Fruit Pops

We had several varieties of fruit juices at hand today, and our older daughter really wanted to make fruit pops -- mini popsicles using fruit juices.

So off we went to look for empty ice trays -- we transferred the ice from our heart and star-shaped molds. Then I poured fresh calamansi juice into one tray (the stars), and grape juice into the other (hearts).

The little one then said she had read from her cookbook that we had to put plastic wrap around each tray, after which we would poke toothpicks onto the plastic and into the individual molds. The plastic wrap would then hold the toothpicks upright (hopefully). Nice touch, eh!

After a couple of hours in the freezer, we gently removed the plastic wrap, and voila! Refreshing fruit pops!



Apple-Walnut Loaf

I had just finished making unsweetened applesauce, and I wanted to use it for my apple-walnut loaf (original recipe from Group Recipes).

I substituted half of the required amount of butter with applesauce. To the batter I then added apple chunks and raisins.

Because I increased the proportions from the original recipe, I had enough for one big loaf and two small loaves.

Instead of pecans I used walnuts, which I placed on top of the loaves.

The apple-walnut loaves came out nicely browned. They weren't so sweet though, as I had also reduced the sugar required in the recipe, maybe by a bit too much, haha!

They are still a nice, hefty treat though!

Home-made Applesauce

When I first read that applesauce is a good butter substitute when baking, I was quite interested. However, I always associated applesauce with baby pap. But then I got to thinking that it would be a healthy treat anyway, so why not try making it myself?

And thus the plan was hatched: I would make applesauce, and use it in my apple-walnut loaf later on.

Chopped apples (skin on -- good source of fiber!), water, cinnamon powder, and vanilla were all I needed for the applesauce.

The progression in appearance of the bright, chopped apples from solid chunks into a brownish mush was quite interesting -- chemistry coming into play.

I started with five chopped apples, with around two and a half cups of water. I then let the water boil, and let it continue boiling for ten minutes.

After ten minutes, I turned the heat down, and let it simmer.

I waited until the mixture turned into a mushy, slightly chunky sauce. I thought it would only take thirty minutes, but I ended up having it simmer for about an hour, with occasional peeks to stir the whole thing and try to hasten the process.

Afterwards, I let it cool for several minutes, then pureed the mixture.

The resulting product is a smooth, mild, apple-flavored sauce.

Good for babies, good for baking too!

Fish Fillet Sandwich

I used to think of fish fillet only as ulam. One day, however, when I saw the pan-fried cream dory fillet on the table, I got to thinking: Hmm, what if I used this as a sandwich filling? After all, fish fillet sandwiches in fastfood joints do make an appearance occasionally.

I got two wheat bread slices, slathered one with mustard, and the other with tomato catsup (what can I say -- I'm a catsup girl through and through!). Then I flaked the fish with a fork, put it on top of one slice, and sprinkled onion bits on top for an added crunch.

The result: see for yourself.

Oatmeal-Dried Mango Cookies

Last Tuesday evening I had a hankering to make some oatmeal cookies, to supplement our older daughter's snacks for school. I looked through our cupboard if I had the ingredients, and was in luck!

Soon enough I was happily measuring and mixing. I normally folow baking recipes to the letter, but there are times when I let my instinct guide me -- and this was one of those times.  The recipe called for 3/4 cup white sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar. I felt that I could reduce this amount, so I made do without 1/4 cup white sugar. And guess what? It tasted fine! Sometimes it does pay to experiment.

In a short time, the chewy cookies were cooling on the rack, just waiting for eager hands to swoop them up!

I love the chewy texture of this cookie, contrasted with the chunks of dried mango and oatmeal bits. This is definitely one of my favorite cookies.

Sunday Afternoon

It's the time after the midday meal when everyone feels full and sated, without feeling the urge to move or go outside to roam around the fluorescent-lit malls. It's peaceful.

I'm currently planning on baking an apple-walnut loaf -- the lower calorie version, using homemade unsweetened applesauce as a substitute for (part of the) butter. And I will be using low-fat butter as well. I hope this will turn out yummy!

Hubby and the two girls are taking a nap. It was no mean feat to convince the kids to give up their weekend cartoon shows and rest. But off they went eventually.  Right now they are all in one bed -- the little angels wanted Papa with them. And so he is with them, in the middle, with two angels flanking him.

For the bounty that has come to our table, for the quiet that has settled in the house, for the endearing picture of the children with their father sleeping peacefully -- these make life more beautiful, and blessed.

Crunchy Chicken Salad Sandwich

Chicken salad has been one of my favorite sandwich fillings since I was a child. Earlier this month, I tried experimenting and came up with my own version, sans the mayonnaise that is a staple of chicken sandwiches.

I boil chicken breasts in some onions, garlic and celery -- this helps the chicken absorb some of the good flavors while being boiled. I then remove the skin and bones, then dice the meat. Not too finely though, as I like some heft and texture to my sandwich.

Minced onions and diced apples provide an interesting contrast to the chicken - the crunch and the tang really appeal to me. The photo below shows that the apple has begun to oxidize already -- I should have added some citrus juice to it earlier on.

Interesting bit of trivia: I read somewhere that an onion and an apple would taste the same, if not for their smell. Hmmm, does that mean then that if I have a really bad cold, I could munch on an onion happily? Well, I guess those I would talk to wouldn't be so happy...

Mix the dry ingredients and add a pinch of salt, as well as a teaspoon or two of lemon, calamansi, or other citrus juice.

Instead of mayonnaise, I use plain yogurt (as with my mayo-less thousand island dressing). The blend of plain yogurt and mustard here just complements the chicken-apple-onion mixture.

The mustard in the salad gives it its yellow hue.

One time I layered some shredded lettuce on a slice of wheat bread, spread the chicken salad filling on top, and added some grated carrots -- the colors were just so delightful.

Chicken salad is really still one of my favorite fillings, ever.

