Hello, Blogging World!

It has been a long time since I posted on this blog. I said my goodbyes and focused on my offline life. Three kids, two dogs, a house and car after, my offline life is triple times busier. But this week our life came to a stand still when our President announced that the Philippines is going for an Enhanced Community Quarantine.

We are not prepared for this.

Fresh from Maternity Leave, I am still trying to get back to my normal work schedule. Pumping at work is crazy and mess up both my work load and milk output. I am actually getting the hang of it when suddenly, I have to stay home again for one month. Well, could be a good thing for a breastfeeding mom like me. I can now stash some milk for future use since all of my stash are long gone.

Join me as I try to document my Work From Home and Work at Home (as a OC mommy) ride while our medical and government experts continue the battle against the corona virus. The only thing we can contribute now is to stay at home so that there will "less adults exposed to the COVID-19". That way, less people will be infected including our own families.

Make the most of your time while staying at home!

Goodbye

It has been a long while since I posted anything in this sweet little space. I guess, like other bloggers before me, it is time to let this space go. Offline life has taken so many turns and it has been too fast for us to squeeze in some blogging time so maybe, taking a pause is the best thing to do.

I will miss this place. 

Hello there...

...it has been a  long while since I posted anything here.

Real life has been busy and everything online that is not work related has taken the backseat. We are still adjusting with the addition in the family but I realized that it should inspire me to blog more.

So for starters, let me tell you busy life makes you love list and planners. I know, it's almost the end of the year and I just got myself a cute handy planner. But you see, the good thing about those being sold out there is that they are DIYs and perpetual. Which means one can start anytime of the year!

Here's my colorful planner and some craft tools:

Sticky notes, colored paper tapes, colored pens and school  planner

I love almost everything on white but sometimes I indulge myself specially on planners.

Colorful = inspiration.

By the way, Christmas is just around the corner. Do you already have a list of gift? I will be preparing mine soon.

Revisiting Resolutions

This year has been a "no specific direction type of year" for me. I don't have any listed resolutions, but I do have few things that I want to do with no outcomes in particular:

1. be more eco-friendly
2. blog at least once a month
3. enjoy/love my job
4. explore/travel
5. organize/declutter
6. financial declutter/organize

Two days ago I started at my new job. It was a hard decision to make, leaving the previous one because it was the typical government job that most people wanted to have. Something that bothers me because I love working on pressing deadlines. With the new job, i thought it was the same with my former job when I was still under an executive office. On my third day, I am bored and dreading going back to work. The horror stories are starting to catch up on me. The terror boss that they described has not surfaced yet but I am already on the job seekers' wagon.  I will try to stick with my item no. 3 for awhile. Try to love this job.

Do you have anything that bothers you lately?

*** I purchased new bento accessories lately. I will be posting them later.

Found this wonderful blogger with her list of linky party that I will probably read for awhile.

Organizing: Blog and Home

I promised an "at least one entry" monthly. And this month has been a lot of realizations to me. As much as I wanted to blog daily and talk about the things that happens here and what I think of them, I am keeping my rants on my twitter because I don't want to bore you with my endless complains about my career and homemaking (or the lack of it).

On the home making area: I am taking things one step at a time and tackled last month our tiny refrigerator. Yes, tiny. I can't keep more than a week worth of frozen goods in our small freezer that comes with the ref. And a less than a week goods clutters the very small space that the ref offers:

I went to the dollar store (Japan Homes store) and bought this pack of life saver for a dollar (around 66 pesos):

and turned the tiny refrigerator into a more pleasant looking cold storage. Of course I wipe it down clean before returning everything.

It is looking better now.

Do you feel better after cleaning/organizing? i do!

And since we are talking of organizing, I recently removed the chat box in this blog because it became a venue for spamming. Honestly, I understand the need to promote your blogs or websites but spamming my chatbox with links that are totally different from what you are trying to imply on your messages left on the chat is can really dent my great day.  (there, I let it out. i have been unhappy with those leaving messages pretending friendly link up only to find out that they are selling products or services.)

Joining the party at:

 

Bento Less Days

I have been craving for bento for weeks but don't have energy to whip one. Not even the simplest lunch. Here are the bentos that I have totally forgotten to post here:

pork bento with egg. on the backgrund is a miso soup

I had this bento last February when we celebrated our eight anniversary. We are not the organized couple who would book somewhere for a date. We usually spend our anniversary the same way we celebrate our monthsary (yes, you read that right! we celebrate monthly) by going to the mall and randomly select a restaurant or a fast food. This year we ate at a  japanese restaurant, Teriyaki Boy. We got two mugs for free. I will post  about it in the future.

