At Home With MrsC

Raising a family, making a home.

Rainy Days and Mondays, and Early Mornings Ahead

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Two weeks to go until classes officially start for us. I say us, because it will be as much of an adjustment for me as it’s going to be for my little boy. He’s moved up to Senior Prep, where the grades now matter, and I am entering into my first school year as a full-time mom. This is going to be challenging.

First order of business is figuring out the most efficient and effective schedule, and setting up a good routine for us. This is honestly going to be the most difficult task of all, particularly because I am the queen of tardiness. I’ve gotten into trouble for being late countless times for class and for work. This time, though, it’s not about my record, but my son’s. Uh-oh. To make matters more exciting, we’ve decided to shift my late riser to morning classes this year in preparation for first grade where everyone has to come to school at 8am.

Two weeks to go, which means we have time to get used to waking up AND getting up early. Seriously, waking up is one thing, getting up and being able to function is a whole other story. The bed weather in Manila is definitely not helping. But anyway, CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

So today is trial day one, and I managed to wake up and get up at 6:30am. Much, much better than my usual 9am. Mr C had to wake me, of course. My motivation for waking up early these next two weeks is the need to prepare a packed lunch for Mr C before he leaves for work. Got things done today, and I really hope I get to follow through tomorrow, and the next days.

Making the little guy get up early is another story. The problem essentially lies in getting him to sleep early. He used to be in bed by nine, but throughout the summer, he’s developed an 11pm bedtime. He did open his eyes and talk to me a little at around 7am, but he went back to sleep minutes after. I let him, of course. Is that a bad thing? Will it make it more difficult for me to ease him into an early morning routine later on? Thinking about it now, it’s like I’m somehow teaching my six-year old to hit the snooze button. Eeek. The last thing I want is to create another me – the prince of tardiness.

What’s your daily routine like on school days? Maybe you have some tips that could make this coming school year friendlier for us. We need all the help we can get!

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Tagaytay Weekend: Lunch at Buon Giorno

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Our last stop on my birthday weekend getaway last February was Buon Giorno at Cliffhouse Tagaytay for a late lunch. It was an overcast day, and the Tagaytay air was chilly. As soon as we arrived, Mr C went ahead and took his mandatory panoramic photos of the place and the view.

View from Cliffhouse Tagaytay
Welcome to Cliffhouse
Buon Giorno is the restaurant on the right, overlooking the lake

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The Out-Of-Towners – Zambales Edition!: A Peek into a Private Resort Part1

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Mother’s Day Weekend 2012 was spent in Zambales with the family. For this trip, we stayed at the private resort of one of my dad’s colleagues. It’s a really beautiful place with lots to do, and a fabulous strip of light sand. Bookings are done via special arrangement, and they are open to holding weddings, group outings and other functions in the resort. They haven’t yet started marketing the place, but it seems that so far, they get by with word-of-mouth. It’s a little pricey, but the place is clean, quiet and comfortable, and the food is really, really great.

I’ll be sharing more about the food soon. Meanwhile, here’s a little teaser for you.

Crabs anyone?


We stayed in the main house, where the owners stay on their visits. It has three floors, and on the top floor are four bedrooms and two bathrooms. As far as I gathered, these four rooms are the only air-conditioned accommodations on the resort. There are two bedrooms each on either side of the hallway, and in between each pair of bedrooms is a connecting bathroom.

Hallway, and the doors leading out into the sunshine

Mr C, the Kiddo and I took one room, my parents had their own, and my siblings and their special friends took a third room. The fourth room was occupied by the owners, who joined us on our weekend there.

Here’s our room
View from our window
Little boy on what was supposed to be his bed on the floor

Please can I sleep with you on the big bed, mommy?

Parents’ room, with mom standing at the doorway of the adjoining bathroom

Fluffy pillows

Bathroom, which we had to share with everyone else coz we were too shy to share our adjoining bathroom with the resort owners

Rocky, Koko, Mel and Boyong in their room

The second level houses a dining/living area, and a bridge connecting to the reception and dining area. On the ground floor of our house was the male shower/changing area. Below the dining area was another lounging area, a billiard table, and male and female toilets.

Dining tables made from solid wood

Benches overlooking the forest

There are a lot of cute accent pieces lying around, like this nice painted bottle

Pretty light fixture

A wooden boat with Boracay etched onto it’s side, on a bar next to the stairs leading to the third floor

Mr C in his reading nook for the weekend

Smoking is not allowed indoors

Billiard area below the dining room

Bridge connecting to the dining area

View of the dining area from the second floor of our house

The other guest house on the resort is pretty much like the one we stayed in, except the rooms have no air-conditioning. On the ground floor of the other house you will find the female shower/changing area. There is also a honeymoon suite, which is a smaller house further into the property. Everything is really serene and downright beautiful. I imagine a honeymoon here would be fabulous!

I’ll be posting photos of the dining area and the beach front soon. In the meantime, if you haven’t yet, do check out the first two posts in our Zamabales Trip series:

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Life is Nice.

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Today is Day Four of Funemployment. Right now, I’m waiting for our rice cooker to tell me that the rice is cooked.

