One Thing I Learned from Cinderella

Zoe is addicted to Cinderella. She asks me to pop the dvd the very moment she wakes up and says, "Mom, Cinderella please!" ~

Some days I oblige, some days I don't (and she ends up in tears).

But if there's one thing I (we) learned from watching Cinderella almost everyday ~ is that we have to make our make our beds before we leave our room in the morning just like how Cinderella would do.

We've learned to pretend that Zoe is Cinderella and I'm one of her mouse or bird friends who help her along fix her bed (and prepare her bath) while singing "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes". And it's actually enjoyable to do!

And since Cinderella is Zoe's idol now, making beds is not such a hard task anymore.

Here's the youtube video:



Thank you, Cinderella!

For PWDs

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of NMEDA. All opinions are 100% mine.

PWDs or people with disability are gaining so much advantage and benefits from NMEDA. NMEDA or National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association is a non-profit organization that is there to help the many people with any form of disability in terms of transportation and moving around from place to place.

I myself have experienced this in my family when my Dad's mother-in-law was still alive. She had her lower leg removed due to complications of her diabetes and had to live with this disability for many years. And although she was given an artificial leg which is attached for her to be able to walk around the house, it was still hard especially when she needed to be brought out. What was extra hard is to bring her in and out of the car. You see, their car wasn't made for this kind of situation. Anyway, she had already passed away two years ago.

Now you can see what a benefit it would be for families of people with disabilities such as my Ninang's family if their means of transportation had a special feature that would enable the person to be brought in and out of the vehicle without the many hassles. Well, NMEDA is definitely there to promote this advocacy.

My Art Supplies Box

One of my perrennial organization problems is managing my art and craft supplies.

Coming from a standpoint where I was very "OC" when it came to my wedding, my kid's birthday parties and then now that I am officially a mother of a preschooler, I had accumulated so many of those art supplies which may "come in handy" when the occasion called for it.

Thus, my supplies were overflowing with too many...

...art paper

...pentel pens

...ballpens

...colored boards and papers

...crepe papers

...gift wrappings

...ribbons

...strings

...stickers

...etc. etc.

I finally put my foot forward and ended my messy tendency. I purchased a plastic box from the supermarket and organized everything craft and art-related into one big box.

Ta-dah!!! (My art supplies box is the one on top.)

Now, I don't have to keep on buying art supplies when I don't really need to since I can see everything properly.

By doing this, I believe that I saved my family a few hundred bucks.

On Grass and Lawnmowers

When I was young, our house had a beautiful lawn with Bermuda grass, some coconut-like trees and many flowery plants. I still remember those memories from my childhood when we would play hide and seek behind the bushes in our garden or play “luksong tinik” (I don’t know what’s the English translation of this) with our friends.

Among all those things, what was very memorable really for me is the grass that we had back then. It was lovely. If we still have it now, it would have been great especially with the kids around. I particularly love the smell of morning dew and freshly-cut grass. Well, who doesn’t? I still remember being asked to cut the grass manually using big garden scissors (I got calluses from that, oh dear). But you know, now there are great mountfield lawnmowers that can do the same job for half of the time. A mountfield mower looks efficient and easy to maneuver. If only I can recreate the garden we had back then somewhere in our new backyard, then I would be so tempted to buy a mountfield petrol lawnmower to do the grass-cutting for me.

Cleaning Challenge of the Week - Zoe's Study Area

With Zoe's very first time to go to a regular preschool this coming June, I thought of preparing her better by re-arranging her study table and books into a more conducive area in the attic.

I no longer want her study table to just act as a "display" and dust accumulator. It's high time to convert it into something useful. So first thing I did was to clean and clear this particular space in the attic to make way for her new study nook.

These rubber mats will "define" her working space, i.e. this space will belong to Zoe while the opposite side (for a later post) will be Mommy's working space.

After much introspection, this is the finished product:

Now Zoe has a space to do her "writing", arts, crafts and "studying". She also now has one place to put all her current books and bedtime readings.

She loves it!

I love it too.

Thank you for the greetings!

Thank you to everyone who remembered me on my special day. God bless us all.
Yeah, I'm one year older (and wiser) today.

Fish Fillet with Corn Sauce

I was a bit inspired by Pinoycook.net's fish fillet with corn sauce that I decided to try out the dish.

We used cream dory fish, dipped it in egg wash and seasoned flour.

