I have a dream………

A doctor? an athletes? a businessman? a pilot? an accountant? or what?

I have never thought that I will become an accountant one day. But I was.

When I was young, I had a dream to become a singer :p yes, I loved to sing. I even went for singing contest when I was 10 yo and I had been started singing in the church since I was very young. But now, no more 😀

My parents had a dream, they hoped that one of us will become a doctor. At the end, none of us become a doctor 🙂 Were they disappointed? No. They are satisfied with what we are now. They can see all of their children are married and have their own family now. They know that they have right to have a dream but they have no right to impose their dream to their children.

What is your dream? What do you want your child to be in the future?

Is it wrong to have a dream? Nothing wrong with that. I wish one of my sons will become violinist. But will they be? I don’t know.

When I asked JJ, what does he want to be in the future, he said that he wants to be a fire fighter. Then I asked his reason why he wants to become a fire fighter. He said that he can help people. The few days later, I asked him the same question, he gave me different answer. He said he wants to be a policeman and catch the bad guy. There was one day he said he wants to be a pilot because he likes an air plane. On the other day he said he want to become a racer. TT told me before that he is a doctor. Each kids with their own dream.

One of my friends, told me that his parents really hoped that he will love to play piano. They asked him to learn piano since he was very young. In my own  opinion, there is nothing wrong to encourage our kids to play piano since they are very young. The problem here is that he didn’t like it, but his parents forced him to continue learning piano. He can play piano well, but still he dislike it up to now.

Kids have their own dreams. We also have our own. We may encourage our kids to learn something that we think it is good for them to learn but don’t force them to do it. We may encourage them to be someone that we want them to be, but don’t force them.

It would be better to find out what they like and what they want to be in the future, find their strong point and encourage them 🙂

Let them become what they want to be as long it is positive. What we have to do is to direct them to the right track in their lives.

Two Ways

                           A parent = A teacher                         A child = A teacher

When your kids are ready to go to school, It means they will have to study at home and at the school. They will not only study academic but  at home, they will learn from us, so we are their teacher. It is not only us, but also their siblings, their siblings will also become their teachers. At school, their teacher will be their friends and their teachers.

I always ask my sons to listen to me and obey me. And yes they will, sometime 😀 To be honest,  sometime I only remember that I am Mrs. Right and their teacher without realize that my sons are also my teachers.

The easiest example is about forgiveness.

People around us, can see that my sons have a very strong bounding towards each others. It doesn’t mean that they have never quarrel, they did and one will make another one cry. Afterwards, they will not play together around 5 minutes.

5 minutes… It is very fast, right and they will play together again. Sometime I will encourage one of them who hurt his sibling to say sorry. And it is very easy for kids to forgive and they will play together again.

Last Friday, when we picked him up, his teacher talked to TT and TT didn’t want to go home with us. He hold tight JJ’s teacher. I know he wants to be in school. JJ’s teacher teased JJ and said, ” He wants to be here, bye bye JJ” Yes and TT was bye bye to us. JJ’s eyes started watery and say NO. He tried to pull TT’s hand and wanted to bring TT home with him. Though they quarrel sometime, but they always like and be happy to be together. They have already forgotten all their quarrels.

Why do they easy to forgive? I think there must be love. Love has a very strong power, so they are easily forget their quarrel. I have to learn from them.

It is different from adult who will spend at least one hour to forgive. I have a close term with my brothers but it doesn’t mean that we have never had any misunderstanding towards each other. Honestly, when I had a misunderstanding with my brother, it will take me longer time to forgive him. It’s a shame right? But whenever I am not happy with someone, I start to remember how my kids forgive others. I really need to learn from them.

Therefore, I call it TWO WAYS. It is not that only the kids who should learn from us but also, we need to learn from them. It is not only in forgiveness but also in other aspects.

It would be great if you are willing to share your thought related to this topic, as it is not only about forgiveness but also in other aspects.

Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:4, NIV) 

Sounds Simple but Meaningful

Busy in the office? Boring in the office? Fed up with your job?

Or?

Busy at home? Boring at home? Fed up with your daily routine?

Why don’t you take time for relax, go out for lunch with your loved ones, it will make your day bright.

