Parenting on Purpose

One night, as I lay next to my wife in bed and considered why and how I loved her, I became overcome by a deep sense of love. This was something I had experienced years ago when I was convinced she was the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. It was the same feeling I encountered when I looked into her eyes and declared my wedding vows in front of God and a body of witnesses. And it was this deep love from which I drew upon 10 precious principles I have held close to my heart.   Our wedding day. I will always remember that moment when I declared that I would take her to be my lawfully wedding wife from that day forward, to be parted only in death. 1) Listen to her heart. Consider important what she considers to be important. 2) Nourish her soul. Feed her with memories and experiences she will cherish. 3) Allow her to be herself. Do not seek to change her to be someone she is not. 4) Encourage her to pursue self care. Clear her schedule and make it happen. ...

A Tale on Motivation by Mark Lim. The horsemen were relentless in their pursuit. Fast and furious, they punished the educators with unbridled fury. These teachers, experts in their own right, seemed powerless to halt the onslaught. Yet they knew that if they allowed themselves to be beaten by the horsemen, that they would soon be relegated to the realms of educational oblivion, no doubt the primary objective of the motivational apocalypse. What are the obstacles that our children face? How can we help them to be overcomers? So the educators were determined to better understand their attackers, with the intention of identifying weaknesses and defeating them. They highlighted the following attributes in their attackers: No Benefit Overwhelming Contexts Protecting the Ego Energy Outweighs Success The first horseman operates on the principle that there is No Benefit to the work we do; and that short term benefits trump long-term growth. To counter this attacker, the educa...

Play is the work of kids, says Maria Montessori. And kids learn best when they play! Well, given that our kids play most of their day, I believe they learn a phenomenal amount! Helping our kids develop a deep love for learning The 6-year-old boy looked at the picture intently. And without so much as batting an eyelid, he turned to his mother and declared, “You can tell  Twa Ku Kong  not to worry. The snake is harmless.” “How do you know?” asked his mother. “Of course it’s safe,” came the reply, “It’s a paradise tree snake and is non-venomous.” And with that, all speculation was ended over the picture that our son’s granduncle had sent. He had found a snake on his car bonnet and was worried about the family’s safety. Since he was young, our second son has always been interested in nature, and we have taken him and his older brother on many nature walks, often with an experienced nature guide. What we did not expect was how much he had soaked in from all his nature w...

It has been a month since our little girl left us. Image stills from the past month remain vivid in my mind's eye. After all, how do we deal with the sea of emotions that continues to engulf us at the ebb and flow of each tide? It was a familiar sight each morning to wake up to her gentle calls. Alas those days are over, and we wake up each morning to an empty cot, a tangible reminder that she is no longer in our lives. This blog post serves as a diary recalling all that has happened since the last week before she left, and it records the raw emotions imprinted upon our hearts: One week more. She returns to us after a visit to her birth family for one last time before our final parting. It's been almost a week since she last left us, and our lives have gone on as if she had never come. But beneath the veneer of normalcy, there is still an aching pain; a certain sadness about the finality of the parting. I really do not know what to expect for the upcoming week; ho...

Our family loves to travel. And we love adventures. Unfortunately, our epic 40-day trip to the United States last year has left a rather large hole in our pocket. But we cannot resist the travel bug, and as such we have been making a series of short driving trips to Johor Bahru, the gateway to Malaysia. So yes. It is still possible to have fun and to enjoy life even when holidaying on a budget, and this post is a record of some of the favourite places that have won their way into our hearts... and to our stomachs... Bomnal Korean Cafe Johor Bahru is home to many Koreans. A quick check on Google will reveal that Malaysia is the second most popular market after the US for Korean real estate investment. And if you want to get your Korean food fix, it's the perfect place to go.  We chanced upon Bomnal as it's a stone's throw from our hairdresser. It was raining, and we decided to run into this  cosy Korean fusion cafe  for shelter and a snack. We were not disappointed....