Characters Alive Day | Book of Magical Creatures | Journey of Prince and Princess

Brayden 9Y4M27D

Bevlynn 5Y1M23D

For Characters Alive Day, we did not have time to make preparation for the children. This year Bray was dressed as Harry Potter while Bev as Kuromi. 

After the long break, I had to catch up on work and to-dos that piled up like mountains (insurance, childrens' scheduling, transferring data to new phone,.. endless list) It is easier when everything is broken down to small to-do and work on easiest tasks & highest priorities to strike it off the lists. To move in small steps forward is always better than procrastination.

I am also back to story-telling for the children: The journey of Prince and Princess - this time they went into a mythical dark forest full of amazing magical creatures (I got some inspiration from this book Bedtime Book of Magical Creatures : An Introduction to More Than 100 Creatures from Legends and Folklore - I'd highly recommend this book to parents who want to add a little magic into their bed time story telling). The Prince and Princess found shelter in a giant tree house, there is one small opening. Inside is a friendly Giant. The children ran away, as they were scared of the giant being. After coming into danger and the Giant saved them, they started befriending the Giant. 

Bev: Mommy, is the Princess me? 

Mommy: No.. of course not. What the Princess goes through is too dangerous for you. 

Bray: Am I the Prince?

Mommy: No, you're not. The Prince is brave, adventurous, protects the Princess. Are you? 

They love the stories and relate very well with the characters. Once in a while I'll copy our daily conversations into the stories, and they will be like - that is me?! I loved how we would all laugh at the stories when the ending twist was totally unexpected or when it ends so abruptly because it's too late in the night. 

Bro Max adopted a cute puppy. We'll play with it soon. 

 

Dengue | Books - Strange House, Strange Buildings, The Wealth Money Can't Buy | Positive Mental Time Capsule

Brayden 9Y4M15D

Bevlynn 5Y1M10D

It started with high fever. I had mostly slept in; trying to fight through the muscle aches. On the 3rd day, the doctor gave some medication for food poisoning. 

The high fever continued. It was dengue. Had to be hospitalized. There was hardly any pain, just some rashes on the body and dizziness due to the high fever. 

Took the time to finish some readings:

1. The Wealth Money Can't Buy (Wellness became the emphasis of the week out of the 8 Forms of Wealth) 

2. Strange Houses (Interesting Read)

3. Strange Buildings (Interesting Read - when all of the stories came together in the end)

4. Strange Pictures (Need to understand the flow of the stories - the ending was when everything pieced together)

5. How to Tidy your Mind (Nothing new) 

6. The Ritual Effect (Ritual is part of life, Pieced together some ol' rituals, "the positive mental time capsule" is an interesting ritual, What can be new rituals to enhance life?)

7. The Rosie Project (Predictable Ending)

It seemed I was trying to drown the anxiety with all the reading. The stay in the hospital had brought chaos to my routines. My usual self wanted to get things done, but I had to put everything on pause to nurse back my health. 

It is such an opportune timing to think about the concept of positive mental time capsule. How we tend to lose track of precious moments when we just follow the flow of time. Sometimes we are living in autopilot mode so that we can go through our days with much ease; however, we would missed the little joys life brings. If only, we can "capture" and stash away the little joys; to keep it for later (when life gets hard). 

Little joys - Bev laughed while holding our ears; Bray hugged in our arms like a baby even though he is already so heavy; Hub laughing at our silly jokes - only we find funny.