Updates on homeschooling the girls

Salam Ramadhan everyoneee!!

When I said homeschooling, don't get me wrong, I still send K and will send A to school. It's just that I treat the school as a place where Khaira revises what she first learned at home, not the other way around.

I haven't been updating their progress for quite a while, so here goes..

K is now in her 22nd Surah, As-Shams. In the morning, when I sent her to school, she would memorize 5 long surahs or 6 short surahs so that by Friday, she would be done revising all the 21 surahs she has memorized.

Starting from early this year, I gave her a page of revision book to be done in the evening. Either Malay, English, Math or Science, just to practice for her Standard 1 later on, that took her around 10 minutes max to get it done.

After Maghrib, I would teach her mengaji while she would memorize 1 ayat from the surah, then do 10 lines story book reading with her. According to days, I would either do English reading, spelling or math with her.

At the moment, no learning at all on weekends, I shall start next year.

Picnic at Grandmom's

I am honestly quite nervous for 2018, where K will be in Standard 1. The tahfiz school I intended to send Khaira earlier is changing her syllabus, no longer following government's. So, I'm looking for another school for her, which made me quite restless.

On top of that, HAVE YOU SEEN WHAT THEY TAUGHT IN PRIMARY SCHOOL NOWADAYS?? I just saw it, and mannnn, I'm even more nervous now. Of course my priority is the Quran, but I'm not taking easy on other stuff as well. But at the same time, she is just a kid, so I let her play all she wants. And TV, because she learned a lot from that as well.

As for Aisha, this week I'm migrating from flashcard to Al Barqy. Make lots of doa for me in this Ramadhan ya, friends.

Have a blessed Ramadhan everyone! May we all be given the strength by the Almighty to be more istiqamah in educating our amanah. ♥

P/S: Kaps and I will be going to Power Parenting 30th July later, see you there lovelies!

Make an adjustment

Been busy with a cousin's wedding these past two weeks.

Last Saturday night was the groom's reception. But nope, I'm not here to talk about the beautiful wedding (the wedding was beautiful, btw) or the gorgeous bride (and the bride was stunning of course). I'm here to talk about the speech of the father of the bride.

Many times I either get bored or get all teary by the speeches during weddings.

But, this is the first time I found a wedding speech that is truly inspiring.

My uncle started his speech with how languages differ these days. Back then, he said 'gay' means 'happy', 'ass' means 'donkey', 'chick' means 'a newly hatched bird', 'cock' means a 'rooster' and 'straight' means 'a line that is not bent'.

But now, with the new technology and all, everything differs. Even his two year old grandson brings ipad everywhere he goes now. And the languages, of course differ.

In my uncle's visits to 25 high schools in KL, he asked the headmister/headmistress if they know the meaning of "LOL!"

Only 1 out of 25 knows the meaning of "LOL"..

We often thought teachers were the ones that can touch the heart of the youngsters better and here the reality sits in, they don't even speak the same languages.

So the moral of the uncle's speech to his son is to "Make an adjustment" to the son's kids when they have one later. It's going to be a different world apart, us and our kids, and we are the ones that need to make the adjustments to adapt to them.

And it hits me, really hard that the simple speech can actually make me cry.

How many times in my teaching life, I've been complaining of not understanding my student's emails or smses. Bigger things, their attitudes per say. And I kept on comparing how I was not treating my lecturer that way back in my studying life.

When the truth is, I am not willing to make any adjustment at all to actually reach them...

Little Princess, I will try to make an adjustment for you k, anything it takes. ♥

A farewell is necessary before we can meet again

Such a nice Friday to mourn..

But I still mourn anyway, wearing head black to toe, suits my mood not only today, but the weeks before and the weeks that will come after today.

Sigh..

I hate farewell. The impact of this farewell might mean a lot to me compared to anyone else. There goes my teacher, my advisor, my trainer, my friend..

I hope this is not a goodbye. You will forever be missed.


Handmade by Aiman and Goh, where they etch the PCB board themselves, true engineers these two.
"Don't be dismayed at goodbyes,
A farewell is necessary before you can meet again,
And meeting again after moments of lifetimes,
is certain for those who are friends"

A dreamer, doer and thinker..