Below is a bento that I prepared for work last February. I had a strawberry sandwich and a crabstick/carrots/lettuce with asian dressing salad that was topped with parmesan cheese. great lunch,right?

February Bento Lunch: egg with olives as eyes, lettuce, asian dressing, strawberry sandwich, parmesan cheese, crabstick and carrots (L-R)

Lip Balm, Strawberries and Laughing Cow

I promised myself at least a monthly update on this blog but with so much work waiting everyday at the office and the new baby keeping us on our toes, blogging is still on the backseat. But just to keep myself on the move, here are the inprocess in our home:

1. I realized that transferring lot ownership here in the Philippines is expensive and requires a lot of waiting. Red tape is always present in our government offices here. Even if we pay thousand of pesos, we still get our time wasted because a simple signature of who-ever-the head of their department can't make it on the deadline (even if we waited two days or more, they are not able to give us the receipt that we need.) I hope someone from the Bureau of Internal Revenues get to read this. Hello, your Red Tape in the office cost us our 1000/day salary!

2. It is still summer here. An officemate gave us strawberries from Bagiuo and ube halaya:

 3. I am still preparing bento for G. But I have been skipping the photo sessions because I am too tired to take them. Preparing bento, although I am faster now and less panicky still requires time in the morning. Here is our new bento hero: The Laughing Cow. It saved me from the picky palate lately because according to G, "it is not salty nor sweet. Just creamy and cheesy".

 4. I have few addictions: blog hopping , bento, lip care like lipbalm, lipgloss, and the likes and movie marathons

5. I am now finding time to read my ebooks using my tab. But I was disappointed with the 50 Shades of Grey. I have issues with the grammar and the trying-hard to be romantic dialogues. I did not get past the 4th Chapter. To each his own I guess. Not just my type. I am still looking for new books to read. I think its time to reread Ender's Game. It was a nice sci-fi book.

2013: A New Leaf

Hello, Readers.

Hello, 2013.

I hope this post is not too late. Even if it's been weeks past the New Year, there are still adjustments going on in our small abode.

I am glad to be back.

One of my resolutions is to be able to post more.

But with a new baby girl that demands so much of my time, (and the lack of househelp), I am targeting  posting of blogs at least twice a month.

Here are the new things in our life for the new year (it's actually more of continuation of what we have started last year):

1. We are going more green.

- I breastfeed.
- We use cloth diapers
- We line dry our laundry ~ bought something similar to this from a local hardware for P800. It has a slot for shoes on the two feet:

source

2. Organizing our small place

- "created" a dedicated pantry in one of the cupboards
- purged my size small clothes. (I can't let go yet, though I gave away few during the Christmas season but we are going there. I already hid two shelves of clothes in boxes)

source

- G's room is clean and slightly decluttered but I am still hoping to make it more kid friendly.

I miss writing here and on my other blogs. The husband gave me last Christmas a tablet but instead of blogging, I end up reading ebooks which is good.

Pictures will be posted soon. Keep updated.

Thrifting and Bento Stuff

I have been bento-crazed lately (even if I can't go to any bento store to buy supplies) so here is another bento post for you. Bringing lunch to work has been saving me a lot of money and I have been learning a lot. I have learned that:

•   my rice will be edible even after few hours in my lunchbox if I sprinkle some salt before putting in the hot rice
• a peeled and sliced apple will not turn brown if you dip it into a salty water (not too salty though) and the apple will not be salty. 
• a bento box or lunch box athough looking small can be deceiving. I was surprised when I started reading more about bento that the boxes have different capacity. I know, it is no brainer but I though just being visual will enable you to know how much you eat. My ever loyal (G's lunch box, actually) lock*lock is surprisingly 800ml! if you are on a diet, you should watch your lunch box capacity because you tend to packed them full to avoid juggling the food around.
• Sandwiches in bento are prepared/stashed like below for some reason, not just on space reason: your bread will not be soggy.

photo source: kitchen cow

•  food that should be served hot, should be maintained in that temperature. Same rule applies to cold foods like sandwiches, yogurt, etc.