Veggie Salad with Mayo-less Thousand Island Dressing

We usually have a vegetable salad at home every two weeks or so. Crunchy lettuce, shredded carrots, cool cucumber slices, juicy tomatoes, tangy onion, and sweet corn kernels all provide a delectable feast to both the eye and the palate. To have a counterpoint of salty to the sweet and hint of sourness, we also add in some hard-boiled egg slices and grated or cubed cheese. I have also been known to sprinkle some walnuts on top. This hefty salad has at times even become my main meal, instead of an accompaniment.

What about the dressing though? Our preferred mix was the thousand island dressing, a mix of tomato catsup and mayonnaise. I have discovered recently though that plain yogurt is actually a very good substitute for mayo. So I tried that and came up with a mayo-less thousand island dressing that was every bit as yummy!

I'm looking forward to further discoveries.

Not-So-Sinful Choco-Chip Cookies

Our older daughter has been hankering for home-baked chewy choco-chip cookies since last week. I made her a promise to bake a batch this weekend. This Sunday afternoon, I finally did.

I scouted around for a lower-calorie alternative to my original recipe, which had lots of butter and sugar. One interesting alternative I read about was to use applesauce instead of oil or butter. I did not have applesauce on hand, but I did manage to find a seemingly less sinful recipe for this universal favorite.

This new recipe (from Spark Recipes) had less butter -- and I used the 'light' variant of Magnolia butter as well. It called for just the egg whites instead of the whole eggs. I also purposely did not use the whole quantity of sugar as directed. I was a bit worried about this, but the cookies still turned out sweet! Next time I might just reduce the sugar a bit further.

A side note: the original recipe mentioned a yield of 26 cookies. I doubled the quantities, but was only able to get 40 cookies in all. I guess the size of the dough balls assumed for the recipe was smaller than what I had done. But they were just right for us!

The little girl insisted on "helping" -- which to her meant pouring the ingredients into the mixing bowl. I let her "help" with some of the ingredients.

The dough came out a bit crumbly at first, so I added a splash of milk just to bind the mixture. It came together nicely, and became quite thick. This is how the dough looked like. Don't the dark-and-white morsels look tempting?



The little one also requested that two kinds of chocolate chips be included in the cookie dough -- the dark and white ones. So I put them in, plus I added a bonus of chocolate-covered crunchy morsels on top of the formed cookie dough balls as well. 

One thing I learned in baking cookies for several years now -- it helps to use an ice cream scoop to have uniformly-sized cookies. Spoons just didn't work for me. Using my hands was also an option, but they just got quite sticky and messy. And so I still stick with the ice cream scoop for nicely rounded cookies.

This was how the first tray of cookies looked while baking. I just love looking at the cookie dough balls rise into decadent cookies!

After 10 minutes per tray in a 150 deg C oven, I took the cookies out of the oven and placed them on the table to cool, then transferred them onto a cookie rack. The cookies gave off a warm, comforting aroma that was just so tempting. The little one helped herself to a warm, chocolate-still-melting cookie and declared it wonderful!

After they had cooled sufficiently, the cookies were put into a trusty Lock & Lock container (our equivalent of a cookie jar). I'm just not sure how long the cookies will stay there though -- but then again, isn't the speed at which they disappear the measure of yumminess that we all would love to have?

Oatmeal Galore!

I never realized there were quite a lot of oatmeal flavors in the market!

After my operation (gallbladder removal), I started to scout around the grocery aisles to check what healthier options there were. I discovered a whole gamut of oatmeal flavors and variants that would endeavour to remove the "umay" factor when eating oatmeal day after day with nothing to break the monotony of the smooth, creamy texture.

So far I have tried the banana-honey, honey-hazelnut, and fruit-and-nut variants. Next on my list: the chocolate (guess it will be like champorado) and strawberry flavors.

I really liked the fruit-and-nut flavor, primarily because of the texture provided by nuts and raisins -- they contrasted beautifully with the oatmeal. Of course, I can also do this for home-cooked oats by adding in fresh or dried fruits (apple, banana, pear, kiwi) and nuts (walnuts, cashew, almonds) myself.

Hmmm.. thinking about this is making me hungry now.

Guiltless Potato Chips

Hubby and I are trying to stay away from packaged chips, since these are usually loaded with salt and fat. But of course, the little ones still hanker for some of these crispy, salty treats.

Since there weren't any potato chips to be had in the house one evening, we started wondering: why not make our own? It shouldn't be too difficult -- some potatoes, a bit of salt, an oven. We all had that, so off we went to the kitchen to experiment.

I sliced a couple of potatoes into 1/8-inch thick portions. I then lined a baking pan with parchment paper, and used a paper towel to dab on a very small amount of canola oil on the paper. I then arranged the sliced potatoes on top of the parchment paper, then dabbed on a little bit more of oil on top of the potato slices. A dash of salt on top, and they were ready for the oven.

After around 12 minutes in the 260 deg C oven, the potato slices had transformed into perfectly crispy potato chips. Not as salty as the commercially packaged ones, but healthier and satisfying just the same.

The whole family loved it! I'm now thinking of using camote (sweet potato) next time...

Oh-So-Creamy Mac & Cheese

When the weather turns nippy and the compulsion to go out of the house plummets down to zilch, it's just so comforting to snuggle up in a corner of the sofa with a bowl of creamy mac & cheese.

It's not a hoity-toity dish, nor does it presume to be anything reeking of "gourmet". But its appeal lies in its simplicity, in its ability to satisfy one's longing for a hearty, filling treat. So my tastes run to the pedestrian -- nothing wrong with that, eh?

One day our older daughter wheedled and cajoled for me to make her some macaroni and cheese from scratch. I used to cook this for myself when I was still single, but I had not done so in quite some time. I usually relied on boxed pasta mixes -- hey, they were ready in a jiffy, right?

But since it was a request that I was hard put to decline, I rummaged in our cupboard to see what ingredients were available: butter, milk, pasta, cheddar cheese, parmesan, Cheez Whiz, corn kernels. Hmm, it appeared as if everything was going to go her way after all.

And so I melted a bit of butter with some milk, brought the mixture to a boil, then poured in some pre-cooked pasta (I used macaroni). Then I mixed in some grated cheddar, some parmesan, and a couple of teaspoons of Cheez Whiz. After everything got to be nice and gooey, I added some corn kernels -- simply because the little one loved mixing corn with her pasta.

