Life, Day by Day

To say that 2011 was a bad year is an understatement. I wanted to say goodbye and good riddance in one breath but I would be telling a lie if I said that nothing good happened this year. You see, in spite of all the evil intentions, oppressions and injustices sent my way during the last 12 months...especially the loss of my job and the passing of friends and dear ones in October...something good has come out of these experiences. There are  things I am actually thankful for in 2011 .  I have learned many important life lessons, came face to face with who I really am and what really counts , simplified my life, realized who my true friends were, strengthened my belief in Divine Providence and most important of all, brought me back my relationship with God.  It is often said that adversity is a great teacher. I looked back at the past and I saw that when adversity comes to me and my family, we have always faced them with faith, trust, confidence and courage.  It w...

I love weddings. It always reminds me of a fairytale.  Of course, a wedding is not to be confused with a marriage because not all have happy endings but I know that these two I attended in a week's span will be the happily ever-after kind of marriage. A Blogger's Wedding Last Tuesday was my blogger friend's wedding.  They had a seven year relationship that culminated in a beautiful sunset ceremony in one of the prettiest chapels in the city. The wedding was basically a family affair with  close and good friends in attendance.  What was unique were the give-aways.  The bride being a chemical engineer and environmentally conscious thought of giving different plants as their wedding remembrance.  I got a jackfruit, a rambutan, and a bignay tree.  I will be planting these in my yard and may these trees be a constant reminder of their celebration of love. God's blessings and happiness always to dear Glady and Levy! God's Miracle and A Weddi...

Here's what I have done so far.  I have four glass cozy designs and I have done 3 of each one which is far below my target of finishing 2 a day.  What can I say?  I think I am the only unemployed person I know who is always running out of time.  So if I can't make this on time for this year....there's always...next year? There is only 7 days more till Christmas and I am only halfway through. And there are so many activities and events this coming week like 2 weddings, meetings and parties (I know...excuses, excuses) that I don't think I will have enough time to finish 3 sets of 4 each. Oh well, it's a good thing that all of my relatives will be spending Christmas out of town, so that gives me more time...in time for the New Year, I mean :))  

I stopped smoking on November 15, 1990.  That's one month and 21 smoke free years and since then, I have tried to influence friends and family who continue to smoke.  Of course, I am not very successful.  In a way I understand because I had a hard time too.  I started smoking when I was 18 and I know that it is very hard to stop the habit unless there is a compelling reason to do so. So how did I do it...what prompted me to stop smoking?

Avalon.ph is holding a Moleskine 2012 Large Weekly Planner Horizontal giveaway which started yesterday, December 4 and will end on December 15.  If you are as obsessed with moleskin notebooks as I am, then come and visit their blog site.  For the giveaway , they asked a very good question for us to answer. What are you thankful for this year 2011 ?  I did not have to think too much. The last 6 months of 2011 was full of challenges for me and my family.   First, I suddenly found myself jobless in my mid-life. Second, I have a case filed against me in court for an incident that happened 6 years ago. And , if that wasn't enough, the lessor of our little family farm wants to opt out in the middle of the current milling season even when he still owes our family a substantial amount for last year. Yet, in spite of all these, no trial or injustice can overshadow God's love and mercy for me. I count my blessings instead of my crosses.  It has been 4 mon...

The Christmas season is here again and with it comes the year's most excessive consumerism ever. The buying frenzy begins on Black Friday (for those in the U.S.A) and continues all season long.  It's also the time for racking up credit card debt and getting all stressed up with decorating, parties, shopping, spending etc,. etc., etc...Arghhhh! Christmas isn't about presents ...Jesus was born in a manger bereft of even the most essential physical comfort, so why has the celebration of His birth turned into so much materialism, and the gift-giving and decorating part have become so important that the essence of Christmas becomes secondary?  Last year, my family and I have decided to cut back on our Christmas decorations.  We did not put up our big tree, instead I got a table top tree which we decorated with LED lights which uses less electricity.  It was enough to put a fascinated smile on our little girl's face.  We will use it again this year adding ribbon...

For people looking out for great food this holiday season, watch out for COMER.CIO , a 3-day food market slated to open on December 16 to 18, 2011 at the Central District right besides Robinson's Mall. The team behind the bazaar is a group of young entrepreneurs with a vision of promoting and showcasing Bacolod's finest food products that gives a young, fun and fresh appeal. The name COMER.CIO is an interplay of words, inspired by the Spanish word comer, meaning "to eat" yet when taken as a whole word, it translates to "commerce" which means intellectual exchange or social interaction. This is one of the aims of the bazaar-to establish social dealings between and among lovers of food. Interested parties who would like to showcase their products may email comercio.bacolod@yahoo.com for inquiries.  Deadline for submission of application is on December 8, 2011. 

(Before I begin, a disclosure: the owner and I share a common ancestor, making her a cousin of sorts, although we were made aware of this only about 2 or 3 years ago)  The newest kid in the food market is Ceres Pasalubong . I first saw their outlet at their old north terminal several months ago, and I was very surprised...I mean the name Ceres is always equated with the bus line and never with food. So, out of curiosity and because someone told me that their hopia was really good (my family is hopia crazy), one day driving home to Silay, instead of going up the flyover, I went under it to pass by the Ceres north terminal and parked where their pasalubong tent was. I of course headed straight for the hopia. Wow...their hopia was triple the size of those in other stores! Unfortunately, they had no mongo (my personal favorite) at that time so I settled for the onion filling.  I also bought their other goodies like the caramel tart which looked just the right color (...

As I try to put more order in my life the first thing I need to do is to clean up my room and give my clutter away.  I confess I am a bonafide, certified, professional pack rat. I am a keeper aka collector of things I like (translation: I overbuy) like books for example, so much so that there is hardly anymore space in my room for storage. My books are from wall to wall, old clothes in plastic bins one on top of the other, and paper...lots of it.  It's embarassing but I get sentimental over things I feel is part of my memory, so I keep them. I also have this habit of keeping old stuff which includes school notes, researches etc...just in case I, or someone in the family may need them for reference in the future.  Bottom line, I really do not know how to throw away anything. But now, as I go through another life changing experience, I finally realize that all these holding on to stuff accumulated through the years are actually proof that part of me still lives in...

It is just a few more weeks till Christmas and without a regular salary, this holiday season will be a little different from last year's celebration.  But this is not the first time that our family will have a simple Christmas...we experienced this in the late 70's when my brother had his accident and we were financially drained. However, just like then, we will not be any less festive or joyous because the essence of Christmas is love ...and we have plenty of that to give around and to share.  We will be putting up our Christmas decorations starting tomorrow and our Advent wreath will be ready too. The only thing we will be missing out on is the requisite gift-giving...which is really unessential and can be dispensed with in relation to the true meaning of Christmas.  Besides, our family practice is to give each other meaningful tokens on special occasions...nothing big but something that is well thought of and not given for giving's sake.  For needs, they can get ...

If there is one thing I learned about secrets is that life always finds a way of revealing them sooner or later.  Well, this one is the later kind.  But before I begin, I want to say that this is not my story, however reading John Silva's 2008 article "Lost and Found " in Starweek ( also found here ) about being reunited with a lost sister, I felt inspired and thought, why not?  This story, like John's has a happy ending  too. Of course, no real names will be mentioned to protect the privacy of the family.  This story began in the 50's when a young woman while taking further studies in the States met a young widower who was then doing the same thing.  They fell in love and planned to get married.  But the young woman's family was vehemently against her relationship with the widower who already had young children.  The couple in spite of family opposition, continued to see each other and the inevitable happened...the woman became pregnant.  A...

During the Masskara weekend last October 15, the Negros Bloggers were invited to attend the Globe sponsored OPUS Black Party at the L'Fisher Chalet . One of the fun moments was having ourselves "tattooed" at the Globe booth.  Globe's "I Choose Tattoo" Facebook Promo was launched nationwide in the Philippines only last September 21 and will end on November 17, 2011. To join, one needs to like the Tattoo Facebook page and then read the mechanics. Follow the instructions carefully and participants will get a chance to be the next billboard celebrity by having his or her picture literally seen on an LED billboard along EDSA, Paragon, Lawton and Katipunan. In addition to that, there other prizes like a Samsung Galaxy Tab and a Tattoo MyFi Stick and cash prizes galore. Remember, the promo ends one week from now, on the 17th of November , so join na! Be Different, Be You....Choose Tattoo 

My little girl's nanny whom we call Tata' asked permission to go for a day off last Tuesday November 1. She never came back. I hate it when they do this...she has been with us since May and although I can sense that she was getting tired of taking care of my active 3 year old daughter, I thought she would at the very least inform me that she was leaving before actually doing it. Oh well. Our 2 other househelp are now taking turns watching my little girl during the day while I take over after dinner to put her to bed. It was different with my son because I was much younger then and he was basically a docile (not exactly true anymore, but that is a different story), obedient child, quietly playing with his toys as long as he can see me within his range of vision. My little girl is different...she is adorable but she needs constant attention, talks incessantly, is very curious and gets easily bored. There is one thing my 2 kids share in common though...both of them won't go t...

This is one bad October. First I lost my job, then the person leasing our small farm for the last 25 years wants to bail out even though he still has one milling season to go, and then we lost a dear family friend to cancer and now...probably the most annoying of all, our little girl's nanny left without a warning!!!  That is enough to put one in a really bad mood. But, like the saying goes...Laughter is still the best medicine. There is always a funny side to bad things that happen in life...ALWAYS. I am not saying that my problems will go away with laughter but when we learn to laugh at our troubles, we feel better and our outlook in life becomes more positive.  Laughter helps me to move on, forget regrets and be thankful for the good things instead of the negative.  A priest once said that we like to waste our time thinking about the if only's and the maybe's when we should just live in and improve upon the present. The if only's cannot change the past......

I bought my little girl the DVD of the animated musical fantasy Tangled a few weeks ago and since then, it was the daily movie staple every afternoon......up until yesterday.  Why the sudden change?  When I bought it, I knew it was a Rapunzel story but I did not know that it was a musical.  Now, my little girl is three and very bright.  As I was trying to explain the relationship of Rapunzel to the witch by saying that the witch was not Rapunzel's real mother, my 3 year old disagreed and kept insisting..."No, she is her mama".  I then realized that in the song "mother knows best", Rapunzel was an adult and my daughter could not relate this young woman to the baby that was kidnapped by the witch. That song showed a loving, concerned mother who wanted to protect her child.  And so to a young mind, theirs was a mother-daughter relationship.  Where is my problem in all these?  You see, my daughter is adopted and when I said that the witch was not...

I do not know if the advocates of hormonal contraceptives for birth control have their information wrong or they just refuse to accept the fact that there have been many documented adverse reactions resulting from contraceptive use, the latest of which is The Lancet study that reported that there is a strong link between HIV transmission and the use of hormonal contraceptives, particularly injectable hormones such as Depo-Provera aka "the shot". In September 26, 2011, the US FDA has expressed "concern over the potential increased risk of blood clots” associated with the use of one of the most popular types of birth control pills. The pills in question contain the progestin drospirenone , and have in recent years been marketed to young women under such trade names as Yaz , Angeliq and Yasmin in the Philippines. There is also an increased incidence in breast cancer and increased risk of cervical cancer due to contraceptive use as reported by the National Cancer...

Retrieved from http://www.savagechickens.com/2007/06/youre-fired.htm Last October 14, 2011, I received the arbitrary decision of dismissal without forfeiture of benefits after 29 years and  8 months of government service. Now I know how it feels to be intimidated, coerced and terrorized with trumped up administrative charges that is meant to dismiss, even though I have done nothing to deserve it. My conscience is clear.  So, I won't belabor this fact...except to say, I will of course fight for my rights.  Ok, what next? How does one deal with sudden termination? I did not get angry although many people who know me were.  But I felt it was such a useless emotion because nothing that I did or did not do would change the outcome...I now realize that it was already a given from the start. Besides, like I said my conscience is clear.  I think what I felt was more like disappointment because I thought better of the committee members assigned to hear m...

Last October 10, I was supposed to attend the Brillante Mendoza Film Festival at SM City Bacolod but it rained so heavily and I couldn't get out of my car. I then decided to go to another event I was invited to by a friend at the Business Inn. I was able to park at the basement and my friend was quite happy to see me, as there were only a few guests when I got there.  After I greeted her a happy birthday and some introductions, I was told that this event was about a new direct selling beauty company called Revere Beauty .  Their products are made of absolutely no heat cold processed virgin coconut oil (ANH-VCO) and selected essential oils and oil extracts from fruits and plants. Revere products are ABSOLUTELY FREE of harmful chemicals. They currently offer  the following: Herbal shampoo, Natural hair cream, Coco cleansing bar, Coco body scrub, Feminine wash, Lightening body lotion,  and Whitening deodorant.  After the product presentation, they announced tha...

After years of indifference, I decided to attend the 2011 Masskara Festival.  I have experienced only 2 Masskara festivities since this started in the 80's...the first time in the mid-80's when I was taking my MBA and classmates convinced me to join the fun in the Bacolod Plaza (at that time, that was the only venue) and last year, when my son dragged me for help with a project to Lacson St.  where it was raining on and off the whole evening. This year, I joined my fellow Negros Bloggers in attending some of the events we were invited to. First stop was the Electric Masskara which is now on it's 5th year.  My friends, and I braved the crowd and pushed our way in to get a good look at the floats. I have no idea which barangay is which but it was great to see the dancers and their beautiful costumes up close. There were still several floats to see but as the crowd was moving, we had no choice but to move along and eventually found ourselves in front of t...

There are many suggested methods on how to tell a child about his adoption.  Based on others and our own family experiences, it is a proven fact that not telling a child about his adoption brought about dire consequences for everyone involved especially if the truth is found out from people other than parents. In the case of my aunt, she found out when she was already 10 years old  from well-intentioned relatives who wanted to help her parents resolve her habitual lying when she got caught doing something she shouldn't, like playing hookey from school, for example. Needless to say that was the start of her years of rebellion.  I heard other "horror" stories so when the time comes, although I never really thought about it, I knew that I will tell my child the truth.  My turn came around the time when my son was around 4 years old when out of the blue while playing in my bed, he reached out to my stomach and said..."I came from here".  My initial reaction was to ...

Two weeks ago, the Negros Bloggers got an invitation to see the operations of Merci , which not so long ago was a bakeshop but has now evolved into other businesses like a pasalubong center, a fast food restaurant, among others.  Unfortunately due to classes I can no longer reschedule, I was not able to go with the group.  However to my surprise, I got a small box of their pasalubong treats, which of course made my kids' sweet-tooth very happy.     To be honest, this is the first time I have tasted Merci's Mango Tarts, Cheese Tart and Butterscotch. My relationship with Merci is purely about loaf breads and pastries/cakes (their cake rolls are good).  Now, my family loves butterscotch but I usually buy the other brand since their outlet is near my home...so what was the final verdict?  The mango and cheese tarts were good but... The Butterscotch was really special! It was chewy, soft, with just the right sweetness. It is the best I have ever tasted ...