13 Hours of Rain

He wakes up and gets ready for work. She wakes up and cries for her breakfast. I wake up and get her milk. He says goodbye. She plays in her crib for a bit while I make the bed and check my e-mail. I change her diaper and bring her down. She eats. I eat. She plays while I alternate playing with tidying. She goes down for a nap and I do more housework. She wakes up and the cycle begins again. He comes home. We eat supper and briefly catch up on our days. We go our separate ways for a couple of hours. I put her to bed. He prepares for tomorrow's lessons. I deal with the dishes. He grades a stack of papers. And sometimes we watch a bit of T.V. Then we go to bed, exhausted. We wake up in the morning. And it begins again. It is extremely easy to drift into mindless monotony within our marriages. Who can blame us? Life is busy. And during my endless tasks of motherhood and the infinite demands of my husband's profession, we are tempted to take each other for granted. Understandably, ...

A frustrated teacher was sharing a story about a typical experience in the math classroom. After his lesson on factoring, he observed his students working on their homework. They kept on getting the questions incorrect. "What is the problem?" he asked, "Do you understand what is going on?" They did. They could explain the process beautifully. The teacher dug deeper. He found the answer to their difficulties. They did not know their basic multiplication facts. He then gave them a grid with the timetables until 20. Guess what? They were able to factor. As an advocate of numeracy, such stories disturb me. I was fortunate to have great mathematics teachers in my lifetime who did not shy away from drilling math facts into my brain. Don't get me wrong. I am all for actually understanding mathematical concepts. But if a kid has to grab a calculator to figure out the answer to 6 times 3, then we are really missing something. Numeracy begins when a child is young. We hav...

As part of the requirements of a seminar, I had to create an assignment for a mathematics class. Thanks to Song of Joy for the inspiration. If you can impress me with a solution to the scenario below, I will search you out and give you a prize for engaging in mathematics for leisure! Only one prize will be awarded. Contest closes in one week. Here goes! The Scenario : Anne works for a prominent hotel in the city. She is a catering manager. It is her job to oversee the many events that occur in the hotel’s banquet or conference rooms. Anne also needs to report the cost of the event, including all applicable taxes and gratuity. The cost can include items such as room rental, meal costs, and cash bars. However, the cash bar has been causing her some problems. Why? When a person picks up a drink at the bar, he or she often gives the bartender a drink ticket. The drink tickets cost a flat rate such as $4.00. This $4.00 includes all taxes and gratuity. When Anne records the cost of the drin...

I just returned from a spring walk. I love going for walks. I enjoy pushing the stroller while humming melodies to my daughter. She silently observes everything while she listens. Plus, she gives me her million dollar smile when I stop to look at her. All the day-to-day stresses that I am coping with float away on the fragrant breeze that fills the air. As I sit here, she is down for her afternoon nap. Happy babbling sounds fill her room. Who knows what she is saying? One day I will know. But for now, this sounds really nice. I received an e-mail from my husband. Made me smile. We do not e-mail each other often, but when we do, it is simple but heartfelt. "We have a COOL family," he writes. I agree. We do. Him, me, and her.

About a year and a half ago, my husband and I visited relatives in Asia. One of the highlights for my husband was purchasing t-shirts from the street markets. One t-shirt that caught our eye said, "Same Same" on the front with "But Different" on the back. Even though this piece of clothing wasn't chosen to hang in my husband's closet, it still made us laugh. The saying seemed to summarize human nature. We want to be like everyone else. But we desire to be different. Over the past week, the phrase "Same Same But Different" has been echoing through my mind. I realize that I have spent a vast majority of my life trying to conform, blend in, and adapt to the situations around me. My chameleon nature is partially due to my third culture status. I am not a true native of my country, though I am born here. But I am not a complete product of my parents' ethnicity either. Thus, I naturally adapt to whatever tradition I stumble across. While my "Sa...

Passion Week has come and gone. And I feel like my head is still whirling from the activity. I asked the Lord to guide me towards people who needed to experience God's love in a tangible way. Yet, in my quest to serve others, God turned around and taught me lessons through each act of blessing. Early in the week, I diligently worked all afternoon to put together a pot of soup, bacon & cheese muffins, and dessert for a lady in our church who is recovering from surgery. When I placed the box full of fresh food in her hands, she was near tears. "You are so sweet. Thank you." "Well, this is what the church is for," came my reply. I walk away with a few tears in my eyes. She has been battling sickness after sickness. And she is so grateful for the little things. She is a picture of thankfulness. How often do I shrug off God's blessings without a second thought? Too often. Mid-week, my husband and I drove one hour out of the city to watch family perform in an ...

I believe we are raising children in a unique time with extremely real challenges. Our children are more technologically literate than their parents. There are countless amount of things that are competing for their attention. Gone are the days when television or radio where the dominant technological forces on the minds of young people. Now we have added cell phones with text messaging, social network sites such as Facebook, the intense world of computer gaming, and the perpetual ear buds that are lodged into a kid's ears. In addition, our family units are becoming smaller. Copious amount of siblings packed into a small house is a phenomena of the past. Now, we have larger and larger homes with few and few people occupying them. Siblings usually have their own room equipped with a computer, cell phone, iPod, radio, and television. There is no reason for a child to leave his or her personal space. It seems as if the right of the individual is more important than the collective righ...

"If you ask most people what Christians believe, they can tell you, ‘Christians believe that Jesus is God’s Son and that Jesus rose from the dead.’ But if you ask the average person how Christians live, they are struck silent. We have not shown the world another way of doing life. Christians pretty much live like everybody else; they just sprinkle a little Jesus in along the way. And doctrine is not very attractive, even if it’s true. Few people are interested in a religion that has nothing to say to the world and offers them only life after death, when what people are really wondering is whether there is life before death." Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical , pg. 117 (emphasis added). We are entering Passion Week, the week where we remember the events that led up to Christ's death and resurrection. I was challenged in church to give generously since God has lavishly imparted His generosity on my life. The speaker was not just re...

This time last year I was a new mom. Our daughter was very jaundice. She had to be supplemented with formula when she was less than a week old. My body wasn't able to meet her nutritional needs. At six weeks of age, she made the complete switch to formula. There. I said it. My daughter was a formula baby. Prior to the switch, my husband and I did all the right things. We attended the classes. We visited lactation consultants. We talked to doctors. We tried herbal remedies. We rented pumps and utilized syringes. We followed feeding schedules. We fed on demand. I could go on... And I received far too much advice from far too many people. When my husband and I stood in the formula aisle faced with decision of choosing an alternative form of nutrition for our baby, I wept. I was a mess. My husband had to pick the formula. After all, I wanted the best for my child. Formula was second best. Today as I mixed the last batch of Nestle Good Start, I cried. It was like I was saying goodbye ...