The result: creamy macaroni and cheese that hit the spot for the little girl. Sure, it's not a guilt-free treat for those on low-calorie diets. But hey, this one's for a growing kid, after all.

Next time though, I may just add some carrots, peas and broccoli.

The Stones that Spurred a Change of Heart

Who would've thought that Hubby and I could be so serious about our regular brisk evening walks (~4 kilometers every night) that we would even consider doing it in the midst of a light drizzle? A few months ago we would most likely have found a dozen excuses to just sit back and stay glued to the computer or TV screens if there was even a hint of rain in the air.

Times have changed. And so, I hope, have we.

It took a week and a half of excruciating abdominal pain, a date with the surgeon (for laparoscopic cholecystectomy, to remove my gallbladder), and the sight of all 20-odd gallstones (the largest of which was 1.5 cm) for us to take a really hard look at our lifestyle.

To say that I was scared would be an extreme understatement. Sure, the operation was a success, my gallbladder had been removed, and there didn't seem to be any long-lasting ill effects. The doctor even told me that I could eat everything, in moderation.

I remained worried though: if I continued with the way things were, would there be any symptoms and illnesses that could rear their unwelcome heads down the road and attack any other organs? Did I want to spend time in the hospital once again and have someone cut into me again?

I have 2 kids, both under the age of 8. I would like to be there to see their shenanigans while they are still young, to see them graduate from grade school, high school, and college. To be with them when they get married, and to hold my grandkids in my arms.

This proved to be a powerful objective, one that spurred me, and Hubby as well, to change our lifestyle. Gone are the numerous bottles of Coke Zero that used to be a ubiquitous accompaniment to our meals. In the past month and a half, we've consumed maybe a glass each -- and only during a birthday party, at that. The generous handfuls of M&Ms are now a thing of the past -- maybe 2 or 3 pieces in a week, and only if the little ones insist on offering us some. We've also managed to drastically cut down on chips & dips -- no more one-bag-a-night habits!

We now enjoy more fiber in our meals -- oatmeal, wheat bread are now regular parts of our diet. We never realized how many flavored variants Quaker Oats had! After a month of eating wheat bread, when I was given a white-bread sandwich it seemed to be so.. insubstantial.

Yogurt became a staple as well. Kudos to those who conceptualized Nestle's Fruit Selections! I've even learned to use plain yogurt as a healthier substitute for mayonnaise -- and no, it does not detract from the taste. In fact my favorite sandwich filling now is chicken sandwich with diced apple, onions, in a yogurt-mustard mix.

The frequent trips to fast-food outlets have been lessened as well. We've learned to pause and think first if what we to order from the tops of our heads are wise choices. We need not starve or deprive ourselves. It's all a matter of having the right portions and choosing the healthier options. Fish now appear as frequently on our table as meat. I now routinely peel of the chicken skin and give it to my older daughter, who loves it (no, she does not yet need to diet, so that's still ok with her). Fried foods have given way to less fatty dishes.

Fruits and veggies are much more appreciated now, and are a large part of our meals. Rice has taken a bit of a back-seat: from the 1-or-more cups per meal before, this has now been reduced to a third of a cup. Small, frequent meals do help, instead of bingeing during main mealtimes. The stomach is, after all, a muscle, which can be trained to handle smaller portions instead of huge ones.

The transition has not been as difficult as I would have imagined, prior to the operation. It's probably because I have now learned to appreciate food now just solely for the flavor come-on, but also for the nutritional benefits they can give me.

The evening walks we used to have were infrequent and aimless, when Hubby and I just strolled around leisurely. Nothing wrong with that, really. But we kicked it up a notch now, and have brisk walks - sometimes interspersed with short jogs - every night, even during a light drizzle. We've realized that our pace has grown much, much faster than before. Our breathing has improved, and we do not get tired as easily.

The benefits are also quite noticeable: 5 kg for Hubby, and 10 kg for me! We feel healthier, we can fit into our smaller-size clothes, we do not get tired as easily as before, plus, we save a lot from not having all those junk food around!

Now, let's just hope that our will-power stays constant, and that we can continue on this road.

A Tiring, But Not-So-Ordinary Weekend

It was a hectic day at the mall yesterday. I know, we should've known better than to brave the crowds in this last-Sunday-before-the-schoolyear-starts mad rush. But hey, we had a mission as well: buy two essential things for our schoolgirl - a schoolbag (preferably big and pink) and school shoes (black and sturdy).

I had initially planned to have these things in hand well before the June deadline. Good thing the little girl's classes don't start until the 14th. However due to my being sidelined for the better part of May (stomachaches, nausea, hospital stay, surgery, recovery), we ended up in this predicament.

I do not cease to be amazed at the number of books kids nowadays are expected to bring to school everyday. At grade 2, our little girl has a 7-hour schoolday! I had a laid-back 4-hour sched until grade 6, and just slightly more than that until I graduated from high school!

And so the quest for a spacious, wheeled bag was on. Oh, and by the way, it had to have Disney princesses on it, the more the better. Good thing we were able to see one at Robinson's in Festival Mall. It was big, like wheelie luggage lying down, with 6 wheels and lots of pockets, plus a snack bag and water bottle. And it was in pink, with 6 princesses -- Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora, Ariel, Jasmine, and Belle.

Whew, one down.

Then off we went to the shoes section -- just trying to navigate through the jampacked aisles was a feat in itself. Apart from the hordes of children trying out footwear, choosing the perfect style that had a perfect fit, some adults would also weave their way through the throng. Someone even had a baby stroller in tow, yes, a stroller. Imagine trying to push your way through the mass of people with that.

After negotiations on the style (nope, boots are not allowed in school) and material (leather or patent leather?), we settled down on a pair. Or so we thought. Then the little one said it was hard and it pinched her ankles.

The search began anew. Thankfully not far from the original pair was another pair that seemed to fit the bill, with the added bonus of having a thicker padding at the back of the ankle. Bingo!

We waded through the sea of people, and lined up at the counter to pay.

