Adonan Ikan Se'I Goreng Tepung

For 1.2 kg Se I Fish,

2 tsp salt
2 sprinkles pepper
2 sprinkles buljong
200 gram wheat flour
2 egg white

Can an unhappy marriage be a successful marriage?

"Happiness is never the aim of marriage - service to God is. In fact, unhappiness can exist in a successful marriage: In this marriage, two people live together, with many unfulfilled needs - loving each other."

The paradox is, when one loves, she is happy. :)

Wingko

Ingredients:
 
1 egg (yolks and whites separated)
1 cup glutinous rice flour
1 cup grated coconut
3/4 cup granulated sugar
100 ml milk
100 ml coconut milk
180 ml vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp vanilla sugar or essence to taste

Baking Steps:
 
1. Mix sugar, grated coconut, milk, and coconut milk. To mix it more perfectly, warm in microwave around 1-1.5 minute.
2. Add to the mixture the glutinous rice flour, oil, vanilla sugar, salt, egg white. Stir evenly for about 5 minute with electric mixer. 
3. Pour dough into baking dish which has been covered with baking paper
4. Bake in the preheated oven of temperature 175 deg C until half cooked (around 30 min), then glaze the surface with egg yolk, bake again for another 30 min until thoroughly baked or the surface of the dough becomes golden yellow.

Tips:
 
When glazed with egg yolk, sprinkle sesame seeds for more attractive look and savory taste.

Ji Yoanna

The 3-week Nanny, Sethia's Mama's-little-sister Aunt: He adores her immediately. :)

What is important for me in your homemaking, is not so much in how well you do it, but in how you demonstrate love in and through it.

"What is most crucial in the journey of parenting is the loving relationship between you and your husband. When this is well, you can rest assured everything else will be taken care of." - Natalia Elok Mjøsund

A Ride

To Papa, 

 On whose shoulders we ride.

With love,
Mama & Sethia

Light From The Face of The Deep

Yesterday Adi made a presentation in a scientific meeting of the Indonesian students, where Sethia and I were around too. One of the slides shared the story of Stephen Salter, the founding father of wave power technology:

"In September 1973 I caught flu. My wife said to me, with callous indifference to my misery, "Stop lying there looking sorry for yourself. Why don't you solve the energy crisis?" It seemed a good idea at the time. What she wanted was something which would provide the vast amount needed, which would be clean and safe, would work in the winter in Scotland and would last for ever. It is a good thing for an engineer to have the design objective clearly specified." - Stephen Salter

Then Adi made a remark, "the moral of his story, is for scientists not to underestimate their wives' opinions."

I felt strangely wonderful instantly, and persistently encouraged! :-) So, should I behave and respond the same manner as Mr. Salter's wife when Adi gets flu, for him to come nearer to Mr. Salter's accomplishments?

Adi and Sethia

Adi and Sethia by the stream of Bymarka

These two - they are God's strength and joy to me. They are the two who make me who I am. My identity is found, by God's grace, in being Adi's wife and Sethia's mother. They are God's very calling to me. :)

Rachel Jankovic writes in "Loving the Little Years":

The world has very muddled perception of "self". They think and tell us to think that we are all little separate entities who might need to go off somewhere to get to know "ourselves", or that a mother needs to get back to her corporate world to be herself again. Marriages break up because people don't know who they are anymore. They need to find themselves.

But the Christian view of self is very different, and you need to make sure that it is the one you have. We are like characters in a story. Our essential self is not back in the intro, waiting to be discovered. Who you are is where you are. When you are married, your essential self is married. As the story grows, so does your character. Your children change you into a different person. If you suddenly panic because it all happened so fast and now you don't recognise yourself, what you need is not time alone. What you need is your people. Look out - look at the people who made you what you are - your husband and your children. Study them. They are you. If you want to know yourself, concentrate on them.

Those women who try to find themselves by stripping away the "others", will find that they are a broken little thing. This will lead them to resent the people who they think made them that way. She may say, "I used to be so energetic, but all these people take, take, take from me and now I have no time to just be me!" And the world gathers around and comforts her and says she needs some time to follow her dreams.

But the Christian woman needs to see, "I used to be so boring! Now my character has some depth, some people to love, some hardships to bear. Now I have some material to work with." A Christian woman's view is always forward and never back. Your identity is to be found and resting in other people.

Let me try this from different angle. As married Christian women, our identity is in our husbands. We are their helpmeets. Our calling is people-orientated. It follows that you cannot know what your calling is until you know who your calling is. Until you are married, you are not tied to a specific person. Marriage reorients you entirely. Children do even more. Then it is your calling to help your husband by raising these little people. People, people everywhere and no time for yourself. But remember this is your calling. It belongs to you. They belong to you. These people are you.

