Daily3 Life’s Moments

**  Treehouse Schedule

** ALL Veggie Tale Tunes, Dora the explorer tunes, Bob the builder, etc

**  Your car’s cd player is automatically set to play your child’s cd

What are some of the things you know by heart?

**  Scenario:  my eldest son (4 years) is running around the kitchen pretending he is on a boat fishing (he is holding his fisher price fishing reel and hook).  He runs around about 4 or 5 times and suddenly I hear this excitement in his voice…”Look mommy, I caught a fish”.  Then he runs around the kitchen screaming….”I am great hooker!!”

 **  Scenario:  At dad’s cafe…I tell my kids to do “quiet” things and not run around when there are customers around.  I took the kids to the cafe and they were fine for most of the time where there were customers around.  However, there was one table where a man ordered a combo dish and didn’t quite finish what he ordered.  My son came up to me and not so discreetly told me “I don’t think that man likes daddy’s cooking because there are still food (on his plate).

**  Scenario:  On one of our many trips to the grocery store.  We were nearing the end of our journey when my son wanted to buy a toy he saw when we were down the toy aisle of this particular grocery store.  He really wanted the toy but I told him we couldn’t get it because “Mommy does not have enough money today to buy it” His response was :  “We can still buy it mommy, you just need to use your debit card”.

 I hope you enjoyed some of these adventures with one of my darling sons.  Share some of your funny stories with me.

I’ve just been tagged by Late Bloomer – take some time to read some great things on her site!

RULES: 

1.  Link to the person that tagged you.

2.  Post the rules on your blog.

3.  Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.

4.  Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.

5.  Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Alrighty, here are some of my “6″ random things:

1.  When I was growing up I have always wanted to be an undercover detective (at times I still do).  I used to play an undercover police officer — with uniform, badges and I actually remembered all the “important” lines in cop shows to mimic.

2.  My favourite past time is singing.  I took a number of singing lessons from private to group…I’m not the greatest singer but I love doing karaoke (I have to admit). 

3.  I know pretty much all the tunes to Veggie tales.  My most enjoyable tune I have sung with my kids is their opening Veggie Tale tune.

4.  I love reading….I am now starting to read again (I am making time to read).  When I was young, I used to read those “educational” Harlequin novels..I would read at least 3 a day (not much reading, I usually skip all the “non important” words).  Once I finish one book I would (in my mind) think about my Harlequin story that I would write.

5.  I used to be fascinated with insects (except spiders).  You’ve heard of ant farms…well, I actually created out of empty glass jars cockroach farms!!! Yes, quite disgusting and true…let me tell you…those critters can multiply at super speed!

6.  drum roll…………..Last but not least, my pet peeve growing up are girls who are “girlie”.  I always went out of my way to make sure I was not like that….so I become the extreme on the other end…I became a “tomboy”.  I still don’t find interest in “nail parties”, lingerie parties, etc…and when I go shopping, I actually enjoy looking at cars, electronics and believe it or not groceries!

Okay, it’s my time to tag 6 people.  I actually do not know many bloggers so I am just going to choose “randomly” six posts of today that I thought interesting:

1.  extraordinarymommy –  many a days I can relate to such family life.

2. cause for alarm

3.  myhighestcalling

4.  Freehold2

5.  Choco sparkles

6.  Big eaters club

Enjoy your day!

Not everyone may know who she is but within the Chinese community, she is a very well known and well loved  actress (similar to someone like Faye Dunaway) in the Asian community.  This actress, Lydia Shum died of complications from liver cancer on February 19, 2008.  I remember watching her shows and her hearty laughter always put a smile on my face.  The news of her death has made me realize again how vulnerable our lives are on this planet and how we truly need to “live” everyday as if it were our last.  Her death also put many things into perspective for me in my own life.  Lydia will always be remembered.

**  Stephen Covey in his book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” had written a scenario where the reader was to picture walking into a room where there were people in the room (some they know and some they may not know well); on the people’s faces were sorrowness…you don’t know exactly where you are but when you finally get to walk to the front of this room, you see something…and that something has made you realize that it is your own funeral!  The moral of this little scenario was : if you were to die today, what would this scenario look like?  Who would attend your funeral?  How would you be remembered as?  What would you like to be remembered as?  This little exercise was to make us all think about where our lives are at the present and find out where we want to be and most important WHAT we can do to make the necessary changes to better our lives.  This is also a great book…and is one of the books that I have on my list of books that have changed my life. 

