Why Smile?

“Your smile can save a distressed soul, gladden a sad heart, or heal a broken spirit. Have a blessed day.”

— Unknown quotes —

Here, at some traffic light, there are some Crossing Guards who are stand by to help people or bicycle to cross the street.

Well, it’s look a simple job but it is not!
They will need to stand up for  long hours either under the sun or in the raining time.
We take car everyday, so we will never cross the street and meet them.

There is one Crossing Guard that we always meet in the morning and we decide to try our best to give him smile when we pass through him.
Kids will waive hands to him too!

You know what? He really looks happy and smile.

This remind me to one old man who does cleaning on our home block at Singapore.

Since JJ first time started to go to school ( JJ was around 2.5 years old) , TT and I always wait him on the same place every day to pick him up from the school bus. TT was still around 10 months old during that time. And most of the time we will meet this uncle when he sat down there and took a rest.

This uncle will always smile and happily called TT and most of the time TT will smile to him.
When JJ arrived and before we came back to the house kids will say bye bye to this uncle.

It continued until TT started his school and until last year before we moved here. It had been around 4 years since the first time we met this uncle. My husband and I will always walked with our kids go to the MRT Station in the morning (go to school).
Though we will not meet this uncle everyday but, every time we met this uncle, this uncle was so happy!

He will say “Good morning, my little friends!”

And kids will answer him, ” Good morning, uncle!”

Not only that uncle who was happy but also our kids!

And our kids will not only give smile to this uncle but also to another uncle who also clean our block and to the taxi driver, waitress, bus driver, etc.

Sometime we thought that those people looks so fierce, not friendly, etc. But why don’t we are the one who start smile to them? Greet them. It will make their day!

Smile to them, they need it. They never ask for it, but they need it and they will be very grateful when some one greet them and smile to them.

“Today, give a stranger one of your smiles.  It might be the only sunshine he sees all day”.

 ~by H. Jackson Brown, Jr. ~

 

— Don’t Stop, Keep Trying —

“Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t waste energy trying to cover up failure. Learn from your failures and go on to the next challenge. It’s OK to fail. If you’re not failing, you’re not growing.” – H. Stanley Judd – 

Well, it is not easy when we have to accept the reality that we fail on something.

I have always told my kids that it is ok if you fail on something, it is not the end of everything. I even wrote a post on 2012 about this. Please refer to my old post: Learn From Your Failures.

I am not new on driving a car. I had my experience driving car in Indonesia and Australia. But I have never drive any cars since we moved to Singapore 9 years ago. Singapore has a very good transportation system that make me feel that I don’t need to drive there. I even never renew my driving license since year 2009. Until one day, my husband got transfer to USA and we move here.

Here I am and I need car here. I need to drive my kids to school and  buy groceries. Well, I need to drive but I will  need to take both written driving test and Behind the Wheels driving test. I passed my written test and I got a permit to drive but with someone to accompany me until I pass my behind the wheels driving test.

There are many new rules that I need to learn since it is different from Indonesia and Australia, and some more the driver is on the left side here and we will need to drive on the right side of the road. It is the biggest different. Well I have to adapt.

It was the time that I need to take behind the wheels driving test and I was nervous. I always nervous when I need to do any TEST. I don’t like TEST 😀

And I did two mistakes on the test and it might be two serious mistakes so that the examiner asked me to go back to the DMV straight away and I failed.

Well, I was so sad and my husband kept encourage me. I was still sad though but I know that I need to hang on there 🙂 some of my friends encouraged me as well. When the kids came back from school, they knew that I fail on my driving test and they made my day 😀

JJ asked me what mistake that I made 😀 and he gave me some advices how to drive better next time 😀

While TT tried to made me smile with his funny acts.

My husband told me that it is good that I fail so that kids also can learn how to deal with failure. And I have the sample of failure that they aware that it happened to me.

On the church, one of our friend who heard about my failure in behind the wheels driving test, came to me and offer his help to accompany me practicing my driving while my husband in his office. I really appreciate it. And I always what he said to me, “Hang on there, Yulia, you can do it!”

Instead of staying in my sadness and disappointment, I choose to cheer up!

