Short Notice: Holidays

I just wanted to let you know that the school holidays have begun here in Indonesia. They last from December 25th, 2009 until January 9th, 2009 and I still don't know how much I will be around the Blogosphere these days. I am wishing you joyous holidays and a wonderful New Year. Enjoy every moment. I took the following photo at one of our malls.

Music is expression of harmony in sound.
Love is the expression of harmony in life
~Stephen F. Gaskin

Thanks for every visit and comment to Music of My Life.

Keep a song in your heart, my friend!

Wish for A Joyous Holiday

I am wishing everyone joyous holidays and a wonderful New Year.
May we become even better persons in the upcoming year.

Music is expression of harmony in sound.
Love is the expression of harmony in life
~Stephen F. Gaskin

Thanks for every visit and comment to Music of My Life.

Keep a song in your heart, my friends!

The Perfect Mother Day Gift

Did you know that tomorrow is Mother's Day in Indonesia? I think I already have received the perfect mother day gift .

Today my 9 year old daughter asked me to escort her to a Strawberry store after school, because she wanted to buy something with her own savings. But when we finally arrived she asked me to wait outside and took her 5 year old brother inside the store. It took the two about 20 minutes before they came outside again with a grinning smile on their faces. "Here, Mom." the older one said. "You can't open it 'til tomorrow. Promise." That's when it finally hit me. Tomorrow is MOTHERS DAY! How could I forget this?! Silly me did my own mother day gift search for my mother after that . But I think nothing can beat the perfect mother day gift I already received right now. It is not the lovely package sitting on my night stand, waiting to be opened tomorrow morning. No. It is the sweet thought and effort these sunshines went through to give me the perfect mother day gift.

Music is expression of harmony in sound.

Love is the expression of harmony in life
~Stephen F. Gaskin

Thanks for every visit and comment to Music of My Life.
Keep a song in your heart!

My Son's Weekend Reflections

This is the first time I join Weekend Reflections hosted by James at Newton Area Photo. Thanks for hosting, James . The photo above was taken by my 5 year old son who just loves to experiment with my camera. Do you know what it is?

My son actually put his Ben 10 wrist toy near the window, so that the sun could shine on the changeable transparent figures and create some reflections. It seems that he was very excited changing the figures on top of the wrist toy, moving them into several directions, resulting in different reflections and then taking photos of them. Children really do know how to have a great time, don't they. Sometimes we could learn from them .

I appreciate every visit and comment to Music of My Life, but love even more to become good friends. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Counting Your Blessings While You Still Can

Thank you, Susanne!

It is time again for another Friday’s Fave Five hosted by Susanne at Living To Tell The Story. She says:

It's a place to come on Friday's and think back over your week and just post about 5 favorite things from your week. It can be anything that tickled your fancy over the week. Favorite quotes, posts, happenings, scriptures, recipes, pictures, great internet finds, etc., etc.

I really like the thought of thinking back over our weekly life. It is a good way to reflect and find these hidden gems of blessings. Here is my Friday’s Fave Five for this week:

1. Last week I wrote that I love it when my husband takes a day off from work. It turned out that he actually took a week off. What a wonderful surprise! Family time is definitely a favorite.

2. My husband's birthday. Wishing him a lot of joy and blessings as he steps into another year. All of us had a great time!

3. We just began renovating the house to make a room for my son. I know there's still a lot of work to do, but getting things started is good.

4. Torch lights and a long weekend. Last night a torch march passed our home. I grabbed the camera and took a short video, but it isn't anything compared to the real event. I know you can hardly see a thing, but I hope it will give a sense of how exciting it was. You can hear the sound of traditional drums. We have a national holiday here in Indonesia, and therefore a long weekend. I LOVE long weekends! If only there were more of them.


5. On a sad note, three mothers passed away at school this week. It is always hard to receive news like these. But I think it is also a reminder to appreciate life even more and try to spend every minute as best as you can. I hope that they rest in peace and the families left behind will soon find the strength to cope with the great loss.

This is my 9-year-old daughter's list for this week:

1. Drinking warm tea. (She has a sore throat, so I really think this must be a real blessing for her right now)

2. Good grades on her examinations.
3. Riding the bike with her brother.
4. Her father's week off.
5. Wearing her new pajama. It was also a birthday present.

