Am reminded by this Christmas Message

The Christmas version

1 Corinthians 13

If I decorate my house perfectly with Christmas bows,
Strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but I do not
show love to my family, I’m just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtimes, but do not show love to my family, I’m just another cook.

If I work in the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home and give all that I have
To charity, but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing.
If I trim the house with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of parties and sing in the choir, but do not focus on Christ,
I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug a child.
Love sets aside decorating to kiss the husband.
Love is kind, though harried and tired.

Love does not envy another’s home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.
Love doesn’t yell at the kids to get out of the way, but is thankful they are there to be in the way.
Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can’t.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails,
Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost,
Golf clubs will rust.
But giving the gift of love will endure.

Merry Christmas!

This year, we have BOTH the CHUA granparents here with us. We'll have a quiet
Christmas EVE, then attend our church's FIRST ever Christmas Day family
service, then lunch with 'extended family'. From the above, will whip up
simple Christmas dinner but have a few new friends over.

Finishing Well 2009

It is now December and as per normal, I will write a newsletter (sent)
or a blog to cap off the year.

Being a Covenanter, we've been taught to start things with the end
in mind. Thus this year 2009, we started with trepidation yet with the
end in mind....to finish well, joyous and one step closer to GOD!

2009 seemed to whip past too quickly. With Letitia pouncing into her
very first school year (Primary 2) in the public system, we took each
step in our own stride and made many progress and memories.
We salute the teachers that helped in educating and teaching Letitia,
in helping her learn to love the tough subjects and also in miraculously
bringing her to love the Chinese language.

Mathena stood proud and strong in her many achievements. She picked up
numbers and maths like a fish in water and matured tremendously in her
work at home. She's still reading non stop (like sis) but we've decided
to curb her Myopia with treatment before it gets too bad. Each year, we
see her blossom into a fine young lady and just today, her FIRST baby
tooth showed signs of shaking...

Our major trip this year was our 'return' trip to BRISBANE and SYDNEY.
It was an amazing yet eye opening trip where we recaptured our hearts
to the dry and dusty land of sunburnt sand. We fell in love(again) with the
clear blue skies, the clean cool air, the lovely breezes plus the never
ending coastal lines. We linked back up to our families (cousins to the
kids) and of course had a whale of a time catching up with friends of
long. We ate up our Aussie favourites (Pavlovas, meat pies, lots of
steaks, custards etc) and also went back many a memory lane for the
girls.... we know where home is! Just not sure when we can make it home
just yet!

Alex's year at work has lots of lows via the recession and the financial
crash. Being in the bank directly effected many things including the fast
and desperate need to hand in projects, to prove it's relevance and also
to create 'fund-worthy' things. He had to juggle people coming and going,
making it frustrating and challenging when things had to be done yet there's
not that many around to do it..... we wish dearly we could help out but
we only stood by him and gave him lots of cuddles. We love him dearly!

As a summary, we've spent majority of the year aiming to achieve 'heavenly'
things. Things that no human eye could see or measure. Events that touches
not just the outward but definately the inward. We spent many hours just
loving, being and listening. We've been SUPERBLY blessed by friendships,
care and love from all those around us. We NEVER felt alone nor 'isolated'.

As we near the end, my biggest role is to continue to host as many people
possible in my home (visitors), to create 'impact' in the visuals for the
coming children's camp in our church as well as redirect the hearts of
MANY families back to the basics of parenting while DAILY, being thankful
for being where we are.

Thank you to ALL who's been part of our lives in 2009!
God Bless You All!

She comforts, encourages, and does him only good as long as there is life within her. ~ Proverbs 31:12

Our Aussie trip 2009- the highlights!

This trip, we told ourselves that we'll have a walk through
memory lane at the same time pretend we are home. We wanted
to have a 'look' at home to see if we were ready to move back..

We came back to Singapore, unsure to call Singapore
home yet, our beds are here. It's nice to be back to our
normal environment. Our hearts are sadden by the
goodbyes and the moments missed yet, we trust that
our GOD has a plan and we are in this place for a reason
(thanks for the reminder, Fred!). The day will come when
we've done all we are here for and HE will send us home
hopefully. Back to our soul-mates, our family friends, our
blood relatives and also a land we miss.

