The More of Less Book Summary

I love Joshua Becker's blog: BecomingMinimalist.com and was so excited when I heard him published a book on minimalism. I found it very useful not only giving people the "why" but also the "how". Some of the highlight I got from the book:

*Italics is my own words/perspective
The More of Less
The Universal Benefits of Minimalism:
1. More time and energy
2. More money
3. More generosity. This is true for us, we figured if we skipped eating out just once we can sponsor one more kid so we did. 
4. More freedom
5. Less stress because mess + excess = stress
6. Less distraction
7. Less environmental impact
8. Higher-quality belongings. My cheapo's self was having a hard time adjusting to this but after many times throwing lower quality stuffs, I realized if I buy a good quality one in the first place then I use less stuffs.
9. Less comparison
10. More contentment

Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from them.

Our Family Travel Medicine List

Every time we travel, I always bring my medicine kit. Since we also use the medicine at home, I often miss bringing a few of the medicine we need on the trip. I thought I wrote down the list here so I can just print out and double check the list before we go traveling.

Travel Medicine List:

1. Eucalyptus oil for nasal congestion, bug repellent, bug bites

2. Lanolin cream for chapped lips, cracked or burnt skin, reduce itchiness from bug bites

3. Tylenol: Pain Reliever/ Fever Reducer 

3. Neosporin, Betadine, cotton balls, & Band Aid

4. Wes' asthma medicine

5. Probiotic to support healthy gut and and activated charcoal for food poisoning/ diarrhea 

6. Allergy medicine for kids and adults

7. Eye drop

8. Sore throat/ cold medicine, I used Halls, Chinese medicine: the golden lozenges, Lo Han Guo, and Yin Chiao tablet   

 9. Miracle of Aloe Rub, for muscle pain relieve. We prefer this over Salonpas

10. Mouth ulcer cream and eye infection cream (bought these in Indonesia)

11. Max's eczema cream

12. Vitamin D and iron supplement for my anemia

13. Emergen C 

14. Zambuk, ointment for brushes

15. Motion sickness medicine kids and adults

Anything else you would add to the list?

My Google Plus Contents - Part 2

Marriage/ Love:
The importance of kindness and generosity for lasting relationships
Have been hearing about this 36 questions. Saving them for our next date: 

Travel:
9 Hidden Gems of New Zealand
California Road Trip ideas
Camping Hacks, Tips, and Ideas
Yellowstone & Grand Teton Camping Trip
30 Places to visit in California with kids
Bay Area best Hikes
Best spots to see wildlife in Bay Area


Perspective/ Love:
When Kids In Third World Countries Read First World Problems:
When BBC flew a drone over Auschwitz
Ebola Epidemic in West Africa 2014-2015
25 Most Dangerous Journey to school
25 Pictures of Churches in Developing World
30 Pictures of Bedrooms in Developing World
What the world eats
2015 Europe Syrian Refugee Crisis
A Stanford Neurosurgeon's parting wisdom about life and time
She sang: "Eventhough I cannot see your plan but my heart still trust in You, O God."

My Google Plus Contents - Part 1

Over the year I use Google Plus to share links to interesting articles, movies, or any other goodies. Now that Google is shutting down Google Plus, I thought I just move the contents and share them here. Enjoy!

Inspiration:
The Drop Box Story

One Stitch Closer: Veronika Scott empowers other women

Auschwitz Survivor Gena Turgel Walked Out of Gas Chamber Alive

"Suffering is not a mistake and isn't the absence of God's goodness because He still presents in pain." Kara Tippetts

Only kindness begets kindness; kindness begets love.

Anger does not beget heart change; it begets shame. Yelling does not beget understanding; it begets hurt. Harsh words do not beget love; they beget humiliation. Intimidation does not beget kindness; it begets fear.

I’ve already seen a return on my investment; as I trust God to help me respond to my rebellious children in kindness and love instead of fear and anger, these young hearts are learning that kindness is always right and they treat each other with kindness. What a joy for my mama’s heart!

"Your time spent pursuing love will not be wasted. The time spent embracing your moments, reading that extra bedtime book, sitting together to dinner, loving a child in their unkindness and weakness matter. Live each moment knowing even your unseen movement toward love and away from unkindness matters." Kara Tippetts, Big Love

Most Dangerous School Run

What Would You Say If Your Wife Was Ripped Away

Brother Burst Into Happy Tears Over Hamster Surprise

Challenging Math Questions for 3rd or 4th grader

I found this challenge math questions at Singapore math book level 3 to be very interesting. So I typed and changed the numbers so the boys can do more math practice. Putting them here in case I need them in the future. I also posted another set of 3th grade math problems a little while ago.

1.       The chart below shows the amount of money Simon saves from Monday to Wednesday

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday
$5	$10	$15

If Simon continues to save in this pattern, how much money will he save by Sunday?

2.       Complete the number pattern.

2 , 4 , 8 , 14 , 22, 32, _____ , _____ , _____

3.       A group of 8 people shook hands with one another in a meeting. Each person shook hands with another person once. How many handshakes were exchanged?

4.       Form 2 digits numbers with the digits 2, 3, 4. The digits in each number can’t be repeated. List all the 2-digit number that can be divided by 4.

5.       I am a number between 30 and 49. If I am divided by 5, there will be a reminder of 2. If I am divided by 6, there will be no reminder. What number am I?