**  Take care of yourself first before you can take care of others.  We tend to (particularly women) put other people infront of us.  If we don’t learn to put ourself first, then we are not going to be able take care of those we care about…what happens when we get sick?  Like in Lydia’s situation, the most important thing in her life is her daughter.  However, now that Lydia is gone, her daughter is left alone in this world — she may have relatives and friends but it’s not the same.  Luckily Lydia has financially provided security for her daughter (probably for the rest of her life) but what her daughter would give to have her mom spend just a few more years with her.  In Lydia’s case, her daughter is well cared for from friends and family…but in most cases, we are not so lucky.  You hear many stories that children are left with no one close to take care of them when their parent(s) had to leave them suddenly.  It is sad but true.  I think of my own children…and I am suddenly in a panic mode because I don’t think we are that all prepared for our children if something happened to us.  This has been a wake up call for me to :  take better care of my health, make sure I have a will and trust put in place, and the hardest is to find someone we can trust to love our children the way we would love them if something did happen to us prematurely and our children are left alone.

**  Financial Security.  No matter how we see money, it is important.  We are so influenced by ads about “things” we NEED that we forget the true importance of what we REALLY NEED.  Do we really need that extra big flat screen TV?  Do we need the latest handbag?  Do we need the latest fashion accessories?  Sometimes I will fall into this trap (usually this happens when I am in a slump and i watch too much TV).  I will start to think like what the advertisers want me to think…that I need to SPEND money!!!  Then at the end of the year we realize we are in serious debt and have not put in place a plan for financial security for our family.  I take Lydia’s death as a wake up reminder for me to FOCUS and stop spending on frivolous things.  Your kids DO NOT need the latest Nintendo, SONY Playstation; what they need is QUALITY time with you, your love and knowing the fact you will TAKE CARE of them.  So, if you haven’t already done so, put forth a plan on how you will better care for your children.

**  The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything – Veggie Tales (3 out of 5 stars)

**  Sicko – Another Michael Moore Production (4 out of 5 stars)

**  Whispers of the Heart (from the makers of Totoro)  Japanese Animation (4 out of 5 stars)

Seen any good movies lately? 

**  Homemade chocolate chip cookie – yummy, moist, definitely award winning like the recipe says

**  Homemade fortune cookies (I made them with special messages as part of my husband’s valentine’s day surprise)

**  Delicious Bernard Callebaut chocolate…lots of them!!  My favourite is the dark chocolates and any type of their truffles.

 What did you consume that its memories are still lingering in your mind?

**  To Kill A Mockingbird — Harper Lee

**  Siddhartha — Herman Hesse

**  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn — Betty Smith

What are books that you have read that have made an impact on how you live?

** Happiness — we all define happiness differently.  What may be happiness for you may not be happiness for me.  However, I do know that no amount of money can buy happiness.  I have come to know  many people and families who are what I deem “well off” who has never and will never find happiness.  The reason is because they think having financial security will bring happiness and well roundedness in their lives and the lives of their families…in reality…it doesn’t.  Yes, it brings financial security but these families live very lonely lives…what they realize is that money can only buy “temporary” happiness…true happiness comes from being secure with who you are and all that God has given you.  Material goods can never buy happiness.  Unfortunately, this is what we are teaching our kids — for our lack of quality time we spend with them we try to make it up with material goods.  Have you ever noticed that in our materialistic world these days, in order to “maintain” this so called happiness, we always have to “buy” more and more goods just to sustain this sense of false happiness?  After the initial “high” of buying something is over, we go back into our “slump” and then we feel like we have to purchase more and better stuff to “get back” that happiness.  This becomes a vicious circle…as a result, we end up with a house full of “things” we DON’T need and we still haven’t achieved TRUE Happiness. 

One of my all time favourite books is “City of Joy” and I would recommend everyone to read this book.  For those who have read it, I would love to hear your reviews!

**  Compassion — more so than ever we need compassion in this world we live in.  There too many sufferings that many of us tend to close our doors and view these sufferings as “other people’s sufferings”.  Unfortunately, they are OUR sufferings too.  It is important for us to understand that in order to make this world a better place to live in and a healthier place to live in, we all need to help each other.  Homelessness, prostitution, spousal abuse, just to name a few, is not OTHER people’s problem, it is our problem too and we need to help as much as we can. 