Going back to thrifting, I  am happy to show you my latest purchase:

mini cooler brick! they are on sale. 2 pcs for half a dollar.

Lock & Lock insulated bag for half the price: P225.00 

Not bad for two dollars! 

What did you buy lately?

Japanese Curry In Few Minutes

This is not my first time to cook Japanese Curry. I have been a fan of this curry since I found the recipe at my favorite local bento blogger, kaoko . And I am such a bad blogger that I forgot to take a photo of my cooked pork curry. But I did not forgot the ingredients:

The star of the post. What you see in the box is how the cooked curry will look.

S&B Golden Curry No.3

You will need at least a half kilo of pork (not pictured), potatoes, carrots and onion. I used three potatoes although the recipe calls for one potato only, one carrots and one small onion. Diced the three ingredients.
Saute the onion and add the pork until brown. Add the potatoes and carrots and six cups of water. Make sure that everything is covered by the liquid. Let simmer until pork and vegetables are cooked.

potatoes, carrots and onion

 Add one pack of curry. You can dissolve the curry first by adding some liquid from the pot in a bowl and mixing the curry to avoid undissolved curry. Simmer until it thickens.

another photo of potatoes, carrots and onion together with one pack of S&B golden curry

Serve with rice or put in a bento box with rice and fruit (i prefer banana) and you are on your way.

DIY Obsessions

With our homeownership still on hold (we are paying for the lot first, plus we are considering the expenses of having a new baby) it still did not stop me from looking for DIYs and other interior designs that comes up in the web. Below is another inspiration that I want in our house someday (for G's plan, someday is two years from now):

I love it! White subway tiles, window on sink, closed cupboard (we are currently living in a state of clutter visible to everyone with our mixed open/close cupboard system), a pantry on the side and stainless steel counter! Husband and I have been talking about considering stainless steel (or SS) counters that are sold to restaurants (we always passes by a shop that sells/displays ready to install SS counters) because we believe that hygiene-wise, they are the best option. You have to believe me about the hygiene part because the hubs works in a food company and I worked for one before too!

Above is their less-empty photo. By the way, the owner of this photo did their kitchen DIY. I am not sure if we can do that (labor is less expensive than buying our own materials and equipment to do DIY) but you might be interested to know how they did it on their own.

Are you DIY'ng something lately? Have a great week. I am still resting because I am still coughing badly. I will probably be going back to work tomorrow once I feel a whole lot better.

photo credits: The Home Project

Lock & Lock Bento: Leftover Bento Madness

Entering my third trimester, with workload still as difficult as before I have to resort to food for some energy. I have been bringing bento to work than ever. They are not as pretty as the previous one, more on the practical side. I have encountered some bento safety issues lately and manages to find solution through google and other bloggers.

I have been using G's Lock&Lock because its available and most of my bento boxes are small (or so i think!).


Pink Salmon and Scrambled Egg Bento

This bento is a speedy bento. The Pink Salmon is a canned-store bought one which I nuked for few minutes while the egg is a easy-peasy scrambled egg. I added a tiny ripe tomato for my vegetable and a dash color on a blue penguin food pick.It goes well with my bento staple: rice. 

 

Tuna Soboro with ginger - ground pork with potatoes -cucumber - rice bento:

The tuna soboro is an experiment (found the recipe from justbento) and still quite tasty after being stocked in the refrigerator for two days. It's a little bit too tasty for my pregnant-affected taste buds though so I might adjust the seasoning next time. The ground pork is a sauted port with potato and a dinner leftover. The cute ms. monkey container (she used to be mrs. monkey but the hubs lost her partner, mr. monkey few years ago.sad ) have mayonnaise for my cucumber. It was a delicious lunch and I think its a hearty lunch. Too big actually for me and the little one in my belly.

What's in your lunch box? I have been reading a 9 year old blogger's account of her daily school  lunch lately and I wish we have lunch like that here in the office. 

24 Weeks and It's A She

I have been daydreaming lately. A beautiful girl that I can bond with. I can dress up, buy clothes and celebrate with. We are going to welcome a baby girl soon!

Life has been a bit of a struggle lately. We dismissed our househelp because she forgot that we are the one paying her salary,not the other way around. She wants to lay her own rule in our household. And I don't allow that. She has to go.