I did my second test and Thanks God, I passed. Now that I can help my husband, driving kids to school, do my own groceries, and have my MeTime 😀

Well, this is not the first time I fail on something. I share about this because this was the recent failure that I have. Before, I faced so many failure. If I can say, my failure on my driving test is the small one. I have ever failed on relationship, on my job, on my study, etc. But I know that I should not leave in my past and have to move on. Well, I still hang on there because I am not alone. I went through my life which is up and down together with my God who give me strength and together with my husband, my kids and people surround me who always love and encourage me.

It’s okay to fail, you always can try it again. It is your choice to give up or hang on there and keep trying. Thanks God that I didn’t give up and try it again.

Trying to see on the positive side of our failures is the best thing to do.

What we can learn from our failure:

1. Knowing that failure can make us be more careful and try not to do the same mistake.
2. Learning how to hang on there and not give up so easily.
3. Knowing that some people really there to support us.
4. Failure will teach us not to give up easily.
5. You are prepared to be stronger for the next problem / failures.

Please feel free to add some more points for what we can learn from our failure on the comment below.

Same for you… If you are facing any problems or you are failing on something and you feel that you are going to give up, Please Don’t! Hang on there! Keep Trying! 

Quotes from my husband:  

“It’s okay to fail. If you never fail, you’ll never learn”

Because They Love and They Care

“Even the smallest act of caring for another person is like a drop of water – it will make ripples throughout the entire pond” – Jessy and Bryan Matteo

Valentine talks about Love. What kind of love? Is it only for couples who are in love? Well, I think it is not. Valentine can be celebrated with someone you love and it is not necessarily to be your girlfriend, boyfriend or your spouse. It can be your friends or other people.

Why should I related valentine and Firefighters here?  Well there is the story behind this and make me want to write about this.

We were so impress with how they love and commit into their job. They are so caring and loving kind person. My kids has always loved firefighters. They see firefighters as their heroes. And we have never thought of meeting up or even talking with them in person. Until, it happened….

It was last month, when TT had a high fever. For us, it is very high fever, reached around105F-105.8F. The fever kept going up from 103F to 105F within half an hour. Honestly we were so panic. The fever medicine didn’t really help on that time. We called 24 hours health consultant and they suggested us to call 911. We did it.

Surprisingly, the one who came was not the ambulance but the firefighters. My husband was the one who opened the door for them and said: “Sorry, but we didn’t call firefighters, we called ambulance.” 😀

It is something new for us that the firefighters will come and help us in this kind of situation. We just moved here less than two months at that time, and we don’t really familiar with the situation here. They explained to us.  Oh well, now we understand. They were three firefighters who came to our place with medical equipment and did some check on TT before the Ambulance came. They were Brian Pease (The Captain), Brett Gainey and Raiden Williams. ( I have got permission from them to mention their name here).

That time JJ was sleeping and TT was crying as he felt his body aching. Brett sat down close to TT and tried to comfort him. Checked TT’s temperature, gave him stickers and kept talk to TT while Raiden did some check on TT. In the mean time, JJ woke up, and Brett also tried to talk to JJ. They tried to make kids feel better. Meanwhile, Brian was downstairs as he needed to park the Fire Engine and he also came up and stayed with us afterward.

At the end the EMS came and brought TT to hospital. We cannot remember the EMS staffs’ name but they also did a great job. Once we reached the hospital, El Camino Hospital, the nurses did their job very fast and we were happy to have Dr Jonathan, around. I was blank that I didn’t even notice any name of people who helped us. I didn’t even remember all the name of the firefighters who came and helped us at the first place.

TT and JJ kept asking us to find those firefighters because they wanted to meet them. And yes, of course my husband and I also wanted to meet them because we really want to say thank you to them. They are really awesome. They sincerely helped and cared about us. They did a well done job, helped the citizen who needs help.

As we tried to find them, we called the Santa Clara County Fire Department and visited one of Fire Department near our place. We are glad that they helped us to find who was on duty in our case. They found it and give us their names and the address. Finally we were there, at Cupertino Fire Department.

They welcomed us and they really love kids. We really grateful that we can know them and they welcomed us when we visited them. They still remember us, and even Raiden remember that TT loves Penguin.