Thanks to all for the memories!

AUST-TRIP 2009

Just a quick note: we'll be travelling home to OZ 4-18 Nov. Here's an idea
of our whereabouts:
4-5th: Arrive at Brisbane
5-7th: Family time with CHANs up the Sunshine Coast (Coolum Beach)
7-8 Time in Brisbane with CHUA family and friends then off to SYDNEY (9-12th)
10-11th A visit to Wollongong where girls grew up from..12-13th SYDNEY - Brisbane, then drive down to the Gold Coast for an overnight R & R (just 4 of us only!)Then back to Brisbane till the 17th with Brisbane friends and family (CHUAs)
Will go past Toowong Village, shop at Indooroopilly..Enjoy Italian at Savoir Faire, Milton !

Great Escapees!

Anyone who wants their kids to grow up with a healthy and right perspective
view of marriage MUST make time and create moments together, alone! The
kids will tantrum all they like, they will pull at your heart's strings (and yes,
it hurts for a mom!)...but until we realise what we are DOING is in fact for them,
we'll be fighting a loosing battle of loosing our marriage.

Okay, while most parents are keeping a close eye on their children's revision
during the ONE WEEK PSLE marking BLESSING of a holiday plus Deepavali,
we did the unthinkable and snuck away, all fully arranged and organised to
Langkawi.
We did, nothing...saw very little, ate a LOT, talked so much, laughed and
giggled like teenagers (mind you, we are near 40s) and missed the girls
TERRIBLY! Such a dilemma and every bit worth the effort!
We 'suffered' when we thought of the girls, but we rejoice at the fact that
they now KNOW, "Daddy & Mommy loves each other so much they always
put each other first!" and that they are secure, because we ARE as a couple!
Go for it EVERYONE! Book the sitters, arrange the playdates, mark the dates
on the calendar and enjoy being a couple (without kids) all over again...

Primary 2 Year End Exams

Here's what we have to cover...

Revise all the papers returned as the questions are very similar to what will be tested in the upcoming SA2 examinations (format is more or less the same)

English
- Poetry Revision Worksheet
- Comprehension Practices 1 - 10

- Grammar & Vocabulary 2009 Worksheet
- Vocabulary List 2009
- KCPPS SA2 2007
- KCPPS SA2 2008
- All worksheets in English file
- Basic English Grammar book
- Spelling List
- Let's Explore book

Mathematics
- KCPPS SA2 2007
- KCPPS SA2 2008
- All worksheets in Mathematics file
- KCPPS SA2 2006

Note that there is both English and Mother Tongue Listening Comprehension Examination on 26th Oct, Monday.

*Sigh, what fun!*

Primary 2 in Singapore

It occured to me, as the year draws to an end, it'd be good to have a summary of
what school life in Singapore is for a Primary 2 child. This is the local 'State school'
no frills, low cost neighbourhood school where one ACTUALLY has to live around
the neighbourhood to be eligible to attend.

Firstly, I will only write up on Primary 1 next year after Mathena goes through the
runs as Letitia was homeschooled majority of Primary 1. After much consideration,
we were accepted into this co-ed, mission school closest to our home. We were
aiming a non-catholic mission school for some pretty obvious reasons but was
dissapointed to find that aside the BIG NAME schools (MGS), there wasn't many
to choose from. This school was at least 2km away.

The Core Curriculum (quite standard) includes:
1) English
2) Math
3) Mother Tongue (Chinese, Indian, Malay)

The 'extra' curriculum that don't weigh much (as the report card only shows 300 points
for the above 3) are:
1) Art & Craft
2) Physical Education
3) Social Studies
4) Moral Education
5) Music

Other non-compulsory but 'must' paid activities included:
1) Speech and Drama
2) Gym
The wonderful thing is, the schools receive subsidy for these extra events and as foreigners
we get a bit of discounts while the other kids mostly get it for free. And paid activities
are runned well and regularly.

