Home Blessing

We are set to move on 7 Feb into our new place & wanted very much to have our home blessing after all the reno & before we moved in. Aft much difficulties, 28 Jan Wed was set. Since Pastor Richard is away, our dear friend Pastor Brian lead in this. Home blessing is really a time where we invite the presence of God to reign in our home & also a time for cleansing of the home.

We usher in the presence of God with worship songs like Hosanna, Forever (which speaks our hearts of singing praise & HIS love endures forever), Sanctuary which prepares each of us to be a living sanctuary, Standing on Holy ground which is truly what we desire of our home & I love you Lord. The sweet anointing of the Lord was felt & the very presence fills our home!!

We gave a short testimony of our home searching journey & how God never fails to provide. Next Brian shared with us how to have a home that is blessed. We need to make Christ the owner of the home & not just a guest. Christ is the head of our home, the unseen guest at every meal & the silent listener to every conversation. We also need to welcome His presence to stay; we need to have God's words in our home, see God's provision & recognised God's ordained leadership (Jac). Amen!

After that all my CG members went into the different & every room to pray & cleanse the rooms. The living room is the hospitality to friends, kitchen is God's providence, study room is the reading & growing of God's words, master room is the rest we get & Ezra room is of cos over him & the children we may have.

Despite not moved in yet, we were able to feed our dear friends Yu Sheng (thanks to Linda) & Korean noodles with dumpling (jiao zhi) & even celebrate Brian's birthday with a small cake!!

Here's a sneak preview of the beautiful home God has provided for us.

Our Living Room

Our Kitchen

Our Dinning Room

Thank you Lord, Your love endures forever!!

How we spend our Lunar New Year

It has been a busy 2 days for our family, visiting parents & elders. Since we stay with our in laws, we don't really have to visit them but this year I happened to read an article abt CNY must do for Cantonese which is to serve longan red date tea to elders. I told Jac we should do that for in laws. I got up early on 1st day of CNY, brewed that special tea & kept in somewhere out of sight b4 they wakes up. When we serve them the tea, they were pleasantly surprised & touched by the gesture!! Over breakfast, MIL casually mentioned that with the drinking of this tea, she 'lost' a son!! I was a bit taken aback by the comment but Jac quickly assured her that we will be back often. Guess we have to come back more often when we move out.

Here's our annual CNY picture

Next we visited Jac's 三姑父. Jac always shared how this uncle wld buy a whole basket of durians to eat when they were young.

Next stop is 大姑妈 house at Woodlands. I remembered Ezra making a fuss at her place last year but to our surprise, he is very comfortable and started greeting everyone we asked him. He willingly posed for pictures with all!! We were supposed to go over to 伯父 house but we met the family here.

That's Ezra with 大姑妈 & 伯父.

After that we headed to my mum's place. It has been a tradition for all of us to visit my grandparents niche during CNY. My mum would also introduce whoever is the new addition to the family to them & this year its baby Rene.

Here's our family wishing my mum good health & happiness. It's our prayers that she will come to know Jesus. Ezra wishing Popo....

Some years back, I did a special way of giving ang baos to the children, I would put in different amount of money which ranges from $48 to $6 in the packets & toss it into the air and they will grab whichever they like. The kids requested for this format this year so here they are enjoying the ang baos grab!! Amelia is our proud top winner!!

Yu Sheng was usually prepared by Nan but this year it was requested by Joanne & prepared by yours truly!! Yummy Yu Sheng!!

Here's our family wishing everyone a Blessed New Year & lots of God's grace & favour!! Gong Xi Gong Xi!

Hun Family Reunion Dinner @ 25 Jan

Hun family always had our reunion on eve of CNY cos my mum runs a stall in the market & she is very busy during this period. She would close her stall abt 10am in the morning & be back for reunion ard 2pm. Even with so many daugthers married out, we still make an effort to gather back for reunion. Some friends of mine actually commented that married girls dont have to come back for reunion but I find it so sad for my mum!! Nan's family came back from Shanghai for CNY as well.

