Picnic Ke Hutan

Musim kemarau kemarin ketika kami sudah tidak ada ide mau kemana dan buat apa. Pergi keluar kota seems not a wise idea since pandemic and the number of infection getting big and bigger. Akhirnya mencari jalan aman dengan menengok budhe di desa.

Dari bermain-main di sawah yang beberapa tempat sudah mulai panen jagung, kami memetik beberapa yang masih agak muda untuk di bakar.

Pada sore hari ketika matahari sudah tidak terlalu terik, kami membungkus makanan dan bersama-sama naik motor ke Hutan di sebelah kampung.

Hutan kami merupakan hutan jati yang pada musim kemarau, tanahnya pun kering dan cukup panas (beda dengan hutan hujan tropis yang selalu basah dan lembab pada musim apapun.

Anak-anak seperti biasa, tanpa aba-aba mulai berpencar dan bermain.

        Look at the colour of their feet x_x

Sebagian mencari belalang hutan. Kami menyukai belalang hutan karena warnanya sangat berbeda dengan belalang kebun pada umumnya, beberapa anak sibuk memetik bunga, ada juga yang sibuk selfie dan bermain tik-tok.

Menjelang senja, kami mandi dan bersiap-siap untuk pulang ke Purwodadi. 

Great place to spend day with kids ;) 

Birthday By The Park

Ulang Tahun di Taman Kota.

Sebenarnya sudah dua bulan yang lalu kami merayakan hari lahir kemenakan yang ke-9.

Karena ingin tempat yang berbeda dan waktu perayaan yang agak panjang, kami memilih untuk melakukan di taman kota belakang rumah.

Dengan membawa sedikit culture playgroup kami dari Malaysia (hehe) saya menyarankan untuk potluck saja agar tidak memberatkan orang tua.

Setiap ibu membawa satu jenis makanan atau lebih untuk dishare bersama. Seperti biasa, sebagai ibu yang pemalas, saya membawa telur rebus dan jagung rebus.

Kakak ipar membawa nasi tumpeng dan segala ubo-rampe-nya, adik membawa kopi, teh dan es jeruk untuk anak-anak. Sedang Mbah Uti membawa mie goreng.

Ultah yang agak berbeda dengan budaya di kampung kami dimana anak-anak biasanya duduk anteng, menyanyi, salaman, makan dan pulang.

Happy 9th Birthday Monica Putri Wibowo
We Love You Too Much... :-*

We eating, cycling, climbing, eating again until almost midday before finally all get too hot and tired. 

Walkies in FRIM

Our first walk in 2018 :)

One of my favorite place in Malaysia.

Its near to city, easy to access yet it is A FOREST not just park.

Bonus: in the entrance, there is a small road in the left side where the local build a lot of restaurant and convenience facilities.

Enjoying its old trees always remind me with my old age where I used to roam around from one jungle to another to collect specimen.

Located in Kepong, only 10 minutes drive from Mont Kiara. Sometimes I just take uber to force myself to walk. 

We stop at "picnic"area, nearby the waterfall and walk from there.

The bottom natural pool, loads of kids having a dip and their families picnic in surrounding.

The map of FRIM

We keep walking to the waterfall, and little bit keep going up.

There is an old pool but the management cover it up with sands.

I think its for safety.

We just play with the sands and the little stream passed from higher waterfall.

Nice texture for sensory eh..?

It was raining when we arrived, so we walk up with umbrella. Look how the little Missy play around with caddy following her around.

The waterfall from above

not so good picture (no skills) haha 

Why Do We Love Picnic

Piknik dalam bahasa saya mungkin sedikit berbeda dengan bahasa Indonesia pada umumnya. Yang lebih mengartikan PIKNIK = BERLIBUR = VACATION

Piknik dalam pemahanam keluarga kami adalah makan di atas gelaran  tikar di tempat terbuka (biasanya bawah pohon yang rindang).

Bahasa Malaysia memanggil kegiatan ini "berkelah"

orang jawa memanggil kegiatan ini "lesehan"

tetapi istilah "Lesehan" lebih cenderung ketika kita makan berbayar di restoran, baru dipanggil lesehan.

Kalau makan di tikar, di alam terbuka apa dong?

NGGAK TAHU.. NGGAK PERNAH...

GENDENG APA MAKAN DI RUANG TERBUKA... KURANG KERJA

Meja makan di beli puluhan juta kok mau makan  lesehan di kebon.

Bagi kami, acara lesehan atau piknik memang sudah menjadi bagian dari hidup. Dulu waktu kecil, rumah kami sangat panas. Jangankan Aircond (AC), kipas angin termasuk barang mewah. Sehingga, ketika pulang sekolah, setelah ganti baju, Ibu sering menggelar tikar di bawah pohon mangga yang adem dan semilir. Mengajak kami makan disana. Habis makan, kami akan leyeh-leyeh sambil mengerjakan Pe-eR.