This is my 5-year-old son's list for this week:

1. Watching TV (I told him that I'm not too fond of this choice, but he said Why not, Mom? It is my list, isn't it?)

2. Riding the bike with his sister.
3. The weekend.
4. Worn out clothes.
5. Holidays.

I appreciate every visit and comment, but love even more to become good friends. Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Going Through Recoveries

It is time again for another Friday’s Fave Five hosted by Susanne  at Living To Tell The Story. She says:

It's a place to come on Friday's and think back over your week and just post about 5 favorite things from your week. It can be anything that tickled your fancy over the week. Favorite quotes, posts, happenings, scriptures, recipes, pictures, great internet finds, etc., etc.

I really like the thought of thinking back over our weekly life. It is a good way to reflect and find these hidden gems of blessings. I went through a lot of stress in the last part of this week, but I'm glad that all seems to get better now. Here is my Friday’s Fave Five for this week:

1. My mother's recovery. She has been suffering from diabetes, low calcium levels, and dysentery for a few days. I'm so glad that she got better after receiving IV injections for two days.

2. My aunt's recovery. The women in my mother's core family are effected by electrolyte imbalance, including me. My aunt spent one week in the hospital and just got released. I feel so thankful for this.

3. My recovery. I don't know if it was the humid weather or something else. But my heavy breathing troubles occurred again for three nights. I'm so thankful that it seems to be over now.

4. I didn't get a chance to capture a painting of the sky this week. But I'll share one of my daughter's sky. The colorful drawings of children is always a great pleasure. I always find them giving away warm feelings.


5. My husband's day off. I love it when he takes some time from the office, even if it's just one day.

This is my 9-year-old daughter's list for this week:

1. Hugging her Teddy Bear.

2. Creating an invitation with Mom for a school task.
3. A handmade pencil case from her friend.
4. Going to the swimming pool.
5. A new Disney DVD from Dad.

This is my 5-year-old son's list for this week:
1. Playing games.
2. Going to school (I wonder why this answer showed up again ?)
3. Taking photo shoots with Mom's camera.
4. His transformer toy.
5. His father's day off.

I appreciate every visit and comment, but love even more to become good friends. Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Random Dozen #15 | Simple Notes

Thanks for hosting, Linda

1. Which physical trait do you now accept--maybe not love, but accept--and no longer feel extremely self-conscious about? First of all, I had to google what physical trait meant . This is what WikiAnswers said:

Physical Traits are traits that you see right off the back. For example, your eye color, hair color, your nose shape.

I think I belong to the kind of persons who are not too concerned about physical traits. I like the way I am. To me it's really more about who you are at the inside than the outside.

2. This week Meredith Baxter Birney, best known as the mom on the favorite 80s sitcom "Family Ties" came out of the closet, which led me to formulate this question: Who do you think is/was the best TV mom? Hmm, let's see... There are a lot of sitcoms (with Moms) I love from the 80s. We have currently some re-runs here, like Family Ties, Growing Pains, and The Cosby Show. Talking about these sitcoms I also remember Golden Girls and Valerie. So which Mom would it be ... I'll go for Clair Huxtable. Emphatic, smart with a warm heart. But it does not mean I don't like the others. All Moms had their own uniqueness.

3. Do you speak any foreign languages? Are there any you'd like to learn? I'm from Indonesia, so English is a foreign language to me . I also speak German, because I was born in Germany and lived 10 years of my childhood there. I'm very curious about languages as they are means of communication. So I would love to learn as many languages as possible !

4. Who is your personal hero? I love both of my parents, but Mom is my number one hero.

5. What is one holiday food that you find extremely difficult to resist over- indulging in? We have very variant food here in Indonesia with a lot of different spices, especially on holidays. It's really difficult to choose from all of them, because I loove food. I made a collage from a few choices that were available in my photo archives. Let me tell ya, it's really just a start!

6. Tell me about a Christmas decoration that has special meaning or sentimental value. Some say that I'm a very sentimental person. That might be true. Every decoration or gift - little or big, Christmas or not - has a special meaning to my life. I love to see the time, effort and love devoted to it.