Our tradition had always been hot pot & this year is no exception. Hun hot pot is very powerful & yummy!! We prepared all fresh ingredients like sliced pork, chicken, beef, liver, fish, sotong, yong tao fu, veg, sea cucumber, fish maw etc. I also made some Coco chilli sauce as dip!!Many of the kids are more grown so they have their table of hot pot... The food was to yummy, tummy to hungry so only mgt some family shots.... Keith, Kwai & Nan... Lydia & Aaron.... Healin & RonUsually we will be too full to move or do anything aft the meal... so the kids & brothers in law wld engage in their usual activity, play with the babies & SLEEP! & that's Ezra snacking on a pineapple tart!! He has been snacking lots!! I faint when the elders offered candies to him at every house we visit!!

Chuang Family Reunion Dinner @ 24 Jan Sat

When I first got married into the Chuang family, reunion dinner was never on the eve of CNY, which suits me ok cos my family can only have it on eve cos my mother runs a mkt stall. Chuang reunion is more dependent on Dany's schedule cos he is an air steward with SIA. However, there was a time where my MIL casually mentioned that although she has 3 sons, but eve of CNY is always so quiet & lonely!! oops so for last year, we rushed & have dinner on eve. But this year, Dany's schedule only permits this Sat. Ok enough of history.... we went for more marketing on Sat morning, the mkt was crowded!! We got home & started preparing in the afternoon. My MIL was the main chef, she always cook up a storm!! Dont believe, take a peek at our spread (enough to feed an army!). There's salted chicken, veg, herbal prawn, steamed fish, sweet sour pork, must have braised mushroom with pig trotter + sea cucumber + dried oyster + ai choi. The children had theirs at the small table, they ate well & asked for more of the dishes!! The adults tucked in once the kids are settle. Dany's MIL came & joined us this yr. The elders of the family!!

The three Chuang brothers in order of seniority!!

The brothers & wives (too bad Michelle is out-stationed & cant be back to join us)

After dinner, the children went down to the void deck for SPARKLES!! Big brother is distributing the sparkles to everyone. All gathered together to get the sparks going BUT the wind is too strong.... Nimrod has to hid in a corner but look at his hair!!Finally.... Jac took some nice pic of the kids writing & making patterns with their sparkles!!

House Reno - Updates

Yippee! So far our home enhancement progress is going very well.

Painting is done (just need them to come back to clean up a bit more and some minor touch up).

Air-con(s) installed.

Kitchen cabinet restored, and improved (provided a new area for viv's herbs).

Flooring polished, and wooden wall and doors varnished.

House is ready to be occupied. Tomorrow we will be going in to do some cleaning of the kitchen and toilets.

Washing machine will be coming in the afternoon.

Kitchen doors & fans will be installed in the morning.

The past few days have been very tiring for us. Viv and myself have been going around purchasing pails, mobs, toilet seats, etc... Poor Ezra following us around have to fall asleep in the car.

Old Pals

Jessy, Viv, Alice & Iris

I have a group of very good & old friends (abt 15 years) from uni days but we have not met as a complete group for last 2 years as Iris was in US with hubby working & Jessy was & still is in Shanghai with hubby working. It was always 3 girls gathering whenever one of them is back for holidays.

But on Wed, we met for chit chat cos Iris hubby is relocated back to Singapore & Jessy is back for the CNY. Yeah yeah!!

We met @ Iris temporary service apt at Frasier Suit.... ordered Mac's, had my pineapple & later even tried doing some Wii games!! We tried to catch up but with Iris 4 kids & Jessy boy, its not so simple!!

But it was a good time spent together with old pals!! We may be meeting up to do pineapple tarts together!!

Thats Alice on Wii Fit, she is in good shape!! Jessy with Sam, he is a hefty 16kg @ 20 mths. Our super mummy of 4 kids, i wondered how she mgt a house with 4 kids all by herself in US!!

House Reno - Updates

Thank God! So far our house "renovation" (actually more of a touch up) is progressing well.

