Welcome 2011 with a Bang!

I bet most people wanted to start the year with a Bang! I did! Oh yes! Who wouldn't??? Right! January 8, my daughter got infected with varicella virus. Yes, in other words, chicken pox.  The timing was just perfect! Don't you think? For me, it was a  start of the 7 to 14 days of isolation (that means no school) and battle with itch, fever and a possible pneumonia (as one of the complications). I said isolation because chicken pox is contagious, it is airborne so it spreads easily through coughing or sneezing of the person carrying the virus or through direct contact with the saliva or secretions from the bump. After this, is to find ways on how to get rid of the scars that this disease would leave on the skin.  And this could not be happening a week before her third quarter exam! 

I was feeling bad. But I got a hold of myself and begun to change my perspective. Instead of thinking about the negative things, I focused on the positive things. I'm glad I did. It made all the difference. On the 3rd day, I uttered these words to myself:

1. "It is better for Gabby to have it while she is younger (7y/o), than when she is older. The virus is mild in children 9 years old and below, with or without a chickenpox vaccine."

2. "This means lesser complications, itch and scars."

3. "She will not likely to catch the virus again in the future. It's like an immunization by itself."

4. "I will get to spend time with her and be creative as I come up with different activities both of us can do during her (our) isolation."

5. "It is an opportune time to read and find out more about the varicella virus. Added knowledge is power!"

6. "I will get to share my experience with other mothers who will go through the same thing."

7. "We can make bath time fun time! Oatmeal Bath (recommended by Dr Yatco) helps dry up the rash, relieves itchiness and minimizes marks. Oatmeal also smoothens the skin. Also less expensive than any ointment you can buy in drugstores. "

Now on the 10th battle day. And it has been worth it! More importantly, I realized I grew in the area of learning how to patiently wait, knowing I expand in the waiting and that only good is going to come out of this. 

What a way to start the new year indeed! Thank You Jesus!

P.S. I read that chickenpox is not related in any way to chickens. The term was used to connote "weak" or "cowardly" , as a "wimpier" version of smallpox which is a very serious illness not related to chickenpox and caused by a different virus called variola virus.

Change!

Hello! It's 2011! Did you have any New Year's Resolution? I used to do this but I realized, it never worked after all. Change should be constant, not decided at the end of the previous year nor at the beginning of a new year. It is an everyday decision, with or without an occasion. And it takes our will to  create a change in any area of our life - could be our perspective, the way we do things, the way we think, react, handle a relationship, parent our child/ren, talk to our officemates, manage our finances and so on...

Everyday is an opportunity for change. It's a gift! And it can work wonders to those who receive it!

Put it out with a perdurable

Welcome 2011!!!

Happy New Year! It is going to be a  great year indeed! I'm claiming it and speaking it! Fresh start, new ways, better perspective, keener insights, an opportunity to make things right, stronger discernment, more love, new and strengthened relationships, more trials, more heartaches, more pain, clearer understanding, deeper knowledge of Jesus, deliverance, salvation, healing, miracles... and my list could go on and on and on! Good or bad, I am going to make the most of every chance I get to truly live! 

2011 here I come!!!

Fruits & Vegetables

More of Gabby's drawings on my LG phone. I bet she was having really healthy thoughts that time! Yes. Fruits and vegetables are good for you my Gabby!

You Can Say No To Corruption!

Do you hate corruption? Do you recognize how grave it has been affecting our lives? You'll never know until it happens to you. Yes. It happened to me. I am speaking in the first person here because I am making this battle against corruption and injustice my own since I am a part of Lifeline Foundation.  Since 2002, Lifeline has only endeavored to uplift people's lives in the areas of medicine, education, empowerment and other areas as well.  For the last two years, Lifeline has been greatly affected by the corruption and injustice waged towards one of its directors Jose Luis Gonzalez.  We are not afraid to expose the wicked people behind such malicious and unscrupulous doings. 

READ THE STORY.

We are standing up against corruption and injustice! We are making our voices heard!  Join us in our cause! Sign the petition! 

Ordinary Miracle by Sarah McLachlan

I remember this beautiful song from the movie Charlotte's Web. This song touched my heart and reminded me how magnificent and amazing God is! How can I not take notice of the miracles that are happening right before my very eyes every single day? Everyday is a gift indeed. A miracle from God. What brought me to tears was remembering that I am a part of these ordinary miracles and realizing that no matter what I do, things just work out after all because that's just how God intended it to be. 