Then I deep-fried it on our electric fryer (a wedding gift that we only got to use now, hahaha).


This is how it turned out.


On the serving dish...


As for the sauce, I sauteed garlic and onion in butter then added salt, pepper, cream of corn and a bit of water. That's it.

Ready for a yummy dinner!

Emer & Ruby's Wedding

Our good friend Ruby finally married her boyfriend Emer at Sta. Maria della Strada Parish last May 01. It was a joyous occasion and we were very delighted to have been part of the culmination of their love story.

The wedding was solemn and well-planned. (I am quite biased since I love the church so much ~ we got married in the same church, that's why.)

Anyway, reception was held at Ayala Hillside Clubhouse.


Our barkada picture...

Best wishes R & E!

*thanks to Gra for the pics!

Chapel Renovation

Our village chapel is going to be renovated soon and we are gearing up to find the funds for its much-needed face-lift. I heard that the plan is make the façade into something like an old Spanish-styled church. By this, they will need to redo the front window box planters and replace it with a planter that is of a different style, like something with bricks and rust-colored paint. And of course, the decorative planters need to be placed high above the ground since with our recent experience with the Tyhpoon Ondoy, all the ornamental plants in front of the chapel were all swept away by the high flood water. Tsk. Tsk.

In addition, I also heard that we will need to replace the chapel’s old roof. The existing one already has so many holes in it, thus, it needs to be changed too so that when the rainy season comes, there won’t be so many leaks here and there.

Oh, so many plans and so little resources! Please send financial help if you have some extras. For sure, your assistance will go a long, long way.

Zoe on Vacation

Zoe went away with my Dad and Ninang in Batangas for a vacation last Tuesday because we are yaya-less for two weeks.

It's been 6 days since then and I'm missing her so badly. I practically had never been away from her from the day our eyes met (minus the 3 days I spent in the hospital to give birth to Luigi). I miss her voice, her "kakulitan", our bedtime stories, her singing, everything!!! Whaaa!

But good thing is, today, she is coming home.

For sure, she will be smothered with hugs and kisses from her Mom.

xox

Fundraising Project

For many years now, I have somehow been involved in various construction projects for the Center. We ask for donations from generous people who are willing to help us in our worthwhile endeavors which benefit not only a small group but a huge number of people. We have done it before with the Tagaytay Conference Center, the Campanilla project and many other houses. These were all built for the spiritual as well as cultural formation of women of all age and social class. And now we are doing it again. Our latest project is the Kanluran Kamawi building which will be the venue for women, particularly for those less fortunate ones in the area. This will be the place where they can learn livelihood skills and even hotel and restaurant management. There will also spiritual formation given there. It has a lot of great possibilities and for sure it will do a lot of good for years and years.

Anyway, with the cost of construction going up by the day, we are in urgent need of more funds in order to pay the contractor. You see, the money that has been going to this project come purely from donations. And as of date, our fundraising thermometer tells us that we need to double the efforts so that we can finish this house on time and without going into debt just to pay the contractor. Good thing that as a response to the need, many of us are already doing our share of research on how to raise money for the project. Some even try to copy how school fundraisers do it. It actually works to copy to successes of others in order to bring positive results. And of course, there is nothing like praying and praying a lot to God to send more donations, since we know that this is all for Him.

Love Pillowcases

Aren't these so cute?


I found these here and can't stop myself from drooling.

Lola A's Birthday

It was my mother-in-law's 79th birthday last April 10 and we all flocked to their house to celebrate the occasion.

Here are some pictures.

(L-R) - Luigi, Lola A, Zoe and Robbie

Luigi with cousin Beni:


Zoe monopolizing the videoke:

Happy Birthday Nay! We love you!

Kitchen Renovation

My friends who recently migrated to Canada are starting anew with their growing family in this new country. They left their jobs in the Philippines to seek greener pastures as immigrants. For starters, they recently got a new house and are trying to do a renovation to suit their family’s needs. And since they are rather new and are not so familiar with the goings-on about general contractors, they are looking for ways to get the best deals. Good thing, the internet is helping them a lot in their search for a good, professional and reliable Calgary Contractor who can do the work for them.

First on their list is to tap a contract with kitchen renovation Calgary. They want a kitchen which has sturdier and space-saving cabinets and a place for their dishwasher and oven-top. Plus, they would want to be able to have ample working space for them to still cook up their favorite Filipino dishes even while in a far away country. Cool!

