Watching Our Tongue

The worship ministry has just started on a series of reflections on Bible passages. Last week, we were given James 3:1-12. It was about bridling our tongue and controlling it as it has the power to build up and to destroy.

As I read it, I remembered a conversation I had with a girlfriend this week. She said that children have short-term memories, which means they are forgetful, but they also forget easily the scoldings or whatever harsh words we parents say. It's their natural way of forgetting as their young minds are not able to cope with the rejection they perceive when voices are raised at them.

I don't have an easy relationship with my elder boy as he's very active and needs to be consistently occupied or he'll think up his own entertainment ideas. He also has a tendency to shout and yell, especially if he feels misunderstood or he doesn't get his way. This often results in screaming matches between us.

As I reflected on the passage, it reminded me of all the words I say to my children when I'm upset with them and my patience ran thin. I thought about the hurt I see in my Asher's eyes during those times when I didn't believe he didn't do something wrong and continued yelling at him. I regretted those moments when a split second before I'm about to say something negative and a gentle voice tells me to hold on and even gives me a more positive reaction to do - but I didn't. I thought about how it must feel for my child to accumulate all these harsh words day after day, week after week, months after months.

I told myself if there's anything I want to work on, it must be this - to cut down on my negative words and replace them with more affirmative ones. I must try to hug and praise Asher more than I scold him. It won't happen overnight but with the Lord's help, it's possible.

The Cutting Place Gift Frame

Made this for my sister-in-law's hair salon. Took me a little under 2 hours, spread over 2 Sundays. I've a habit of doing my projects in phases so I can let the concept 'brew' in my head. Of course that means I've several uncompleted ones lying around. The only exception is when I've to finish them by a certain time and when I've started on it, it's already the night before the deadline. Ha.

Some Handmade Gifts

It's been a long week! Been meeting writing deadlines, which could only be done in the dead of the night when the kiddos are asleep. With some breather last weekend, I scrapped with fury to meet my gift 'deadlines' :)

Here they are:

1) A picture frame using Graphic45 papers.

2) A Jillibean Soup card to go with the frame, accentuated with some lace, Prima flowers and AC alphas.

3) An altered box using GCD Studios papers.

Jillibean Card & Sassafras Layout

Today was the last day of school for Asher's Chinese teacher. From next month, she'll be teaching in another school. A few moms, including myself, will miss her as she did much to create a love for Chinese in our 'ang moh' kids. Thanks to her, Asher happily speaks in Mandarin to his grandmothers, never mind he uses an English word or two in between. I'll never forget how she consistently gave feedback on Asher's behaviour and academic performance in school, encouraging me and giving tips on how to make him enjoy the learning journey.

Here's the card I made to go with the farewell gift several of us moms gave her.

Scrapping inspiration came in the afternoon and I did this layout. I've about four pictures of Ariel standing in her cot in various poses. Think I'll use up the Sassafras Lass papers on them :)

A Gift

A gift from Asher. Priceless and precious.

Gimme Camera!

My mum recently gave this photo to me. It was surprisingly sharp, considering that she took it using her mobile phone's camera. It was my Ariel at her natural - trying to grab things within her reach, at about 8-10 months I think.

Materials used: Sassafrass (Bungle Jungle) PPs and stickers, Foof-fa-la buttons, Ranger Glitz Stickles (Ruby Slippers), Prima flowers, AC Alpha Stickers, Slick Writer (Black) Pen

Asher Blogs

I just created a blog for Asher.

It is one of my desperate attempts to inject fun into education and occupy him in a constructive way before he paints my house yellow.

Since Asher likes hitting buttons on the keyboard, I thought, why not create a blog for him? That way, he can:

1) Learn how to spell and create sentences
2) Have fun choosing the colours on his blog
3) Be educated in a fun and simple way

Good idea - except that I chose to create the blog on a day where
1) Both brother and sister did not nap all day
2) The time was 5.30pm, and the little exhausted engines were choo-chooing out of control

So in between high-pitched screams of "Peeen! Peen!" ("Pink!") and bellows of "WRITE MY NAME! I WANT MY NAME!", http://asherblogs.blogspot.com/ was born.

Asher is supposed to write a sentence a day. We'll see how long the mother can survive.