Unsettling

All of us has started to feel the effects of the war especially when gasoline prices increased. I'm sure everything else will get more expensive. My maintenance medications will probably get more expensive too.

Scary times! I know we're far away from the war, but we don't really know where it's going. The best thing we can do for now is pray and update our go-bags and home supplies.

Pray for Peace 🙏

#BeKind #StaySafe

The Sili Seeds Grew Like Crazy

A few weeks ago I did an experiment and planted all the seeds from one free sili which I forgot about and dried up. I chucked it in a pot and it immediately started sprouting. 

I got busy caring for other plants, but I knew the Sili sprouts needed to be transplanted already. I found some time yesterday and divided the sprouts into 9 grow plastic pots. 

Ahh, let's see if it produces healthy sili! 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Scallops in Pink Pasta

Sweetie told me to cook the easiest seafood meal today. I proposed baked salmon with garlic cream cheese, baked salmon sushi or scallops in pink pasta. I chose pasta since we don't need the oven for it.

I made it a bit spicy this time around to give it a kick. We like adding tajin while eating it. We both feel BR now after eating a hefty serving, hehe.

Here's how I make it:

https://youtu.be/ScXnm5BUz7U?si=zpDDnqJpgnK8llZg

#BeKind #StaySafe

Remember the Nuvali Koi Fish?

When Nuvali was fairly new, I remember there was a pond full of Koi fish. They would converge near you when you give them somewhere to eat.

I always had fun watching Koi fish. Their color was so bright and it was interesting to watch how a gazillion Koi fish interacted with each other.

I wonder if they're still around? 

#BeLinf #StaySafe

Squats

My PT had me do some squats yesterday. I was okay after and even did groceries with the boys.

My whole body hurt when I woke up. My thighs were very sore, haha. I still watered my plants and played with the cats. That's all I was able to do today.

Zzzzzz.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Toyota Sewing Machines?

When I was scouting to buy my own sewing machine, I'd check out fabric/craft stores whenever I travel. The default for me would be Singer or Brother. My Mama Lola taught me how to sew on her traditional Singer sewing machine. I always thought it would end up with me, but Mom gave it away, huhu.

To be fair, I didn't show much interest in sewing after high school and I moved on to beading. It was many years later when I took up quilting and many more years before I decided to buy a sewing machine.

Anyway, I was surprised to find Toyota branded sewing machines in Sydney. They were really expensive, so I just took photos, haha. I don't even know anyone who owns a Toyota sewing machine...

Anyway, I got my Mom a new sewing machine for Christmas in 2018 while she was in Singapore. It was a Brother sewing machine, something she was used to. Her old one was also a Brother sewing machine, but from the US (c1980s). 

Sweetie got exasperated with me since I couldn't pin down a choice. He got me one in April 2019 during a book fair in Singapore (they strangely sold sewing machines during the event). It was a good thing he got me one because it became very useful during the pandemic.

I'm still using Sweetie's gift. It's really sturdy and useful for my projects. I'm now on a gardening phase and will get back to sewing once the heat starts biting!

Rearranged How I Store My Shirts

I have been trying to find the best solution so I could wear all the shirts I own. I have always arranged them by color, but I usually end up just wearing whatever's in top.

I was reading Threads when I saw a post about how her dad arranged his towels by day. He did this so he can use the towels in order. 

Aha! So I did the unthinkable (for me). I brought out all my shirts and split them for outdoor use and home use. I have more home use shirts, so I mixed the colors up and split them into 3 containers. 

I just finished the first batch and I was able to use some shorts I haven't gotten to in a long time. It's a good way to get to everything in my closet, plus it saves me time from thinking about what to wear. I just get what's in front of the container. 

Maybe I'll do it for my tops too.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Meredith

I spent the afternoon in between Pikachu and Meredith. My gardening table is flanked by two cat quarters, the bench and the cat cot area. 

I wasn't planning to do any gardening, but the cool weather once again lured me to do some re-potting, hehe. One thing led to another and I had already spent almost 3 hours outside, haha.

