Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

I don’t know about you but I’ve always found excuses for NOT exercising.

Like:

If I go to the gym, who’ll look after Brie?

I don’t like running, and even if I ran, who’ll look after Brie?

Not keen on swimming at night (when hubby is back to babysit all three kids)

(The list can go on and on, and gets less and less logical at times)

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The thing is, recently I’ve been feeling like I actually NEED TO exercise.

Perhaps, it’s because I’m starting to feel extra ‘flesh-y’ in some particular parts of my body.

(okay, I’ll spell it out: my arms and my stomach area!)

Or perhaps, it’s because I’m aging, and no exercise means ‘the attack of the flabs’ will get more apparent?

Oh well, anyway.

I know deep down it’s just me being too lazy to exercise!

BUT.

I now have no more excuses for NOT exercising, because there’s this solution : hoops!

I can always exercise by doing some hula-hooping at HOME!

And I’m checking out these different hoops from Hulahoop Singapore!

In their own words, this is what they are:

“An online store that sells weighted hula hoop for waistline trimming and abs toning. They are definitely good for busy adults who hardly have time to exercise because they can simply hula hoop anytime & anywhere”

Now, my next challenge is, conquer my laziness, and actually do some hulahooping at home EVERY SINGLE DAY!

Now, GIVEAWAY time!

Thanks to HulaHoopSingapore, these FOUR items will go home with FOUR of you!

Two x WH030 Smooth Foam 1.4kg

Two x Arm Hoops (1 pair per box)

[WH030 Smooth Foam 1.4kg]

[Arm Hoops, 1 pair per box]

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How to enter the giveaway:

1. SHARE in the Comment Box : Why do you want to hula hoop?

2. LIKE my Our Everyday Things Facebook Page, if you haven’t done so =)

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Info:

– Contest ends : Monday, 23 December 2013, 23.59pm

– Four winners will be randomly chosen and contacted via email (and announced here on this post!)

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A bit more other info:

– Their website is : www.hulahoopsingapore.com

– All my readers will get FREE DELIVERY with any purchase (Upon check out, put a note ‘HulaHoopSingapore with Our Everyday Things”)

Note:
HulaHoopSingapore will refund your delivery fee after they process your order, and the amount will be credited back to your credit card or PayPal account.

Ok, there you go! =)

Have fun with the giveaway!

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WINNERS:

Two x WH030 Smooth Foam 1.4kg
These will go to:

1) Hanny
2) Nichol Wong

Two x Arm Hoops (1 pair per box)

1) Chryssie
2) BerniceHOS

CONGRATS to all four winners! =)
(contact me, I’d need your details for the sponsor)

And, THANK YOU everyone who entered the giveaway!

There’ll be more to come and I hope you’ll join in the fun again! =D

If you’ve made a choice to be a full-time Mom, I’m sure you’ve encountered ‘interesting phrases’ from friends or families who ‘question’ and ‘comment’ on your decision, no?

Let’s see if any of the ones below sound ‘familiar’ to you:

‘Whoa! You stay home all day ah? I sure cannot tahan one!’

‘So what do you do all day? Must be so free ah everyday?’

‘You should hire a helper, then you can go back to work and earn more money!’

‘Tsk. Your parents paid so much for your education, and you ONLY become a fulltime mom in the end. What a waste …’

‘So you don’t work at all? Whoa, I cannot afford a good life like you. My husband doesn’t earn as much as yours’

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Interesting assumptions.

Childhood will pass sooner than we thinkI’ve personally heard some of those above, and I thought today I should share SOME of my reasons for choosing to be a full-time mom.   

Here goes:

>> I CHOOSE to be a full-time Mom, because my husband and I believe in these:

a) Children are treasures entrusted to US, so it is our calling to be involved parents in raising and teaching them

b) I am a degree holder and with me being a fulltime mom, my children actually get taught and educated by a degree holder, not by someone who came from the village, whose education level, background and upbringing we’re not even familiar with.

c) Childhood will pass sooner than we think. If we want to build on strong relationships with our children based on love, trust and respect, it must start from day 1, NOT when they’re much older.

d) HOME is the best place to start instilling values and principles in children (morally, spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, and everything else). And the responsibility is in the hands of the parents.

e) Giving the children our ‘time’ is better than ‘presents’ (though naturally, they’d LOVE presents, and most likely won’t appreciate what we do anyway, till … decades later, I guess?)

>> Although money is needed for us to cover our day to day expenses, money is NOT everything. I’m not interested in earning lots of money at the expense of losing my time with my children, especially during their growing up years.

