Where Did January Go?

On the way home I realized I spent most of the month in the hospital. It's not been a good start for the new year for me. I'm hopeful though that things would be better in the coming weeks. The experience of going home yesterday was so much different from my first discharge. I wasn't in a daze like last time and was able to take a short walk downstairs last night. I feared I'd be back to zero. 

On the way home yesterday.

I haven't had a chance to write down my plans for the year. Well, the plans unfolded by itself. In 2020 I declared it to be the year for self-love. After reviewing the list I realized I was only able to do 3 out of the 10 things I listed. I changed my priority to learning new things because of the situation. I forgot about myself again. 

So that's probably why I'm in this situation now. This year I'm bring back my resolution for self-love. I think I made a headstart after I got out of the hospital last January 15. I just had another pothole on the road and I'm sure things will get better in the coming weeks. I just need to give myself time to heal and be ready to have a better year. 

When I got home yesterday I was so happy to see the spring onion I am trying to root. I cooked steamed soy ginger fish yesterday and used the spring onions to garnish the dish. I decided to again to root the stems. I had failed at it several times already and that's why I was so happy to see it flourishing. I'll blog about what I did differently on The Balcony Farmer soon. Hopeful!

CB///297 #StuckAtHomeDay/327 #StayHome #BeKind

My Plan for a Spectacular 2020

Now that the holidays are over I'm now more relaxed and have had a chance to think about how I'm going to make 2020 a spectacular year. Last year was not a good year for me. I was in and out of the hospital for check-ups almost every week and that was the reason why I decided to take an extended leave to allow my body to rest fully. I've been away for a month now, but I'm still far from being my normal self. I decided to blog and resurrect my vlog again because historically it's been the best way to stabilize me (read my blog description above to understand).

I wrote a blog post the other day about what I'd like to focus on this year. Thought it would be a good idea to write specific goals and activities for the year.

Health - ramp up on back exercises (meaning exceed what my PT has pegged for me to do on my own while I'm not in SG), swim 3x a week, lose weight, reduce dependency on meds, eat better, sleep earlier to complete at least 8 hours of sleep, fix work set-up

Home Management - get more help from the boys in managing the household, reduce clutter by removing things that don't bring me joy

Work on Financial Freedom - my Kuya clarified with me that being financially free means you have income coming in monthly that can cover all your regular expenses. Right now I only have 5% of what I need to be financially free so I have a long way to go! (Suggestions are very much welcome).

Reading and Writing - I have so far been consistently writing everyday this month, I've yet to start reading a book. I should set-up a daily schedule so I can discipline myself more.

Breaks - work out break schedule with Sweetie. I'd very much like to make sure I'm always home for the holidays.

Travel - given that I need to limit my travel, especially long travel because of my health condition I still want to see the world more. I want to explore Japan more and I haven't been to France yet. I belatedly realized that I should have signed up for that La Sallian retreat in France I saw a few months ago. Hopefully another one comes up, but I'm looking at this other retreat to attend later this year.

Learn - learning something new is top of mind. I'm still choosing between cooking classes or sewing classes.

Hobbies - I want to create so many things, but time is limited so I'll limit my hobby to quilting for now.

Play - I need to remind myself that I don't need to be productive all the time. I promise to use my Switch without feeling guilty! And I have a couple of Lego projects I haven't started on yet.

Special Projects - there's two special projects I want to do. When I met up with my cousins the other day they said that they missed my Dad's special potato and beef casserole. I realized that we have to find a way to preserve our family recipes. I've started to take videos of regular dishes I cook and will soon post it as a vlog project. There's another project I have in mind, but I'm still figuring out how to make it work.

I've listed everything I want to do, but of course family is the priority. Things will adjust as needed. I need though to discipline myself from distractions and make sure I'm in good health. So far I'm proud to say that I was able to fight off a cold I caught while in Baguio and my body held up against catching Sweetie's flu (sorry Sweetie but this is truly an achievement for me). I had a sore throat for a few days, but I worked hard to make sure it didn't develop into something more serious. Whew!

For my dear friends who have been wanting to meet-up, sorry I haven't been participative in planning and showing up. I just need this time to rest and recover. Introverted me got a really bad beating in 2019 and I need more time to recuperate.

What about you? What are your plan to make 2020 an awesome year?

Self-love for 2020

A blessed New Year to everyone!

Thought I'd start the year with a blog post. I stopped crafting new year resolutions a few years ago. I thought it wasn't really important to write things down since I always had my compass at the back of my mind. I usually wrote down things I wanted to improve on and things I wanted to do. It was my wishlist for the year. Without a compass I ended up just focusing on work. I forgot to have fun, enjoy and spend more time with the people I love. The stress also caused a lot of health issues.