As the song goes : "It seems so exceptional, things just work out after all. Its just another ordinary miracle today..."  So here's to remembering God is in the midst of us through His ordinary miracle every single day. Thank You Father!

                  
                  
                  Lyrics | Sarah McLachlan - Ordinary Miracle lyrics

Blink Blink?

Source: TheHindiMusic.com

Did you know that blinking our eyes automatically supplies moisture to our eyes and protect our eyes from foreign matter that could cause irritation? To oil, lube and filter. Moreover, our built-in "wind-shield wipers", our eyelids are designed and are capable of expanding and contracting so rapidly, that blinking does not impair our vision. The rims of our eyelids are lined with 20-30 sebaceous, invisible oil-producing glands located between our eyelashes. Blinking coats both the eyelid and eyelashes with the lubricant it secretes, to prevent them from drying out.

Another benefit of blinking is to shield the eye from foreign bodies. Our eyelashes serve as dust-catchers, as the blinking reflex causes them automatically to lower, when exposed to harsh elements. Apparently, camels are endowed with extraordinary long, curly, eyelashes to protect their eyes from sudden sandstorms in the desert.

Eyebrows, by the way, also serve their purpose, as they catch the run-off perspiration produces. So, girls out there, don't shave or pluck your eyebrows too much! Let it serve its purpose!

Blogger Is Unusually Slow

Blogger is unusually slow for the past week. I said "unusually" because it's like Blogger has never been this way since I started. I have been on Blogger for the past two years and have been happy and satisfied with their service. Blogger is user-friendly and have always been innovative and creative. They might be doing some maintenance or upgrading works that is causing this problem. I hope they will be sending their users an advisory on the problem soon so as to manage our expectations. So for now, I'll have to be more patient when posting entries here. Getting frustrated will not solve the problem anyway.

Online Tutorial Service For K-12

The world wide web or the internet as we know it has made our lives efficient and convenient. Imagine doing everything on line -- working from home, paying bills or doing shopping within the confines of your office. It has indeed bridged people from different places here and abroad. Imagine even education has been made readily accessible and available to everyone over the internet. With the availability of this service, parents are now given an alternative to the traditional actual one on one private tutorials for their children. 

Tutornext.com offers high standard supplemental help with academic subjects in K-12 education system and College level. With very affordable tutorial rates, your children can avail of high quality tutoring services with just a click away. Math problem solvers and Free Math help and Free Homework Help are one of the features of their service. They offer a free demo session for Math Word Problems complete with worksheets and a live Math tutor online. College Algebra is one area of Math that needs to be taught intensively. Tutornext.com boasts of its well trained and certified algebra tutors to help you solve problems, understand basic Algebra concepts plus help with you Algebra homework. The team provides individual attention for each student and teaches a step by step guidance per topic, as well as working on each student's strengths and weaknesses.  Now, your children can get supplemental help with their subjects without leaving your homes. Best,  parents get to spend more time with their children and enjoy the tutorial service with them. 

Inspired by Racel

Should the ruler thirst around the humane refund? -- a sentence from PPP that needed to be shown in my blog to prove my blog ownership. This is the final step prior to approval of a blog site. As I am resurrecting this blog, I had to submit to PPP for approval. Hoping they give me an opportunity to write and earn. I truly find joy in working at home. I'm always with my daughter and it is actually practical and convenient. Doing household chores, being with Gabby and earning at the same time is a blessing. So I have decided to pursue this "career." Thanks to my former officemate, Racel, who introduced me to the world of blogging. She taught me a lot and continues to encourage me to keep on at it. Through her growing sites I get inspired and determined to do more. 

See you all!!!

Should the ruler thirst around the humane refund?

Archery Equipment

To those people engaged in Archery sports and to those who are interested in getting into archery, there is a great site for Archery Equipment up over the world wide web. The site offers you a wide range of equipment serving several format varieties and styles of the said sport. As the equipment and accessories to be used will depend on the actual kind of format and style that you are interested in, you will find all types of products here per category. From the most common format which is Target Archery ( the only format allowed in the Olympics!) to different styles such as traditional,  recurve and the newest archery equipment for compound style, the compound bow. 

Now, who said that archery is just for those professional archers? If you are not into professional archery but are interested with it as a hobby or sports activity for the whole family. Yes. Children included. You can still pursue such interest and have fun family time.  Look under the Youth Archery Equipment Category and you will see age appropriate equipment and some tips and guide on how to shop for it. The site is packed not only with high resolution pictures of actual products but also with videos of  customers giving their testimonies and feedback on the products they ordered from the site. Plus! video footages showing a step by step guide on how to use a particular equipment. Very informative indeed!  

