An Excuse From a Husband

I am a very good patient; I listen to what the doctor said to me, “You must control what you eat”.
I didn’t eat more than 1bowl of rice this afternoon. At tea time, I just took a slice of wholemeal bread and 1piece of banana.

In the evening, my stomach started makes noise. I’m very hungry. And I didn’t dare to have so much rice, but I ate more vegetables.
Another 2-3hours later, I fell hungry again. Oh…

So, I asked Joseph to take me out for supper as he didn’t eat so much too just now. He was reading his book, and I could see that he was very sleepy. I let him sleep for few minutes.

I pity him; these few days he accompanied me to attend the antenatal class. Come back from work, eat dinner, take bath, go for 2hours class, eat supper, and go straight to bed.

Finally, I think not to wake him up as he slept like a baby. So, I ate 2slices of bread and drink milk.
He woke up and saw me prepared the milk, and he joked to me, “Sorry, I wanted to bring you for supper, but doctor said cannot”, and he continued his sleeping.

See! He is sleepy but still gives me an excuse.

Anyhow, “Good night my dear husband…”

I'm Overweight!

“Liana, you are overweight!” it was said by my doctor this morning. My pregnancy is 24weeks now. My previous appointment was 5weeks ago. Instead of gaining 2.5kg within 5weeks, I gained 5kg. It’s double! I didn’t expect that I gained that much too.

I found that I did eat a lot. My first 2-3months I couldn’t eat. Normally I eat 1 bowl of rice, but that time, I can only eat half portion, and very choosy for the dishes, cannot smell this and that.

When I enter 4 months pregnancy, step by step my appetite is back to normal. In fact I have a very good appetite, and always feel hungry every 2-3hours.

If I go to restaurant, I can eat 1.5bowl of rice. In the afternoon break time, I will hungry again, and eat 4slices of wholemeal bread, or eat 1bowl of instant noodle. I eat until my mother-in-law shakes her head. Haha…

If you go round Penang in this time, you will see durian everywhere. I did take part in eating it. Nice smell, good taste! I ate a lot of durian.
One of my friends told me that when she was pregnant she ate a lot of durian too, until she became very fat! I think I should stop from eating it before my tummy grows bigger and bigger. And you need to remember that durian is very heaty for our body. You will get sore throat if you eat too much.

Doctor asked me to control what I eat. I need to consume less carbohydrate. I need to eat less rice, less bread. Anyhow…. Less carbohydrate!

I Signed Up for PayPerPost!

Today my sign-up for PayPerPost is approved!
When I first heard about PPP from my long distance friend from Indonesia, I was quite skeptical about it. "Paid for my personal blog? Are you kidding? Where does the money come from and how does it come to me? ". But, I begin to gain interest to find out more about PPP when her excitement arouses my curiosity. I read many testimonials and begin to convince me that this is real. Thinking of 'nothing to lose', I started my new blog to see if this is true. Today, I am one step away from proving it!

Writing blog through PaidPerPost will encourage me to write more often. Not really because of the return, but I always think that writing personal journal or diary is very helpful for us. Writing help us to organize our reason, crystallize our thoughts, express our emotion, and leave behind the memories, even though what we wrote may not be interested to anyone.

As I am expecting my first baby in September, I may not be able to get back to my job in near future, maybe I could get some extra money for my baby through PPP!

If you have no blog, you can start to create one. And if you are a blogger, I’m sure this is going to be a good opportunity for you.

First thing you need to do is sign up to PPP. After PPP approve your blog, you can start to write your blog post. PPP will review the post against its requirements and the terms of service (i.e. disclosure required and blog ethics). Once the post approved, PPP then releases the payment through PayPal. Isn't it very easy?

If you are interested, you can just click PPP button on my sidebar link to get started.

Shepherding a Child's Heart through Proverbs (Part 2)

‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; but fools despise wisdom and instruction.’ Proverbs 1:7

‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.’ Proverbs 9:10

To raise you up in wisdom, discernment, discipline and a good heart, you need a point of reference.
This point of reference should be big enough to encompass your whole being and all your experience in life.
This point of reference I give to you is God.
But, it is not any god. The God I give to you is God the Creator and the Sustainer of all the existence, who had once for all revealed Himself through and in the Bible.
Only God is big enough to be your point of reference for what you think and do.

I cannot be your ultimate point of reference.
I am neither perfect nor wise enough to know everything in life to guide you all the time.
Your friends, your teachers, your own self, cannot be the point of reference for all your experience either.
No, we are all not big enough for that.
But, since God is the Creator and Sustainer of all things, He knows all things.

Therefore, He is our ultimate point of reference.
By trusting Him and His Word whole heartedly, is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom.
The consequence of not believing in God is you will believe in anything else.
And believing in anything is no different from believing in nothing.

So, son, I will lead and guide you to this one and only God.
Because, to make sense to your life, you need a point of reference, and only God is big enough for that.

History of Father's Day

Father’s Day is a special day to honor not only our dads but those who’ve been a father figure to us. In the United States, Father’s Day falls on the third Sunday of the month of June.

It is believed that the idea for a “father’s day” started in 1909 when Sonora Louise Smart Dodd, after hearing mass on Mother’s Day, realized that fathers like her own dad, William Jackson Smart, should also be honored.

William Smart lost his wife after she gave birth to their sixth child. After her death, William Smart raised all his six children, a huge responsibility for any single parents. It is because of William Smart’s selfless love that Sonora thought of having a “father’s day”. This idea spread throughout her Spokane Washington hometown.

On June 19, 1910, the first celebration of Father’s Day occurred which was also the birthday of William Smart.

