Building An Ark in Singapore - Homeschool Blogger

Just A Reminder

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 08:58:00 -0600

Two things :

1. I have moved this blog to :

www.MamaLim.WordPress.com

and to subscribe to email alerts when the latest posts are up, please click on this link :

Subscribe to Building An Ark in Singapore by Email

2. While I have not moved Building Up Moms, it's URL has changed to :

www.BuildingUpMoms.WordPress.com

and to subscribe to email alerts for this blog, please click on this link :

Subscribe to Building Up Moms by Email

Sorry for all the inconvenience!

New Year, New Look

Fri, 9 Jan 2009 10:17:00 -0600

As promised I have moved Building An Ark in Singapore over to WordPress. The new url is :

http://www.mamalim.wordpress.com.

I had decided to switch over to WordPress as it had more features than HomeschoolBlogger especially for someone computer illiterate like me! HomeschoolBlogger is great for someone who knows all those HTML codes and then they are able to tweak things around and personalise their own blogs. Now I ain't computer savvy and yet want a blog that looks like MINE and mine only! Besides, Building Up Moms (www.BuildingUpMoms.WordPress.com) is also hosted there so it makes things a little bit easier for me.

Do not that I am only transferring some posts over. So if you are looking for past postings, you'l l have to continue to check it out at www.HomeSchoolBlogger.com/MamaLim.

And remember to Subscribe to Building An Ark in Singapore by Email if you want to be kept updated of new postings!

PS : For those of you who have kindly put me under your blogroll and/or links, could you please help me amend the url? Thanks sooooo much!

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Articles for the Christian SAHM can be found at :

www.BuildingUpMoms.WordPress.com

Blessed New Year!

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:59:00 -0600

The year draws to a close tonight and we'll see 2009 in the morning.

What will it bring I wonder? When it was drawing to a close, I thought it would never come fast enough, especially since I really wanted it to be March 2009 to be able to birth the baby! But then as the year edged closer and closer to its end, I started feeling a sense of dread.

I guess knowing the work ahead of me is making me feel a little less than enthusiastic about 2009. Even apprehensive even, if I may add.

Dealing with a newborn, being even more sleep deprived than I already am, homeschooling 5 children, 11, 9, 7, 6 and 4 with ds #1 going officially into P5 (one more year and then we hit PSLE!), more household chores to be done/supervised with one more addition to the family, small as she may be, etc, etc, etc... Just thinking about it is making my stomach churn!

And this is with me being more prepared than I have ever been at the end of any year since we started homeschooling (having set up my DIY Planner, Homeschooling Planner, et al). I am still feeling a little low. I guess being tired out from the bout of food poisoning is not helping. Physical exhaustion is not fun Everything seems overwhelming when one is tired.

I know I need to go back to the Lord and start putting Him first rather than focusing on all the stuff I need to do in 2009. But easier said than done I must say!!!

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matt 6:33-34

Have a Blessed New Year ahead and may you be less stressed than I am! Lol!

PS : I will most likely be shifting this blog to WordPress.com for easier monitoring since Building Up Moms is also hosted there. Keep a lookout for the announcement when I finally muster up enough eneergy to set it all up.

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Articles for the Christian SAHM can be found at :

www.BuildingUpMoms.com

Food Poisoning!

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 19:36:00 -0600

Man, oh man. Was it baaad! On Saturday, 27th December, I had te worst bout of food poisoning ever in my life! The thing is I don't even know what I ate that caused it since I was the only one (thank God!) that had the attack. Everyone else was fine and we (the whole family and friends) ate the same spread of food at both lunch and dinner parties!

I was throwing up and purging from about 10pm (after dinner) and cramping up real bad. I threw up til I had nothing to throw up anymore. (Moms with bad morning sickness in pregnancy - I salute you! I certainly can't/don't want to imagine how it is like to throw up in the 1st trimester, or worse still, the whole 9 months!).

This went on till past midnight. I thought I could sleep it off since I was extremely sleepy and fell aslpee inbetween tht ebouts of vomitting/purging. But no, it didn't let up at all. I was actually in a fix. I knew then I had to get myself to a dr for the jab to stop the vomitting but how??? I can't possibly drive there on my own. And I can't get all the children up just so I can go to the dr.

And then as I was praying and praying, the Lord impressed upon me to call my dad. So I did. And I prayed that his phone was turned on! Thank God for him. Immediately he agreed to drive over. I got him to drive me to the nearest 24 hour clinic at Mount Alvernia Hospital while dh stayed on to watch over the children just in case any of them should wake up in the middle of the night.