Of course the trip did not end there, as we made the semi-obligatory jaunt to the Powerbooks shop. Even with the advent of ebooks and with my trusty Kindle always on hand, I still did not emerge empty-handed, although I have to admit the number has dwindled from previous visits. The sales crew there recognize me and the little one now, haha!

As we drove back home, we were quite enchanted with the big double rainbow we saw along the STAR highway. You don't get to see that very often. And you don't often get to hear the amazement in a child's voice and the wonder in her eyes when she first sees that as well.

I am thankful that we found what we were looking for, that we were able to enjoy a day at the mall, that we were able to drive safely along the roads, that we saw the ephemeral beauty of a rainbow.

Magic can be found in unlikely places, in the most ordinary times.

Meandering Thoughts on Mother's Day

This is the first day in so long that I have woken up to overcast skies. Can summer be over so soon? Yesterday we experienced a thunderstorm with rainshowers, probably due to tropical depression Bebeng. It just seems so early though... Ah well, PAGASA was predicting a "wet" summer for this year anyway.

I just cannot seem to reconcile "wet" with "summer". For me, summer equates to blue skies, the kind of blue that hurts one's eyes with its brightness, and occasionally framed by fluffy white clouds with nary a gray tinge. Summer equals dry, blistering heat -- the type of heat that makes one think of an oven, but at the same time conjures up images of azure waves and damp sand that sticks onto one's feet.

Perhaps the remainder of this summer will just be wet, damp, and cloudy.

We'll find ways to enjoy and be thankful:

• That the worst of the heat will be chased off by the rains, so we at least avoid heat-stroke
• That the farmers and their fields can have the welcome moisture and water for the growing plants
• That the weather just helps us feel cozier when just sitting by at home
• That children can play in the rain for longer periods while it is still their summer vacation.

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Today is Mother's Day. I woke up in a bit of a snit because I really wanted to go out and have a nice lunch somewhere, like Tagaytay. But last night the conversations didn't seem to be going that way (to my mind, at least). And so I left the bed with a bit of a heavy heart.

I then asked Hubby what time he had slept, since I knew last night was a big night in their online gaming community (battles, spies, attacks -- it's a totally different, parallel world for them!). He cited a fairly reasonable time (for a weekend, that is). At least that didn't add fuel to my fire.

Then he asked me to go to the living room. And I saw a bouquet of flowers for me. Hubby and our older daughter had gotten out of the house at 5:30 in the morning to go and pick out flowers. I'm now sure if they were quite stealthy about it or if I was just completely zonked out, but I did not hear anything, not even when they came back. And I am normally a light sleeper.

My huffy mood evaporated, just like that. It reminded me that the signs of appreciation that I wanted can and will manifest themselves in ways that I will not always expect, but will always make me thankful.

• For a little girl who would willingly give up her early morning sleep just to pick and choose the colors and flowers for her mother
• For a husband who plays online games instead of having any vices, and who was ready to trade those gaming moments to go out and get me flowers
• For this day that is dedicated to Mothers.

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Today is Mother's Day. I am thankful for having two daughters of my own, who give me great joy and at times, great frustration as well, but I'll take the whole package.

This is also the first Mother's Day that I will celebrate without my own mother.

Almost a year has gone by now, and for the most part the pain of her passing on has subsided to a dull ache. For the past week though I have been thinking of her a lot more than usual, remembering conversations we'd had, events we participated in, food that she cooked.

These memories are all I have now, all that I can share with my own daughters on what kind of person their grandmother was.

It's been almost a year now, and yet I still sometimes ask myself: Has it been a year already?

I still miss you Mama.

Good Friday, Happy Friday

Today is Good Friday.

When I reminisce about the thirty-odd Good Fridays that have passed through my life so far, it is invariably colored by a somber mood, with marathon TV viewing of such Holy Week classics such as the Ten Commandments and Jesus of Nazareth. We were not supposed to eat meat. We were discouraged from engaging in boisterous horseplay. There were numerous TV specials showing flagellants and re-enactments of the Stations of the Cross, not to mention the actual crucifixions in certain provinces in the Philippines that were undertaken by some of the faithful who have vowed to keep on doing such as their life-long "panata."

It was supposed to be a quiet day, to make it conducive to reflection of Christ's life and internal dialogue.

Nowadays, although the focus should still very well be at introspection and renewing one's faith, the seriousness of the occasion, the gray color that seem to permeate the Holy Week (at least in the days leading to Easter Sunday) appear to have considerably lessened. There is less pressure to force a serious mien all the time. Changing times, perhaps?

Not that that's a bad thing. If anything, it makes things more "palatable" to the younger generation, whose attention will rarely be held by four-hour movies that do not feature 3-D animated characters or dancing princesses.

One thing that does not change (in my mind, at least) is the weather during this time. It seems as if Good Friday goes hand in hand with a sun-bleached day, with a stillness that is broken only by listless breezes that barely ruffle the green-and-brown leaves on the trees. But how people chose to spend this bright, balmy day has changed markedly over the years.

Whereas in years gone by this was marked by people praying the rosary and watching Moses part the Red Sea for the umpteenth time, nowadays a considerable chunk of the population flock in droves to the beaches, resorts, and go on road trips to vacation destinations. Holy Week has become synonymous to travel.

Hubby's birthday happened to fall on Good Friday this year. We did have a moderate celebration of sorts, albeit without cake or singing, nor balloons or party hats -- not that he would have preferred the last two though. It did not seem disrespectful to have this small celebration -- Christ indeed died on the Cross for us all, that we may have eternal life. And we did give thanks for another year, for the continued gift of life. I'd like to believe that these are not mutually exclusive.

The changes in the times are quite evident. Whether this ultimately becomes a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen.

Faith of course is still the key. I am thankful for the blessing that is my Family, for the health that we continue to enjoy, for the gift of Life that we have been presented with.

May we all use these gifts wisely and for the Glory of God.

Thankful for a Lot of Things

What am I thankful for these days?

