Happy 3 and a half years old darling happy happy girl!!!

I chopped off my hair last weekend.

Got a bit tired of the long hair. My hair wasn’t so long since my wedding! I just haven’t had time or the opportunity to go for a haircut since before we left for Vanuatu. Ya! My last haircut was before October! With the pregnancy, my hair was dropping like crazy so I thought I better cut it before I go bald!

Can’t say I really like it… I would have preferred it a little longer but my hair grows really fast so no complains! Feels so much lighter… and much easier to dry in the mornings.

Funny thing was WL cut her hair the day after without knowing that I cut mine! So now we look alike from a far . People must think that we Singaporeans are really strange, always doing things together. Ha!

I LOVE to read. But i’m not one of those deep deep readers. For example, I’m not into Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter etc. Although when I was young, I read fairy tales, fantasy and mystery like Enid Blyton and Nancy Drew etc. I’m more a Amy Tan or Jodi Picoult kinda gal.

But in the recent years, I find myself gravitating towards coffee table books and magazines. I think I’m getting lazy. I like little words and pretty pictures.

Anyways for the past two weeks, I’ve been having Saturdays off where I go galavanting on my own while James hangs out with Sophie at home. As usual, when I shop, I end up buying books and magazines. Last week I got Sophie a craft book and this week I got myself a lovely coffee table book called Kids’ Room for only $15 and one of my fav mags Frankie. It’s hard to find Frankie around since it’s an Aussie publication but I managed to find it in Hamilton.

So today, after lunch, I sat down to do my fav thing, read and chill. And lo and behold, the little one wants to do the same thing. But she says, "Mummy I like to peek into your book!"

Sophie’s got a reward chart system going for the past 2 months.

We find that it really helps to encourage good behavior and for her to take some responsibility e.g. brushing her teeth, cleaning up her room before bedtime.

She gets stars if she does the following things: -
1. Eat meals well on her own
2. Brush her teeth 2 x a day on her own
3. Pick up her toys before bedtime
4. Be polite
5. Obey mum and dad
6. Go to the toilet on her own

It started off a bit difficult but she’s now in the good habit of doing most of the things without much negotiation! That also means less going on the time out chair! Yippee! She normally falters on the "O-B-E-Y" and eating meals well on her own but who doesn’t! But we always remind her that she can try again tomorrow and she’ll really make it a point to try, which is great.

We reward her with big gifts and small gifts. It went from a tea set to renting a DVD from the DVD shop in town (she loves that!) to a trip to the playground, to a trip with mummy and daddy to have babycino etc…

A week ago, she got all the stars for everyday for the entire week and we decided to commemorate it by taking a picture! She’s so happy! She got a trip to the playground in town.

As you know, I’ve been doing a lot more cooking here than ever in my life. No ta bao and big breakfast in town is just too costly for a weekly affair SO I buy the eggs, bacon, make my own pancakes (I actually do this on the go every other morning), cream cheese etc…

Sophie LOVES to help around the kitchen BIG TIME. I must say she’s getting really competent at it. She knows how to crack eggs, bin the rubbish, wash dishes (yes, even glassware), etc etc… I think the next thing I’m going to teach her is to cook on the stove.

Here’s the scrambled eggs that she prepared on her own. I cooked it for her. She chose the plate, insisted on where to put the eggs, blueberries, crispbread (I made these using a recipe I saw in Life & Leisure in NZ) and cream cheese.

Cooking makes her really happy. And thing is, if she cooks it, she eats it. Very good coz she really don’t eat all that well.

No no no… baby’s not here yet but I got all clucky and went to look back at Sophie’s baby pictures. She was a day old in this photo. So cute!!!!!!!!! So small!!!!! Can’t wait for No 2 to arrive.

The pregnancy is going really well. Sometimes I forget that I’m pregnant. I’m in the second trimester but on certain days, I still feel tired and overwhelmed. For example, after teaching for two days and partying on Friday with the ladies, I was exhausted over the weekend. Need to take it easy.

