Sunday's Soulful Thought October 27

Sharing this Sunday my favorite soulful thought I read over the internet this week.

"Maintaining a good attitude in the midst of something unpleasant is the key to victory, and it enables us to enjoy the journey."  

–Joyce Meyer

Hong Kong Disneyland Adventure

Hello Disneyland!

So nice to see you, Mickey!

View from the train.

Choo! Choo!

So many rides we rode. 

"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." Walt Disney

Television Women - Claire Underwood

She’s beautiful. She’s intelligent. She’s successful. She's perfect. Not quite to me because she doesn't have everything that I want, but she does have  what she wants for herself. 

She knows what she wants and she knows how to get there. Yet, she does so with grace.

She's also hard because one can not achieve what she has without being tough and being able to make hard decisions. 

There's more to know and I will find out soon. 

Poche D'amour for Reigne

Sent a beautiful niece a beautiful poche d'amour for her birthday. 

My niece is very girly so I made her poche d'amour girly as well with pink and purple and green as background for notes and flowers. 

It also has pockets to put in and on notes.So as she reads, she also makes use of her fingers to go through the little things she sees on it. 

"The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance."

-Brian Tracy

The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance. Brian Tracy
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_birthday.html#0ECOvAWZe6zEHxEs.99

 

Sunday's Soulful Thoughts October 20

Sharing this Sunday my favorite soulful thought I read over the internet this week.

"Real freedom comes only from love. When you have your kids, you will have a love that you've never before experienced, and never could have experienced, and that will be the truest sort of freedom." –Matt Walsh

Hong Kong

Where else do you bring your child outside the country for the first time but in Hong Kong where Disneyland is! 

When it opened, all the parents at the school I taught at were talking about it. They were planning to bring their children at seven - an age they thought would be young enough to enjoy an amusement park. For me I thought too that the age would be old enough to travel without the baby bag and asking to be carried. 

So I planned for my son to go there at that age as well. However, I gave birth to my daughter a year before which made her only one year old at that time. So we decided to push it a little later since we had gone to Malaysia with the grandparents just two years before anyway where he enjoyed riding an airplane for the first time and Genting Highlands.

At the beginning of this year, my husband and I decided both kids were of the right age. My son was old enough to bring his own things and walk, but not too old not to enjoy Disneyland; and my daughter was old enough that we can ask her to bring her own things and walk. Both temperaments were more or less predictable so we could plan the schedule around it. 

Anyway, parents will never really get it right with the age to do anything but the most important thing is the experience and bonding. 

 

Little girl's first airplane ride. Before the plane took off little girl asked me to sit with her; and little man asked to sit with dad. 

Crazy little people at Hong Kong's airport. 

Famished! 

Hong Kong Disneyland pictures coming too.

 

Television Women - Lady Edith

I understand her. I know exactly what she goes through. I pity her.

Maybe because this is a side of me I don’t like is the reason why I am drawn to this character. I know how it is to be like her and what she is what I don’t like about me. I don’t like it so much I have pushed it aside for a long time. However, now that I am older, I have learned to accept it and by accepting it learned that it is both a weakness and a strength that I can use now to my advantage. 

Despite all that she goes through and sometimes awkwardly and painfully failing to rebel against all of it, she tries her best to be herself.

This is truly something to admire about her. This is something that I had to struggle with especially during my teenage years. It’s a trait I hope to impart to my daughter, because this is a trait I know will bring one, especially a woman, to greater heights in life.

Now that the current season has begun, I am seeing more and more of her beauty in love, strength and gentleness despite how others have treated her.

Monday's Reflections - Pathway 2

In the warm, radiant, beautiful summer vacation of 2011, as I watched my 1 year old daughter play happily on the grass, I knew God was speaking to me telling me to do what my heart desired and that He had plans for me.

My daughter will only have a glimpse, but I doubt will ever truly know the impact this picture has on me. I cry even as I write this to have gone so much emotional confusion and pain and be lifted up to an unknown greater and overwhelming height of letting go and letting God through this beautiful being that was barely walking.

I felt calm. I knew what I wanted to be.

I wanted to be a wife and a mom all day everyday. The journey that I am now begins on that liberating day. It’s not easy, but I am free. 

No matter what comes your way, God is not surprised. Your challenge was not sent to defeat you; it was sent to increase you. -Joel Osteen

Sunday's Soulful Thoughts

Sharing this Sunday soulful thoughts I've read over the internet.

"You have the grace you need for today. You are full of power, strength and determination" - Joel Osteen

"Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like."

-Will Smith

Garden at Home

During a beautiful cloudless day, the small garden at my in-laws' home is very beautiful to look at. Here, I can look at the plants and the kids can feed the fish and the birds. 

 If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

-Marcus Tullius Cicero

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/garden.html#oyOf4SuhR3rEvgsK.99

It's simply peaceful and beautiful for me.

Television Women - Lady Mary

The first time I watched Lady Mary I was immediately drawn to how she stood, walked and talked. Although I can not understand how men could find her beautiful since her look is average to me, I understand how men could find her attractive. It's not just the face, it's not just the body, it's not just how she stood, it's not just how she walked, it's not just how she talked, it's how everything is put together. 

