Frugal Lesson from a billionaire

Chris drives a 16-year-old-car & I drives a 13-year-old-car. Both of them still run well and we are not planning to replace them anytime soon; well at least 'till they start to give us problem. Thanks to this article whenever we are tempted to think about getting a nicer/ more comfortable/ bigger car, all we need to say to each other is, "Remember what car the Ikea founder drives?" :P

IKEA founder proud to be frugal at 80
Taken from reuters.com article on 2006-03-27 09:16

IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad, ranked 4th richest man in the world, drives a 15-year-old car and always flies economy class, in part to inspire his 90,000 employees worldwide to see the virtue of frugality.

The billionaire Swede, who turns 80 on March 30, explained his legendary habits during a rare television interview in Switzerland, his adoptive home for nearly 30 years.

His fortune was recently estimated at US$28 billion by Forbes magazine -- trailing only Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, U.S. investor Warren Buffett and Mexican industrialist Carlos Slim.

"People say I am cheap and I don't mind if they do. But I am very proud to follow the rules of our company," Kamprad told French-language Swiss Broadcasting Corporation.

Asked to confirm he drove an old Volvo, he said: "She is nearly new, just 15 years old, or something like that."

Interviewer Darius Rochebin teased that Ikea employees were always told to write on both sides of the paper.

"Why not? If there is such a thing as good leadership, it is to give a good example. I have to do so for all the Ikea employees," Kamprad retorted.

"Everything we earn we need as a reserve. We have to still develop the IKEA group. We need many billions of Swiss francs (dollars) to take on China or Russia," he added.

Ikea is the world's biggest furniture retailer, with 202 stores in 32 countries.Known for its inexpensive self-assembly furniture, the business claims its hefty catalog is the most widely read publication after the Bible.

The small-town Swede set up shop in his garden shed, selling watches, pens and Christmas cards.
"I bought seeds for the garden and had great success with it, going around to all the houses in my village. After that year I could buy myself my first bicycle," Kamprad recalled.

When Sweden's Social Democrat government launched the "Million Homes Project" in the 1950s, he saw an opportunity and got into the furniture business.

He stumbled upon the "flat-pack" idea in 1956 when an employee took the legs off a table to fit it into a customer's car. It saves a fortune in transport, storage and sales space.

"Our idea is to serve everybody, including people with little money. We have to keep costs down," he said.

His home in the Swiss village of Epalinges near Lausanne above scenic Lake Geneva is mainly decorated with Ikea furniture, apart from a few family pieces.

Last week he made a donation of 500,000 swiss francs ($379,900) to the Lausanne cantonal art school, where his son studied.

"I'm not afraid of turning 80 and I have lots of things to do. I don't have time for dying," Kamprad said.

1 Timothy 1:7

"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."

Babysitting

Since I was little, I always love babies and kids. I like to kiss, hug, pinch their cheek, hear them talk, see them laugh, and so on. Kids fascinate me. When I was in college once in a while my pastor and his wife would ask me to babysit their kids so that they can have a date. They would write me a check to compensate for my time but I won't cleared it, because I feel they were the one who do me a favor by allowing me to spend time with their kids. :)

Now that I have a kid on my own, I just realized what a huge blessing it is to have others we can trust to watch the kid once in a while. We are so thankful for our friends who love Max so much and often offer to babysit him.

One evening around 6 PM Chris and I were both exhausted and desperately need a nap. I didn't sleep well the night before and Chris has to go back to work that night. We knew it would be impossible for us to rest with our-widely-awake-1-year-old running around like energizer bunny. So... we called 911 a.k.a. our dear friend, Fonda, who live 10 minutes from our place to ask her help to watch Max for about 2 hours or so. Being a sweet friend that she is, she enthusiastically answered, "No problem. I'd love to" *Fiuhhh....* It turned out to be a wonderful evening for the four of us. Mommy & daddy got 2 hour rest while Max & Fonda had a lot of fun. Fonda kindly took videos so we knew what they were up to:



Thanks to auntie Fonda, Max now can eat all by himself using spoon or fork. He used to eat from his booster tray, which turned out to be too low for him. After we saw this video, we start to have him eat from the table while sitting on his booster.

And O..o. Max got his first scholarship that night. Auntie Fonda was smitten by Max so much that she offers to give him piano lessons. Yay!!! Thank you so much, Fonda. We can't ask for a better piano teacher. *muachhh... muachhh....*

The Seven Cow Wife

A friend of us shared this inspiring story he heard during the husbands' session at Family Life Weekend to Remember Conference. I found a pastor already post the story as part of his sermon here so I just copy and paste it. :) Thank you pastor!

In a small, rural town in Africa, a young man decided to get married. It was the custom in that area that when a young man decided sought a woman in marriage, he would pay the bride’s parents a dowry in cows. If a woman was of average appearance and ability, the dowry might be two or three cows. If less than average, fewer cows. And if a particular young lady was extremely beautiful and talented, a young man might pay as high as four cows. In rare situations, he’d offer as many as five.

How many cows a man was willing to pay for his wife became a bragging point for the women. As the story goes, George found a young lady who struck his fancy but who was rather plain and ordinary. George approached her father and offered to pay him seven cows for her hand in marriage. Seven cows! No one could ever remember anyone paying that much for a wife. The whole town mocked George for being so foolish. Well, the wedding day was set, and everyone in the town was there. The bride’s father put on quite a party, but the conversations all day revolved around how foolish everyone thought George was for having paid seven cows for such an ordinary and plain wife.

