On Motherhood

Motherhood is a gift. It has enabled me to provide unconditional love. It has made me complete as a woman. It has made me a better person. I am simply amazed how God wonderfully engineered a woman’s body to bear a child and to bring him to the world as a priceless present. Being able to successfully deliver our baby to the world, I am truly honored and privileged to have received such blessing.

I could never forget the experience of giving birth to our first born on May 1, 2009. Though hearing my baby’s first cry marked the reality of my being a mother, it has not yet fully dawned on me that I am already one; yes, until now! Perhaps the feeling of being a new mother just overwhelms me. I am adjusting to my new role. It was hard at first but I am learning the routine of feeding, changing diaper, bathing, bestowing touch therapy, giving vitamins, visiting Pedia, and so on. Eventhough my day is literally consumed of those routines, I see myself enjoying the new things I do. In my almost three months as a mom, I will rate myself the lowest on the scale because I am still a work in progress. Being a mom is the hardest job in the world. Every single “mom day” for me is a challenge sans the extravagant material reward. Despite that, I still get the grandest reward when my little angel flashes me a toothless grin. It inspires me to be better. It also sets as affirmation that what I did for him satisfied him and made him happy. No material thing could ever match the fulfillment I get from his innocent expression.

It's Nice to be Out Again!

Yesterday was my scheduled check up with my OB, five weeks after i delivered. Since it's my first time after giving birth to go out again, there's some sort of excitement in me. After the check up, my cousin and I went to the mall. I also took the opportunity to do some errands like paying bills, buying personal stuff, and grabbing some baby stuff that i think my baby would need. There are just so many things at the baby section; most of the items are totally attractive! If I am an impulsive buyer, I would have grabbed some more baby stuff that are not really necessary. Being a practical person that I am, I just satisfied myself to buying just the essential ones.

1. Baby Key Rattle

2. Brush and Comb for Baby's Grooming

3. Nasal Aspirator and Nail Clipper

Simple is Romantic

After spending almost five hours at The Medical City for my check up with my OB-Gyne and Endocrinologist, it was really worthwhile to end Valentine's Day celebrating it with my husband in Makati with our family in Risen Christ Catholic Community. It's always meaningful celebrating Valentine's with them. Aside from the sumptuous dinner and lively entertainment, what I specifically like about the program is the renewal of marriage vows. It feels great to be reminiscing the day when the two of us promised to love each other ... till death do us part.

Perfect Staycation

Just this weekend, my husband and I just had a budget-friendly yet relaxing vacation at home. Stay-at-home vacation or "staycation" is simply our enjoyable and practical way to have lone time together without spending so much. We thought, with the increasing prices of gas and commodities, it's no longer practical to go out every weekend.

Of course, our staycation is not complete without healthy food to share. I prepared these myself.

fresh apple-carrot juice

nacho dips: beef, tomato salsa, white onion, cheese dip

ready to dig-in nachos

I do not mind long hours of stay in the kitchen because I enjoy cooking and doing it for my husband. Dinner was as good as we were having it in a cozy restaurant.

fresh lemonade

chicken wings with sour cream sauce

ripe mangoes with chocolate syrup

Fruit and Vegetable Carving

It has been almost two months since my last post. I have been really busy in the past weeks, both at work and at home, primarily because our house help already left us. :( My time for blogging was dedicated to doing household chores like cooking, cleaning, washing the dishes but not washing and ironing our clothes. Thanks to my mom who has been so sweet in taking responsibility of making our clothes clean and well-pressed. :) Without a house help around, I really felt being so much a wife; it's quite hard but it's satisfying enough though.

Now that I finally found time to update my blog, I was thinking of what topic to write about. I was browsing through my files of photos until I saw this picture, an apple and tomato carving which I did last year. Apart from cooking and love for food, it also interests me to expand my culinary skills by learning food styling and fruit and vegetable carving. The husband of my sister-in-law, who is a chef and is a multi-awarded fruit, vegetable, and ice carver taught me the basics. I never would have wanted to try ice carving as it requires more effort and energy to do it considering the tools that will be used in order to transform an ice into a wonderful work of art. So, as a baseline, we started working with an apple and a tomato. The apple has been amazingly transformed into a swan while the tomato, into a dainty flower. For photographic effect, I just arranged brownies on the side. :)

By the way, it requires different knives in varying sizes in order to carve different fruit and vegetables. For the apple and tomato, we just used a small one but it's the one really used by a professional. Hmm... the tools are really something to invest on in pursuing this kind of interest. I've tried using an ordinary small knife but it's hard to achieve the desirable result.

Spice of Life

On May 19, it will be our first wedding anniversary. My husband and I both took a day off from work for a simple celebration. Prior to that, we've had several plans but it ended up to going somewhere peaceful and relaxing yet a budget-friendly treat to ourselves. My husband was able to book a place somewhere near but he is not telling me where it is. Some sort of a surprise? Hmmm .... I wonder where he will take me and what surprises he has for me. Oh well, this is what I call spice of life -- colorful, bountiful, fruitful, exciting, adventurous and definitely fun! I can't wait for Monday :)

This year I truly enjoyed summer with my husband. After recovering from miscarriage, we purposely took advantage of the opportunity that we could travel a lot this year, explore the beautiful places of our very own Philippines. We started with Boracay, my husband's first time to set foot on the paradise island. It's my third time to be there but it turned out that he knows very well about the place. We've been to other beaches that boast their own charm. A short trek to Mt. Luho was a bit challenging to me but when we reached the summit, true as they say, it's all worth it!

Next in line was another visit to the beach in Bgy Pundaquit, San Antonio Zambales. I never knew there is such a hideaway somewhere in Zambales. The resort we stayed in was Punta de Uian, and we just loved our room -- a taste of nature in a minimalist orientation. The resort was the temporary home of the local Marimar. It was a serene place perfect for a much deserved relaxation. This trip was another challenge for me because I was obliged to do another trekking from one island to another, I went up a lighthouse via difficult stairways, and I rode on a small banca for 30 minutes from the resort to Capones Island. These experiences are all new to me. I never knew that I can survive all these new life-chaging experiences but I'm just glad I did. I guess that's one beauty that marriage brings to me -- discovering a new person in me because of my husband's influences. He was trying to let me go out of my comfort zone transforming me into the best person I can be.

We also conquered the roads of some towns of Laguna for the holy week Visita Iglesia, inhaled fresh air of Talisay Batangas, and satisfied our taste buds with fresh fruits and mouth-watering delicacies of Tagaytay.

Among all the travels we had, our trip to Calaguas Island in Camarines Norte has been ultimately the most challenging and memorable. Together with nine good friends, we were able to survive the life on a deserted island. It was an experience that really tested me -- physically and emotionally. I also consider it a humbling experience and made me reflect to be ever grateful for whatever I have now, most especially the comfortable life I live as well as the material possessions I have. Back to the basics as I call the life we lived in Calaguas Island. There, there's no electricity, no MWSS water, no comfortable bed so we slept on the sand, no soft comfy pillow, we took a bath from a well, no network coverage to use our cellphones, our night light only comes from the bright stars and lightning, our music comes from the chirping of birds, noise of hermit crabs, and the resounding whistle of cicadas.

Living a life of "back to basics" just for one day is an authentic source of great wisdom that my husband unveiled to me. The memories we had created in such wonderful island were etched in the fine sand of Calaguas beach symbolized by our hands.