ALL THINGS FRENCH

My mom came back from France 10 days ago and brought back some very french things for me: Le Petit Marseillais shower gel in Peach & Nectarine scent, some fresh herbs like thyme, lavender and raz-el-hanout to make couscous and some colored pastas for Amal's lunches :)

ABSTRACT POLAROIDS

Love these abstract polaroids, especially the one with the many unicolored ones (middle photo). I'm ashamed to say I don't have a clue where I got these because it was a really long time ago, but I found them again while browsing my computer and thought I'd share with you the joy of these beautiful colors :)

HAPPY WEEKEND :)

Some photos taken recently...

Homemade quiche & spaghetti at the Rekso's housewarming party on September 10th

The lovelies, Mabel and Sabine, who calm my heart whenever I long for a daughter :)

And my baby who just lost his upper tooth!

COMMUNITY SERVICE AT DESA YUM CIPANAS (part 2)

Et voila! Here are the results of the hard work that was put by the 200 JIS students who came to Cipanas:

 New colored bookshelves for the library

Repainted playground equipments

Repainted gazebos for the kids to hang out and do their homework

A recycle station

A children's flower garden

And health and environmental signs to put all around the Cipanas Community Center

COMMUNITY SERVICE AT DESA YUM CIPANAS (part 1)

A few weeks ago, around 200 students from the Jakarta International School came to the Cipanas YUM Village (CYV) to learn about organic farming. However, since they were there, they decided that they would like to help out the CYV in any way they could. This was a first for YUM and we were overjoyed! A mutual decision was agreed for the JIS students to help out in renovating the playground, repainting some bookshelves and cupboards, making a children's flower garden, making a recycle station and doing some craft and sports activities with the local children. Here are the photos below of the activities:

MY PARENT'S DREAM HOUSE

I wonder how it feels to, after 30 years, finally have the house of your dreams? Well, this is my parents' dream house and it's beautiful! They put not only their savings, but also their love and energy into creating and building this home. My parents now have their own study rooms, because they both still love to work and they have opposite habits when they do work (my mom needs peace & quiet and my dad loves blaring music), my mom has a huge kitchen to cook in, and most importantly, they have a beautiful garden to contemplate in the afternoons & evenings and where they can see their grandson play football :) Come on over!

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE

About this talk: Nobel Peace laureate Jody Williams brings tough love to the dream of world peace, with her razor-sharp take on what "peace" really means, and a set of profound stories that zero in on the creative struggle -- and sacrifice -- of those who work for it.

I heard this talk just last week and found it so eye-opening and interesting. When I was told that today was the International Day of Peace, I thought this would be the perfect talk of the day :)

Excerpt from the talk which I really liked: "The one I'm going to make is that it is time for us to reclaim what peace really means. Peace is not "Kumbaya, my Lord." Peace is not the dove and the rainbow -- as lovely as they are. (...) It is a sustainable peace in which the majority of peopleon this planet have access to enough resources to live dignified lives, where these people have enough access to education and health care, so that they can live in freedom from want and freedom from fear. This is called human security."