Play Cooking

My daughter and I enjoy cooking together. Using both playdough and the real ingredients :) We even make homemade playdough. Sure, you can buy it everywhere, it’s not all that expensive. But it’s really easy and fun to make, especially when you have an expired bag of flour in hand! Here’s the recipe I use to used.

Stir together:
-1 c flour
-1/2 c salt
- 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon oil
- a few drops of food coloring.

Preparation:
Cook over medium heat, stirring until well blended. When mixture begins to pull together, remove from heat and cool until you and the kids can knead it until it’s smooth. Then it’s ready to roll. Store in an air-tight contanier in the fridge. It will last for several weeks.

The real thing.

We baked this easy Birthday Breakfast Muffin for her birthday’s breakfast.

Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients:
11/2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c milk
2 well beaten eggs
1/4 c melted shortening

Preparation:
Mix together the dry ingredients.
Combine the wet ingredients and the dry ingredients.
Mix well.
Pour batter into greased muffin tins.
Bake at 425F for 25 minutes.

Suggested frosting:
Boil together for 2 minutes:
-3 tablespoons butter
-3 tablespoons cream
-2 tablespoon cocoa
- stir in until smooth 2 cups sifted powdered sugar.
Frost cake. Decorated with peanut, candy, etc.

“I’ll ride with you.”

One of my girlfriend announced that she had started a diet to lose some pounds she had put on recently. “Good!” I exclaimed! “I’m ready to started a diet too. We can remind and help each other. When I feel the urge to drive out and get a burger and fries, I”ll call you first.”
“Great!” she replied. “I’ll ride with you.”

Does worry consume you?

What do you worry about this week?
What do you worry about today?
What do you worry about this minute?

Life seems full of worries.
We worry about our job. Our children. Family. Prices. War.
Earthquake. Our future.
We worry whether people like us.
We worry if we lose some weights or gain some weights.
We worry about everthing.

And what is the result?
More and more worry. Worry wastes time and drains us.
Worry cannot produce good fruit. The only fruit we reap from it is more worry.
We become consumed.

Worry to much doesn’t change anything. We think harder, we try harder,
we work harder, but our efforts may fail. So why do we worry?

…Rest in God.
…Be calmed in His presence.
…He is in control of everythings.
…His compassion and love never fails.

Have a good day!

Birthday Outing to Punti Kayu

I passed by Punti Kayu this morning, and it reminded me about our second trip there.
We were invited to Punti Kayu for a friend’s child birthday outing a couple weeks ago. This seven- year- old- boy is Chisia’s buddy. Although he is a lot older than Chisia, they love to play with each other.

Punti Kayu is located in Jl. Burlian, about 6km from the Ampera Bridge. This natural forest has an amusement park and small zoo. Too bad the amusement park was closed when we were there, since they only operate on the weekends. But the good thing was there were not many people there and we had a heavy rain the night before. It washed the dust, and the air was clean. They have pine trees (pinus mercussi) here, and I love its smell,…. something that I miss a lot since I’ve been here.

I learned from the information brochure that this place covers 50 hectars area. Basically it is a good place to relax, but not well managed. The animals are in a bad shape and undernourish. It’s sad.

The children enjoyed feeding the monkeys. Oh my, they were every where, kept their eyes on you, tried to grabbed anything right from your hands. One monkey managed to stole two tea packs from us. The children also enjoyed being outside, having a spacious place to ran around, played tag and toilet seat.

We saw two Malu-malu/Kukang/Slow Loris (Nycticebus coucang).

They were so cute!
This species is found in: Bangladesh, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. They have dark rings around the eyes and a white nose, which make it stand out. According to Ehrlich and Musicant (1977), this primata like to play fighting.

During play-fighting both participants would be hanging by one or two feet with one sometimes supporting the weight of the two. Arms and legs can be twined during play-fighting. The Malu-malu/Kukang/Slow Loris will solicit play with the behavioral patterns head-butt and body wriggle. Play-fighting that lasts for an extended period of time will sometimes be broken up with rest periods. These primates have a special reticulum in their hands and feet which remove lactic acid build up allowing them to grasp with their hands and feet for hours. No wonder it seems they hugging each other forever!

So I guess we misnamed them. These creatures are not malu (shy) and try to hide their face but they are having fun play wrestling!

Well, it was a good birthday outing. Thanks Ashy!

Eric Carle’s Story of the Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is one of Chisia's favorite book when she was younger. In fact, many children from 3 through 6 years old pick this as their most favorite book. This imaginative tale describes the life cycle of a ravenous caterpillar who leaves behind a trail of holes in all the food that he eats. Children love to stick their finger through the hole and count them.

In this book, Eric Carle’s brilliant collages and inventively die-cut pages dramatically portray the metamorphosis of a small but appealing caterpillar into a colorful butterfly, at the same time teaching counting to 10, the names of the days of the week and even a little lesson in good nutrition.

Chisia particularly enjoys the caterpillar’s menu for Saturday, which include ‘one piece of chocolate cake, one ice cream cone, one pickle, one slice of Swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake and one slice of watermelon.

Check this web http://www.dltk-teach.com/books/hungrycaterpillar/index.htmfor more info and activities. Have fun!

Wake-up Call

How do you know that your child has sleep deprivation? Look out for this signs:

• Repeatedly sleeps through his alarm clock or needs several wake-up calls before he get out of bed.
• Driks caffeinated beverages to make it through the day.
• Sleep more than two hours past normal waking hours on weekends.
• Is irritable or anxious on days he’s skimped on sleep.
• Falls asleep in school.
• Takes weekday naps.
  

Wacky Computer Jokes

I found these wacky jokes the other day. Old, but pretty funny :)

Why did the computer sneeze?
It had a virus.