Other than weekend, public holiday and daddy’s leave day (from the office), it is very seldom for us having lunch with the daddy. Yes, he has to work and only has one hour for his  lunch time.

The last time we had lunch together with the daddy during his working day was on December, last year. WOW!!!  As I write this post, I realized that it is almost one year ago since we had time to have lunch together during the working day.

Last week we had chance to “kidnap” the daddy on his lunch time, to have lunch with us on JJ’s birthday. We met up on the place near his office and had our lunch around that area. We were very happy, and kids, especially were very happy. We came half an hour earlier before the lunch time so that there will not be so many people. We had a very simple lunch! Sandwiches and ice chocolate for us. One little chocolate cup cake became JJ’s birthday cake. It was a very precious time for us.

Another idea came across in my mind, since it was on school holiday, so that the kids and I still had another chance to ask the Daddy to come out with us for lunch again. This time is Indonesian food! And he was more than happy to have lunch with us 🙂 Though it was only one hour, but it was a very precious time. The most important thing is that we enjoyed our togetherness.

This week, JJ has already come back to school. My husband and I plan to have another lunch together on the next school holiday.

How about you? Think to have a quick, fast and nice lunch time with your loved ones?

I know it sounds simple, but yes, it is very meaningful 🙂 

All by His Grace

4 years ago, he was still in my womb.. Hiding there… Kicking here and there..  Feeling secure there and playing there alone. We were talking to him and reading a bible story to him while he were inside my womb and we had some chances to see him through the USG. We waited for him to come out in nine months. And 4 years ago, he was born. He was a tiny baby. He was an adorable and gorgeous baby.

I read the bible story for him every afternoon since he was a baby, and he reacted sometime by giving me his wonderful smile. I love that moment. And I know I begin to miss that moment now. However, I am glad that he is 4 years old now, healthy and active boy. He is a very caring boy, big brother to his little brother and also big brother for other friends who are younger than him.

I have never got a complain from his school, on the other hand, his teachers always praise him that he is a very good boy, happy, behave and friendly. He always want to make a friend with everyone, always greet all teachers in his school. The school bus attendant also loves him very much.

I take care him by myself, since he was a baby until now he is a 4 years old. I love him, everybody loves him. His little brother has a strong bounding with him. It is so amazing that I can see him grow day by day by His Grace! I left Him in His care 🙂

” I am a big boy now. I am 4 years old now!” JJ said.

Happy birthday JJ. Be a good boy, not only for your parents and friends. The most important, be a good boy for your God and make Him proud of you!

From a cent to a million

Piggy bank… Everybody knows piggy bank…

Honestly, I don’t really know why they use pig as the model of coin bank. I know it will not always pig, but yup, piggy bank is very famous.

I bought two coins banks for my kids few months ago. I know, it does look that I am lazy because I have not teach them to save the money in the coin bank. I can see that my kids cannot wait to find out about the piggy bank and they really curious about it.

Finally the opportunity came, two weeks ago, on Saturday, I started to introduce them to their coin banks. I gave each of them two dollars and I told them that when the day go to roads, they may use the money according to what they want. I’ve done this to JJ before, but I have not introduced him to his coin bank yet. I also explained to them both that they can deposit the remaining money in their coin banks and this is called saving. I also explain to them that by saving their money, they can use their money for something which is useful and valuable for themselves and others.

I know, probably by the age they are now ( 4yo and 2 yo) they have not really understood the meaning of saving money. But with the time goes by, they will understand it. So, I think it is good to introduce the savings to my kids early on, with hope that they will learn to be responsible in using their money in the future.

Well, when I gave them two dollars each two weeks ago, they decided to keep one dollar in to their coin bank and another one dollar each in their pockets. They brought their coins outside but then they didn’t use that coin, when they reached home, they saved those remaining coins into their coin banks.  Last week they decided to keep all their coins into their coin banks.

By doing this, I hope they will start to learn how to save their money and use their money wisely. There is always a beginning of everything and this is their beginning of learning to save their money.  Every weekend, I give them that money and explain to them the purpose of saving. It is not the amount of the money which is important now, but the meaning of saving is very important for them to understand. The money might not only be useful for themselves, but it might be useful for others as well.

I would like to hear from you too… Could you please share your experience on this? How did you explain to your kids about saving… It might become a very useful input for us 🙂