The Acne Prone Wife

Just kidding. I'm not converting to cosmic humanism. It is just God who conspires to make all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Yesterday evening I discussed about forgiveness with my husband. Forgiveness is not easy, everyone who holds a grudge against someone knows this. But I find it particularly hard because I do not know how to do it. I mean, I've read and heard the theories of forgiveness. I know that if you do not want to forgive, you actually make yourself bitter. I like this one forgiveness quote in particular, "To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you." Powerful, right? Today Facebook (and Ega) even reminded me about forgiveness, from 10 years ago. This is starting to be freakish. Yesterday I contemplated about forgiveness, and now today this. Okay, I know why forgiving someone is important, along with all the benefits. But the problem i...

Inspired by In Touch Ministries ' Daily Devotion that came into my email this morning (and also inspired by the problems that have been revolving around my life lately :p), I thought I'll write this as a reminder for myself, and for others, too. Daniel 2:20-22 (NASB) “Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, For wisdom and power belong to Him. “It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men And knowledge to men of understanding. “It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, And the light dwells with Him. With ongoing world events, the future of this world appears to be in the hands of nations' rulers and government. But notice that the Lord is the one who “removes kings and establishes kings” (Dan. 2:21). So every leader is put into office not by the people, not by their power, not by their wicked schemes, but by the hand of God. But how about...

I am not happy. I wish I could say "just kidding" after I said I am not happy. But it's true I am not happy. Not all the time at least. I am happy when my son, Raven, is being sweet and showing off his good sides. But when he is being a threenager , I get upset and not happy. I am happy when my husband is all nice and loving, but when he snaps at me just a little bit, I feel unloved and not happy. I am happy when things go my way, but when challenges and troubles come, I panic and become not happy. Sometimes I even turn unhappy when I see other people's social media feed. Why do they look so happy? Why is it not me? Even though I know the fact that social media feed is carefully selected by their owners to show what they want to the world to see, I still fall into the trap. *sigh* So, this Good Friday morning, I remember the word joy and look up real quick in the google: happiness versus joy. I do not immediately believe what that website says (because it ...

This is unexpectedly expected. my 7-week baby bump After I had my first baby at the end of 2014, I haven't used any birth control methods. The reason is because I have a PCO syndrome , so we chose to let chances of pregnancy open because it is not easy for me to get pregnant. One evening of early July 2017 out of nowhere my husband asked me to do a pregnancy test. I was too comfortable at the thought that a second pregnancy is a fairy tale for me, so I was like, "What?" but I did it anyway the next morning. And those two stripes of red appeared. Oh, wow. Thank you, God. I am now 8 week pregnant and boy, I did not remember having this morning all day (mild) sickness when I had my first child (but then again, my memory is not really reliable). My doctor was delighted when I complained to him. Nausea shows a good pregnancy, that's his motto. I'm trying not to complain a lot, anywho, because pregnancy is a blessings, isn't it :) Well, now this is ...

I am not into Korean drama. I am not into Korean music. I am not into Korean food. I just don't understand what the hype is all about. But I have to admit that I am into Korean skincare. I am always a fan of Japanese skincare. I just think that they suit my skin better than Western skincare. But, oh boy, Japanese stuffs can be so expensive sometimes. So when Korean skincare started to hit the worldwide market, and after I've tried a couple of them, I jumped into the bandwagon. I'm sold. My skincare arsenal does not consist of all Korean, though. There are still some Japanese and Western stuffs that I use. Anyway, two of my most favorite things in Korean skincare are First Essence (or sometimes called as First Serum) and Hydrating Toner. I find them most comfortable to use on my combination skin because they are hydrating, but only lightly so my skin does not feel tacky or oily. But they are not hydrating enough so I have to follow up with serum and emulsion, and cream a...

