3Doodler + Handicraft Lesson

I'm not really good making things (I feel more at ease writing stuff), but I still think this creation below is cool. 3Doodler. What do you think?



I remember when I was in elementary school we had a "handicraft" lesson and the teacher made us learn to create different things. What did I do? I got plenty of help from my Mom. I had no patience nor interest with that kind of lesson, whereas my Mom did. I remember at one point we had to make an Easter chick with wool. It's something like this: Easter Chick. 

I don't remember how old I was when I had to make it, but I remember getting some help from my Mom LOL!!!!! Even though I know that parents weren't supposed to help, but still I was stubborn enough to stop doing something if I didn't feel like it. 

I also remember having to make some "tapai" (peuyeum) in one class, but for some reason it didn't turn out too well, so my Mom told me to just buy some from a tapai seller and bring it to class LOL!! Each of us was supposed to bring our own homemade tapai and eat it together at school. The teacher asked us then if the ones we brought were our real homemade tapai (not bought) and I stayed silent. Sorry, teacher, but there was just no time to remake a new batch of tapai to bring to class he he he he...Ah, memorieessss! :-D 

House Exhibition

I've just found out recently about a house exhibition custom here in Finland. Apparently if one builds a new house, once the house is built (but before the owners start moving there), the house contractor and the owners will have a house exhibition day. The exhibition date and time (usually about two hours) is advertised on a local newspaper so that anyone who's interested in coming can come to listen to the contractor describing the house and anyone can ask about anything. 

I guess it's some sort of advertisement for the contractor. Then about a week or so after that (depending on the owners of course), they can start moving their stuff to the new house and they can start living there.

Something like this doesn't exist in Indonesia, so it was very interesting for me to find out about it. Housewarming parties are typical in both countries (Indonesia and Finland), though I haven't actually been in any either here or in Indo LOL!!! But at least I know that that kind of party exists.

How about in your country? Is this kind of house exhibition customary there, too? 


Seriously this warm weather is puzzling me. It's been over 0'C during the days for the past two days and the snow has been melting rapidly despite the fact that there's been no sun. Feels so weird that spring may just come much earlier this year. Oh well...

In Love with "Where Were You"

Can't stop listening to this songgggg mmmmmmhhhh..."Where Were You" by The Mend.

P.S. It's 1'C right now. VERY warm considering Feb is usually the coldest month. I hope it doesn't get too warm too soon - otherwise it'll be so slippery...yikes!!!
 

3BT: Random Days

1. A grandma gave me a bar of chocolate (again). She's just SO sweet and thoughtful! :-D THANK YOUUUU!!!!! And yes, the graphic below described my facial expression very well upon receiving the chocolate bar LOL!!!


2. Another grandma told me that her hubby had been missing me at work 'coz he hadn't seen me in a long time. (Unfortunately I don't know which one her hubby is 'coz I meet too many customers at work each shift, but that means the only thing I can do to make sure that I treat him well is to treat everybody well.) I'm touched!!!

3. Me: "Hey, I've just recently noticed that my buttocks aren't as supple as they were before. Have you noticed, too?"
Hubby smiled wickedly and nodded.
Me: "WHAAAAATTT?????? Are you pulling my leg or have you really noticed the difference?"
Hubby: "Yeah, I've noticed."
Me: "When did you realize that they'd changed?"
Hubby: "Ages ago:"
Me: "WWWHHHHAATTTT????" (short pause) "But you still love them anyway, right?"
Hubby: (nod) "Yep."
Me: (smile) "Good."


4. Taking a holiday from FB has done WONDERS to my brain. I feel like it's been unblocked and now it can breathe freely again. Phew!!!

5. Sauna scent. I love adding some scent (we've mostly used birch or eucalyptus) to the bucket of water we keep in sauna. It's like aromatherapy! Heavenly!


6. Learning to be more assertive at work when needed. It ain't easy but I'll celebrate each little step forward that I make! :-D

FB Detox: Withdrawal Symptoms

OK, a few days have passed since I deactivated my FB. The first wave of feeling that came was RELIEF!!! I felt a HUGE LOAD was lifted. Seriously! 

Then after that the withdrawal symptoms appeared ha ha ha ha ha...Whenever I read something good/funny, watched something good/funny, or listened to a good video/music video, the first thought that came up on my mind was, "Hey, I've gotta share it in FB." WHOOPS!!! Not anymore LOL!!!