Garage Sale

Talk about being resourceful, now that the season of gift giving, sharing, 13th month pay, bonus is just around the corner, people looking for stuff either for themselves or for someone else with limited budget, it is smart to go through your old/used/unused/slightly used/almost new/pre-owned stuff (whatever you want to call it) for garage sale, yard sale or Ukay-Ukay (as we call it here in the Philippines). Ukay-ukay comes from the root word "halukay" which means to rummage through things. Which I think is fun and exciting as if you are looking for a steal find or a  treasure-hunt. And if you are really good at it and have an eye for good stuff and looking for bargains? This is the thing for you. 

I went through my and my daughter's old stuff last week and have started a 7-day garage sale with my sister and Aunt.  Everything from vintage clothes, bags, shoes, kitchen wares, appliances, knick-knacks, utensils, toys, etc... Toys and clothes have always been the top sellers, ceramics and dinner sets, second.  Our earnings is quite good considering we didn't have to pay for rent nor had out of pocket capital. As for my earnings, my daughter and I agreed to give 30% to our friend who needs financial help to buy medicines for his treatment. This makes it more meaningful and exciting. Today is the last day supposedly, but it looks like we are going to extend it for another week. There are more stuff to sell anyway. Bigger earnings means bigger help for our friend! 

Firecrackers

Gabby draws well. She is creative and loves to play with colors. She's found a new friend in my LG KP500 cellular phone with Drawing Panel application. Her mind is so set towards the holiday season, excited about the gifts of course, and the New Year bang! Hence, this wonderful illustration from her creative mind a few days ago.    

One Sunday and Tomato Soup

I had a purposeful and yet a restful Sunday yesterday spending it with my daughter Gabby, and Judith my housemate and one of my true friends. We started the day thanking God for His love and all the blessings that He has given us. We had a helper who came to clean the house and do the laundry. We have planned days back what we needed to do that day and that exactly what we accomplished.  Later in the afternoon, we decided to go to the nearest grocery store to do our grocery shopping. We were on a budget so we listed down the things that we only needed and would only fit our alloted budget. And since there was school the next day, we agreed to do it as efficiently as we can,  have dinner out and be home by 8pm. And by God's grace that was what happened. We had dinner at a pizza house nearby. Had tomato soup, vegetarian pizza, chicken wings with potato wedges and very good conversations (Yup!). The tomato soup was great! I tasted the freshness of tomatoes, the creaminess of milk, the extremely savory taste of basil and that aroma of  garlic. Not to mention the benefits of lycopene in tomatoes which I will blog about next time. Wow it made my day! Unfortunately, I didn't think of taking a picture of the actual soup before we finished it (oh boy! it only took a few minutes then it was all gone! lol!) So, I copied a picture of a bowl of tomato soup from Free Foto (I made sure I won't get in trouble with copyright and stuff). They allow their pictures to be copied and used as long as a link to their website is provided and the source is disclosed. Good enough, right? But of course, the setting and utensils you see in the picture differ from the actual one.  

So here's to adding color and picture to this blog entry, and sweetness to that fun memory!

Gabby and Judith

More Of Me!

You will see more of me on this site from now on! I'm back friends, never been better and excited to start workin' here. There's more of me to come!

Fun Shots With Hiro!

Payment Processing Service Provider

I and two of my friends have started a trading business recently. What we do is basically to provide the products that a customer needs. Products include bags, caps, mugs, flasks, pens, cups, uniforms, shirts, jackets, school supplies, construction materials, jewelry pouches, raincoats, planners, etc! We create a need for our clients. We are currently working on our website where we can showcase our products and services. Since business are done over the internet facility, we are planning to have a shopping cart on our website. The facility will allow transactions to be done on line. In line with this, we will be needing a payment processing system since customers are more likely to use their credit cards when doing purchases from a website.

I saw Five Star Payments that offers credit card processing services that will answer business owner’s need of different types of businesses.  They can help setup any of the following: Retail Credit Card Processing Account, Internet Credit Card Processing Account, Offshore Credit Card Processing Account, or a High Risk Credit Card Processing Account. What’s better is that their interchange fees are lower than other card processing providers. This is good value for our hard earned penny.  The company is proud of its high level customer service and professional staff who will handle its customer’s need. We may get this service as soon as we see it is fit to have said facility on our website.