By September last year I knew I badly needed a break, but I was so busy and couldn't take a break. I love what I do so I trudged on and continued to do a lot of traveling. I was like a candle that was slowly melting away. At the end of October something happened and the light blew out. I finally burnt out.

After being on break for a few weeks now I think I'm starting to warm up, but I'm still very far from normal me. The people who helped me before I went on break stressed that I need to give myself a lot of self-love so I can come back to my usual perky self. I thought it would be good exercise to write down 10 things I'm going to do (for starters) to give myself some self-love:

1. Do my daily exercise for my back and swim at least thrice a week.
2. Create a better balance in home management, both for chores and finances.
3. Plant the seeds to financial freedom.
4. Allot time every day for reading and writing.
5. Set up annual break time.
6. Eat better.
7. Spend time doing nothing.
8. Plan trips to places I really want to visit.
9. Work on hobbies.
10. Ignore those who should be ignored hrhr.

I'm not too happy with the list yet so I'll probably update it as I discover more ways to love myself. Would appreciate no work-related pings/inquiries so I can focus on the task at hand to sync back my body and mind.

Happy new year and praying for a happier and healthier 2020! 

Goodbye 2016, Hello Hopeful 2017!

A lot of people would probably agree that 2016 was a very bad year. It was tumultuous, a year full of regret, bad decisions. It was the year that evil took hold. Killings, war, terrorism, people fighting online and offline etc. It was a very stressful year and I must admit that towards the end I decided to just hibernate and focus on work and family.

2017 will be a better year as long as each of us make an effort to make it a good one for everyone. I was thinking about what I could do this year to make it a great year for me and the people around me. In 2016 my main goal was to put my family in one place as advised by a friend who passed away in 2015. He said we just have so little time on earth and we should spend as much time as we have with our love ones. I was also have a very difficult time being away from my family and the frequent trips I had to make was taking its toll on my body.

I haven't really thought about what I'm going to do this year. The big audacious goal I have is to create more memories with my family. One thing I learned from work is you need to define your goal well and then identify two to three key things you will do to meet this goal. Time is also a limited resource determining key goals is much better than making a long list of things you'd want to do for a year. I have not written a new years resolution for a long time now. So the big goal this year is to make more memories through spending more time together doing mundane things and more exciting things like traveling.

It's been almost four years since I had heart surgery. We had to change our lifestyle a lot because of me. Now that I have better idea of how to cope with my condition I'm hoping I'd be able to serve again. I just need to figure out what to do and how I could do this because my parish is far away from where I live now. I'm sure God will make a way =)

I pray that we will all have an awesome 2017 anchored on love, truth and being simple.

Happy new year!

2016: A Call to Order

New Year? What New Year? I was so busy in January the month just flew by without me making any 2016 targets. I took the chance to extend my leave on the first week of January since our review dates were moved (yay!), but I ended up clearing up clutter/getting sick/fixing Miguel's schooling during that first week. The second week was spent easing in Miguel in Singapore and the mad dash to get him a student's pass and working on data for our review week. Then the last two weeks of January was spent struggling for my health. It did not help that I got misdiagnosed. There was nothing wrong with my tonsils, but very bad allergies led to sinus infection (the inside of my nose had a gazillion white dots!). All resolved in time for February.

It's almost the Lunar New Year!

So I thought, hey, January was a month for practice. February will be my new year this year. I also realized that there were just so many loose ends in 2015 that I need to put order to my life. Thus, 2016: a call to order. I don't consistently work on yearly targets, but to put my (somewhat) OCD self back on track I thought I'd make a list for 2016. Here's some personal goals I'd like to work on this year.

1. Be a better mother. The last 4 years have been very hard with Miguel with me being so far away. I realized that he probably just wants to be with me. He's now studying in Singapore and we've been sleeping together in the same bed just like when he was in high school (he's moving to his own room next week). I can't imagine how I managed to pull this plan off in less than a week. We're off to a great start.

2. Be a better wife. I've been married for 6 years now, but Sweetie and I have been living together on and off in the last four years. I told him I want our family to be all in one place where I can take care of them the same way I did during the first two years of our marriage. I also have been needing constant care since I've been getting sick a lot more. I am praying hard that we will be together soon.

3. Be a better daughter. I miss my Mom a whole lot and I worry for her a lot more. She's the only parent I have now so I hope to take care of her better.

4. Be consistent at work. Work was never a problem for me. I just hope to be consistent in my performance and deliver what I promised for the year (seriously big, hairy audacious goals in place for this).

