My peace is one of the most precious things I have. The older I get, the more I realise that all I really want is a peaceful life. Not a perfect one. Not a rich one. Just one that lets me breathe a little easier. And yes, I lied too much to protect my peace.  Don't get me wrong. I know lying is wrong. I grew up being taught to always tell the truth, and I still believe honesty matters. But I've also learned that not everything is worth explaining. Sometimes I'd rather tell a little white lie than spend the next twenty minutes explaining myself to someone who has already made up their mind.  If you know what I mean. You know what I mean. I don't lie with bad intentions. I lie to end conversations. I lie to remove myself from situations that don't feel right. I lie because some people don't stop asking, even after you've politely changed the subject.  I truly don't care what people assume about me. But I do care about protecting my peace.  Lately, I've...

Lately, a random thought has been living in my head. I'm scared to fck up. Yup I am scared to fck up. Not just a little. A lot. Sometimes I worry about making the wrong decision. Sometimes I wonder if we'll have enough. Sometimes I create problems in my head before they've even happened. I know I'm not the only one who does this. Then another thought crossed my mind. What if I do fck up? Then I'll start over. As simple as that sounds, it brought me so much peace. When I looked back at my life, I realised I've already started over more times than I can count. I've started over in a new country. I've started over when my plans changed. I've started over when life didn't turn out the way I thought it would. None of those fresh starts were easy. They were uncomfortable and scary. There were tears, sleepless nights, and moments when I wondered if everything would be okay. But here I am. Still standing, hoping, and moving forward.  That doesn't mea...

I tried. I really did. Every year I tell myself, " Maybe this is the year I'll finally like winter ." Nope. I still don't like winter. In fact, I've started calling it my depressed season. 😂 The endless blocked nose. The freezing cold feet. The struggle of getting out from underneath a warm, cozy blanket. The sun disappears before I even feel like the day has started. Winter and I are simply not meant to be. And don't even get me started on getting dressed. I spend time choosing an outfit. I do my hair. I feel cute for about five minutes, then I remember it's winter. On goes the puffer jacket. Every. Single. Time. At this point, I think my puffer jacket has seen more outfits than anyone else. Then there's the heater. I love being warm, but somehow the heater and I have a love-hate relationship too. After about an hour, my skin starts feeling dry, so I end up turning it off and walking around the house wearing my puffer jacket, fluffy socks, and tracks...

There are people who love going to the nail salon. And then there's me. Over time, I found myself enjoying doing my own nails at home. Somewhere along the way, it became less about having pretty nails and more about the quiet time I get to spend with myself.  There's something strangely satisfying about sitting down, switching on my little nail drill, and slowly cleaning everything up. Cutting my nails, shaping my nails, and cleaning around the cuticles. It's become one of those little rituals I genuinely look forward to. Not because I want my nails to look perfect. But because it's one of the ways I choose to take care of myself. Life gets busy. There are always things to clean, places to be, people to think about. So whenever I sit down to do my nails, I feel like I'm finally giving myself permission to slow down for a little while. No rushing. No expectations. Just me, my thoughts, and the gentle buzzing of my nail drill. Sometimes I reflect on the week. Sometime...

Something gave me glitter today. I was thinking about how much I've changed over the years. Not just from ten years ago. Not just from five years ago. Even three years ago, I was a different person. And honestly? I'm glad. Life has taken me to places I never expected. Some beautiful. Some painful. Some that completely changed the way I see the world. There were times when my husband and I had very little. Times when we felt lost. Times when people looked down on us. Not because they knew us. Not because they understood our story. But simply because they believed they were standing on higher ground. I won't pretend it didn't hurt. But looking back now, those moments taught me things I could never have learned any other way. They showed me who genuinely cared. They showed me who only respected people when things were going well. They showed me who saw value in people, and who only saw value in status.  Most importantly, those moments showed me the strength of my little fa...

