Guidelines for a Good Life

When my Mom was still alive, we normally have conversations while in bed, mostly after we woke up from our afternoon nap.  Those are the times that I really miss now.  I did not understood it then but she was always giving me small advices during those small talks.  When she passed away, it was then that I came to realize the lessons she was slowly teaching me.

Summarizing those lessons, I realized that Mom was giving me guidelines to live my life with.

1. Goodness begets goodness.  Mama was the type of person who alaways sees the goodness in other. There are even times that we tend to disagree with her, she makes us realize that if we plant goodness, sooner these goodness will be given back to us.  True enough, we witnessed how her goodness was generously given back not just to her but to us, as her family, when she was sick and even when she passed away.  Relatives' and friends' support kept on coming, in the all sorts of form.  Mama might not know it then but it was the law of karma that she was teaching us.

2.  Give, even if sometimes it hurts.  I only understood the essence of true giving when I became a Mom myself.  Becoming a Mom entails a lot of giving, and yes most of the times it hurts.  It starts when you get pregnant.  Pregnancy is indeed a happy journey, but most moms would agree that there are also unpleasant experiences along the way.  Just think about the morning sickness, the nausea, the backpains and actual delivery itself.  But it is a process women had to endure to give life to her offspring and to give happiness to her husband.  And delivery is not the end of it all.  We continue to give while breastfeeding and while we let our kids take the most part of us, we sometimes forget about ourselves.  

3.  Let Go and Let God.  This is the best lesson that Mom taught me by being a true example.  When she got sick (she died of Bone Cancer), I have seen how she let go of every worries and let God to take care of her.  She did not let her sickness to win over her body.  While she was sick, she continued serving God and the church, in her ways.  She prayed for her recovery, yes, but she also asked God to help us if in case she won't make it.  And make it, she did.  She might not have won the battle over Cancer but she showed us that if we stay together, we can work wonders.

Mom may be gone forever but her lessons linger.  I promised myself to passed on these lessons to my kids and even hopes that others will also be benefited from these guidelines.

 

Craving for Mangoes

Have you ever felt the urge to take a bite on a food that's nowhere in sight? Well, I do.  Just recently, I have this crazy cravings for ripe mangoes.  Blame it on the pregnancy.  It's good that the fruit I crave much is  readily available. Philippine mangoes are in abundance from the month of  December but it reaches it's peak season during the summertime.  It was so nice that my husband is very supportive that he extend all effort to get me the food I want to eat.

So what is it about pregnancy and food cravings?  I read that the reason why pregnant women crave for a certain food is because they are in need of the nutrient contained in that specific food item.  Some even says that food aversions have something to do with the gender of the child in your tummy.  If it's the citrusy type then it's going to be a girl (yehey!) and if it's the spicy type, it will be a boy.   But what about those who craves for really crazy foods? (Trust me, I know some of them!)  Old wives' tale says that it is actually just a way of pregnant moms to get the assurance that they can still get what they want even if they are no longer the pretty, sexy lady that their husband's adore.

The funny thing about my craving is that I actually don't want to eat these mangoes and all I want is just sniff on them for as long as I can.  I just love their smell and I believe it eases out the nausea I am experiencing during nighttime.


Wanna see what's with the letter C? Please head on to ABC Wednesday to see some other entries.

 

Blessings

The  year of the dragon is about to bid us goodbye a few days from now.  Being the dragon baby that I am, yes I was born on 1976, I hoped for the best when the dragon year entered.  True to its promise, it was indeed a year full of blessings for us.  Hubby's small business picked up its pace.  Projects kept coming in and there were very few problems in the operations of the business. Though I bid my job goodbye, I was given opportunities outside the office.  I had the privilege of assisting a friend in starting up a business venture.  I was able to help out in developing a website for that same business.There are offers to work from home that are still coming in up until now.  I declined most of them because I enjoyed being a full time mom again after almost six years.  I've seen how my kid enjoyed every day that I spent with him and I've come to realized what I had missed back when I was still working.   Apart from reviving my housewife status, I was also able to relieve my childhood memories thru a reunion for a cause with my elementary batchmates.  It was nice to give back and share some of the blessings that were being poured onto us.  The smiles from the kids were more than enough to wave off the tiredness that we felt for the preparation of the gifts and the foods.   More so, knowing that a lot of kids felt blessed that day is another reason to smile about.