It is important for us to try to put ourselves in other people’s shoes.  It is nice that we have a warm, loving home to live in, we have many friends who care for us, but there are many people out there not so fortunate.  WE can all pitch in and help…the simplest thing we can do EVERYDAY is SMILE!  It is amazing how just flashing a smile at someone can uplift their maybe not so sunny day.  So, if there nothing else you feel you can do — then try smiling.  Obviously what I am writing here is quite simple..my goal here is to hopefully start a dialogue and get people interested and hopefully because of this, they start taking on their own research and initiative to helping others and become more compassionate.

** Unconditional Love — I think I am pretty safe to say that no one shows this better than animals.  I have learned so much from my loving little yorkie.  Anytime I am having a horrible day, my little yorkie is always there giving me lots of loving kisses and attention.  Those of you who owns a pet will be able to understand better what I am saying. 

One change I have made and am still making is trying not to buy too many “things” for my kids.  I tend to go off the deep end with this…I am now spending more “quality” time with my kids (ie. doing arts and crafts, taking walks (when possible–especially during winter months)outside or we just go “mall” walking, etc).  This is one challenge I have made for myself this year… 

I hope this post inspires you to look deeply into your life and will also inspire you to start thinking about your life and to make the change(s) you feel important or necessary. 

**  Many times I have dreamt I am trying to find my way home but I never get there.  I am always close  to home but I never arrive home.  The scary part about this dream is that I am always being chased by someone ( in my dreams this “someone” is never seen but I am scared of this “someone”).  At the end of the dream, I always find myself free falling and the free fall usually wakes me up. 

**  This is not really part of a dream but it happens when you are dreaming and suddenly the dream blacks out and you hear something like chants in your ear (you are still in sleep mode) and you can’t open your eyes nor can you move.  Your brain signals your body to move but you can…this lasts for a short time and suddenly it is gone.  This used to occur quite often in my sleep when I was young.

**  I will never forget this scariest of all dreams in my life–this dream takes place in the basement of the duplex home I grew up in (Burnaby, BC).  In the dream, I am supposed to be the “woman” of the house.  I was slightly drunk and holding a gun in my hand and laughing viciously about something.  The home in my basement is partly finished.  One bedroom had a closet and fuzzy carpets.  The rest of the basement is divided into a living room and another bedroom and a laundry/storage room (all these rooms are unfinished).  The home is a bilevel home so when you enter through the front door there are seven steps leading upstairs and seven steps leading to the basement.  In the dream I am holding a glass of wine or champagne and walking downstairs to the basement.  I was laughing and still holding a gun in my other hand.  I walk drunkily down the stairs to the dark basement.  Once in the basement I turn left to where the storage/laundry room is and walk by that room and open the door to the living.  I push open the living room door and I find a square table in the middle of the room and above the table I find a man all in black (like a shadowy figure) who has hung himself in my living room.  This man has a black hat and was wearing a black raincoat.  Upon seeing him I laugh hard and point the gun at him.  Suddenly the scene changes and I am going through the back door of the basement leading to the covered garage.  I open the door and walk through the covered garage and I walk further to the end of the garage and since this is a duplex, as I reach the end of the covered garage I look to my right to our duplex neighbour’s driveway and I see a funeral vehicle (sorry don’t know what it is called) just heading out of their driveway.  This is how the dream ends as I wake up in cold sweat and my heart felt like it was beating a 100 miles per hour.  I have never forgotten this dream to this day and still wonder why I had this dream…do paranormals really exist?  Was my house really haunted??? 

Did you experience any scary dreams when you were young? 

Thanks for the comment Late Bloomer, I think this is a great theme for today’s post.  So, I’ve thought about this and these are the 3 that are most important for me and my family!  Do share some of the important actions that you believe are important to raise environmentally friendly kids.

**  First and foremost, YOU need to set an example and be environmentally friendly yourself.  Your kids will not follow what you “preach” if you don’t set an example yourself.

**  For younger children, they can help the family put recylables into the appropriate recycle bins.  This way, they will know the difference between things that are “garbage” and those that can be recycled.  Further, you can take them along with you when you bring the recyclables to the recycle depot.  I am sure your kids will have lots of questions from what this place is…to what do they do with the recyclables you dropped off.

**  Our family has always made it a priority to conserve energy and water so this is automatically passed on through to our kids.  We explain to them the importance of turning off lights and turning off the water while we’re brushing our teeth, etc…

I don’t have too much yet on older kids as my kids are still fairly young.  So much of what we do to teach our kids to be more environmentally friendly is geared towards kids still in preschool.  I believe the most important thing is to be eco friendly yourself first…You need to set an example.  There are tons of information at your local library…children’s books on the environment suitable for all ages.  Good luck!

Share your eco friendly practices!