While waiting II

Fixed a few underwriting appts in the CBD area today.. basically these are appts where the client needed to declare or sign some forms la.. doesn't require much time in explaining but more time taken crawling to the appts..

Walked to republic plaza for #1, then to OUE downtown for #2 & now waiting for #3 at Asia square.. thanks to joleen who kindly directed me step by step.. else I probably would make many extra rounds.. coz me and Google maps are not friends.. lol.. 

Right now, my achy legs.. n i look at the OLs walking around in their high stilettos and I can't help imagining that their feet are crying for ambulance.. hahaha.. I'm one who really think the footwear a woman wears bring the best out of her but i simply can't tahan the pain for beauty..hahaha .. *sour grapes*

Thankful that from Asia square I can just take the train back to office, submit all these outstanding.. and I'm done for this week.. hahahaha.. yup, the next appt I have is on Mon..  hahahaha.. slack slack..
Enjoying this moment of rest before hectic work (dunno when) come in again..  hahaha..  for God say, we must enjoy our moment of our lives.. so yes , let's enjoy this moment of slack..hahahaha..

While waiting

Waiting for my client to come for her appt.. it's noon and she's late.. not v late that kind, for which I'm thankful. Feeling emo and tired abt the work..  this happens whenever I have to work on Sat afternoons..  I dislike the feeling of not being involved with the kids on weekends..
Was supposed to attend joy sports meet early this morning, thus the work appts were all scheduled for the afternoons, only to realize that her event is only happening at 1pm today.. argh.. this means that Mr choo needs to fetch the 3 of them to twins art class, lunch before rushing to the stadium.. and the twins will b stranded there.. I offered to postpone my appt so that we could each go on separate routes but he say to just go ahead.

I need to calm myself down and stop being so emo abt every little thing..  I'm afraid I guess.. coz next week is a super relax week.. oh God, pls assure me again that this is where my calling is.. comfort me and strengthen me , so that I won't b afraid even if nothing seems in sight.

Okie client is here.. shall end for now.. praying for God's wisdom, that I be able to help my client during this appt..  I love my God and my work..  😐

On spelling and 听写

Woke up this morning and suddenly remembered that the twins have spelling today..  argh .. had forgotten to go thru with them over the weekend..  asked William if he had gone thru with the girls yday night and he said nope..

Sigh.. this meant that morning will b a rush rush affair.. tried telling myself that it's just spelling nothing to b too overly concerned abt and to relax.. went thru the words with them.. Grace could sound out 9 out of them.. yeah.. so she's cleared.. Vera on the other hand is still eating her bf slowly.. and I know she needs more time to learn her words.. gave her the words, she could only do 4 of them.. the words were tricky and all sounded almost the same.. haiz.. I don't have time yet I don't wan to morph into a control freak and spoil all the fun abt learning..  she likes writing and I'm not sure if she deliberately wrote wrongly just so that she could write more of them.. but I can't think of that now..told her to write 5 times of the words that she gotten wrong and said a silent prayer.. praying that they won't drag spelling next week.. haiz..

note to self.. moving forward weekends we have to go thru at least the spelling so that we can do 听写 during the week..  and there's show and tell this Fri for Vera.. haiz..

I hated the feeling that I had to push them this morning..need to rem to do it over the weekend so that we could use phonics and sound it out instead of memorizing by hard..oh God..  the guilt..
Came upstairs and reflected.. joy of learning is more impt in the long run then getting the perfect score for spelling.. yes I need to relax and chill..i hope they won't b too disappointed with their results today..😐

Parenting 101

Attended parents briefing at Joy school yday and thought I write down some thoughts before i forget. The parents briefing is held every yr in Jan to give the parents an overview of the curriculum and the exams structure. William used to be the one attending it when we still had the helper but since last yr, I had been the one in charge.

