I'm a full-time mummy

Question: Is it wrong to walk fast?

Rephrase question: Is it wrong for a PREGNANT woman to walk fast?

I have always been a fast walker all my life, pregnant or not... I find it hard and TIRING to stay and/or stand still at one spot ... because of that, I have just gotta keep walking and moving.

I remembered during my college years, I was waiting for my best friend at this shopping mall (for our shopping date) and she was half an hour late and by the time she arrived, I've already walked the mall a few rounds and seen everything!

Then there was this incident which happened 2 years ago - it was about 6 hours after I gave birth naturally to Ben, I went out from my private room looking for my husband and my newly born Ben (both were missing!) and I was as usual... walking fast my usual pace... Within 10 steps, I immediately heard a scolding voice from the reception area and I saw 2 nurses peering out at me and repeated their scoldings with REALLY ANGRY-DEATH-THREATENING FACES...

"Hey, you just gave birth! Don't walk so FAST! Later you will bleed again!"

And I stopped right there and stood still thinking "What? You mean walking fast could make me bleed again? But I feel fine!"

Nevertheless, I've got more important things on my mind (looking for my hubby and baby!) than to stand there and counterargue with the nurses.. so I just slowed down and walk slow like a tortoise SLOWER... which is REALLY tiring for me... In the end, I found both of them in the bathing room, with a nurse who is showing my hubby how to bath and clean Ben.

And then earlier yesterday morning, hubby dropped me off at his brother's workshop (near the market) to buy some food and I got down and started walking ermm... FAST my usual pace and again... I heard "Whoa... don't walk so fast! No need to rush!" from one of my brother in law's colleague. Hearing that immediately reminded me of the incident above which happened 2 years ago...

I mean, it's not like I'm running or causing my pregnant bump to bounce up and down... Sigh... is it wrong to walk fast?

(*Article first published as Book Review: 14 Secrets to Better Parenting by Dave Earley on Blogcritics.)

I'm always scouting for good books on parenting, Christianity, children and so on and when I saw this book's availability on NetGalley, I immediately asked to review it. And oh boy, I just love this book! Here is my review of this book from Dave Earley entitled: "14 Secrets to Better Parenting: Powerful Principles from the Bible".

Author: Dave Earley
Publisher:  Barbour Books (April 1, 2011)
ISBN-13: 978-1616262259
Hardcover: 224 pages
Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches

Description from the Amazon product page:

"Wondering how to raise great kids? Turn to the Bible’s book of Proverbs for guidance—that’s where author Dave Earley found many of his 14 Secrets to Better Parenting. From “Focus on Training” to “When You Have No Other Option, Keep Praying!”, these principles will help you create the kind of home environment conducive to raising successful children. “When our children were born over twenty years ago,” the author says, “I researched what the Bible had to say about parenting and made a list of principles. I considered writing my findings up as a book, but refrained from getting it published until our children were grown and I could see how the principles worked. Guess what? They work! We can joyously say today that all three of our boys are living lives that honor the Lord.”"

This entire book is written based on the book of Proverbs. As I read through each chapters in the book, I couldn't help but agree and realised there's so much to parenting!

The writing style of Dave Earley is like Max Lucado and Zig Ziglar, in the sense that the author dispenses his parenting advice together with biblical verses for you to understand more on and ponder about.

The author starts with the questions on why should we trust in God as the expert on parenting and why the books on Proverbs in particular. On page 14 of the book, he explains that the book of Proverbs is unique as it is written from the perspective of a parent giving encouragement and instruction to a child. Read Proverbs 4:1-2 (NIV)

I like the statement on page 17 where it says "Parents who make their children's immediate happiness the goal of their parenting are making a huge mistake, If happiness becomes the primary target, character flaws would go uncorrected and behavioral problems will be overlooked. The children will be spoiled and overindulged." In my opinion, too often we as parents are afraid of disciplining our child; either we are too soft hearted to punish them when they do something wrong or we think they are still too young to understand the concept of punishment or apologizing for their mistake. Read: Proverbs 23:13 (NIV), Proverbs 29:15 (NIV), Proverbs 29:17 (NIV)

I also learned that it is best that the same person who disciplines the child should be the same one to console them afterward. That way, the child will understand the connection between discipline, love and developing character and all. There is also some points on resorting to spanking as a method of discipline which you should read on to understand more.