They play and spent time with our kids. We really appreciate it, because I believe that they must be very tired, because when we arrived there and visited them, they just came back from their duty.

Deep down in our heart, we really salute, respect and honor to them. Not only to them but also their family. They work to serve the citizen and country, and they even need to stay overnight at the station while they must be missing their family. Moreover, when there is fire, they even have to risking their own safety to save people.

Seeing our kids were so happy, make us happy too! As we can see that those three Firefighter were so happy too seeing our kids healthy and enjoying their time at the Fire Station. JJ gave them so many questions and they answered him 😀  Well I think I don’t need to describe what questions that JJ gave to them, but you can guess and imagine what kind of questions that can came from this little boy. At the end JJ said that he wants to become a fire fighter and TT said he wants to become a doctor.

They get this helmets and sticker badge from them and play as firefighters at home. whenever JJ and TT play this, JJ will acts as Reiden and TT as Brett.

Well, my kids will have my full support if they really want to become a Firefighter and a Doctor. But kids, they will still change their dream.

But still I really hope that JJ and TT can learn something from these Firefighters: HELP, CARE and LOVE others. Not only JJ and TT who need to learn but also me and you 😉

Thank you Brian, Brett and Rayden. Thank you for being there for us at that time. Thank you Cupertino Fire Department and thank you EMS Santa Clara County for your prompt action to help TT.

Especially Thank you to God who always watch over us and bless us with wonderful people around us 🙂

On this valentine day, some people including firefighters, will still need to work 24 hours and serve others. They will not spend their Valentine Day with their loved ones. But I believe, deep inside their heart and their family, they are happy as they can show their love by helping others on this Valentine Day.

We believe that they are happy when they can help others and see other people smile 🙂

And on this Valentine day, I would like to say Happy Valentine to all of you. Not only to my husband and my kids, not only to my family and friends, but also to all of you out there who read my post, including all firefighters, doctors, nurses, policemen and all other people who sacrifice their precious time to help others.

Not only because of their duties, I believe that Firefighters are helping people because of Love and Care for others.

Last but not least, Love your God and love others.

— HAPPY VALENTINE —

“Firefighters are some of the most selfless public servants you will ever encounter.” – Denis Leary

 

Kids and The Library

Finally, here we are! The Library!

It’s been sometime since we moved here, kids has  been asking us to bring them to the library.

That’s one of kids’ favorite place. Books, activity and audio! This is the first time we had chance to go to the public library here.. This is the most beautiful library that I have ever visited. So big, so clean and so comfortable. They even have a little playground with books theme. Kids can learn how to use computer as well inside this library. They provide very good computer applications that kids can learn a lot from those computers. They also provide some education activities and toys for kids.

While JJ sticked with the computer, TT was busy exploring everything in this library… He read book, he played a while in the playground and play other things inside the library. But at the end JJ left the computer station and started to find some books too! Well, both of them really enjoyed to be in this Library.

Other than them, not forgetting the daddy who is also a book lover 😀 Both kids love books… Where do they get it from? Well not from me.. From their daddy for sure 😀

It is always good to encourage our kids to love reading books. And they also have their little library corner in their room. Moreover, in JJ’s school, one of the daily homework is reading log for 10 minutes and kids can choose their own books. Since then, JJ loves to read book more than before, and so does his little brother.

Library is one of many good places for our kids to spend their time. Love this library so much and will come back here for sure!!!

“Libraries allow children to ask questions about the world and find the answers. And the wonderful thing is that once a child learns to use a library, the doors to learning are always open.” – Laura Bush –

Teachers….. You will never be forgotten….

Early this year, when I came back to my hometown, I purposely visited my Kindergarten School and my Primary School in my hometown. Not much changing on the building and the class rooms. But I only met two Primary School teachers. One of them is my favorite teacher. She didn’t recall me at the first but then she started to remember me hahahah How? I am not that kind of quite student………. Active? yeah hahaha…

Surprisingly, when I visited my kindergarten school, expected all my teachers will not be there anymore because it was more than 30 years ago. They supposed retired already. And one of the teacher told me that there is still one teacher who is still teaching since my years time in this kindergarten until now. But she was off that day and out of town for training, so that I have no chance to meet her.