• That my older daughter has once again been awarded a gold medal in their recognition program, with special awards in English, Math and Reading. She makes it seem so effortless!
• That my not-so-little toddler has been so quickly developing her communication skills and is now speaking in complete sentences, singing nursery rhymes and even making up her own tricks and jokes.
• That my husband will be celebrating his birthday this month, even though it sits right smack in the Holy Week.
• That my father will soon be celebrating his 75th birthday. It will be tinged with sadness though as our mother would not be here to witness this event.
• That a short summer break from work is just around the corner. Times off like these are essential if we are to avoid burn-out. We really need this!
• That we are all together as a family.

Vacation is... What?

I've been neglecting this blog once more, with my last posting having been almost 2 weeks ago. Blame it on the Kindle. Or not.

I've just been so engrossed in reading on the Kindle, I've barely glanced at my trusty old paperbacks. Hmm, so far the novelty has not worn off. This has meant though that there has been less time for me to surf the web and write new entries.

I'm counting down the days till our week-long break comes. I sorely miss the summer vacations I used to have while still a student! Those were the days -- waking up leisurely, with nary a care but what to read, or watch on TV, or games to play, or where to go.

My daughter frequently tells me that she wants to "go on vacation", a statement which is a bit unfathomable to me since school is out and she is, already, "on vacation". Maybe it's the generation gap to blame, but when I was a kid, simply not being required to go to school was already cause for celebration. Staying at home and doing whatever it was that kids did those days -- that was something I looked forward to all school-year.

Apparently the standards have now changed. Kids now define "vacation" as going out of town, flying off to Disneyland or going to the beach, or going on road trips to popular, touristy places. Of course these are nothing to turn one's nose up at, but it just makes me wonder: What happened to just enjoying the lazy days at home and having some down-time? Are kids now so used to a fast-paced, technology-driven world that not having these elements in their lives makes them feel bored?

Whatever happened to just being? This is what we want to emphasize to our daughter -- that simply having the time to do what one wants to is already a luxury in itself. One that she should enjoy while she can.

Two Weeks with the Kindle and Counting...

I've had my Kindle for slightly more than two weeks now, and it has left my side only a few times. Well, during waking hours at least. Thanks to the brains behind this wonderful device that has made it very handy for people to read.

I simply love it, love it, LOVE IT!

Although I do not see myself completely forsaking the traditionally printed books, I am really having fun reading on this nifty little gadget of mine. Since I started using it, I've managed to polish off nine books already (on top of the engaging, albeit unauthorized, paperback version of Oprah: A Biography by Kitty Kelley, that I managed to finish in between):

• Three Weeks with My Brother by Nicholas and Micah Sparks -- part travelogue, part memoir, I found reading this quite restful. Maybe because I appreciated their descriptions of their travels to Guatemala, Peru, Easter Island, Cook Islands, Australia, Cambodia, India, Ethiopia, Malta and Norway.  And I could relate to the obvious close ties that the authors had with their family.
• Dark Secrets of the Vatican by H. Paul Jeffers -- there have always been conspiracy theories surrounding the Vatican and its inhabitants, from shady goings-on to naughty priests, to power plays and espionage, to Opus Dei and even the Nazis. It was actually quite entertaining.
• The Mango Season by Amulya Malladi -- this gave me an insight (however small it may be) into Indian society and the pressures put on younger people in how they choose their mates. In this day and age, we tend to take for granted that not all people have the freedom to choose who they marry. I am thankful for this freedom of ours.
• My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares -- this is the haunting story about a man taking up the threads of a line of lives through the centuries, always with his memories of his past lives intact, always coming back to loving a certain person, who unfortunately does not have the same strong recollections of him. How they meet and part through the centuries becomes the central theme of this poignant book.
• High on Arrival by Mackenzie Philips & Hilary Liftin -- a controversial book by a former child star and singer, who chronicled her unchecked upbringing, her rise to fame and fortune and her descent into the dregs of a life tainted by drink, drugs, and unhealthy relationships including one with her own, rock-icon, father. One wonders how parents could actually be so self-absorbed as to not care how these things affect their kids.
• Is It Just Me? Or Is It Nuts Out There? by Whoopi Goldberg -- a tongue-in-cheek book which lays out Whoopi's pet peeves in current society, running the gamut from being crackberries, to talking on the phone in public so loudly that everyone knows their story, to elevator etiquette. And yes, I do think that it is actually nuts out there.
• Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, books 1, 2 and 3 -- these are very, very easy to read. I used to snub them, but I wanted to try book 1 out at least. I finished it in about 2 hours. The next 2 books followed in short order. The series follows the lives of the unlucky Baudelaire orphans Violet, Klaus and Sunny, and their misadventures as they try to escape the clutches of the sinister Count Olaf. I still have 10 books to go in the series though.

It's so easy on the eyes as, thankfully it is not backlit, and quite light to carry. When I had to stay at home for a day last week due to severe colds and a wracking cough, I had my Kindle with me to keep me company when the kids were occupied somewhere else.

And now I seem to have started a mini-Kindle rage in the office. After seeing my Kindle encased in its gorgeous purple casing, and me singing its praises of course, four of my colleagues decided to go and order their own units. They're now waiting breathlessly.

You really gotta love the Kindle!

Thankful for Family

This weekend I  was again reminded of the importance of family, and spending time with them, and that children are kids only for a short while; so as parents we should grab hold of these fleeting moments as soon as they come. I am thankful for two little angels; and a husband who reminds me that my life has been so blessed.

My Kindle Has Arrived!

My Kindle 3 has arrived!

Yes, I finally buckled down and decided on a Kindle 3, after countless hours swinging between the Kindle vs. Nook pendulum. After placing the order on Amazon for the graphite, latest-generation 3G + WiFi Kindle I was on tenterhooks waiting for its arrival, tracking the package status via DHL. And it did arrive relatively quickly -- after only 4 days of waiting (seemed longer than that to me though) it was delivered to our house.

The Kindle can be charged in either of two ways: via a USB cable attached to a computer, or via the same USB cable attached to a power adapter. I've tried charging it via the computer; I'll try the power adapter option next, when the battery drains out.

Since I didn't want the Kindle to be scratched or dented (I'll probably hyperventilate when that happens), I chose a casing to protect it. It's in purple, of course -- what other color would I have chosen, hmm?

