Signs of Old Age

I probably went beyond my quota last Monday when we went to Ikea. 

My whole body hurts and I have been having fever on and off. I did a test, so it's not COVID-19. Whew! Just probably over fatigued.

Resting for now 

#BeKind #StaySafe

What's Unique at Ikea Philippines Restaurant

I know I've been living under a rock. We were only able to eat at Ikea's Swedish Bistro yesterday. Yup, yesterday 😂 

We frequently ate at Ikea's restaurant in Singapore even during to the pandemic when restrictions eased. The resto here was always full, so we'd either just buy at the cafe or buy frozen meatballs. 

Since it was our first time, I observed what was different. They actually had a proper line for PWDs/senior citizens. A crew member promptly escorted us when I mentioned I was a PWD (I was breathless from all the walking). The menu is fairly the same except for dessert!

There's turon! And much cheaper than SM's (lol).

Buko pandan and mango sago

And leche flan!

I was tempted to try the leche flan, but I had some banana bread for breakfast and Miggy's planning to make leche flan this week. Anyway, next time!

Of course, Miggy and I had meatballs. (What's up with the peas, they were bit undercooked I think).

Sweetie had salmon and spaghetti (and some of my meatballs).

We had a fun time reminiscing our days in Ikea Singapore. I won't forget it since I used the Tampines branch for my cardio exercises post OHS. My surgeon encouraged it to keep me walking! I loved it since Mom always bought me toys, haha. 

Here's the Westies at Ikea Alexandra (SG)

I wish though there's a lot more shortcuts. It always takes us 3 hours to go through the maze. Or at least have more seats across the store for PWDs like me to rest in between. I now have salonpas on my back from too much walking 😅

#BeKind #StaySafe

My Coping Mechanisms to Keep My Heart and Mind Healthy

I always thought I had a very strong will and mind. I was unfazed when I had open heart surgery. Things started crumbling when I had pulmonary embolism. A year before I was diagnosed I was in and out of the ER and my respiratory doctor back then just kept upping my asthma meds. I only discovered what was ailing me when I went for a second opinion.

The struggle affected my mental health. It came to a point when I had a second pulmonary embolism, I couldn't push myself anymore. I almost gave up, but I reached out for help and my doctor counselled me to work on my coping mechanisms.

I recently saw a friend post how to deal with things. It said rest when you're tired. Read or do something creative when you're uninspired. Exercise when you feel depressed.. etc. For the life of me I couldn't find the post anymore. It was a re-shared post, so it's harder to find. Anyway, in my mind I do everything it suggested, so thought I'd make my own list.

Here's what I do when I feel blah -

• Tired/weak - I sleep or I go to our cats
• Antsy - I do some gardening
• Angry - I do the dishes or clean or take a long shower
• Uninspired - I read
• Bored - I watch videos (YouTube/movies/TV)
• Unbalanced - I sew
• Depressed - I pray + do something that makes me happy (any of the activities mentioned above)
• Sad - be grateful (make a list of things to be grateful about/be grateful for someone's success)
• Procrastinating? Prioritize the task and follow-up with a happy activity
• Need a boost of happiness?  Play with cats.

One thing I also learned is to avoid triggers. Know what they are so you can avoid it and understand how best to deal with it. I lessened my time doom-scrolling and have kept my circle small. There are things I just can't deal with anymore. I used to jump and join everything, but I realized I have to protect my peace. 

What about you? What are your coping mechanisms?

#BeKind #StaySafe

Dry Run for the Holidays

I was planning to bake salmon with cream cheese last night. I was pulling out the salmon from the freezer when a ball of ham started to roll down towards my foot! Good thing I caught it! I would have been injured if I didn't. Haha. The fiesta ham reminded me that we had planned to cook it before the salmon. 

I don't get to cook as often as I want since the effort largely depends on my energy. There are days I have lots of energy and there are days when I just feel depleted. That's the life of someone who has a bunch of medical conditions. Anyway, preparing the ham was easier than baking the salmon. 

The fiesta ham has been in the freezer since early this year. It was still surprisingly available last January and we planned to cook it for CNY. Of course, we forgot about it and just got around to cooking it now. I paired it with (unmeat) chicken macaroni salad. We found a can of veggie chicken at the grocery and thought we'd try it out. Let's just say I had to add more cheese to make my usual macaroni salad tastier (LOL). 

We'll have lots of leftovers, so what I cooked is good until today. Yay! I'm happy I was able to cook thrice this week. I made salted egg chicken. I set aside some of the chicken and tried making buffalo wings sauce for it. I'm now stuck with a huge bottle of Tabasco sauce. This means I have to make buffalo wings often (hahaha). Next time I'll probably prepare a kilo of chicken and halve it into salted egg and buffalo wings sauce (I prefer strips over wings though). I have to research what else I could cook with Tabasco sauce. 