Bcoz Joy is now in P5, there was a short talk at the hall before parents move to the respective classes. The principal started the opening speech. She has lost so much weight (due to cancer) 😔 and I didn't see much of her last yr. I heard William say that she has lost weight bcoz he still sees her in some of the school events but seeing it myself for the first time breaks my heart. She could just tender or continue her sick leave but big events, you will still see her making an effort to come, to talk to us. I really like her and joy is so blessed to have her as a principal. One of the things she said yday was time with the (our) girls is most impt..she remembered that when she first joined the school, this level was just p1 and now they are p5 already..she misses the out of action phrase and hope she could come back asap to watch the girls grow..awww...brings a tear to me..

Joy on her first day in school - 2013

Indeed, time passes so fast and we must cherish time with the girls,hold and hug them, to love them abundantly. That's our task as parents isn't it? Sometimes we forget that what the kids need is love and time for them. Not another gadget, or trip, or another toy.

Coincidentally, Joy is in 5Love this year and her form teacher told us that their class motto is this :
" Everyday may not be a good day,
But there is something good out of every day."

To remind the kids to give thanks everyday no matter how challenging it seems.

Communication with the girls is very impt too.. the principal asked " what is the first qn you ask yr child when she comes home?" " Have any homework today?"
I saw some nods and laughter.. I'm glad I'm not guilty of this..hahahaha.. be interested in the child's life in school ; e.g. her friends , the trends they talking abt now, not always abt homework and homework.

"No one cares how much you know,
Unless they know how much you care. "

This applies to our kids too.. n i just can't emphasis how important it is.

"Be there, support and encourage"

Support our kids as they try to manage their primary yrs. Use words of encouragement and not words to kill. Coming back after a long day from school, hug the child, spend time to take a breather and not breathe down their necks to do homework.

In other news, I chopped off my hair a few days ago.. currently loving the new haircut. Hahaha

At the salon when it was done.. of coz it no longer look so styled liaoz..but i was pretty for that day..hahaha

P5 Woes

The start of week 2 and one can already feel the intensity of the workload for p5. It's an indication that the train will run at full speed in preparation for PSLE- the most hyped over exams.

Even though this is only the 2nd week , she has been struggling to finish her school work on several days even though she is the kind that does it the first thing after her lunch when she reaches home. She has missed reading her newspapers for 2 days in a row coz by the time she completes her homework, it was time for bedtime. I was just telling joleen that this is the first time she had missed her reading slots coz even when we go overseas, her favorite pastime when we touched down is to catch up on her newspapers reading. I shudder to see how she is going to cope when 3rd week starts - when she has to stay back for more classes / CCA / school activities every single day of the week. It spans between staying til 330pm or 530pm.

My heart aches when I see her busy busy. Kinda regret putting her for the higher Chinese class. She hasn't really complained abt it yet but Mr choo and I are monitoring closely. The last thing i want is for her to be burnt out over all the preparations. This is the first time I felt that the school life is overwhelming. Even when she was doing her streamings last yr, we still had lotsa time to do leisure/ boliao stuff. Hopefully all will pans out well.. gentle reminder to self: to have pockets of break time for her..

Me

Following my Emo rant, Mr choo decided to b the chauffeur yday for my appts. I don't know if he had decided right from the start when we were going for our lunch before I start my work day or he decided as the day progresses. My schedule was as follows :
12noon lunch with mr choo
2pm parkway parade
4pm Siemens
7pm office

It was more spaced out compared to yday but the driving was insane given a that it was raining the entire day..i sat in the car feeling so blessed that I have him to rely on- to bring me to the places safely and don't need to worry abt parking or rain seeping into the engine etc.. n bcoz of this, it brings sanity to me. I feel better during the appts though i was all tired out by the last appt.

Need to remind myself that it's days like that which pushes his schedule backwards and not that he just nuan at home.
Lol...

Having lunch with him today before I start my work day. Will have to drive myself today coz our timings clash..lol.. hopefully the traffic will have mercy today on me.. 😉

My busy schedule..

