Never have I expected to set foot once again in one of the Schengen countries.
Berawal dari small talk sama suami yang diundang short research visit, fast forward visa yang selesai H-3 berangkat, menunda online check-in, sampai nangis di hari-H karena Raif masih kurang sehat 🥲🫠 Rasanya belum bulet niat dan persiapan buat ninggalin anak3 selama 3 pekan.
Alhamdulillaah..
Sejatinya kita nggak pernah tau apa yang sudah Allah siapkan untuk kita. Just like finding out my 3rd pregnancy while Fatima was still 1-year-old. Manusia memang hanya bisa berencana, Allah lah yang menentukan. Apa-apa yang dalam logika manusia tidak mungkin, apalah yang nggak mungkin bagi Allah. Bahkan hal yang nggak pernah kita ucapkan, atau hanya terbersit dalam hatipun, Allah jelas MahaTau and in no time bisa membuat kita terkaget-kaget dengan keputusan-Nya.
Setelah hampir 3 minggu berkutat dengan efek samping virus mumps – perut mual, sakit telinga, sakit kepala, nggak enak makan, nggak enak badan, pluuus nggak enak pikiran, alhamdulillaaah sehat juga….
Two weeks after finding out the existence of the gestational sac in my rahim through the ultrasound, unexpectedly I got another ‘surprise’.. in a form of..
virus infections.
Sudah hampir 1,5 tahun sejak berikhtiar untuk punya anak lagi. Sejak itu, udah menyiapkan diri juga untuk kembali ‘menikmati’ masa morning sickness, masa ‘mengembangnya’ seluruh badan, masa enak makan dan susah tidur setelahnya karena kekenyangan, hingga masa ‘menikmati’ mules menjelang melahirkan… kemudian insyaAllah menimang bayi kecil, ngASI, MPASI, toilet training, and restarting all over again…
Malam itu..
Saya dan suami sholat Isya berjamaah. Alma malah mondar mandir keluar masuk kamar lalu duduk di atas kasur, duduk layaknya lagi menahan untuk buang air kecil – bergoncang goncang. Turun dari kasur, keluar kamar, masuk kamar lagi, lalu duduk lagi di atas kasur, begitu seterusnya – bolak balik.
Tanggal 16 lalu, my little sunshine was turning five.
Di tahun-tahun sebelumnya, tanggal ini kami lewati bertiga saja di perantauan. Berhubung disana Alma nggak punya banyak teman sebaya, biasanya kami bertiga keluar makan, beli mainan, atau sekedar main sepeda di taman kota. Malemnya, dilanjut pillow talk sama suami tentang how time does fly, reminiscing momen-momen mules sebelum dan saat Alma lahir, sampai sekarang sudah jadi gadis kecil – sambil ngeliatin Alma yang sudah lelap tidur. Paling banter, ditutup dengan saya bikin birthday note di blog – itupun kalau lagi ada ide, hehe.
About 30 to 50 percent of happiness is genetically determined;
about 10 to 20 percent reflects life circumstances (such as age, gender, health, marital status, income, occupation);
and the rest is very much influenced by the way we think and act.
(Gretchen Rubin in her book “Happier at Home”).
Anybody agrees with Gretchen Rubin’s research-based-thought? 😉
Bahagia itu relatif. Bentuk relativitas yang sangat tergantung pada standar tertentu yang dibuat setiap orang. Bisa sama dan mungkin banget berbeda.
Dulu.. Sering denger orang bilang soal quality time.
Tapi.. Baru benar-benar berasa banget maknanya dalam beberapa bulan dan terutama beberapa minggu terakhir ini.
Sosok yang berjuang di meja persalinan sebanyak tujuh kali; melahirkan Mama, tiga orang Uwa, dua orang Tante, dan satu orang Om.
Sosok perempuan Minang yang rasa sayangnya berlebih pada keluarga, terutama anak-anak dan cucu-cucunya, sampai tak rela melepaskan mereka sekolah atau bekerja jauh.
Dear Ayah,
Thank you for being a best friend who knows when to lend an ear and when to speak out.
It was a place where she arrived enthusiastically, nearly five years ago, as a newly wed, thinking about nothing other than spending time with her other half.