Review dari masukan Pupung/Ibu SE

6-8 bulan: Bubur yg tinggal diseduh; puree buah: Nestle, Smafolk, Hipp

Pung, Sethia sejak 4.5 bulanan sudah stabil 5 feedings per day, & benar kata helsesoster SE, dia tidur through the night. Awal2 masih susu 5x, trus pelan2 kasi bubur, 1x, 2x, & sekarang (usia 6.5bln) sudah 3x bubur (spt dibawah) krn kl cuma sekali/2x Sethia pasti bangun jam 3/4am krn lapar (Babies are amazing! How can they have such a bodyclock! :P)

Sethia 6.5 bulan-skrg
8am: susu
11am: puree buah + air putih
2 pm: risgrot + air putih
5 pm: susu
8pm: godnatt grot + air putih

(8bln: use normal cooked rice, rebus sampai lebih halus)

Grace liat, 9 bulan sudah solid semua ya...

9bln:
8am: bubur + susu
11am: roti 2 3 kuadran (see: http://blogg.f-b.no/heidiw/files/2011/05/merking-av-br%C3%B8d1.gif) (dgn pisang/selai beri/keju) + susu
2pm: buah (boleh kasi yoghurt stlh 10 bulan)
5pm: homemade meal
730pm: bubur malam, susu

RESEP:

1. Pasta pene, daging cincang (sapi/ayam), tomat, sayur (wortel/brokoli/jamur) direbus bersama, keju parmesan (10bln)

2. Bubur Manado: Nasi, sayur2an (esp. Bayam), daging2an

3. Havregryn: Rebus sayur+daging, campur dgn Havregryn di mangkok

4. Sup nasi/kentang, sayur2an, daging2an (berkuah)

5. Havregryn: bisa campur dgn yoghurt/buah/dll http://www.norskhavre.no/nor/Produkter/AXA-BJOERN-Havregryn-Store

(Note: Alternate antara nasi, kentang, pasta, havregryn)
(Note2: utk Telur, coba kuningnya dulu -> roti/kue mengandung kuning telur -> kuning+putihnya)

BTW, resep2 ini utk 9 bulan ke atas ya, Pung?

Many, many thanks! :)

Growing Needs

This little guy, as he surprises us by touching his toes, also suddenly refuses to drink from his bottle; he tried out a cup once this morning, and this little experiment made him grin from ear to ear. He is also giving up the habit of lying on his pram and has asked to be sitted instead.

When these kinds of things happen, I pray that I will be able to see this as growth, where I have to be thankful and appreciate these as growing needs. A lot of times I feel, as Sethia expresses his needs for growing, I too need to grow as I adjust to these needs. May God grant this growth for him, and for me too.

Sethia at 5+ months:

1. Manages unassisted & stable sitting when propped up by his hands.
2. Shows no interest in rolling over. :P When we lie down or put a toy on his side, he would only glance sideways, turn just a little bit, and put no effort further. :P
3. When encouraged to crawl during time spent on his belly, he sticks up his butts. :)
4. Turns to Papa/Mama when read to - or when he wishes to be picked up, stretching his hands forth. Mama always becomes touchy whenever he does this. :')
5. Loves to have his chin chewed playfully, if he has any chin. :P

Day 22.

Day 22.

Sethia's bowel movement has been once a day as usual ever since Sunday. :)

Prescription: Risgrøt (rice porridge).

Lessons learnt:

1. Perhaps there are nothing else that make one pray more meticulously, particularly, and desperately, than having our little ones ill.

2. A baby needs a full tummy - and a calm mother.

As a sister well-said it: "There will be more things to worry..., try to take every hurdle an exercise to manage your parenting worries. Believe me, problems grow as they grow." Thanks, Eu. :)

"Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
... Yes, to the very end.
Will the day's journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend."
- Uphill, Christina Rosseti

3. There are more than physical benefits to trust my own husband above friends, parents, even nurses and doctors! :'P

Baby Poop: What parents need to know

Day. 17. Day 17. About Baby Poop: Must "arm [myself] with the knowledge of what's normal and what's not. ... and teach [myself] a thing or two." :)

Thank you, Santi Effendi, for the wonderful article. It helps put my mind to rest. :)

"... On the other hand, bacteria may have the opposite result. As a baby matures, more and more bacteria populate the gut. They are important to the digestion process and are one of the reason baby stool changes in character over the first few months of life. But as their numbers increase, the body eliminates more and more of them in the stool. Stool bulk increases as the number of bacteria increases, and increased stool bulk leads to more frequent bowel movements. ..."

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
(Pro 17:22)