Thankful Hearts (January 24-30)

Our highlights from this past week (January 24-30)… “So what are you thankful for today?”

• We celebrated a very happy 13th wedding anniversary!
• Audrey got full marks for ting-xie & spelling!  
• Character First teaching for 2011 started at MGS.. on “Orderliness” - what a timely reminder.
• Anthony is speaking more Mandarin.. too many funny moments associated with that...
• Pre-Chinese New Year festivities started this week – Mid-week Yu-sheng Lo-Hei at Suntec Crystal Jade with June & Janie, good friends, good food!   
• More Yu-sheng Lo-Hei with more good friends at our place on Saturday!
• We got to sleep after midnight, yippee (The Kids)  
• And we still made it to church (errrr, just a tad late!)
• Reunion Rah-Rah @ Wah-Fu & Auntie Jackie’s on Sunday: Superb time catching up with the extended family++ over food++ & drinks++ !
• Auntie Lan is settling in well at the new rehab centre and the physiotherapy is helping her make such good progress with her movements.
• Rain…..especially on Saturday afternoons. No swimming lesson, can play and play and play! (The Kids. Onz/I obviously had a different take on this one)  
• CNY goodies & grocery shopping, DONE… (until I discover stuff we’ve missed out)!
• Looking forward to a short week at school next week because of Chinese New Year!

Thankful Hearts (January 17-23)

Our highlights from this past week (January 17-23)… “So what are you thankful for today?”

• Floods in Australia have subsided and so many helpful people have volunteered to clean up. 
• Good week at school for Audrey – made big steps to being neat & tidy!
• Audrey recovered quickly from the flu – missed school on Thursday to rest!
• Anthony likes his new cough mixture. Hope his cough goes away really soon!
• Daddy got to rest properly, thanks for one day of MC.
• Happy 5th Birthday, Jaydon! We love McDonalds parties!!
• Happy 5th Birthday, Lorraine! We love baking parties!!
• Happy XXth Birthday, Elaine and Congratulations on your new home, Carol! We love scrumptious crabs and any excuse for a girls’ night out!
• The renovation at the apartment upstairs is DONE – peace & quiet, no more hacking & drilling!
• Mr Bean is back on Okto, Mondays to Thursdays…30 minutes of evening chuckles for the kids.
• Things are building up at work & home – schedule is still continuing to come together very smoothly!  
• Auntie Lan is doing very well with her physiotherapy and is regaining some movement control slowly.
• Chinese New Year is coming!

Thankful Hearts (January 10-16)

Our highlights from this past week (January 10-16)… “So what are you thankful for today?”

• Morning walks with Anthony – he’s keeping his perfect school bus track record, rain and shine!
• Audrey’s happy her CCAs are confirmed: Fun Gym & Tap Dance. 
• Anthony loves his art class. Brought home his first Art piece – a cactus, in acrylic.
• The kids are enjoying Eduplus Chinese classes! 
• Daddy is back to his morning exercise routine (even though his knee is still acting up, need to pray some more and maybe pay another visit to the physiotherapist!).
• It was a rather busy week for the work projects but things went very smoothly!
• Complimentary VIP passes from a relative so we got to see some really strange art at Marina Bay Sands (Art Stage 2011).
• My favourites (at Art Stage) were the paper guns and sofa for watching the funny movie (Anthony).
• My favourites (at Art Stage) were the letters with a story and also the sofa & movie… oh yes, and the hanging charcoal (Audrey).
• I enjoyed seeing the kids having a wild time “appreciating” all that art!
• A very enjoyable outing to the National Museum on Sunday – the Pompeii exhibition was very nice bonus.
• Auntie Lan continues to regain her movement control – clearly a result of all the effort at the physiotherapy sessions and a great positive attitude.
• Chinese New Year is coming!

Musings on The Art Stage

 

What a nice coincidence to be handed complimentary VIP passes to Art Stage on a weekend when we had some extra time on our hands!

We decided to bring our kids and make it a family outing to view this “exhibition of contemporary art galleries”. It promised “the best and most interesting from the Asia Pacific juxtaposed against and in a dialogue with carefully selected Western positions”. …. Hmmm..

Like its event description, the exhibits stretched our imaginations and gave use much to think about… and decipher.  Some installations seemed readily understood and appreciated. Others were plain puzzling, quite intriguing…. and somewhat bizarre. Audrey and Anthony’s reactions to the art we saw garnered many a chuckle. They were so full of curiousity and had no qualms getting up close and personal with some of the art pieces (sometimes too close for comfort though they managed for most part to keep their fingers off the art pieces!).

They asked gallery managers “How did the artist do this?”, “Why did they make it like this?”, “What does this mean?” and of course my all-time favourite: “What’s this?” Some gallery staff tried to explain, others just looked stumped, embarrassed. Quite hilarious. That’s art a for you.

Blend of Food & Art: Sushi?? Look closely, they’re vehicles – lorries, garbage trucks, cement mixers,….

 

Life Transformations: Pile of Dried Chilies meet Giant Chili Grinder…. From Girl to Old Woman (Anthony was trying to convince Audrey where she fits, just too funny!)

Art imitating life… or vice versa? ….Yes, the art installation on the right is a Mamak store… Audrey reading Life Stories in Letters & scrutinising “Singapore’s DNA”!

Green Art: Saving Our World… from Fish to Forests… Monster Machine…

  

Modern and whimsical Multimedia Art (L-R): Multi-screens depicting Echoes in the Mind… A video capturing Life in Motion… Crystal City – a marvellous display created by a moving light source against structures of transparent plastic boxes. 