The walls are painted, air-con fixed, and kitchen cabinet repaired.

We want to give praise to God for his blessing in helping us to be able to find a nice contractor to help install a sliding door (for the kitchen) and was able to find a shop with reasonable price for fans (including installation). All these will be installed before end of next week.

So by the grace of God, our new home should be ready just before CNY! :D

Minor Reno Starts Today!!

The last 2 days have been busy with different contractors coming to view & see what minor works that need to be done....

Here's a list of work to be done in our humble home....

1. Repair of kitchen cupboard - 16 Jan 1 day

2. Repair of a toilet door frame (a little rotten @ the corner) - 16 Jan 1 day

3. Air-con whole house - 16 Jan, 1-2 days

4. Paint all walls & vanish all doors - 14 Jan According to the painter, the painting needs lots work 4 days compared to 1 day for normal 4 rm flat... which means cost us more $$

5. Polish marble floor - 19 Jan, they need 2 days for this project

6. Fix a door @ entrance of kitchen, the quote is abt $600 - $1,000!! i did not know doors are so expensive!! we are looking for alternatives like air curtains or just some blinds!!

7. Replace mirror in toilet - 16 Jan, 1 day

8. Fix fans in all rooms - 20 Jan, 1 day

9. Replace door locks - 16 Jan, 1 day

Even with the minor 'reno' work.... this shld cost us abt $8,000 - $9,000!!

Our furniture shld be coming in 23 Jan (Fri) & we target to move in on either 7 or 14 Feb, depending on the rate of our packing!!

Got our keys!!

Today marks a special day for our family.....Yes yes we got the keys to our new home on this day... 11 Jan 2009 (Sun)

I must say the sellers were very responsible, they did not leave a mess but tried to clean up pretty well before they went off. They also quite poor thing, having to pack & leave even to the minute we were there.... We wish them all the best with the new home...

We have arranged for contractors to be there next couple of days to see & quote... dont think we can move in b4 CNY but will target to get all work done b4 that & move in immediately aft CNY.

Hun Family Tradition - Pineapple Tart Baking

It has been a family tradition for our Hun family sisters to get together to baking stuff... mooncakes, bak chang & pineapple tart... It has been increasingly difficult to gather all & this CNY with all our busy work & family schedule, we most wanted to cancel the annual pineapple tart making. But after much discussion we decided to keep the tradition going.

So last sat 10 Jan 2009 was the date set.... we gathered at Lydia's new place abt 9am & got down to biz very soon. Traditionally, we will take leave & do it on a weekday but now we have moved to sat & most other family members can join in....

The kids were very excited & joined in the making!! We told the girls that they must also start & keep this tradition in future.

Ok here's some pic of us making the pineapple tarts.... can see the different 'stages' rolling the dough, rolling the pineapple balls, grazing the egg, packing into containers....

Here's the end product... YUMMY..

TGIF

As the weekend will be a busy time for us (Viv needs to make pineapple tarts), we decide to bring our son out shopping.

Our first stop was at John Little, as we have some just expired vouchers that we have missed to used. After some persistent persuasions from Viv we manage to get the staffs to allow us to used our $100+ vouchers. Thank God.

After that Viv remembers that she have some UOB points to exchange for the marina vouchers. So we go to make the redemption and went to Watson to buy our wet wipes (a whole box of it actually). :p

It was a very good day to shop and get so many things without spending much of our money.

After that we went to food court for our dinner ...and for desserts we go to MOF (since Viv have heard so much good feedback of their desserts and have not try them herself).

Which one is different?

Ezra have been playing with the JumpStart program for a while now. His favorites are the puzzle and 'rubbish bin' (where he is suppose to collect the require items and put into the bin).

Today I realized that he was playing a spot the different one game. Somehow he seems to be clicking on the same one instead of the different one. So I try to explain to him what is different. The conversation goes something like this...

Dad: Son, there are four bears. How many are "green" ?

Ezra: 1...2....3 (and proceed to click on the "green" one)

Dad: WAIT! Don't click first. How many are "red"?

