Brené Brown's Lessons for Relationship

on Blaming

on Emphathy
 

Inspiring Videos and Summer Reading List

I will be taking a blogging break for a couple weeks. In the meantime, feel free to browse some pages that I had been working on lately: Work for Us, Traveling, Favorites, and my Google+. 

I like listening to podcast or Tedtalk while doing cleaning the house, washing the dishes, or folding laundry; I call it effective multitasking. Some inspirational videos that I watched lately:
The incredible rescue mission. So grateful for these heroes


From now on, I will start saying we're hackschooling. Great speech, Logan! {in case he came across my blog :D}

Love this interview especially the last part:

Little Boys Talk

Just a little while ago, this is how he talk:

 Now he talks like this {inside the airplane on the way back to the U.S}:

Mother's Day Video

Inspired by some videos online like this one and this one; we decided to make one for this year Mother's Day at our church:


Got the song from Itune: Go Fish - The Mom Song

Teaching Compassion: blending academic and life learning

A sister shared this wonderful documentary Children Full of Life on Facebook.
I am tearing up watching each episode.

Good Stuff

Five-year-old Claire Koch was born to two deaf parents, and American Sign Language was her first language. So while 60 of her peers used generic hand motions, Claire chose to use ASL, much to her parents’ surprise.

Letter to my kids: on America, The Beautiful

Dear Max,

When you read this, you may not remember it anymore, but we learned this song as part of your Kindergarten's history lesson today.

We went through the lyric and sang the song together. I just printed the chords and lyric so I can play the piano part. I think we will be singing this song together until we nail it. I hope you one day you realize how blessed you are to live in this great country, where you got to freedom to live, learn, speak, worship, and pursue your passions.

Interesting Thoughts on Education

“The fact is that given the challenges we face, education doesn't need to be reformed -- it needs to be transformed. The key to this transformation is not to standardize education, but to personalize it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions.” Ken Robinson

“Learning is not done to you, it is something you choose to do. We need students who can learn how to learn, who can discover how to push themselves and are generous enough and honest enough to engage with the outside world to make those dreams happen.” Seth Godin


1. Curiosity comes first
2. Embrace the mess
3. Practice reflection
"An educator is the cultivator of curiosity and inquiries" Ramsey Musallam

I didn't agree with all their points for instance I disagree with Mr. Godin's opinion that memorization isn't needed. I think it does in certain subjects. That being said, I was inspired and love their perspective in education.

Great Videos

God understands

Body Language

Wesley is TWO

Merry Christmas!

Pictures taken with self timer at Hakone Garden, Saratoga CA

 

 

 

Thankful List 2012

1. My Heavenly Father, Savior, Lord, the Holy Spirit, the Living Water, the Source of my strength, peace, and joy. "In God is my Salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God." Psalm 62:7

2. My diligent husband, my better half, the super daddy


3. The privilege to be mama to my two precious blessings

Four!

Two days ago, Ann Voskamp published an inspiring post titled: How to Really Live inspired by the story of Maximilian Kolbe. His story inspired us to name our first born Maximilan {minus the letter 'i'}.

We love you, Max! And this is our prayers: "that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ - to the glory and praise of God." Philippians 1:9-11

Note: We bought the personalized CD here

Max is Three

Family Pictures - March 2011

Thank you for praying for us and Baby W especially after that night.  We have now passed the 36th week and are very much looking forward to hold him in our arms. For a couple who spent 4 years praying and wondering if we could have children, this is a wonderful blessing.
Thank You, Lord, for this very active baby! "Children are a gift from the Lord" Psalms 127:3; and we are grateful to You for this one.

Change the setting on the bottom right from 360p to 720p or 1080p to watch in HD

My baby is TWO

Max First Year's Video can be found here

Sequoia and King Canyon National Park

Below are some highlights from our trip to King Canyon and Sequoia National Park.

Max was wide awake the whole 4 hours of the trip:

Ever since I heard about the giant Sequoia tree, I've been wanting to see them. However, it took a long time to convince Chris to go. They're just big trees; what's a big deal about it he thought. And he changed his mind once he saw the Sequoia trees:

They're HUGE. We can't help but praise the Lord the Creative Creator.

Personal Finance 101

I read many personal finance books (thanks to public libraries :)) but oddly never came across Dave Ramsey's books 'till about two years ago. Many Americans are in debts due to living above their means. Thanks to our parents who generously support us through college, we don't have any debts or loan except for our mortgage. Still, living in Silicon Valley where things especially housing is super duper expensive, encourage us to manage our money wisely otherwise we will be drowning in debt.

Total Money Make Over is one my favorite personal finance book. Other books that I found to be useful as well are:



Dave Ramsey's Financial Baby steps, which basically function as financial map that way we know the way or steps to our destination.

1. Build up a $1,000 emergency fund.

2. Pay off all debt from the smallest to the largest. Personal finance is 80% behavior and only 20% head knowledge. When you start seeing the traction and progress you're making you get excited and more focused and start really attacking the debts which result in getting out of debt quicker. Paying only cash for cars not only to stay out of debt but also to avoid the beating in value you take when driving the car 10 feet off the lot. After paying off all consumer debt not including the house if a home is owned.

3. Increasing the emergency fund to 3-6 months of expenses. This emergency fund should be placed in something that's extremely safe such as a money market or savings account. In case of losing a job you would have a solid 3 to 6 months to look for one without the pressure of paying bills with no income.

4. Investing in a retirement plan through work if they match a percentage of your contribution and then through a Roth IRA. If there is no matching from the employer in a 401k, 403b, or TSP, you would start with the Roth IRA which grows tax free. Using mutual funds with solid 10 year track records is a great diversified investment strategy for a retirement account. One would also want to spread money around to various mutual funds such as a growth & income fund, an aggressive fund, an international fund, and a value or balanced fund. The goal is to invest 15% of a paycheck into retirement.

5. Funding education for children through a couple Education Savings Account (ESA) or a 529 plan.

6. After all 5 of these steps are in order, the next step is to pay down the house as quick as possible.

7. Once the home is free and clear, you win and have true financial peace. At this point, you invest in 100% paid for real estate as well as continuing to invest and give lots of money away.
Happy callers on Dave Ramsey show:

This one is so funny. One family makes this video after they pay off their debt:

The Fall

Chris forwarded me this video below one day:

I heard many stories of babies fell, children injured, and little hands got burned… Accidents happen even to the best kids, parents, any ones...

It only takes a split second, one foolish decision, one stupid mistake....

I went up stair to change my clothes while Max was down stair playing. While I was changing clothes, I heard little steps climbing up the stairs. I let him be because he is used to climb up the stairs on his own since he was 9 months old plus going up is safer going down – I thought.

If You Say Go

If You say go, we will go
If You say wait, we will wait
If You say step out on the water
And they say it can't be done
We'll fix our eyes on You and we will come

Your ways are higher than our ways
And the plans that You have laid
Are good and true
If You call us to the fire
You will not withdraw Your hand
We'll gaze into the flames and look for You

The last verse reminded me of the word of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to King Nebuchadnezzar before being thrown into the fire:

"O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." Daniel 6:16-18