Yes, I got glitter while watching my husband play games.  It sounds funny when I write it down. Playing games is one of his hobbies. Another one is building RC trucks. He can spend hours putting together tiny gears and parts until it becomes a complete truck. Then he'll clean every corner of it with so much attention to detail. To be fair, we actually share that habit haha! And hobbies are funny too. Sometimes they stay for years. Sometimes they disappear for a while and come back one or two years later as if they never left. But while watching him play games recently, I found myself thinking about how much life has changed. Of course, most of those changes have been good. And for the ones that weren't, we took them as lessons.  Before we were husband and wife, and before becoming parents, we were just a young boy and girl. Living life cluelessly. Going with the flow. Living with the "YOLO" mindset. Enjoying life while we could.  To be honest, becoming an adult scared...

Today we spent about 15 minutes driving to a mini farm. We stayed for about an hour. Nothing extraordinary happened. There were no big celebrations, no special occasions, and no grand adventure. We walked slowly. My daughter touched some animals for the first time. She fed them too. We watched her curiosity take over as she looked at each animal with wide eyes. We followed her pace instead of rushing from one spot to another. We took our time and enjoyed the moment. It was simple. And somehow, it made me happy. On the drive home, I realised something. I've spent a lot of time writing about finding glitter. Finding glitter in comments. Finding glitter in rainy mornings. Finding glitter in ordinary moments. But today reminded me that sometimes we don't find the glitter. Sometimes we create it ourselves. Living overseas can be expensive. I think many people who live away from home understand this feeling. Sometimes I find myself caught between wanting to save more and wanting to e...

I came across a video on TikTok recently. The creator said:  "I truly believe if you do good things, good things will come back to you. It will all work out. Even better than you can imagine right now. Everything is possible. Every single thing happens for a reason, and maybe right now you can't see the reason, but one day you will." It was beautifully said. It inspired me to do better, think better, and act kinder. Then I went into the comment section. Some people wrote: "Not true." "I believe this too." "I did good things my whole life and still got treated badly." "Always grateful." "That's not how life works." The comments were all over the place. And honestly, I think that's both the beauty and the ugliness of social media. Everyone gets a voice. Everyone gets to bring their own experiences into the conversation. A single video can feel encouraging to one person and frustrating to another. One person watches i...

I know this is probably going to be too much information, but being able to poop every day somehow gives me glitter. There. I said it. In fact, this whole blog post idea came to me while I was sitting on the toilet.  Not exactly the glamorous kind of inspiration people usually talk about, but here we are. The older I get, the more I realise how many things we take for granted until something goes wrong.  Breathing comfortably.  Sleeping through the night.  Walking without pain.  Eating whatever we want.  And yes, even being able to poop regularly. These are things we rarely celebrate because they happen quietly in the background every single day.  We simply expect them to work.  Until one day they don't.  I once came across a quote that said: "When you're healthy, you have a hundred wishes. When you're sick, you only have one." The first time I read it, I thought it sounded a little dramatic.  Now I understand it completely.  When w...

I wish I could tell the whole world how amazing my husband is. I grew up surrounded by people who measured someone’s worth by how much money they had. Back then, I was young and naive too, so sometimes I almost believed it. But then I met my husband.  And somehow, he changed the way I see love completely.  I realised it was never really about money. It was always about personality. About the kind of man someone is when nobody is looking. Since I was young, I used to pray for a man with a charming smile, a sharp jawline, someone funny and playful, someone who would make me feel wanted, support my interests, stay beside me through everything, and make life feel a little lighter. And somehow… I found all of that in him. People around me used to tell me I could “do better” just because he drove a small car and came from a simple village background. But I never saw him that way.  I was happy with him then, and I’m still happy with him now. One day, I came across a simple quote...