When i received her message last two days, telling me that she might not be able to make it to ITEX 2010, I chose to not take it seriously. I knew her very well, and she wouldn't miss this important event, she's a wonderwoman.

Then yesterday, I received a short message telling me she "might not be able to make it, please prepare for the presentation." I thought, "Me? A presentation to impress the judges? That's too funny, better asked someone with Doctorate do it." Again, I chose to play dumb.

But later that evening, upon receiving the phone call from her that I started to feel like my world was upside down for a while. I just sat in the car for about 15 minutes with lots of thoughts going through my mind.

She said she's not coming. She was sick. The sickness was quite serious. Googling about her sickness doesn't make me feel better at all. She said she was so down, she did not feel like doing anything. And that there's no other person that is suitable to present the project but me, since I'm local. And she sounded very different from the person we knew, that I cried in the car.

I'm not crying because I need to present. I don't mind presenting. Although I didn't prepare anything. And I have less than 24 hours to prepare. I took that opportunity for me to shine, for me to challenge my intelligence.

I'm crying because I feel helpless. To not able to do anything to help a person who help builds who I am currently; the one you are proud of and even better the one she is proud of.

At night, the stress got even worse. The need to get a gold medal for her, as I see it's the only way for me to make her happy.

And in the morning, after calling to check up on her, and the whole way to KL Convention Centre thinking how dull would it be without her, I eventually got to the hall feeling a sense of emptiness all over me. We used to have so much fun in MTE, where she helped me to shine on my first exhibition, thus steal the gold medal.

Just about I put my phone in the locker, I received a message from her,

"Salam, sorry to put you thru this, but I know you'll be fine. I am trying to distress my nerves at home. Dr said that my nerves too work up and manifestating it on my leg. Anyway tqvm for giving ur best all this while. Tq."

Then, I stood up from where I sit, did my make up a bit, cheered myself up, took the judging criteria's note, go through the flow a few times, and when the judges came, I imagined how she would kill the presentation and impressed the judges, I did just as that.

And when I was done, all my project members ran to me, hugging me, "Impressive! Very confident! OMG they love you, Ikeen, the judges love you!"

I blurred for a while, and I quickly grab the phone, calling the woman who is already a part of me. My mentor. My supervisor. My project leader. My head of department. My inspiration.

This is for you.. And may we get that gold medal and may you recover very soon.

Thank you for everything. I love you, for everything you are. And I am proud to work under your department, a department that you called as the Department of dreamers, doers and thinkers.

Superwife

I want to be a good wife to my husband. I really do. Not just another wife, I want to be a superwife. I wanted to make my hubby happy, cuz seeing him happy in return never fails to make me happy.

I did not have much examples of a newly married superwife that inspired me. My cousins were all depending on maids, or mums or some in a long distance marriage, so I really did not have any idea how superwife should be like.

I've always inspired by Posh and Becks since they are always with each other through thick and thin. And always ALWAYS holding hands in even the most ridiculous situation. So I began to call this one newly married couple in my office, Posh and Becks --> Indonesian version, cuz they're foreigner. Haha. They would always hold hands each time I saw them, even when they were eating. (Seriously! My friend, once even got disgusted with them)

See, the wife was a lecturer back in their country. And both of them came here because the hubby is furthering his Master. The wife had to stop working completely, and each day is filled with following the hubby to office. Which I think is a big sacrifice, from a career woman to a full time housewife, with no entertainment, no friends, and her life is her husband. Amazing, huh?

So, yesterday, this lucky husband came to my office and told me that he just finished his research. Trust me, I hardly even talk to this guy. But, he came eventually, with the wife. And told me that because of that, to say thanks to Allah, the wife cooked some Indonesian foods for everyone. Sweet kan?

And thatfood, which I forgot the name, tasted like one of the best thing I've ever tasted. Probably because of the sincerity of this wife. And while I was eating that, I stopped and pondered, how thoughtful that wife was. I couldn't stop thinking of her. The husband must be really proud and happy having her as a wife.

Today, as I was browsing through fb, i saw the husband's status..

