The Filipino Mom Blog

(Because of the current number of stork visits that we at FMB have been receiving, I felt it appropriate to repost this article which I wrote, about a year ago, at my site. I am in the hope that this will serve some sort of purpose to my co-editors (and other mothers) who are now patiently awaiting the arrival of their bundles of joy.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Hello Mommies!

For February, we will be sharing love.  Starting tomorrow and every Thursday of this month, we would like for you to share something that will spice up our married life or suggestions on where to go, what nice gifts to give or how to celebrate the V-day.  Isn’t this meme exciting?

First on this week’s theme is love story.  Is yours like Barack-Michelle Obama’s or Angelina-Brad Pitt’s?  Or the Cinderella type of story?  Were you swept off your feet the moment you met Mr. Right?  And how did you know it’s the time to tie the knot and spend your life with the chosen “lucky” one. We would love to read all your stories.

Come on Mommies, get down the memory lane, play the song Lucky (by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat) and share your entry for this Love Month Meme.

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Here are the participants for our Love Month Meme:

Cookie’s Treasure in The Garbage

Dyes’ God’s Best

Jen’s A Love Story

Lynn’s Thank You For The Music

Mauie’s How I Met My Dadijun

Meikah’s You’re My Piece of Mind… In This Crazy World

Rachel’s Love Story

Wenchie’s When Cupid Strikes

Zriz’ Someday My Prince Will Come

Wants are things that we love to have simply because. It is something we desire.

It has been said that people have unlimited wants, an endless list of what-to-haves.

When a want has been fulfilled, the next want is next in line. These wants may be important in our perspective or useful in some ways or in the latest fad/fashion or because the want is so desirable the urge to get it is so strong, even if there is really no need to do so.

Needs, on the other hand, are things necessary for us to have in order to live comfortable lives.

We need food, shelter, proper clothes, education, and medicines to make us well and healthy.

Wants versus needs is one important aspect that I feel I have to teach my children. Not just MY children but all children should know about these too.

Why? At their young age, children need to be discerning in knowing the difference between these things.

Why? To help them not to fall prey in desiring things that are not really important and to set their eyes on things that are more important.

Why? Needs are what motivate people to work more purposely towards a certain goal. Needs give purpose as well as directions to our behavior.

One can probably say that wants can give motivation, purpose and directions to behaviors.

Yes, it’s true. But meeting one’s needs may prove satisfying than getting one’s wants.

For in the long run, we learn to value things that are more essential, more important than things that may just be momentarily or fleetingly satisfying.

My husband and I feel we need to teach our children in being able to distinguish needs versus wants as they grow older.

How do we do teach these values?

We start with ourselves.

It’s the 4th and final week (for now) of the Lunch Box Meme. Share what you’ve got up you sleeves, moms and wives! Posting of links will be on Friday.

In February, we’re giving the lunch box a break, so we’re doing a different meme. Stay tuned, or better yet, come around next Tuesday to find out. We’ve got some nice things a-brewing.

~o0o~

Mauie’s Bigger Boy’s Korean Beef Stew

Maver’s Pancit Efuven

Lynn’s Chicken with Sweet Peas (Guisantes)

Julie’s Baked Mussels and Home-Baked Bread

iMom’s Chicken Tocino and fresh pineapples

Cookie’s Karne Frita and Broccoli and Mushroom with Garlic Cream

One of the things that can enhance the memory would be food. Now why would we even consider this as important?

Memory is a thinking process for recalling information among others. This is one of the many thinking processes that we need, that our children need too, when we face the day’s challenges.

So what does this mean? It means we should eat more of these kinds of food so that we can improve our memory skills. Ahem, there’s no denying we have these “duh!” moments or memory gap moments or, sige na nga, senior moments then

Do you have these in your lunchboxes?

• Foods rich in B vitamins and folic acid (dark leafy greens, strawberries and melons, beans and legumes among others)
• Antioxidants like vitamin C, E and beta carotene (berries, nuts, green tea, sweet potatoes among others)
• Omega-3 fatty acids (from fish, walnuts and flaxseed among others)

Source: http://www.helpguide.org/life/improving_memory.htm

Ok, now are you ready to tackle the challenges? For more tips, don’t forget to click that -> Feed Your Head.

Round-up will be done for posts that will make it till Friday

UPDATE :

Here’s the round-up of those who participated this week.

