Racial Harmony Day

Chinese Costume
Malay Costume
Indian Costume
Filipino Costume
Korean Costume

We celebrated Racial Harmony this morning. The children were asked to wear their own ethnic costume or the traditional costume of other races. My own children wore the costumes as you can see above. Nice and adorable children and I love them all!!

I'll post more photos next time.

Difficult People

My husband sleeps early around nine o'clock to nine thirty everyday. When he's already sleeping and the next day will be a no working day, I usually visit other blogs and or post my own entries. Just now,I posted an entry about a meal I cooked ( www.angsaraptalaga.blogspot.com). I also visited blogs. One post I took notice was about the topic of difficult people. There was a question why God gave us difficult people to be with. So I asked myself that question too.

When I was younger, I thought that dealing with difficult people would be a challenge. That was why when I came face to face with real difficult people, I took that as a challenge. I gave myself only a few years, the most two to three to tame them. The first year was really challenging as I tried to revise on the different Personality Theories I learnt in the course of my degree studies. The second year was more on experimentation on why and how those people behave in such a way. The third year was frustrating as I became disoriented on why I could not pin point the rationale of their psychotic behavioural manifestations. The next year, I stopped counting but I continued praying to God to please enlighten them. As I stopped counting, I did not noticed that many years had passed by and I was getting older. When I woke up one morning, I heard a voice as if telling me:" you wasted your years waiting for them to change, did I not tell you that you should avoid loud people in the first place? " Yes, it took me years to realized that most difficult people will never ever change.

Back to the question, why did God allowed difficult people in my life? I don't know if it was fate, but all I can say is that those years with those difficult people made me a better person, mother and wife. Though it made me shaken and disoriented most of the times, I am proud to say that I survived. Yes, I am a survivor. For the strength of mind and spirit I acquired in the process. I thank God. Without God's help, surely I can imagine myself in that cold cruel basement.

So for those difficult people, always remember there will always come a day that your victims will wake up. Got it?

Information on Stroke

picture courtesy of Google Images

Since my husband suffered this cerebrovascular accident or stroke for short, my family learnt a lot about this disease and we learnt to be more health conscious. We are now eating healthy foods, more fruits and vegetables and mostly we buy food items with the Healthier Choice label by the Health Promotion Board.

Here are some information about stroke and stroke prevention courtesy of National Healthcare Group.

Stroke occurs because part of the brain is damaged by lack of blood supply. The lack of blood supply to the brain may be due to blockage or bursting of a brain blood vessel called an artery. The lack of blood supply leads to the symptoms of stroke. About 10% of stroke victims die from stroke. Many of thosee who survive are left severely disabled by the stroke.

Risk Factors:

1. 40 years old and above- but even younger people can get a stroke.

2. Male

3. High blood pressure

4.Smoking

5. High cholesterol

6. Diabetes mellitus

7. Irregular heartbeat (atrial fibrillation)

8. previous stroke or TIA (mini stroke)

9. Excessive alcohol use.

My husband is not smoking, not drinking alcohol, exercises every day, and not diabetic, how come he became a stroke victim? From what I gathered from hospital information and the doctors themselves, stroke is hereditary and is the greatest factor.

As highlighted in www.americanheart.org , here are the risk factors for stroke that can't be changed.
Age - The chance of having a stroke more than doubles for each decade of life after age 55. While stroke is common among the elderly, a lot of people under 65 also have strokes.
Heredity (family history) and race - Your stroke risk is greater if a parent, grandparent, sister or brother has had a stroke. African Americans have a much higher risk of death from a stroke than Caucasians do. This is partly because blacks have higher risks of high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity.
Sex (gender) - Stroke is more common in men than in women. In most age groups, more men than women will have a stroke in a given year. However, more than half of total stroke deaths occur in women. At all ages, more women than men die of stroke. Use of birth control pills and pregnancy pose special stroke risks for women.

So if you have a family history of stroke, you need to be more conscious and well informed. I think, it is a responsibility of a family member who survived stroke to communicate and inform their children and siblings their own experience, like what they felt with this disease so as their loved ones can also prepare and reduce stroke risk.

Symptoms of stroke:

1. Weakness or numbness of one side of the body.

2. Slurred speech, difficulty in speaking.

3. Loss of vision, double vision

4. Unsteadiness in walking, uncoordinated movements

5.Giddiness together with one of the above symptoms

6. The worst headache in your life.

7. Loss of consciousness, coma.

Stroke prevention:

1. Early detection and treatment of high blood pressure.

2. Not smoking.

3. Early detection and treatment of high cholesterol.

4. Early detection and treatment of diabetes mellitus

5. Early detection and treatment of atrial fibrillation

6. Taking prrescribed medication for previous stroke/TIA

7. Limited alcohol intake

8. Adopting a healthy lifestyle.

My husband is taking his medication religiously. Aside from having his physiotherapy and doing his daily exercises, he also eat healthy foods now. I cook food that is less in sodium and less oil for him.

Some of the dishes I cooked for him are here http://www.angsaraptalaga.blogspot.com/.

Follow Your Dreams

Above are photos of my husband before he had his left thalamic bleed. And whenever I look at him now, I feel a little bit sad. Sad that he is not that healthy now. There are so many "ifs " that are flashing in our mind which we should have done to prevent that stroke. You see, stroke is hereditary. As the doctor said, it is bound to happen but can be prevented. "If only if."

What console us now is that my husband is stronger in spirit now. He always recite his affirmations to himself which helped him realized how great a person he is. Here are some of his affirmation (taken from a book I let him read):

1. I am relaxed, trusting in God's plan that is unfolding for me.
2. I have a positively thinking mind and a perfect body.
3. I let go anything I have ever held against myself and see it dissove into the highest light.
4. I give myself permission to live, laugh & love to my fullest capacity.
5. Divine love now dissolves & dissipates every negative condition in my mind, body & circumstances.
6. My sense of worth cannot be measured by comparison with others.

Me and my daughters are very hopeful that my husband will recover fully. And this day, we want him to know that he is well loved. Happy Father's Day! We love you!!

This is for you.

Follow Your Dreams

Follow your dreams

wherever they lead,

don't be distracted by

less worthy needs....

Shelter them, nourish them,

help them to grow,

let your heart hold them

down deep where dreams go.

Be faithful, be loyal,

then all your life through,

the dreams that you follow

will keep coming true.

My Pride and Joy

Since morning I was thinking of a way how to place all the photos my daughter sent me last month on my computer. My scanner has retired already. Then I remember my digital camera, my Canon IXUS 850 15. I decided to take a shot of each of the photos. You know what happened? The photos looked as if I took their pictures myself. Who would imagine I just aimed my shot on the paper and not on them posing in front of me? Thanks to my digital camera.

Now look at them, my pride and joy.

My Thoughts

Hmm, I am now sitting in front of my home computer and decided to visit this blog site of mine. I decided I better write an entry now, while I am not that occupied yet. Well, I am on my fourth day of school holiday. And on the 23rd of this month, classes will resume again. Therefore, this is the right time for me to write my thoughts, those thoughts that are swaying and dancing in my mind.

1. When my husband suffered a brain attack or stroke for short in December 2007, I almost decided to resign from my teaching job so I could concentrate on my husband. In the end I continued teaching and find an alternative care for him. Now that he is already “well”, I am thankful that I made the right decision. I know in my heart that my pre-school children helped me a lot in coping with my situation. They made me happy, confident and loved even though I felt so lost, scared and confused then.

2. I heard a lot about anti-depressant pills like Prozac. Of course, I have nothing against these pills as long as they are prescribed correctly to the right people who need them. Though there are many articles stating new ideas or research which claims that millions of prescriptions for anti-depressants may be having no medical effect at all on the people taking them, I still cling to that idea that it can cure acute depression. But how to know if a person is suffering from depression? Just because a person is manifesting one or two of the symptoms, the doctor can assessed in one sitting that the patient is depressed? With that, I beg to disagree. Correct me if I am wrong, but I learnt in my Clinical Psychology that a person has to go for a battery of tests before he can be diagnose as suffering from depression. Though I believe that pills can help a lot in curing depression, psychotherapy should not be forgotten also. Why I am saying all these? Because my husband’s rehab doctor prescribed 20 mg of Prozac to be administered for a month without my knowledge. Oh, I was not there when he went for his outpatient appointment. But people could not understand why I was so ANGRY and decided not to give those pills to my husband. Why” marunong pa raw ako sa doctor…”? Well, I am “marunong pa sa doctor” for these reasons:a) the doctor concerned should treat my husband’s post stroke problems and not his well being, he is not a psychiatrist by the way, b) I have my right to refuse prescriptions which I think is not appropriate for him, c) I know my husband’s personality and state of mind. I’ve known him for years compared to this doctor who have known him for only a few months, d) I just don’t believe that my husband is depressed, PERIOD. NOW I am thankful that I never let my husband took a single of those pills. I let him read books on relaxation. I let him do relaxation exercises/techniques too.

3. My husband is back to work already. It has been a month since he went back to work. Though he still got difficulty with walking and he has problems with his posture and balance, I can see that he is progressing day by day. I bought the thread mill and exercise bike for him. He still is undergoing physiotherapy and massotherapy every weekend. I am doing my best to help him recover fully. Though, I need to be patient. But I am sure one day he will his own self again.

4. I will always feel the pain those people had inflicted on me and my daughters. Though I may have forgiven them, I will surely not forget. So please, I have closed the book already. Don’t ever come back to our lives again. We don’t need you.

5. I want to say that we still enjoy TFC here in Singapore. We all like LOBO very much. We like Angel Locsin. She can really act.

Oh, this is getting longer. I better write TO BE CONTINUED….

Busy...

I am busy with these kids. I find joy being a major part in their over- all development. I am also busy with my husband. I feel happy and satisfied that he makes it a point to finish the food with less salt, less sugar and less oil I prepared/cooked especially for him.
And I am as busy as them.

Photo 1: My 2008 pre school children. How nice to see them smile on camera.

Photo 2: My husband with me at Narita Airport. How nice to see him so healthy and fit.

Photo 3: My twin grandkids. How nice to see them at play.

Oh, I've really been soooo busy. Do I complain ? No, I never did. How come one person asked me to take a break? Wow! If she only knew that my being busy is a play for me. Yes dearie, I am busy but I am happy. Can you beat that?

A Teachable Moment at GAP

"Hmmm, all these sunglasses look good for me and my sisters.."
"Wow! This piece suits me."
"Big sis, this is the colour I like."
"Well, well, we have chosen what we like. We can go now."

For children like my grandkids, shopping is just so simple. They will just select the items they like and presto, they can bring the items home. Just like what they did with those sunglasses. They kept them inside their individual pockets and got out of the store without my daughter and me or even the sales clerk noticing that they had those.

When we were inside the car, my daughter noticed those sunglasses. I took that as an opportunity to teach them values in life. I asked my daughter to go back to the store to explain what happened before paying them. With that experience my grandkids learnt that things in the store are meant to be paid. They cannot bring home things that they have not yet paid. Mostly, they learnt that they have to ask permission from their Mom before they can take things away from the store.

This was just a simple situation wherein we adults can make use of the"teachable moment" to young kids. When we make use of those teachable moments, it will be easier for children to understand and remember values and facts of life.

So the next time you go on shopping with your kids, look out for those teachable moments. Don't let those moments slip away without your kids not learning from the situation.

Three Angels

We miss you girls.

We miss you angels.

We love you!

See you soon, again!

Happy Lunar New Year

Happy Lunar New Year to everybody!!!!
May the Year of the Rat brings happiness and prosperity to all!!!

I've tried to post something since I came back from Williamsburg. But I was not able to.

Then, unexpectedly (of course!!) my husband suffered a mild stroke. That was why we spent our Christmas and New Year in the hospital. My husband's condition made us more closer as a family. We learnt to appreciate the importance of each other and the simple things in life. I can still say that we are still lucky. We are so thankful to God for all the blessings.

My family is also very thankful to the SCDF people, NUH doctors and High Dependency nurses, TTSH Rehab Hospital doctors and nurses and especially to Pei Fen and KC, my husband's PT and OT. We thank all of you wonderful people for all the help and care you showed to my husband.

And to this day, though there are a lot of changes in our lifestyle and everyday life, my family and my husband especially, are so very positive in looking at life and in the greatness of God.

So with this new year, we all wish everybody the best of everything.