Saturday, October 28, 2017
Am I Really Starting to Blog Again?
It's been more than 10 years since I last blogged. So many things have happened, there have been two additions to the family. A couple of kids have graduated from college, a couple are in University, 1 is in high school, 1 is in a school for adults with special needs, 2 are home schooled, and I'm employed again.
Right after I took on a job (of course it allows me to work from home!!!), I let go of our stay-in maids and yayas and we're now down to our ever faithful stay-out laundry woman and a stay-out cleaning lady who comes once a week. We've been living on this arrangement for a little over a year and I still wonder how we're surviving. 😊
I've decided to just enjoy the ride and keep my sanity by letting go of the non-essentials, focusing on what's important, and not fussing about the little things.
Right after I took on a job (of course it allows me to work from home!!!), I let go of our stay-in maids and yayas and we're now down to our ever faithful stay-out laundry woman and a stay-out cleaning lady who comes once a week. We've been living on this arrangement for a little over a year and I still wonder how we're surviving. 😊
I've decided to just enjoy the ride and keep my sanity by letting go of the non-essentials, focusing on what's important, and not fussing about the little things.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
I Need Energy...
Today was sick day. All except one of my kids had cough and colds, a couple of them had fever, my husband had colds and a bad pinch nerve that he could hardly move his neck. I spent most of the day nursing them and since my maids also had the same symptoms, I had to assist them with the chores. I washed the dishes, dried them, returned them to their places, swept the floor, and so on.
Towards dinner, I was extremely tired. I let everyone eat ahead of me as I got things ready—the warm compress, medications, etc. and I had to make sure that everyone had eaten, taken their medicines, taken in enough fluids and gotten their sponge baths. When all the kids and the chores had been taken care of, I finally sat down to eat my dinner. My eyes were droopy and I just felt like collapsing without any supper. But I had to take care of myself too by taking in food and drink, lest I get sick too.
I knew I still had to take care of my husband, since he was in pain, so I needed to boost my energy. And this is how I did it … At the dinner table, as my family stayed close by to accompany me for my meal, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly, in a low voice, I said, “I need … to get … my …” then, with voice loud enough to startle my kids, I shouted, “ENERGY BACK!!!” I did startle everyone and we all began to laugh, and guess what? I did get my energy up and was able to take things lightly and happily.
Looking back, it seems like such a silly thing to do, but what an upper—no caffeine, no drugs. I just got that kid inside of me back out again.
Today was sick day. All except one of my kids had cough and colds, a couple of them had fever, my husband had colds and a bad pinch nerve that he could hardly move his neck. I spent most of the day nursing them and since my maids also had the same symptoms, I had to assist them with the chores. I washed the dishes, dried them, returned them to their places, swept the floor, and so on.
Towards dinner, I was extremely tired. I let everyone eat ahead of me as I got things ready—the warm compress, medications, etc. and I had to make sure that everyone had eaten, taken their medicines, taken in enough fluids and gotten their sponge baths. When all the kids and the chores had been taken care of, I finally sat down to eat my dinner. My eyes were droopy and I just felt like collapsing without any supper. But I had to take care of myself too by taking in food and drink, lest I get sick too.
I knew I still had to take care of my husband, since he was in pain, so I needed to boost my energy. And this is how I did it … At the dinner table, as my family stayed close by to accompany me for my meal, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly, in a low voice, I said, “I need … to get … my …” then, with voice loud enough to startle my kids, I shouted, “ENERGY BACK!!!” I did startle everyone and we all began to laugh, and guess what? I did get my energy up and was able to take things lightly and happily.
Looking back, it seems like such a silly thing to do, but what an upper—no caffeine, no drugs. I just got that kid inside of me back out again.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Crazy Schedule
I’ve been so busy with these last stages of publishing my book. And I am so grateful for the support of my family. For the past two weeks, I’ve been out almost everyday, meeting with suppliers, editing, proofreading my work, before it is finally printed.
I was really worried about how the kids would manage without me, since I am their teacher. I’ve spoken to the kids beforehand, as to what my work schedule would be like, and until it’s finally out, this kind of “crazy” schedule will continue.
So what’s been happening on the home school front? It’s just been unbelievable! The children have been doing their work independently, and the older ones help the younger ones with subjects that they need assistance in.
Yesterday, before I left the house, I asked Chinny (13) and Sabrina (11) if they could each review the boys for their Religion exam. When I got home in the evening, they showed me the reviewers they made, filled up by the boys, with correct answers! When they took their exams, Yuan had two mistakes, while Coby’s exam was perfect!
Today, I had to take the boys to soccer practice. I brought Yaya Jeanny Ann, my cook, to accompany the boys at practice because I had to attend a couple of meetings. After my meetings, I went back to pick the boys up. But before we left for home, I played with them in the muddy field and picked up David from work. When we got home, Chinny and Sabrina had cooked dinner—tapa, chicken noodle soup and rice—all by themselves! They served the meal with an eggplant salad which Yaya had prepared earlier. For dessert they surprised us with mud pie, which they also baked all on their own!
I am so blessed with a wonderful, wonderful, family!
I’ve been so busy with these last stages of publishing my book. And I am so grateful for the support of my family. For the past two weeks, I’ve been out almost everyday, meeting with suppliers, editing, proofreading my work, before it is finally printed.
I was really worried about how the kids would manage without me, since I am their teacher. I’ve spoken to the kids beforehand, as to what my work schedule would be like, and until it’s finally out, this kind of “crazy” schedule will continue.