We are lucky to find a replacement. She is younger but better than the dismissed maid. I am happy to have her even if she sometimes spend lot of time watching television. The other day, my MIL helped her declutter our "catch-all" room. No photo though. I am not yet sold with the idea of baring our still cluttered room. And because they tidied up the room, I have to decide on my own clutter. My calculation is that I will still wear my maternity dress for awhile. Maybe at least on the 4th month of our baby before I lose all the added weight. But I have been thinking of looking for great shoes and outfit in preparation for my post-maternity activities. I have been eying this winter boots. Never mind that there is no winter here, but with lots of opportunity abroad I have this foresight that I will be needing it soon.

How about you? This is actually on sale and you will be saving lots of money. If I have the budget, I will probably buy this one.




Are you having a great week so far? I do.



Office Snacks

Our summer turned into a rainy season with all the rain showers lately. Although some find that annoying (especially those who are beach lovers), we welcome rain in our weekend. It made our days and nights cooler. Summer here in the PI meas intense heat that you will probably be dehydrated if you do not bring with you a water bottle to cool off.

As I get bigger (my belly), my food fatigue wore off. I can now eat the things that I used to love except coffee.
Okay, I have to admit that there are days that I sneak in some decaf but that's all.

This is the best snack for me at this time of deprivation:

krispy kreme (glazed) and brewed coffee 

 This snack cost me almost nothing. I have a great friend who would visit us at the house and brings us a dozen of this donuts and the coffee is a gift from friend.

local brewed coffee (or kapeng barako) and bibingka

This combo cost 50 pesos. You can buy it on the go or dine-in.

 As a precaution (I am freaking out on the what-nots of being pregnant, even when it comes to food), I have been bringing my own lunch in the office. I am still lazy.

I know that brewed coffee is off-limits for me. That's why this bibingka will do for now. I will pretend that my Anmum choco drink is as good as my home brewed coffee when it comes to taste.

bibingka from Bibingkinitan

What's in your snack bag?

Another Easy Bento Rice-Based and Favorite Snacks

My energy is coming back! Being pregnant is not a walk in the park but you it is a great experience knowing that you have another life living inside you. One of my DH's colleague lost her baby last Saturday and we are saddened with the news. It reminds me of being extra careful for the next five months so that this kiddo inside my belly will grow stronger each day, safe and sound.

For the brighter issues, here is another bento that I have not posted yet. It was easy and tasty! Next time though I will be adding some vegetables and fruits for a more balance meal:

bacon, meatloaf and rice. 

I used my daiso-bought rice mold and small butterfly cutter + flower food picks and panda&tiger.

On breakfast, I missed my favorite "taho". It is a soya yogurt that is served with brown sugar and sago pearls.

yummy taho!

Our weekend is fun except for an incident with the househelp that leads us to the decision of finding a new one. Do you have any househelp issues?

Joining linky party:

Motivate Me Monday at Keeping It Simple
Making Monday Marvelous at C.R.A.F.T.

Easy Cooking: Chicken Adobo

Since we moved into our new place I have been trying to put some time on cooking. Our no-fail favorite is the Adobo. Its easy to cook, does not require lots of ingredients, and taste better even for leftovers. In fact, the left over ones are the best ones. .

I have tried different versions of adobo (filipino adobo): chicken adobo, pork adobo and chicken-pork adobo. My favorite is the chicken adobo.


Here's how:

You will need the following:

1/2 kg chicken pieces (my favorite are wings and thigh!)
10 cloves garlic ( you can add more if you want)
1 large onion
1/4 cup vinegar
3 bayleaf
1 tbsp crushed black peppercorn
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
4-5 medium-sized potatoes ( you can add more if you like)

In a pot, put the chicken pieces, crushed garlic, vinegar, black peppercorn, onion and bayleaf.

Simmer for 20 minutes without stirring.

Sauce will start to reduce and the chicken will start to render fat.

Turn chicken pieces over when sides are golden brown.

Add soy sauce and the potatoes.

Add water if sauce dries up before potatoes were cooked.

Serve hot.

yummy~

Here is one of my favorite desserts: Brazo de mercedes. Don't ask me why its called like that here but I think there are counterparts that I've seen around the net. I don't know what its called though.