Alhamdulillah Alat research ini sukses dan kami sujud syukur di Lab, semua ini tak kan ada artinya tanpa pengorbanan dan perjuangan isteri saya yang selalu menemani saya dengan sabar siang malam di Lab dan selalu memberikan semangat dan membantu memeriksa pekerjaan mahasiswa dan memasak makanan yang enak2. Semoga Allah... yang mampu membalas semua kebaikan isteriku dan juga semua pengorbanan orang tuaku.

And when I read that, I immediately replied..

Your wife inspires me to be a good wife later on.

And I seriously mean it. There goes, I finally have a newlywed superwife as an inspiration. Alhamdulillah, doa dimakbulkan.

A tribute to Yasmin Ahmad

Tan Hong Ming: "Her name is Umi. Umi Qazrina, I like her"

Narrator: "Why do you like her?"

Tan Hong Ming: "She wears earring.."

Some part of my most fav ad that i can remember. Percintaan Tan Hong Ming, Merdeka ad by Yasmin Ahmad.

You see, I am not a big fan of Yasmin. Yup i watched all her movies. You can love a lot of thing about her movies, and you can hate as much equally. So i'm in the neutral line. Some controversial parts she showed were beyond my limit, but then again.. you can never hate Yasmin.. you just can't. She touches the heart ever so deeply.

I remembered when Sepet came out, I didn't have any Malay guy friends in uni, all my guy friends were Chinese. After Sepet, one of my Chinese guy friend finally confessed to my girlfriend that he liked her. Even more, he said that he had the gut to admit her feeling because of Sepet. And we eventually got even closer than before.. up until today.

Yasmin Ahmad, we lost such a beautiful soul, semoga roh Yasmin dicucuri rahmat. Al-fatihah..

"I never did a days work in my life-it was out all fun"

Since I am in Electrical engineering field, perhaps one of the famous people that inspires me the most is Thomas Edison, the bulb inventor. He failed almost 2000 times before his bulb was working. And his reply to those who asked about his failure is very simple and inspiring, "I didn't fail. I just found 2 thousand ways how not to create a light bulb."


Here are some other famous quotes from Mr. Edison that i treasured most:


"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."


"Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration."


"To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk."


"Negative results are just what I want. They’re just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t."


"The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense. "


"I never did a days work in my life-it was out all fun"


Really, it was and still is fun here doing my Masters. And you Mister, you will not let me down with your negative commnets that you don't even sure whether it's true or not.


i will, i repeat I WILL pass my viva perfectly by this year, insya Allah. And you are not bringing me down.


I am in the progress of enhancing my algorithm, and i will be an expert in that field one day. I really will. Ameen. :)

The man who sold newspaper

I found one reason to love my neighborhood this morning.. finally.

There is only ONE way to go out from my housing area to the highway. And by the road, there is an old chinese man who sells some Chinese newspapers, and each morning, many cars stopped by the road to buy the newspaper since half of the population in my residential is Chinese.

Every single time I passed by that road, I will feel annoyed. With some selfish cars double parking by the road or braking up all of a sudden to get their newspaper without giving any signals. Since I was always annoyed, I never realized this old Chinese guy, sitting down, waving at the car that passed by with a really sweet smile. When I finally realized that, I couldn't care less for I thought he was attracting me to buy his Chinese newspaper, while obviously, my skin tone didn't reflect any of my Chinese look (if i happen to inherit that from any of my ancestors).

Only lately that I realized, he was doing it very sincerely. His smile is so genuine. But not until today that I started to appreciate the beauty of that little stall by the road. It was raining heavily this morning, that only a couple of cars stopped by. So, I can see that old man clearly.

He was wearing his yellow raincoat, with umbrealla, stepping outside the big umbrella that covered his stall, and waving at my car with the sweetest smile that I can think of right now.

That's the only reason that makes me feel, "well, this place is not that bad after all." And ONE reason is all i need. :)

Not just Jean Perry

Last Wednesday after work we went shopping for 5 hours from from 5 until 10pm, first shopping for Dermalogica in Equinne, where one of my friends said she wanted to take a look at the items first but ended up spending nearly RM900. Well, yup.. the promoter is quite pushy and annoying at times.

