Watch Your Words

Last Sunday afternoon as I entered the mall’s rest room, I saw someone familiar who greeted me with a smile. So I smiled back at her. I didn’t intend to chat because I was in a hurry. But even before I turned my back at her, she quickly made a comment about my husband saying how much he gained weight and that I should watch his diet. It’s funny how people think they have a hold on you by giving such assertion. Thank God for the grace that instead of words (that can be an unpleasant reply) to come out of my lips I let a smile to cover my surprise.

Sometimes I wish people would be sensitive enough about giving comments. I believe they don’t mean to offend. They are just ignorant that commenting on somebody else’s physical appearance is actually really rude.

So here’s my take on that.

1. If you don’t have anything good to say about someone, then don’t say anything.
2. If you can’t help talking, then just ask how the person is doing.
3. And unless you really want to offend the person, you can just focus on what you see is good about him/her.
4. More often than not, it’s not really what you say but how you say it that offends. So when you want to say something, always make sure that it is out of love.

Life is good but we can make it a little sweeter by saying things that are inspiring, encouraging and life-giving.

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. – Ephesians 4:29

Awesome Two Years

Has it been two years?! It only feels like yesterday when I had painful contractions at 2am. I managed to endure the pain until 7am. Kris knew exactly when is the time to take me to the hospital. Did I mention he’s my labor coach since the successful Lamaze birth of our first son.

Unlike then, giving birth to our second, Kristoffer Daven at every inhale-hold-push combo was like fighting for my life. It was hard because we found out later on that his umbilical cord was coiled around his neck. Thankfully, my OB Gyne was super good that she took him out without needing to open me up.

I cried when I first glanced at him more than I did during my first labor. “Hay, ang gwapo mong bata ka na nakalimutan ko na kung gaano kahirap kang ilabas.” More than anything else though, I’m more excited for Isaiah to meet his new brother. I still remember how anxious Kris and I were while waiting for Isaiah to visit after my delivery. And yes I still remember how amazed Isaiah was when he saw his baby brother.

It was a beautiful sight. It brought so much joy for us as parents…

Today, it’s exactly two years past. Our Kristoffer Daven, KD to most of our family and friends, and Daven to me is now two years old.

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Where did time go, I asked myself… bakit ang bilis naman? Looking back, I have all these awesome memories of his first two years;

1. He is polite for always saying “Pis” or “Peees” (please) when he wants something like “Mommy, ilk pis.” (Mommy, milk please)

2. He is humble for saying “Soyee” (sorry) when he did something wrong like    “Soyee, Ya” (sorry Kuya)

3. He is thoughtful for always asking “Ar yah oday” (are you okay) when he see something different like “Ar yah oday, Mommy” or “Ya, ar yah oday”.

4. He cares about my whereabouts “Mommy, ar you?” (Mommy where are you?)

5. He is always happy to see Daddy and will say, “Daddy, carsh, beep beep”, which means Daddy is home because he already heard his Daddy’s unique honk.

6. He’s always ahead of the game. When I say “Okay KD, I’ll give you shower now” he’ll head happily right to his bathroom, play by the timba with water while waiting for me.

7. He is helpful and ready to obey when we ask him to do something like “KD, please give this to Daddy” or “KD please get the phone”

8. He is concern about saving electricity because most of the time when he goes out and in the room, he will always shut the door, para hindi sayang ang aircon.

9. He knows what he wants. When he say “Atch Tayo Bash” he really meant he wants to watch Tayo the Little Bus so don’t give him anything else.

10. He is some kind-of a health conscious little boy because he will always ask for “Kakers” which means water. In fact he loves drinking water so much that he’ll grab anything like a wine glass to get his own water from the dispenser.

11. He’s starting young in fashion. He chooses which shoes he wants to wear and most of the times he wants the big ones that Kuya used to own. When I tried putting on a different one he’ll say “No, no, no”. And he grins when I show what shirt he’ll be wearing.

12. He is a performer. He sings happy birthday and hums any tune with Daddy. He dances whenever he hears up-beat music.

13. He is friendly and always says hi to people introduce to him.

14. He has the final say after every milk time. When Mommy say “Thank you Lord for this milk, in Jesus name, Daven prays..” and he say “Aahmen”.

What a blessing Kristoffer Daven has been to us. He brings so much joy every day. Thank you Lord for this wonderful boy that I once thought I never wanted to have. I love you so much to the moon and back.