With little to like about her personality, I find out that she was just as, if not more damaged than her sister, Edith. For someone so perfect in the eyes of many, she is tragically broken in so many ways. 

 

  

Simply because she is so well put together in front of people and that I why I am drawn to her. 

She has mastered the art of looking good without putting much effort which does not come to me at all. 

She embodies everything that I am not. Damaged, crumpled and weak on the inside but whole on the outside which I aspire to be. 

Monday's Life Reflections - Pathway part 1

Before freelancing, weekends were always short. I had to cram all the activities I wanted to do in two days and at the same time rest from the past week's work to re-energize for the coming week's work. Weekends were anticipated making it so fleeting. 

It was easier when I was still single. I didn't have to think about anybody else but myself. Still weekends were crammed with going out with friends, family, and sometimes even work.

When I had my own family, weekends meant spending time with them playing and caring for them. I didn't want my husband to lift a finger because he was the main bread winner and I wanted him to do the things he wanted to do and rest. I wanted to take care of my son myself which meant playing with him, feeding him, giving him baths, napping with him, and everything else in between. 

I was a pre-school teacher working long but regular hours painfully seeing my son doing activities outside the home without me beside him. I decided to stop working and be full time wife and mom. It also gave me time to do volunteer work which I have always wanted to do. 

Then an opportunity came and a summer after being a full time wife and mom I worked part time for a boutique research company. It was great! I was learning a lot of new things. I felt blessed because as a Psychology graduate I was able to practice Industrial Psychology, Teaching and now Research. The only thing missing is Clinical Psychology which is closely similar to Research. 

I would bring my son to school while I worked at a nearby Jollibee, pick him up and bring him home then go to Makati where the office I was working at was.

I have a thing with firsts. I wanted to be with my first child for his firsts. I was with him during his first summer playgroup but sadly not during his first pre-school. Happy that I was with him for his first pre-school in a big school.

Summer came and I took the opportunity to immerse myself with work and management asked me to come in full time and after a long talk with my reluctant husband I said yes.

It felt great to be asked but I didn't know at that time that it came with a great sacrifice, but something I now feel I had to go through to get to where I am now. 

My schedule was full. Luckily, my husband's time at work was flexible and could manage my son's schooling in the morning, and my son's nanny back then was very reliable. 

A year after, I had my daughter. If I thought my schedule was full back when I only had one child, boy was I in for a surprise. 

My husband's time was still flexible and I had two wonderful, reliable nannies. However, I could no longer physically, mentally, more importantly emotionally and most importantly spiritually cope. Being wife and mom only on weekends took a toll on me. I wanted to be more and I did try to be more with the help of Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach, yet being more took a toll on me too. I was tired. 

In the summer of 2011 while on vacation, I watched my 1 year old daughter play happily on the grass. 

I knew at that time God was speaking to me telling me to do what my heart desired and that He had plans for me.

I felt calm. I knew what I wanted to be.

to be continued ...   

Sunday's Soulful Thoughts

Sharing this Sunday soulful thoughts I've read over the internet:

The only way to have a life is to commit to it like crazy. 

- Angelina Jolie

Living in regret, focused on the negative things of the past will keep you from the bright future God has in store.

- Joel Osteen

 

Talacious Day

As an adult, I live as a child through my children. That's why I enjoy buying toys and arts and crafts materials, bringing them to play houses, amusement parks and movies. 

I also live as a child through my niece, Tala, who shares my love for paper and color purple. So when I found out  that 1D was showing, I set a date with her. Although I would later on find out that she is no longer a child, but a tween and 1D is not at all like a cartoon movie.

The day began early with her being brought to the house by her Nanay at 6AM. I was still in my pajama! She watched cartoons with Traea while playing with her iPod. 

We brought Traea to school and off we went to Greenhills Shopping Center to wait for Zivv to come out from school. We went to Regina's to buy paper - a shared interest - but didn't find anything we like :( I was however able to buy tops, while she was able to buy a Magic Wallet, which she said she has been looking for, for a long long long time now. Kids can really exaggerate sometimes. Ha! Ha! 

The wallet was cool! Christmas gift idea for kids.

Zivv was so excited when he saw Tala in front of his school gate waiting for him. 

We ate at Jollibee before heading off to Mega Mall to watch. 

I surprisingly enjoyed 1D! It was so fun hanging out with the kids who are tweens after all. Learned that day that kids really do grow up fast and as adults we must pay attention just by spending time with them from time to time. 

“When a man dies, if he can pass enthusiasm along to his children, he has left them an estate of incalculable value.”
― Thomas Edison

 

Television Women - Shiela

Guys with Kids is prematurely cancelled so I'll never see how Shiela evolves. She, like Bree, is always nicely and neatly dressed. She takes pride in her upper class upbringing and is intelligent. 

All that I am not. To me, her faults are part of why she is perfect and that is probably why I am very attracted to her.  

I would like to have seen the next season though as the first season ends with her ex husband saying that she wants her family back and they just might get back together much to his friends dismay.