At Home With MrsC

Raising a family, making a home.

Bringing Out The Morning Person In Me

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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,

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Project 30

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Today marks my 6th month as a WAHM. Also, it begins my 3-month countdown to my 30th birthday.

I am turning 30 in a few months. Now let’s take a moment to let that information sink in…

Ok.

I am turning 30 in a few months, and for me that means that I’m moving up one big step in life.  I believe that there is a vast difference between being in your 20’s and being in your 30’s. So I feel that it’s time for me to change some things in my life, for the better.

As a 20-something, I went through a lot of significant life changes, from having a child to getting married, doing a lot of dumb things, getting hurt, hurting others, having my dreams turned to dust and my world flipped upside down, choosing the wrong things, choosing the right things, quitting smoking, and the list goes on. There were a lot of little things too in between, and all of these put together are what molded my 29-year old outlook as to what life should be once I cross over to the 30-something club.

Milestones. 6 months as a WAHM, 3 months to go til I’m 30. This is a good day for me to start on Project 30, my self-improvement project for my 30-something years. Yes, I do have a plan for the next decade of my life. Let me just pause while I pat myself on the back.

Image used under Creative Commons: Birthday Cake by Will Clayton

I want to commit to 30 changes over the next ten years, important goals that I feel will make my life better. Some are big and some are small. Some are things I want to accomplish within the months prior to my turning 30, and some that will be fulfilled sometime within the next ten years. Ten years is a long time, and maybe along the way, some of these goals may change. I don’t have my full 30 yet, but for now, I want to share with you my partial Project 30 list.

Before I turn 30

  1. Exercise. Daily. For the next 100 days. Yes, I really had to put it that way just to emphasize how much I really want to do this. I admit, exercise is not my friend. I am lazy. I have wasted many, many gym memberships over the years. And I want to do better. So there. Tomorrow is day 1 of 100.
  2. Quit soda.
  3. Reserve eating fast food for special occasions.
  4. Pay off my credit card.
  5. Finish cleaning our room.
  6. Cleanse, Tone and Moisturize religiously.
  7. Remember to take my vitamins everyday.

Within the Next 10 Years

  1. Move into our own house.
  2. Be able to sustain a stable monthly income as a WAHM.
  3. Fit back into my pre-pregnancy clothes. Seriously. I gave birth when I was 23. It’s about time.
  4. Have another baby. Yay!
  5. Set aside enough money for the future.
  6. Write a book. Or at least a set of short stories.
  7. Go back to school. Or at least attend classes, workshops and seminars.
  8. Buy my first LV. Yes, that is a goal!
  9. Get the little guy started on his extracurricular activities, sports and music classes, and summer activities.
  10. Become an excellent home cook.
  11. Learn to budget.
  12. Try to be more hands-on and more of a DIY person.
  13. Maintain my blog and increase readership.
  14. Live a healthier lifestyle.
  15. Put up my own business.

What should I expect in my 30’s? Do you have any suggestions on what else I should add to this list? I’m only halfway through!

Much love and happiness,

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I Thought Today Was Sunday

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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,

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Homework Chronicles

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One thing I am glad I can be hands-on with now as a WAHM is schoolwork. I’ll tell you a secret. There’s always been a little dork hidden inside of me. When I was little, my mom used to make reviewers for us when it was exam time. As we got older, she stopped doing this since we were already capable of studying on our own. When that happened, I started making my own reviewers. Now, as a mom, I’m really very diligent in making reviewers for my little boy’s midterm exams and final exams. I also make sure to do homework with him every afternoon after class. Then we practice reading, spelling and writing. I really want him to enjoy reviewing, and so I try my best to make the process fun for him. Luckily, he is receptive to my efforts, and he picks up fast.

I recently discovered that many parents choose to have a tutor rather than do homework and study with their kids themselves. I know one mom who says she just absolutely does not have the patience for it. I thought the same of myself too when I was working, and it’s been a pleasant surprise discovering that I can actually do it. I’m thinking about maybe sharing some of our reviewers on my blog. I wonder if that will actually be of help to anyone. There’s no harm in trying though, and I really do enjoy making them. I’m no homeschooling mom, and some of the reviewers are really simple, but still, they might be of help. So maybe I should. What do you guys think?

Homework time!

Much love and happiness,

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An Afternoon at UCC

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One of my favorite places to hang out when I want quiet time is UCC in Westgate Alabang. The coffee’s good, the cakes and pastries are good, the food is good, and it’s pricey enough so that I don’t need to worry about the usual noisy Starbucks inhabitants disturbing the peace. The catch is I only get to go there when I have extra money to spend.

UCC also serves one my my favorites among all of the Red Velvet cakes I’ve ever tried. So Red Velvet is usually what I order when I’m there, along with a nice cappuccino. That’s exactly what I had one afternoon when some friends from Festival Mall and I visited Westgate to check out an event setup.

Life in Style at Westgate. Sorry for the ugly photos. It’s my Blackberry’s fault.

This visit was in February, I think. You can see in the photo that the Hub was still boarded up. Now it’s all done and operational. Happy to see that Westgate is growing! It really is one of my favorite places to visit in Alabang.

Coffee menu. The usual suspects.
Cappuccino for me.
Plain Japanese Cheesecake
Red Velvet

I just realized that it’s been a while since I last visited UCC. Lately, I’ve been spending my money at Starbucks because of their Christmas drinks. I think maybe I’ll ask the boys if they want to have a meal at UCC soon. 🙂

UCC COFFEE CAFE
Unit C 801-802 Westgate Center,
Filinvest City, Alabang, Muntinlupa
Phone (+632) 771 1550

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