The senior primary students were taught to make their own fruit flavour Popsicle.
They are using watermelons and oranges, and some others fruits. They are using blenders to blend the fruit juices.
They scoped the fruit juices into the popsicle moulds, then just freeze it in the freezer.
Every student is trying to do for their own. It is a fun activities for the Primary students!
Alvin and I are so impressed and touched with Annabelle’s initiative to cook our breakfast this morning. She told us it is the Valentine’s meal for both Alvin and me.
It is a very simple breakfast but it made us very happy. Annabelle purposely cook for us – eggs, hot dogs, bread toast.
There is a a photo with Alvin of coarse – 2 of us. All of us are happy with the meals that the children prepared.
I came across this article on the blog of the Church website. It talked about how a woman was adhered to her future husband’s advice during a bike ride on a mountain trail.
This indeed reminds me that Alvin gave me several years ago about the same advice but it was during I was driving the car on a U-Turn road. He said, “Instead of looking at the road barrier, look where you want to go; the car will follow. This is the same principle that I learned when I ride my motorbike as well.”
It surprised me at that time. It sounded so simple, so I tried to give it a try and focus my eyes on the road ahead instead of the curve road barrier which I was so afraid that I would anytime just bumped on it.
To my surprise, the car went right where I wanted it to go. So I have make it a habit when I drive on any curve or U-Turn road that I should focus my eyesight onto the road where I want to go.
I only come to realised that the Spirit wants to tell me that, it is the same principle that I could apply in my daily living life as well. If I focus my attention on the distractions of the world or my problem or challenges now, I find myself keep on troubling how and why both Issac and Annabelle were come to this stage.
And I find myself spiritually thrown father away from the destination I thought I was heading toward. However, if I strive to think and seek for divine guidance from the Lord on the all the things I can think of and do, I would be strengthened and directed beyond my own abilities.
All I need to do now is to find out what is their current study level status as what Alvin was told me to do. I should focus and get this information out, and further plan from there.
I remember that I did write in my journal not long ago last year about how Jesus Christ walking on the water in the middle of the storm toward His disciples out on a ship. The disciples were initially afraid, but then Peter recognized the Savior.
Peter asked if he could join Him out on the water. And he did! Peter succeed initially walked on the water, but then his focus shifted when he began to notice the wind and waves crashing onto him, and he began to sink.
I think it is the same as the road barrier or the challenges in our life. There will always be obstacles, and they are often frustrating as most of the time, I was not fully understand and comprehend on “Why me?”. Instead, I should learn to look where I want to go, because I go where I look – the same principle as driving in the curvy road or U-Turn road.
When I apply this principle in practical life, look for the solutions and seeking inspiration and direction frequently throughout my day in formal and informal prayer, and then acting upon on that inspiration.
Focusing my attention to the right thing and to the Savior does not make the obstacles go away, but it does make me stronger. The obstacles is the stepping stone that leads me to knowledge. The obstacles is the stepping stones to add on the pebbles of the faith I have.
I feel as this is the continuation of the things or knowledge that Heavenly Father wants me to know since yesterday. He reveals to me that He knows ME. He knows what I have been through. He knows that I am struggling in become the mother that He wants me to be for both Issac and Annabelle. He helps me to know what should I do. He never give up on me, even though I myself almost giving up.
I was feeling hopeless, guilty and my mind was troubled for the past 2 weeks ever since I came back from Kuching. Last night, and tonight again Alvin told me off regards to both Issac and Annabelle school current syllabus. We were discussed about this last week and Alvin requested a report of their studies.
I was feeling helpless and guilty after the ‘counselling’ the other day at Kuching with Sister Agatha. And here again, I had been lectured by Alvin. Suddenly I just felt that there are so much loads and roles that I need to be.
I am not a good wife. I am not a good mother. I am not a good daughter. I just do not know how to manage my children. They are seems like still kids and do not know about manners when they are in the public.
That supposed to be my responsibility as a mother to nurture them. Alvin was so angry that the children were still watching TV and did not play their music lesson, do their homework and do the revision of the subjects learned. He told me off, “If these things still did not change, I would do whatever I told you 7 or 8 years ago!”
I know what he meant. It means he would walk off from this family. All these are not the things he wants and all these things supposed to be my responsibility to do it.
I know that I should be doing all these things… Everyday I came back from work, I was so tired and just feel exhausted after bathing almost 8.30pm. I had difficulties in concentration more on staying focus to look and check both Issac and Annabelle homework.
I have always had a strong testimony of the children growing up in the Church and their love to God come first than anything else. That is why I was enthusiastic during they were in the Primary time, and teaching them on the ‘Faith in God’ program.
However, when it comes to their academic has always been the exact opposition of my learning as a mother on how to teach them. I found myself fighting and struggling to even stay calm and hold my tempers as I try to teach them and checking on their subjects.
May be it is due to my childhood time, my mum did not use this method to teach me. I was quite an independent child when it comes to study. I know what I want. I know that I have to study hard in order to get into the local university. Even though in the end I end up with fail almost all the subjects in STPM, but that was another story of mine.
Ever since I got the calling as the Relief Society President, I was still in the delema of shock and surprise if there is things which the Lord wants me to learn through this calling that able to help me to grows especially in my marriage and my family. And yet every time, I am not getting the answers.
I felt my sense of guilt keenly whenever I red this from the The Family : A Proclamation to the World:
“ HUSBAND AND WIFE have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. “Children are an heritage of the Lord” (Psalm 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives – mothers and fathers – will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.”
“… Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities… Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children…”
And here I am, sitting down alone after been scolded by Alvin. Tired of the guilt, tired of trying. Ready for letting go everything. But then, I felt a gentle pull suggesting that I should browse through the Church website. I saw an article.
I realized that I was not having a faith crisis as I thought I am going through every time challenges came out, as this children education discussion between Alvin and myself was not the first time. This discussion had been repeated again and again.
It seems as I do not know how to get things better. After I read the article, I suddenly know that God knows all my struggles, He knows all the reasons focusing was hard for me. I felt a flood of God’s awareness of me. He knew ME because I am His daughter.
Frankly I did too little and learned too little for the past 5 years and I had taken too much time to learn. The Lord revealed to me that I can do better. The Lord was not judging me or withholding blessings because of my imperfections; He was letting the blessings and knowledge pour down because I was where I needed to be. He helped me in this moment unfold a bit of my history to understand what I had gone through and what I learned during the past years since my remarriage with Alvin.
Isaiah wrote, “Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord… and he will teach us of his ways” (Isaiah 2:3).
The Lord will teach us in His House. He has promised it, and we can count on His promises. But His path is not our path. His ways are not our ways. And His teachings might be different than what we think we are coming to learn.
I was not missing all these years but Heavenly Father is watching over me all the time. I was being taught all along. I realized that I was, and I am having an opportunity to practice my faith – to trust in the Lord that I can lean on Him in changing myself to become a better mother. I can see that my vision extended, and my spiritual knowledge increase.
We will be leaving Hat Yai and travelled back to Malaysia. Initially we would like to take the train going back, but it seems like all the train have to pre-book online and there were no more seats.
We checked for the express coach too, it is the same. As we were lucky that there are still seats available for 4 of us, we immediately purchased the tickets yesterday. The time is around 9.30am. Thus, we had arranged Yuri to come to collect the rental car from us.
We had our breakfast at one of the coffee shop nearby. We just had a simple noodle soup then we went to the express coach tickets agents there to board to our coach back to Malaysia.
Along the way we can see the green paddy fields when the coach passing by Perlis and Kedah. The scenery is so beautiful. We can rarely see this scenery in the middle of Kuala Lumpur.
We came back quite late to home from our Hat Yai and Phatthalung trip. Well, it is not saying that late but it was almost 10 hours of journey on bus. We started around 10.00am and when Alisan Golden Coach reached TBS, it was almost 7.30pm.
We had almost 45 minutes LRT rides from TBS Station to Puchong Prima Station. It was merely 9.00pm when we reached our home sweet home.
Well… this trip is worth while for us as the monies that we spend and we had almost 1 week holidays with travelling to Hat Yai and Phattalung. Overall we were very happy and satisfy with our year end holiday trip this year.
We woke up early in the morning and checked out from Palm Payom Village Resort. We would drive back to Hat Yai today thru Songkla City.
On the way to Songkla, we just stopped by a beach nearby and walked down to check the scenery and the seaside.
Then we continued our journey about another half an hour then we came to the jetty as we were taking the car ferry across into Songkla City.
It was a fun experience for us too. We just parked our car after we drove into the ferry. Then, we walked out from our car and took some photographs on the ferry.
The journey did not take long, after we docked at the other side, along with us were the motorbikes and pedestrians as well. The first destination at Songkla City is the Great Serpent Naga.
The Great Serpent Naga is regarded by locals as a sacred site, but spiritual reasons aside, the majestic Naga head does indeed have a monumental beauty that makes it a magical must-see in Songkhla.
Divided into three separate parts, the serpentine head faces Songkhla Lake and pulls double duty as a 9-meter high water spewing fountain. Created in 2006 the serpent’s sea green patina perfectly belies its age and has a beguiling power over visitors.
Unfortunately, it was under renovation and it is hoisted up and we were unable to go near to take the photo together with the Naga head. We just took the nearest that we can.
After which we stop a while at the park as there is a figure monument there to remember the Prince of Chumphon for his contribution to the country. There are some write up about him and torpedo displays.
