This morning I did not take so much food for breakfast, recently I only have my homemade coffee mocha and a slice of bread or biscuit.

We always eat together for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every weekend. Today, we had a late breakfast and late lunch too. It was 3 PM, and I am starting to feel hungry. I was about to make an Indomie a few minutes ago. I felt like craving so much to eat Indomie goreng with boiled egg.

But then we decided to eat tomato soup. Just like the usual Sunday lunch, tomato soup is easy to make. Today, we made the ordinary tomato soup a little bit fancy by putting some pieces of beef. And yeah! It was not a bad choice! 

So that was my first experience to make an apple pie. It was so easy tho. We just need 175g of margarine or butter, 1 egg, 1kg of apple, 75g of raisins, sugar and cinnamon powder. For the dough, it’s already in the apple pie mix, so I just had to put butter, egg and the apple pie mix in the mixer and mixed it until the dough is ready. After that, we put the dough as the base in the pan. Meanwhile, I prepared the apples, peeled and chopped it to the dice’s size. Then mixed it with raisins, sugar, and cinnamon powder. The next step was to put the apples into the pan. And cover it with the rest of the dough to make it more fancy and delicious proper apple pie haha.

Put the raw pie (is it the correct name?) into the oven for 30-45mins in 220 degrees  Celsius. Better to check the pie regularly, just in case it will get burn. 

After a few minutes, woalaaa! My first ever apple pie! It was so lekker! It is all time favorite in this country. You can almost order it in every café here. Usually, apple pie is served with hot cocoa or just a simple black coffee.

So having a mom and living with the whole family is fun! I am so excited to make my next cake and maybe will share it on my blog. Tot ziens!

PS. Sorry, there’s no proper picture of the apple pie, 'cause we’re too excited to eat it. *wink*

I may call myself as a 'bookworm'. Not a person who’s a big fan of books to read them, but more to people who really like to buy books and keep it. Basically, I am a book collector. 

However, I eventually read my books, not as soon as I bought it, but it sometimes takes time. I just put them on my waiting list to be read. Today, I read a book I bought almost 8 months ago. It still has a price tag on its cover too. Apparently, I’ve read until chapter 16, but I kinda forgot how’s it. Then I decided to take a random subchapter for a short reading time on this rainy evening. 

It’s Dale Carnegie’s book, “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living”. Perhaps you knew about the infamous book “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, so this book should be on your wish list too. So, I was down to the content page, and I interested to re-read Part four, Seven Ways to Cultivate a Mental Attitude That Will Bring You Peace and Happiness.

Well, as a throwback, I bought this book in Japan, when I was really down -maybe this is the common problems of some foreigner, or foreign student, in Japan-. Back then, I asked for some advice from some friends, about why am I feel so lonely and worried about a lot of things. But, don’t you also think, that whenever you ask for advice, you basically just ask for a supporter, because you already have your own decision, your own point of view. And, all the advice, just ended for… maybe nothing.

So, one day, after I went back from work as a part-time English teacher in Umeda, I decided not to go home soon after I finished, but I went to the city center by myself. It was Friday night, so why didn’t I spend time strolling around alone? That must be fun. I bought my favorite cheesecake and a soda from the vending machine. Walked through the city center, watched people sang on the street, and a lot of people commuted, busy. Felt enough with the crowd, I went to the station to go back home, but my eyes caught a bookshop, Kinokuniya, and I found this book. And tadaa~

So yeah, talking about Part four, Chapter 12 looks so catchy for me, “Eight Words That Can Transform Your Life”. This chapter basically wanna tell us that we shouldn’t be that worry about our life. We should live our life, our present. And we should keep our positive mind. Believing that everything will be okay in the end. We should always think and always try to be happy.

The eight words were from the philosopher who ruled the Roman Empires, Marcus Aurelius. Eight words that can determine your destiny: “Our life is what our thoughts make it”. Yes, if we think a happy thought, we will be happy. If we think miserable thoughts, we will be miserable. If we think fear thoughts, we will be fearful. If we think sickly thoughts, we will probably will ill. If we think failure, we will certainly fail. If we wallow in self-pity, everyone will want to shun us and avoid us.

That was a mantra! Like seriously, to be honest, I've proved it myself. I used to be worried a lot -and sometimes I still do- but I realized that when we overthink, and afraid of it, everything is getting worse. But when I believe that everything will be okay, that I can make it, that there’s a big power, the biggest power in this universe will help me, then everything is just going easier. I used to feel that my life was so black and blue, and it’s kinda difficult for me to smile, or even hanging around with people. I always afraid of what’s on people mind. I was afraid that they’ll hate me. But now, I tried to think about it in reverse. That I don’t have to be worry that much. That life is more to yellow and orange. I tried to look at everything differently and it works. Like, seriously… your life depends on what’s on your mind.

Okay, back to the book. What I love from this part is also there are some stories that I definitely Agreed and said “YES” because the stories are similar to mine. Like the story of a guy who had been down in over worried. He said

And in the next paragraph, he also said

The deepest part of this chapter is on the last two pages, it’s really deep until I realized how ungrateful I was for what I have. 

The mind is its own place, and in itself, Can make a heaven of Hell, a hell of Heaven.

When I read this chapter, only this chapter, I was thinking I should read this book days before. I shouldn’t keep it on the bookshelf. At the end of this chapter, there are also ten things you should do JUST FOR TODAY. And closed with a nice statement that if we want to develop a mental attitude that will bring us peace and happiness, here is Rule 1:

Hello. 

Hello, welcome to the 4th question of #52questionsfor2018!

Look!

Oreos and twilight!

Book. glasses. and the sun

Colored pencils

The Soldiers

Black and White cube

So, the most heartbreaking story will start here…

n my 4th semester, I had a Land Survey course where we studied soil horizons. This meant we had to dig into the soil up to a depth of 1 meter and examine its color. By analyzing the colors, layers, structures, and textures, we could gather valuable information about the soil's capacity and determine the best vegetation for the land. Our surveys covered everything from lowlands to highlands, taking us from open fields to dense forests. It was one of the toughest subjects during my bachelor's studies.

One day, I took out my camera to capture pictures of the soil layers. To get the perfect shot, I had to crouch down or even lie on the ground. But then, disaster struck. I accidentally dropped my camera, and it fell straight into the 1-meter-deep hole. And….It had cracks on its LCD............................................................................................................... (Let’s cry together)