We Were All Robbed

The past few days have been more disturbing for me. I cannot fathom how these unscrupulous individuals still manage to do politicking despite the huge disaster in Cebu. Any sane person with good values would prioritize that instead of what they're doing now.

We all got robbed. All of us are taxpayers in one way or another. Your income is taxed, your property is taxed, your inheritance is taxed, and even that soda you bought at 7-Eleven is taxed. 

That bad feeling at the pit of my stomach returned. It's what I felt when I discovered how my Mom's old helper had been robbing her for a long time. And like those who robbed all of us , she's also still on the run. 

Justice is just truly out of reach for us and at this point the best thing we could also do is pray. 

Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Parish Fiesta, Love & Latte

It's the time of the year for our Parish Fiesta and my year isn't complete if I don't go. I wasn't sure if we'd be able to go because of the weather and if it wouldn't be hard to walk around (my leg isn't fully healed yet).

My friends, Denz and Leejay, announced in our group that they set-up a pop-up cafe, Love & Latte. I've been wanting to try their coffee, so I asked the boys if we could go before running errands.

Ahh, we went at around 2:15pm and managed to park. Luckily, their pop-up cafe was just in the kiosk so we were able to hang out for a bit and have coffee. Yay! It was superb! Of course, I was happy to see my friends too. I still owe them a get-together to celebrate my birthday (haha!). 

Happy fiesta everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Big Bad Wolf 2025

I was surprised when the boys easily agreed to my request to go to Big Bad Wolf in Alabang. We went last year and enjoyed being surrounded by a lot of books. I have a short video of our visit last year here.

It was raining hard when we went last year and with typhoon Paolo (Matmo) we weren't sure if it was safe to go. We repeatedly checked the forecast and decided to go since we had other errands to do. 

Minus the food area, the whole tent was full of books even at the entrance. Almost half though we're children's books, about 35-40% fiction and the rest were general/nonfiction and Filipino books. The hobby books were negligible. I only found one book on quilting. Oh well, I guess they deemed we're not the market for it.

Nonetheless, it was still enjoyable. Who doesn't enjoy walking around a bookstore. It's like Disneyland for me. We got a couple of books, a few Christmas gifts and some activity books for a little boy we've been supplying books to monthly. 

Big Bad Wolf Alabang runs until October 13, 2025 at the Filinvest Tent. 

PS if you're going around on a wheelchair, just watch out for the big cables taped to the floor. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

How to Successfully Propagate Bougainvillea

My Mom told me you can easily propagate any plant. Just get a cutting and stick it on soil. Mom had magical green hands (not just thumb). She managed to grow anything, even the wheat Tita Rose gave her because she couldn't grow it.

My Mom has huge bougainvillea trees in different colors. She grew it from cuttings and she was so proud of them because they always had flowers. Since I couldn't just dig and move the trees, I've been working on propagating them. 

I cut several branches last summer. I only successful grew two out of the 8 stalks I tried to propagate. I was already happy then, but I want to make sure I get all of the colors Mom has in her garden.

I cut several branches again a few weeks ago. I got thicker branches this time and cut longer sticks to propagate. Aside from using rooting powder, I added more perlite in the soil. I didn't see any new leaf growing yet after two weeks, so I watered it with garlic water. Few days later it started producing leaves! Aha!

More perlite + garlic water will help propagate bougainvillea faster 🥳

#BeKind #StaySafe

September 2025: One Second Everyday

Focused our time to recover from the shenanigans that was the month of August. I pushed to go out at least once a week to get moving and to have my leg checked. Recovery will likely spill over to October since I'm still hopping around. 

We did spend a lot of time at home since we had to keep an eye on the mother and son tandem rascals, Little Grey and August. They certainly got all of us, hoomans and 8 cats, stressed. We decided to find experienced fur parents to adopt them. We had to be careful when we were around the resident cats since they were really territorial and didn't like that Little Grey and August took over their space. 

Here's my one second everyday video for September 2025:

I tried to get back to sewing since my leg can take some pressure already (a.k.a. pressing on the sewing machine pedal). I haven't gotten around  to editing the video. I'll try to squeeze in some time this weekend. Just really busy with other stuff! 

October will be another great month!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Papa Lolo's War Medals

I was surprised to find a frame of medals. I suspect it's from the last cabinet that was packed. It was Mama Lola's cabinet which still housed a few of her things (Mom got rid of most of it way back). I never met my Papa Lolo because he was gone already when I was born. The only time I "met" him was when he appeared to me in SFO when I was a child. 

Here are the medals I found:

I did some research to find out what each medal represented.

World War II 
Philippine Military Merit Medal

Asia Pacific Campaign
World War II

World War II USA Medal

I got a case for Papa Lolo's peaked cap. I'll put them together, so I can put them on display. Papa Lolo survived the Bataan March and helped save others. We wouldn't be around if not for him. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Got Little Grey and August Adopted

We were all so stressed when Little Grey gave birth. She just stayed even though the 8 bonded cats didn't like her, so it was difficult to manage all of them. The cats were very stressed as well. We decided to find Little Grey and kitten/s adopted after she gave birth and weaned them away. 

Little Grey had 3 kittens. Only one made it. We named him Augusten. He was born on August 10 and since it's my golden year, I wanted my birthday patron saint to bless him (St. Augustine). We call him August. 

August and Little Grey

To be honest, it's hard to find people who'd like to adopt. You also have to be careful since there are those who "adopt" because they have bad motives. We had cared for Little Grey and August for a few months and we want them to have a better life. We couldn't let them stay because the other cats didn't want to accept them in their community.

Luckily, my Tito and Tita who moved back here love cats. They also rescued strays when they were abroad. They managed to get all their cats adopted and already rescued a kitten. I asked them if they could possibly adopt both. They will take in August.

August is almost two months old now and we brought him to the vet to check if he's ready for adoption. The vet said he's very independent already since he eats both wet and dry food. I caught Little Grey pushing him away too whenever he wanted to nurse. He's also been a little rascal, wreaking havoc everyday. 

Little Grey has also been spayed and will be adopted by Manong Lito. He said he's a cat whisperer and should be able to domestic Little Grey in no time. Little Grey is a sweet cat. She deserves the love of a proper fur pawmily. It's the best we can do for them at this point.

#BeKind #StaySafe