But it's not what i'm here to talk about.. then after the beauty saloon, we went to Jusco Equine. I didn't want to miss the sale, so I decided to buy a new nice comforter for.. urm.. my engagement party, which is months from now, but who cares. So, I found this gorgeous silk comforter in purple from Jean Perry that blended perfectly with my room. It was kinda love at first sight. And it was 70% off!!~

I called my mum, psyched. Even more it was cheaper than my allocated budget. But my mum said it was quite expensive. I became demotivated and started to call everyone to motivate me to buy the bedsheet + comforter. Tho I asked the very kind-hearted promoter to just issue the receipt, I was going to buy it anyway, just need some extra boost to not feel that much guilty.

And so suddenly, the promoter asked me, "untuk ape ni dik?" (She's around the same age with me, or maybe younger). "Wedding ke?"

I replied, "Tunang je"

She asked again, "Nak save budget ke?" I gave her an ironic look for asking me that question, but I nodded. She smiled and tore the price tag from the bedsheet's bag, and issue a new receipt. RM 20+ cheaper than the discounted price.

I asked her with my eyes wide open, "Are u serious? Is it legal for u to do this?"

She just smiled and said, "Untuk tunang kan. Dah jom, akak letak kat counter."

Amazing ok! I'm not even asking her anything, but she was so thoughtful. So thoughtful, that my friend who didn't have any intention to buy any comforter, bought one, exactly the same design as mine but different colours. Because of that RM20 less she offered to me, she even got another customer to buy that comforter.

She makes my day. Not because of that RM20 which honestly didnt make that much of a difference, but because of her kindness. And because of that, I can ensure u the next comforter I am going to buy is definitely from Jean Perry. I'll keep coming back because this girl (Noor Ain.. yup, I glanced through her name tag) reminds me that the world is still full of love. That not all promoters are pushy and annoying.

Jean Perry, u should be lucky having this girl as ur worker. May Allah bless u, Noor Ain. :)

The day I met a woman from "Chicken Soup for the Soul"

Few years back, when I was doing a Community Service in HUKM, I met this wonderful woman named Datin Seri Evelynn. She was a volunteer in the psychiatric ward, spending her every Wednesday doing play-doh for the children. Again, I shall write down the title before her name here.. "DATIN SERI". She's already filthy rich, and she can just spend her money to go shopping all day long, relaxing at home with her three daughters, vacationing with her dearest hubby, etc.. But despite of all the fabulosity, she's doing a volunteer work in HUKM. And I said to myself, "One day, I'll be just like her".

Then, when I became a volunteer for FESPIC '06, I met a whole lot of mesmerizing ppl. I remembered this one Aunty which we used to call her 'Mama' and because of that I forgot her real name. She trained us on how to handle ppl with wheelchair, blind ppl and etc. She was so old, as old as my Grandmother. Despite of spending her remaining life with her grandchildrens, she chose to be a volunteer work for an OKU. So, again, I said to myself, "One day, I'll be just like her".

I have met quite a number of amazing ppl throughout my 24 years of life. I wish to remember, if not all, at least some of them in my heart. I hope, few years later, once I read this article again, I would probably be one of them already.

Yesterday, when I went shopping with 'Love' in Jusco Equinne, an Indian lady approached us. Her name was Manu and she was a reporter in NST. (I googled about her in NST just now, she was telling the truth). One day she went to a house where some ppl left their parents or 'special' childrens there, and she was so touched. So what she did was, after work, she would wander around, asking help from ppl like us to buy foods for the ppl in that house. I can't find myself saying, "One day, I'll be just like her".

Why? Because u need a lot of courage to ask money from ppl, even for a good course. Someone might think u are a con, someone might yelled out in front of ur face, someone might even throw u out from that place. But this wonderful woman, she had the courage to do it with love and care.

I admire her so much. But, yet I still can't find myself saying, "One day, I'll be just like her".

Dedicated to all the wonderful women and men who woke up in the morning with a heart full of love and slept at nigh with a contented heart.

A stranger that inspires me..

Not many people gave me a good impression the first time I met them. Not even my boyfriend. As a matter of fact, I can still remember those people whom I instantly impressed when I first knew them. See, love at the first sight doesn't work for me.