It’s been a fun four days so far, mostly spent with family, doing fun, family things including a Videoke showdown, Monopoly Deal challenge, and XBox Olympics. I’ve also read halfway through The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and a few chapters of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I’m still getting used to digital reading. I enjoy the feel of flipping a real piece of paper more than swiping my finger on a touch screen to go to the next page. But I like how light my bag is sans my Dragon Tattoo book, which now has a new place on my bedside table. It’s place in my purse has been taken by Benjamin Button, and all his other friends in my Kindle library. I am now in search for the perfect case, and if anyone can tell me where to get one in Manila, I will love you a whole lot more than I already do now.

Tomorrow, I will be doing my first big project as a freelance writer. It’s something I started on while still employed, one of my live continuity writing gigs. But this is the first time I will be joining an event post employment. It will be a lot of fun for sure, and I’m very excited about doing something serious and adult.

 

Now I want to ask all of you to keep your fingers crossed for me, so things will work out like I hope they will. I really like having time to spend at home with my little boy, and I want to keep doing this. It might be too early to say that this is the right thing to do, but my gut tells me that it is. And my little boy is happy, and that’s basically the point of it all. So yeah, let’s keep our fingers crossed, shall we?

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Funemployed

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Today is day one of me being a work at home mom!

Round of applause please, I finally did it!

Of course, it’s the weekend so I don’t really feel it yet. Today was spent with family, at home, eating lots of food, playing games and watching TV. My idea of a relaxing Saturday, and something I’ve not had since I started working at the mall. So if there’s one thing I’m immediately happy about, it’s having my Saturday back.

I just really wanted to share the news, because this is a big step for me, and I’m really very excited about the changes I’m about to make. This is it!

Time to get a little sentimental now, with a great big thank you to my team at Festival Supermall. You guys made my stay extra fun and exciting, and I will miss you all every day. But since I live close by, chances are I will see you all again real soon. Like I said, this isn’t goodbye, just see you later.

The happy people of FSI Marketing, May 2012
Photo borrowed from Mica’s Facebook Page

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Dinner with the Boys at Makan Makan Asian Food Village

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I’m sorry but I just have to say that we noticed a lot of typographical errors in the menu of Makan Makan when we went there for dinner.  Ok, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I should also share that the food was super good, and we really enjoyed our dining experience there. You will have to excuse my ugly photos though. I only used my Blackberry to take pictures, and I really am regretting the decision. I can’t seem to focus properly with that camera. Anyway…

We had dinner at Makan Makan during our stay at Hotel H2O for the little boy’s birthday. We chose to eat there because I’d read varied reviews about it online, and was curious to try it out myself. We were planning to go around Ocean Park the next day, and I had a feeling we would end up having a heavy breakfast and late lunch (I was right), and so we wouldn’t get the chance to eat there anymore. Also, we were too lazy to think about what to eat and where to have dinner, so went for the simplest option.

Makan Makan Entrance

Since we were there to celebrate the little one’s birthday (although his actual birthday was two days later), we made sure to order noodles for long life. The pasta choice for the kiddo was an obvious Carbonara, while Mr C and I split an order of Pad Thai. The Carbonara was good, very smoky from the thick bacon mixed into the creamy sauce. The Pad Thai was also very yummy, and also pretty spicy.  There was a lot of noodles in both dishes, and we actually weren’t able to finish them. These definitely can feed 2-3 persons each.

Pad Thai, PHP160.00
Stir-fried flat noodles with shrimp and vegetables

Spaghetti Carbonara, PHP180.00

I really like Asian food, so it was no surprise that I enjoyed our dinner feast. I use the word feast instead of meal because I ended up getting excited and ordering a lot of food. I think I’d go as far as to say that I went overboard a little bit.

The Hainanese Chicken Rice was Mr C’s choice. This was served with the usual three sauces and Hainanese rice, and the chicken was perfectly cooked. Everything about this dish was good.

Hainanese Chicken Rice, PHP160.00

Three Sauces – Ginger, Sweet Soy, Chili

I chose the Bagoong Fried Rice, which was served with condiments – fried pork, shrimp, scrambled egg, green mango, cucumber, red onions and red chili. This was really good and extremely flavorful. There was a lot of it too, enough to share. It was a perfect compliment to the Pandan Chicken, which I also chose.

Bagoong Fried Rice, PHP160.00

Chicken Pandan with Sweet Chili Sauce

Extra Sauce

Then the food arrived, we dug in immediately, realizing that we were a lot hungrier than we first thought we were. And as much as I’d wanted to try the different dessert items on the menu, we were pretty much stuffed after our meal. I guess I’ll just have to come back another time then.

Birthday Boy with Carbonara Mouth

Mr C

Overall, Makan Makan served us really good food. The place was clean and relatively quiet, mostly I suppose because we were there on a Monday night. The staff could be more attentive, as they could be tough to flag down at times. But In the end, they catered to all our needs, and that was enough. The best part about it is the food is cheap for the quantity that you get, without sacrificing quality. That’s something that’s hard to find these days, and I hope that when I do go back to Makan Makan, I get the same satisfaction from my meal as I did during this visit. After all, consistency will dictate if it’s really a good place to eat or not.

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Makan Makan Asian Food Village
2F Sunset Quay, Manila Ocean Park
Manila, Metro Manila, Philippines
+632 567-3512
Date of Visit: April 9, 2012