Have a blessed Sunday everyone :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Saturday Around the House

I dedicated the day to small bits of housework. I watered the plants, played with the cats, did some cooking and chatted with a friend who likes cooking. It was pretty humid, so I retired back to my sewing table to write this post and watch some TV. I wanted to hang out outside more, but it was too humid, plus the air quality was bad (construction beside us did some welding). 

I'm journaling my daily activities to push myself to move around more. I checked the plants I re-potted and was happy to see the Heart of Jesus (caladium) improve a lot. Check out how much it has improved in 5 days. I transplanted it in a cactus mix soil and put it in an area with indirect sunlight. I think it grew a bit, noh?

I transferred the tiny leaves to a small pot

I'm also propagating some of my gumamela. The four pots I bought a year ago are still alive, but they've outgrown their pot. It will be hard to transplant them. I plan to trim them to make them healthier. I cut some stems and popped them in soil with perlite. I forgot to cover them to create humidity, so that's what I did today. Let's see if they grow some stems. What I hope to do in the future is graft the different colors to have a gumamela plant with different colors. (I've honestly never done any grafting. My Mom was good at it though). 

The bromeliad didn't look good, so I decided to remove the dead and yellowing leaves to give it a better chance to live.

The kittens were naughty today. It was drizzling just before I went out. It looks like they played in the rain. When they came to me they kept rubbing my leg and they were all wet! Haha. Naughty kittens! We're also trying to regulate their food because a lot of stray cats have been coming in since Grey disappeared. The strays probably caused the kittens to have cat flu! Sigh. 

I was going to do some ironing, but I've hit my limit. I know when not to push too hard. I don't want to get sick. I delegated the rest of the cooking duties to Miggy. All he needs to do anyway is let the marinade simmer and Sweetie will do the plating. I can iron tomorrow. Worse off, I'll squeeze myself in another pair of pants next week (haha). 

Happy weekend everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

5 Months After

I just realized that it's been five months since the cat distribution system gave us two kittens, Bailey Boo and Anakin.

Bailey came to us originally a week after he was born. His Mama, Kaley Boo, brought him together with 3 other litter mates. They stayed for 3 weeks and then disappeared. Kaley Boo brought the brood elsewhere. We just prayed someone was helping take care of them.

Kaley would still visit us to eat, but towards the end of May, she started bringing a white kitten with her. We knew it was one of her kittens. After two weeks the kitten refused to leave with Kaley and he would hide and ignore his Mama's calls. It took awhile, but eventually he allowed us to pet him. That's thanks to the clingy kitten who just came and stayed.

That kitten is Anakin. He just came inside our gate, kept meowing and refused to leave. We have no idea where he came from and since he became fast friends with Bailey we just let them stay.

We already had Brimsley, her 4 kittens (Mando Laura, Grogu, Eevee and Pikachu) living on our property. Then there was Grey (Papa Cat) and Kaley who'd come just to eat. We knew adding two more kittens was crazy, but they charmed us. How can you resist kittens who were more affectionate? 

Fast forward five months later, Bailey Boo and Anakin have grown a lot. They're both healthy and have been neutered. We love them to bits and refused when someone wanted to adopt them. Nope, sorry, they're part of our family now.

We think the cat distribution system sent them because it's been a month since we last saw Kaley Boo. Grey has been missing too the past two weeks. We hope wherever they are they are being cared for by someone. Hugs to these two cats who brought us the kittens we all love.

#BeKind #StaySafe

New Pest Control Provider

We decided to change our pest control provider. The last one did well for five years, but they've been having internal issues which caused us a lot of stress. We did finish our contract with them, but we no longer renewed.

We didn't want to go rogue and do DIY since we had an infestation two years ago. We want to make sure it doesn't happen again especially since there's construction ongoing beside us. We don't want their pests moving to our home!

We reached out the several providers. Got wind that one had the staff of the former company. We selected the one that's been around for 20 years. They have very good reviews and is half the price of how much we used to pay the other company.

The company is really well-established. They sent six personnel to do the treatment. That alone surprised us! And since they didn't finish the alloted mixture for us, they left about 3 liters for our future use. What we just don't want to happen again is have another infestation. 

Whew! Done with the adulting stuff for the week. We just need to schedule our next appointments. Now I can happily do my sewing and sorting. Our cats would be happy to get undivided attention again.

Happy Thursday everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Adulting is Not Fun, but Fulfilling

There's something we've been trying to do for our home for almost two years now. We tried outsourcing it twice. The second set of folks made us feel they were just juicing us. We decided to do it in our own.

Mae from our homeowners association told us just to hire someone to do it for us. We told her it seemed we couldn't find someone to trust and it's been two years since we tried to get it done. The process is indeed tedious, so we set a goal to really work on the task.

After getting the requirements from the utility provider via email we gathered the documents needed. This took awhile since we had to coordinate the paperwork and visit our barangay hall a couple of times. 

