counting the little blessings..

The journey of time is amazing..
I vividly having confinement food during Xmas last year, and now, we just celebrated Xuan's birthday a week ago and i am now blogging as the 2 boys are fast asleep, after an eventful Xmas eve party... and i am back to enjoying the christmas gatherings and parties!

Have not manage to blog much recently primarily

1. Getting ready for the festivities.. festives with kids inevitably means more work.
2. As usual, juggling with year end rush of work
3. Xuan and En were both really sick after Xuan's birthday party.. En just recovered and Xuan still have erratic fever..

But the days have been really eventful...
We lost our camera cable, so I will save Xuan Xuan's birthday bash for another day, complete with visuals..

These few days, I have been reflecting and thinking about how we need to consciously look for our little blessings..

I was with NJ and Xuan at McD at Forum a few days ago and saw an episode which got me thinking..

Leads are a lady who is obviously pregnant, her husband and her young daughter, probably slightly older than Xuan.

The man was passing money to the lady and asking her to go order food.
And the lady was loudly berating how the man never helps out and everything that he does ends up booched and she has to be the one to complete it.. especially how he never looks after their daughter properly..

And there I was with Xuan, and waiting for NJ to come back with food..
And I was thinking, this lady is pregnant, why cant the man have gone and get the food instead?

And i realise how I have taken a lot of things for granted..
I have a husband who..

1. goes to the market weekly to buy fresh food and fish for the boys..
2. allows me to sleep in while he wakes up early for the kids
3. lets me to sleep thru the nites when the kids wake up or are fussy..
4. carries my grocery bags for me (which I always thought is what men ought to do)
5. buys my meals for me, so much so I hardly know how much a Mcd meal is anymore..

and he realy tries his best to make me and the boys happy..

I always thought these gestures are "what men ought to do"..
But sometimes when i look around, i find these gestures rather exceptional as they are probably not the norm...

and yet I have kinda taken it for granted.. when one does a reality check, I realise I need to count my little blessing..

I also need to count my blessing with the kids..

You can always hear me saying how naughty and impossible my 2 boys are.. and once, En's nanny actually reminded me - if the kid can be naughty it is good, it means the kid is active and smart...

i dunno about the smart part, but it is true that I need to be thankful that I have v spirited boys who have minds of their own even at a very young age..

Recently Xuan and en's recent bout of serious flu got me thinking, that we have even always taken the boys' health for granted, and when they fall seriously ill and uncomfortable, it is really a pain seeing them suffer and cry.. That in itself is an experience...

Of course one of the most overlooked blessing is the gift of our parents..
I always complain.. I think that is my singular greatest weakness..
But no matter what, it is indeed a blessing to have both sets of parents who are together, and who are well and fit and to care for my kids so I can continue with wk.

That in itself is a blessing.. something that I often take for granted.
Sometimes, we need to really stop and take stock..

One sociologist said in his book, that people feel good when they see others in misfortune, that is the basic core of human psychology. Ugly as it may sound, it is unfortunately true sometimes, if we are brutally honest with ourselves.

We do not and should not feel good about others misfortunes, but we should always remind ourself of the realist perspective... that the greater world out there is full of misfortune and people with bigger problems with us.. Our lives may not be always smooth sailing as it is now.. so we do need to cherish the present..

Sometimes, i think being around ppl who are too similiar or better than us skew our perspective a lot. We think the world is made up of all these lucky ppl.

Look further afield, and we are more likely to find differences rather than similarities. and that in itself is reason to count our little blessings..