In summary, this book emphasize highly on the power of wisdom, in the sense that how we as parents should focus our parenting on developing our child's wisdom.

I am very inspired with how wisdom helps greatly in our children growing up to be a God fearing and God loving child. I am so glad to review this book and it will definitely stay in my iPad for repeated readings!

You can also purchase the 14 Secrets to Better Parenting: Powerful Principles from the Bible (14 Bible Secrets Series) book from Amazon.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a galley proof of the book via my association with netGalley as a reviewer in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"

Oh yes! We came, we saw and we conquered! Okay, maybe that's a bit too dramatic and over the top but that's what we felt after we had a short weekend family trip to the north (6 to 8 May 2011). Here are some of the memorable shots taken during our family trip (which was meant to be an eat-all-the-way-to-and-fro trip for me while my bump is still not that heavy and making me too tired to walk far... hehehe..)

On the first day, we stopped by for brunch at Ipoh's Foh San Dimsum restaurant which was recommended by a friend of mine (thanks again Catheryn!). The food is good and the atmosphere is nice too! Picture below taken of Ben praying before he walloped the mango pudding. Not that the pudding is deathly, just that Ben always prays before he eats ;)

I think we took about 4 hours plus to reach Penang, our holiday destination. Picture below of Ben helping us to unpack when we checked into our hotel room...

One of Ben's favorite activities in our hotel room, playing hide and seek at the curtains...

We rest for a while before realising Ben ain't going to nap so we head out to Penang's Youth Park. Look at Ben enjoying the swing at Penang's Youth Park...

We also went to the Feringgi Beach to check out the beach there... Love the shot taken below of the sparkling sea and hubby and Ben enjoying their stroll along the Feringgi Beach.

For our dinner, we went to the hawker stalls along Gurney Drive. Not much pictures taken as I left my trusted camera in the car (way to go to my preggy brain!)

For day 2, Ben woke up all excited and wanted to go to the pool (we can clearly see the pool from our balcony). Picture below of Ben with his out-of-bed hairdo. Awesome eh?

We had our breakfast at the hotel (complimentary with our hotel stay) before we head out to Penang Hill. Waited for a few minutes for our train to come down, check out Ben's bored look below hehehe...

After the breathtaking view from Penang Hill, we went for our chicken rice lunch. Yum yums! And then we proceeded to the Toy Museum. Ben was so excited seeing his favorite toys such as Wall-E, Ironman, Transformers (particularly Optimus Prime and BumbleBee) and Sesame Streets.

It was near evening time when we head back to our hotel. We then got ready the stuff and head to the pool. I didn't join along as my swimsuit is getting a wee bit tight for my expanding Spicy Baby... Ben enjoyed himself at the kiddy pool, watched over by daddy just next to him...

And then we managed to persuade Ben to go to the beach which was just in front of our hotel. Well, Ben was too engrossed with the pool earlier. Again, I got myself a beach chair and settled down and relax while watching the 2 men in my life build some awesome looking castles...

Can't resist taking this shot below. The sun was setting, daddy and Ben still engrossed with building their castles and I was still relaxing on my comfy beach chair... hehehe... I could get used to this kind of living... *wink*wink*

And then this couple of tourists (I think Arabs) stopped by and posed with Ben. Before them, an Arab couple stopped by as well to take pictures of Ben and patted his chin saying some Arabish words which I clearly don't understand...

Carried Ben back to my beach chair and put him on the empty chair next to mine. And snapped this shot of him chillaxing... cute!

Snapped this shot while I was walking with Ben towards daddy who is still building his sand castle...

We went back to our hotel room after that, showered and got ready to go out for our dinner and we went to the night market/bazaar along Feringgi Beach as well. By the time we reached our hotel, it was 11pm plus and Ben fell asleep soon after.

On the 3rd day, we had breakfast at the hotel again. Ben started fussing and wanted to play in the kiddy pool again. Daddy took Ben to the beach and had a stroll while waiting for me to finish my breakfast. 

We played on the beach for a while before Ben had his fun time in the pool. After a while, we got ready and head back to our room. We managed a brief nap before we left the hotel and head back home.

All in all, it was an enjoyable trip, one that I'm going to remember for a long long time (as it's going to be sometime before we have our next family trip as Spicy Baby comes along in a few months time)

I'd like to thank my hubby for driving all the way to and fro, taking care of Ben and carrying him most of the time. I really appreciate the effort and thoughts into making this a memorable trip for me.