Thank God I was the only patient there and was seen by the dr almost immediately. I asked for the jab as I knew from past experience that it provides the most immediate relief to vomitting. There was no point giving me medication orally as I would throw it up in the next 5 to 10 minutes!

Then we headed home and I slept for the next 3 hours straight through! But I had to wake up to drink something as I was feeling extremely dehydrated. But drinking the much needed water caused me to have to get up and visit the toilet

The next day (Sunday) dh and ds had to forgo serving as dh had to watch over the children while I crashed out the whole morning. Thankfully, my parents could come over in the afternoon while dh had to go speak at a Youth Church Camp in Sentosa!

Today (Monday) I am feeling much better but still weak overall and aching all over. Dh's off again to speak at the Camp this morning and then again tonight.

I pray I have anough energy to last! What an adventure.

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Articles for the Christian SAHM can be found at :

www.BuildingUpMoms.com

Why must it be so new age-y?

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 04:10:00 -0600

I have been trawling the net for unplanned, unassisted birth stories (I'll tell you why in a moment). And I have been struck by the amount of stories and videos I have found. They are awesome. The ladies are very brave to put up their birthing videos on the net! I learnt a lot from just watching but yikes! I certainly wouldn't want to post me birthing my babies for the whole world to see. Kudos to these moms!

BUT

Why, oh why are they all the stories tinged with new age elements? Stuff like hypnobirthing, calling the placenta "mother placenta" (?!), and even orgasmic birthing?!?!?!?! Oh me, oh my!

I find it so sad that a strictly Christian perspective is so lacking. The only one I have found is Christian UC but even then..............

In the stories I have read, the ladies have experienced birth the way our God has intended but instead of giving glory to Him, they are acknowledging another god, another force. It shouldn't be this way. It is God who created our bodies to bear and to birth and to nurse the babies He has blessed us with. If we work with His design and not in fear, we should all be able to experience a natural, if not a supernatural and painfree birth.

But sadly most women, even Christian women, do not experience birth that way. Instead labour and birth are viewed with dread and terror, something to be gotten over and done with so that we can get to hold the baby.

It need not be that way. Really. Do read my birth stories and I pray you'll be blessed by them. I cannot go through this detailed teaching in a single posting (that's why we hold Experiencing God In Pregnancy talks) but there are 2 main things :

a) In the spiritual, believe that you have been redeemed from the curse and

b) In the practical, read and prepare yourself to know what and how natural labour and delivery should be. A good book to start you off is Supernatural Childbirth.

Why search for unplanned, unassisted birth stories?

And if you are wondering WHY I am looking for unplanned, unassisted birth stories...well, if you read my last Birth Story, you'd know that the baby came real fast once labour was established. I just want to be prepared should we be unable to make it in time for the hospital thsi time round. I know 2 ladies who had their babies at home due to the speed at which the babies decided to make their appearances. I do not have a doula so I need to be prepared myself. And also to prepare dh should he be required to catch the baby .

My sil (dh's sister) who had planned a homebirth for her 3rd baby (in the UK) had to summon her dh to catch the baby coz the baby just decided to come out real fast. The midwives came only about 10 minutes after everything was completed. So, one never knows. And I'd rather be prepared than to be an ostrich and say it'd never happen to me.

And no, I would not want to check myself into the hospital early at all! It is just not comfortable. Period. I like labouring at home with absolutely no pressure and I prefer being away from the other children as little as possible.

How about just have a homebirth? Well, my dr is not for it. I asked him twice before And I am not about to fight him about it. So my grand plan is to have the baby at the hospital but to be prepared just in case. Although it would really be nice to have the baby in the calmness of our home, Hmm............

Pray with me "not my will but His be done"!

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Articles for the Christian SAHM can be found at :

www.BuildingUpMoms.com

Coming to an end...

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 20:26:00 -0600

As 2008 draws to a close, and I look back at the year, I must confess that I have no idea what exactly happened! Everything is blurry and sadly so. It made me realise that I should keep a proper journal of the ups and downs of our lives as a record of God's faithfulness and mercy.

Instead, I have allowed life's busy-ness to overtake me and my tiredness to overwhelm me. This is not good I started a private blog early this year but have not been faithfully updating it at all.

So I resolve to do this come 2009. I haven't quite decided what form it should take - blog (private/public) or the old fashioned way of writing it all down with a pen and book?

But I encourage you to do the same - keep a log of what is happening and affecting you. Remember the Memorial Stones Joshua had the people of Israel build after they crossed the River Jordan in Joshua 4? We need to remember that God has done in our lives. We are a forgetful people and we each need our memorial stones to help us remember and recount God's goodness in our lives and His mercies upon us.