7. How do you feel about snow? I looove snow, and miss it very much. Not stormy snow, tough. We don't get any snow here in Indonesia . But the bright side is we have a lot of sunshine .

8. On average, how many hours of sleep do you get each night? Not that I'm jealous of any number over three or anything. Having to deal with electrolyte imbalance, I need to rest well or my physics will drop drastically. So, usually I go to sleep around 7, 8 or 9pm each day and weak up around 4 or 5 am each morning. That gives me about 7 to 10 hours sleep each night.

9. Tell me about your first crush. Elementary school. Fourth grade? Deep brown eyes, a killer smile! Nothing unusual. LOL

10. You're stuck in a room for 2 hours with only a chalkboard and chalk. What will you write/draw? Well, unless I got stuck in the room because of detention and had to write some sentences from my teacher... I probably would draw some flowers or write LET ME OUT. Two hours are too long for me in a room like that. I'm allergic to dust.

11. Do you dress for the current temp or for the day's forecast? For the current temp. I rarely check out the weather forecast.

12. Favorite Christmas movie is? Home Alone. (PS. I just came from my friend Quilly's Random Dozen and was reminded of While You Were Sleeping. This IS definitely one of my favorites! I just had to add it here. Thanks for the reminder )

I appreciate every visit and comment, but love even more to become good friends. Have a wonderful day, everyone!

A Perfect Idea | Microfiction Monday #8

Welcome to Microfiction Monday,

where a picture paints 140 characters...or even fewer.

Susan at Stony River Farm hosts Microfiction Monday. Every Sunday evening she posts a photo or illustration, and you compose a story in 140 characters about it on your blog. Click on the button or link above to get further instructions. To help you along she also has posted a link that counts your characters at Design 215. Thanks for hosting this meme, Susan.

Here's Susan's picture for this week and my story

Hey... are you sure Mom's still in the kitchen? I'm almost done here.

This is a perfect idea! Do you think we should leave the plate, too??!

I appreciate every visit and comment, but love even more to become good friends. Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Items that Give You Joy

Thank you, Susanne!

It is time again for another Friday’s Fave Five hosted by Susanne at Living To Tell The Story. She says:

It's a place to come on Friday's and think back over your week and just post about 5 favorite things from your week. It can be anything that tickled your fancy over the week. Favorite quotes, posts, happenings, scriptures, recipes, pictures, great internet finds, etc., etc.

I really like the thought of thinking back over our weekly life. It is a good way to reflect and find these hidden gems of blessings.

It seems that I'm always far behind on blogging lately. The only post I got published this week was on Monday. LOL. But I'm glad that I have time to share my Friday’s Fave Five with you:

1. Another beautiful painting of the sky. It was a very refreshing view after long rainy days.

2. We have been through lots and lots of rain this week. I'm so glad that all of my laundries got dry. I had to re-laundry some of the clothes because they gave away an unpleasant smell. Any tips for me?

3. I got out of focus on the road, after escorting my daughter to school. I feel so blessed that I became aware just a few inches before hitting into a car. I've got to be more careful. Anyone should be paying good attention.

4. My daughter's birthday. Click on the photo below to read the original post. Could you guess that this was my only post on Monday?

5. My friend's blessings are my blessings, too. There has been a lot of joy in and out of the Blogosphere. Congrats to all!

This is my 9-year-old daughter's list for this week:

1. A lot of birthday presents (of course!).

2. Changing her school bag almost every day, because she got a lot of cute bags.

3. Delicious food and drinks.
4. Playing with friends.
5. Writing stories on Mom's Netbook (I think she might be good at this.)

This is my 5-year-old son's list for this week:

1. A new Ben 10 wrist toy from Mom and Dad. (He got a little bit jealous of his sisters' presents, so he was allowed to choose a toy.)

2. New toys from his aunt (It turned out that afterward, he went on a visit to his aunt with Dad and got a bunch of new toys. How lucky is that!)

3. Playing with his new toys.
4. Playing with friends... and the toys.

5. Studying at the kindergarten (His sister told him that it must be a lie. He loves going to school, but definitely not to study. LOL)

I appreciate every visit and comment, but love even more to become good friends. Have a wonderful day, everyone!