THE RED ROSE

I  am not a "flower-person". It's not like I hate flowers. I appreciate them but not really go gaga over them like most women do.  Their hearts melt at the sight of it. They go ecstatic when they get one. Chocolates do that to me! (LOL!) Oh well, things could change. Right? I was ecstatic to receive a flower from somebody special just recently. Yes. A flower. Just one stem of fresh red rose! Wow! I went home thinking what changed my perspective. I used to get bunches, bouquets of flower from my suitors and admirers before. But never felt this way. Midlife crisis? (LOL!)I don't think so. I'm too young and I'm confident of my place of being now. So no! Is it because I love the one who gave it?  Hmm! And so I realized it's not about the flower anymore, its about my choice.  Liking it was a choice. A decision. Whatever reasons brought about that change, bottom line is, it s the choice we make that matters. Our life is shaped by  the choices we make indeed. Good or bad. It doesn't matter. This is life. And it is full of trials, tests, heartaches, pain, hurt, disappointments, heartbreaks, you name it! As humans, we are inclined to making bad choice at times. It could break us one way or another. But again, if it happens, there's always that choice.  Either to get up right away, or stay in that place and not move forward. Its how fast we get up from a fall that makes the difference! 

Gift Of Love

It brings such great joy to me hearing "Thank You's" and "I love you's" from Gabby. It was only six years ago when I first held baby Gabby in my arms, helpless, still unable to speak. Through those years, I have been thankful to God for trusting me with another life, a gift of love indeed. Father God, You are the Best!

It is a such a marvelous  blessing to wake up in the morning knowing how the mercy and grace of our Father in Heaven abound! Wow! A fresh start! New opportunities. New challenges. New victories. New hope. As long as there is Today, we will always have a clean slate in life, to put the past behind and enter into something new moving forward. Oh, Father! You are the BEST!

Fight Diabetes

Just For Sharing - Car Aircon

A friend forwarded this to me and I find it useful to share the information to you. 

This is specially relevant for our aircon cars here in RP, where we
always keep all the windows closed and the temperature goes
up to more than 100o F. 

Please note and circulate... 
 
Do not turn on A/C immediately as soon as you enter the car!
Please open the windows after you enter your car and do not
turn ON the air-conditioning immediately. According to a
research done, the car dashboard, sofa, air freshener emits
Benzene, a Cancer causing toxin (carcinogen- take note of
the heated plastic smell in your car). In addition to
causing cancer, it poisons your bones, causes anemia, and
reduces white blood cells. Prolonged exposure will cause
Leukemia, increasing the risk of cancer may also cause
miscarriage.

Acceptable Benzene level indoors is 50 mg per sq. ft.
A car parked indoors with the windows closed will contain
400-800 mg of Benzene. If parked outdoors under the sun at a
temperature above 60 degrees F, the Benzene level goes up to
2000-4000 mg, 40 times the acceptable level... & the
people inside the car will inevitably inhale an excess
amount of the toxins.

It is recommended that you open the windows and door
to give time for the interior to air out before you enter.
Benzene is a toxin that affects your kidney and liver, and
is very difficult for your body to expel this toxic stuff.

Summer Cake By Llana

My sister made this beautiful summer cake a month ago. She took up Cake Decorating Program at the Henny Sison's and this is her first ever Summer Cake. Not bad for a first-timer! And that's my nephew, Hiro!

MAC by JL

My sister and cousin have decided to venture on a business partnership of something they both love doing -- baking and being creative! MAC Home-made Chocolate-Coated Apple by JL. Delicious, fresh and healthy apples dipped in rich dark premium chocolate! You just can't get enough of!

Visit their website for orders: http://macbyjl.multiply.com/

"Heaven Scent"

Women, in general, love perfume or cologne. It has become a part of the whole fashion ensemble, has it not? Like fashion, perfumes were made to complement the seasons and the weather.  Strong scented perfumes would work well in very cold countries. Light scented ones in hot or humid countries.

It is now summer season here in the Philippines. I abhor this very hot, scorching and humid weather! It makes me sweat, sweat and sweat some more! One of my favorite cologne is “Light Blue” by D&G. It has that very light, fresh, and seemingly “just-gone-out-of-the-shower" Scent.  However, I fell in love with the newest scent made by Salvatore Ferragamo -- Incanto Heaven perfume for women. This fragrance for women contains a blend of grapefruit, seringa flower, apple, pink peony, apricot, hibiscus flower tea, violet and musk. And I really recommend this women's fragrance for daytime and/or for hot weather wear.