Our Achievements are Nothing Without Him

As expressed in this song, I always want my family to give back the glory to God for all the things we have achieved, it may be great or small. I also thank God even for all the storms that have shaken us. All these have made us strong. Were it not for our past troubles, hubby and I should have not been enjoying our life together as both OFWs. So overcoming any obstacles in life is a great achievement in itself for it gives us strength and will prepare us for a greater challenge. Hubby called what had happened to us, a "perfect storm at a perfect time" I call in God's time. Yes, in Christ alone do we draw our strength in whatever challenge that comes our way.

Summer's Bounty

"Summer has come and passed..." Well, my boy sings this song by Green Day a lot this summer by practicing plucking it on guitar. Indeed, summer has ended and these kinds of fruits we love are going to last pretty soon. Rainy season has begun and I'm warmly welcoming it with the change of temperature it brings.

My kids have truly enjoyed the fresh lychees, mangosteen, rambutan, lanzones and their most favorite. Guess what is it? It's the fruit that smells like hell but tastes like heaven - Durian. These are one of the great things beautiful summer offers.

For more posts with red, click the badge below:

Obstacles Turning into Opportunities

Here's a very interesting story worth sharing from RexBarker@Joke-Of-The-Day.com

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.

Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand!

Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition. I have proven so quite a number of times.

A simple but fun birthday bash amidst the political crisis

Happy Monday, everyone! Thanks God the tension here is finally over. And even if I'm busy,  I don't want to completely miss the fun with you, guys, so I want to keep up as long as I have the time. It's Mellow Yellow Monday time again and I have lots of yellows here on my baby's 1st birthday held recently. Sorry though for the not so good quality of some photos here as I entrusted my digicam to someone not so familiar with its features when I was very busy hosting the party.

I love sharing this jelly with sliced fresh mango. Oh, so yummy!  Along with more dishes courtesy of the ever-generous Tita Myrns, a guesthouse manager. If you want a very convenient but very affordable place (apartelle style conveniently located) to stay when you're in Bangkok, just let me know. Well, the unrest was just temporary as generally, Bangkok is a very peaceful place, making it a haven for tourists.

His cake was made by the ever jolly Ninang Lee Ann, who just finished a very expensive baking course at the world's renowned La Cordon Bleu.

Oooopppss, that's yellow watermelon forefronted, close to the kids' all-time party fave, hotdog or sausage on stick. Well, the green dish is buko-pandan, courtesy of Ninang Tess (below, in red). She bought most of its ingredients from Pinas except the young coconut (buko) and milk, of course. So it's a taste of home. Sooo grateful as well to SIL Edna, in black shirt holding the baby for sponsoring so many dishes here. I'm so blessed for having many nice friends around sponsoring this and that voluntarily.

 Amidst the political crisis here during my son's birthday, we're very glad everyone still showed up and had fun, at least.

The kids enjoy opening baby's gift.

For more posts with yellow, visit Mellow Yellow Monday.

Mellow Yellow Bikes

Hello, dear friends! Today is declared an emergency holiday here and I miss MYM so I have the time to post. For those who have been asking about our situation here, no, we are not affected. We're on the other side of Bangkok, a bit far from the chaos suffered downtown.

Bicycle has been a popular transportation in the history of Thailand. The picture above is on display at PlearnWan Museum in Hua-Hin, showcasing the old ways of life in the old Kingdom of Siam. Until these days, bicycle is used not only by laborers or lowly people who can't afford four-wheels but even by middle-class employees to go to their workplace and students to school or university.

Here's an antique tricycle displayed at Privacy Beach Resort and Spa, our recent retreat hotel in Pranburi Province, Eastern Thailand.

This antique tricycle has this classic yellow couch decorated with bright sunflowers. Thanks to my daughter for taking all these first 3 photos. She shows a deep interest in photography and she's aware of the memes I have been enjoying. She says, "Mommy, here's for your Mellow Yellow Monday entry," as she shows her captures. Hmmm! Grateful mom.

Biking saves our environment as it doesn't need fuel. It is also a great form of exercise. So I really support my kids for their love for biking.

For more posts with yellow, check out Mellow Yellow Monday.