I clearly remember all my teachers’ name because they are important for me. They are good teachers. I really glad that I was before being taught by them in school.

Same applies to my kids. They are still in their kindergarten years now. It was not easy that they had to started their school years earlier than mine last time. Though it is for fun but I believe it is not easy for them especially during the pre-nursery and nursery years. They even had to took the school bus. But I am glad that so far so good. Why? I believe that their teachers have a very important role to make my kids love to go to school.

Sometime they will ask “Why it is not Monday yet” 😀

Teachers have very important role for our kids. Including our Chinese tuition teachers, Sunday School teachers, Music teachers, Swimming Coach, etc.

What I learn as a parent then?

• Trust teachers to ‘educate’ our kids.
• Support teachers in any tasks that they give to our kids
• Build a good relationship with teachers

Until now, we  even still keep in touch with my sons’ pre-nursery teacher. She is a very good teachers and both my kids were under her care. But we really feel grateful that our kids are under very good teachers in their school years so far.

We Just came back from long holiday and it was a long flight. My plan was to let them go back to school a day after they came back home. And it was just nice on the Teacher’s Day celebration at school.

But that is not what they want. They want to go to school once they come back. Miss their friends? Of course! But they also miss their teachers.

Yes… they love to go to school…. and one more thing…….. they love and enjoy doing their homework. So far… there is no complaint from them about their homework. Some time they even ask more and I have bought some activity books for them (they choose those books them selves).

Teachers have very important roles to make our kids love their school. And I am so happy that my kids have their best teachers so far.

Happy Teacher’s Day to all teachers all over the world 🙂

“Teachers who love teaching, teach children to love learning.”                                 – Robert John Meehan

Two Little boys say about their Daddy!

I always tell my kids that they should be grateful as they have a very good daddy who always willing to spend time with them every day after his tiring day in his office. And I can see that the strong bonding between them.

On this special occasion, I did a little interview to my two little kids 🙂

Mama: Do you love your daddy?

JJ: Yes!

Matt: Yes!

Mama: What do you like about your daddy?

JJ: Papa is the boss and Papa is so funny like a clown!

TT: He is the funny man, he looks like a clown and some more, Papa can do balance!

Mama: What do you like to play with your daddy?

JJ: Play fighting and Animal Kaiser

TT: Lego Star Wars, Ninja Go, Candy Crush, Showman, Animal Kaiser, Spiderman and Batman.

Mama: What will you buy for Papa on this Father’s day if you have some money?

JJ: Computer and Pen

TT: Shirt and Pencil

Mama: Anything that you want to say to Papa on this Father’s day?

JJ: Papa is the Super Papa!

TT: Papa is very cool!

————————————————————————————————-

 We have something to give to the Daddy! 

Note to the Daddy………..

Please always be wise saving your money in this coin bank so that we can have our next holiday trip 😀

Hi dads, all of you have an important role in shaping the character of your children and give your children a wonderful childhood for your kids!

“Walk With Me Daddy”

Walk alongside me, daddy
and hold my little hand.
I have so many things to learn
that I don’t yet understand.

Teach me things to keep me safe
from dangers every day.
Show me how to do my best
at home, at school, at play.

Every child needs a gentle hand
to guide them as they grow.
So walk alongside me, daddy –
We have a long way to go.

 Author: Helen Bush

Happy Father’s Day to all Daddy around the world.

“I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.”

– Sigmund Freud –

Oh No! TIME is so FAST!!!

Time flies so fast for me, apparently, it is not fast for this little boy.

TT: “Mama, why I am not 4 years old yet? I want  to be four years old, Mama!”

Mama: “Why? You want to be so fast to be 4 years old, but Mama doesn’t want you to grow old so fast!”

This conversation happened around three months ago. How he wish to be four years old soon on that time! And not for me! Sometime when I saw a little kid, I will remember when JJ and TT were very small back then. Especially when they started to stand up and walk 😉

The best part of birthday for him is that he feel that he is a big boy, can give gifts to his friends and also can choose his birthday cake character. Of course not forgotten about choosing his own birthday presents.