I seriously need to do some ironing tomorrow!!!

Happy Sunday everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

A Very Productive Gardening Week

I did a boatload of gardening this week. The weather was great and the cool breeze encouraged me to check off my gardening tasks including the ones I've been procrastinating.

I re-potted the cucumbers, tomatoes, mustasa and a couple of my calamansi plants. I didn't stop there, I re-potted a few of my ornamental plants and trimmed Jack the Philodendron. I still have a lot to do.

Today my body forced me to rest. I conked out as soon as we got home, hehe. I got up from my nap and watered the plants. 

Happy gardening!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Brimsley Judging Me

I wasn't supposed to re-pot any plants today, but the weather was so good I couldn't help but tinker around a corner I've been meaning to work on for sometime now.

Brimsley accompanied me for awhile and gave me a knowing look. I think she knows once I start working on one plant it quickly multiplies to whatever is beside it, haha. I took a quick snap of her judging me.

I ended up re-potting my nerve plants and putting some in ICU. After that I cleaned up a few more plants and wrestled with the OG Jack the Philodendron. I let it grow like crazy for over a year, so I gave it a mega trim and topped up the soil with fertilizer. 

I probably cut over 20 feet of philodendron. Maybe I should re-pot and sell it? We'll see...

#BeKind #StaySafe

Baked Ikea Meatballs?

We finally got some Ikea Meatballs a few weeks ago. It was out of stock last January and the restaurant didn't have it either. Sweetie dropped by before the end of February and managed to buy a pack of meatballs, gravy and lingon berry.

One pack is good for two servings for us. We used to brown it in olive oil first and then cook it fully in water. Miggy surprised me when he said the pack said to bake it. Bake Ikea meatballs? 

We tried it since baking is healthier than frying and it was actually easier. The meatballs cooked evenly and we enjoyed it with gravy and some lingon berry on the side. We still have half a pack and will cook it in a few weeks. It's in the freezer for now. 

Here's how to bake it :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Cat Therapy and Grounding

I have been enjoying the afternoon breeze everyday. I go out to water the plants and rest in the garden after. The cats, usually Grogu and Pikachu or Anakin, hang out with me while I rest. They also hang out when I do some re-potting of plants. The activity calms me a lot. 

What's wrong with the cat? LOL

I listened a bit to an interview with Dinah Salonga and she mentioned grounding. She said we spend so much time indoors, we miss out on spending time with mother nature. My Mom used to nag me growing up every afternoon. She'd be doing some gardening and she'd persuade me to hang out with her. The activity usually includes merienda, some fried banana and juice, and that's irresistible. 

I always complained before about watering my Mom's plants. It took 3 hours to water everything because her garden was huge and she had a gazillion plants. I spend at least 90 minutes everyday in the garden. It used to be just 30 to 45 minutes, but we moved Mom's plants so my chore time doubled, haha. 

The cats always keep me company. I've been rewarding them with some treats. Sometimes Meredith comes. She likes watching the plants. I guess she's looking for lizards. It makes me feel protected even though I know they just want treats or a huge bowl of water. They help calm and ground me. 

When was the last time you just spent time outside just feeling the breeze?

#BeKind #StaySafe

Hurt My Back Yesterday

I had to cancel my pulmo rehab today because I hurt my back while transferring some bell pepper plants to my new plant stand. It was a small pot, but I guess I bent the wrong way. Ouchie!

I just rested most of the day, but I still watered my plants. I don't want them to wilt especially my veggies! Sweetie also harvested four bell peppers yesterday and two papaya fruits today. We had some papaya for merienda and it was so sweet! 

I won't make this post long since my back is still killing me. I'll do some of the stretches my PT, Wendy, taught me. I hope that would help alleviate the pain. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Sewage Issues? How to Get Help from Government

Having sewage Issues can happen when a house is constructed beside or near your house. In our case, our area started flooding while the house beside us was being constructed.