Where do computers go in the winter?
To hot spot.

Where do computers go on vacation?
The big apples.

What do you get if you cross a spider with an earthworm?
A WebCrawler

What is computer’s favorite snack?
Chips.

Why can’t computers play tennis?
Then try to surf the net.

Which one of the Seven Dwarfs was the first to get a computer?
Floppy.

Reduce High Bood Pressure Risk

Your blood vessels are much like garden hose, with blood pushing through instead of water. Here are some proven methods to reduce our risk of high blood pressure or to lower pressure if it’s elevated:

• Lose weight if you are too heavy. Carrying extra weight makes your body produce more blood and your heart work harder, which can raise blood pressure.
• Get moving. Blood pressure falls after exercise like brisk walking, swimming, or biking and cans stay lower if you keep at it.
• Eat less fat and less salt. Both fat and salt raise blood pressure in some people. Eat more fruits, vegetables, and low fat dairy foods.

Savor each moment...

You are growing up before our eyes,

and it is such a glorious things to watch.

I savor each moment.

I hope all the other mommies and daddies are

remembering to savor these moments.

I love watching you grow,

but at the same time I don’t like to seeing this time fly by so fast.

I want to hold on to every moment,

every smile,

every hug and kiss.

“Is this the women I married?”

Being married to another person needs lots of adjustment. Not because she or he a worse person or a better person – just a different person.Being a parents need lots of adjusment even more. Adjusting to the ever-changing pressure and responsibilities of parenthood.

If you were a “career woman” who decided to stay at home to raise your children, you’re probably not doing the same things you had been doing for years. Instead of talking about the boss, the latest sofware, wearing high heels and make-up, and confidence, you are chatting about how fuzzy your little one last night, where to find kids clothes on discount, wearing pajamas all day and uncertainty.

You may have a new set of friends (another women you have met in the day care, or play ground). You also may have sets of problems, that your husband may not have any ideas how to help you out. He may feels confuse. He may thinks that he doesn’t even know you. The professional woman who I married to, now transform into a traditional domestic woman, wife and mom.

You might be overwhelm, confused about this radical change in your lifestyle. So don’t you think isn’t it logical that your husband might be a little disorinted as well?

Word

It’ s really quite amazing

What kind a word can do

to someone who is trouble,

downhearted, sad and blue.

Life isn’t very pleasant

When tears are bittersweet,

Yet we can help those in distress

To conquer and defeat.

We can lift their sunken spirits

In a way God has designed

By following His teachings

And being merciful and kind.

Horse Riding

The day after the wedding we drove to Bandung and spent some nights at my in-laws. We took Chisia to horse riding. To our surprise, she really enjoyed it! This is an experience we can’t find here in Palembang. Well, I would say it was a ponny riding though… :)

She took the ride at Jalan Ganesha. Jalan Ganesha is a famous street where the famous ITB campus is located. The fare for one route is Rp 7500. One route is about 500 m. Chisia took two routes.Bargaining is necessary here since the jokeys usually starts offer at very high prices. When we parked our car, about 4 or 5 jokeys suddenly came from all direction and surrounded our car. They were trying to offer the ride to us. I hate to turned some of them down, and just picked one... Sigh...

Anyway, horse riding absolutely is one of the best moment she had. She keep on asking when she can rides horses again :)

Javanese Wedding Ceremony

Hello friends, how was your week? Hope you had a good one! :)

Last week we went to Jakarta for my cousin’s wedding. The bride and the bridegroom are Javaness, so there was a traditional ceremony followed by the receptions at night. The ceremony was started with gamelan – the traditional music from Java. Then the bride and the bridegroom walked slowly from opposite direction approching each other. When they were about 2 meter facing each other, they started throwing each other with small bundels of leaves with lime inside. People believe that this will keep bad spirits away. Or to prove that the bride or the bridegroom whom they will be married to is not a ghost or someone who pretends to be the one. This meeting ceremony that took place in front of the garden gate called as “Panggih”.

Traditional Javanese wedding ceremony couldn’t be done without the role of Pamaesan. She is responsible to dress up the bride and the bridegroom properly. She also should leads the ritual ceremonies.Photo below shows the Pamaesan helping the mother of the bride covers the couple’s shoulders with some kind of cloth, during the Sindur Binayang ceremony. Then the father of the bride led the couple walked to the wedding chairs while holding the corners of the cloth. It simbolized the father shows the ways of happiness. While the mother of the bride who walked behind the couple, gave a moral support.

The following ritual was Wiji Dadi. The bridegroom crashed a chicken egg with his right foot. Then the bride washed his feet using water mixed with several kinds of flower ( I think seven kinds of flowers). It showed that the bridegroom is ready to be a father – a head of the family , and the bride should submit and serve him faithfully.

The King and The Queen of the day!

Dressed in a special dress for the special day.Wearing golden and shiny jewelries.

Strong Woman vs Woman of Strength

A strong woman works out every day to keep her body in shape ...
but a woman of strength kneels in prayer to keep her soul in shape...

A strong woman isn't afraid of anything ...
but a woman of strength shows courage in the midst of her fear...

A strong woman won't let anyone get the best of her ...
but a woman of strength gives the best of her to everyone...

A strong woman makes mistakes and avoids the same in the future...
a woman of strength realizes life's mistakes can also be God's blessings and capitalizes on them...

A strong woman walks sure footedly ...
but a woman of strength knows God will catch her when she falls...

A strong woman wears the look of confidence on her face ...
but a woman of strength wears grace...

A strong woman has faith that she is strong enough for the journey ...
but a woman of strength has faith that it is in the journey that she will become strong...