Thank you all for praying for us and the vote of confidence.
 

The Pre-Marital Counseling training went pretty smoothly and we even had some good feedback! Some actually liked our personal and relaxed teaching style. It’s not easy teaching on the topic of marriage to people who are married esp people who have been in ministry much longer than us.
 

But in the end, I realised that we actually have a lot more pastoral experience than we give ourselves credit for. So, thanks youth leaders and all our friends who having been getting married in the past few years and allowing us to be part of your journey. (Hee, we actually showed some of your photos and talked about you guys!)
 

Thank you for being part of our growing journey. We are excited and are looking forward to more opportunities to teach together!

Sophie loves being an older sister and I hope this carries on when baby is born.

She was so cute. She let Eli sit on her lap to watch TV together. They sat like this for quite a long time! He’s just turning 2 but they are almost the same size.

Having Eli here is great coz Sophie has to learn how to share, how to deal with someone else stomping on her toys and how to love Eli for who he is.

I had a craving for chicken heart with salted veggies and who made my dream come true?

It was SOOOOOOOO goood…….

This week is going to be interesting. James and I will be teaching in class together for the first time. We’ll be teaching for 2 days on pre-maritial counselling. We’re not conducting a pre-marital course but sharing with the class about pre-marital counselling and how to go about doing it.

First of all, it’s super humbling because we’ve never conducted a pre-marital course in our lives before! Second of all, we’ve only been married 5 years… almost 6 years. Third of all, we’re still working through so many issues in our own marriage. And now we have to train others to do pre-marital counselling! But but but… we believe this is what God’s been calling us to – to teach together and minister together. It’s a great challenge but we’re happy to do it. We’ll never get anywhere if we don’t start trying. So we’re excited and the prep has been going very well, thank God.

So, we will really really appreciate prayer for this Thursday and Friday. We’ll be teaching on why pre-marital counselling/preparation is essential esp in this time and age, who can do it, debunking myths about marriage, how to handle different pastoral situations e.g. cross-cultural marriages. Yep that’s the gist! Our heart is really to inspire the class to be pre-marital counselors/mentors and to help to sow truths about marriage is as God intended. Pray that the Holy Spirit will unearth lies about relationship and marriage within the class. Thank you for praying with us!!!

Ephesians 6:4: "Parents don’t keep on scolding and nagging your children, making them angry and resentful. Rather, bring them up with the loving discipline the Lord Himself approves."

I was tired after a whole day of class and it takes a long time to walk from class back home with a bag full of books, a toddler’s school bag, a laptop and many other things with her happily toddling along, picking up stones and leaves along the way, dwaddling… I found myself nagging and almost at the verge of coercing, can you pls hurry up and walk faster!?!

Then at the end of the day as I was preparing for the next day’s worship on the Father Heart of God, I read this: -

"The other day I rushed into my den urgently needing some information from my files. As I sorted frantically through my papers, my five-year-old son repeatedly blew his shrill tin whistle. I told him again and again to stop. There was a period of silence followed by a deafening blast right next to my ear, including a spray of saliva. I reached around, swatted him with the back of my hand and bellowed at him in anger. Immediately I felt that the Spirit of God had been grieved. I remembered the biblical statement that God is slow to anger and delights to be merciful. I took my son in my arms and asked him to forgive me. It was only right that I should correct his disobedience, but our children should always know that we discipline them because we love them, and not because we are venting our momentary frustration.

Our Heavenly Father is at this very moment being slandered and misrepresented all over the world by man’s cruelty and selfishness. Not only in the home, but in all forms of human government. His laws of love have been ignored and our mangled hearts continue on in carrying out injustice to all those smaller and weaker than ourselves." Excerpt from John Dawson’s article on The Father Heart of God

Oooo here I am ministering the Father heart of God in class and causing wounds to my own daughter at home because I failed to represent God rightly. How sensitive am I to grieving the Spirit of God when I discipline Sophie? O Lord, teach me your ways.