Beda dengan bapak, yang lebih suka makan siang di tempat setrikaan (sambil nungguin ibu yang nyetrika baju), atau makan di dapur (sambil nunggu ibu masak), tidak jarang juga makan di dekat tempat cuci piring (sambil njagongi ibu yang sedang cuci piring).

Iya, njagongi doangan... bantuinnya kagak... *haha

Jadi begitulah, kebiasaan ngeleseh alias piknik, ditambah dengan bergaul dengan orang Malaysia yang memang gemar makan, gemar lesehan (dirumah, di kebon, maupun di taman-taman terbuka), dan suami yang juga menyukai budaya piknik. Maka hobi duduk dan makan pun menjadi-jadi.

Apalagi kami tinggal di apartemen (condominium) yang kiri-kanan-atas-bawah semua adalah tembok. Tidak ada kemewahan berupa kebun atau ruang terbuka. Satu-satunya cara untuk menikmati udara luar adalah dengan berpiknik.

Kenapa menikmati udara luar harus sambil piknik mbak? tanya salah seorang teman.

Kalau mau keluar kan, tinggal keluar aja.

Ya, habisan kalau haus atau lapar... mau ambil makan dan minum jauuuh... hihi.

Makanya di bekal terus.

Mau beli.. hmmm.. taman di Malaysia banyak yang penjual dilarang masuk, karena cipratan minyak gorengnya suka bikin kotor.

Jadi beginilah...

kekadang saya dan anak, yang memang dua orang dirumah saja.

kebosanan, kesepian, terkurung di dalam apartement.

Selesai masak, bukannya terus makan. Tapi kami pak di dalam wadah-wadah.

(Mau bawa rantang tupperware kok ya kebesaran... hihi... yang makan dikit)

Kami bawa semua makan, nasi, roti, teh, kopi, dan tikar ke taman di bawah rumah.

Sambil bermain,

sambil makan,

sambil duduk dan bercerita.

kadang kami malas bermain,

hanya duduk dan membaca buku cerita yang isinya (sangat memuakkan....)

entah berapa ribu kali kami membaca buku-buku itu.

Lain hari, kubawa buku Financial Management yang banyak pages.

Jadi kalau dibaca nggak ada habisnya... haha *tampar juga*

Kadang-kadang dalam weekend tu kami drive agak jauh dari rumah.

Pergi ke pantai, atau taman yang lebih besar agar Marcella berjumpa dan bergaul dengan anak-anak lain.

Hopefully she growing up happy....

I hope we give my time enough for her...

I hope we play with her enough...

I hope she knows how much she meant to us

Picnic in Port Dickson Beach

When the world change from conventional laptop into tablet and smart phone,

there I got sore eyes whenever I stare at the tiny screen to long.

In result, Mak pun dah jadi malas nak menulis.

Idea tu banyak, time nak tido ke... nak mandi ada ja hasrat nak menulis.

Den bungkus badan dengan tuala,

buka laptop... HAAAA SUDAAAH

anak pun ikut duduk sekali, 

pas tu merengek nak Didi la... nak Baby Shark la... Nak Old McDonald la....

Bertukar lah kami,

Mak pegang tablet.. anak pegang laptop.

But I just couldn't stand with ipad and phone to do my work.

Id rather wrote it on a piece of paper.

So begini lah...

Bersawang blog Mak..

Happy Birthday Ibu

And 100 reason why I am so grateful having you as  A MOTHER

Last week was my Mom 60th birthday, everyone was back to hometown to celebrate with her.

(My little brother took day off and taking overnight train to be with them)

except me....

I had my ticket purchased, but I was denied to fly to Indonesia because some of the paper which should be attached to my passport was taken by the company manager (big bummer).

There you are, I was completely heart broken and sad.

I called my Mom to wish happy birthday and apologize for not be there on her big day. She said thank you and apologize back to me.

Apologize? apologize for what.

She was apologize for never celebrate our birthday.

Yes, me and all of my siblings. We never had any birthday wishes, birthday cake, birthday presents or birthday party from my parent.

And now when she getting older (apparently their mind start crawling down to childish period) they start understand how big the value of having celebration among the families, and how deep it meant to us.

She regretted, she wished she could back to the time and redo all for us.

When she apologized I thought this is the time for me to stop moan and picking up an old sore back to conversation and just leave them go

And to look back of all the goodness she's been nonstop doing to five of us.

The more Im thinking about the positive side about my Mom,

the more I should be thankful why I born in that family

1. She always proud of me. Regardless what I've done, I never heard my Mom complaining or said something negative about me (well, except my weight and my fashion taste). Rather than that she never see me as disappointment.

2. She taught me the joy of process.

I still clearly remember she always encourage us to join some competition(from singing, dancing, poetry reading in local radio, to stupid eating crackers competition). She wont take notice who we beat or how big the other participant are. She gave a very powerful words "Just try... Doesn't matter you lose or win. We all count the braveness rather than the prize"

"Ikut saja, kalah nggak apa-apa. Yang penting berani tanding" she and my eldest brother will sat at the front audience seat, nonstop give me thumbs up.

Indirectly she taught us that being a winner is not the point of the competition, but the joy of swam to get it. Ten years later I realized that many times I perform embarrassingly and people still laugh about it. I often accused my Mom from purposely giving me a life embarrassment.

3. When you not sure, just say YES as an answer and figure out the shit later.

(As long as its not a crime or life threatening)

This motto become part of me right now.

4. We don't choose a friend. However we need to classify them like we arrange book in library. Because of that "motto" I had kind of weird version teenager-hood.

I never really have a good friend or "gang" just like any other teenager girl in the school.

5. We born alone, we die alone. We success or fail alone.

Again, we talking about friends. She keep taught me to not attached to people (friends), they come and go anyway. She built me into independent individualistic Bitch, which not many people in the College like me. I have no friends, I have no hang out gang, or study group.

I did my stuff alone. I was a lonely cow tho... but somehow I am quite grateful that my individuality give me ability to create my own adventure.

6. Life is about turning food into shit

"Whether you ate beef curry or cold steamed spinach, it will turn out as the same shit on the next day"

It taught us to not being picky, either I like or dislike the food. I shall just swallow them without complaining because on the next day whatever we ate, just gone into toilet bowl anyway.

In other day, she will stir the word into 

"People wont respect you because you eating expensive food daily, they wont look you down because you eating tofu. They see you from the way you think and present yourself"

"So don't moan to much if I cook cheap food too often. because I have to save money to pay the school. To make you smart (so you present yourself better)"

" And don't be a fool, nutritious and expensive food are two different thing"

On the next moment she will use the same thing again, for different occasion. 

"Two people, one eat fried chicken, one eat tofu. On the next day, they have the similar shit"

"Cow and Goat, both eating grass. On the next day, they have two totally different shit"

Its not how much your pocket money is, its not how shiny your shoes are, its not how great the car send and pick you every day. Sometimes the person who go to school riding bike turn more successful than the other. Because he choose to be a goat (smart, working hard, study hard) rather than being a cow (stupid).

more and more "harsh" words my Mom taught me.

And built into who I am right now.

Thank you and happy birthday Mom...

I wish you taught me how to be sweet, that would make the life bit easier lol....

.

Short Trip To Cherating Malaysia

It gonna be a trip which I would never forget in a sad way.

I was become the worst ignorance angry parent ever for the whole trip while my 18 Months old baby really tried hard to pleased me.

Marcella just had very bad cold after Indonesian trip, almost 20 days she had a sleepless night. When she look much better and us the adult start worn out we decide to have some vacation. Just to give her some sandy-outdoor play and give us some rest.

Marcella had a light fever day before we went, and we take it as the end of her cold. So we didn't check further, and keep going to the plan. We drove to Cherating Beach, East Coast Malaysia.

And stayed at Holiday Villa.

Marcella with her swollen cheek I wasn't realize that she had something wrong in her mouth.

I kept thinking myself that her fever and her mouth pain was caused by teething.

I can see it now that she was really tried hard to pleased me and tried to stop me from getting mad at her.

For a moment she forget about her pain and enjoy her afternoon.

But it wasn't last long because I started to feed her (which most of the time she said NO and made me mad),

the battle continued to brushing session.

The drama getting worse, she cried and cried and cried and cried.

And I lost my sanity

Like usual, mom-kid battle.

Dad came as referee.

He took Marcella and brought her to swim. 

To cool her down and give me some times to rest.

Swimming pool in Holiday Villa Cherating

On the next day she just stuck with her Dad.

Refused to stay closed with me unless breastfeeding and sleep time.

She look so traumatize with me.

we bought batteries powered cat just to cheer her up a bit

She smile a bit with her swollen mouth

No smile for Mummy.

(I don't deserved it anyway)

Stop over in Teluk Cempedak Beach for lunch and to check around.

Teluk Cempedak has more beautiful beaches and plenty amenities to served us (thats my favorite thing) the convenience.

Enjoyed playing kite with Dad.

The next day we went to pediatrician, and we were shock that she got mouth infection.

There were white thick fungus covering almost every single space of her mouth roof 

(I bet my half-force-brushing was make them spread faster).

We have to go to hospital to get her lab test.

mouth swab etc.

And very glad that was only fungus, no other microorganism to make it complicated.

Pediatrician gave us wide range of anti fungus.

It took us another 10 days to clear all the infection.

Moral of the story:

Listen to your kid, don't stubborn yourself and force them to do what you want just because to make the task done on time.

Often we need just to put all our mind and work aside (leave the house messy, leave the washing undone, leave the dirty dishes as it is). Sit next to our kid and watch them mindfully (not watch and twinkling of the phone).

Listen to what they tried to tell you.

Clearly Marcella said that she had problem in her mouth, all pain.

I just refuse to look further and make stupid assumption it was her teething problem.

Instead I keep brushing her tiny mouth. Make the wound bigger and infection spread faster.

I just couldn't imagine the pain she cried but half force herself to eat the food I gave her.

I bet her mind was saying "just so Mummy didn't mad at me

Am I regret...?

Very.

Every now and again, I just often randomly leave my task just to hug her and apologize.