6.       Complete the number pattern

2, 3, 5, 8, 12, 17, _____ , _____ , _____

Book Summary: Your Best Year Ever

My chosen second book to share is Michael Hyatt's "Your Best Year Ever." I especially likes his sharing on focusing to be an abundance thinkers vs. scarcity thinkers.

Our expectations shape what we believe. One of the biggest reasons we don't succeed with our goals is we doubt we can.

Our lives consists of ten interrelated domains:
Spiritual, Intellectual, Emotional, Physical, Marital, Parental, Social, Vocational, Avocational, Financial

To accomplish anything, we have to believe we're up to the challenge. It means we believe we're capable; we have what it takes to prevail.

Scarcity Thinkers vs Abundance Thinkers
a. Entitled and fearful vs. Thankful and confident
b. Believe there will never be enough vs. Believe there's more
c. Stingy with their knowledge, contact, and compassion vs. Happy to share their knowledge, contacts, and compassion with others
d. Assume they are the way they are vs. Assume they can learn, grow, and develop
e. Default to suspicion and aloofness vs. Default to trust and openness
f. Are pessimistic about the future vs. Optimistic about the future
f. Resent competition, believing it makes the pie smaller and them weaker vs. Welcome competition, believing it makes the pie bigger and them better.
g. See challenges as obstacles vs. See challenges as opportunities
h. Think small avoid risk vs. Think big and embrace risk

Resources are necessary, but they are never the precondition for success. A lack of resources can spurs resourcefulness, builds resiliency and confidence. The more time we overcome difficulties, the more capable we are overcoming whatever comes next.

Gratitude makes us resilient, improves our patience. To practice gratitude:
a. Begin and end the day with prayer
b. Practice thankfulness by expressing gratitude for the gifts you have
c. Keep a gratitude journal

The importance of writing Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Risky, Time-Keyed, Exciting, Relevant Goals.

Summary of The Little Book of Common Sense Investing

One of my goal in 2019 is to sit down and write summary of one book I read in that particular month. I was about to blog about Michael Hyatt's book: Your Best Year Ever but ended up finishing this one first. I have been a big fan of John Bogle and his Vanguard index fund. Thanks to him we managed to avoid the high cost mutual funds. However, we do need to be reminded from time to time to simplify our portfolio and focus on passive index fund investing instead of active trading.

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing

John C. Bogle

“My advice to investor is to ignore the short-term noise of the emotions reflected in our financial markets and focus on the productive long-term economics of our corporate businesses.” John Bogle

Commonsense investing strategies:

1. Invest at the earliest possible moment, and continue to put money away regularly from then on.
2. Investing entrails risk, but not investing dooms us to financial failure.
3. Risk of selecting managers and investment styles, can be eliminated by choosing classic index fund.

Oahu Beautiful Beaches and Snorkeling Places

During this visit to Oahu we managed to visit a few beautiful beaches and snorkeling places. Surprisingly, only Waikiki and Hanauma were crowded with people the rest are not, so it was a pleasant surprise.

1. Hanauma Bay State Park: the popular and best snorkeling place in Oahu. It takes about 30 minutes to get here from Waikiki. There are only 300 parking spaces so go early if you are planning to go by car then you can continue your beauty sleep once you get there. :)
The park opens from 6 am to 6 pm and closed on Tuesday.

If you don't have car, you can go by shuttle, taxi, or bus. Park entry fee $7.50 per person. Be prepare to walk down the hill to the Bay or pay $2.50 to ride on the tram. 

 There were lots of fishes big and small but the coral is not as pretty as the one in Philippines or Indonesia.

Diamond Head Hike and KCC Farmer Market

This is one of the highlight of our visit to Honolulu. To get there, we can take local bus or trolley but since we rented a car, we drove from our rental apartment. We chose to go on Saturday because it is located right above the famous KCC farmer market so we can just park our car for free at the Kapiʻolani Community College, where the farmer market takes place. 

My mom can no longer hike that long so Max, our ten years old, who wasn't too excited about hiking volunteered to stay with grandma going around the farmer market.  The market open at 7:30 AM on Saturday; we arrived at the parking lot a little before that then start walking up to the entrance. Just a few minutes into the walk we got to enjoy this view

There were many people already even before 8 AM. 

About 20 minutes or so we reached the entrance. We only have to pay $1 per person to enter the park. Somehow I forgot to pack my walking shoes so I had to wear my regular shoes. Thankfully, it wasn't a strenuous hike so I can still do it with my booties. I wouldn't recommend wearing flip flop though.

This is one of the most touristic trails on the island, so be prepared for the crowds. Be ready to let others pass you and be patient with those slower hikers ahead of you on the trail. 

Oahu Trip Day 1: Honolulu Zoo and Pearl Harbor

Honolulu has been one of my mom's bucket list so when she told us she was coming to the States this winter, we immediate booked tickets to Oahu. We are not into crowded/ touristy place so the truth is we won't go there if it's not because of her, but the more we read and learned about the place the more excited we became.

Max was not feeling well the day before so we thought going to the zoo may cheer him up. We stayed at the rental condo nearby the Waikiki Beach and the zoo is about 6 minutes walk from our rental.
Useful tips: wear hat, bring sunblock, water bottle, and lunch. There's a nice large shaded area where we can sit down and have a picnic/ lunch. 

The beautiful flamingos are among the first creatures to welcome us

The majestic giraffe

This was interesting, who know fire is a friend to grasses