This year, on his birthday, the daddy brought us to go to The Singapore Zoo (again) same as last year :D. The different is that he will also “celebrate” with Jia Jia and Kia Kia at The River Safari. He is looking forward for it. And so does his brother, JJ.

Before we went to The River Safari and Singapore Zoo, he celebrated his birthday with his school friends and also with his favorite teachers. He was so happy. And we straight away went to the zoo once we finished the birthday celebration.

Yeah, it is our tradition that on JJ and TT’s birthday, they will only attend the school to celebrate their birthday with their classmates and teachers. After finishing celebrate their birthday, we will take them to go somewhere to celebrate their birthday as a family. We know that once they go to the Primary School already, we cannot any how take them from their school only for Birthday celebration 🙂

Well, he is now four years old. Time flies.

I hope that he will grow become a good boy, lovely boy, wise man, good man and always glorify God.

Happy birthday TT……………………….

God loves you……………………………..

We love you (especially JJ) …………..

Smiling………………………………………..

Happy………………………………………..

Cheerful……………………………………..

God bless you my dear…………………

Don’t you know that you are good on make people laugh and smile? Don’t you realize that God has blessed you with that special gift?

you are good on make people laugh and smile!

God blesses you with that special gift

May your day will always be filled with joy that you give to others

Happy Birthday!!!!

 

                  TT’s motto: ” I love to make people laugh”

~ PRAYER ~

“Prayer is as natural an expression of faith as breathing is of life.”

~ Jonathan Edwards  ~

Ever since my two boys were still inside my tummy, both, my husband and I prayed together with our unborn babies…

When they were babies, we prayed together with them…

When they grow up become toddlers, slowly, we asked them to pray together with us and follow our prayer

Now they can pray by themselves and pray for others as well.

Teaching our kids how to pray is very important so they will understand that God always be there and listen to their prayer. That’s one of ways to talk to God.

Last night, JJ cannot sleep and I asked him why he cannot sleep. He told me that because he wanted the daddy to be in his room and sleep with him.  I told him that the daddy need to do something.
I asked JJ to pray and tell Jesus that he cannot sleep.

In the morning, he told me that he fell asleep after he prayed.

One day, after school, TT told me that his teacher’s leg is pain and he said that he want to pray for her before he sleep. It remind me to JJ when he was still at nursery class, he also once prayed for his teacher.

These are only few samples, now they love to pray.. Develop a good habit such as prayer is the good one.

Kids will learn and understand that they need to pray everyday, any time as they need air to breath.

They need to praise and glorify God through their prayers

They need to thanks to God for everything that they have

They need to  ask for forgiveness from God everyday

They need to learn how to pray and think for others

They also need to pray for themselves every day too ask for God’s guidance and wisdom.

and so on…

” To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.”
– Martin Luther King Jr –

Have you started it with your children? Would you like to share how you start teaching how to pray with your children?

Keep this Chain of Love

2012 has ended and now we are in a new year, 2013.

Same as years before, I was blessed last year, I saw how my family was blessed by God, although not everything went smoothly, but we really feel and see the inclusion of God for our family. So many things happened in 2012, it was first time for TT went to school, JJ had eyes surgery, and so on.  But again, I can see how God always loves and protects our family. I know that God will always be with us, and guide our family. Not only last year or years before, but also this years and coming years.

Kids grow together, play together, laugh together, talking together, love each other, take care of each other, help each other, and also quarrel to each other 😀

One thing for sure, they really love each other, and this is also confirmed by their school teachers and some of my friends who sometime hang out with them.

Sometime they like to hold hands together when they walk and talk to each other, they loves to talk to each other before they sleep, almost every day (unless when they are too tired and they will just go to sleep).  JJ teaches TT how to pray. They help each other. JJ loves to help TT doing something, yes, he is very caring towards his little brother. Meanwhile, TT can also sometime makes JJ laugh out of loud (well, there was one time, TT made JJ laugh out of loud until JJ vomited :D).

I also can see the strong bond between kids and their daddy. Sometime they can tell to the daddy what had happened for one whole day before they sleep. They even sometime have a show for their daddy before they go to sleep. Yes, until now 🙂

But I don’t want it only happen in the past and now, I hope this chain of love will last forever. I hope that both, my kids will always love, help and support each other until when they grow older or even until when they are old later on 🙂

Also, I hope that the bond in this family between parents and kids, between JJ and TT and also between my husband and me will become stronger every day. And we realize that without God’s love,  all of this will not be happened.