May you grow in wisdom, stature and in favor with God and man. – Luke 2:52

 

 

Thirty Six Years of a Wonderful Life

Five days after my father-in-law’s passing, I didn’t know how Kris and I would celebrate my birthday. But if there is one thing I want to do on my special day that would be to have a family picture with my boys. This, for me, has become my ‘birthday tradition’. As much as I want an outdoor kind of shoot, time was limited so we ended up with these ones;

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And because Kris knew that I like opening gifts, he made sure that I get to open not just one but five little gifts. I never thought such small things could make me cry because of the thoughts he lovingly put in each tiny piece he carefully chose for me.

I never imagine I could cry over a pair of scoongies, panyeta, pocket mirror, a bracelet and a gift card. And yes, who would have thought of giving me such things other than the man who knows me full well.

I have everything that I have ever needed in my life but I love how my husband taught me how to keep my feet on the ground. I thank God because He has given me the ability to appreciate the smallest of things and for guarding my heart from wanting things that the world dictates.

I thank God for thirty-six years of a wonderful life He has blessed me with. He made sure that each year is made of experiences that taught me about the greatness of life and filled it with opportunity to bless others.

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Thank you to each and every one of you who remembered my birthday and send messages and sweet thoughts. I am blessed because of the people God surrounds me with.

Psalm 27:4 One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.

Goodbye Daddy

Our New Year started differently as 2015 took place. On January 2^nd my father-in-law passed away who suffered from complications of his stage 4 prostate cancer.

We are thankful that my husband’s family was able to spend time with him before he finally ‘left’. Days before Christmas Day, his children from abroad came home to celebrate the holidays with him. On New Year’s Eve the whole family checked-in in a hotel in Bonifacio Global City, and shared Daddy’s favorite food in a Japanese restaurant in Bonifacio High Street. The next day, we had a good time over breakfast. Who would have thought that it was his last?

I guess Daddy knew that he’s ‘going home’ already as he passed on peacefully in his sleep. We are grateful that he didn’t have to die struggling and that he will no longer feel the pain.

2015 begun on a sad note for our family but in a way we are relieved knowing that Daddy is now in peace.

There are so much more in this New Year that is worth looking forward to and that is what we focus on. We thank God for the life of Daddy, for the love, the lessons and the legacy that he left all of us with. We are also thankful for all the people who sympathized, visited, prayed and comforted us during the times we are grieving.

2 Corinthians 5:8  We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 

What to Feed Our Minds With?

My thoughts in the shower today:

“The work of the enemy is to feed our minds with the bad things. The moment we give in into thinking negative about something or someone means we fall into the enemy’s trap.  And one awful thought can be multiplied over and over again until it became part of us…”

Let’s do something. We will not be fed without our permission.

 The world is a beautiful place after all. Choose to see only what is beautiful and fill our minds with amazing things.

Start with the person that first comes to mind and think of something nice about him/her.

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Broken and Perfected

People say you can’t put back things together anymore once it’s broken. They say, you can try but why go through all the trouble? That statement was true to me for the longest time until this morning…

Broken pieces of tiles put together created uniquely and beautifully.

Which reminds me…

We can be broken by life’s tough and painful experiences but God always has His way of putting us back altogether in one beautiful piece.

 

 

Psalm 34:18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. 

Who’s The Fairest of Them All?

When I was about twelve years old, I remember how I wanted to have fair skin. Fortunately there was this product that offered and claimed to make my skin white. In my hopes to get what I wanted, I tried it but never did it prove its claim. Maybe I was expecting the result to manifest too soon. You know, like an overnight thing? So I stopped using it plus I don’t have my own money to sustain its use.

When I get older, my interest to have white skin came to pass. I overheard someone saying that my morena skin is better than white skin. I guess that was the time that I learned to love my color. Sometimes it makes the big difference when you hear someone say something good about something you don’t know is good at all. It gave me confidence that being morena doesn’t necessarily mean less attractive.

There are women who are naturally faired-skin and they are sure beautiful. They always seem flawless in dark-colored shirts and always look super nice with light-colored hues especially with powder pink dresses.

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But wait, there are also so many women who have brown, tan and morena skin who are equally beautiful. Their poise is beyond beauty that oozes with glamour and style.

Beauty is not in the color of the skin. Therefore buying whitening products will not give you the beauty title.

Beauty will not result from using whitening soap, whitening lotion, whitening cream, whitening pills, and others.

I’m tired seeing all those whitening products in the grocery. It’s tiring how these manufacturers dictate that white or fairer skin is more appealing and attractive. It robs you off your confidence for not having white skin.

Do yourself a favor and remind yourself that

 Beautiful is YOU. Beauty is in YOU.

So be confident and know that YOU are beautiful.

Song of Solomon 1:5 I am very dark, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.

Homemade Fun with Dough

Homeschooling is not completely fun without the art lessons. It brings so much fun to my boy and squeezes my creative juice as well.

There are suggested art lessons from the curriculum we’re following but doing something else that is more fun is, of course, a welcome addition.

And since Isaiah loves to sculpt and mold things out of Play Doh, we made our home version of it. It was super easy and my boy loved the whole process.

Putting the colors.

Teaching him how to knead it.

One down, three more to go.

I think he’s proud of the outcome.

Already excited to play with it.

Different molds ready to be used.

Enjoying the fruit of his labor. 🙂

If you want to make your own play dough too, click here and have fun with your kids.

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

– Benjamin Franklin

 

Learning From Home

The first time I heard of Homeschooling sounded like, to me, the child has some kind of learning disability.

Oh my goodness, why such a thought?! 

But yeah, later on I realized the benefits of homeschooling a child as I further understand what it is. So Kris and I seriously considered this program for Isaiah. But since Isaiah is very sociable we thought that regular schooling would be better for him so we enrolled him in Montessori.

While regular schooling was fun as he learned together with kids his age, there were some things inevitable for him to copy such as words he never heard from home… if you know what I mean.

So when an opportunity presented itself for Isaiah to be Homeschooled, we grabbed it immediately. It was a little uneasy at first but we enjoyed it as we went along. We are both enjoying it now pitting me as his teacher.

Let me share what we’re up to just last Friday, 17th January 2014:

Our lesson for the week is about Mail. Each day tackles about addressing mail, picking up mail, sorting mail, receiving mail and visiting the Post Office.

Writing a letter for his Lola Celia.

He sent his Lola his picture with her when we went to Boracay the first time.

He carefully put the letter & the picture inside.

His Daddy took him to the Post Office to mail it himself.

He was happy to meet a Postal Worker.

Feeling accomplished.

His take-home.

His whole week worth of lesson was completed in one fun-filled day.

Homeschooling Program allows him to learn beyond the confinement of a four-walled classroom and most days feel like he’s having a field trip.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

 

Who Are You Following?

 My last memory of Fiesta ng Quiapo was back in college. From my campus to the bus station going home I need to pass Quiapo church. And since I was new in Manila, I didn’t know this whole Quiapo celebration so I was stuck in a long traffic that took like forever to move and forced me to walk from Quezon Blvd up to Jones Bridge down to Lawton.  From then on, I made sure to always remember that January 9th is Quiapo Day.

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I grew up Catholic but I didn’t know why the Black Nazarene runs up devotees. Today as I see thousands and thousands of advocates that seems to multiply each year, I perceive an incredible display of faith from people in almost all walks of life. It’s unbelievable how legions of its followers are geared up to brave all kinds of obstacles just to get near the statue and believe that just the mere touch of it brings restoration and healing to their lives.

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This is like the story in the bible where Jesus feeds the five thousand (John 6:2).

The only difference is that, in the bible, the great crowd of people followed Jesus and not a statue. With due respect to the followers of Black Nazarene, growing up, I also lined up for the image of Sto Nino to kiss its feet and wipe my hanky on it. I didn’t have a clear understanding on what was that for but I just followed what my Dad was doing who was a devotee of Sto Nino himself.

 I didn’t give much thought about it until I began to wonder about the people who go to church but just stay outside talking with friends or meeting up with boyfriends or girlfriends while the priest is doing his homily. I would assume that those are the same people who joined catholic processions and kiss an image. And so I thought that Catholicism is a label that a person believes in God but not necessarily follows Him. What these people follow is the tradition that they were born into and not Jesus himself.

Following Jesus is not easy. It is in fact the hardest thing to do especially now where deception thrives in this world we live in. People can easily be lured by others to believe this and that and that’s exactly my point. Don’t let yourself be a follower of something you don’t really know about. Do your own research.  In John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 

You only need Jesus in your life, nothing else and no one else.

Mark 8:34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.