Once I had it in my hands I wasted no time in transferring my e-books and starting to read through one. When I showed it to my father, he was amazed that such a slim unit could hold upwards of 3000 books. Times have indeed changed, thanks to the exponential, year-on-year advances in technology.

The screen is so easy on the eyes, and looks like ink on paper. No glare, no squinting. Of course I can't read with it in the dark as it is not backlit, but the trusty bedside lamp is there to help.

I'm also amused by the screensavers -- the sketches of some of the world's literary giants (including Virginia Woolf, John Steinbeck, Alexandre Dumas, among others), as well as what appear to be random black-and-white images. Some Kindle users hate these images, preferring to have the flexibility to customise their own screensavers. That would be great indeed, but as far as I'm concerned, the literary stalwarts work just fine for now.

Here are the unboxing photos:

I'm extremely happy with my Kindle. It's such a handy gadget to have, esp. when travelling or on the road, one that lets me indulge in my love of reading without me having to lug around those extra volumes.

Will it totally replace my old-fashioned, printed books? Probably not, esp. for those books I would want a real, physical copy of. I'm just thankful for both options.

I've just found a new format that supports a more mobile lifestyle, but nothing still beats the feel of holding a printed book, the smell of paper, the crackling of the pages.

Now excuse me while I go read.

Being Thankful for My Mother

I had not cleaned up the Sent Items folder in my mobile phone for a week or so, which led to it becoming full. Which led to the system automatically deleting the oldest text messages in the folder. Which then made me a tad bit upset.

Not because I am unnaturally attached to my sent messages per se, but because those deleted items held a deeper meaning for me: they were messages I had sent to relatives the day we last had our mother here with us. Those messages somehow gave me a continued connection, albeit a tenuous one, to the events of that day, the 18th of May 2010.

From the time when I let my aunt know that our mother, her sister, had just about stopped responding, or appeared to stop responding, to words and sounds and touch... to the time when her breathing changed patterns... to when her blood pressure fell to 90/60 but the nurses could not get a pulse reading... to when we were asked by the doctor if we wanted extraordinary measures... to the time when we prayed the rosary by her bedside and she peacefully left this world right around the end of our prayers.

These are all still so clear in my mind.

Some might think that it's unhealthy for me to cling to memories of that day, or that those text messages were just ephemeral symbols. Maybe so, but they represented something that I can never have again, not in this lifetime. They were my connection to that last day when I still had a mother, here, on earth, living.

I'm feeling nostalgic and sad and regretful all at once. I keep thinking that I should have moved those messages into a separate personal folder in my phone. But that's all water under the bridge now.

Whether I have those messages in my phone or not, the memories will always remain. And I believe that Mama would not have wanted me, or my sister, or our father, to feel sad whenever memories of her come to mind.

I am thankful that we had her as a mother; with all her quirks and sometimes-overprotective manner, I appreciated her all the more when I became a wife and a mother myself. I realized it was not as simple and easy a task as I had imagined it to be.

I am thankful that she got to know her two granddaughters, even though the toddler was still so young when our mother passed on.

I am thankful that we were given the gift of time to spend with her in her last months, in her last days, in her last moments.

I am thankful that she passed on in a state of grace.

I can't help missing her still.

Kindle or Nook?

Kindle or Nook?

Ah, a very serious question for me indeed. One that has consumed the better part of my Internet surfing hours this weekend.

Bookworm, bibliophile, bookaholic. Yep, that's me. I had seen a Kindle in the past, and read about the Nook as well, but I always maintained that it would be next-to-impossible to replace the feel of an actual book in one's hands, its solid weight comfortingly real. E-books held their own attraction, but nothing could pull me away from the good old-fashioned book.

Then I started to pore over the specs of these e-readers. I was hooked, the quasi-techie that I am. Each has its own pluses and minuses: Amazon's Kindle has its much-vaunted Pearl E-ink technology, with a display very closely approximating the printed page, and this goes very easy on the eyes, literally. Reviews state that downloading books is a cinch, even in the Philippines, there is free 3G access, and that battery life lasts for 3-4 weeks. Of course, all of these are over and above the fact that the Kindle is Amazon's #1 bestseller at the moment, with the most number of 5-star reviews. As it aims to replicate the physical-book reading experience, the display comes only in black (and shades of gray) and white. There is no expandable memory, although 4 GB is certainly nothing to sneer at.

The Nook Color is a beauty, no question about that. With full-color display and an expandable memory (up to 32 GB), this would've been a hands-down choice for me. These features come at a slight premium over the Kindle's price though. The big downside for Barnes & Noble's product though is that B&N do not ship internationally to the Philippines, and that downloading Nook-Books requires a credit card with a US address, something that I definitely do not have. I'm still trolling the Web for work-arounds.

And so I sat browsing the Amazon and B&N catalogs for the e-readers, covers, and available books.

Ah, my self-imposed snobbery on e-readers appears to be crumbling now.

This is a Good Evening

We just had a lovely meal of beef burgers (made by my sister and brother-in-law) -- the homemade kind, mind you, complete with do-it-yourself trimmings: mayo, mustard, catsup, sweet onions, lettuce, tomatoes, grated queso de bola. Lip-smacking indeed! The hamburger buns that were supposed to go with our dinner suddenly sprouted molds though -- before the expiry date! Arrgh! No matter, there was trusty white bread anyway. Yummy!

The kids are happily splashing away in the tub for their bathtime, playing with some toys and sloshing water at each other.

Hubby and I managed to get home quite early, with some time to rest and read and do whatever tickles our fancy.

This is life. Thanks be to God.

Weekend Blessings

This weekend I was again reminded that the simple joys of home more than make up for all the accumulated worries and aggravations we have to face during the work week. We did not do anything earth-shatteringly unique, but the time spent with family makes Saturdays and Sundays soothing pockets of time that I always wish I could bottle up to savor during the rest of the week.

Friday night was another blessing: a welcome breeze gently ruffling our hair, a quiet neighborhood with people off to their own weekend jaunts, twinkling stars sharply etched against the velvety darkness of the sky, and the four of us walking hand in hand.

