My New Project: ParentingCentral.ph

This is my newest project: Parenting Central. My goal is for the blog to be an online resource for Filipino parents. It will chronicle my personal experiences on parenting, as I share stories of my own adventures with my 2 1/2  year old boy. In my quest to learn more about other aspects of rearing children, I will also dabble on topics that will interest various types of readers. I want to be able to inform and not overwhelm. Let’s see where this goes Please join my Facebook page, too! Clicking on this link will get you there.

Been Too Long

Here I go again, letting weeks pass by before I blog. My days have been packed with work and a now-defunct project. And when I’m not working, I’m either doing some cross-stitch, parking my butt in front of the TV (been watching Gilmore Girls lately) or, of course, with my dear little boy. My nights and weekends are reserved for him. I started a few books (How to Walk in High Heels, Start Over, Finish Rich: 10 Steps to Get You Back on Track in 2010 and Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny) and haven’t gotten around to finishing them yet. But I still want to buy more. It seems I can’t get my hands on enough books and I just want to read, read, read. I also realized that most of the books I read are fiction and chick-lit so I want to get more intellectual reads. And I have actually thought of getting myself an e-book reader. No, not an iPad or a Kindle, but just an iPod touch. Perhaps sometime later in the year as a birthday/Christmas gift to myself. Or next year, depending on where I stand financially because I’m trading in my Asus Eee PC for a desktop.

As for the cross-stitching, it’s a hobby I picked up in high school, when we had to do a few projects for Home Economics. I’m doing a sunset pattern with a short prayer verse on the bottom left. I’ll take a picture once it’s all framed up and hung on one of our walls at home. It sounds so geeky and corny to some, but I enjoy doing it. It’s very therapeutic. And exciting to see your work come together. I’ve got an angel pattern lined up next, and looking for a high-resolution picture of the Twin Hearts. Planning to try a software that can convert pictures to cross-stitch patterns.

So that’s what’s been going on so far. More decent post(s) soon.

Shoo Fly, Don’t Bother Us!

This has been our lifesaver for the past couple of months. Though I’ve been using this on my son since he was just a couple months old, the pesky mosquitoes seem to have become more buzzy! So, spray spray spray I go on whatever exposed body part.

I remember one time when he was already in his jammies, so I just sprayed his feet and arms. And when I woke up in the middle of the night, lo and behold, a mosquito bite on his forehead! So what I do now is spray some on my hand and dab on the back of his ears, his forehead, his neck and the back of it. Seems to be working

To order, message me! Seriously. I’ve been an official retailer since mid-last year because I absolutely love their products

Work-Life Balance

For several weeks now, I have been watching the TV series 24 on DVD. I know I’m late and only got on the bandwagon recently, but not I understand why people get so hooked.

I’ve watched 3 seasons so far and I always find myself having a difficult time pressing the Stop button to watch another day. And since I don’t watch these shows when my son’s with me in the room, it takes quite a while for me to finish one whole season.

Jack Bauer, the lead, is a very interesting character. He is definitely an asset to the organization and to the government, but he sure does break quite a number of rules. He gets the job done. But it makes you think — when protecting your country, your government, does the means justify the end?

For those who are familiar with the series, you know the way Jack operates. He takes the lives of at least a handful people in each season, does not follow protocol half of the time, and has put his family in danger. Even his daughter, Kim, admits that he’s not the best dad, but he does what he can.

FLOW: SurfYogaSamba

Give yourself that much needed escape!

Join the 2nd FLOW: SurfYogaSamba Weekend this summer from April 9 to 11, 2010 at the San Juan Surf Resort in La Union.

Lifted from Monica Eleazar-Manzano’s blog post:

Get the chance to learn Vinyasa yoga, commune with nature, ride quality waves, dance to the beat of the drums and nourish yourself with wholesome food. Take a breather from your everyday lives and create a space where you can feel the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle.

The FLOW Surf.Yoga.Samba Weekend Retreat aims to unify the body mind and soul. We offer each guest an experience of a lifetime. Practicing yoga will develop focus, strength and flexibility. Surfing will develop your confidence, stamina and ocean awareness. Dancing and creating music enhances sense of well-being and build social skills. The whole retreat is complemented with healthy food to help nourish this unique journey to self-discovery.

Delinquent Blogger

Here I am again, letting a month and a half pass without touching my blog. It’s usually late at night, before I go to sleep, when I have some decent thoughts in my head. But that’s when I don’t have my lappy and I refuse to blog with my phone.

What’s been going on so far? Well, in the 3rd week of January, my dear little boy got hospitalized again. Just overnight this time, thankfully. And he wasn’t even on an IV.

Late at night in one of the isolations rooms of the ER of Asian Hospital, while waiting for his grandparents to unload his things from the car so we could go up to his room.

But then there were some new developments regarding his health so now he’s on daily maintenance medicines. He’s been scheduled and rescheduled for an MRI with two unsuccessful attempts. They haven’t been able to successfully sedate him. I need to talk with his neuro to find out what other options we have. I don’t want him to have to undergo general anesthesia. I’ll get into that later on, in another post.

That Time of the Month…

…is something I didn’t miss when I was pregnant.

I hate PMS-ing. Especially when you find yourself constantly thinking about food. Just a few minutes ago, I had a couple handfuls of potato chips and a few pieces of chocolate. I had a slightly healthy lunch of rice and fish — but I paired it with a glass of softdrinks. And just a while after munching, I feel guilty. And yes, the cycle goes on and on.

T Minus 10+ Years

Since I graduated high school, I can probably count on one hand the number of times I went back to visit my alma mater. However, I find that every single time, there’s this certain wave of calm that washes over me. Most probably nostalgia, because high school was definitely the best years of my life.

Our barkada at our batch's graduation ball at Intercon -- (from left) Phanie, Karla, Rina, Mitch, Gina, myself, Debby, Mara

A New Beginning

It’s a shame that looking back, I only managed to write EIGHT posts last year. I still haven’t disabled my old blog and I wonder how I managed to write daily sometimes, even while working full time, yet I couldn’t manage to squeeze in a few minutes to blog when I’m almost always at home.

At the end of last year, I was thinking of making a resolution that I would write more often in my blog — maybe even every day. At least thrice a week, perhaps. I had an idea for a website/blog, chronicling my son’s condition and how we soldier through  it, but even that has gone overlooked. I had plans of writing a book. Yes, a book. Though I’ve written for magazines, newspapers and websites, I still don’t consider myself a writer. I actually feel that in the past year, whatever writing skills I have has gone rusty.

30 Things Every Woman Should Have and Should Know by the Time She’s 30

By December, I’ll be three years shy from my deadline. I’ll be officially in my late twenties, which is something that excites and scares me at the same time.

I came across this article probably through the wonders of Facebook. Going through it is interesting, challenging myself to actually accomplish these things in another thing. But who knows? Let’s see how I fare so far: