High Expectation Means High Result

I took this from the Purpose Fairy's Facebook page. And find it really useful for my present situation. Just this week, I have already started my volunteer work as a nurse in the rural health unit. For more than a year, my brain rested entertaining concepts I learned from the nursing school.

And for 3 days that I've been reporting to the RHU, I am really overwhelmed by the number of patients flocking in the morning for consultation and for tooth extraction. Another thing is, the nurses working there are labeled as "mini doctors" because they work independently with the use of the IMCI guideline. In nursing, it's like the bible of the community health nurses in treating common sickness for children from 2 months to 5 years old.

In my mind, I always say that I already have the mommy brain, a good excuse for me every time I forget something (which happens almost always). During my duty time, I can just say that my brain has become stagnant. AS IN. It's so hard for me to understand the concept of IMCI and wonder when could I probably become an expert in it.

Reading that quote above enlightened me so much. I have to give my brain a little higher expectation so that I can live up with it. It can help me learn faster at work, since being mommy is no excuse at all. ***wink***

Snow White and the Huntsman - Chika Lang!

I am not really into movies these days. A movie theater is a 6-hour travel from town, watching online is not my pick because it's too slow to load and I haven't bought or rented a DVD of any movie lately, too.

To my luck, last Tuesday, my brother's girlfriend lent me a DVD of Snow White and the Huntsman and yesterday ko lang sya napanood. Di pa straight viewing yan kasi from time to time I needed to go somewhere to another part of the house. So pause and play ang drama ko kahapon. =)

At first, I didn't like the idea of Snow White being paired to the huntsman because I preferred William for her...hehe..at first look kaya William was more handsome and heroic than the huntsman, whom I never learned the real name. But then, sige na nga lang, when he appeared with a clean look at the last scene, it changed my mind na agad-agad...at the last scene pa talaga ha! From the start until before the last scene kasi I had hopes that at the end, Snow White and William will eventually get married, you know, like the typical happy ending of fairy tales. Oh sya, si huntsman na... and besides his kiss was the one who woke Snow White up, so he must have the true love Snow White needs regardless of who looks more handsome. =)

Beautiful Monday!

Today, Kristoff and I took a walk to her grandma's house. Yes! We went out a few minutes before 7, I think. I just decided to visit them before doing any house chores, because for sure, they are always undone even if I stay home, they only leave me tired.

It was a good break, a good start of the day, of the week. :)

We ate our breakfast there, and the grandma was so happy to see her grandson. As usual, we chatted about plants and flowers, that's something that my mother-in-law and I have in common. :)

And to start off the week, here are the things that really give me pleasure:

1. This rose. Did you know that this is her first flower? I planted a looooot of roses more than a month ago. However, the typhoons that came by brought flood and caused the death of some. Nobody was tending them too when we took a vacation. But still, even a few has survived, I'm very thankful. The last two weeks, I've been putting them somewhere in the yard where the morning sun can shine on them and in the afternoon, I place them back to the shade to prevent the evening rain from drowning them. And this paid off! Just look at this beauty!

 2. A crochet flower headband. I bought a pattern from Emie Grace Collection a few months back and finally have my crochet headband. My first! And I'm going to give this gift to my niece and new goddaughter tomorrow on her Christening and first birhday! Yippee! Pretty right? I'm planning to have this as a new line of business...hmmm...

What are the things that gave you pleasure this week lovies?

Beware of the Virus Spreading now in Skype!

I missed blogging!

If not for the virus or worm whatever that is quickly spreading now in Skype, maybe I already did post something early this afternoon. It took my 5 hours away.

First, I received a message from one of my contacts stating like this:

"hey ito sa iyong larawan sa profile? http://goo.gl/5q1sx?img=teacher_pie"

I was alarmed! I thought somebody might be fooling around with me. Then I did what most of you won't. I clicked it! And! Unzipped the file!

In less than a second, my account had already sent a message containing the virus to all of my Skype contacts. It says like this:

 "lol is this your new profile pic? http://goo.gl/5q1sx?img=(the skype username here)

Wow! The author of this virus is really brilliant! It is programmed to automatically place the username in the link so the greater chance for you to believe it's true!

Then, of course, my online contacts reacted to it, some were innocent while some had already known about it because they received so many messages like this in the past.

I wasn't even able to reply to most of the messages because my computer just hanged up. A friend suggested to uninstall the Skype program. It took me a long time, you know. The system was really slow.

I then downloaded Malwarebyte Anti-malware and did a quick scan which resulted to 8 viruses! After removing, Skype was installed again and I feel so relieved when the system got back to normal again.