Several years later, a traveling missionary came to town and began hearing all the stories about George and his seven-cow wife — how this young man had paid so much for such an ordinary woman and how the whole town had mocked them to the point they had moved away. The traveling missionary decided he must see for himself how this story had played out. When he knocked on the door of George’s house that first evening, he was impressed with the appearance of the entryway. George’s face lit up when the missionary introduced himself at the door and quickly invited the visitor into his home. He introduced the missionary to his four young children. All handsome young boys, and very well behaved, thought the missionary. He was also impressed with the cleanliness and order in the home. After entering the living room, George’s carried in a drink from the kitchen, where she was preparing dinner. The missionary was taken aback at her beauty, poise and grace. He thought to himself that George must have gotten another wife, as this woman was anything but plain and ordinary.

George invited the missionary to stay for dinner. After a lovely meal, the two men retired to some chairs on the front porch. The missionary complimented George on his beautiful wife, great family and immaculate house. “But what happened to the woman you had paid seven cows for?” George replied that this was the same woman.

The missionary marveled and said that he had heard the stories from the other village about the plain, ordinary wife George had married. “What changed?” he asked. George replied that he had always wanted a seven-cow wife, that she knew he considered her a seven-cow wife, and that she had risen to the bride price. She believed in her worth.

The value we put on other people greatly affects the way they value themselves.

I Cast All My Cares Upon You

I was reminded of this song tonight so I looked it up on youtube and found this video below. What a cute encouragement! :) I can't wait for Max to be able to sing that well that way he can praise the Lord and bless others with his singing.

I cast all my cares upon You
I lay all of my burden down at your feet
At anytime that I don't know what to do
I just cast all my cares upon You


"Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you."
1 Peter 5:7

Max's Favorite Spaghetti Meatballs

Ingredients:
1 box spaghetti - cooked according to package directions
1 tbs olive oil
1 yellow onion - chopped
4 cloves of garlic
2 tbs Sun Dried Tomatoes - sliced thin
1 bottle pasta sauce
1 can straw mushrooms
1/2 can chicken broth
Sugar, salt, pepper as preferred
cheddar cheese - shredded
+/- 20 Meatballs: I use the Chef Bruce Aidells Chicken Teriyaki & Pineapple Meatballs from Costco

Method:
Heat the olive oil, add the onion saute 'till translucent. Add the garlic, chicken broth, sun dried tomatoes, pasta sauce - cook 'till boiled. Then add the rest of the ingredients.

And this is what Max thought of mommy's spaghetti:

"Enak!" (= Yummy! :))

Ephesians 4:29

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."

Gate

Max usually cries when he wakes up from his nap so Chris and I usually don't bother to close the stair gate because once we heard him cry on baby monitor, we'll ran up stair to greet him.

One afternoon, he woke up quietly and started walking down the stairs. By the time I heard his steps and ran to meet him, he already walked down half way through the stairs with his right hand holding on the wall and his left hand holding on Doggie, his precious bolster. We were shocked because he usually goes down the stairs backward in crawling position, which is safer. Thank God Max didn't fall or hurt himself.

He refused to let Mr. Doggie go afterward, so it accompanies him doing his business


Max's "don't-bother-me-I-just-wake-up-look"


From that point on, we make sure the stair gate is locked.
Here is my little rascal trying to sneak out. Sorry baby your head is too big


He then tried to climb it but it doesn't work either


Will somebody please open this gate?


Pizzzzzz (=please)

One Step Further

My good friend Santi was giving the message on English Service two weeks ago. Santi is currently going to seminary part time after work and during the weekend. On top of that, she's practically the youth minister at our church. She is amazing! I'm so blessed and honor to have her as my sister. Thank you for your obedience and love to the Lord and His people, San. We love you!

Santi, Joan, and me inside the giant "wok" @ Urbana'03

That morning, Santi challenged us to yield our life and time for God to use it as He pleases. She share about the time when she took a 1/2 day off from work. She originally planned to spend it to catch up her reading assignment for her class, but then her phone rang. A friend desperately wanted Santi to come by to care & pray for her. She went with heavy heart; her friend's place was quite far from her place, in addition, she has to pick up her dad from work in an hour. Long story short, she went to her friend's place, brought some food, listened to her struggles & worries, then prayed for her. She left 15 minutes before her dad got off from work. Normally with traffic it would take her 45 minutes to get to her dad's office, but God cleared up the way, she arrived just seconds before her dad came out of the door.

From there, she goes on to her message taken from Exodus 32:1-4

Lesson to learn from this passage:
1. Yield our time to God. It's not our time, it's His time!
2. The Israelite couldn't see Moses, their leader, so they turned to make themselves an idol. What is the "idol" that kept us from following God? Our career, GPA, friends, parents, spouse, .....?
3. There will be times when the culture and people around us: family or friend go against us as we follow God (which reminded me of David' story on 1 Samuel 17:28). We have to read and know God's Words that way we will be able to stand firm.

In every moment in our life, let's use it for His Glory. There's an unspeakable joy that comes from yielding our life to God.

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:10

Today

Part of “The Life builder’s Creed” by Dale Witherington:

Today is the most important day of my life.
Yesterday with its successes and victories, struggles, and failures is gone forever.
The past is past.
Done
Finished
I cannot relive it. I cannot go back and change it.
But I will learn from it and improve my Today.
Today, this moment, NOW.
It is God’s gift to me and it’s all that I have.
Tomorrow with all its joys and sorrows, triumphs and troubles is not here yet.
Indeed, tomorrow may never come.
Therefore, I will not worry about tomorrow.
Today is what God has entrusted to me.
It is all that I have. I will do my best in it.
I will demonstrate the best of me in it –
My character, giftedness, and abilities –
To my family and friends, and clients, and associates.
I will identify those things that are most important to do Today,
And those things I will do until they are done.
And when this day is done,
I will look back with satisfaction at that which I have accomplished.
Then, and only then, will I plan my tomorrow,
Looking to improve upon Today, with God’s help.
Then I shall go to sleep in peace… content.