I've been on a translation project these couple of months. The book that I'm translating is a guide book to teach characters for at-risk teenagers. It was an interesting book, full of life skills that even adults need. A couple of chapters talk about anger management issues, and I felt like the book is speaking a lot of truths about anger. Some of them are: Anger often is an expression that hides other strong emotion, such as fear, shame, embarrassment, or frustration. We use anger to protect ourselves from pain or humiliation. Unfortunately, often that results in causing pain and humiliating the people closest to us. Being around angry people is difficult. And it causes us to be angry people, too.  Oh, the book lists some things to do when you're around an angry person, such as keep treating him/her with kindness, be patient, giving soft answers, accepting that you cannot control the person's anger. I think only saints can do these things. LOL. And there ar...

Saya ingat dulu saya menulis. Di blog milik friendster. Yang sekarang sudah lenyap. Saya dulu menulis apa saja yang terlintas di pikiran. Saya ingat dulu tulisan-tulisan random tidak jelas agak ababil itu sampai menarik minat seorang teman baru. Yang mulai sering mengajak chatting. Di Yahoo Messenger. Yang sekarang hampir lenyap. Teman baru dari dunia yang sangat berbeda yang tidak akan saya kenal jika saya tidak menulis. Waktu itu saya heran sekaligus senang karena ada yang suka pada tulisan saya. Meskipun cuma seorang dia. Mungkin kami akan terus berteman, jika dia tidak meninggal duluan. I didn't know about this. Can I go back to 2011? Saya ingat dulu saya menulis bersama teman-teman. Di blog imo milik Jakarta Post. Yang sekarang sudah lenyap. Judul blog kami Antara Molen, Pentol, dan Batagor. Isinya tidak jelas. Tapi kami senang. Isinya cuma sedikit. Bisa dihitung jari. Tapi ada perasaan lega. Saya ingat dulu saya menulis. Untuk majalah gereja. Banyak kenangan di sana. ...

I've been subscribing to this weekly newsletter for a couple of years, but does not read it regularly. I do not normally just copy paste information to this blog, but this newsletter edition is a gem that I want to remember and be reminded of. If you're blessed, you know what to do. Go subscribe ;)  Loving Beyond Limits Passage: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 "Love never fails." -- 1 Corinthians 13:8 Perhaps you’ve heard someone in a failed relationship say, “We always loved each other, but we just couldn’t get along.” They may have loved much, but they didn’t know how to love well. First Corinthians 13 is great counsel on how to love well in marriage. Loving well is the most essential ingredient for even the most spiritual people. For one thing, loving well brings music to our words (see verse 1). In times of trouble, we can be suspicious of the things our spouse says to us. If our actions don’t show love, words of love will only clang in our hear...

When my son was 2 weeks old, a friend asked me: "How is motherhood?" I told her a very short answer: "It was crazy," but I think the answer is not that simple; it needs a whole blog post to answer. I am new to motherhood. Of course. As I'm writing this, my experience of motherhood is merely 16 days. But, oh man, I didn't sign up for this. Well, I did pray and beg for the Lord to give me a child, and He has been good. However, *sigh* the constant need of this one tiny creature baffles me. His life relies on me breastfeeding him, and he doesn't care if it's day or night. He just keeps asking for more milk. Every time I look at him, I am frightened. I literally shudder with fright. My friends and family said that things will get better. But I cannot see the light at the end of this tunnel. I'm just trying to pass each day and night, but really, there is no passing each day. I realize that by the time morning hits, the same scenario is played...

Although my husband and I do not like shower so much , my baby Raven loves his bath time. On his first day at home (I think he was 3 days old then), we invited a nurse to teach us how to bathe a baby, and the nurse commented that Raven seemed to enjoy the process. And since then, we have observed that Raven always anticipates his bath time, and smiles and giggles. For a couple of days, he even always cried after bath time. I think he got upset because wet time is over. By the way, Raven is my baby son, born near the end of 2014. Raven, 4 months. Current hobby: licking anything. Anyway, because of that, I have been wanting to take my baby Raven to a baby spa. I was sure he was going to love being able to swim in a more spacious place, instead of just soaking in his little bath tub. So, with my employee discount (oh, the perks of working in a school), I took Raven to have baby spa session in Vita Baby Bright . Here are some pictures of the facility: Pool for babies from...

