splurged on deco

Hehe yes you read it right! I think my parents will jump knowing the amount.. Anyway! It shall all be for my adorable sister :D One thing of my to-do list! So happy! :)

little minions

because of HFMD, there were only 4 in the class yesterday

because of the big excuse of HFMD, we had 101 other things to do as "part of the cleaning"

I almost went crazy with sorting and reorganizing and labeling past 5 years' lesson plans for all subjects for all classes the past few days during nap time.

from being very reluctant to work on such meaningless task, i changed my mindset to "i can do it! it's almost the end"..

and i did it!! all done!!

and then comes the task of carrying all these heavy files to when they are to be stored..

all these happened while the children were napping/ later woke up.

as i carried the heavy files out of the class,

the little minions were looking at me all the time.

apparently after the last time i went out,

one went to ask the other teacher where i was,

and then they came over to where i was in a row, neat and organized,

each carrying a small load of what i was transporting the whole time!!

awww sooo swweeeet these little minions.

my heart melted at the sight of them<3

for a moment i felt like gru though..

but that's besides the point ;)

later i was very early for CIC class!

and I was given the opportunity to help an old lady find the bus interchange and her bus!

the super cool thing was...

our entire conversation was in dialect!

and i'm so so thankful that I can converse with her fluently!

we spoke about which side of the escalator to stand on, which way to go, where was she going, where was I going to, how much longer will her bus take, and all the sorry to trouble you and thank yous and please don't mention and welcome..

what i'm trying to say is..

it's definitely not by myself that i can "pull through" the entire conversation

AND thus I can only give thanks :)

later on, my dinner alone and 3 other incidents continued to contribute to my great evening!

the past 2 sessions of CIC has been the sharing of each of our faith journeys!

it's awesome to be able to hear from one another and learn from one another.

God is AMAZING

He provides and leads in ways men cannot fathom

but we may later come to realize that it can only be the work of the Almighty.

i have a feeling that the class will not be so quiet after today's session.

it's a good feeling.

the ice has been broken!

and i'm definitely looking forward to our journey together in the months ahead! :)

oh yes!
another reason why yesterday ended on a good note is because...
i plucked up the courage to message 2 people!
2 people who have gone through a lot on this day last year.
and they replied!
and she said: See me on Sunday!
and what's happening on Sunday?
baby Charlotte's full month celebration!

sometimes I don't know whether my encouragement is "effective".
because most of the time,
i think i end up being encouraged instead.
so at the end of all of these,
i can ONLY say..
THANK YOU LORD! :D

thankful

Woke up this morning from a not fantastic rest from last night..

Could be the thoughts on my mind but I'm pretty sure the other contributing factor could be that my cough is still as bad and throat is irritated.

It's 2 weeks alr.. from my 2 days mc in the holy week till now. Why such a prolong period of being unwell? I don't know either.. but let me pen down 我因身体不适, 却从别人身上领受的极大恩惠之事! Need to help me to remember how God has been so faithful and He has "dispatched" these angels and gifts to me!

1) on sat working shift, aunty goh bought me luo han guo drink
2) on following Mon she bought me cough syrup
3) on 2 occasions, my neighbour (whom I'm actually not that close to) offered some white fungus desert and specifically mention it's for me
4) aunty goh bought 4 (yes, 4, not a typo) luo han guo+ aloe vera drinks for me to bring home to drink
5) aunty yan boiled chrysanthemum tea for the children and specially made me a glass with less sugar and poured it for me while it's warm
6) my mum boiling green bean water, yang sheng xu, buying gui ling gao + loving nagging
7) my dad's and sister's and people's caring words

All of these all came unexpectedly.
I'm truly a beloved child of the gracious Father. Though I'm so undeserving, He still blessed me so so freely!

最近比较忙

Working on a number of things recently..

Fact is.. for most of the things I'm happily involved with them while others require me to intentionally put in hard work.

Today, we went tomb sweeping. It's with the relatives on my mum's side. We usually go to the columbarium in remembrance of my grandma, grandpa and granduncle, then to my great grandfather's tombstone. This year, we went to visit baby Anna Jane at Trinity Methodist Church too.

It's been a year. We recall that in the short period of time when Anna Jane was with us, she helped us to gain so much and love so much. We remember her in our prayers and we pray that may the Lord continually lead the family and bless them with the desires of their hearts for another baby in His time. :)

As I mentioned previously, there'll be a few upcoming events in the family>>
Isabelle's first birthday on 18 Apr
Charlotte's 满月 on 26 Apr

"Tricky" events for the family to meet each other. But I pray that may the Lord be merciful and gracious to us (as He always is) especially as we go through these.

Today we celebrated my da yi's birthday. She's the grandma of Anna and Charlotte. We have been keeping up with birthday celebrations recently. It's a lot of effort but, we wanna seize every moment spent with everyone :) hopefully these beginning steps lead us a long long way in understanding each other in greater depth!

Looking forward..
The other things I've to look into/ongoing includes..
-Planning teachers' retreat
-Plan and liaise my sister's 21st!
-Writing mid year progress report and portfolio
-Vet the chinese tchs' work for above tasks
-"Receive" the handover from the head tch who's leaving
-Present at Parents' Workshop
-Prepare and attend SL meeting
-Prepare to teach Sunday School in the next trimester
-Start planning my short family Bangkok getaway over Vesak Day hols with my sisSmiling face with smiling eyes
-Diligently keep up with CIC "homework"
-Plan a family gathering over Labour Day probably?
-Meet someone intentionally for a HTHT to try to understand a bigger problem

The list is definitely not exhaustive. But I would like to choose to be forward looking in facing what the Lord has in stored for me :)

Fighting!! Praying!!