Friday, April 29, 2016

Series Addict

Now that Game of Thrones is baaaaaaaack,  I cant help but feel excited for the line of Series that we are going to binge over the next couple of months. Yey!!!!!!! Hah!  It's really a struggle to watch when the baby is awake, so the hubby and I work together in harmony to put him to bed early in order to watch uninterrupted Series-binge with our home-made pizza and bottomless pit of green tea. 
So what are you most excited about this new season? 



My April in Review

Attending a friend's wedding... 
Losing the Maritza, the Baby Pizza...

A night of fun in Global Village 

The boys enjoying the night's show...

Thursday, April 28, 2016

Shelving


Overcome

   His face lights up whenever he sees me. For me, I am a superstar, I mean the ONLY star even. His smile never fails to melt my heart. And his eyes piercing with love and need, and right there I know, I am under his spell. Sometimes, I still daydream. There's still so many places I want to visit. So many adventures I want to take. I love walking on foot in a foreign city. I love discovering the hidden gems by myself. With or without a map, I love getting lost and taking the long and winding road. I normally just sit in the bench or eat in the park watching people as the day draws to a close. That's my secret life. I still long to travel. Inside me is this great desire to wander and learn. But I have a kid now. And man, how my love overflows for him. I thank God everyday for this miracle. My life has changed completely because of this boy. And having him is one of God's greatest blessing, and of course my husband.

       There are times I feel like I need to escape just to feel happy. I need to have the latest designer bag just to feel complete. I need to be seen in the latest partyhouse to feel accepted. Gone are the days. I realized that there's just so much more to life than these things. Spending quality time learning what really matters in life is truly an eye opener. I relied too much on material things to find happiness. It's important to have stuff. It's important to have clothes, gadgets etc but now I realized I can be simple and still be happy.

      Every woman I think is materialistic. We love hoarding. I myself is a great example. I love having new clothes every payday, and two new shades of lipstick and a new pair of shoes. No wonder my money was going nowhere. Like a drinking glass with a leak, water escapes and I was never full. Ten years later I realized I never learned anything about personal finance. I regret the lost times. I could have been a multi-millionnaire by now and probably can retire in 10 years. But now I have to redesign my life. One thing that I am thankful for right now is that it's never too late to start. I am focusing my energy to improve our lives and have a happy retirement. We cannot simply just be employees forever, and not having a plan where to spend our golden years. 

        Right now, I am slowly detaching myself to worldliness. It's a struggle especially when you're living right next to a shopping mall and my Instagram feed is about travel, beauty and designer clothes. It's tempting to wish that life is different and that maybe I could have chosen a different path. But if I didn't choose this, what's my guarantee that my personal life is as great as this one I have now. My sweet little baby screaming " mama, mama" every two minutes and this hot young man sleeping right next to me every single night who is also kind, smart and hardworking. What else would you need? Everything else is a bonus. Life is complete as long as you have wonderful relationship with your spouse, your children and the people around you. 

     I can still fulfill this immense desire to travel the places I haven't seen. Just a little bit of time I need 'til my little boy has the awareness of being in another place. Next time I discover the best pizza house in the States or the best massage place in Thailand I have two gorgeous boys holding my hand. At the moment there's no need to escape to feel happy or loved because only by looking right through their eyes, there's everything I need.My heaven on Earth. 

     The secret to happiness--- be grateful. 
      

      







Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Here With You Lyric Video - OPEN HEAVEN / River Wild - Hillsong Worship

On forgiveness

  This is actually my fourth draft. I 've been meaning to escape from my toddler since a few weeks back just so I can write something. It's been a crazy couple of weeks with long lists of chores, bursting emotions and unexpected detours. Well, finally my little one got busy playing chef in our bed with tons of cheerios ready for new cockroaches to consume. It's no wonder we started having them again. Oh these disgusting crawlers. Thank God we are moving to a new apartment soon.

   Anyway, back again here in my safe place. How am I actually?  A lot of things changed in fact. Aside from this new reality  that I am happy with my body now , finally kicking the bad eating habits all for good and keeping positive mindset all in place  I can confidently say, I am feeling so much better and hopeful about the future. I feel good about myself completely. No more Maritza , my baby pizza, and I am super motivated to get my goals accomplished. Even though of course there were days when I just couldn't do anything but play with my kid.

