What I learned lately

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

{if you're wondering what're those things under our feet; those are heat pads I made to warm our feet during cold night.}

1. Six Things Every Christian Blogger Need to Know by Ann Voskamp. It helps me focus on writing to One audience.

2. "I can't fill everybody's cup. I can only pour my cup." Andy Stanley
I listen to Andy Stanley interview yesterday and the above sentence stuck in my head. Often, I hesitate to write, share, or do something because I kept thinking: I don't have all the information, knowledge, experience and so on. What he said reminded me that I can only share and do what I know and have. I don't have to know everything and fill everybody's need or expectation.

3. Do what work for me. There are a lot of great inspirations and wonderful ideas on the internet. I learned a lot of from cooking, organizing, time and money management, and many more. One day, I read a blog post on how to make your own yogurt and I almost give it a try. Then it dawn on me that our family doesn't eat yogurt in our regular diet. We do buy and eat yogurt from time to time but doesn't eat it that much that require me to make a batch. I'm sharing this not to discourage you to make your own yogurt {I might give it a try in the future} but I'm just sharing what I learned in case you got inspiration overload like me.
Other examples: I read that for some doing all their laundry in one day works great for them but I know it doesn't work for me because I like to air dry my laundry. I like to use my dishwasher especially after knowing how much time, energy and water I saved but if you like many of my friends who like to wash your dishes by hands, it's okay. Lesson learned: Know thyself and do what work for you! :)

4. Teach your kids the sounds of the letter not the name of the letter.   I wish I know this when Max was younger. Growing up in Indonesia and learned to read Indonesian; we never have this problem because in our language the phonics sounds are the same as the letter sounds. Barbara Curtis wrote in her book: Mommy, Teach Me to Read: "Knowing the name of the letters does not facilitate reading at all; it may even make it more difficult. If a child has learned the phonetic sounds for the letters rather than their names, he will string the sounds together easily to form a word with which he is familiar. Once they can read, it will be easy peasy to learn the alphabet name.

5. We can choose our priorities and how we spend our time. My sweet and wise mommy friend shared that she intentionally slow down her home business a lot. When I asked her why, she answered, "because right now my kids still small and they need me the most. My business will always be there but my kids won't. I don't want to look back and regret how I spend my time."

6. Last but not least, being sick makes me realize that to live, to love, to serve, to be able to work, sing, embrace, smile, and breathe is a gift. Michael Hyatt always end his podcast with this statement: "Your life is a gift now go makes it counts."