Ezra: 1.

Dad: Right! So the "red" one is different from the other 3 "green" ones. So you should click on the "red" one. (So Ezra proceed to click on the "red" one and it disappear)

Ezra: No more. *smiles*

Dad: Well done! Now you try the next one.
...

Finally understanding what he is suppose to do, Ezra proceed to correctly identified the different ones each time.

Another lesson learned.

Back to school

Today is Ezra's first day back to school. Thank God he is able to adapt very well today.

1) Wake up after a little nudging from Mummy and Daddy.
2) No fussing when brushing his teeth and wash up.
3) Happy little boy all the way to school.
4) No fussing when daddy let him go in to school. (Ok, he did cry a little but was soon pacify by his teacher)
5) Able to enjoy the 2hours program and even help to keep the toys at the end.
6) No fussing all the way home (and even can tell Daddy when need to "shh shh" half way through the journey) - Thank God he was able to hold on till daddy reach the petrol station *phew*

Here's some video of Ezra's first day in school...

Ezra Reading

We started reading to Ezra from a very young age & to our pleasure, he loves to read. He would pick up books (sometimes only those few again & again) and want us to read to him.

Recently, we introduced him to the Leapfrog story telling disc where they wld highlight the words read (like karaoke). With that, he started to want to read his own books.

Here's one he was trying to read his Bible!!

Last Post of 2008

As I sit & write this last post for the year, I was wondering if it shld be a long reflective one or just a quick one to get it over & done with... I have no idea.. we will see at the end of this post.

2008 has been yet another eventful year (which year has not been!!)

Started 2008 with lots of hope & excitement with just being on the job of heading the church kindergarten. Like Pastor Richard once told me "Viv, I am so happy for you... you are finally at the place you like to be" Yes, I am enjoying myself, interacting with parents, organising events for the children, seeing the children having fun & growing, working & leading the team of teachers. I know I still lack much leadership & mgt skills, leading, encouraging & bringing the teachers to the next level... this is something I want to learn for 2009. When I took on this job, I told God that I still want to minister to adults & God never fails to honour. In my short time, I had quite a few opportunities to share life with distressed parents, listen & hear their worries & concerns in life and praying with & for them. I am asking God for boldness in 2009 to share God's love & invite them to church if there is chance!! Amen!!

As for church ministry, I am just serving in the Children Ministry as teacher, no longer a leader. It certainly took a while to get used to.... not being constantly in the know of happenings. But I am now starting to enjoy the time where I can interact with brothers & sisters in Christ & sitting in service listening to God's words being preached. I would love to be more grounded in His words in 2009....

Family life has been great. We were there to witness many of Ezra's milestones and development. He has been such a joy and really pride of our lives. After a long day work, coming home & having him run to the door & hug me washes away all the tiredness.... This yr also saw Ezra going to school with me. I hated the part of having to wake him up so early but enjoyed preparing nice bkf for him to eat on the ride to sch. The last couple of months were very quality & quantity time spend cos Jac took time off work for a couple of months & we did so many family stuff together... I am still waiting for a promise God assured me sometime earlier this year & that is I will be having my 2nd baby.... We have been trying for a while but no happy news to share... at a time where we got discouraged, God spoke & await with us as He fulfil His promises. Amen!!

2008 also saw the farewell of a few very close families, Kwai & Nan's family, Pastor Richard & Josephine. But with technology they are still much communication.

Ok i better hurry if i want to make it in time, with the TV countdown behind me ticking away!!

2008 also saw our most expensive purchase.. a place where we can call home. I have been staying with my in laws since we got married, they have been wonderful help but its abt time for us to have our own space & place. We have seen God's hands working thru this whole move....

God's faithfulness, grace & favour never fails, never ends... Thank you God....

Goodbye 2008 & welcome 2009!!

While I was ill.....

While I was resting as much as I can @ home & keeping a distance from everyone.... Jac was left with the job of caring, looking aft & playing with Ezra.

