This is the best gift you can give to your kids

I was recently at a work event where one of the speakers talked about prioritizing your life to achieve harmony.  She said that we have so many different roles as a wife and mother and we often prioritize this way: mother, wife, woman.  As a mom, we often take care of others first before ourselves.

However, she challenged us to reprioritize our lives so that we are a woman first, wife second, and mom last.  I have always believed this.  One of my favourite pieces of advice that I've received and given to a lot of new moms is this: The best gift you can give to your children is a good marriage.  And one of my all time favourite quotes is what they tell you on the plane: Put on your own oxygen mask before you assist others.

Do you agree?  How do you prioritize?

8 year wedding anniversary

Today we celebrated our 8-year wedding anniversary by circumnavigating Hong Kong Island on a yacht.  We visited the largely uninhabited Tung Lung Island and hiked to many beautiful scenic points.  What a special day!

Amazing cottage weekend

We just came back from a 4-day long weekend in Muskoka.  This was the first time that we vacationed with my in-laws and it turned out to be a fantastic weekend.

Two weeks ago, my father-in-law said he wanted to go somewhere for Canada Day long weekend but hadn't booked anything so my husband asked me to book something.  I was doubtful that I would be able to find something for the 7 of us but I ended up stumbling upon a 3-bedroom chalet that ended up to be perfect.  The place was called Lakeshore Marina & Chalet.  There was something for all of us to do.  My father-in-law went fishing (we even ate a few fish that he caught!), my mother-in-law enjoyed sitting by the lake and didn't have to cook, my sister-in-law got to paddle boat and kayak and play with the kids, my husband and I got to swim together (we got pulled over by OPP when we were kayaking because I didn't have a life jacket and we saw a huge sea turtle like the ones we saw at Seaworld), my son got to play in the sandy bottom lake, and my daughter... well, she just needs to eat and sleep.

The best part was that we went as a family.  We didn't have to ask for permission.  We didn't have to find coverage.  We just went.  Amazing.

Our first Sabbath

This morning, I got up and leisurely had breakfast with my kids.  After breakfast, my husband and I walked with our kids to Peoples' Church for the 11:30am service.  We dropped off the kids at their respective children's programs and attended the entire service from start to finish without interruption.  We even had Holy Communion together.  After the service, we walked to Bayview Village and enjoyed brunch at Oliver & Bonacini as a family.  After brunch, we did a bit of grocery shopping at Loblaws.  Then, we went home and I took a nap with my daughter while my husband took my son to the driving range.  When they came back, we had dinner enjoyed the rest of the evening at home together as a family.

Wow, I can get used to this.

Canada's Wonderland... here we come!

I had always wanted to get either a Toronto Zoo membership or the Canada's Wonderland seasons pass but we have never purchased passes to anything.  The main reason is because my husband always had to work 7 days a week for most of the summer so it wouldn't have been worth it.  This summer will be different.  We'll be spending a lot of time together as a family so we decided on Canada's Wonderland passes.  Buying the passes was very surreal and it almost made me giddy.  I can't believe we're actually going to be able to do stuff that we could never do before.  I don't even like rides but it doesn't matter. I'm going to have a great time with my family, doing whatever it is that normal families do during the summer.

My husband the mind reader?

The other day, we were at a Japanese AYCE restaurant and, without me telling him, he ordered all the stuff that I like to eat: seaweed salad, vegetable tempura, BBQ beef ribs, and unagi hand roll.  I was impressed that he ordered all this stuff for me but thought this was just because we've been frequenting AYCE restaurants way too much.

Yesterday, he asked me to bake a cake for some of the staff at work so I did and he brought it to work today.  In my mind, I was thinking, "It would be nice to get a piece of the cake so I can see what it tastes like" but I didn't verbalize it.  When he came home today, he said, "I brought the cake to work and I asked them to save you a piece."

Wow....either I have a husband that reads minds or I have the best husband in the world!

Happy Valentine's Day

I've never been a fan of celebrating Valentine's Day. I cringe at the thought of spending way-too-much on a meal and buying over-priced long-stem roses that will inevitably die next week.

Here's how we celebrated this year: my husband and I went shopping together, had lunch at the mall's food court, went to a carwash, and best of all, we spent the majority of the day playing a game that I have become addicted to called "Words with Friends" on our iPhone.

I had a good day with my Valentine.

California/Las Vegas!

I booked our flights to California/Las Vegas today.  Yay!  Now I just need to book hotels and plan our trip.  So excited!

Christmas time is here!

Every Christmas, my husband and I give each other an ornament.  The ornament is supposed to remind us of something that happened during the year.  Since we've been married for 7 years, we now have a decent collection of ornaments but we have never bought a tree to put the ornaments on.  We simply don't have space in our living room for a full size tree and we also don't have space to store a fake tree in a box during the other 11 months of the year.  This year, I figured out a solution!  I bought a real tree but it's table top size so that it can sit on top of our side table in our living room.  Merry Christmas!!