(This basically means, the majority of full-time moms, including myself, most likely need to watch their expenses, juggle, and often, put off / not buy whatever they want. Well, unless the husbands are doing very well financially)

A helper is great to have, but a helper is definitely not to replace our responsibility in raising the children.>> A helper is great to have, but a helper is definitely not to replace our responsibility in raising the children. For our case, we choose to engage a part-time helper who comes for 2-3 hours, 3 times a week.

(For my case, I’m now a full-time mom AND am working too. The flexible working hours allow me to still be with my family, while juggling work and everything else. I love what I do, but realistically, … this also means sleeping less hours each day, ie. I clear most of my work when everybody is asleep. And it’s not easy.)

Fulltime moms’ lives are not as simple and easy as some people think Now, having said that, I realise how every family is different, and everyone of us has unique family situations.

I guess, with this post I just want to emphasise on this: Fulltime moms’ lives are not as simple and easy as some people think.

And I strongly hope the society in general learns to respect full-time moms’ decisions (to be full-time parents), and appreciate the importance of their role in raising the next generation.

Because, the best things in life often can’t be measured by dollars and cents.

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To all full-time mommies, JIA YO!

May God give us the wisdom, strength and joy everyday.

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Have you encountered similar comments? What are YOUR reasons / thoughts on becoming a full-time mom?

The littlest in the family is growing too fast.

But as much as I’d love to write more posts and share loads of photos for us to remember in years to come, I really have so little time these days.

So.

I decided to at least post these three photos today.

Of Brie and her ‘just woke up’ look.

Her scruffy hair. Tiny pyjamas. The books behind her which her siblings and Brie love to read at anytime of the day.

And the twinkles in her eyes.

Yep, I’d love to remember these as one of our daily moments we treasure.

*Blessed*

I’ve always loved stage plays.

I enjoy the songs, the lightings, the costumes, music and the overall coordinated dancing on stage.

And guess what?

Anya and her school friends had the opportunity to be part of a concert dedicated to ‘Ibu Sud’, one of Indonesia’s famous children song composers.

Ballet. Live orchestra. Dancing. And they’re mostly performed by young children.

A total of four performances, over three days, at Taman Ismail Marzuki.

Precious experience for the kids, I reckon!

I mean, I personally think it’s good that the kids get to experience not just the singing in front of the audience, but also the many times they had to wait around for hours, getting their hair and faces done up, and rehearsing their parts again and again.

Sure it’s tiring, but at the same time, to me, it all allows the kids to see for themselves the amount of effort, time, energy, coordination and teamwork needed in the production of a play.

Anyway.

Here’s me sharing with you some shots I took behind the stage and from the audience seat!

Grateful to have captured some of those moments!

Enjoy! =)

This was some three weeks ago.

My husband was away on a Mission Trip to Kalimantan for a week, and I somehow had this weird craving to paint.

You see, I came across different watercolour paintings on the web the week before, and somehow I was inspired to create something too.

I couldn’t rid the crave for days, and so in the end, near midnight, I took out a canvas and finally did it!

*so satisfied*

It was a simple painting of a family tree.

But, what I like about it, is that it also reminded me how we are all just branches that need to abide in the ‘True Vine’ in order to have life (John 15)

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To end the post, I thought I should say that, I’m not a painter.

I can even count with just one hand how many times I’ve actually painted with watercolour on a canvas or drawing paper (not counting the times when the kids and I create things for their arts and crafts sessions =)

But I just went with it, and created something when the crave was there.

If you ever had that similar crave to create something, here’s me saying to you, ‘Go ahead and give it try!’

And, enjoy the process along the way.

Have fun! =)

The month of December is here.

Which means school days, tests and exams are over for the year!

(Read: a good break for all of us! * YAY!*)

Now, the next challenge is : What do we do? Where can the kids and I go?

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At times like this, I admit I secretly miss the going out and about that we used to have back in Singapore : hopping on the trains and buses to check out the many free live children shows at malls, free beach plays, free water-plays at playgrounds and malls, libraries and their many wonderful books, or just … walking around the city.

BUT.

Having said that, I told myself, I must not feel all mellow for for missing out on the nice Singapore holiday programmes.

And at the same time, we can choose NOT to be stuck at home, right?

(Anyway, I sure don’t want the kids to be watching TV or playing computer games all day)

So.

We started our school holiday with this: we went out and check out this place called ‘Museum Rekor-Dunia Indonesia’ (MURI)

It basically means The World Record of Indonesia Museum.

(ie. World records that were done and achieved by Indonesians, in Indonesia)

Informative and educational, and everything was written in English.

LOCATION :
Mall of Indonesia, Kelapa Gading
(Ground Floor, near ACE Outlet)

ADMISSION FEE:
Adult : Rp10,000
Children / Students : Rp5,000
Below 5 yeas old : Free

What I personally think of this place:

For such an affordable admission fee, it’s a good place to bring your older kids. The place is well maintained, air-conditioned and clean. Lots of interesting information and photos to see, but the adults / parents need to excite the kids too and re-tell the stories and explain the displays so that the kids can understand and appreciate them better.

(ie. If the adult goes in, looks around and says, ‘Gee, this is IT? What’s there to see?’, the kids would want to leave the place soon too)

What I hope can be done better:

– Better publicity and signages to inform that there’s a Museum there at the Mall, and let them know where the Museum is  (The four of us were the only ones there, but perhaps there are more visitors in the weekends?)

– Since there’s no one else around, it’ll be nice if the staff can explain a little bit more or take us around (there were two people around, and they’re at the staff counter)

Anyway.

This is our favourite part of the Museum : The Interactive Wall! =)

We used this special stick (I don’t know what it’s called =), tapped on one of the categories, then on one of the cities on the map of Indonesia.

eg. Tap on the category of ‘Bahasa Daerah’ (Local Dialect), and tap on ‘Madura’ or ‘Bandung’, then we can hear the sound of someone speaking in that local accent! =)

Or, tap on the category of ‘Local Population’, and tap on ‘West Kalimantan’, then we hear the sound telling us that there are 4.4 million people there in the area.

Anya and Vai were on this spot for very long (till Brie fell asleep on the pram, haha).

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I’ll share more places to visit soon!

Time flies too fast, and I feel once in a while I should post our daily moments here.

Just a little something that happened on a particular day, at a particular moment.

This shot was taken when I came out of my bedroom to see why the house was all quiet.

And there I saw Brie, in the living room.

Reading a book to her doll, sitting quietly on a stool, with a hairband she put on all by herself, covering her legs with a ‘pink blanket’ (aka. Her big sister’s jacket)

And I thought to myself, yep … this is one of those daily moments I’d love to remember in years to come =)

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Have a good week ahead, everyone!

And I hope you too capture and treasure your daily moments of and with your loved ones!

As they say, parenting comes with its ups and downs.

And when you have a two-year-old in the house, well … chances are, you’ll be faced with quite a bit of ‘downs’.

Melt downs, I mean.

You see, Brie is now 2.5 years old.

And so yep, we’ve seen quite a bit of those melt-downs these past few weeks.

Over simple things that she used to be alright with.

And sometimes, I don’t even know what she’s crying about.

Say, we’re about to get into the car, then suddenly ‘HWAAAAAA’, she’d cry and half-scream so loudly!

When asked what she wanted, she said (amidst her loud cries) she wanted to sit on my laps, which of course was fine with me.

I’d then tell her, ‘Okay sure, come to me, you just need to tell me what you want. You don’t need to cry, okay?’

She still cried and cried *my ears started to hurt*

And so I asked her to tell me what she wanted, and apparently she wanted her backpack to be near her legs, and not placed at the back.

(Note: She used to be alright with all these)

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In terms of ‘variations’, she’d cry standing up, squatting down, on the bed, on the floor, face down on the sofa. You name them.

And at times, instead of crying,  she’d frown, grunt and even … once or twice, give you a push or a slap on the arm.

Yep, MY ARM or her siblings’ (and we don’t even do that to her)

And, every now and then (not too often though, thank God!), she could be doing this cry-stop-cry-stop-cry for so many times that I’ve lost count of them. So much so that her voice becomes hoarse.

Fan-tas-tic.

Thank God, she’s not tantrum-y every single hour of the day!

Thank goodness, we are not totally surprised anymore by all this, with her being no. 3 in the family!

I mean, I know FOR SURE that it’s a PHASE.

And it WILL be over (before it starts again a year later? Haha *bitter laugh*)

(But seriously, I do hope it’s over sooner than later, because addressing her tantrums, teaching her the right and wrong, controlling of my own mind – and sanity – all those do drain one’s mind and emotions)

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Anyway.

Having said that though, thank God, she’s not tantrum-y every single hour of the day!

PHEW.

Our baby Brie still has her many cute and adorable moments which I love and treasure.

And if you ask me, I do prefer to remember the ups in the parenting than only focusing on the downs.

*cue to scroll up and give the top photo a second look =)*

So there you go. The bittersweet moments of parenting.

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Anyone going through something similar these days?