It reminded me of the previous Friday night, February 18, which was another clear evening, with a full moon glowing coolly from above. I was lucky enough to have my camera on hand to take a hauntingly beautiful photograph of the moon. With all the experimentation I had to make, fiddling dials and buttons here and there, the final result made all the mosquito bites worthwhile!

Last Friday the moon was on the wane, but there were countless stars in the night sky, so much so that our toddler kept on saying "Wow!" We even went to the nearby golf course and reveled in the wide open space that was ours, all ours, for that evening. Of course we tried to avoid the manicured greens near the holes, but no matter. We had fun running around anyway.

It was such an exquisite pocket of time that we all sat down on the grass and gazed upwards, into the limitless expanse of the sky.

Wow, indeed.

Saturday was another happy day, capped by a round of non-competitive badminton and volleyball with the hubby and little girl. I sorely miss playing these games just for the fun of it, without pressure to do well, or to appear to do well. And I'm quite proud of the fact that the little girl is catching on quite quickly, and she can now return badminton shots and volleyball hits. We will practice more, both to build up her skills, and for all of us to unwind.

Nothing earth-shattering. But moments like these make the world seem whole again.

It's a Good Life

It has been a tiring day, requiring us to stay in the office well past sundown. After arriving home, it took a bit of effort to shake off the cares of the office, and slip into Mommy-mode.

I'm glad I'm there now.

I am thankful for two daughters who never fail to make me smile: for a toddler who amuses us with her new words and funny antics ("lo-pap" for lollipop, showing off her "sour pickle face"), a little girl who's just brimming with talent (she loves to read, and write, and draw, and swim like a fish).

I am thankful for a husband who is able to rise out my mood swings, and is supportive and patient. No matter that he is at times glued to the computer playing his favorite stress-relieving games -- he is always willing to leave them behind to spend time with me and the kids.

I am thankful for family members who are with us right now, as they make the kids happy and feel loved.

It's a good life.

Lizard Tales

The ordinary house lizard (or common house gecko) is regarded as a benign, unassuming creature. Quietly scurrying along ceilings and walls, the butiki's presence is more actively felt when the staccato clicking sound is heard: "tik-tik-tik".

The butiki is quite a common fixture in Filipino homes, so much so that they are not really noticed anymore.

When I was about five years old I had a toy with little chickens and teeny-tiny little eggs which I was fond of playing with. One day I chanced upon a round white sphere in our living room, and so I picked it up with my little hands. Not very carefully, I may add, since I was quite certain this was one of my teeny-tiny little eggs.

I must have pressed a bit too vigorously though, since the next thing I knew, out jumped a teeny-tiny little baby lizard. I shrieked with surprise and not a bit of fright.

I can imagine now, with the benefit of non-lizard-egg-crushing hindsight, that I must have surprised the heck out of that poor baby lizard, and prematurely let it out of its protective shell. I wonder how it fared afterwards.

Fast-forward to the present.

Our little toddler is fascinated by anything that moves. Birds, butterflies, cats, dogs, ants. And yes, her interest also extends to lizards. A few weeks ago, she was looking at one particularly large specimen as it was moving along our bedroom ceiling. She was all wide-eyed with watching, so engrossed, that she was craning her head upwards while her rosebud of a mouth formed an "O" of wonderment.

Then the lizard decided to let go of the ceiling and let gravity take its course.

She was so startled that she screamed a little bit. It didn't help that I uttered a little shriek of surprise when this happened. The same shriek I made when I was five. I hope I didn't traumatize our toddler.

I think that the lizard may have also been confused by all the shrieking, that it in very short order it had crossed the floor trying to find a place to hide from the noisy gigantic creatures it was faced with. Unfortunately, it decided that the shortest way to safety was to cut through a path that would take it over the toddler's feet.

Luckily she was wearing socks that time. She screamed a bit more, hopped frantically to one side, and ran towards us. No harm done.

It was only a few days ago that I gleaned from her toddler lingo that she believed something more monumental had occurred than a lizard simply running over her foot.

"Mama, lizard, bite foot. Lizard, bite foot."

I reassured her that this did not in fact happen, that it only passed over her stockinged feet.

I hope that she believed me.

And I hope that one day, when her own toddler has a lizard encounter of her own, that she does not add her own shrieks of surprise to the hullabaloo.

Good Morning

I woke up while the sun was slowly peeking through the horizon. Not an exemplary feat, by any means, esp. since I normally wake up at 5:30 am anyway, pulled from sleep by the insistent beeping of my alarm. On a regular workday, that is.

Today however is Saturday. And I woke up on my own. Perhaps my body clock has been so used to being jolted awake at the same time five times every week that it now chooses to follow the same routine for the other two days. Or maybe I'm getting old, aaarrghh!

Instead of catching up on some more snooze time, I've chosen to get my laptop out and have some Internet time. Hubby is doing the same thing beside me. The two kids are still (thankfully) lost in their dreams in La-la land.

I can hear the birds chirping outside, and I've seen the morning go progressively brighter. Everything else is so still. The weekend is laid out before us, full of promise. No stress, no worries.

I am thankful for this day.

Family Blessings

Today I am thankful for having a very smart and caring daughter who does not need to be told to help her lolo go to the room, turn on the lights for him, and give him his water. I am thankful for a cheerful, dimply toddler, who likes to jump on the bed and run back and forth betwee Mama and Papa. I am thankful for a husband who chooses to read Bible stories to the kids before we all go to sleep.

Teacher's Tales

As I flipped through the pages of the book Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teacher Tales, I was reminded that I have been quite fortunate to have been under the tutelage of a lot of sterling individuals who have helped shape who I am today. Teaching does not necessarily equate to a lucrative profession, true, but I believe it takes dedication to continue on this path of molding young minds and influencing their character.

I have experienced so-so teaching, and have plodded through mediocre classes. But some stand out so brightly in my mind even after all these years. I have woken up early in the morning eager to face another day with these great teachers.

There was Mr. Rene Sison, who was my teacher in the third and fourth grades, who recognized my affinity for numbers, and encouraged me to develop it. His facility for drawing and musical inclination inspired me as well to join the Glee Club and stay with it until I graduated from elementary.  I still remember those monthly masses when we had to sing in church -- it was never a chore for us. I never did get to hone those drawing skills though!