That is why I am quite slow at making friends. But I love meeting new people... (Well, who wouldn't?) Because there is always, always, ALWAYS a gem inside that someone no matter how colourless it appears on the outside. Even more interesting, the more colourless they are, the better the gem inside.

So, yesterday morning I had an interview. After more than 2 hours waiting for my slots without having anyone to talk to, not even the 2 guys besides me.. A chinese guy came to me. He was so decent and he was the only one who was wearing blazer for that interview.

Him : Hye, finish preparing?
Me : (Shocked) Yup.. I'll be in within 5 minutes.
Him : U want some coffee, let me take u a cup before u go in.
Me : (Flattered but still in shocked) Nvm, too nervous for a coffee, maybe afterwards. But tq tho.
Him : U must be Miss Nurul rite?
Me : (Even more puzzled) Yup.
Him : (Before I could asked him how did he know my name, he explained calmly) Owh, I have the list of those who came to the interview. (Of course, I have that too, but I dunno ur name!! So, he showed me the list. Under my name, is my Undergrad ID number. Before I asked, he explained again..) I'm from Uniten. Since it's only u n me from Uniten, I tried to find u, maybe we can go together for this interview, but I cant find u in the database.
Me : Owh.. When are u presenting?
Him : I'm in the evening session. But I came early just in case something's came up. (For real?)

Then after my interview, I went to see him again. I hardly accepted any coffee invitation from a guy before cuz I'm not comfortable with that. But this time, I wanted to know him more. So I went to him. The first words that came out from his mouth.

Him : U were inside exactly 15 minutes. (Staring at his watch)
Me : I know, the panel said the same thing to me. What? U're recording my time inside?
Him : (Smiling) U want a thank you card?
Me : A what? Thank you card?
Him : Yup, I have an extra card. U can give it to the panels and sign ur name there.
Me : That is thoughtful. Btw, u might want to install ur powerpoint first before ur slots if they allow u to.. because just now, the lappy had a hard time reading my thumby. (Happy to help, since he helps me a lot)
Him : It's ok I guess. Cuz I saved it also in CD and floppy disk.
Me : (Who else is using CD and floppy disk nowadays.. but that is very very.. how to put it.. well prepared) Owh kayy.. But u know what, the presentation is only 4 minutes. I'm preparing for 15 minutes slides. Sigh.. If u can find any source to the comp, maybe u would want to alter ur slides.
Him : Owh, my lappy is inside the car. (Of course, u bring ur lappy, well-prepared boy!)

Then, we had our coffee. Being such a gentleman, he took the coffee for me. But before he went to take that cup of coffee, guess what he asked me? "U want coffee or tea? With sugar or creamer?"

Then while having our coffee, during one of the funniest conversation we had, a few drops of coffee spilt at his white shirt. I am panicking and quickly gave him the tissue he gave me earlier. Then, he said......

Him : Nvm, I had... (I cut it before he finished his sentences)
Me : Extra shirt inside ur car? Of course... (Smiling)
Him : (Smiling back) Yup, let me walk u to ur car.

And so he did. So this entry is a reminder for me and maybe for all of us, on how well-prepared someone can be at a time. Some might call him skema, or a geek or whatever, but I call him as another inspiration, where he had cleared the road with a lot of stones in front of him before he actually took that route.

How can a 7 year old boy refused a McD?

Last Saturday, I went to Tampin with Love for his friend's engagement. His friend is a girl. And this friend's fiancee's REALLY BIG (in fact, the biggest I've ever encountered) rombongan came at about 2.30 pm, everyone is sooooooo stylo and so 'Datin' and 'Datuk' like. But, the first impression I got is that they're nice ppl.

But i'm not planning to talk about that actually. So, I had my lunch there with the fiancee's rombongan. There were LOTS of cute babies and kids who look so adorable with their full set of baju Melayu and Kurung. I overheard this old man conversation with his son who is maybe at his innocent age of 7.

The Dad asked, "... (the name of the boy), nak McD tak balik ni?" And the son answered, "Oh, tak nak. Amerika, Daddy! Amerika!"

I turned around to see that small boy with a big heart. And so I smiled. :)