One thing that 2012 has taught us is that we have to count our blessings instead of lingering on our problems.  Problems just come and go, and it is actually a reason for us to still smile.  Why? because it is only the living that is sorrounded with problems hence they are an indication that we are still alive.

2013 have come in and the Chinese year of the snake is about to start by the 10th of February but I am not lonely at all.  I am bidding the Dragon with a happy heart and welcoming the Snake is a very positive outlook.  Who wouldn't if you were given this kind of a blessing?

Yes, there's bun in the oven and we are praying that there will be no problem this time.  We have been trying to conceive for almost four years now so you can see the reason for that big smile.

I am sure that more people have a lot of B inspired writings, kindly click on the badge below to see some of them. 

A is for "Attraversiamo"

ATTRAVERSIAMO, an Italian word that means "let's cross over." I am no Italian but this has been my favorite A word ever since I have watched "Eat, Pray, Love". It tells of how a married woman find her appetite for life back, how she deals with her own issues in life with the help of the people she meets along her journey. I don't have any marital problems whatsoever but this word reminds me that one day as a mother I will have to cross over some things or situations for my son. I will have to learn how to let him go if he no longer needs my assistance. I will have to let him be the person he wants to be and not the person I want him to become. And judging from how he is fast growing, this could be sooner than later. Oh well, I guess I'll just say Attraversiamo when that time comes! And also my first name starts with the letter A. Care to guess what my first name is? It's a very common name so it won't be hard to guess. For more of A inspired writings, please check out

Santa Claus on Sale

If you have been to the Philippines, then you surely know that Christmas from where I am starts as early as September. Chistmas songs are played on the radio and malls starts to dispose their previous inventory via big Sale. You would see a lot of christmas decors everywhere. Speaking of decors, the kid and I went to a bookstore last weekend and we saw these paint-your-own Santa Claus set. It comes with four Santa Claus porcelain figures, a brush and a paint set. I want to add a different flair to our Christmas tree this year and thought that this could be what I wanted. And the kid was really bugging me in getting them. He said he wants to paint them and that it would be a good bonding moment for us. Makes sense, right?

 So this is how they look like inside the box.

Once they were out of the box, I found out that they seem to be heavy for something to be hanging on a tree. I guess, I better find a different place for them instead. On top of a side table perhaps?

And here they are after they have been painted.

Pardon the fourth one, it was not fully painted yet. My bad, i got all sleepy when we were painting them. I guess painting porcelain figurines would help me in my sleeping habits, too. And, did I tell you, these are really cheap deals? This stash only cost  P 169.75 (around 4 US dollars). Another thing is that it's on sale, you get to have another box for free when you buy it. So that means eight Santa Claus figurines instead of four. Good buy, isn't it?

 I still wish I have enough money though because I would really like to buy this Santa Claus.  He will surely be a great addition to our garden come Christmastime.  Hmm, perhaps next year?

Red is my Favorite Color

Red is my favorite color. If you check my closet, you will definitely see how red is favored as most of the shirts and blouses that I have are in that color. It was actually a late love affair for me and the color red. As a kid, I was not into this color, mainly because I am a "morena" and during those times, I don't think that it fits my skin color. The love for red started when I realized that it is actually a very powerful color and that it can really boost one's personality. It had always been associated with confidence.

Wearing two of my favorite red outfits.

And the love for this color is also visible on other things.

Me and my brothers having fun with our red curtain as the back drop.

And then, I realized that a red bag is all you need to level up a drab outfit.

And whenever I am not feeling right, all I need is a dab of my favorite red lipstick to change my mood.

Now can you guess my favorite superhero?

Q is Quiet Time

From the moment that I had started to read, I had always been a bookworm. I find solace in reading than in watching TVs or listening to the radio. Reading brings me to places I have never been and makes me experience things that are most of the times out-of-this-world. And this is the very same reason why I am such a sucker for book sale! Yesterday, we went to one of our favorite bookstore and these are the books that I hauled.

Reading is my me-time, my quiet time and I enjoy every moment of it. And I am glad that the kid seems to inherit the fondness for reading. He has his own collection of comic books to brag about.

A large, still book is a piece of quietness, succulent and nourishing in a noisy world, which I approach and imbibe with “a sort of greedy enjoyment,” as Marcel Proust said of those rooms of his old home whose air was “saturated with the bouquet of silence.” – Holbrook Jackson