In English,
Letitia has regular journal entries with topics suggested by her teacher. She is also
required to be able to present a 'speech' with up to 10 sentences, recite poetry, and
write composition (written expressions) with up to 90 words. As Letitia free falled
into the creme class, ALL the kids are able to achieve these and much more...

In Maths,
I think ALL the timestable are covered, the adding and subtractions are up to
hundreds in their amounts plus they have full grasp of time, money and measurements.
She has also been taught to solve problematic questions with 'rules' and formulas
that took ME a while to grasps.

Thank YOU, Lord! (Happy Children's Day)

It is amazing how GOD works and brings us to places at different stages of
our lives.

Today, we had 'Day of Prayer' where our entire church comes together once
a month to seek GOD and HIS agenda in our lives and our church direction.

We've been pleasantly 'uplifted' and touched by the emphasis today on the
Future Generation especially in regards to "discipling" them as parents, as
this generation and as the church.
This has been the heartbeat of the ministry we hold so dearly and the main
reason we are the way we are....

Alex & myself feels that our GOD ordained role is to disciple, to guide,
to nurture our kids. Not to 100% scores in their studies (though it be a bonus),
NOT to well and prefect 'on cue' manners (though it be VERY good!),
NOT to saving the world and all it's issues with humanity, NOR safe the planet
with dire global degradation, but, simply but for the set-apart-ness of their
hearts so that GOD can live, love and dwell in them.

We are praying that this continues to resonate in our church leadership as
well as 'wake up' all the parents and adults of this NEED. Parents can NO
LONGER outsource discipleship, NOT even to sunday school teachers or
the Religion teacher or even the Senior Pastor of the church.

Happy Birthday Princess Mathena

How time lifes....it's that time of the year ALREADY...and to think that
6 years ago, Mathena was in hurry to come see the world that she only
took 3 hours to come out, from start to finish!

Upon her 'sweet' request, we had a little gathering of friends (1 from Ballet,
2 from her ex Kindy) plus their families over for an afternoon tea get together.
I promised that they will be NO games, No entertainment, NO deliberate hoo-has
and they STILL had a fantastic time with the toys at home, with each other's
time and friendship.

She still has a love hate relationship with her older sister Letitia. She'll love and miss Letitia one moment, then totally drive her up the wall, the very next! She STILL has the ability to melt the hardest of hearts and so far, has gotten us all wound up in her little not so chubby fingers.

Simple times and happy moments. We ALL as adults had a great time just catching up as well...

Mathena moved to Singapore when she was 2.5years old. The season of Dorothy the Dinosaur, dolls in strollers as well as chubby legs and eager absorbtion to what the world hs to offer. She's now a heart-grabbing, in your face, live the moment, NEVER let life pass her by-type little 6 year old who refuses to let 'No!' be an excuse for anything!

My prayer is that God will continue to mould her, guide and teach into her heart. To use her as a vessel sold out and passionate for HIM, for His Kingdom and beyond. She asked me for some passion fruit (from the market, she loves all sorts of fruits!) over dinner and when asked why, she said "I want to be passionate in all that I do!" And to that I say a loud AMEN!

...and yes, I am STILL proud to be her mommy, sigh!

A new Mac arrived!

We have a new member in our family. The COMEX sales in Singapore have proven to be worth waiting for again. Most prices are not exactly lower than normal retail but they throw in lots of on other stuff. We are still a 2Mac and 1PC family. The PC is mainly for non Mac users (and materials) plus for the children's primary school use. Alex traded in my old white one for the 13 inch MacBook Pro 2.26.

The deals in Singapore are sooo amazing and esp in comparison to the Aussie prices. Even with dollar to dollar minus the currency exchange, prices here are at least $100-$200 cheaper. While living in Tech-chie city, we enjoy the techs!

What we SAW on our holiday!

It's ALL about being TOGETHER!

September Holidays

Since Firefly opened up another direct route from Singapore to Kuantan, we hasten our decision to revisit the familiar family resort but this time, the oldest and 'original' one in Cheratin.

These pics are 'retaken' pics off the professional pics that cost around RM12 per piece, so the quality will be grainy.

