Mommy's Next Step

Last quarter of the year there is mango season here in Indonesia! Hurray...!
That's the unique thing of living in Indonesia. We have many seasons, not only dry and rainy ones, but there are also season of durian, rambutan season (usually coming soon after mango season!), getting married season, and entering school season. LOL. Don't take it seriously. It is only a joke.

Okay. Back to mango.

I love mango very much. I had a mango tree in the backyard of my old home. It was 'honey mango'. The name tells us all. Yes. The mangoes are so sweet and orangish! There is a kind of visible dark orange line in the flesh circling the seed.

I always enjoyed picking them myself. Not by climbing up the tree but by using a specific tool to pick. With the help of my father, ofcourse. 😄

My dad, mom and my siblings love mango as well. We really, really felt blessed to own such a tree in the backyard.

Fun Facts About Mango I always thought that mango was originated from my country as we …

Cycling with kids around the paddy fields is amusing. My sons (8 and 9 yo) love to bike. You know, they are young boys. And young boys love to make themselves sweaty and dirty. No matter what the risk is, what they care about is they are having lots of fun.

I love to bike, too. That's why on certain times when I know they are bored, I take them out for cycling. And thank God, where we live has the best place to cycle around: the paddy fields.

We usually start from home, bike slowly to North and then turn East. After some minutes we will see the vast paddy fields in front of us.



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Sebuah kiriman dibagikan oleh Diah Dwi Arti (@diahdwiarti) pada 14 Agu 2016 jam 10:54 PDT
Not only rice, actually. There are also fields of sugar cane tree. Not far from our place there lies a sugar factory which was build in 1903 at times of Netherland's colonization.

The existence of this factory, and other four, can't be separated from the Colonial's policy c…

Doing zikir after each salah is strongly recommended. Prophet Muhammad Shalallahu alaihi wa sallam (pbuh) always used his right hand to do that. That becomes sunnah for muslims to follow.

In hadith narrated by Abu Dawud, it said that:
"I saw the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) counting the tasbih." Ibnu Qudaamah said, "With his right hand." (Sunan Abu Dawud).


How to Do Zikir on Fingers Using Right Hand Only?
I used to use each finger to count 1. I needed to count each finger on both hands to make 10 and repeated them again three times until I reached 30. And then added 3 to make 33.

Unfortunately, using this technique was hard because I sometimes got blank and not sure how many I had counted.

Related article: Teaching Kids About Hajj

Now,  after searching in Google, I use different method to reduce mistakes, and it really helps.

Here is how.

On each finger we have 3 joints, except the thumb that only has 2. Each joint has inner and outer parts and its point.

Each finger…

Early in this September, my sons, Mr. Inventor and The Professor went on a hajj teaching ritual class. It is an annual class conducted by the regional teaching department. There were more than one thousand students from15 different elementary schools. It took place at the local square.

This year is special for us because male students had to wear ihram, a clothing of male hajj pilgrims. I was imagining it would be great as kids would learn almost the real hajj would like. The last year class didn't obligate male students to wear ihram, just white clothing.

Surprisingly, Mr. Inventor refused to attend the class.

"I will not go," he said.

"Why not?" I asked.

"I just don't want to."

Okay...it became a problem for me. I needed to find out what caused him not to. Mr. Inventor is 9-year-old now, so I think it is common for such a boy to feel uncomfortable about something new. Perhaps he wanted to look good with the ihram.

I persuaded him to go. I told …

Those words came out of my 9 yo son, "Mommy, I wanna be a YouTuber and earn a lot of money."

Well, I'm not surprised to hear that. As a blogger, I am also a YouTuber. I produce videos for supporting my blog posts. Not all blog posts, only some of them. And during the process, my sons used to watch me.

Not only that, I sometimes ask them to be the talents. They love doing that and so do I.

Mr. Inventor loves to watch videos about the computer on YouTube. After watching we usually tell me about the ideas he got from there.

"I am going to make a portable computer for you, Mom."

All I can say is thank you and suggest him to be careful with the budget.

Deep in my heart, I don't really like him to be a Youtuber. I wish him better. But, I realize I may not break his dreams. His future may be different from mine, so I decided to accept all his passions.

In his younger year, he was a robot freak. He had a dream to build a multitasking robot to help me at home. He …

Halo, assalamu alaikum.

Lombok Earthquake this August has really broken my heart. 7.0 Richter Scale. Innalillaahi wa inna ilayhi roojiuun.

I feel them.

I was, by Allah's will, one of survivors of Jogja Earthquake back in 2006. It's been 12 years, but, the feeling remains the same.

I guess I can never forget it.

It was almost 6 a.m. I was having a lazy morning on my bed. My mom and dad were having their morning tea. We used to enjoy some tea, waiting for the morning newspaper to come and discussing anything.

All of a sudden, the house was shaking. My bed was, too. I ran out of the room and rushed to the side door. My dad was with me. The door was also shaking. It was hard for my daddy to open. The cupboard beside me was dancing. The sound of the cups and bowls and plates were frightening me. I was worried they might fall on to me.

Once my dad succeded in opening the door, we rushed out of the house. I didn't notice my mom and my brother. All I knew was they were running to…

It's August now! Independence Day is coming. Alhamdulillah, my beloved Indonesia will be 73 this August 17.

Our place of living is busy beautifying the neighbourhood. We hang some DIY lanterns and firefly lamps. We also fly our Red-and-White flags.

In kampongs there are several sports tournaments such as volley ball and ping-pong. There are some events and contests to glorify the day.


August also means dry season here. No rain, the air is windy and chilly. We are used to it, but, this year is masha Allah windier and chillier than ever!

Many people are complaining about the weather. We don't usually meet the 17°C, but, it was reported that cold. I myself feel uncomfortable when the temperature touches 20°C. Oh, ya Allah. My skin gets dry and tight.

Good News From Windy And Chilly August
One of my neighbour who had lived in Taiwan said that the weather is just like what she saw there during winter.

Then it's winter in wrong place, I guess 😅😅.

It's also windy here. Som…