The serpent’s mid-section is in Sculpture Garden Chaloem Phrakiat as a mysterious u-shaped metallic structure. We managed to find the mid-section and took a photo.
Then we hunted for the tail section. The tail emerges even farther south with even less fan fair, totaling a three-kilometer length from head to tail.
Thus, we came to the famous Samila Beach. Songkhla’s Samila Beach has not succumbed, like so many seafront communities, to mass development.
Its natural beauty and local charm has been well preserved. The length of east coast shoreline is an endless golden sand beach with plenty of shady pine trees.
It is a magnet for locals as well as tourists, especially on the weekends and holidays. We were surprised to find that no one donning swimwear, then only to know that because sun bathing does not seem particularly encouraged or discouraged.
Many of the visitors seem content to simply enjoy the festive, relaxed environment fully clothed. But the shallow sea is calm and relatively clear and certainly splash-worthy on a sunny day.
There are less populated stretches of Samila Beach for visitors to explore and have more privacy. Head north towards Laem Son On (Pine Tree Cape) or south of the Golden Mermaid Statue as Samila Beach becomes Chalatat Beach.
Some areas are more isolated than others, so exercising common sense, safety precautions would be wise. The majority of the beach scene is concentrated in the area of the iconic Golden Mermaid Statue.
It is the most prominent of the statues and sculptures that make their appearances throughout the seafront areas of Sculpture Garden Chaloem Phrakiat and nearby Seri Park.
We can see plenty of vendors congregate along the beachfront, selling everything from cheap eats to Songkhla souvenirs. To our surprise there were so many tourists that wanted to take photo with the golden mermaid statue.
And the golden mermaid statue is not so huge that we thought. It is just a small one. We just took from far the mermaid statue. In the end, we were unable to locate the tail section of the Naga.
It was too hot for us to wonder around the city. We drove through the Songkla Old Town and we were pleasantly surprised to find lots of street art adorning various walls and sidewalks.
At a glance I thought I was at George Town Penang as the art work is of equal quality and variety as the higly popular street art of Geroge Town and Ipoh. I just took some photos in the car during passing through all those streets arts.
The Old Town community art project apparently began in 2016, thus they have only just started and have plenty of room to expand their impressive efforts.
It was already 12 noon when we passed through the Songkla Old Town and headed to our next destination – Khlong Hae Floating Market. It was kind of far from the city, and it took us about an hour to reach there.
We were a little dissapointed as the Floating Market not opened yet. The market itself is can split to 2 parts – one is along the river whereby all the merchant boats are parked along the river and selling the local streets food in the boat.
Another part is at the land whereby all sorts of things from clothing, shoes, soveniors to food can find there. All of the stalls were not open and we were told by one of the vendors that it is only open from 5.00pm onwards.
It was only 1.00pm when we were there. So we decided to drive back to Hat Yai straight after seeing no point that we waited there and we felt as it actually enough for us to see the Khlong Daen Floating Market on this trip.
Thus, we just continue back to Hat Yai and checked into Grand Plaza Hotel, where we spent the last night at Hat Yai. We had our late lunch around 3.00pm near the hotel, then we had a rest and took a bath at the hotel.
We had our dinner around 7.00pm at our favourite McDonald’s at Lee Garden. Grand Plaza Hotel is actually just next to Lee Garden. There is a Lee Garden Hatyai Walking Street just outside the Lee Garden at night.
There were so many variety of streets food here. It is just like a mini Asean Bazaar whereby we can find most of the Asean food here.
We were too tired for the night. We sleep early this night as it is the last night at Hat Yai. Tomorrow we would be leaving and back to Malaysia.
Palm Pahyom Village is located in Ranot District, Songkhla Province. We booked this hotel during when we planned our itinerary.
As we know that it would be late when we come back from Khlong Daen Floating Market, so we need a hotel that located somewhere in the middle of Songkla and Khlong Daen. So here we were.
It was kind of far drive from Phatthalung to Palm Phayom Village as we need to drive a big route. It is actually located near to sea side.
Palm Phayom Village is a 15 to 20 minute drive from Floating Market. It was already late when we arrived back to the hotel. We just took our bath and sleep. Only when we woke up in the morning, then we able to see the hotel outlook.
The design of the hotel itself are all the rooms are built beside or along a pool that every each room can have the individual private balcony at the pool side. It is kind of cosy.
The rooms with air conditioning and the convenience of a 24-hour front desk. The front desk actually is the home of the owner of Palm Phayom Village. Free WI-Fi is available in all areas.
Parking is provided and there is ample parking space in front of the rooms. Rooms here are equipped with a private balcony, a seating area and a cable TV. Shower facilities are in an en suite bathroom.
It is not the best hotel but it was what we need at that time with the affordable price for a short trip for us.