Sweet Message from Daughter to Mom

MyNiceProfile.com (from the bottom of my heart:)

This is the message I received from my dear sweet daughter on Mother's Day.
I may be strict with my kids but I also try my best to be their best friend so that they will be open enough in sharing their secrets, their ups and downs, their joys and disappointments, their fears and frustrations and all they want to vent and pour out.

For more message to mom posts, visit Mommy Moments.

Children learn what they live

Motherly advice is this week's topic at Mommy Moments. I am sharing this very wise poem by Dorothy Nolte to all moms out there. Guess many of you have this at home, too. I bought a hanging poster of this poem before to always remind me of these great pieces of advice for us, moms.

Children Learn What They Live
By Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D.

If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.

If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.

If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.

If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.

If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy.

If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy.

If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.

If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.

If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.

If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.

If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.

If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.

If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal.

If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.

If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.

If children live with fairness, they learn justice.

If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect.

If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them.

If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live.

Copyright © 1972 by Dorothy Law Nolte

Let's do our best to create an environment where we let our kids learn what we want them to be. Teaching them the values we want them to emulate all depends on us, parents. This is mom's greatest responsibility and challenge. 

Happy Moms' Day, everyone! 

P.S. I'm trying to diminish my time with the computer as I'm becoming bad example to my kids. So, less time blogging especially that I'll be doing another thesis pretty soon, rebalancing priorities although I don't want to totally drop this thingie I love doing:)

Marriage Monday: Why Wives Need Loving Conversation First

This month's topic on Marriage Monday, a once a month meme, is so tough - about intimacy and communication - that I'm rather late with my post.

For many Asian couples, communicating to each other about s*x is somewhat a very delicate thing to handle. I believe it has something to do with the conservativeness in Asian's culture. Seeing many marriages have been broken because of dissatisfaction of this precious gift for married people, let me share some insights how we can make our marriage a blissful one by satisfying each other's needs through intimacy and communication. 

"Women need a reason to have s*x. Men just need a place," says Billy Crystal, an American actor, writer, comedian, producer and film director. This is quite true so women need to have loving conversation first to make them responsive especially when they are very tired from work and with lots of household chores and concerns. When I say conversation, it includes body language. Remember, nonverbal or body language can also work well in marriage. Hugging, cuddling, tickling, eye-winking, whispering in the ear even without saying meaningful words sometimes can make women happy and satisfied without necessary leading into s*x. But, of course, if the husband would like to lead her wife to bed to become more responsive, he should know how to set her mood. Calling the wife over the phone and giving her some clue such as sweet words or jokes will stimulate her mind. Or whisper something into her ear while she's washing the dishes, taking care of the baby, preparing for dinner or multitasking all these - which she can do magically yet the husband's kind words or gestures can do more magic to set her mood. Women don't easily get aroused so men should be sensitive enough not to rush when they want something if they want a win-win situation, both spouse's satisfaction. Many men never realized why their wife is unresponsive in bed not knowing that it's all because of their inability to show intimacy and to set her mood by communication - both verbally and nonverbally -  prior to the act they want itself. 

Check out more thinking women's insights on this topic at Chrysalis hosted by e-Mom by clicking the Marriage Monday badge below:

Want this button?

 

Blue, Blue Adventures

Every Friday is a fun day to meet fellow moms at Mommy Moments. BLUE is this week's theme so, like red, we have lots of this color in our archives but I have decided to share our recent family escapades in Eastern Thailand. In this tour, the kids enjoyed lots of new adventures including going to a cave, boat ride around the fishermen village and mangrove park trailing apart from the usual swimming at the pool and beach and biking. The top photo shows the blue boat we took to get to the mountain where the cave with a temple-like royal pavilion inside.  

Take a deep breath! We're now about to climb on the mountain top to get to the

Phraya Nakhon Cave in Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park. 

Doesn't look tired after climbing a very steep mountain half kilometer up. She poses close to the dry waterfalls. El Nino phenomenon dries up this waterfall.

Mountain-climbing is peanuts for this boy. He climbs with a stick as taught in their camping.

Finally we reach the Royal Pavilion in Phraya Nakhon Cave. It is said that three kings including the reigning one used to visit this cave and this pavilion was built as their resting place.