Father & son watching TV together....Playing toys together....

Posing together for silly mummy....

Playing badminton together...

Jac wld be patiently teaching Ezra how to hold the racket, how to hold the feather, drop the shuttlecock, swing the racket & hit the ball... When Ezra can't hit, Jac would encourage him & say "Its ok try again, you can do it" When Ezra hits the ball, Jac would clapped his hands & say "Wow you did it!! Well done!"

Very often I am the one losing my cool & getting impatient with Ezra but Jac, he is the one constantly, steadily encouraging & teaching him much skills. Take a peek at the video & father & son played badminton together



As I watch them from the side, I can't help but thank God for blessing me with such a loving husband. Yes Jac may not be the most friendly, outspoken, funny guy but he has so much strength that sometimes still surprises me!! Thank you darling for who you are and all the love & support you showered on this family. I pray that God would lead & guide you as walk in His ways. I love you.

Jump Start

Jac went shopping 1 day & bought a educational disc by Jump Start for Ezra.... oh boy how he loves it!! It requires quite a bit of click & drag which Ezra had some difficulties in the beginning but eventually got it. For some worksheets, he needs to match items to its shadows, some he listens to stories & songs.... not too bad!!

Now looks like we need to clear some space for him @ the study table!!

HDB 2nd Appt

Guess many knows that we recently bought a potong pasir HDB 4 room flat. Over the festive season, we got a letter from HDB informing us that our 2nd appt is on 2 Jan 4.15pm. Wow thats this coming Friday!! so fast & cool....

Talked to my agent, he mentioned that the seller wanted to delay hand over cos they are having some delays on the house they purchased & asked for an extension of stay. After much discussions & prayers, we decided to say NO!! kind of mean rite but timing works better for us. Jac is still off work & shld be starting work end Jan.... so it would be easier to arrange for workers with him ard. This will also solve the arrangement for Ezra's aft school place!!

Calls were made to contractors asking abt the work thats needed for new place, hall air-con, painting, floor polish, repair of kitchen cabinets etc.... We reckon most works can be done in 1-2 weeks time. If that works well, we will try to move in b4 CNY... a bit rush but shld be able to make it!!

Now we are collecting boxes & going to start packing our stuff. I pray that it will not be too much!!

My Worst Nightmares!!

I have seen or heard of kids getting HFMD but never in my wildest dreams would I think I would get that as well. I was ok on Christmas eve was still very busy preparing dishes for church buffet. On Christmas day itself, I noticed 1 funny spot on my palm which I dismissed it as some insect bite. On Boxing Day, more spots seems to appear & the 1st blistered to quite big in size!! We have made arrangement to visit Popo, while we were there I started feeling sick & feverish. We had a quick lunch at Jurong Point & Jac had to drive us home instead.

More ulcers at the both sides of my tongue & even the top of mouth and more spots appeared on my palm (abt 20). It was hurting quite badly. I went to see the doctor & one look, she confirmed HFMD!! I was given fever medication & another to kind of slow down the symptoms. Doc advised to minimised contact with others especially Ezra as HFMD is highly contagious... thats a toughie. We arranged for Jac to sleep with Ezra & I will sleep in the study room. I had to keep a distance from Ezra & tried my best not to touch him. I had to 'reject' him a couple of times when he came running into my arms. Ezra asked why cannot mummy? We had to explain that mummy has HFMD & cant touch Ezra for a few days. It breaks my heart not to be able to pat him to sleep & kiss him good night. Today, when I tried to touch him, he would avoid & run away!! (clever boy but makes me feels worst)

Jac has been such great support.... tending to son & pumping himself with vitamins!!

Anyway, it has been some lousy days for me & my family but thank God for all the wonderful friends who send regards & prayers offered to God Almighty!! I am healed in the name of Jesus!! I will be well for school & this bug should stop at me!! Amen!!

Here are some pictures of my mouth & palm!!

My poor darling is down... :(

*sighs* Viv is down too. Just hope she will get well soon.

(praying hard)