I have an array of cleaning products, but my recent discovery and my most favorite of the bunch is vinegar.
I got this jug of generic white vinegar for PHP 65.00 in the supermarket, and a cheap spray bottle to make it easier to use. And I’ve been having fun counting the ways to use it at home.
I am trying to think back: how was I as a ten year old?
Was I a very curious little soul? Did my attention span last for even fifteen minutes? Did I have mood swings at such an early age? Did I demand privacy and assert my right as an individual? Was I that hyperactive that I wanted to join every organization offered in our school?
As I look back, I have to say that life was simpler then. Sesame Street, Nancy Drew, a box of Curly Tops, paper dolls and my mom’s chocolate porridge made my world go round. My mom was the best person to tell me what was best for me. Not to say that I was too dependent on her but that’s the way it was. Children as young as ten always count on mommies for any “decision making”.
I am thinking now of my relationship with my ten-year old daughter. In her tweens, it seems a lot is going on with her life already. Tweens - that stage between childhood and adolescence. I call them “grown up youngsters”. Read the rest of this entry »
Losing weight in itself is a challenge. Losing weight after pregnancy makes the challenge even more difficult. I should know - I’ve been pregnant three times.
Through all three pregnancies, I’ve accumulated about forty whopping pounds. The picture literally did not look so good. What makes post-pregnancy weight loss so frustrating is that the pounds don’t seem to keep off for long. This was my constant struggle - the yo-yoing.
How do we, post-pregnancy mothers, get started on weight loss? What can we do to keep ourselves on track? I don’t claim to be a fitness guru - naaah, far cry! But I have been successful in losing a good amount of my triple post-pregnancy weight gain. Here are the most important lessons I learned:
Find your motivation. Ask yourself: why do you want to lose weight? Is it for health reasons? Or, so you could fit into that gown on your best friend’s wedding? Whatever your reasons are, it should be compelling enough to sustain you. Getting started is the most difficult part, so it is important to find out what motivates you. My motivation was: I wanted to live long enough to experience spoiling my grandkids, old enough to see who will look older when we’re both in our 80s – hubby or me! Read the rest of this entry »
“Having a baby changes everything”. Of course, who would ever forget this famous tagline from those Johnson & Johnson advertisements? I guess every doting Mom in this world, especially first-time Moms like me, would whole-heartedly agree with such statement.
Because it is indeed true. Having a baby will definitely change your life. And this is not an understatement. It is especially so true for me who, although had long prepared myself in caring for an infant (after three long years of on-and-off plans and waiting), didn’t understand much what the statement truly meant until the first time I held my son in my arms.
The first of those new daily routines, the first of those sleepless nights comforting and feeding a baby-the feeling was just too overwhelming. I wondered how I was going to survive the responsibilities of motherhood. The first year was a total adjustment. From an expected routine and easy going lifestyle for over three years of just me and my Hubby, suddenly, total a turnaround took place. Our first baby became the center of our love and attention. New family dynamics developed and new beginnings were born.
As a young girl, I have always dreamed of owning and running my own business. So I started young, by trading my stationeries and stickers, selling them at five centavos each to my grade school classmates. In high school, my pocketbooks can be rented for a fee. When I was in college, a classmate encouraged me to sell Avon products and I earned 25% from every sale I made. The earnings I got I also bought the products for myself. I felt so satisfied earning on my own though I never told my parents about it. I know my Dad wouldn’t approve it back then. He wanted us to study first, then work later after we graduate.
So when the perfect time to do business again presented itself, I was ecstatic. I joined tiangge/ bazaars in Greenhills. I produced movie premieres which doubled my capital in a month’s work. I also got into lots of multi-level marketing schemes like Forever Living, Lifestyle, Amway, Pi Water, First Quadrant, E-card and the one selling expensive kitchen wares (can’t remember the name), just because I can’t say no to my friends who invited me to join those companies. Unfortunately, I didn’t earn from any of them, maybe because my heart is not into it.
When I got married, my husband and I ventured into the construction and printing business. We also supplied computer units to a government agency, sold branded clothes from Hong Kong and Italy, gold jewelries and seafood like lobsters and crabs to seafood restaurants in Manila and some five star hotels. We definitely earned from those ventures although it’s quite tiring.
Now, we have opened up a new business, a 24-hour laundry shop, beverage store and cell phone shop. I am also planning to get into the events management business if I still have extra time to spare.
I can’t count with the fingers on my left hand the number of women friends I have who don’t wish to walk down the aisle to pledge her life to the man of her dreams. Almost all women dream of just that…a dream wedding.
To be completely honest, I had no illusions of a grand wedding. I didn’t even have illusions of a wedding. I just wanted to be with the man I wanted to grow old with. I didn’t need a tear inducing ceremony. I didn’t need a 3 Michelin star worthy dinner reception. I didn’t need any of that…until I started planning my bestfriend’s wedding.
Trust the saying that “opposites attract.” This cannot be more true in the case of my bestfriend and I. I am the complete anti-thesis of whatever my bestfriend represents..and vice versa. My bestfriend’s a nerd and I’m a jock. My bestfriend likes the urban life and I love the outdoors. I’m a little bit country and my bestfriend is a little bit rock and roll.
So when I started planning my bestfriend’s wedding I had to throw all my prejudices out the window and listen to what my bestfriend wanted. Not to say that I couldn’t give my 2 cent’s worth of advice. I could you know, that’s what bestfriends are for, right.
Without any hesitation whatsoever, I helped plan my bestfriend’s wedding. Right from the get-go I was there. In fact, he barely lifted a finger. That’s how much of a bestfriend I can be when I want to be.
Bag? Check. Shoes? Check. Books? Check. Notebooks? Check. Change of clothes? Check. Toiletries? Check. Lunchbox? Check.
Everything is smelling new and looking new.
Wait… Camera? Check.
What’s the occasion? It’s YOUR child’s first day of school. Ever.
Days, weeks, or even months prior to one of the most exciting times in a child’s life, everything has been planned. From the schedule to the activities, clothes, and even menu of healthy snacks.
When my eldest daughter, then our only child, was ready to go to school, I already knew where I would enroll her. At this wonderful school I have heard about, where some of my students with developmental problems go to. I knew they accommodate children with special needs but I still wanted my daughter to go there.
Why? Because I wanted her to go to school with these children, not only for her to understand the kind of children I dealt with at work but for her to be able to see that people learn differently.
Why else did I want to enroll my daughter in this particular school?
It wasn’t love at first sight when my husband and I first saw our house.
It was an old property that had long been abandoned by its previous occupants. It was shabby, run-down and vandalized. Totally uninhabitable.
But we plunged in anyway, and hired carpenters to work on the house. Because we had a limited budget, the repairs were all basic. Just make the place fit to live, was all we asked of them.
On the very day they were finished, we excitedly moved in. We didn’t mind that practically all our possessions were hand-me-downs. Our couch was from my in-laws, our tv from my parents. Our bed was hubby’s old bed, and our closet, a clothes rack. It didn’t look like paradise, but it was in our eyes. One month into our marriage, and we were, at long last, on our own.
***
But the next day, it didn’t feel like paradise anymore.
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