It was also a place where she realized that living faraway from family means she got to manage all things without any intervention, which was a good thing, but she’s not saying it was easy.
Above is a picture of butterflies feeding themselves nectar from red flowers placed on a butterfly-shaped steel frame. Beautiful, isn’t it? 😉
The beautiful picture depicted a corner in Penang Butterfly Farm, Teluk Bahang, Penang, Malaysia. It was taken during my little family trip in November 2012.
This might be the hardest EF challenge for me. Seriously.
Not only due to its theme, but also the circumstances I have been in these last two weeks.
I’ve been loving English Language (EL), since primary school.
While other kids at my age watched cartoons, I watched Knight Rider instead. David Hasselhoff was attractive enough at that time, even for a primary schooler 😁
Virtual friend gave you his/her ‘Like’, real-life friend gave you a bold hand-shake.
Virtual friend commented on your status, real-life friend gave face-to-face advice.
Virtual friend sent you emoticons, real-life friend shared with you real emotions.
Virtual friend sent you a ‘hug’ emo, real-life friend gave you a warm hug.
To be honest, I am not a social media junkie.
Not the kind who feel comfortable to share my personal life to some strangers in social media. Not the one who updated where I have been or what I have done, every-single-hour.
This is a story of a girl and her mother. A week(end)ly story of an elementary school girl, the only daughter in the family: Going (involuntarily) to the traditional market with her mother.
Continue reading “[EF #2] The (Once) Little Girl’s Unexpected Dream”
“Siapa sih saya? Emang ada yang mau baca kalau saya bikin tulisan macam curhat?”
Pikiran-pikiran begitu sering sekali mendengung di kepala, bahkan sampai detik ini 😅 Tapi, sebagai bagian dari rasa syukur dan terima kasih, rasanya perlu juga sedikit flashback, mumpung masih awal tahun 😉 #hihi..sok penting 😛 Nggak apa lah ya, diary pribadi ini 😀
2014 adalah tahun yang cukup spesial buat saya. Di tahun inilah ada dorongan ‘dahsyat’ yang bikin saya punya ‘rumah curhat’ yang cukup ‘hidup’, selain diary bergembok jaman SD dulu 😅
It’s been 30 years.
No words can describe how much you’ve done for me, for us.
Ever since the first moment I could only lay down in my crib and cry, up until the moment we argued about things and I made you cry… 😥 Continue reading “Dear Mama…”
In life, one long journey, many phases are encountered.
Phases of life.. each with different kinds of roads, intersect one another.
At the intersection, one road leads to another…. and yet, you are clueless, in a way, guessing which road to choose, where this road would take you, how this road would end, and what kind of phase you would face afterwards.
Seminggu kemarin, rasanya pengen mudiknya dipercepat sajaaa, heu.
Semua berawal dari sekitar 1 bulan lalu – saat hampir setiap hari Ayah tidur tengah malam, gak jarang menjelang dini hari – untuk mengejar deadline submission PhD thesis demi ‘menanggalkan’ status mahasiswanya di tahun ini. Nothing good comes easy, indeed.
Puncaknya, weekend dua minggu yang lalu kami kedatangan dua orang traveller dari Bandung. Selalu senang kalau ada yang berkunjung karena rasanya seperti ditengokin, apalagi yang datang dari kampung halaman. Menikmati weekend dengan berkeliling Penang sejak pagi dan baru tiba di rumah saat matahari sudah gak lagi kelihatan, ternyata cukup menjadi pemicu runtuhnya daya tahan tubuh Ayah malam itu 😦
Demam tinggi, sampai 39,4 derajat 😦
I Write to Remind Myself
Random story of Egi
Bangun, Cek Blog, Tidur.
Pray. Eat. Read. Love. Share
Bacalah dan Menulislah
setiap perjalanan mendewasakan
"a state of cahyani in a stable equilibrium"
Cerita Keluarga Setengah Lusin
Connect, Learn and Have Fun!
eat, play, work, pray... and sleep!
excessive stories and ideas of Nadia Khaerunnisa
iTravel, iLearn, and iLive
be BetteR peRsoN
eat, coffee, and travel
My Travel Footprints
knick knacks of my daily life
A memory to someone. A home to a life.
andinaseptiarani 