Sharing Thoughts, Inspiring People

As I am ushering the new year in, I can’t help but look back to when everyone was envisioning the 2020 ahead. My Facebook timeline then was full of lines like these: Bring it on 2020, I am ready for you The best is yet to come Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true All of us have sent everyone our well wishes too. But no one, nothing had prepared us to what 2020 had brought us. A coronavirus that was identified in China late of 2019 became the pandemic that hit the globe in 2020. Everyone’s affected, no ones exempted. Rich dying regardless of the money or power they have. Poor people robbed of hope as they lost jobs. It’s been a rough year for everybody. 2020 is definitely not the best year ever. And the coming new year brings new hope but we all know that this pandemic will not magically disappear in January 1st. As we fight this coronavirus, I hope for a slow shift to go back to the ol...

 Around this time last year, I spent a full day of baking sweet goodies that friends, relatives and office mates ordered for their holiday treats. I told myself then I'm not gonna do it again.  Today, history repeats itself. As I am writing this, I still have 6 sets of leche flan (caramel custard) baking in the oven and another batch waiting to be popped into the oven. My day started early and I am sure it will end late.  The sole of my feet hurt, my hands are sore from all the mixing, beating and dishwashing, I am exhausted. And now, I am telling myself again, no more of this next year. But I doubt myself there.  I love doing side hustle. The extra money I get doesn't really equate to the hard work I put in and the exhaustion I feel after but the thought that I am able to sell and get an extra cash out of something I made gives me that sense of accomplishment. After all, what will I do with all the free time I had? So today, I am grateful for a lot of things: For th...

 Children are a gift from the Lord, they are a reward from Him - Psalm 127: 3 ♥ ♥ ♥ I know a little girl who loves unicorns and rainbows and is fascinated by dogs, dolphins and dinosaurs. She just turned six few days ago. She is musically inclined - she has a good singing voice and can pick up the tune pretty fast. She is left handed and have two left feet, she loves and is trying her best to do some dance moves. She is into arts and she enjoyed making crafts a lot. She is ticklish and can easily laugh at the silliest joke one can throw at her. She is bubbly, smart, kind, friendly, inclusive, very loving, thoughtful and understanding.  She knows the situation we are in, the pandemic and all the restrictions that comes with it. She is currently doing her school remotely so she's just staying home all the time. She never complains of not being able to come with me whenever I go out for errands. On her birthday, she wasn't expecting anything and told us she would be happy to get ...

Today is one of the busiest days of my December. I've been up and about early in the morning. The sole of my feet hurt so much from standing all day. And I kind of pretty clumsy too. I cut myself twice. I splattered myself with oil while cooking.  Cooking is usually part of daily routine and is not the reason why I feel like I physically labored all day. Today, I decorated my very first birthday cake! I've been practicing baking chocolate cake since the lock down. Been on the hunt for a perfect, not too sweet chocolate cake recipes out there but nothing really suits my little girl's taste. She likes a good cake bread - moist, not too sweet with a little or no frosting at all. I did some adjustments of the recipes here and there, cut down some sugar, did a mix of dark and semi-sweet chocolate to tone down the sweetness, added hot water with melted coffee granules on it to intensify the chocolatey flavor. And she loves it! She can finish the whole slice and she will even ask ...

 It has been few Sundays already that my little girl prepares breakfast for us.  It started when one Sunday, she woke up to find us still in bed. I was already awake that time and just lying down for a little longer. She went out of our room and soon I heard shuffling in our kitchen. I called her. She came rushing back and told me to just stay in bed because she is preparing a surprise (with matching surprise expression in her eyes) . Few minutes later, she fetched us and guided us to the dining table with our eyes closed. And then shouted “surprise!”, she prepared each of us one slice of bread covered in Nutella and salted peanut butter - just how we preferred our sandwich. She’s been doing it up to now with the blindfolding and all, and we acting surprise still for the nutella/peanut butter spread she prepared for us every time. Our hearts are melting. She is only 5 years old and there are times that I am just in awe of how she can already do things on her own.  Today, ...

“B eing grateful all the time isn’t easy. But it’s when you feel least thankful  that you are most in need of what gratitude can give you:  perspective .  Gratitude can transform any situation. It alters your vibration, moving you  from negative energy to positive. It’s the quickest, easiest, most powerful  way to effect change in your life—this I know for sure.” - Oprah Winfrey No one really knows what some people are going through. Even the ones that you think are tough and all smiles.  Three years ago, I found myself in a new place surrounded with new faces. It was tough. Settling in a country 7,495 miles away from home and leaving everyone I knew, siblings and family behind is difficult. Even though I countlessly told myself, home is where my family (husband and daughter) is, it was a futile effort of convincing myself. I have to instill it in my heart that my new home is here now with my new relatives-in-law. My mom had just died a year before we ...

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in  all circumstances ; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.  -  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Gratitude is a feeling of thankfulness and appreciation. When you search up gratitude using this keywords 'gratitude meaning', vocabulary.com will return the following Gratitude , which rhymes with "attitude," comes from the Latin word  gratus , which means "thankful, pleasing." When you feel gratitude, you're pleased by what someone did for you and also pleased by the results. Feeling. Emotion. Attitude. It is easy for you to feel grateful when life is going well, to celebrate the joys of life and magnify its goodness. But it doesn't come easy when disaster strikes. Losing a job, a loved one, failing at something, having disabilities or when life gets extremely challenging and painful that you wonder if it's possible to find anything to be thankful for. Gratitude is also not easy to cultivate in ou...

Two days for a weekend seems not enough. Before I knew it I was up again for my usual four am routine of boarding a jeep going to a bus terminal that will transport me back to city life and back to the reality. I was on board a jeep pondering thoughts of how quiet and laid back life is in the province - fresh air, green surroundings, less noise, less people, and most of all no rush hour! Such tranquility will drive people like me into deep thoughts.  While doing my silent 'wanderings', I saw onboard a physically well-built man. He was fighting back the to urge to sleep although he was drowsing. By the look on his face, he is probably close to forties but I suppose he is a bit younger than my estimates. His eyes mirror something like grimness, his face shows some wrinkles and I guess, it may be because of all the physical hardships he'd endure in life. In front of him were two large aluminum buckets full of taho. He is a 'magtataho'. That explains for ...

I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Our father was a below average wage-earner while our mother stayed home handling our finances. Growing up, I witnessed how she stretched out our father's hard earned money to maximize purchases while having side hustle just to make ends meet. She'd never lectured me on how to spend wisely but seeing how she did things and all the hardships that came with it, I knew back then that money doesn't grow on trees. This here was the truth that drove me to be frugal. When I was a kid, whenever I see a rich person, the usual thought was they were from a well off family. Now, the rich people I knew were actually not born rich, they were self made. They may not be millionaires (yet) but they are enjoying the financial freedom which is a goal for many of us. Financial freedom means having enough savings, investments, and cash on hand to afford the lifestyle we want for ourselves and our family - while having a passive, re-generating in...