Joining the party at:

HappyHourProjects
Whipperberry
Home is where my story begins
Raising  Oranges

Fish Fillet and Hashbrown Bento

I am still here. Our wifi connection had some technical issues and I cannot upload any pictures, that is my excuse for not blogging. But really, pregnancy makes me not so eager to blog and even read blogs! But I am on my second trimester of pregnancy now (we were on 3 months and 2 weeks, so that means I am already on my 2nd trimester right?) so most of my former self is back. I have more energy to stay long in front of the computer.

There are so many photos that I haven't posted yet so expect more photos to come!

Here are my creativity on the move:

Fish Bento:

Lunch Bento: Fish Fillet, Banana and Rice (house-topped container has store-bought sweet&sour sauce for the fish)

Hashbrown Bento:  

Snack Bento: strawberry and peanut butter rolled sandwich on white bread, store-bought hashbrown. yellow container have some ketchup on them.

For the fish fillet recipe, you can find it here.

I did some bento-shopping and here's the new addition to my growing collection:

sweets food picks, small cutters

Food at the office cafeteria taste awful, so expect more bento and recipe posts soon.

I am joining the fun at:

Whipperberry's
Happy Hour Projects

First Trimester

Things became pretty busy in our household even before the Christmas season started. And we are busier than ever...or shall I say, I have been doing more couch-sitting than ever because we are pregnant!

I am on my 8th week now and the cravings and hating (i hate every food and smell that I used to love!) is at its worst.

And with the hate relationship with food, I avoided the kitchen as much as possible. I even stopped my daily browsing of AT (is it possible that I also hate anything interior related too??!)

Anyway, I have been eyeing some beautiful bags but too thrifty to buy anything. But sometimes you get to stumble on good deals too. I just wish the hubs reads this: SATCHELS. Affordable satchels. depending on size, price ranges from 700 to 800. Can anyone buy this for me?

And for some valentines day food ideas, here's one from family fun:

My mood swings are not helping much but I have been planning on making a new blog for the pregnancy and baby documentation. I hope to get working on it later this week. Although the first trimester is really hard, we are the happiest couple on earth. We are so blessed.

How about you? How's your 2012 so far?

Decorating with Green and Red Theme for Christmas

It's already past midnight here, I know. I have been busy catching up with the workload. Whoever claims that working in the government is the easiest, they are either the lazy ones or they never worked for any government agency at all. I have worked for two government agencies and even here at my new office where there are just 200 employees, I am overloaded (and underpaid? well, compared to what the private counterpart of my position). That's why I am still up, preparing for my trip tomorrow.

I have lots of photos for you, especially the DIYs that we have done so far for the christmas season and recipes but don't have much time to transfer photos from my camera's memory. When I get back, blogging will be on the top of my list.

For now, here are my favorite desserts (two flavors, of course):

yogurt with strawberry syrup

yogurt with choco syrup

We live in a small town and having access to this kind of sweet treat is a big deal already ( because yogurt is not an organic in this country. ice cream and ice candy, yes but yogurt is still a bit new to the general population so its a store for this one is something that you don't see much in small, rural area)

For DIY inspirations, here are some ideas from the web:

1. tree planters for small christmas tree: you can buy a $1 worth tree planter from the garden store + spray paint.

via

2. garland for the christmas tree(not the venetian star topper) : if you will look closely, they used buttons (white ones) instead of the usual ribbon/garland type on the tree. The venetian star can be DIYed as well (but that is another story)

via

or you can go for a green and red books display for this season. That way, you can design using books that you already have. or anything green and red design that you have will do. You can display them around.

Cheap DIY Wreath for Christmas

We (I) have been busy with the decorations.
This is one of the many things I have done in the house.
It was easy and cheap because there are lots of stuff to choose from.
I bought the materials from the local dry/wet market.
The salesgirl offered the cheaper, not assembled wreath materials, but I told her I prefer the one already shaped into a wreath since it was relatively cheap and will save me time.
Then I bought the other three decor for around $1.

Here is the breakdown cost:

$1 = 43 pesos (you can do the math, but basically its around $2 in all)

After 5 minutes, here's my DIY wreath on our front door:

I did not use any glue since the ornaments have a wire that you can twist at the back and you're all set.
It's an easy-peasy ornamental wreath, making the holiday preparation stress-free.

Linking this to:  

ShabbyNest 

DIY Showoff 

Chic on A Shoe String Decorating

House of Hepworths

Happy Hour Projects
The ShabbyCreekCottage