 

Icons Intertwined : Portraits of LKY, Warhol, Marilyn – each made up of small prints of other icons…

 

Art of War & Terrorism: SIA kebayas meet Soldier’s camouflage… Holy Wars...  Boy & Machines…

 

Picasso was there too!

I saved these random few for last….Robot Mickeys, Humongous Knife, Backstabbing Chair….

 

….and finally, some Art that FLOORED us…

……and left lots for the Arty-Farty to think about!

Finally, it was time to sit back and reflect on it all… over a nice long drink !

 

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Thankful Hearts (January 3-9)

 

Our highlights from this past week (January 3-9)… “So what are you thankful for today?”

• Po-Po & Gong-Gong got home safely from Dubai, with big bags of presents
• We went on the Great JB Train & Food Adventure to with Jason, Betty, Isaac & Rae
• Audrey started Primary 2 at MGS on Tuesday
• One extra day of holiday for Anthony
• Anthony started K1 in Rainbow 3 on Wednesday
• Ms Fang is my co-form teacher again (Audrey)
• My teacher is not so fierce (Anthony)
• I have a new partner… but I can’t remember her name yet (Anthony)
• We kept our new school shoes quite clean
• Anthony got up in good time and made it on the school bus every morning
• I can go for swimming lessons in the big pool with Audrey (Anthony)
• Our Sunday School class is the same as last year, together with Teacher Joanna (Audrey)
• I get to eat yellow noodles again in the canteen (Audrey)
• Audrey had a good start at Eduplus for Chinese enrichment
• Anthony enjoyed his first Art lesson with Aidan & Isaac
• I had a good week getting back to juggling part-time work and full-time mom, concierge & chauffeur
• Auntie Lan is making good progress with her physiotherapy and recovery

Happy Feet!

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” ~ Psalms 109:115

At the start of every school year, we as parents do the usual rounds to the shops to make sure our kids have uniforms and shoes that fit.

So a few days ago, when doing just that, we discovered that Anthony’s feet size has caught up with Audrey’s! That’s quite a lot of ground to make up, considering he’s 4 & she’s 7. Audrey is quite the Petite Princess and Anthony is growing in proportion to his “big boy” appetite - that probably explains it all.   

As I was scrutinising the picture, I couldn’t help but say to Onz (the Husband), “Look, I think Anthony has flat feet.” (that’s his left foot on right side of the photo, Audrey’s right foot is on the left). Anthony, who was within earshot as we had just snapped the pic, was quick with his reply which came with a disapproving frown: “No, Mummy, it looks quite thick to me.”   …*LOL*

Flat feet or not, my wish for you both is that you always have “Happy Feet”. Believe in and always be true to yourselves. Live your lives to the fullest! 

Thankful Hearts

 

Our highlights from this past week… “So what are you thankful for today?”

• Christmas, Christmas, Christmas!
• Baby Jesus – the Reason for the season!
• So many Christmas presents to open
• Our Christmas tree
• They lit up all the Christmas candles in church
• USA people in church (referring to our relatives uncles Robert & Lee, cousins Samuel & Rachel who joined us at Wesley for the Christmas service)
• Friends & family who organised Christmas & New Year parties
• Po-Po & Gong-Gong & Yi-Yi & Vanessa & Jon-Jon & Uncle Pascal who called us from Dubai on Christmas Day
• Auntie Bernice & Cheyenne met us for sushi & shopping
• Zoo trip with Auntie Mon, Isaac & Aidan … and Mummy bumped into her friend Auntie Amelia
• New Year’s Day lunch with our St James/Yummy Mummy group at the Yacht Club
• We bought new school shoes, they are so white and clean

Thankful Hearts

 That’s a heart-shaped dollop of vanilla ice-cream that Audrey scooped, entirely by accident!

 

 

 

 

Being home last year meant I had a lot more time to observe the kids and to spend with other moms. One of the most apparent concerns we shared was the challenge of helping our children learn gratitude and true appreciation for what they have. All around us, societal norms revolve around materialism and wanting, often to great excess. For us parents, it’s second nature to teach and remind kids to say "thank you" – as a matter or politeness, which is of course important. But how do we teach them to really mean it?

So I don’t recall when exactly except that it was during one of our bedtime chats, that we got round to talking to our kids about the difference between ‘needs’ and ‘wants’, and what it means to be thankful. Our chat somehow ended up with me asking the question: “So what are you thankful for today?”… This moved our little discussion to an altogether difference dimension – it became the start of a daily bedtime routine that the whole family would take part in.

Whilst the level of understanding of this little “ask-and-answer” activity between Audrey and Anthony differs given their age gap, they both embrace it with equal enthusiasm. Thankfulness means being grateful for people and things and knowing how fortunate we are to have them. They’re making small steps each night to learn to appreciate their blessings and to show appreciation for the people who care for them.

Their responses have ranged from quite simple and mundane to sometimes surprisingly profound. New toys, TV shows, story books, stationery, favourite foods, teachers, help received on school work or a test, lost items that were found, friends and playdates, our helper, recovery from illness, family members especially their grandparents, the aunties (other moms) who help organise playdaytes… oh i almost forgot, new iPhone games and the people who create them….

The kids have come to love this routine and sometimes even when they’re dog-tired, they are the ones reminding us to run down our Thankful list. Our rule is that every one must share at least one thing. “Alright, Mummy… Sleep, I’m thankful for sleep because I’m so sleepy?” Yes. Thank you God for sleep and a very comfortable bed. There is always room for thankfulness, every day.

This hasn’t stopped them from continuing to want and ask for more, but slowly we’re seeing them put more thought into what they ask for, more understanding when their requests are not immediately met, their growing consideration for and desire to help others.

I’m very thankful we’ve gotten this far. Thankful Hearts will be my weekly attempt to capture and treasure some of our daily blessings!