5. Be a better friend. The last four years have wreaked havoc with my friendships. I was never permanently in one place and it's been hard to deepen relationships. I'd like this year to be the time where I can spend time and be reliable for friends. Sorry na huhu!

6. Serve. Because of my health I have not been able to serve in the last few years. I used to be part of our choir and was the editor of our Parish newsletter. I've been off the hook since everyone had to pray for my recovery (hehehe), but I hope to find a way to serve in my own little way.

7. Balik Alindog. Ahhh this is probably on everyone's list! I need to seriously lose at least 10 pounds so Dr. Koo won't scold me anymore (and well for the good of my heart!). I should be able to eat more healthy while in Singapore (food in the Philippines is just so awesome and one can't stop eating!!!).

8. Invest. Must. Figure.Out.

9. Enjoy my hobbies. I have these big hairy audacious goal for my quilting and I've promised blankets (blankets!!!) to a few friends. Must get back at it soon.

10. Enjoy life. I know I tend to overthink and overplan all the time. That's why I need Sweetie to be around so I could enjoy being alive. 

My 2014 Plan

“Hope Smiles from the threshold of the year to come, Whispering 'it will be happier'...” ― Alfred Tennyson

2013 has been a challenging year and I was really looking forward to the arrival of the new year. I stopped writing down resolutions and plans a few years back since I never seem to complete it, but I thought I'd make a short list of things I want to do this year:

Be More Social! And I don't mean spending more time on social networking sites. I didn't really have a social life last year since I had to spend most of my non-work hours recuperating from surgery, so I hope to be able to spend more time in person with my family and friends this year.

Read More Books. I have several piles of books waiting to be read. I didn't have any time to read that much last year (but I kept buying books!), so I hope allot more time to read.

Blog More! I made less than 30 posts last year, most of it when I was on medical leave. Writing keeps me sane and has been my outlet to destress since I was 8 years old. I will blog more this year.

Be More Healthy! My heart has been repaired and is good as new, but I have to take care of it so it stays healthy. I also need to seriously go down to my ideal weight (although my other doc says he likes me as I am now).

And most importantly I hope to be a better Servant and be true to my mission. My life was extended because I still have a mission to fulfill.

A Review

I stopped listing down resolutions at the beginning of the year. The last one I made was in 2011 and I even made a disclaimer that it's not just for the year, but for a decade. I'm happy to say that I've completed about half of it. Most of the things I've completed are the big ticket items:

- do something about my leaky heart (check!)
- buy a car (Minnie! check!)
- do the writing project (started!)
- travel (too much last year! check!)
- time with family (last year was bad, so started rectifying things this year)
- work on investments (moved into new home! check!)
- work on service (finished Parish website! choir duties every time I'm home. check!)
- cooking (not much last year, diet has changed this year)

2 things I'm not able to complete:
- grow an organic garden (all the plants died, I have a brown thumb, cry)
- work on crafts (I've lost interest and gave all my stuff to my Mom)

With my leaky heart behind me I've been thinking about what to do in the next few years. I'm still trying to figure it out and hopefully I'd be able to come out with a plan in the next few weeks. 

Be a Star

Happy new year!

My blog has been silent the past few weeks because I thought I'd spend every extra second I had with my family. Being away from home has definitely been a huge challenge for me and despite the fact that it's been almost 3 months it's still a struggle for me every single day.

My boys and my Mom welcomed the new year with me in Singapore. We decided to stay in and just celebrate in the apartment since my Mom was not feeling well. We had fun despite missing the fireworks and usual Christmas ham. We replaced the fireworks by just watching what was happening at Marina Bay through TV. And substituted the Christmas ham with some honey ham from the supermarket. Despite the missing elements we were complete because we had each other and I'm glad we managed to spend some time with my brother and his family too.

I have been thinking a lot about making a list of new year's resolution, but decided not to make one because I have a backlog as old as my blog. The year 2011 is probably one of the worst years of my life because I lost my Dad, but I guess he wanted me to move along and I got so busy the rest of the year and eventually found myself living in another country! Moving was totally unexpected and unplanned, but opportunities are hard to pass if it's something that you love doing.

My heart is far from being whole still since my Dad left a very, very huge hole. During mass yesterday I realized that such is life. One's parents grow old. My Mom kept telling me when I was younger, "How will you survive if I'm not around?" It is one of those things that made me stronger and brought me to where I am today (that's how I became self-sufficient boss since you wondered, haha).

I realized yesterday during mass that what brings out the best in me is my family's love. Said in a cheesy way, "They are the wind beneath my wings". And I have to do well while I am away. The priest nailed it yesterday during his homily when he said that each of us should be a star for others.

So that would be my mantra for this year.

Be a star.