The first 20 minutes of being online in Skype got me soo busy answering messages about the virus that my account sent. :)

P.S.

I forgot to tell that I also changed my Skype password and clicked the Tools from the menu, then Options,  Advanced, Manage other Programs' Access to Skype, and removed all the .exe files.

That House, This House, That House

When I was in high school, I started planning to renovate my parents house. Not only as my expression of gratitude to my parents, but also as a gratitude to that house which has been a witness to my family's ups and downs and a refuge during a great trial.

How did we have this house? Here's the story...

That House First.

My maternal grandparents gave my mom and pa some good old house and a nearby piece of land good for having a small orchard of apple-guavas.

I have some pretty good memories in that house. Eating ice buko - or coconut ice pops - since it was the family's business some 20 years ago. I can still remember the three big freezers just placed in the terrace . A few 3-5 people came every morning to get the ice bukos so that they can sell them around town. They would come back in the afternoon to remit their sales minus the commission.

Ahh... some of my memories in that house are still very clear especially those when I was around 4-5 years old. I couldn't imagine I could have a crush on the ice buko vendor who was on his teens perhaps! Lol! I even played house with him as my husband (who was sound asleep at the terrace). I gathered leaves from the garden and assumed it was our food. And because I was too noisy while playing house, he was startled and showed me an angry face. It made me ashamed of course! Maybe because I disappointed my crush, haha! I can just laugh at my young self!

At that time, my Mama Sandra and Papa Buchok, my mom's siblings were also living with us in that house. I have a vivid memory of my Tita Sandra who suddenly felt her birthing pains with my cousin Lala. We were gathered in the living room and it seemed that the adults were having fun since all I can remember is that they were all laughing. Then, at once, Ma Sandra paused and grimaced. It must be really serious since it made everybody almost panicky. Some assisting her to the room, another person leading me away from it and my poor innocent mind was asking why I shouldn't be in that same room where my aunt is. Minutes later, a woman came and later did I know that it's Tita Neneng, our midwife. After all that fuss, I heard a baby cried.

Not all memories are good, though. Some are not so nice and yet they're there for some good reason!
After having her third child, Ma Sandra moved to another house which was also from their parents. Then, Papa Buchok got married and continued to live with us. My father, at that time, was a house husband, he's the one who took care of me and did all the household chores while my mom was teaching in a public school. Even though I was young, I could sense some conflict in the house. My father would sometimes look sad and mom and uncle talked in raised voices. Then, one afternoon, in the terrace, I saw mom and uncle facing each other, exchanging tense words...and then, right before my eyes, I saw him slapped my mom. A neighbor intervened. Nothing did I understand, except that they were fighting, there was hurting and there was hatred in me...

This House Now.

So, we moved. My parents built a house in front of that big old house because we couldn't afford to buy our own lot. And that house they built was more likely this bahay kubo I grabbed from Wikipedia:

 

This is a native house in the Philippines made of bamboo and nipa leaves. Yes, we fitted ourselves in this little house, all the 6 of us including our little baby girl, our youngest sibling. I also had plenty of memories here. One time, I didn't know where my mom was on that day and when Papa told me she went to the city, I grabbed this coconut husk and scrubbed the bamboo floor of the terrace. I thought mom would be happy if she sees it clean and shining! So even when the rain came, my papa couldn't force me to stop what I was doing. I was wet yet I continued to scrub! Hehe! What a head! So, when mom came home, she came home to a very sick daughter. :)

Soon after we moved, Papa got a job at the local mining and they afforded to hire someone to babysit my little sister and bring me to kindergarten. Then they were able to renovate our small hut using concretes. And it has become a little bigger and our memories with this house grew a little more each time.

Over the years of serving us, this shelter is already worn and torn, aside from the still unfinished parts. There are holes on the roof where the rainwater can happily make their entrance and wet our floors waiting for someone to slide,  there's no ceiling, walls undone and a lot more are needed for this house to be finally called complete.

That House I Dreamed.

Mark and I plan to buy our own lot this year. It is one step closer for us to finally have our dream house. A few years from now, we will be moving. But this makes me remember my first dream house and that is this house owned by my darling parents be renovated to the design they like.

I promised this to them, especially to mom. And I talked about this to Mark just last Sunday. I'm glad that he respects my desire for my parents. He doesn't have any qualms about it. Our condition is that, his salary goes to us and mine goes to fulfilling my first dream house! 

I pray that God would bless this dream!
 

I'm joining BC Bloggers

Finally, I am able to write something for BC Bloggers.

I was blog-hopping some time before and got curious of BC Bloggers' badge. What is it all about?