Tif's Treat

My kumare and good good friend Tif treated me out to dinner a few weeks ago.

We drove all the way to QC to a place called 8 Spices for a sumptuous Thai dinner.

She ordered these for 2 people to eat.

Judging from the pictures here, you can say what you want. Admittedly, we were overly-full but happy. (Note: My hubby, who picked me up that night, finished off our left-overs, hahaha).

Really, nothing beats a night of food, friends, stories and laughter.

Thanks Tif! I really appreciate the treat.

Shopping for the Little Boy

I went again to the Bel-air store where they sell baby clothes some days before Holy Week.

Although the selection was pretty much the same since I was last there in August, I was able to get a lot of pieces that were just the right size (or even bigger) for my baby boy for almost half the price.

This made me really promise not to ever buy baby clothes again in the department store. Or at least for now. :-)

On a date again.

Last week was a pretty stressful week for us. For one, there were some issues that we had to go through and pray about. And then work was, as usual, busy. While I created dozens of proposals for salary structure improvements, my hubby was busy dealing with people and helping them in terms of reverse mortgage information. In fact, I would test him sometimes on how well his knowledge is about reverse mortgage and what the reverse mortgage pros and cons are. Based on his answers, I could swear my husband has turned from an IT professional into a mortgage expert. And I see how much has changed with his disposition now. He’s so much relaxed, so much happier, without any regrets. The big sacrifice that he did a few months back has indeed paid off. There is nothing like trusting your gut feel and keeping your priorities right.

Overall, I am quite happy that we both are enriching ourselves and our minds with the challenges we encounter daily at work, even with the stresses and all.

Anyway, since it was another three-day weekend last week, we thought of leaving the kids behind and going out for dinner to somewhere new. With this in mind, we found ourselves going to Quezon City, particularly at the site of the UP Ayala Techno Hub where there are several new dining options.

Our feet led us to Kanin Club.

The last time we ate at Kanin Club was when we went to Sta. Rosa and then up to Tagaytay for Zoe’s 2nd birthday. And obviously, we missed their signature Crispy Dinuguan.

We waited around 40 minutes to get seats but since the breeze was a bit cold outside, we really didn’t mind.

Here’s a view of the UP Ayala Techno Park, the restaurant, salt and pepper squid appetizer we ordered and Kanin Club’s Crispy Dinuguan.

The dinuguan was high in cholesterol but it was delicious and not necessarily bad if you take it only once in a blue moon.

Cleaning Challenge for the Week

I did a cleaning challenge last Saturday (and I plan to do it every week).

I aimed for our big tv rack in the bedroom because it needed MUCH ATTENTION. I hadn't moved that piece of furniture for the longest time (since it was very heavy!) and I bet that it contained so much dirt already.

I was right.

Here is proof.

First, I removed all the other heavy stuff inside the cabinet (except for the tv) so I can move the rack myself.

Taking a peep. Oppps!

Eeeeeekkkkk!!! (Screams!)

That's a truckload of dust and dirt!

After cleaning it, the amount of dirt almost filled my trash can to the brim and I almost got an allergy after doing the chore. Hahahaha.

Well, at least it's clean now.

I'm looking forward to next week's challenge.

Can't Help It

I know that I should be controlling my sugar intake...but...

I just can't help it.

I received this frozen brazo de mercedes from a friend in the office and I just had to give in.

One word: YUMM-O.

Loving the Kitchen

As a young lady, I experienced a time when I was totally addicted to cooking and baking. I would spend hours and hours back then making chocolate cakes, crinkles, different kinds of pasta, and many other delicious treats.

However, when I started to go to college, my affair with cooking took a back seat since I had to work my ass off making linear graphs, downward-sloping curves and all that economics stuff. More so as the years passed by, I saw myself spending less and less time in the kitchen and more and more time literally out of the house.

Anyway, with the advent of cable tv (which we didn't have back then) and HGTV (LOL!), those memories of my time working in the kitchen slowly grow back. Besides wanting to cook up dinners and desserts, I come drooling at the lovely kitchens that they show on tv. I'm not exactly complaining on the look and beauty of my own kitchen. However, if only I had a chance, I'll get myself some kitchen remodeling contractors to make my kitchen look a little bit more like the kitchen of Ina Garten or Martha Stewart. A newly-refurbished kitchen like that would be so awesome and will surely make me stay longer in the kitchen!