     I thank God for nourishing me inside. I learned so many things since 2016 kicked in and next week is May already. Unfortunately we are not going anywhere for our vacation. Apparently we needed to have Ukranian passport to bring Sasha to Ukraine. And that takes around 3 months to make. Poor little guy, we need to wait a few more months to really get into thinking about vacationing. Instead we will start fishing for new apartment. How exciting! As much as we alreadylearned to adjust to this place, and it's cheaper and super near to my husband's workplace, I mean Terminal 2, it's just too crowded here and the number of fire incidents are already driving me insane. I love our apartment but the surroundings--- not much. At all.


      Lately, before all these realization I was Khaleesi. I am the mother of dragons. I get really irritated quickly. I spit fire everywhere I go. Well, that's just how I feel inside as well. I feel a mountain of pressure started choking me. I want to get out and run. To feel something inside. That I am more than this. Or whatever. Waiting for my big break to come despite of the current economy and having this leap of Faith that God is going to answer soon .I was really growing impatient. And believe me I am not the nicest person around when this happens. Then I suddenly realized that my husband, poor thing was at the receiving end. I later apologized for my behavior. Because really, this guy is nothing but kind and patient. I feel sorry for shouting at him when my head is almost about to explode.

     There were little moments in life that we regret doing. Just because of hormonal changes or the weather. And if we happened to ignore that not so pleasant behavior and we forgot to ask forgiveness we end up bruising someone permanently. It happened to me a few years back. And two years later, until now she never talk to me. Last Saturday, the church was discussing about the importance or reconciliation. It dawned on me that it's really about time to write her. I felt comvinced that I offended her unintentionally and this is the result. She unfollowed me in Instagram and ignore my messages in Whatsapp. I was hurt when I found out because I considered her one of the few childhood friends for keeps. And as much as I want to ignore her and hate her as much for treating me like this, I know deep within that I need to make amends whether she accepts it or not. So I gathered my courage one fateful night when everyone's asleep and typed in FB messager. Of course, until now no reply. I saw that she already read it. And that's good enough for me.


       And can you believe that after that I feel like I just won a free shopping spree at Sephora? Yeah, that's actually my version of winning a million bucks. I feel happier. The peace inside me is overflowing. 

       There's still a lot of things about me that I want to improve. And I am glad that I am not alone in this journey. I am a work in progress. And I feel even more hopeful that the best are yet to come and God is with me when it happens. 


Saturday, April 9, 2016

It's almost summer... watermelon yum!


Thy Will Be Done

   Sometimes it still gets into my nerves. I panic. I worry too much. As a Christian I shouldn't be feeling like this. I should trust the Lord for His great plans for me. Sometimes it's just easier said than done, but it really is easy if I would just come into prayer whenever doubts starts to creep in.

  When He says No last time, it doesn't mean it's going to be No forever. Everything takes time. Everything has its season. I should wait for mine. This is "planting" season. HARVEST will eventually come. It may take a while but it will come. For the meantime, it's still fantastic to be a full time Mom to this cutie pie! 

Friday, April 8, 2016

Monochromatic Minimalist


Let's go to Al Ain Zoo!





Recap

Hello April. Late post.'Cant believe we are already on the 4th month of 2016. So many things had happened 'round the world same here as well in our household. 
Sasha is becoming more active and wants more independence and it means higher risk of getting hurt or getting lost in the crowd. I literally starts panting and begging him to behave and stay in place. But he won't listen of course. 
I lost Maritza my baby pizza ! I won the battle of the bulge again!Congratulations to me! I feel like a winner! I gave up eating carbs after 5pm and keep my exercise routine. My tummy is as flat as a surfboard! I want to go shopping now! Or maybe online shopping because shopping in the mall with Sasha is really impossible. If only I can leave him with someone. 
We went to Al Ain zoo a couple of weeks back, attended birthday parties, and recently attended a civil wedding of a friend. 
We are in the works of preparing everything for our vacation which turned out to be much more complicated than we thought. We went roadtrippin' to Abu Dhabi to apply for Sasha's Ukranian passport. We are really praying we will get on full vacation mode soon.