I was then led to mommydiary.net, a site owned by Ms. Paula through which she blogs about her family and hosts a community called BC Bloggers. It is a network of bloggers sharing and exchanging links. It is a great way to know other blogging moms.

I can't resist to join. I want to be part of that community where I get to know other people's ideas and tips to learn from them. I want to know their life stories and be inspired by them.

If you are like me seeking for a community like this, join us too by clicking here.

Let's Move and Let's Love

Good evening mothers! What are you up to tonight?

Here? I can find silence in the house, good enough for reflection. Kristoff has just fallen asleep beside me after watching Bingo and Old Mcdonald for several times and Mark is out to bond with his uncles. Most of my online students have an appointment and cancelled their classes. Yay! I can blog early! :)

Anyway, I found in my inbox a message from Nuffnang about Benetton's Let's Love and Let's Move Contest. Apparently, it has a price when you win. So it makes me really excited to make my entry, thinking of my hubby and me having Benetton's new fragrances, Let's Move for him and Let's Love for meeeee! It requires to blog about a thing that we commit to do as a move of love.

I was so focused on the price, to be honest. But while pondering on it, I've come to some important realization:

We can be great in moving and loving even through the simple random act of kindness. 

We may not reach the extent of putting our lives at stake for some historical heroic deed, 

but we can still be heroes in simple ways as we live our lives everyday. 

For parents, we move and we love every moment when our thoughts and actions are geared towards sustaining our kids. Reading a story book, kissing a son goodnight, dancing with your little ones, and playing peek-a-boo are only a few examples that we move and love. 

We may not be appreciated all the time, 

but sure does this random act of kindness brings goodness and joy to both us and our kids.

When I was in high school and college, I dreamed of being a Christian missionary to India or Africa. 

I felt like I was being called to bring good news to the unsaved and help the less fortunate. 

It is where I can best perform as a nurse, I thought.

But it didn't happen. 

I got married and blessed with a sweet son. 

Then there's no more way but to set aside that dream. 

But I love what Mother Teresa said in these two quotes, they remind me of my mission now:

 I am happy that whatever I have become right now, I am always moving and loving, even at times when things are so hard and I don't even realize that we are doing it.

But I have one special thing that I want to do on my birthday which will be on the 23rd of December. 

Yay! I'm turning 25! Let's celebrate!

Actually, I have an ideal birthday celebration and this was supposed to be what my 18th birthday should be done. Due to some personal circumstances, however, it didn't go like this.

It's so simple, you know. 

I just want to throw a party in a poor village in the nearby barangay. There would be lots of parlor games and prices for them, Christmas gifts, and of course, food! 

But a preaching about the Holy Word would be a great start for the celebration. 

This is my vow, my commitment, my move of love.

How about you? Have you committed to do a move of love today, this week, this month,

 or before the year ends? What is it?

Let's move and let's love!

Living in an Extended Family

 

This TV commercial of PSBank on their Home Loan offer strikes me. That woman in the ad and I are just in likely situation, only that no one has yet said "di nga" to me. Nobody has reminded me yet of building our own house and get separated from my parents. But it keeps me thinking, really, when would that probably happen. Yes, when?

You see, before, I never really planned to live here when I would have my own family. I aspired to live in the city and I disliked the countryside despite the fact  that I grew up here. But things changed and the unplanned eventually happened. I married my neighbor and he's just exactly the person who loves the countryside. While I did have great plans on living in the city, he also had great plans on the rural life. 

And since we got married when we still didn't have much savings to buy a lot and build a house, we have decided to stay here in my parents' for awhile. We just built an extra room for us. Just thankful that my parents' are okay with that. See how my fate works? It left me with no choice.

This is much to our advantage especially that Mark is away for nine months and my father who works in another city only comes home thrice in a month. Mom is a public school teacher, she leaves at seven and comes home at five. So, most of the days, it's only Kristoff and me at home. 

Imagine if we have our own house, it would be so boring for my son and me, only the two of us. And mom? She would've come home at night and be all alone at this house. 

So, I guess for the meantime, this set-up is all okay for everyone.

There's joy living in an extended family. The grannies get to enjoy their little grandchildren while these little ones could feel the abundance of love in the family. Some folks say that grannies show more love to their grandkids compare to their own offsprings. Might be true!

I also have the "I was born here and I'll die here" idea and thinking of moving out someday makes me sad. It's just hard to let go. 

What will happen to my mom and papa when they grow old and alone? 

Who will take care of them?

But I know time must come that I should let go. Or I don't know yet what will happen in the future. The best thing I know I should do is that to make and cherish good memories in this house while this set-up lasts. It's the only one we've got for now, tomorrow maybe different.