Ten Things I Will Do This Year (or Decade)

I was going to say that I was going to make a blog post everday, but I already missed January second! Family matters always take precedence before my blog so that's oftentimes beyond my control. Anyway, I noticed that it took me three years to complete my 2008 listing and I'm still working on the other stuff on that list. So I guess I should make then things I will do for this new DECADE. Hmmm... (in ramdom order)

1. Do something about the leaky heart.

2. Grow an organic vegetable garden (and eventually grow it as a business).

3. Spend the right amount of time online so I can work on my crafts.

4. Do the writing project I've been meaning to do the past 5 years (it's a book!).

5. Go to 3 local destinations I have not been to this year and one international destination if budget permits.

6. Get a car! Grrrrrr! (it's been 3 years since I planned to get one).

7. More time with my family - I practically spend most of my time with my family already and don't have a social life anymore, but well, family's family!

8. Work on investments, cut down on "want" spending and work on other sources of income. Live simply.

9. Work on my service. And, of course, do a great job at work.

10. Learn to cook healthy dishes and help the boys lose weight.

Goodbye 2008, Hello 2009!

2008 passed like a blur for me. Started it off with 16 plane rides in January and then I don't really remember anymore what happened till November. I remember though that I was hospitalized in November and so I guess 2008 was definitely a BUSY one. At least I remember what happened this month. I just worked, stayed at home and did not attend any party (by choice!). Inasmuch as the whole year was a flurry of activity, I managed to hunker down and celebrate Christmas simply, just family and very close childhood friends. 

I failed miserably with the priorities I had set for 2008. I'm not even pasang awa and I guess I won't list any new priorities just yet for 2009 (well maybe tomorrow when I feel like it). At least I can say I managed to learn how to edit videos and so to celebrate that one bit of accomplishment I present to you an experimental vlog. Watch how I get abducted by a virus and brought back to the age of dinosaurs (oh noes!). Makakabalik kaya ako?

Happy new year! 

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Dino Alive World Tour 2008 Manila

Mall of Asia (front of SMX Convention Center)

November 28, 2008 to January 11, 2009

Tickets: 

Adults - PhP400

Children (under 1m) - PhP350

Family Package (2 Adults + 2 Children + 1 free ticket) - PhP1,600

Top Priorities for 2008

I don't really make new year's resolutions. Why? Because I don't live up to it most of the time and I respond better to targeting project goals rather than emo stuff. I wasn't able to complete all the stuff I targeted last year for one reason or another, but I do know I pushed myself to the limit the whole year. I just have to do much better this year. My boss once advised that I should always target more than what I think I should be able to deliver and not what I am comfortable doing. That way I'd be able to push myself to the limit and deliver more. Sound advise indeed.

I haven't really thought much about what I want to do specifically this year, but the following just came to me the past few days:

1. Go to at least 10 local destinations I have not seen before. BUT! Pace my travels so-much-so that I don't end up in 3 cities within 1 week.

2. Learn to cook 12 dishes (that's one per month, a tall order since the only thing I know how to cook is spaghetti).

3. Acquire video editing skills (that's why I created You Got Tech with a couple of friends). Finish reading all the books I did not finish reading last year.

4. Be more organized. And I don't mean by my standards. Ask any of my former colleagues and my Mom and they'll be able to vouch for my organized chaos principle.

5. Establish at least 2 other sources of income. I have 7 more years to complete a bet with my Kuya.

6. Bring Miguel to another local destination. I don't think I'll manage to bring him to an international destination this year.

7. Target to increase savings by 100%.

8. Establish better communication within my clan. I realized after our reunion yesterday that our numbers are dwindling and someone needs to put a spark back to our reunions, so I'm appointing myself since I'm the youngest in our clan.

9. Be of better service to others through the charities I am working with. Perhaps go back to doing our Parish newsletter.

10. Exceed my work deliverables.

And check on this post every month - I think I'll make a reminder-alarm for it in my Google calendar just to be sure.

Happy new year everyone! Hope you had a fabulous holiday (even though our Christmas season officially ends on Sunday pa)!

Top 10 Things I'll Do This Year

I don't usually write down what I want to do for the New Year, but I realized that I should keep track of it so I could review what I've done at the end of the year.

Top Ten Things I Want (Will) Do This Year:

(random)
1. Bring Miggy to HK Disneyland.
2. Renovate my basement.
3. Buy a car.
4. Set-up our resort in Bicol.
5. Complete my OKRs (this is work-related).
6. Complete 6 issues of The Beads (parish newsletter).
7. Help set-up Darwin's siomai biz here (yummy!).
8. Read at least 6 business books.
9. Blog at least once a week.
10. Bring Miggy to one local travel destination.

Hmmm... fair enough.