ClubMed prides itself to be a 'family resort' meaning that the main focus is for the well being of families. We ARE family and we had a ball. The 24/7 FOC flowing drink bar and non stop all inclusive buffet meals helps in making the stay so much more enjoyable. My girls and I on the other hand, just went for the basics. Desserts and mocktails. Somehow, the lack of 'pork' (halal country) made the selection less attractive. I think I am just less enthused about non stop eating.



On the other hand, I learnt to fly a kite and keep it in the air for a prolonged time, I got back into aqua aerobics, my aim for archery improved and am getting the hang of hitting the bullseye (I so looove shooting!), and not to forget, we played with sand a lot.

The place was beautiful, will upload more pics later.

LOVE THE WORLD

We knew we HAVE NOT seen it all but this place surpasses everything....

Not for the food, not for the music, not even for the location and deco...
Where on this side of earth do you get or find a restaurant FULLY dedicated to honouring GOD and then paving a way for those 'seeking' to find HIM.

We chance upon this restaurant when we were invited to listen to our good friend's son perform his one man act, life and uncut. What pleasure to eventually find out the true story and passion behind the people and those who's invested their lives into this place...

I love the food, was amazed and awed at the concept and stand praising GOD for HIS people. Have a read at this site LOVE THE WORLD.

NDP 2009

This will be our 3rd year in Singapore (we arrived here 6th July 2006) and I still vividly remember the first month frantically trying to settle into our newly rented apartment. During that very same time, I also remember my first glimpse of how patriotic the people Singapore are. Flags were everywhere, even all the hotel we were temporary staying.

By the second year, my family (kids especially) were exposed to the highlights and efforts of the "Racial Harmony Day" which showed me even more so how this country work hard at making the people feel united as "One people". I was impressed.

Now, we had the hindsight to know and look forward to a 'new song' to sing every year, that will help us know and understand this land of 44+ years. The above is exactly that, the National Day Song for Singapore's 44th National day.

This country is NOT hard to love. This country has a proud young history leading itself to the developed and comfortable civilisation of today. As a Malaysian-born-Chinese Aussie citizen, I do have admiration for the establishment of this country. Happy Birthday, Singapore! (9Aug)

Primary 2 Excursions: Zoo & Gardens

To save me uploading twice, here's a link to my facebook album-

ZOO & Jacob Ballad's

As ALL excursions take quite a lot of planning and juggling, this is one of the most 'relaxed' school excursions I have been to. I truly had FUN! The kids were just being themselves, some painful, some not, some lovely, some not, some just plain cheeky!

Then, I saw the best thing ever- kids building a frienship and having enough time to be together, being friends, holding hands, seeing things, chatting about stuff, adventuring, and..getting lost together. Not sure how much they learnt, but we all had PURE fun and was OUT of the classroom. Even the moms were happy!

Ballet Under the Stars 2009

I think I was the only person who ACTUALLY respected the request of SDT to NOT take pictures of the professional dancers in their dance and routine. So all I had was the preshow dances, which in itself floored us.Did I mention we went? Am sure I raved about it all over Facebook but here's our version and a little write up from a mother's point of view.

Once a year, Singapore Dance Theatre comes up with a showcase and public display of their daring, interesting and often striking work. The park is open from 5pm, which we went earlier and by 7pm, it's packed! No grass patches could be seen. We went with a ballet family (our kids dance together) and had a BALL of an evening.

I had a bit of a struggle with some themes as NOT ALL were suited for kids, and I had to do a lot of 'backtracking' plus explaination to my ever curious and questioning kids. BUT when the real ballet stuff appear, noone spoke, just open aghast with admiration and awe of the calibre of the dancers on stage! Wow! My girls were inspired! This was what we WATCHED!

Mathena's NEW glasses

...though this is breaking my heart, Mathena is happy and celebrating the fact that
she NOW has her own glasses.

Yes, the past 6 months showed rapid interest in reading and reading A LOT. From my experience with Letitia, I am now very aware, as well as careful with their reading habit yet, I have lost my battle. Mathena also has Myopia, which is short sightedness and she's started even before her
6th birthday. We saw the specialist on the 9th and her glasses arrived on the Monday the 13th.