Today took us around our city. Luckily, JM the customer care person from the utility company was very helpful. He gave us a key tip to resolve the issue. He also helped us with a future project we need to work on.

After visiting the utility company we headed to city hall. I'm so grateful that our city hall is so efficient, we finished getting our cedula and requesting a document in under an hour. Everyone we needed was still around even at the last hour! Yay!

I'm really tired now, but I feel fulfilled. We hopefully saved over 20k if we continued to outsource the task. Who knows, maybe we'll finish the whole task by mid-November. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Cooked Salted Egg Chicken for the First Time

I miss buying salted egg chicken at the hawker's center in Singapore. I got a curry plant by accident and it's now quite tall, so ai thought I could easily make some salted egg chicken.

It took us two hours, haha. I made the sauce and prepared the chicken. Miggy fried the chicken and then we both coated the chicken with the sauce. It turned out well. I'll post the video how we made it soon.

Aside from cooking, I checked the plants I re-potted. I was also happy to see how much the tea tree grew since I transplanted it six months ago. It has grown new branches and I'm thinking how best to shape it.

The plants I re-potted are doing well. I didn't water them since they are succulents. I'll check in a day or two if the soil is dry. 

Now it's BR time on the couch.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Buddha Belly, Desert Rose and Caladium Bicolor

I'm on a roll After realizing that the plants from Mom's garden were essentially succulents, I decided to immediately re-pot them today. I had been watering them like crazy and realized they might die without proper care.

I was pleasantly surprised with what I got. One of the plants is commonly known as Buddha Belly (Jatropha podagrica). I'm not sure if it's a common succulent, but I was happy to see it had flowers when I saw it in my Mom's garden. It's a beautiful plant and I hope it will bounce back after I've given it some TLC.

Another plant that caught my eye is a caladium or more known as the Heart of Jesus. It wasn't in peril, but I liked the color. It will also remind me of my Mom whenever I see it. 

Last plant I got were two pots of desert rose or commonly known as kalachuchi. I remember Mom didn't like it before because of the smell of the flowers. I'm not sure why there were two in her garden. They both badly needed TLC, so I re-potted them in big pots. Hopefully they recover.

I never thought I'd enjoy gardening this much. It's a lot of work, but it's also a great way to know my Mom more with the plants she kept. She always told me she didn't like cacti and succulents, but most of those I re-potted the past two days are succulents. She probably had a change of heart since they are flowering plants. I'm also enjoy figuring out what the plants are and researching how best to care for them. 

I hope I'll be able to save the plants. There's a gazillion more!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Saving Mom's Garden, One Pot at a Time

I've been working on saving Mom's plants and after going around her garden I decided to get some plants that needed a lot of TLC. 

To be honest, I can only name a few of Mom's plants. Thanks to Google Lens I'm able to identify the plants. Identifying the plant is important so I know what kind of soil, watering and sunlight it needs.

The first plant I worked on is a bromeliad. It was strangely not potted, but had roots. There were mixed views on what kind of soil it needs. I decided to use cactus soil mix (loam soil + stones + perlite). If it survives that's when I'll re-pot it with peat moss. 

By the time I finished gardening, Meredith was probably cross because I occupied part of her bench. She hung on my gardening scissors and refused to give it up. It was her way of saying that it was time fo me to rest.

I had a productive day. I was able to re-pot most of my cacti and succulents. I also took the opportunity to propagate gumamela cuttings. Hope everything I worked on will flourish :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Avocado Update: Leaves, Finally!

Sweetie excitedly told me the other day that the avocado seeds I've been propagating for two months now have started to grow leaves! Finally!

In the past two weeks I increased the amount of honey and moved two of the seedlings with stems to a bigger jar. Sweetie also changed the kitchen curtains. The curtain was shorter and allowed more sunlight to come in. I think that encouraged the seedlings to progress faster.

I've been hesitant to move the jars to another spot with better sunlight because I might forget to top up the water (out of sight, out of mind!). I'm debating whether I should move the seedlings to soil already, but videos said they need to have leaves already. So I'll wait.

I hope to eventually harvest some fruits!

#BeKind #StaySafe 

Quilts in Progress

Oh boy, I lost track of time and here I am cramming today post. LOL. I was going to post about something else, but it needs additional research, so thought I'd just share what I'm currently working on.

I've made progress with my Pokemon Pikachu quilt project. Since it's much bigger than I intended, I'm going to make it into a wall hanging. I have that on my quilt wish list. I always wanted to make art for our home and the size of this quilt is perfect. I just sandwiched it with batting today and I plan to hand quilt it. Ah, that's probably where I'll take time again.

My other project is a runner for my piano. I've been meaning to make one for it for a few months now. It's a peppermint inspired Christmas quilt. I'm having fun making it since I like making pinwheels.

Yay!

#BeKind #StaySafe