I’m writing this while my baby is sleeping beside me. The house is finally quiet for a little while, and somehow, it gave me glitter. And yes, we got married. Married to the man who gave me butterflies the very first time I saw him. It still feels funny to me sometimes because if you knew us back then, you probably wouldn’t expect us to end up together. We were so different. He was adventurous. Fearless. Always chasing experiences.  And me? I was the type to overthink everything. The type to disappear when feelings started becoming real. But somehow, life kept pulling us back towards each other. Looking back now, I think one of the reasons I kept avoiding him was because I knew he was different. There was something about him that felt too sincere, too genuine, and maybe that scared me a little.  Because when you meet someone who feels safe, suddenly love becomes real. And real things are scary sometimes. But I still remember how patient he was with me. Even after years of bein...

I met my husband through a friend of a friend. The first time I saw him, I felt a little butterfly in my stomach, but I brushed it off because I didn’t think it would work out. We had very different interests. He was the first person I knew who was very adventurous. He hikes, skates, dives, snowboards… basically, he would try everything he could. Meanwhile, I was the complete opposite. Very subtle, not really adventurous. I only liked hiking. I tend to avoid things that might hurt me because I still carry little traumas from random things in life. I even have a fear of roosters because I got attacked by one when I was younger 😭 and the funny thing is...my husband’s Chinese zodiac is a rooster. HAHA. At first, we were really just friends. Hiking buddies.  But slowly, my feelings towards him started to grow.  And then one day…I disappeared. Yup. Just like that, I disappeared. He did try to contact me, but I ignored him for years. But somehow, he kept coming back. He kept asking...

Today was the first time my husband brought our daughter out, just the two of them. And for the first time in two years. I stayed home alone for about 40 minutes. Surprisingly, I wasn’t emotional because I was finally alone. I was emotional because my daughter is finally big enough to go out with her daddy without needing me beside her all the time. It made me realize how much we’ve grown. My daughter and I have never really been separated ever since she was born. Wherever I went, she went too. Especially when my husband used to work 12-hour shifts, it was always just her and me together all day and all night. She was a velcro baby. Then when she turned 6 months old, she developed very severe eczema, which made her even more attached to me. There was a phase where she mostly only wanted me. She wanted her daddy too, but usually only when I was around. We never really had a strong support system around us like some people do. For the longest time, our strength was only each other. My st...

I thought I was poor until I realized rich isn’t always about money. I come from a very big family, and honestly, I’m proud of that. We used to live deep in the forest where we had to walk about 45 minutes just to reach the main road. Shops were far away too, especially since we didn’t have a car at that time.  When I was in school, I had to wake up as early as 4am every morning just to catch public transport and arrive at school by 7am. So growing up, I thought I was poor.  I thought if your house was near the school, you were rich.  If your parents had their own car and could send you to school, you were rich. I was young and naive. I was raised with the mindset that being rich was only measured by how much money you had.  But as time went by, I grew up and moved out. That’s when I slowly realized something. I was actually rich all along. When I was a child, I was taken care of very well. My mum prepared everything for her children. We had food on the table ev...

I grew up in a very big family where the girls were always expected to be in the kitchen and learn how to cook from a very young age. I watched my mother cooking non-stop every single day, from breakfast to lunch to dinner. Back then, it just felt like a normal daily routine in the house. Now that I’m married and a stay-at-home mum, I finally understand the kind of love hidden behind those everyday meals.  It almost feels automatic for me now, making sure there’s always food on the table, thinking about what to cook tomorrow, wondering what meal would make my husband happy after work or what my daughter would enjoy eating today. I know today’s era is different from before. Nowadays, things are more equal, and many husbands cook too, which honestly, I think is beautiful. But for me personally, cooking somehow became part of the way I love people. To be honest, cooking is tiring, and I don’t always enjoy the process of it. Thinking about meals every single day can feel exhausting som...