Just came back not long ago from work.. I'm exhausted..  felt that my brain couldn't function properly towards the end of the day..  mayb I'm really old liaoz..

my schedule for today is as follows:
10am appt @ sengkang
12pm review appt @ sembawang
2pm head back office for paperwork
430pm review appt @ Siemens
- got caught in the heavy jam and rain that I had to reschedule
530pm pick joy from tuition and head home
630pm dinner at home
730pm appt at sengkang
- the 10am appt had a change of mind..wanna switch to another proposal so had to meet again in the evening
830pm appt at seletar

I was zoned out by the time evening came and even dinner failed to perk me up..lol.. looking at the schedule it did seems hectic.. But if i were to look at it from the sales prospective, there wasn't much harvest..most of the appts are at the planting stage I guess..

True be told.. I'm exhausted with the packed schedule..and I ask myself why on earth did i packed myself like crazy.. i know i should b thankful that I have 满满的 appts..but I know I'm not as sharp when I stretched myself.. and I also don't like to rush my clients.. or appear tired in front of them.. 😉

Praying for wisdom and God's guidance.. praying for God's strength as I begin this mth of planting.. praying that I remind myself to breathe and pray even in the midst of the hectic days.. it's important to put Him first.

#backtobasics #prayer #God

Bible Verses

Commit to the Lord whatever you do,

    and he will establish your plans Proverbs 16: 3

While waiting for my appt to come , I saw this verse on my bible app.. So beautiful.. indeed, whatever I do, as long as I put God first, He will make things work at the end. When things become too difficult for me, this verse is the perfect comfort to me. Love my God. 

Feeling nervous and praying that God give me wisdom.to say the right things to my appt later. Haven't met this client for a review for a few yrs after i did her CI claim. Praying that God give me the tact to say the right words to comfort her and may I be able to encourage her. Or who knows, she might be the encourager for me. 

Happy New yr..

And this wraps up our last/first staycation 2017/18. As much as this pic feels like a lovely picture of a family of 5, behind it was a Vera who was sobbing (bcoz she had tied a ribbon on her teddy bear and thus staining it real badly), 2 sisters who were tired of coaxing her and a papa who was carrying tons of small plastic bags /luggage just so that the girls could use their tiny luggage bag. (Roll eyes..sorry it's my fault for agreeing to their requests.. )

I wished I could just say that it was a beautiful staycation and the kids were in their best best behaviour but more often than not, the reality is more like this..

Lol..this is after crying for an hr (I think) with the other two happily playing with each other. And honestly that was the best i could hoped for.. Coz it would b more heart wrecking if the other two had bothered and cried along with her. She was upset of losing over a game of monopoly. The twins are at the age of "sore-losing" and despite us repeating not to play again if no one was prepared of losing. (Hard parenting)

The girls also bickered a lot on this trip and it was as if their r/s moved 3 steps forward only to see them stepping 2 steps backwards.

I guess this is what it feels like being a parent. Sometimes you feel like on top of the world, but sometimes you feel like you have nothing. My post today is not to shame anyone but to offer some realities of life.. sometimes not all moments of life is instagram-able. There are challenging moments too.. and that's why it makes this whole thing so sweet.. just like how I tell my friends that God gave Vera such a sweet innocent face is bcoz if she was anything less, I probably strangled her long ago, given her challenging moments. And when I said challenging, it is challenging. But we definitely came a long way from the initial times.

If one were to just judge from the pic above or from the fact that she cried for an hr, it probably scar anyone who ever wanted to have kids. But if i look at the Vera then and now, I'm grateful that she has come a long way. I'm thankful that we have come a long way.

We definitely have scaled some of our tallest "Mt Everest", thought we never ever made it thru; cried buckets and prayed buckets.. we are not there yet.. we have our shortcomings too and sometimes even the smallest spark will cause a fire. But we are in this together, with the Lord as our saviour and guardian protecting over us.

There were happy moments on the trip too.. like how Joy would brush her teeth together with Vera to teach her how it is done properly.. or how Grace woke up at 3am eavesdropping my conversation with William.. or how Vera ended on my bed last night. The honest fact is..i do enjoy the kids co-sleeping with me..hahahaha...

We are a family and I pray that God give us the wisdom to guide the girls, the courage to say no to them (when needed) and the heart to listen to them at all times. Despite all these trying moments, I love you all.. let's all try to make the best out of it in this life..

Praying that all my family and friends have good health for 2018..