Gratitude Challenge Day 30

Day 30: 7 Nov 2014, Friday 

I am grateful that:

1) I enjoyed a nice People's Day with my colleagues. We played board games in Mind Cafe and it was a good bonding session. I need to bond more with my team!

2) Lucas is hyped about concert tomorrow. I'm grateful that I don't have a child that has stage fright. I understand that this is not something you can choose but have to deal with if your child is like this. My child is not a star performer but to me as long as he enjoys it I'm happy!

3) The vet that Bobby goes to has friendly and caring nurses. He is not easy to handle, the nurses say he struggles a lot during subcut. I feel grateful each time I see them carry Bobby in because he refuses to budge. 

I have reached 30 days. It wasn't easy to think of three things to be grateful for per day. And it wasn't easy to be disciplined to complete 30 days. But it's worth it. Someday I will read back these entries and find things to be grateful for in life. I got the gist of it too. It doesn't have to be stressful to write down things to be grateful for. Just whenever I feel it, or even just think about it, it's sufficient. Appreciate life and people around you, never take things for granted. 

Gratitude Challenge Day 29

Day 29: 6 Nov 2014, Thursday

This is the third time I tried to write this and I can hardly remember the day. Let's see...

I am grateful that:

1) Lucas is still a happy little boy. The shower gel ran out and so I filled it with water for him to pump out the water. He pretended it is a petrol pump and was happy playing with it for two days. It's a blessing to be so easily satisfied and happy with the little things in life. 

2) I was able to get out of the house 30 minutes later today and I spend some minutes drawing trains with Luis. He sat on my lap and asked me to draw three trains. Very precious quality time in the morning. 

3) I have a corridor outside my home that I can use as a paint area for the boys and clean easily. The boys had a wonderful time messing up!

Ok all these didn't happen last Thursday. It was yesterday and today but it doesn't matter ;)

Gratitude Challenge Day 28

Day 28: 5 Nov 2014, Wednesday 

I am grateful that:

1) My colleague can still have lunch with me without being awkward after I gave him bad feedback about his performance. I feel relief that he is not overly stressed by it. After all he is already coming to 60 next year, if I have a choice I would not want to inflict a bad memory on his last years at Philips. 

2) My new Quality head does not seem to be as political as my other colleague feels he may be. Today we were discussing about my section taking on a certain role. My colleague felt he will want to take it up because he wants to bolster his department and as a result my section may gradually seem redundant. But in our discussion he was instead supportive of my section taking the role up. I hope he's really not political, and not two-faced such that I'm tricked. Then again I'm naive at times. I don't like to have to spend useless energy worrying about others taking advantage or fighting me instead of putting it to good use to improve our competence. 

3) Once again I can rely on my mil. I called her 25 min before the childcare closed and she helped me to pick Lucas up and even brought him back to my home. And she did all these without grumbling and even told me to feel free to call her again next time I cannot make it in time. These days I tell myself to be more grateful and not take my in laws for granted. Without them, especially my mil, we would be having a tough time. 

Gratitude Challenge Day 27

Day 27: 4 Nov 2014, Tuesday

I am grateful that:

1) I can always turn to my husband when I am down. Every time I talk to my HR she only has negative things to say about me. This time I told her that I know I have much to improve but I also feel that I have improved a fair bit in the past two years. She said no. Anyway the gist is, she doesn't think well of me. I came back and told my husband, he was very angry about it. He gave me support to tell her and my boss a piece of my mind and if worse comes to worse, quit and find another job even if it's lower pay. The support itself was enough to bolster me up. And after talking to him I feel more self worth and how to deal with people and happier. 

2) My husband and I are good partners in our family. He brought Bobby to the vet because I was late coming back. Even though he grumbled that he was tired when he came back, he did it nonetheless. 

3) Lucas seemed to have grasped the idea of '+1' means moving on to the next number and vice versa for '-1'. I decided to take out the dot bar tonight and taught simple recognition to Luis and after he went to his room for bedtime, to teach Lucas addition. He was actually quite happy when he got it. H needs encouragement that he's doing well, and then he will try harder. Keep it up Lucas!

Gratitude Challenge Day 26

Day 26: 3 Nov 2014, Monday 

I am grateful that:

1) I still have a good friendship with my NTU friends. I knew Indri from NTU, we were in the same classes during our first year, after that we went into different specialties. But we have gatherings, not often but every time we meet it's nice and easy to talk. Today she came to my office to get some Avent stuff from me, we have a nice 20 minutes bitching standing in the lobby. Totally enjoyed it. Don't take friendship for granted! I learnt it the hard way with some friends that I regretted not putting more effort in maintaining. 

2) The talk with my colleague went not too badly. It sucks to deliver bad news, sucks even more to receive it. Of course he doesn't recognise it, so I was lucky to have noted down examples. It's not going to be easy going forward, but for now I'm just grateful for no animosity between us. As usual I'll have to give him space and not join lunches for a while. 

3) Lucas is kind hearted. We entered the lift and it looked like an uncle is also coming in. The lift door was closing and Lucas  rushed to press the door open button. Good boy. 

Gratitude Challenge Day 25

Day 25: 2 Nov 2014, Sunday

I am grateful that:

1) My husband cooked vegetables for breakfast and got our children to enjoy them. Lucas pretended to be a goat that we saw at the vegetable farm and Luis enjoyed feeding Lucas. Luis himself also enjoyed the vegetables. My cute little boys :)

2) Lucas performed at today's term review at Tien Hsia. He was more shy than the previous time, but he still performed. He was very soft for his solo, but he was not afraid till he does not want to do it. I'm still very proud of him!

3) I am number one in Luis' heart. Actually it was yesterday, he fell down outside our door. He cried and stood up. Our helper held his hand and tried to soothe him but he struggled away from her towards me. My sweet little boy, nice fall ;)

Gratitude Challenge Day 24

Day 24: 1 Nov 2014, Friday

I am grateful that:

1) KP and I are not overly protective parents. This morning we went to breakfast with our friends. I took out a pack of papers and scissors and Luis started using it. I didn't think much of it until our friend was surprised and told me that her husband doesn't allow their daughter to use scissors for fear of her hurting herself. On the other hand we let our children experience things as much as we can. Frankly it's also sometimes due to our ignorance of potential danger!

2) We got an early chance to discover that Lucas is not good in maths. In his Heguru worksheets done in class the mathematics part is often blank or filled in only a few. I should make use of the time now to help him with it instead of wait until he goes to primary school. 

3) We had a nice time at dinner. It was a simple dinner at Lot One food court. We ordered pizza, Lucas was happy, ate on his own and ate a lot. Luis went with me to buy Yong Tau Foo. Luis enjoyed his dinner too. Both boys did not misbehave and we finished our dinner happily. KP did not see the happiness of it and I had to explain it to him. Appreciate the little things in life :)

Gratitude Challenge Day 23

Day 23: 31 Oct 2014, Friday

I am grateful that:

1) Lucas has a 姑姑 who is good to him. He was playing with a ukulele over the weekend, and this morning his 姑姑 bought one for him. 

2) Lucas Is still a little boy. He's growing up so fast, sometimes I really miss his little boy ways. Tonight he asked to play with his Chugginton train set and asked me to play with him. I told myself to enjoy it while it lasts. 

3) We are not overly kiasu parents. We have classes for the boys but we still let them have time during weekday nights to play. Tonight we were supposed to finish the last page of Heguru homework but we didn't manage to, and I just let it go. I do however hope that the boys are smart in their schoolwork next time so that they do not need to spend a lot of time on doing their homework when they go to school.