And it is good to recount them to our children too. We can leave behind a godly legacy (at least try! ) for our children and their children.

So in the busy-ness of this season, do not forget the Lord God who brought us out of our individual Egypt and into His Promised Land.

And dear Readers, thank you for reading and commenting the past year. Hopefully, you'll return come 2009 Oh! And I may just switch to another blog host. I am not really pleased with the templates I have to work with here. I'll keep you posted when I finally decide what to do!

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Articles for the Christian SAHM can be found at :

www.BuildingUpMoms.com

18th Blessing!

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 00:26:00 -0600

And you think MY family is large!

The Duggars just had their 18th child and 8th girl. And they actually want moore! And I think it is highly possible considering Michelle Duggar is only 42!

For the full story, click HERE.

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Articles for the Christian SAHM can be found at :

www.BuildingUpMoms.com

Pregnancy Musings : Nesting Instinct Attack!

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 07:01:00 -0600

Although I have been feeling extremely big and heavy at only week 29 (Can't or is it don't?! want to imagine how I'll feel at 40 weeks!) I've been hit by the nesting instinct - much to the chagrin of my dh again!

After our return from Malacca (with Christalite Methodist Church), I have been doing load after load of laundry. And today, I started decluttering the balcony AGAIN! I've already did one round back in June but then we acquired a freezer recently. And we've decided to put it in the already cramped balcony. So something has to go.

So I have had to be even more brutal in cutting down the amount of toys and other stuff that been stored in the balcony/playroom. I don't usually have a problem throwing away or giving away or selling away stuff. But when it is already pared down to the minimum and I still have no space...ahh!!! it is HARD!

But it's been done! And I am pleased with the results.

Tomorrow, I attack the kids' rooms! My goal is to clear out as much clutter as possible off the top of the bookshelves and cupboards so that dusting will be much easier for the kids to do. And as I assign them that job (with close supervision coz I have one pack rat in our midst!) I'll be clearing out my own wardrobe.

After that? Not much else since we are really down to the minimum. But I'll be looking at re-organising our living spaces. Sometimes shifting a piece or two of furniture here and there can help "open up" the space and allow maximum usage of the limited space we have. This is one major reason why we don't have built in cupboards or even wall shelves.

BTW I am also making use of ny nesting instinct to keep me occupied and not think of the fact that I have another 11 more weeks of feeling big and heavy to go! I sure wish it is March 2009 already! The increasing BH contractions I have is making me uncomfortable even though I know it is a GOOD thing! At least my muscles are working hard to tone itself in preparation for the birth.

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Articles for the Christian SAHM can be found at :

www.BuildingUpMoms.com

Pregnancy Musings : The Name Game

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 09:29:00 -0600

Ahh!!! 28 weeks and counting and we still haven't decided on any name for the baby!

I often marvel at those who can resist the temptation to find out if they are carrying a boy or girl and are able to come up with 2 sets of names (English and Chinese, mind you!) while they await the birth of their baby. Coming up with one set of English (and Christian) and Chinese name is stressful eough, I say!

The other children aren't helping much since they keep asking us what the baby's name is every night when we say our bedtime prayers!

But! I finally have a name in mind now. So now we wait upon the Lord to confirm it with dh - or not! And then begins another round of searching and praying for her Chinese name.

Oh - and don't ask us what her name is, ok? Coz we don't tell till the baby is born .

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Articles for the Christian SAHM can be found at :

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A Family Gathering

Tue, 9 Dec 2008 00:22:00 -0600

It was an interesting lunch we had yesterday. Dh's cousins (mom's side) decided to hold a family gathering of all the aunts, uncles, cousins who are in town. I actually got to see what a HUGE family gathering is like! Now one would require a LARGE house or one would have to book a huge room at a hotel or club to host something like that. One of dh's cousins had the HUGE house.

And we had roti prata from Casuarina Prata and satay for lunch. Yums! The kids gorged themselves silly of course. Me? I had self-restraint.

Dh's grandma had 5 children. And they produced 14 grandchildren for her and I don't know how many great grandchildren since not all were there. I have never met most of them since I married dh 13 years ago!

However, although the older generation grew up in a large family, sadly, most of the 14 grandchildren had the token 1 to 2 child. So, we, with our 6 + 1 children were an oddity amongst them. And I do mean an oddity like the town's circus act

Many just came up to us and gaped. Now that was not pleasant especially to pregnant, grouchy me. But other than that, it was well...interesting. Makes me wonder how big a house we would need to have to house a gathering of our own, if the Lord should choose to tarry a little while longer and blesses us with grandchildren!

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Articles for the Christian SAHM can be found at :

www.BuildingUpMoms.com