Every time my period is about to come, I suddenly get this strong urge to deep clean the whole house. Not just normal cleaning, but the kind where I want to clean every dusty little corner, change the bedding, wipe everything slowly, reorganize tiny spaces nobody even notices. It’s kinda like the nesting phase before I gave birth.  But honestly, I’ve been like this long before pregnancy too. Even back when I was a teenager, I would suddenly get the urge to clean deeply whenever my emotions felt heavier. It somehow became a habit that grew up with me. Pregnancy just made me understand that feeling differently.  I remember cleaning slowly while heavily pregnant, folding tiny baby clothes and preparing little corners of the house with so much love. Now whenever the feeling comes back, it reminds me of that version of myself again somehow. I also realized cleaning became my way of handling my period mood swings. Instead of letting myself feel too overwhelmed or angry at everything...

It’s been two years since I became a mum.  Now I kinda understand the feeling of becoming a mother.  I still remember the moment I pushed my baby into this world. My midwife looked at me and said, “You’re really born to be a mother.” At that moment, honestly, I didn’t really think much about what she meant. I was just proud of myself because… wow, I’m a mum now. Growing up, I used to think mums just naturally knew how to do everything.  But now that I’m older and a mum myself, I finally understand that mothers are learning as they go too. They were also just daughters once. Just girls once. Just humans trying their best while life keeps moving. Motherhood feels so emotional to me now. There are so many unspoken things about being a mum. Some beautiful, some exhausting, some lonely, some overwhelming.  But somehow mothers still keep showing up every day with love in their hands. And maybe that’s why I think mothers are a little bit like sunflowers. Always trying to fi...

Growing up, instant noodles were never really on the list whenever we were hungry. My mum would rarely feed us instant noodles because somehow, there were always proper meals ready at home. Breakfast, lunch, tea time munchies and dinner. There was always food prepared by my mum. But there were times when I saw my mum eating instant noodles on her own.  And I remember seeing how much my mum enjoyed it. The way she looked was so comforted just by eating instant noodles. Back then I didn’t really understand it. As I grew older and finally reached the age where I could eat instant noodles whenever I wanted, I still didn’t think much about it.  But now that I’ve moved overseas, became a mum, and sta rted living life on my own away from family. I finally understand that feeling somehow. There’s this weird comfort that comes with instant noodles.  And yes, I know it’s “not healthy.” But honestly, sometimes eating something comforting makes me mentally happy too. And I think ment...

I like to spoon-feed my baby myself sometimes. I know one day she’ll hold her own spoon, make her own meals, and probably not even need me standing in the kitchen anymore. I think that’s why I’m enjoying this phase while it’s still here. I’ve seen a lot of modern parenting culture that pushes “faster milestones,” like teaching babies to eat on their own as early as possible, and honestly, I think it’s amazing. Babies really do learn so fast. But life already moves fast enough already. One minute I’m carrying a tiny baby in a baby carrier, the next minute she’s already running around the house, talking, asking for snacks every five minutes, and telling me, “It’s okay mummy, I can do it myself.” Feeding her feels small and ordinary, but somehow it feels really sentimental to me. Of course, there are times when I’m rushing, tired, overstimulated, or simply don’t want to be bothered. But whenever I can, I try to stop for a moment and slow things down. I try to enjoy it. I try to cherish it...

At first, it felt like I had just gone away to boarding school. Everything here felt foreign to me. Adjusting to new places, new weather, and new ways of socialising.  I was deeply homesick. I wanted to go back home so badly, but with COVID and everything else happening at the time, it wasn’t easy. Day by day, I slowly learned to let go of the things I couldn’t control. I stopped forcing everything and just learned to go with the flow, hoping better days would eventually come. Somehow, the roads that once felt confusing slowly became familiar to me. The grocery stores didn’t feel so foreign anymore, and even the cold weather that I used to complain about all the time started feeling a little more normal. Then somewhere along the way, this place slowly stopped feeling temporary. I became a mom here. I created routines here. I cried here. I healed here. And maybe without realising it, little pieces of me started growing roots here too. Maybe that’s why this place slowly became par...