We faithfully reported it to our homeowners association, but alas when the leadership changed no assistance was made. We didn't even get a response for our letters and just received passive aggressive reminders to clean your sewage sent via the residents group chat. 

Two years down the line, the frustration, the stench, mosquitoes and floodwater backflowing to our backyard led me to check if our city's Building Official can help. It was late Saturday afternoon and I sent a message to their FB page.

Within minutes I received a message and was advised to file a complaint following their format. My response was subsequently acknowledged and they said they'll send an inspector.

A week passed and I sent a follow-up. It was Friday, so I thought they'd visit the week after. We were surprised though when the inspector arrived at sunset. Long story short, the engineer endorsed us to the City Health Office, CENRO and our Barangay. We were visited by CENRO today.

So, if you're a homeowner, affected by unscrupulous contractors and deadma homeowners association you can go to your barangay, contact the Building Official, CENRO and the City Health Office. They advised us if no action is still taken, the operations of the contractor can be suspended or shut down.

We hope this two and a half years ordeal can be finished soon.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Decompress

The past few days has been crazy busy. It's stressful for me. I postponed my scheduled APE today since I woke up with a migraine. I was exhausted.

I got up after lunch already. It took longer for my body to recover, but I also had to put my mind at ease. So, I stayed offline the whole day and spent three hours re-potting cucumber and tomato plants. 

I between re-potting plants and playing with Grogu, the stress from the past week dissipated. I was tired by the time I finished, but I still had some energy for a joyride. Sweetie and I went out to get some gas since they said it will go up by ten pesos per liter! 

Pray for Peace!

Happy new week everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Successfully Propagated Mom's Bougainvillea

I've been trying to propagate Mom's bougainvillea trees. She was really proud to have several variants of it and told me she just propagated them from cuttings. I would always catch her trimming them in the afternoons. 

I asked her once how she would propagate bougainvillea. She told me, just cut a step and stick it in soil. She had a magical green thumb and could grow anything. She mentioned though that the white variety was the hardest to grow.

Everytime I visit my childhood home, I take a few cuttings of the different colors. They were always blooming, so I'd just cut the stem with flowers. I tried it several times and followed online tutorials. I even got river sand to see if it would help. River sand is expensive though, so I'd mix it with loam soil. 

I managed to successfully grow four pots. I have no idea what variants I managed to grow. I've been waiting for flowers to come out and one finally bloomed one! I guess it likes rice water because I gave it some last week. 

Ohhh! I'm so excited! It's just one flower for now, but there are tiny ones growing. I made another batch to grow to make sure I complete all the colors. I'm doing this because I'm not sure if the tree will survive the construction. 

Cheers to more gardening achievements!

#BeKind #StaySafe

February, the Love Month

February was an interesting month for me. I explored a lot of stuff I love doing. I tried to cook more homemade dishes. I tried growing more plants and worked on my garden. I tried sewing a quilted piano cover (not yet done though). And spent more time exploring with my boys. 

I completed another month of 1 second everyday. A second is too short, so I made it 1.5 seconds everyday. I've also been posting weekly ones (when I remember, haha). It's easy to forget already what happened a month ago, so a second everyday helps. 

Here's last month's #1SE!

Happy March everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

My First International Speaking Engagement

I'm an introvert and I disliked recitation in school and absolutely abhorred doing presentations. I was always behind the scenes when we did our required class shows. You can just imagine how absolutely terrified I was during Speech class. Ugh. 

Fast forward to 2012, by this time I had gone around the Philippines to conduct trainings. I still disliked speaking in front of a crowd even though I had managed to speak in front of 3,000+ students for one engagement. I was assigned to introduce a product in Malaysia. They thought since I was the most "social" online, then I was best suited to introduce the product. 

The talk was short, just about 20 minutes. I had to convince the crowd of business people to try the platform. Well, I survived and after that I did the same thing over and over again in many countries across the world. 

If you ask me, I would still absolutely skip any speaking engagements. I've received invitations even after retirement, but I shy away from them since I get breathless when I have to exert effort to speak loudly. Being in that role before was fun. I learned a lot and I experienced things I never imagined I would. It's one for the books. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Daily Dose of Cat Love

Grogu accompanies me everyday when I water plants. His favorite time is when I sit on a chair. That's when he rubs my legs and rolls on my feet.

The time we spend together is precious to me. He loves it when I scratch his chin and belly. It calms me down and that is what melts away the stresses of the day.

Today is also Bailey Boo's second birthday! I recorded the day his Mom, Kaley Boo, didn't visit us for her meals. She came the day after and she looked like she gave birth. Few weeks later she brought 4 kittens to our home. Bailey was the one she brought back more than a month after she upped and left. He has lived with us since June 2024.

Our sweet, sweet Bailey Boo has the most voracious appetite! He finishes whatever the others don't finish and he's very protective of the territory. Probably for it from his father, Grey.

Happy birthday our dear Bailey Boo!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Sewing Suspended to Cook Salted Egg Chicken

My sewing time has been eroded by gardening activities. By the time I'm ready to sew I'm too tired, haha. 

It happened again yesterday since I had to rescue a plant and I had thawed some chicken to cook. I didn't want to disappoint Miggy, so I suspended sewing again.

Anyway, we ended up baking chicken and then cooked a portion of it as salted egg chicken and a smaller portion into buffalo chicken.

We got to use some produce from our garden. Fresh curry leaves and sili were picked from the garden. I'm happy we're able to do that with what we have in our garden.

Will post the recipe on Friday 🤗

#BeKind #StaySafe

Why You Should Install the Meralco App

If you're a Meralco customer like us, you should install their app. Here's why:

1. See your monthly bill even before you receive the paper version. Sometimes the bill is late or gets wet in the rain. I usually access it through the app.

2. Easily report brownouts/blackouts in your area. They actually call you about it and they call back to check when electricity is back.

3. Report issues and request for help easily. We recently experienced our electricity fluctuate again and since there were no issues in our internal system, the electrician advised to contact Meralco. 

Both times I sent a report last month, help came in less than 12 hours. Issue was resolved when the second electrician correctly diagnosed that the meter base was corroded. Meralco contractor came 5 hours after I reported through the app. They changed something in the meter at midnight and we haven't experienced any fluctuation since they fixed the meter.

4. If you manage multiple properties, you can add up to 5 accounts. It would definitely save you time.

5. Need to check and old bill? You can access previous months of old bills. 

There's probably a lot more things you can do with it, but I haven't gone deep into the app. It's helped me a lot in managing the bills and getting help when needed. I wish other utilities would have a similar useful app. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Pray for Peace

We've been watching the news about what's happening in the Middle East.

Praying for peace 🙏

#BeKind #StaySafe

How Many Plants Can One Sili Make?

More than a month ago, we got sili with our delivery. Sweetie used one and I set aside one where I keep free ketchup and hot sauce. Of course, I completely forgot about it and it was dry when I found it.

Two weeks ago I decided to open it and planted the seeds. I didn't expect much, but was surprised to see the seeds sprout in a few days. Oh wow! The sili was healthy to have produced so many seedlings!

So, that's how many plants one sili can make. Now I need a farm to house all of my veggies, haha.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Made Salmon Lemon Cream Pasta

Second Friday of Lent and I decided to try making salmon lemon cream pasta. Part of my goal is to only have home cooked non-meat meals on Fridays.

I've wanted to make this dish which is my favorite Nono's dish. I haven't been able to order it the past few times I ate there and this pushed me to find a recipe. 

I think it turned out well. I'm glad I added lemon pulp to bring out the flavor. I also added a lot of spinach to make it healthier.

Yummeeh!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Got Our Paranaque City Provided Go Bag

Our HOA pinged informed us via group chat yesterday that the Paranaque City Hall was going to distribute one go bag per household. They went around before lunch today and Sweetie luckily heard them calling residents via megaphone to go out.