Then another thing was missing the "attention" I got by receiving notifications in my inbox (I only opted to receive a part of the notifications that I should have got, not all) - whether it was a reply to my comment or a comment to any status update/photo that I had uploaded or someone sending me a PM. 


It's funny what you can really get used to in a few years, but there are many other aspects that I don't actually miss from FB and those aspects make me reluctant to activate myself there, though I know in the end I'll activate myself again just to catch up on those important people who've probably uploaded important photos there. But anyway, it's felt very quiet ever since I deactivated my FB profile and it feels so serene. :-D I enjoy the serenity so much.

I've been thinking about my burnout for the past few days. It probably felt a little bit like what Mel Gibson felt in "What Women Want", when he first started being able to listen to random women's thoughts after having been electrocuted. He was so overwhelmed by those voices. That was what I felt. Overwhelmed.

As an introvert, I thrive more on a one-on-one conversation than group chats. That's also why I enjoy working part-time at work and that's why I don't wish to work full-time at this kind of workplace because I get to see hundreds of people every time I work and that's exhausting for me. FB is a fun and easy way to connect with friends and relatives around the world, but that kind of connection also drains my battery. It's even worse than meeting strangers IRL (in real life) because you get to see/know many more things that you don't normally get when you meet strangers in real life. Anyway, just wanna let you know that I'm totally enjoying my FB holiday here. :-D

I've Done It: FB Deactivation!

Yep, yesterday I've finally decided to deactivate my FB account for a while. I've had a long love-and-hate relationship with it and this time it's all piled up and I feel exhausted and confused. There were days when I asked myself, "What exactly am I doing here?" And lately I've felt out of focus easily as well, so the blaring sirens I've been hearing in my head has been getting way too loud for me to ignore.


I didn't want to log off and opt out of any notifications 'coz I'd been rather active in FB for the past few years. During our longer holidays when I did that, when we came back home I got swamped with all the notifications and messages there. And I also wanted to avoid not responding to important messages or invitations that some people may leave in my FB message box by logging off (because they didn't know that I was on an FB holiday). So this time I need a proper holiday from it all. I want to recharge and rethink of what I want to use FB for. I need to relearn to focus properly on one thing at a time instead of skipping from page to page. 

I figured that if people really want to reach out to me, they can reach me through my email and blogs instead. Those who don't know my blogs or emails are those that don't know me that well. 

So here's to recharging!!! :-D



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When I Saw Your Face...

Yesterday I had an evening shift at work and near the time when the shop was about to close, I was mopping the floor near the cashier area when an older guy came in. I had my back facing him, so he called me and when I turned around, I immediately saw his rather "disappointed" face LOL!!!

He was probably wondering how much I understood Finnish 'coz he could see from my face that I was a foreigner. But he tried anyway and he didn't ask for anything hard, so I could help him out just fine on my own. Even if I didn't know/understand what he wanted to find, I would still have been able to help him by calling out my coworker, but the moment that he saw my face was so funny. :-D

He must've been a new customer, because all the regular customers know my face and they know I've worked there for a while, so they won't hesitate asking me for help. This face of mine has its own advantage at work, though, because they know that I'm a foreigner simply by looking at my face, if they don't know me well, they'll resort to using more formal Finnish (or they'd speak more slowly) in order to make sure I understand their words. :-D

Anyway, here's a pic of my frosty hair. Photo taken when it was -21'C outside (and I just went back from a trip to the supermarket). 

Trouble Focusing

Lately I'm kinda worried about my own ability to focus on one thing. These days when I'm in front of the computer, it's SO easy to multitask. For example I'm writing a blog post or composing an email, and then suddenly an FB notification pops up and I'm tempted to click on it and respond before continuing writing my blog post or email. Other times I'm reading something online (or reading a Finnish book while using the online dictionaries) and again a notification for email or FB comment pops up and I'm tempted to respond to that first. Other times I need a break from reading something and then I switch to youtube (for example) or I'm doing something online and then someone sends me a chat request. These days I find that it's so easy to just jump from one thing to another without missing a beat. Am I the only one who feels this way, I wonder?

Mind you, I'm not even "connected online" through my mobile. I do get online sometimes when there's free Wifi on our holidays and while "doing my thing" in the upstairs toilet. I can't imagine how much harder it is to focus on something when you're also connected through your mobile 24/7 and then your mobile beeps whenever there's a new message. It gets easier and easier to get distracted these days. I wonder if in the long run this may cause concentration problems for the younger generation, because in the past there were less distractions and the pace of life was much slower. Even now I feel that I'm losing my ability to concentrate on ONE thing at a time. Gotta learn how to focus again (too much temptation LOL!!!).