Her's the 'new look' of our youngest bespectacled member.

Melaka We Will Go!

This JUNE holidays, we had 4 weeks to kill. Initially, we had set aside 2 weeks to serve and prepare for a kid's camp in church but the H1N1 situation made all er in caution and thus, we had to waaaaait till the last week of the holidays to eventually head down somewhere. We chose Melaka for the reasons, 1) 3/4 of family never been 2)the distance won't kill 3) affordable RM prices. We, as adults knew that we have to be prepared for some dissapointments in quality etc So with our expectations set real loooow, we went.

This pony would be Mathena's highlight. Our animal loving girl begged, asked, demanded, then pleaded that we give her a ride and a ride she got. Not captured on pic was the day when we went to the animal safari when she was patting and being friendly to the miniature ponies, one of them decided to give her shirt a nibble. With the force, little Mathena was yanked towards the timber fence and the horse was trying with all his might to eat more of the shirt. A quick thinking tourist help pulled her shirt back and what was left was some really brown teeth mark and stunned Mathena. She was fine, after I explained that her shirt had green leaves on it, and the pony thought it was food. She still went on a pony ride after.

Durians were EVERYWHERE! We soon found out that we were surrounded by plantations and the farmers have set up stalls by the roadside for tourist to enjoy such delicacies. My now addicted Alex truly thought he had died and went to durian heaven. I had to EAT with him to keep him company but I soon reacted to all it's richness and felt sick,...it's not an enjoyment for me when I get heat flushes, headaches, sore throats and even gas?!? BUT, Alex was a happy man, we even bought heaps home to share with our Singaporean friends.

Golf is cheap. There was even special deals of RM$88 plus RM$40 of compulsory caddie with pretty chinese ladies on tow. Alex sacrificed a lot and held back from going the rounds, but instead spent the morning just putting and chipping with the girls. Our girls are competant whackers and they do enjoy the swing. They may not have the hole in ones yet, but they look GREAT with the gear, lol!

Then, there's the water world. This will be the 'funnest' place for us. We ALL had a good time and we spent the ENTIRE day there. It wasn't the best 'kept' in upkeep and quality but the kids knew no better. So we just got REAL wet, floated a lot, climbed up millions of steps just so that we could slide down breathtaking wet slides and have our hearts skipped a beat. All in a day.

Then there was the animal "Safari". These were the cutest looking tigers (they had A LOT of them) but these poor creatures were exploited to the very fur. This pic looks great except when the tigers tries to stand to find the leash only half the lenght of it's limbs. There looked calm because I am sure they are drugged to look drowsy for pictures.

We can't resist taking a pic with this cute and charismatic elephant. When they were doing their dance, he ACTUALLY looked like he enjoyed shaking his entire body. The paintings are quite a piece of work too, except we struggled to keep ours flat and uncrushed in transit, sigh!We told the kids about this famous Melaka chicken rice as it is one of their fav dishes in Singapore. When the dishes arrived and I served them out, Mathena asked "So, where's the rice?", not knowing that the round balls were rice. Quite funny!My personal favourite was the Chendol! All icy and full of gula Melaka (which incidentally, one can't find around the shops to buy). Yummm!Touristy HOT and sweaty!This is "COWBOY Town". Initially we were not that keen to go have a look at this version of a theme park as all it had was a 'repeat' of everything else. On top of that, we had to go there every morning for our breakfast and it DID look better in the day time. WE eventually succumbed to entering the 'show' where we saw American Red Indians doing their fire shows, we saw lots of 'Madigra-like' carnival plus even more exploitation of animals. My toughest moments was to try to be positive when my girls are obviously struggling with the carers forcing the animals to take photos to ear a few bucks. If anything, the show stopper was the whole 2 mins worth of fireworks that ends the evening, every night. We hear it all the nights even in our hotel rooms, sigh!

"3 CHAN-migoes!"

Farewell to our holidays, the next one is whenever MOE establishes the school holidays! Sniff!