Contents of the go bag include:

• first aid kit
• flashlight
• Swiss army knife
• cotton balls
• whistle
• alcohol
• lighter

The first aid kit has some basic medicines, gauze, bandaid, antiseptic, scissors, and tape. 

We put together our own go bag last year and this is a good time for us to check the medications we included in the bag. We also need to check the emergency food and water we included. I completely forgot to write about the experience of putting together a go bag. I'll blog about it one of these days.

#BeKind #StaySafe 

40 Years Ago: EDSA People Power Revolution

I was 10 years old when the EDSA Revolution happened. Tito Ben called my parents in the wee hours of the morning and told us to stay home because something was happening. We listened to the news all day. The radio was permanently on an AM station because my parents were monitoring what was happening. 

As for me, I got busy learning how to ride my bike. I was progressing, but I was told to go inside when we started to see a lot of helicopters flying around (we're just a few kilometers from Villamor). Before classes got cancelled, our teachers asked us to compile newspaper clippings. My parents had several newspaper subscriptions, so I collected a huge pile.

Kuya was the only one allowed to go to EDSA. He went with a few neighbors. We celebrated when the dictator President Marcos and his family left. I was just a child, but I remember there was so much tension leading up to those 3 days. 

Things were tumultuous following the EDSA Revolution. The transition wasn't easy. As a child growing up during that time, we experienced a lot of school disruptions due to multiple coup d'etats. We had a lot of blackouts and I had to study by candlelight. 

Our parents fought for the freedom we enjoy today. Gone are the days when we're required to be home before sunset. Gone are the days you had to be careful with what you say. Gone are the days when you always feared for your life and the life of your loved ones. And that's why we should never forget what led to that fateful day that led to our freedom from a dictator. 

It is up to us to keep our democracy alive. It is up to us to push for progress and the best we can do as citizens is to vote for the right people to lead. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Piano Top Quilt Cover Progress

I've been working on this project a few times a week when I have time. I did a big push the past few days.

It's now 70+ inches of rainbow piano keys. I made it that way so it can waterfall on the sides. 

I wrangled with it last night. Sandwiched it with batting and pinned it. I'll work on my favorite part this week. Yay!

Sunsetting My Childhood Home

I dreamt I was back in my childhood home last night. I remember every nook and cranny of it since I lived there for almost 35 years. 

Sunsetting the house was very hard. It took more than two years to clear it. Mom kept telling me before she passed that she wanted us back there. After several consultations with architects and engineers, we decided to demolish the house.

We learned a lot about sunsetting an old home. The house was 55 years old, as much as all the materials used when it was built was still solid, the wires were already tried and there were a lot of leaks. The roof also was leaking even though I had it fixed in early 2022.

It was a long process that involved a number of professionals. We worked with several architects, engineers and a decluttering coach. Sunsetting an old house is something that's not taught at school. It's a long process and you have to make sure you work with people you can trust.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Happy Sunday!

I'm just resting for the last few hours of the day. I'm a bit tired from gardening since I'm preparing to re-pot some plants that are overdue for transferring. 

Have a blessed Sunday!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Front Lawn Landscaping 3 Months After

Three months ago we had our jungle-like front lawn cleaned up and landscaped. I told the landscaper we wanted something easy to maintain and some flowers.

The end result was a simple frontage. I was worried that it was a bit thin? Manong Henry reassured me it would grow and need pruning.

The last time the plants were pruned was in early December. We got busy, so we havent had time to let Manong Henry come over. I've been giving the plants complete fertilizer every six weeks and I spray it with neem oil sometimes.

Sweetie waters the plants everyday (I take care of everything inside) and he told me a lot of new plants have been growing. I fed the plants some complete fertilizer yesterday and was surprised to see a lot of new birds of paradise. The bushes also grew double from the time they were planted. 

We've also been asked several times about the pink flowers. They just keep blooming. They're called Panama rose and have been very easy to maintain. The white one is called pinwheel flower or Tabernaemontana. The birds of paradise have gone crazy. We will try to remove the ones growing in between the bushes...

Happy weekend everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe