!

 
Levi @ 3.5yo holding onto Daddy’s tennis racket.

Levi @ 11.5yo loving tennis and practicing regularly.

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Different height, same smile =)

Glad that he’s found something that he’s passionate about.

 
Beautiful sunset ❤️

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People generally enjoy such captured moment without knowing what truly happens when the shot was taken.

I’ll tell you:

I took this shot with my phone, pressed against my windscreen, while stuck in traffic, feeling really sleepy from a long day and little sleep the night before. The littlest was throwing her tantrum (the mmmphhh time), while I struggled to keep my cool amidst the whole hoo-huh.

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Not quite the serene, beautiful ambience that should’ve accompanied awesome sunset moments?

This is real life, though.

That life is not always calm, kids are not always adorable and obedient, and traffic is … hmm, okay, traffic in Jakarta almost always is mad ☺️

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Despite all the chaos, God continues to display the beauty of His creation.

A reminder of His presence.

Awesome indeed.

Often, what we need to do is … to look up?

Are we immersed, drowned, in our own pool of problems?

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Here’s one thought that I tell myself:

Look around, see other people’s struggles, and pray for them.

Then may be, by God’s grace, we realise how ‘our own problems’ are often NOT as huge as we think.

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We are 37 days into the year 2018, and I have seen and heard so many, so MANY, sad news from those whom we personally know.

A 51-yo husband, who just stopped his medication (high blood pressure), was out with his friends, when he collapsed, went into a coma, and died a few days later. Wife and children never managed to say goodbye.

A friend’s mom, whom I personally know, too, had health complications and less than 2 weeks after she had her heart surgery, she collapsed during dinner, went into a coma, and passed away less than a week later. Husband and children love her so much and they never managed to say goodbye.

A friend found out how his wife is down with cancer, stadium four.

These are only three out of many others.

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To me, we should not observe other people’s suffering IN ORDER TO feel grateful for our own life and blessings.

Instead, we should learn to be grateful in all circumstances, and pray for others who are less fortunate, who are suffering, who face life problems.

We should stop feeling sorry for ourselvesBut, having said that, I do encourage myself and others to look around and see how OTHER PEOPLE have struggles too, and often, theirs are much more serious and bigger than ours.

And in turn, hopefully by God’s grace, we realise:
– how we are NOT the only ones with problems in this world
– how we should stop feeling sorry for ourselves
– how we should not place too big a focus on our OWN problems
– how we should get up and not give up
– how we should pray for others
– how we should ask God for strength to face our own difficult circumstances

I remind myself too, how God is all-knowing, in control of everything that happens and has the power to change things in accordance to His will (including things/situations which we often fail to understand right now)

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May God help us and give us the needed strength and perseverance to face our circumstances, whatever they may be.

In today’s ONLINE world, the line between what’s private and what’s public seems to be quite faint.

Many seem to share ‘everything’, and are simply unsure of where they should draw the line.

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I’ve seen the following being shared online, by people I personally know:

• Screenshots of private messages, about someone else, whom they dislike at school or at work
• Screenshots of someone’s Instagram post (someone whom they dislike), sometimes adding to it degrading comments, too
• Facebook updates stating serious issues with spouse
• Facebook updates stating how they feel and what they do throughout the day
• Screenshots of real personal home address

 
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When it comes to ‘existing online’, I personally believe we need to:

>> stay true to ourselves (we must be the same person – online and offline)

>> think and choose what we are about to share because:
– not everything is useful, good, or kind
– not everything needs to be shared

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When I say ‘not everything needs to be shared’, I mean to say:

– we don’t have to always share ‘where we exactly are located’ at any particular point in time (for safety reasons, too)

– we should not share personal info online (eg. Home address)

– we should not share internal family or marital problems

– we should not share personal messages that are originally meant ‘for our eyes only’

– we should not be a cyber bully and share hateful and destructive comments

– we should not share private details of our children’s personal lives.

When our children have grown older, we should consider respecting their privacyWhen our children have grown older, we should consider respecting their privacy. Personal details like the kinds of tantrums she throws, the kinds of friends she has, the kinds of rebellion he displays, should be kept within the family, and not shared online.

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Today, the online world is a big part of our lives.

And it’s okay.

The online world is a big part of our livesAs long as we also remember to exercise extra caution, and think twice or three times even, about the things we are about share BEFORE we share them online?

Food for thought.

For us and for our children.

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[All photos above are from the internet]