P.S. GREAT news!!!!! A while ago I posted that a friend of mine may be having autoimmune disease, so she had a thorough check-up again and now she's been CLEARED from that first diagnosis. Another health issue of another friend's Mom has also been wiped away after a second check-up. SO HAPPY to hear these!!! :-D

3BT: Random Days

1. On nights when hubby goes to sleep earlier than me, I LOVE tucking him in bed and kissing him goodnight. :-D

2. Watching this interesting video clip:


3. My boss called me yesterday to tell me that if needed, I may have to work longer on a certain day. How thoughtful of her to call in advance first to warn me about it because that day we'd be visiting my MIL (my boss didn't know this), so I could tell MIL in advance that we may be late.

4. Hearing a funny thing that my nephew said about a certain circumstance. Apparently in the middle of a heated argument somewhere, a woman passed out and my nephew then asked his mom, "Mom, why did she pass out? Was she hit by a car?" LOL LOL LOL!!!!!

5. Listening to this podcast about Living Without Children After Infertility. At one point I even shed some tears. 

6. Had a weird, romantic dream. Even though it was weird, it felt nice to have a romantic dream once in a while. In the dream, two blind people fell in love and the last scene of my dream was when they were holding each other tightly (it seemed that they had been separated or something and that made the meeting all the more sweeter!). :-D


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7. Hubby started chanting "Informer" before we watched a movie and it made me laugh uncontrollably - which in turn made him laugh along with me. LOL LOL!!!

Eargasm!!!

Found these guys accidentally while trying to find some music videos in youtube. I can't believe I've never heard of them before he he he...anyway, here are two of their video clips that I ENJOY the most!!! I just love the way they play their cellos...their passion spreads through mine and I feel fantastic, too!!! Here are the 2Cellos! :-D


 

Snow Fort

It's been pretty warm these days. That meant we've got lots and lots of snow again. Yesterday and last week I spent 1,5 hours and 2 hours respectively to clear the yard from snow. Had to move some of the old snow to make room for new snow and due to my height, I couldn't use the big shovel to do that. That was why it took a long time to do it 'coz I had to use a children's shovel he he he...Good exercise, though! My arms are definitely sore afterwards.

Wanna see how high the pile of snow is in our yard? Today I went out just to show you the "snow fort" that we've built in the yard. I use myself as a point of reference (I'm 145 cm).

First pic: normal pose. Notice the higher pile on the right side of the pic. We have another pile on the left side of the pic which is probably a little bit higher than that.

P.S. If you're wondering what the yellow "armband" is, it's called a reflector. Because it can get SO dark here in winter (and it can get worse when it's snowing a lot), people wear it so that car drivers can see us when we're walking on the pavement or when we walk across the road. Esp. in the village roads there are normally no sidewalk for pedestrians, so pedestrians have to walk on the side of the road.

Second pic: tried to pose from one of the higher piles of snow.

Third pic: I was going to go higher up on the pile of snow, but managed to slip and fall down gracefully LOL!!! Actually if I want to, I can use this pile of snow to slide down. LOL!!! There's one benefit of being short HA HA HA HA HA HA HAHHHH...

Here's also a pic of a homemade Christmas gift that I got from my talented friend. :-D

And the last pic is the icicles forming around the bottom side of the roof...

Let's just see how much more snow we're going to have 'coz winter here lasts a long time still...if there's so much more snow coming later, it's going to be tough to find space to pile up the new snow.

January's Circle of Life

January was quite a month for me. Three friends gave birth and there were also a few pregnancy announcements. However, there were also some health problems and two deaths: of an ex-elementary school friend and then a few days ago my cousin's husband passed away. We got married in the same year, though she and her hubby had their wedding a few months earlier than R2 and I did. They only had a chance to be married for seven years...R

Rest in peace, cousin's hubby. May God comfort my cousin and all the bereaved...


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The health problems suffered by some friends and a friend's mother aren't conclusive yet. That's probably why it feels like they drag on and on and on 'coz none of them knows what exactly is happening yet, though the diagnoses aren't good, but we still hope for the best while waiting for the results of another round of check-up for each of them.

The birth of the babies are definitely awesome and joyful, especially since the three of them had had problems before they finally conceived and had their babies last month, but still the deaths and health problems are on my mind more than the births.  

January reminds me of this song... 


 

P.S. It's been snowing A LOT these past few days.