Yes the most important thing that we must always remember to love God above all, obey God’s word and make the love of God to be the strong foundation of our family. Yes and it is our responsible as parents to teach our kids to always to love God more than everything.

Last but not least, I know it is a bit late to say it now, but still I really want to say it to all of you 😉
“Welcome the new year with a new spirit, a new plan and a new commitment ..

Hoping to be a better person in 2013.

Thanks to God for blessing me with a wonderful husband, wonderful and nice boys and all wonderful people around me (parents, siblings, family and friends)”.

Thank you also for your willingness to spend sometime to read my blog and also share your opinion here. I hope you will still support me on this year and years onwards 😉

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM US

Daddy + Children = Best Friends Forever

“The conscience of children is formed by the influences that surround them; their notions of good and evil are the result of the moral atmosphere they breathe.” -Jean Paul Richter

I just heard a story about a family which is broken apart because of the mother’s big influence to her children. Well, I share this with the purpose to remind all mother and father  (including me, my self, of course! ) who stay at home and rise their children to be careful with what we say.

“A child miseducated is a child lost.” -John F. Kennedy-

This is really happen, and I shocked and cannot believe it when I heard this story from some one. I will just summary the story. There was a mother who always bad mouth the husband in front of her two children since the children young and the result, the children hate the father. The mother and the kids hate the father. Now that his children grows up and married. Though the younger child has reconciled with the father but the older one, still hates the father until now and always say bad things about the father.

Well, we have to be careful with our mouth, it will really give big impact to our children. As for me, most family I know, the mother will stay at home and take care of their children and the daddy go to the office and work. So that the time that the mother spends with the kids are more than the time that the father spends with the kids. Kids will have strong bonding with the mother. I feel pity to that family, especially with the kids who grow up in hatred, moreover, if they hate their own parents.

Understand that between husband and wife will have some clashes sometime, but it doesn’t mean that we have to implicate kids in our problem. Kids need both, daddy and mommy. I believe that all daddy who go to work will also longing their children, especially who work far away from their homes. We know someone who work only as a waiters, once he told us that he missed his children so much. He worked overseas and his salary is not really much so that he cannot any how going back to his country to visit his children. He liked to talk to my kids and played with them when we have lunch or dinner at that restaurant.

We as the mother should understand and appreciate that our husband go to the office and  work not for themselves but for us and our children.

I might not be a perfect mom as well, but I really want to always learn. I always try my best to maintain the close relationship and strong bonding between the father and my kids. We should make our kids to have a good impression about their parents.

Some of what I do to make the kids having a good bonding with their daddy:

1. I always try to find a time when I can bring kids to my husband’s office area for having simple and quick lunch together.
2. I always persuade my husband to spend time with the kids on some special occasions, such as: kids’ birthday, children’s day, Christmas, Valentine day, Father’s day, etc.
3. I always remind kids that they are so lucky as their father willings to take leave and spend time with them.
4. I also sometime left the kids with my husband (without me) for few hours so that they will have strong bonding.
5. On the father’s day and their father’s birthday, I will help kids to prepare something for their daddy.

It just something which is simple that we can do to make our kids know how their daddy love them, their daddy has to go to work everyday for them but still willing to spend time with them.

I also can see how much my husband love JJ and TT, and I really want him always become my kids’ best buddy and also set a good role for them. Indeed, my husband is JJ and TT’s best friend, they play together, spend time together and kids always be very happy every time see the daddy coming back home. They even very happy whenever I bring them to have a quick lunch with their daddy.

I really learn something from the story above. My purpose to write this post is to remind us, you and me as a mother to become the best connection between the daddy and children. Make them become best friends. Make the kids so proud that they have a very good daddy, let them know that their daddy loves them.

Yes, the daddy is kids’ best friend, don’t make them become enemy, moreover when we know that the daddy really loves his children.

“No influence is so powerful as that of the mother.”
-Sarah Josepha Hale-