So what’s been happening on the home school front? It’s just been unbelievable! The children have been doing their work independently, and the older ones help the younger ones with subjects that they need assistance in.
Yesterday, before I left the house, I asked Chinny (13) and Sabrina (11) if they could each review the boys for their Religion exam. When I got home in the evening, they showed me the reviewers they made, filled up by the boys, with correct answers! When they took their exams, Yuan had two mistakes, while Coby’s exam was perfect!
Today, I had to take the boys to soccer practice. I brought Yaya Jeanny Ann, my cook, to accompany the boys at practice because I had to attend a couple of meetings. After my meetings, I went back to pick the boys up. But before we left for home, I played with them in the muddy field and picked up David from work. When we got home, Chinny and Sabrina had cooked dinner—tapa, chicken noodle soup and rice—all by themselves! They served the meal with an eggplant salad which Yaya had prepared earlier. For dessert they surprised us with mud pie, which they also baked all on their own!
I am so blessed with a wonderful, wonderful, family!
Friday, October 06, 2006
September 16, 2006
It’s Saturday today. The kids were busy with their Art Class and Guitar Lessons with Teacher Mond this morning. David was out so I had the time to do some organizing that I wasn’t able to do during the week. First, I fixed David’s desk and then, I logged three months worth of accumulated receipts and tried to reconstruct undocumented expenses based on memory, into my computer. What a feat.
About logging expenses: Why do I ever have to do this? Ever since I started earning my own money, I would jot down my expenses on tiny notebooks. I thought that by keeping track of my spending, I would know where my money was going, if I was overspending, or if I had money left over to give myself a treat. But in reality, it wasn’t really helping me save or spend my money wisely. The most it did for me was to keep a diary of the prices of things that I bought months before and know when I bought a specific item.
As a wife and mother, I entered the family’s expenses into an Excel file in my computer. I divided my file into months and put these expenses under different categories e.g. education, dining, groceries, salaries, taxes, sports, transportation, utilities, etc. At the end of the year, I would convert the numbers into charts and show my husband a picture of where his hard-earned money went. Like, 32% went to education, 13% to groceries, 4% to gasoline, etc. But did that really matter? Okay, so he saw the beautiful and colorful charts as a summary of how we spent our money. But did it help us save or spend our money wisely? The only benefit to me was that when my husband asked me questions such as, “How much did we buy our refrigerator?” or “When did we buy our television set?” I could give him an answer with the click of a mouse.
I remember asking my grandmother how she did the budget for her household. She told me that Lolo was employed and received a paycheck regularly. He would give a certain amount to my lola, in cash. Lola had little envelopes for certain categories. For example, she had an envelope for groceries and market, another one for gasoline, for salaries, for utilities, etc. She would place the budgeted amount into each envelope. Therefore, it was unlikely for her to overspend. My guess is that she did a little switching once in a while, but, yes, she probably didn’t overspend.
I know so many people who also log their expenses, a few who still use the envelope approach, and a couple who use vouchers and petty cash slips for the checks and money that goes out of their pockets. I’ve asked a couple of them why they do it and if this exercise helps them in any other way aside from keeping a historical record. None of them have given me an answer that gives me the confidence to pursue this routinary, time consuming task.
If anyone out there can tell me, please do, before I finally let go of this practice.
It’s Saturday today. The kids were busy with their Art Class and Guitar Lessons with Teacher Mond this morning. David was out so I had the time to do some organizing that I wasn’t able to do during the week. First, I fixed David’s desk and then, I logged three months worth of accumulated receipts and tried to reconstruct undocumented expenses based on memory, into my computer. What a feat.
About logging expenses: Why do I ever have to do this? Ever since I started earning my own money, I would jot down my expenses on tiny notebooks. I thought that by keeping track of my spending, I would know where my money was going, if I was overspending, or if I had money left over to give myself a treat. But in reality, it wasn’t really helping me save or spend my money wisely. The most it did for me was to keep a diary of the prices of things that I bought months before and know when I bought a specific item.
As a wife and mother, I entered the family’s expenses into an Excel file in my computer. I divided my file into months and put these expenses under different categories e.g. education, dining, groceries, salaries, taxes, sports, transportation, utilities, etc. At the end of the year, I would convert the numbers into charts and show my husband a picture of where his hard-earned money went. Like, 32% went to education, 13% to groceries, 4% to gasoline, etc. But did that really matter? Okay, so he saw the beautiful and colorful charts as a summary of how we spent our money. But did it help us save or spend our money wisely? The only benefit to me was that when my husband asked me questions such as, “How much did we buy our refrigerator?” or “When did we buy our television set?” I could give him an answer with the click of a mouse.
I remember asking my grandmother how she did the budget for her household. She told me that Lolo was employed and received a paycheck regularly. He would give a certain amount to my lola, in cash. Lola had little envelopes for certain categories. For example, she had an envelope for groceries and market, another one for gasoline, for salaries, for utilities, etc. She would place the budgeted amount into each envelope. Therefore, it was unlikely for her to overspend. My guess is that she did a little switching once in a while, but, yes, she probably didn’t overspend.
I know so many people who also log their expenses, a few who still use the envelope approach, and a couple who use vouchers and petty cash slips for the checks and money that goes out of their pockets. I’ve asked a couple of them why they do it and if this exercise helps them in any other way aside from keeping a historical record. None of them have given me an answer that gives me the confidence to pursue this routinary, time consuming task.
If anyone out there can tell me, please do, before I finally let go of this practice.