Not tired at all! From mountain-climbing, he still runs to the beach to cool down himself.

 No, he's not wearing any blue at all but just look at the blue sea and his picture below where he enjoys watching the sakura blooms falling down.

 Kuya and Baby love it here everyday.

 My boy who is already bored of me asking him for a picture-taking covers his face with his blue cap and the life-vest. And here we're on our last adventure destination for 3 days - Mangrove Trailing and Boat Riding around the Mangrove Park to the Fishermen Village.

And the last day of our retreat, we got the chance to tour around the Mangrove Park through Thailand's biggest fishermen's wharf in Pranburi.It's our first time to see fleets of ships and boats, not warships but fishing ships and boats.

Look at the blue, blue sea! The girl in blue is one of the professors' very smart daughter. From the long boat trip, this is our final destination - our last supper at a seafood restaurant on the seaside in Huahin, a town next to Pranburi where our hotel is. It's a very beautiful night out with the full moon shining over us reflecting on the blue sea..


Happy Mommy Moments, dear friends! May you all enjoy your weekend ahead.

Click the badge below to visit more Mommy Moments posts.

Traditional Thai Wedding

Hello there, dear cyber friends! Thanks for your visits when I was away for a couple of days to attend a Thai friend's wedding in the beautiful province of Krabi in the south. As I promised, I'll be posting about the Thai traditional wedding  ceremony I've  attended for the first time all throughout. I witnessed one before but only at the reception, not the traditional rites. First of all, I'd like to point out a few things I like best about Thai weddings. In most cultures I've known, gifts of any kinds (unless specified as money tree/box is preferred) are given to the couple but in Thai, most invited guests give money as present. Why I say I like this practice is that, the couples can decide well as to what things they consider necessary for them to use  or buy their money for.  They may use the money to start up a business or just save it. They can also avoid acquiring duplicated items because gift givers can't guess what others may give. It's also beneficial for the guests as they don't have to bother what items to buy and wrap and no hassle for carrying just money.

Invited guests use the invitation card envelope to put the money in to drop in this gift box. A souvenir is given to the guests after handing in their cash gift.

 Another part of the Thai traditional wedding I like most is the paying of respect to the couple's elders - usually parents and grandparents of both sides - where the elders give their blessings to the new couple in return.

Symbols of love such as wedding ring and necklaces are also given to each other like in other cultures.

And an exciting part of the wedding ritual is when the groom, together with his family, enters the bride's house with the dowry to give. He will go around the house to look for his bride. After that, the formal ceremony begins.

After the rituals, a wedding banquet is held for all the invited guests. This time, the bride and groom wear the international wedding outfits - gown and suit. I like the Thai wedding garments though. 

Doesn't my friend look so beautiful with her Thai wedding dress? Keeping one's good culture like the wearing of one's cultural identity is impressive. After the wedding rite, the newly pronounced husband and wife take photos with family and friends.

 Aren't they so sweet and a lovely couple?

In different cultures, most special occasions like wedding end up with a festive partaking of food. Thai-Chinese food was served at my friend's wedding banquet. This one is spicy lemon grass salad, one of my favorite Thai appetizers. Of course, something different is interesting.

More posts with yellows here and reds here.
 

All but RED!

Hello there, dear readers! Mommy Moments is a great meme to meet fellow mommies all around the globe so I don't want to miss it. I'm leaving in a few minutes for a long trip to attend a Thai friend's wedding in the province  but I have to rush posting my entry for tomorrow. This week's theme is RED. I don't have any difficulty digging some photos with red as this color is one of the family's favorites.

Hubby chose this red stroller before we got the blue one.

And this red walker.

What about this red minicar?

Red crib and Baby Einstein, LOL:)

We also love red carpet.

JoRed loves red, of course.

Our huggable red bears...

And, oh, we're all pizza monsters!  Most pizza boxes here including our fave Pizza Company's are usually red.

So got to go now. I promise to bring you fresh photos of a Thai wedding ceremony and fine beaches in the south of Thailand. I'll visit you back on Sunday, promise.

 More posts with red at Mommy Journey.