Everyday Life

Weapon of choice.

I told my best friend the story and she said, “Your look is more strong and painful to endure than a Red Horse bottle. Trust me.”

After I read her message, I couldn’t stop laughing. My morning made me realize two things. One, not fighting back is not a sign of weakness. It is, in fact, a sign of immeasurable strength. Two, this person does not matter, and I should not bother with her.

I have more than enough people in my life who make it worth living. I have accomplished so many things I never thought I could. I have been gifted with love, health and happiness, and in my life, I am truly blessed. I have the greatest friends and the most amazing family. I have a job that allows me to do what I love while caring for those I love. I live comfortably, and I want for nothing.

I believe that when we remove negative influences from our lives, we make room for the positive. We open the doors for happy people to walk in, and open the windows for a little bit of sunshine. In the last four months I have welcomed so many wonderful new friends into my life – moms from all over the world, soon to be new members of our ever growing family, co-parents from my little boy’s school, and people I meet through work.

My newfound friends from the DLSZ Parents Association Batch 2024, after our Thanksgiving Mass last Sunday. (This photo belongs to Paul Meim.)

It’s all about perspective. I am truly blessed, and I am thankful. What are you guys thankful for?

Much love and happiness,

* Find me on Facebook and Twitter! *

A few days ago, I had the chance to hear Bianca Valerio talk about being a woman of confidence. One of the perks of my job as a script writer is being able to experience events like this, and getting to meet fabulous people like Bianca, who is a host, a model, an author, an image consultant, a makeup artist, and a spokesperson for confidence, all rolled into one glamorous package.

That particular day, I was glad to be where I was, listening to her speak. It was really a case of being at the right place at the right time for me. Everything she said made sense. Everything she said made a difference. One thing that stuck with me was when she said that happiness is a choice. Many of us choose to wallow in self-misery, or choose to see the bad things in life and overlook the good things. At the end of the day, it really is your choice if you will choose to make the most out of your life, regardless of what life has in store for you. Now that’s confidence and inner strength.

One of Bianca’s quotable quotes. (Screen grabbed from Bianca Valerio’s Twitter account.)

The thing about Bianca is, she is also a mom. She shared a little bit about what kind of mom she wants to be for her daughter, the things that she does differently from her parents, and the lessons in parenting that she learned from them. What really impressed me was that she was talking about parenting to some moms in the audience who were much older than her, and have had more experience as parents, and there they were nodding away, agreeing with her and learning from her. That’s when I realized two very valuable lessons – You can’t be a mom without having confidence in yourself, and us moms should stick together. We can learn something from one another, regardless of age, nationality, or years of experience.

That for me is such a phenomenal thing about moms worldwide. We form this huge network of women who just want to be the best moms we can, and try our very best each and every day. And our biggest cheerleaders in all of this are our fellow moms. Unfortunately, not all moms think this way, so I consider myself lucky to have met so many moms who do.

There’s my mom, who has always been really very hands-on with us, and never failed to be there for me whenever I needed help or advice as a mom.  There’s my mom-in-law, who brings so much wisdom with her, stuff I would never have learned had I not met her. I have a wonderful set of moms I can talk to over at World Moms Blog. I have this great network of Work-At-Home-Moms in Manila who . I’ve just become friends with fabulous moms at my son’s school too. And there’s Bianca, who has become such an inspiration.

When I started this blog, one of the things I wanted to do was feature the supermoms in my life. I became a mom relatively young, and I was so very clueless at the start. This will be just a small way of giving back to those moms who have motivated me and continue to encourage me to be the best mom I can be. I think I’ll make that a project for this blog in 2013. I’m sure that they have great stories to share with other moms, and would be great teachers for new moms. It will be my way of paying it forward. Does this sound like a good idea to you?

Who are the inspiring moms and confident women in your life? What are the things they do that inspire you? I’d love to hear their stories!

Much love and happiness,

* Find me on Facebook and Twitter! *

The past week has been really hectic. As if the sudden burst of activity wasn’t enough, we were in for a major schedule adjustment because for some reason, life decided to begin way before 8AM from Monday til Sunday!

We’re admittedly a family of late risers. A typical morning for us involves getting up at 7:30, breakfast at 8:00, then taking daddy to work at 8:45. After that, the little guy and I spend a slow morning at home, then start preparing for school at around 10:30. Given this, you can just imagine how much of an effort it was for all of us to be where we had to be by 8AM every day last week.

Of course, the first and most important step was waking up early. I am proud to say that I successfully managed to wake up, get up and function by 6:00 every morning, all week! That is a huge deal because I am NOT a morning person. All of a sudden the coffee maker became my best friend! I saw this on Facebook last Wednesday, and I could totally relate.

As seen on the Deal Grocer Philippines Facebook Page

Achievement Unlocked: Becoming a Morning Person!
From Monday til Wednesday, I got the kid to school before 8AM, and the husbandry to the office before 9. The kiddo and I were promptly at school by 8AM on Thursday for our volunteer work as part of the Fair Committee for Senior Prep. I made it with a lot of time to spare for my 8AM call time in Makati on Friday. Our whole family got to settle into decent seats for the kiddo’s performance at Family Day in school on Saturday. And we were all super prepared real early for our long Sunday. We made it to school by 10AM for mass without rushing, and prior to that Mr C was able to buy a fruit basket for us to offer. The little guy and I even had breakfast before leaving. And today, we were up and about by 6AM again! The little boy and I had a lot of time to prepare breakfast, and our family got to enjoy a relaxed morning meal together before we had to drop off Mr C at work. That is a huge deal for us.