In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge would further support this day and in 1966, President Lyndon Johnson declared that Father’s Day be celebrated every third Sunday of June. Finally in 1972, President Richard Nixon made Father’s Day a permanent national observance.

Happy Father’s Day!

Happy Father's Day

First of all, I want to say happy father’s day to every father, especially to my dearest dad.

Maybe it’s too early to talk about father’s day now. It’s one month earlier, but let us thinks of our daddy, and we may prepare something special for him to appreciate his love.

I’m blessed to have a good father like him. He doesn’t talk a lot, but if we, his children have something want to discuss, he likes to talk with us. He is very understanding, kind and patient.

I really thank him that he brought me to music school when I was 6years old. I learned piano and I love it. Year after year, the piano lesson became more and more difficult. My dad forced me to practice every day, at least half hour a day.

After few years, dad brought my younger brother and younger sister to learn piano as well. Every kind of lesson is easy for the first time. They could follow the lesson, but after few years, one by one gave up. Remain me alone. I was thinking to give up too, but I don’t know how I kept think of my father’s feeling. He must be sad if all his children stop their music lesson. Children can play instrument is his dream. He likes to sing hymns and some old Chinese songs, and he would be happy if one day he can sing the song and his children can play piano as the accompaniment. So, I continued to learn piano because my love to my dad. I didn’t want to make him sad, though it’s still very hard to follow the entire lesson.

I played piano at the pre-teenage church Sunday worship for the first time when I was 13years old. My senior friend taught me how to be an accompanist at the church (Thank you brother Jimmy and Sonny!). I become a pianist in the choirs too.

Thank you daddy!
I can serve the Lord with my music talent because of you.
Thank you that you “force” me to learn.
I love you so much!

We are moving out soon!

Joseph and I plan to move out from our parent house. Our baby will born in this year of September, and we have no more space in the house for the baby.

We start to look for a place to stay, do some renovation, buy furniture, move things from old to new place, etc.

Last week we hunted a place to stay. After saw few places with various price, size, density, location, we confused which one to choose. It’s quite difficult to decide. We need to consider many things because we are not going to stay for few months, but years. And we hope that what we decide is a best place to stay.

Finally, within this week we paid the booking fee and the rest of the payment. We chose a smaller place, cheaper and it’s a low density apartment. And it’s new too! We are very satisfied with our selection.

Next challenge to think is furniture. Oh….! Another headache.

I thank God for my few sisters in cell group, we went out together and hunt for a few promotion furniture shops. Bring your camera if you look for furniture, because they are a lot of size, pattern, etc. So, you can start capture the things you like to buy, and you can consider them again at home. We collect all the information about the price with different sizes, qualities, and patterns. I discussed it with Joseph.

The next day bring him there and show him again the real furniture. Usually, husband has more details to consider what to buy and not to buy. We went to few shops, after saw many furniture and the prices, we went blur. Luckily Joseph knows when to say “stop”. We finish our hunting day; bring back the prices, the pictures. U can do some measuring first if you are not sure whether the things are nice to be place at your house. We discussed what actually we need, the big or small clothes cabinet, and we do not forget our budget also. We do not want to spend a lot of money in the furniture which we think is not necessary, because another big money will be spent for our baby another few months, or we do not know sometimes they are unexpected things can happen and need to spend a lot of money.

So, try to save it when you can!

The Prawns and Sambal Jempol

This morning I was thinking of eating prawns. Thinking of how often my mother in Jakarta boils the fresh prawns and eat it with Sambal Jempol, the original hot chili made in Indonesia.

Actually I’m not a person who likes prawn very much. After I move to Penang, we often go to hawker food to have our meal. Every time I eat Hockian Mee, Curry Mee, Fried Kwetiaw, I will leave the prawns at the side.

Don’t know what makes me thinking of eating prawns today. Maybe because I’m pregnant. Am I craving?

I bought them home, and I cooked it for my tea time, and serve it with Sambal Jempol, I purposely bought this Chili back to Penang. Because I found that the chili sauce in Malaysia is not hot enough.

I really enjoy the prawns I cooked.

I found that eat prawns while pregnant is good. Because they are a good source of protein and zinc.

The protein is essential for the development of the baby (especially the brain) and may help protect against preeclampsia during pregnancy.

Zinc supports a healthy immune system, helps maintain your sense of taste and smell, and is needed for DNA synthesis. Zinc also supports normal growth and development during pregnancy, childhood, and adolescence.

The prawns don’t contain high levels of mercury like some other fish do.

The only risk is food poisoning, but it will not actually harm your baby. As long as consume the prawns while they are still fresh, and well cooked, then it is fine to eat them. Just don't eat a gone off prawn cocktail that's been sitting in the fridge for 3 weeks. This advice applies to anyone, not just pregnant women!

Shepherding a Child's Heart through Proverbs (Part 1)

'The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
To know wisdom and instruction,
to understand words of insight,
to receive instruction in wise dealing,
in righteousness, justice, and equity;
to give prudence to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the youth.
Let the wise hear and increase in learning,
And the one who understands obtain guidance'
(Proverbs 1:1-5)

The goal of your upbringing is to possess wisdom, discernment, discipline and a good heart.
But these are things that you tend to ignore and avoid from me.

Instead, what you are asking from me are the best toys; best food; best games; best devices; best entertainment and best of many other things.

I will give you these within our family affordability, by God grace.
But, you need to know from the beginning.
These things cannot accompany you, satisfy you or carry you far down the road in you upbringing.

What matter most are things inside you: Wisdom, Discipline and a Good heart.

As your parents, we are entrusted by God to raise you up towards this goal.
All other good things outside of you will follow if you are careful with what is inside you.


'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.' (Proverbs 1:7)