Peringatan: Maaf, postingan kali ini mengandung makanan yang haram menurut agama tertentu, yaitu sapi pendek alias B2. Yang tidak mau membaca silahkan klik tombol x di pojok kanan atas. Yang malah penasaran membaca, hati-hati ngiler. You've been warned . Mari kita mulai review Makan Ngemper. Setiap kali lewat Jl. Polisi Istimewa bersama Pak Suami , dia selalu menunjuk satu penjual makanan kaki lima yang sama dan bilang, "Ayo kapan-kapan kamu aku ajak makan di sana. Bakso babi tuh." Begitu sering Pak Suami melemparkan janji ajakan makan bakso babi ini tanpa segera merealisasikannya, sehingga rasa lapar penasaran saya menumpuk makin tinggi. Akhirnya setelah suatu hari saya berkata, "Ayo kita makan bakso babi. Jangan janji melulu!" merapatlah kami ke penjaja kaki lima yang berjudul "Bakso B2" ini. Letaknya di Jl. Polisi Istimewa, di depan Gereja Katedral Hati Kudus Yesus dan SMA St. Louis 1. Waktu itu siang hari dan saya sedang hamil besar. Cua...

I love facial. I like being massaged and touched and caressed . So I like to venture and try different clinics that offer spa and facial treatment, although I haven't been to as many clinics as I hope. Let's see, in Surabaya so far I've tried Natasha, LBC, Amethyst, erha. I've always wanted to try Miracle but the facial treatment price is not within my budget. Then Profira opened. Because I've heard that it's opened by a doctor previously working in Miracle, I thought the quality will be on par with Miracle. And the price, too, so I never went there. Haha.. Until the day I saw this at groupon: The link is here: http://groupon.co.id/voucher/surabaya/71966/up-to-52-percent-offfacial-ozon-herbal-chemical-peeling-at-profira It is in my facial budget range, so why not? This is a good deal, or so I thought. So I bought two vouchers, one for me and one for my husband. It was quite easy to make the appointment, and I went there this noon with high hopes. ...

Golden Rule yang diajarkan Tuhan Yesus itu bullshit. Kata Yesus sih, "Segala sesuatu yang kamu kehendaki supaya orang perbuat kepadamu, perbuatlah demikian juga kepada mereka. Itulah isi seluruh hukum Taurat dan kitab para nabi." Mantap sekali. Seluruh hukum Taurat dan kitab para nabi ribuan tahun dirangkum dalam 2 hukum, dan salah satunya adalah Golden Rule itu. Tapi saya kecewa ketika mencobanya, ketika berusaha mencoba meningkatkan kualitas salah satu relasi saya dengan seseorang. Karena merasa tidak dihargai dan ingin dihargai, saya menghargai dia. Karena sedih sering ditegur ketika berbuat salah, saya tidak menegur dia meskipun saya melihat kesalahannya. Karena ingin mendapatkan pengakuan dan support atas kerja keras yang telah saya lakukan, saya berusaha memujinya setiap ada kesempatan. Karena ingin diajak berkomunikasi dengan baik, saya selalu berusaha berkomunikasi dengan sejelas-jelasnya. Karena ini dan itu, saya ini dan itu. Dan saya lelah. Karena ternyata s...

Weekend lalu saya dan keluarga diundang ke pernikahan sepupu di Malang, dan diinapkan di Peye Guest House. Karena cukup terkesan dengan Guest House ini, maka saya menulis review. Semoga bisa jadi referensi buat teman-teman yang mencari Guest House di Malang ya. Peye Guest House ini terletak di Jl. Simpang Dieng no. 1, Malang. Cukup mudah dicari sih, dia ada di dekat Plaza Dieng. Google Maps juga sangat jelas menunjukkan jalan ini. Demikian penampakan depan Guest House-nya: Peye Guest House tampak depan. Ada yang bisa baca tulisan hanacaraka di atas itu? Kami semua yang menginap sudah lupa pelajaran Bahasa Jawa. Lalu saat masuk kami disambut pengumuman ini: Coba perhatikan logo Peye Guest House ini. Sudah diperhatikan logonya? Nah, logo ini memicu perdebatan di antara kami sekeluarga. Apakah "Peye" dibaca seperti "peyek," temennya pecel itu loh, atau dibaca "peye," seperti huruf p dan y normal, ataukah dibaca "piyik," seperti ...

