A Homemaker’s Diary

I bought this book among a few other titles last month. I just finished reading a few chapters. The book is written specifically for fathers to learn what are the skills and techniques needed to ensure the best for their sons.

Mendidik Anak Lelaki
Penulis: Adnan Hasan Salleh
Terbitan: PTS

Buku Mendidik Anak Lelaki menitikberatkan kepada pentingnya peranan ibubapa, khususnya bapa dalam memberikan perhatian dan bimbingan yang islamik secara berterusan kepada anak, khasnya anak lelaki.

Mengapa bapa dan mengapa anak lelaki? Buku ini tidak bermaksud memandang remeh peranan ibu dan anak perempuan, namun kerana seorang bapa dan suami cenderung meninggalkan tanggungjawabnya sebagai pemimpin keluarga, sekaligus sebagai pendidik anak-anaknya kerana sibuk bekerja.

Buku ini mesti dimiliki oleh para ibu bapa yang mengimpikan anak lelaki mereka menjadi pemimpin umat.

For me, the book is quite dry, more like reading a thesis. So I am reading it first in order to jot down the important parts for Hubby to read later.

Bought this the other day when we went to MPH bookstore. Took me about 2 days to finish reading it at night. I would like to quote what I read on page 207.

Ibu Yang Berjaya Selalu Realistik

Ibu yang berjaya adalah ibu yang sedar kenyataan hidup yang sedang dihadapinya. Dia tidak hidup dalam khayalan.

Memang setiap orang memiliki impian dan cita-cita dalam hidup tetapi kita perlu ingat, tidak semua impian dan cita-cita dapat kita capai. Setiap orang mempunyai tahap batasan sendiri dan itulah kenyataan yang perlu kita terima.

Seorang ibu yang mengetahui ada impiannya yang tidak boleh tercapai tidak perlu menyeksa diri dengan melihat ataupun terus mengharapkannya. Apabila seorang ibu dapat hidup dalam dunia nyata dan berusaha bersungguh-sungguh, insya-Allah, dia memperoleh apa yang diinginkannya dan apa yang mungkin dicapai dalam keterbatasannya.

Allah mencipta manusia dengan kemampuan yang berbeza, malah semuanya berbeza. Tidak ada manusia yang betul-betul sama. Tujuannya supaya manusia saling membantu, saling memberi dan menerima.

You can also get a copy from a WAHM friend’s blog here : Beli Buku Online.

Quoted from page 40:

Cleaning house and rearing children are, in fact, two very distinct tasks. Parents who stay home with an active alert child may find themselves so consumed with parenting that they have little time for homemaking.

The active alert child is, by definition, busy. Just picking up after his clutter all day can be both discouraging and depressing. Some days, simply making a meal – to say nothing of dusting, doing laundry, running errands, and doing yard work – is a major accomplishment for the active alert child’s parent.

I finished reading this 2 days ago..finally! For those who love the Tudor era, you might want to give this book a try. It’s not all historical and facts of the boring history since it’s a fictional work based on true story of The Lady Jane Grey who became the Queen of England for 9 days.

For those who have watched HBO mini series The Tudor or movie like The Other Boleyn girl, you might have the idea of how King Henry VIII had 6 wives, he has a second daughter named Elizabeth by his marriage to Anne Boleyn (who was later beheaded for treason) and a son, Edward VI who died at 16. Well, Lady Jane Grey was his grand niece.

When the young King died after an illness, those power crazy people behind him wanted to stay in position so they manipulated the young Jane Grey into becoming a puppet queen. But when Mary I realized this, she attacked and got back her rights to be Queen. Even though she knew that Lady Jane Grey was innocent she has no choice but to beheaded her for treason.

I hope I can get hold of her other fictional work The Lady Elizabeth. Something to look out for in the coming Big Bad Wolf sale 🙂

After watching the movie which was mentioned by a few friends, I decided to check out the book by the same title. The movie is great definitely so I hope that once I have the time to finish the book, I will find the book more enjoyable and detailed.

Here is the synopsis taken from goodreads:

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women – mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends – view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.