The Past Few Weeks

There's been a lot of tension politically in the country the past few weeks. Well, more than usual. It's honestly, stressful since it ultimately affects each of us.

Since we got back 5 years ago, prices have gone up a lot. The budget I had before for groceries and food had to be adjusted. Luckily, we had solar installed a few years ago and we've been able to keep our electricity bill at a constant (we don't have batteries). Gas prices went up, so we only went out as needed. Water is also expected to go up this month. 

I hope it will be a better week for our country. I pray that truth and what is right will prevail. 

Happy Sunday everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Saving Mom's Plants

We've been trying to save as much of my Mom's plants the past 3 years. It's now time to sunset her plants on the front of the house. I checked old photos and the front lawn has changed how it looks so many times. I remember we even had a prolific santol tree before. There used to be palm trees on it before and santan plants for a time. 

My Mom gave so much of her time tending her garden. There were times we felt it was more important to her than us. She wouldn't pick up the phone during her gardening time and would always worry whenever we'd have her travel. I knew it was impossible to do it by myself. 

We were finally able to get Manong Henry's team to help save the plants. We got lucky because he assigned his son and an expert gardener. I just told them I wanted to save Mom's bougainvillea, snake plants and other flowering plants. I also proposed to make some plants into bonsai.

I'm so glad Christian and George love being gardeners. They have been happily working on saving the plants and Christian loved the challenge to turn some of the plants into bonsai. It's going to be messy in the next few days, but I'm happy we'll be able to save some of Mom's plants. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Tried Kettle

One of the things we do as a family is to try new restos (well new for us). We got to try Kettle early this week. I think it's been around for awhile, but it's fairly new at One Ayala. We got a bit lost since we ended up at the convention area (we went up from the basement). Luckily, a guard helped us get to the mall area (thanks Manong!). 

Sweetie was the one who researched the resto and told me and Miggy they serve American comfort food and signature buttermilk fried chicken. I had a feeling that the chicken would be huge. I chickened out and got longganisa, haha. 

Miggy was brave and got the buttermilk fried chicken with rice.

And Sweetie, experimental as usual, got the chicken po boy. 

Both the boys had leftovers and ate it for dinner (yes, the chicken was huge!). I tried the potato side dish, but found it too salty so I stuck to my longganisa. I think it was made more palatable for foreign taste buds since it tasted neutral (not sweet/not garlicky/not salty). If you're going to try Kettle, ask for their combo meals menu (we saw it online). Their iced tea was good. 

Next time we'll try the Japanese resto beside it. :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

My Fountain Hair-do When I was a Baby

I've collated about 13 boxes of photo albums from my childhood home. I've been meaning to scan them, but I've been so busy with other stuff. I have a lot of stuff I want to do and have had to re-organize my schedule. 

I scanned a couple of black and white photos today. I got curious when I saw photos of a party. It was obviously in my childhood home since I recognized the garage wall and the huge sala sliding door. In one photo my Dad was carrying a baby. I originally thought that it was from the house blessing, but recognized the baby's fountain hair. 

(L to R) Dad, me, Tita Lydia, one of my cousins, not sure who the Tito is, 
Tito Tony, Tito Mon, Tita Josie, not sure who the guy in white is, and Mom

I have a lot of baby photos where my hair was set up like a fountain. I was born with a mop-head full of hair. I only noticed that Mom wrote a date at the back of the photo, December 20, 1975. She also wrote my name and how many months and days old I was at that time. Ahh, apparently I got that quirk from my Mom. I used to write Miggy's exact age in photos too. 

The original photo had spots on it, so I had Gemini clean it up. Ahh, perfect. It cleaned up the photo and made it sharper. 

Also, had Gemini make it colored. Not bad although I know my parents didn't really wear those colors, haha. I'll tweak it next time. 

If you inherited your family's old albums, would you bother to scan the photos?

#BeKind #StaySafe

Working on My Stamina

It's been a month since I was sent home after confinement. I haven't gone back to my regular activities and I'm still slowly working my way up.

The first two weeks was hairy. A week after I got home I experienced the same symptoms again and contacted my ID doctor. I went in for tests. It was clear, but my lungs still looked like I have pneumonia. My pulmo though dismissed it since I wasn't coughing and didn't have any cold. I was also cleared by my ID doctor.

It could have been another bug or my tummy reacting to food. I had a hard time eating after confinement since I couldn't taste anything. It took another week before my appetite came back. 

I did some gardening earlier. I just moved around a few small pots and I was wiped out after. I had to rest for an hour before I could function again. Ahh, no wonder my cardiologist said to see him in June. I think he knows it will takee awhile to get better.

In the meantime, I'll work on getting better at least 1% more than the previous day.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Almost Done!

I like how I'm making this bag project. I've learned a lot in the past few years in making quilted bags. I make them sparingly, but I improve everytime I make one.

One huge difference I did was to use fusible interfacing. It makes my projects cleaner and it doesn't bulge as much when you combine it with batting. I've also learned to appreciate thinner batting! I used to think thicker batting is better! 

I've been so busy with other things, so this project has spilled over to this month! I can't wait to finish it and use it when we go out :)

I should be done soon!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Last Look at My Childhood Home

I honestly couldn't find a clear photo of my childhood home's frontage because there was so much foliage in front. Mom planted a lot of trees in front and it obscured most of the house. Here's my last photo when the house was still standing. 

And a photo from the corner of the street on January 2025 -

I probably have to look through all the old albums to find an original photo of the house when it was new. It was very different from how it looked when I was a child. I always wondered why my Mom had all the beautiful walls painted white.

I wasn't born yet when the house was built.

This used to be an open area but became my Dad's office

I loved the original look of my childhood home. Tito Bert really designed it really well and it withstood many earthquakes and flooding. Adjustments were made based on Mom and Dad's needs and plans and I didn't really plan my future. I thought when Miggy and I moved out that was the end of my decades-long stay in my childhood home. 

I have so many memories in my childhood home and my friends told me they also have a lot of happy memories in our home. We had a lot of gatherings there, birthday parties, Halloween, Christmas family reunions etc. We always had a lot of neighbors come and visit. I think everyone loved my Mom's beautiful garden.

Last year, my childhood home reached its 56th year as our OG family's home. It was time to move on and build new memories. 

#BeKind #StaySafe