I really hope I can keep this schedule up, particularly for me and the little boy. We get to accomplish a lot during the day since we have 2 whole extra hours in the morning. And the best part is, the little guy sleeps earlier at night, buying me a few extra hours of quiet time to work or just watch TV. They say it takes 21 days to build a habit, and today is officially Day 8. Keeping my fingers crossed that we can keep this going for the next 13 days at least, and eventually adapt this schedule permanently.

To the morning people out there, how do you do it? I’d love if you can share some tips to successfully sustain this early-riser phase of mine. And to the night owls, would you be up for the challenge of becoming a morning person? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Much love and happiness,

* Find me on Facebook and Twitter! *

In case you were wondering, my blog post title is “I Thought Today Was Sunday” because I started writing a post entitled “Sunday “, then I realized after a few minutes that it’s Saturday. Anyway…

It’s been quiet on the blog all week because I’ve been so busy being mommy. It’s Vision-Mission Day at my kiddo’s school, and since I’m a new Parents Association member, I decided to volunteer to help out during the school fair! Oh what a fun week it’s been. I’ll blog about that soon.

I noticed I say “I’ll blog about that soon” a lot, and that most of the things I say I will blog about never get written. I really should start organizing my posting schedule so that there’s a good flow of topics here. This whole thing about me wanting to organize my posts was actually brought about by two entries on my fellow World Moms Blog and Manila WAHM Mom (yes, I am plugging here), Martine on Dainty Mom.

The first is a post she wrote on the different kinds of mom blogs. Here I discovered/realized that I am more of a mom journal kind of writer, which Martine defines as…

They’re the bloggers who can pretty much write about anything and people seem to catch on. They chronicle the lives of their kids, or their latest salon trip, or whatever. 

I’ve yet to really build a bigger audience for my random daily musings, which is why I think i need to figure out a good flow for my posts. It’s funny how I start thinking OC but when it’s time to get things going, the fact that I’m not at all OC kicks in, and things just don’t get done. Ugh. I know I have the tendency to fall into this trap, which is why I find the Blog Editorial and Marketing Planner by The Mom Writes that Martine shares on her Dainty Dozens this week just perfect. PERFECT, I tell you!

I’ve been staring at the template all afternoon, trying to figure out what I basically want to write about for the remainder of November and for December. It’s nice because I can sort of see if things will mesh well together, and if there are posts that don’t fit. So yeah, I really hope I can keep this up and not let laziness or my cluttered way of thinking get in the way. You can really tell how disorganized I can be just by looking back at my post title, and the first paragraph of this entry. Haha!

Hope you’re all having a stellar Saturday!

Oh how I wish I was posting from here! Entalula Island, El Nido, Palawan

Much love and happiness,

* Find me on Facebook and Twitter! *

Happy birthday, dad! No matter how big I get, I will always and forever be your original baby girl.

Love,
Me

Much love and happiness,

* Find me on Facebook and Twitter! *

I decided to make a quick errand run at the mall today, right after I dropped off my little guy at school. Since I wasn’t really planning on going out, I wasn’t actually dressed for the occasion. I had on a pair of baggy jeans, a really loose shirt and flipflops. And my hair was in a messy ponytail. Now that I’m describing what I was wearing, it kinda sounds like one of those celebrity outfit disaster pieces on E! or TMZ, only I’m no celeb. Anyway…

I was walking as fast as I could towards Starbucks when I found myself face to face with a guy I used to work with. I hadn’t seen him in over a year, which means the last time we met, I was in office clothes. And here I was in a cross between a frumpy and a grungy outfit, while he was all neat and tidy in his work outfit. Not that it matters anyway, he’s a friend and a really nice guy, and it was great running into him. Thing is, the encounter made me think about myself, how I never really paid much attention to my appearance before I became a WHAM, and how I pay even less attention to the way I look and dress now. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s never a good thing, at least as far as I can see.

I was never fashion-forward nor adventurous with my choice of clothes. I’d always choose to be comfortable over being chic. But at least I’d make an effort in the past to put on lip gloss, or wear nice shoes, or put on a top that wasn’t so baggy it could fit an extra person. Or if I did choose a top like that, I’d wear it with shorts or leggings and not with an equally baggy pair of jeans, folded at the hem. Yep it was that bad. All that was missing was a beanie. Oh dear me.

My mom-in-law always tells me that you feel better about yourself if you look good. Then there’s my mom who rarely leaves the house without first putting on pressed powder and red lipstick. Maybe I ought to take a cue from the moms in my life and start looking at myself in the mirror before I leave the house. Oh I would, if only I weren’t so lazy. Between errands, writing, and trying (but failing) to keep our room clean, I wonder if I will actually find time to think about fashion and beauty on ordinary days.

Please tell me I’m not the only mommy with this problem?

Surprisingly, the outfit looks better in this photo than it does in real life…

Frumpy meets Grungy OOTD And yes, that is a Snoopy decal and those are rubber duckies stuck to my bathroom mirror.

Much love and happiness,

* Find me on Facebook and Twitter! *