The Diary of a CEO's Wife

Happy Mother’s Day ! This year, I asked for nothing. No flowers, no cake with dramatic candles, no surprise gifts. I simply announced to my husband and children, very calmly and very firmly: today, I am on leave from being a mother. Full holiday. Zero duties. Which meant no cooking, no dishwashing, no laundry sorting, no reminding anyone of anything. And to my surprise, they took it seriously. Like…   seriously   seriously. The kitchen was fully taken over. Meals were planned, cooked, and served. The laundry from the service? Sorted and packed for our upcoming road trip. They even tidied up   before   the Ranger Clean Sheet team arrived, so the ranger could handle the things they couldn’t or simply didn’t want to do. Teamwork, delegation, project management . I was impressed. My husband, who once treated dishwashing like a personal enemy, suddenly became the most diligent man in the room. Yes, we have a dishwasher. Yes, he still washed all the big pots and pans by ha...

I woke up today feeling a bit lowbat . Low energy, low spirit, mildly moody for no clear reason. Maybe the gloomy weather had something to do with it. Or maybe it was just one of those days where your soul hasn’t had coffee yet. Who knows. What I do know is that I took my usual long stay in the bathroom, fully convinced everyone would’ve eaten brunch without me. Turns out, they were waiting. Apparently, I was still part of the plan. We had church at 11:45, so we left the house at 10:30. It was our last service of the year, doubled as a Christmas celebration. The church team deserves a long break too, obviously. God rested on the seventh day, so surely church volunteers can rest at the end of the year. The sermon was titled   Knowing God Through Jesus . And somehow, it landed right where it needed to. That reminder from Colossians about the fullness of God dwelling in Christ, about Jesus being the visible image of the invisible God. It felt grounding. Like someone gently cleaning t...

I woke up at 5 a.m. because of a dream and a stubborn stomachache. The kind that sends you straight into deep contemplation on a toilet seat. So there I was, semi-meditating in the bathroom, reading, making content, letting the world spin quietly while everyone else was still asleep. Not the worst way to start a day, honestly. By 7 a.m., I took myself out for a walk around the botanic garden . The air was ridiculously good today. Cool, crisp, not humid, not clingy. The kind of weather that makes you forget Tangsel can be this kind. I walked, I breathed, I stayed longer than planned, while listening to The Underdog podcast . Exercised alone until 8, then continued with indoor weight training until 8.30. A full solo date with my body. When I got back to the apartment, everyone was still sleeping. Of course. I made myself breakfast like a quiet reward. Leftover salmon fish head , warm chamomile tea mixed with collagen. Sounds odd, tastes amazing. Clean, comforting, healthy. After that, I...

Early morning began with an offline meeting in our apartment’s function room with the Two Spaces team . We sat down to coordinate the management of MNV Mono Co-Living and Calma Rivervilla Puncak , and once again I was reminded why meeting in person still matters. Things move faster. Conversations jump tracks in the best way. New findings appear, the kind that never show up in Zoom squares or WhatsApp threads. Acceleration feels real when you can point, scribble, interrupt, laugh, and immediately decide what needs fixing, what deserves upgrading, and what could hopefully bring in more cuan . Amen to that. After the meeting, I returned to our unit to a very sweet surprise. My youngest had prepared a special banh mi for us, complete with yellow sweet potatoes and green beans as side dish. Healthy, delicious, and honestly… beautiful. She really does go the extra mile when she cooks, from flavor to presentation. As if that wasn’t enough, packages arrived too. Hampers of cookies from Skysta...

I slept at 2 a.m. and woke up at 8, not because my body was ready, but because my best friend Detha was already in the apartment lobby. She had told me several days before that she might come by. Might, in best-friend language, usually means definitely. The plan was wholesome and optimistic. A morning walk around the botanical garden, chasing sweat and pretending we’re disciplined adults. Reality had other plans. Rain. Endless rain. The kind of rain that makes your bed whisper, come back, don’t be a hero. Honestly, rainy mornings like that are made for sleeping in, not cardio. So since the entire household was still asleep, I went down alone and we talked in the lobby instead. Life updates flowed easily. Surgery stories, health check-ins, holiday plans, and then heavier things, like the bullying her teenager has been facing at school. The kind of conversation that reminds you how friendship isn’t about constant laughter, but about being able to say hard things without rehearsing. At 10...

After two days of forced rest because of a stubborn headache, today I was officially back on track. Or at least trying to be. The calendar was full and life clearly did not get the memo that I had just been sick. First agenda started early. At 9.30 we headed to Depok to drop my mom at my sister’s house. She was going to accompany my youngest nephew who would otherwise be home alone while his mom was on a work trip to Surabaya. When we arrived, he was not alone at all. My younger sibling, her husband, and their child had arrived thirty minutes earlier.  We had another reason to meet there. I had ordered ready to cook marinated food to support my sibling’s brand new business. After years of encouragement, mild pressure, and enthusiastic pep talks, she finally started. My husband and I were ridiculously excited. Supporting family's business feels extra personal. We stayed until around 12.30, talking, advising, and imagining this small business growing bigger and braver. Agenda number ...