Transition from crib to big boy bed

We bought a new bed for our son over the weekend. After looking at many different stores, we decided on an Ikea Brimnes double bed. Despite the fact that the computer room where the new bed is going into is really small, my husband really wanted a double bed because he wants to sleep with our son sometimes and he didn't want our son to grow up in a single bed. he is convinced that our son will live at home until he is 35 and it's kind of embarrasssing to still be sleeping in a single bed when you are 35. I digress.

So we spent Sunday afternoon putting the bed together. It took about 2 hours but it was relatively painless. The last step was the slats. We bought an upgraded slat base (Sultan Laxeby) because I think it's important to have a good foundation for the mattress. It's like getting good bras. I digress again.

We quickly discovered that the assembly instructions
were missing as well as one of the components and we had a dinner to go to so we stopped for the day. So today, we went back to ikea to get the part and the instructions. We got home and started to put together the slats. It took us 1.5 hours to put half of it together and then we discovered that half the screws were missing. Very frustrating. We'll need to go back to ikea again tomorrow to get all the screws. Argh...

The moral of the story: pay for the assembly service (15% of purchase price, min $50) or don't buy an ikea bed with laxeby slats.

The best parenting advice

I think the best and most fundamental parenting advice that I've gotten is this: work on your marriage. It has nothing to do with parenting but, at the same time, it has everything to do with parenting. Commitment, respect, and love for my husband is the best gift that I can give to our children.

South St. Burger company

I'm part of this group called bzzagents. Periodically, they will send me samples and coupons to try out and then tell my friends about it. A few months ago, they sent me a $10 voucher and a bunch of buy one get one coupons for the South St Burger Company. Jeremy and I had tried it in the past and we didn't think it was that great so I was a bit hesitant on whether we would try it out again even with the coupons. Anyway, Jeremy went yesterday and he gave me a pretty good review of his burger, poutine made with NY fries, and milk shake. He said that it was better than the jetsun's burger that we had last week and one of the best high-end burgers he ever had. Granted, he had a $10 off coupon so if value = quality/price, he felt it was good value since he only paid $4 for his meal. Would he pay full price for heart-attack food? Time will tell.

Pastor's wives conference

Being a pastor's wife does not define me. People are often surprised when they find out either because I don't fit the stereotype or because it's just so uncommon nowadays to meet a pastor's wife. Nonetheless, I've signed up for a pastor's wives conference for next weekend. I have no idea what to expect other than it's going to be a weekend away from my husband and son. It sounds bad but I'm really looking forward to having the whole weekend to myself, to recharge, without having to take care of someone else, and to be taken care of (no cooking, cleaning, and laundry!) for a change. It's ironic that I have to go to a pastor's wives conference to take a break from being a mom and (pastor's) wife.

Emotions at tonight's dinner table

fatigue
hunger
stress
frustration
anger
sadness
powerlessness
loneliness
exhaustion

Tom yum soup

My husband made me Tom yum soup today because I was craving it this morning. The soup had the perfect blend of spicy and sour flavour. It was even better than at the restaurant because it had a lot of chunky vegetables which made it a complete meal all on its own. tom YUM! :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentines Day just gets better and better each year for us. This year, we ended up ordering pizza, enough for lunch and dinner, and watched the Olympics all day. It was a great way to spend time together without the hassle of cooking or going out for a fancy meal and having to find babysitting. Works for me! Happy Valentine's Day!

There's an app for that

Every year in January, I get all gung ho about setting up new routines revolving reading the Bible, losing weight, and saving money.  They are not really new year's resolutions but just merely actions that I would like to develop into habits.  I have renewed optimism this year that I will be able to keep my new found routines... at least until the end of January.  "How?", you may ask.  "Apps", I respond.

You see, since I inherited my husband's iTouch (he got an iPhone for Christmas), I've gone 'app crazy'. As I browse through the 'app store', I discover there is an app for just about anything.  To help me stick to my new routines of reading the Bible, there is a Bible app that is taking me through the Bible in one year.  To help me with losing weight, there's an app (Lose It) where I can track my calorie intake and output.  To help me to save money and eat better, I have an app for meal planning with grocery lists (Epicurious).

How did we manage to survive pre-iDevices?

Blessings

I met a women today who has a 7 year old with a disability and a failed marriage. As I listened to her story, I was overwhelmed with sadness. I couldn't even begin to imagine what she has gone through over the past 7 years. She has such strength, courage, and grace despite her circumstance. I felt so unworthy and blessed for having a healthy son and a happy marriage and I was reminded once again not to take anything for granted. Each day, I thank God for keeping our family safe and healthy. We are so blessed.