Perseverance

As much as Raymond and I love each other, our marriage life is definitely not a bed of roses all the time. Going through the many ups & downs, we survived to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary recently on 9 December 2011!

Amidst our many differences and trials, I truly believe that "what God has bind, He will not separate", because God's words have indeed been fulfilled when He blesses us with the gift of parenthood! Blessed with the gift of Raychelle whom both Raymond and I love dearly, we realise that Raychelle is the fruit of our love, and both our blood runs in this little being to bind us, two unrelated beings, together. God's work is truly amazing!

Recently I had the privilege to have lunch fellowship with a Priest & 2 other colleagues, and was enriched by the Priest's generous sharing. One take-back from the sharing which I will remember in my heart dearly is that the Priest shared that in a marriage or even in anything we want to do, "commitment" is not the key word, instead it is "Perseverance"! Quoting the Priest, "A man can be committed to his marriage, but he'unfaithful to his wife" versus "both parties persevere to make the marriage work"!

I thank God with all my heart for speaking to me through the Priest! Amen!

Terrible-Two!

Terrible-Two is definitely NOT a myth! As much as I love my cutie-pie Raychelle, I can get very annoyed by her sudden outburst of loud cries, insistence on her ways, unreasonable demands etc ... That said, the very extreme can come from her too, like times when she's very sweet telling me, "God bless you mummy!" when I alighted from the car to go to work; when she snuggled up to me on the bed eagerly waiting for me to read one storybook after another to her; when she told me to drink water after I told her I was sick and couldn't get out of bed; the list can just go on! =)

I love my gal!

Having Raychelle is truly a blessings! Seeing her growth and development is amazing! Ever since she started going for her 2-hour daily pre-nursery school, she would entertain us with performance of songs, dances and actions she has learnt from Teacher Sona! However most of the time she would insist that we join her as her "students"...hahaa

For a working mum, guilt arises when I have to spend long hours at work. This little girl would tell popo that she wants mummy on days when I leave home before she wakes up and returns when she has slept, luckily these kind of days are only occasional. On such days, I miss my Raychelle too and I would browse through some of the 4000+ photos of Raychelle which I've taken with and stored in my iPhone. Looking at her photos never fails to bring a smile to my face or liven up the weary spirit in me... Thank you God for blessing me with the gift of motherhood so that I can experience an extra dose of love!

Playing Host

We've always enjoyed having friends over at our humble abode. 

Hubb and I would take great pride in discussing and planning the theme, the menu items, the drinks, the programme etc... Afterwhich, will be the shopping, cooking (nowadays we seldom cook big scale ever since Raychelle comes along) or ordering of food... The big day will arrive & hubb will help to pick up the food (he doesn't mind travelling far to get nice stuff) while I will do the cleaning (when no guest comes, our house can be in quite a mess!).  We really hope to make our guests' stay (be it long or short) as homely and fun as possible!  The joy of seeing our guests enjoy themselves at our place truly makes our day! 

There's 2 "themes" we like to adopt for our gatherings - Air-Con Indoor or Outdoor Alfresco Dining (at our huge lift lobby directly outside our unit)!  Air-Con Indoor is cozy when the group is small & all can squeeze into our tiny home; Outdoor Alfresco Dining is fun when the group is big and yet all can gather round our combined huge collaspable tables and laugh at one anothers' jokes!  Both themes had been a success till recently I realised that Outdoor Alfresco Dining may not be so suitable for gatherings with small kids...

You know that you have been a great host when guests forget the time and indulge in chatting over drinks and they will even send SMSes to thank you for the lovely night, or for that particular food, or for the great company & even ask about the date of a next gathering! =D

Sadly, I've come to realise that Outdoor Alfresco Dining which had been a hit for several groups of our friends, doesn't fit for groups with families & small kiddos, cos:
- Small kids can't stay still outdoor, they will prefer to go indoor to play with Raychelle's toys;
- Parents will have to follow the kids indoor & miss out on the catching-up outside;
- The group of friends split into 2 groups - indoor watching kids & outdoor small talks;
- Host will start to feel bad =(

You know you are a bad host when:
- Guests feel sleepy;
- Couple guests start to ask each other what time they are leaving;
- No one wants to play the game(s) you suggest;
- You wonder what's wrong with your party!

Anyway there's a good learning point from this recent gathering - It's not the house size that matters, our friends don't mind squeezing into our tiny abode as long we can tend to our kids & talk to our friends!  Looking forward to making the next gathering a better one! =D