I woke up with my head still heavy, like yesterday had refused to let go. The kind of dizziness that makes you negotiate with the ceiling before you sit up. Thankfully, my youngest stepped in like a quiet hero. She cooked for the whole family, tidied up after, and made it all feel normal, like taking care of your mother is just another item on a to-do list. After food and medicine, the pain softened. Not gone, just kinder. Kind enough for me to walk to IMAX with my husband and daughter and watch   Zootopia . The movie for me was… so-so. As usual, I fell asleep somewhere in the middle. But the ending caught me. That pairing felt oddly familiar: the zen, emotionally clumsy fox next to the endlessly chatty bunny . Some dynamics really do repeat themselves in different costumes. Before heading home, I took photos of my husband in front of a SpongeBob installation. For reasons I still don’t understand, Patrick was wearing a thong. Slightly disturbing. Slightly inappropriate. We laughe...

I woke up with a heavy head. The kind that makes you pause before opening your eyes. Last night’s headache had already demanded medicine, and I naïvely assumed sleep and paracetamol would negotiate a truce. It didn’t. By morning, the pain was still there, louder, more insistent. By ten, I knew I wouldn’t be going downstairs. The BCA relationship manager was scheduled to visit for their annual courtesy call, bringing Christmas and birthday gifts for my husband. Normally I would have joined, smiled politely, exchanged small talk. Today, my role was strictly horizontal. So my husband went alone, meeting them in the lobby while I stayed upstairs, negotiating peace with my own head. When he came back, he brought stories and a generous set of gifts: an Exquise hamper , planners, calendars. A proper, thoughtful spread. Thank you, BCA. I appreciated it quietly, from the bed, with the blurry gratitude of someone slightly dizzy from medication. The rest of the day dissolved into rest. I slept. ...

Sunday morning unfolded the way it usually does in our house: slow, forgiving, unbothered. Lunch was a happy reunion of leftovers from last night’s Christmas gathering; proof that celebrations don’t really end, they just quietly continue in reheated portions. At one in the afternoon we headed to church for the two o’clock service. In the parking lot, we ran into an old friend: Richard Fang , who once co-founded tiket.com with my husband, along with his wife Karen and their daughter. Turns out we were worshipping in the same building, just different sessions. We introduced our daughter, designer to designer, and almost instinctively Richard said, “Learn AI.” I laughed. My husband has been saying the exact same thing at home, and has been gently but consistently rejected. Our daughter is an idealist. She believes AI steals creative jobs. I get it. But the truth is, AI isn’t something you fight. It’s something you learn to walk with, to master, so you don’t get left behind. Funny how God...

Saturday began the way Saturdays should: unhurried, a little sleepy, and quietly happy. My husband went to pick up our youngest from the dorm, officially checking her out for a long holiday. A whole month. Just saying that still makes my heart stretch a bit wider. There’s something deeply comforting about knowing your child is coming home not just for a weekend, but long enough to fully exhale. By lunchtime, we were finally four again. I cooked bakso soup using Sony’s bakso that our eldest brought from Lampung some time ago. That bakso never fails. It’s the kind of food that doesn’t need compliments, it just gets quiet nods and second helpings. The table felt fuller than usual, not because of the food, but because everyone was there. Complete. Present. The calm didn’t last long. Saturday afternoon shifted gears quickly as we headed to Pondok Gede for our annual regional Christmas gathering, hosted at my in-laws’ house. As expected, it was busy in that familiar, communal way. Helping wi...

Friday started sweet, quite literally. By morning, there's a cake delivery from Mba Lydia Chandra, and a lovely hamper from Mba Claudia. Thoughtful, generous, unprompted. Thank you so much. It felt like the day was quietly conspiring to be kind. My husband spent the morning in motion. Dropping our eldest off, washing the car, dropping me at the salon, picking our eldest up again, then coming back for me. A full loop of small, faithful errands that somehow said love louder than any grand gesture. I tried a new salon, in the same building where my child’s campus used to be before it moved to a newer space. Nostalgia did most of the work that day, because honestly, the salon itself was just so so. Not terrible, not memorable. I missed the old one that had shut down. Some places leave before we are ready to say goodbye. We had lunch at home, just the three of us, then headed out again. This time for work. Or what I like to call purposeful connecting. My agenda was to introduce Titipku ...

After my husband wrapped up his meeting and dropped our eldest at campus, we headed to Senopati around ten. By eleven sharp, we arrived at Kintaro Sushi , right on time for brunch with Pak Thomas Sugiarto and his wife, Bu Lusiana Wibowo . On the way there, we listened to Pak Thomas on the Big Thinker podcast , sharing his life journey. A migrant from Riau who built his business from scratch in Jakarta , side by side with his wife who walks the same professional path. Their house is right behind Kintaro Sushi. Just a short walk. Living in such a strategic spot is quite luxury.  Over sushi, salmon sashimi, rice bowls, and unlimited ocha , the conversation flowed effortlessly. Business. Marriage. Faith. Parenting. Life in general. One topic melted into another until suddenly it was past two. Three hours of non stop talking without realizing time had slipped away. We took a few photos, said our goodbyes, and left with full hearts and fuller stomachs. Thank you so much, Pak Thomas an...