Mauie’s Picnic Lunch

Cookie’s Ginisang Ampalaya and Pork Steak & Fries

Maver’s Economical Chicken Curry

Lynn’s Chopsuey with Quail Eggs

TeacherJulie’s Fried Cream Dory Fillet

Imom’s Pork Patties & Mushrooms

Parents of children with special needs go through some steps in caring for their child.

First is DISBELIEF.

Who would have thought that their child has special needs? Who would have thought that their child would be diagnosed with Autism, ADHD, mental retardation, learning disabilities or other conditions? They ask, “God, why does it have to be my child?”

Alongside disbelief is DENIAL.

Parents see nothing wrong with their child. It might just the child has more energy than others, or their child may just have a slower rate of understanding than other children their child’s age. Is it?

They suddenly ask questions “Maybe because children develop at different paces so my child is not exempt with this? Why are children different from one other? Why do children have their own specific talents and interests? What is my child’s special talent and interest?”

Then there’s GRIEF.

Yes, parents grieve.

They grieve the loss of their dream for their child who can never be the doctor they wanted their child to be. They grieve because no matter how much treatment or intervention is given to their child they feel that their child may not be capable of living a life like others.

They have the nagging question, “What would happen if we die (first)? Who would take care of our child?”

Questions too difficult to answer for now.

Time flies.

Parents cope differently. Read the rest of this entry »

Week 2 of our lunchbox meme, yey! (insert banana dance here)

Leave your link and we will have these in our round-up.

We learn from each other’s preparation and so we get ideas on what to do next, plus we also get those link love. So please, go get your cameras, take a photo of what you have prepared for your loved ones, write a short and post and leave a link here. Link love will be done till Friday.

Thank you and now, I will go write my entry

And now for our participating lunchboxes:

Julie’s Field Trip Food

Mauie’s Beef Tapa and Fried Egg

Cookie’s Chef Salad and her hubby’s Christmas Ham Sandwich

Maver’s Spanish Sardines Pasta

Lynn’s Egg, Mayo and Wheat Bread Sandwich

Manang’s Organized lunchboxes (This we gotta try doing!)

Salen’s Homebaked Chocolate Chips cookies (with the recipe)

iMom’s Baked Herb Chicken Thighs with a link to the recipe here.

Lunchbox Meme for 2009 is back!

Which means it is back to work for some of us and back to school for most of the children.

I am sure we’ve had enough of those meaty food during the holidays. Now is the time to make good on our promise to have healthier food choices, for ourselves, and our family members.

Grab the badge and join us here, just leave a link if you played.

The meme will be opened every Tuesday. Final round-up will be done for entries that will make it till Friday. So now there is no excuse to let this pass as you all have four days to take photos of what you have prepared in your lunchboxes.

Share your secret recipes so we can all learn something new.

Let’s bring a whole new meaning to the word LUNCHBOX

~o0o~

Julie’s Lechon Kawali with a (sort of) recipe here

Mauie’s Big Boy had Chicken Curry Maki

Maver’s Healthy Chopsuey

Lynn’s Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger!

iMom’s Homemade Chicken Tocino (with a how-to)

Iska’s Bacon and Cheese Sandwich/Pandesal and Shrimp/Vegetable Salad

[UPDATED with round-up below. Sorry for the delay, folks.]

It’s the final week for Fab Holiday Finds and the theme is RED and/or GREEN.

Please leave a comment here if you joined this week. Round-up will be done by tomorrow, Wednesday, morning. My family is travelling back to Manila from Baguio today. *sigh* Vacation is always over too soon.

Anyway, it’s been fun hosting this meme and playing it with you! Next month we resume the Lunch Box Meme. We hope you could play along again.

~~~

Fab Finds:

Ibyang’s red hot accents

MommyBa’s jade ox

Julie’s red tree and tree ornaments

Lynn’s fab daughter’s fab find

Mauie’s prettified tree

iMom’s fab ukay find

[ 2nd UPDATE: Links to all who posted entries are now complete. Sorry for the delay. Holiday bug's bitten me, hehe. ]

[ UPDATE: Round-up posted down below. ]

This week’s theme is GOLD.

Please leave your comment and link here so we know you joined. I will do the round-up tomorrow morning. Tonight I will be on the way to Baguio City to celebrate Christmas there with my family.

And, oh -

Merry Christmas to all the readers of FMB!

May your celebration be filled with making happy memories with your families and friends.

~~~

Our Fab Finds: (Links open in new window)

MommyBa’s gold ornaments

Mitch’s golden shoes

Cookie’s fab tree

iMom’s gold ‘flops

Mauie’s gold bangle

Julie’s tree ornaments

Lynn’s gold pouches