Bukankah hidup selalu dipenuhi deadline? Sejak kita kecil, kita sudah terbiasa dengan deadline. Di sekolah, misalnya, tes dan ulangan bermakna deadline waktu kita belajar. Dan ketika waktu habis tetapi kita belum selesai belajar, maka kita mencontek maka kita pasrah mendapat nilai jelek. Selain itu, ada juga tugas dan proyek yang harus dikumpulkan, dan guru selalu memberi deadline. Jika pengumpulan lewat dari deadline, ada diskon nilai =D Kita memang dipenuhi deadline saat masih belajar, mulai dari Sekolah Dasar sampai kuliah. Lalu saat bekerja, kita makin dikejar-kejar deadline. Dan deadline di pekerjaan berbeda dari sekolah. Di sekolah, jika tidak memenuhi deadline, resikonya sekedar nilai jelek. Di pekerjaan, jika tidak memenuhi deadline, resikonya adalah terancam dipecat sampai rasa malu karena tidak berhasil mengukir prestasi diri. Lalu muncullah deadline-deadline yang kita buat sendiri, untuk memacu kita supaya mencapai sesuatu. Bukan hanya untuk mencapai sesuatu sih, tapi...

Salah satu hal yang pasti dipikirkan oleh ibu-ibu hamil adalah: bagaimana cara mencegah stretch marks? Sudah bukan rumor lagi bahwa dalam proses hamil dan melahirkan, tubuh wanita akan berubah: membesar, kulitnya menggelambir, keluar garis-garis macan (baca: stretch mark) di perut, paha, pantat, payudara, pokoknya bisa langsung ikut pesta Halloween deh. Jadi apa sebenarnya stretch mark itu? Saya suka deskripsi sederhana dari webmd ini: Stretch marks happen when your body grows faster than your skin can keep up with. This causes the elastic fibers just under the surface of the skin to break, resulting in stretch marks. Jika kita google how to get rid of stretch marks, banyak sekali cara dan produk yang tersebar di Internet. Tapi jujur, saya belum menemukan satupun testimony jujur yang bisa saya percaya mengenai keberhasilan mengubah kulit lorek macan kembali ke kulit manusia. Apalagi webmd juga memberi peringatan kejam ini: Unfortunately, there’s no way to prevent stretc...

Apa tujuan hidupmu? Ini mungkin adalah salah satu pertanyaan paling filosofis yang ada. Jawabannya pun bisa cukup klise seperti "ingin bahagia" atau cukup agamawi seperti "ingin hidup memuliakan Tuhan." Not that they are wrong answers. Punya tujuan hidup sangat penting, seperti wejangan si bijak Chesire Cat ketika ngobrol dengan Alice di dunia gila mereka: Masalahnya biasanya kita hanya punya tujuan hidup yang muluk tanpa memikirkan harus lewat jalan yang mana untuk bisa berjalan ke sana. Lalu tujuan hidup itu pun terbengkalai karena kita letakkan di awan-awan, sementara kita hanya berjalan-jalan di bumi. Ngga akan nyampe-nyampe dong, Lalu bagaimana? Saya berusaha memecahkan masalah ini dengan mem- break down tujuan hidup muluk saya menjadi beberapa tujuan hidup jangka panjang , yang lalu saya break down lagi menjadi tujuan hidup jangka pendek . Setelah punya tujuan hidup jangka pendek, ternyata jadi lebih mudah untuk melihat jalan-jalan yang harus...