Ms. Clarita De Leon (now Prof. Carillo, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and Research at the UST) taught us sixth-grade English, and I think that was her first year of teaching as well. New she might have been then, but the quality of her teaching was something else. From her I appreciated the importance of being consistently good at what you do. She expected it of her students, and embodied it herself. She was not overly strict, and yet she kept us on our toes. I was never bored in her class, and I quite enjoyed the going over the reading requirements in class. And yes, even the grammar lessons as well! I'm proud to have been one of her students.

The late Mrs. Lourdes Salcedo taught us English in our junior year in high school. It could have easily been a recipe for disaster: with all the focus on medieval writings and modern short stories and poems, teens could have just nodded at the right places and simply memorized information. But she turned our lessons into engaging sessions, making both prose and poetry come alive with meaning for us. She was our group's inspiration when we staged our final English requirement of a Shakespearean play: we did our own take of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and spent countless hours perfecting the sounds and lights, the costumes and the lines. We were ecstatic when she gave us perfect marks for it, and added bonus points to boot! She was really a tough act to follow.

Geometry and Trigonometry do not usually figure into the favorite subject lists of students, even for those in Engineering. Being the math-and-science geek that I am though, I really enjoyed these classes. What made them more interesting was Engr. Butch Carbonell, who made his classes very interactive, and encouraged us to find practical ways of visualizing solid figures, to supplement the numerous formulae we had to absorb. When our group was assigned to tackle cylinders and spheres, we came to class with a hollowed-out watermelon with an empty softdrink can inside, which garnered hoots of laughter from the class. But hey, it was meant to be a visual application after all! His energy towards teaching was -- and from what I hear, still is -- very evident. His rendition of "Da Coconut Nut" still makes me smile.

In the Faculty of Engineering, my "nanay-nanayan", Engr. Philip Marcelo, introduced me to Fluid Flow and Thermodynamics, subjects which I grew to love. I know, I know, the inner geek is shining through again, haha! She was our freshman Chemistry professor, and then our third-year Thermo prof. She had a reputation for being strict -- and she was, at times -- but she also maintained standards in her class that we had to live up to. Her love for learning never stopped, and her forays into Food Tech is something I really admire her for. She was one of my thesis advisers in my fifth year, and was one of those who constantly cheered us in inter-university competitions. She has mellowed down a lot now in her classes (yes, you have, Nanay Philip!), and I do hope that her students know how lucky they are.

Statistics is a subject that is usually best served in little chunks, as some find it a bit difficult to digest in one go. Our third-year class was an exception to this: as Engr. Rudy Dimayacyac only taught on Saturdays due to his working full-time in the industry, we had to go through three hours worth of Statistics straight up. A challenging task, even in the best of times. But somehow, he managed to make things work by being able to make his explanations simple enough to grasp, and yet he would challenge us all to test our understanding in his bonus questions-ridden tests. I will always remember the way he would illustrate statistical concepts by making a box-and-whisker plot of our class scores, and point out the outliers! His better half, Engr. Dina Dimayacyac, also taught Statistics and Stoichiometry in the ChE department, and we always thought that Ninong and Ninang made an admirable pair.

The former dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Engr. Alberto Laurito, and the former Chemical Engineering department chair, Engr. Evelyn Laurito, are two other favorites of mine. Thermodynamics, Kinetics, Stoichionetry and Environmental Studies -- all very technical subjects, ridden with formulas and graphs, and exams that induced headaches and stiff necks (esp. if one was unprepared). Very challenging subjects indeed, but they have been tackled with great aplomb by this admirable pair, pillars of the ChE department both. Their emphasis on knowing the concepts and not just memorizing by rote, kept me striving to give my best. Ninong and Ninang, thank you.

I have a lot of fond memories of other teachers still, but I have not been able to write them down yet. For now, I would just like to say: Kudos to all of you. You have made my stay in the UST quite memorable.

Weekend Reading List

For the past two weeks I have been trying to finish the two books I started reading. Uhmm, yes, I do read books in parallel, sometimes even three or four at a time, from various genres. I then read whatever suits my mood. For one reason or another, I always put these two books aside and start (and eventually finish) other volumes.

Maybe these books don't really tickle my fancy that much, or they're a bit on the heavy reading side, but I'm just too proud to quit. And so I plod along page by page. These books? Negotiation Genius by Deepak Malhotra and Max Bazerman, and Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan.

Negotiation Genius is actually interesting, in that it offers very practical examples and applications of the concepts of negotiating. After my stint as a member of the management panel for the CBA talks in our company, I can relate to what Messrs. Malhotra and Bazerman wrote about. Concepts such as logrolling and packaging demands together, co-creation of value and BATNA -- they are all very useful, and presented in a very readable format. I wish we could've read this beforehand.

Somehow though, another book always manages to catch my eye, so I put this one aside, finish the other one, then come back to this once more. I will finish this in time though. That's my promise.

The other one, Say You're One of Them, is a collection of stories by Uwem Akpan, a Nigerian author. I had seen this book before in stores, but I always ignored it. Then I picked it up and read the blurb, browsed through it and decided that it looked interesting after all. The stories are about life in Africa, in countries such as Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia -- and not just about the picturesque and idealized views of living outside the big cities. It shows the harsh and sordid realities that people do live through, such as human trafficking, prostitution, and religious conflict.

It's serious reading, and much as I want to, I just can't seem to absorb it all in one go. That's why I need to take breaks in between and pick up a book with a lighter tone. But I will go back and finish this as well. It's good writing, honest and unadorned.

On the other hand, in one sitting last night I finished Twisted 9 by Jessica Zafra. Granted, it's a thin voume, but it's eminently readable, with that sardonic tone I admire so much in her writing. From movies to pets to her passion for tennis, she writes n a way that makes one think and chortle at the same time. A very talented writer, I have almost all of Ms. Zafra's books, and a lot of books by other Filipino authors such as F. Sionil Jose, Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, and Ambeth Ocampo.

I think it's a pity that books by Filipino authors or those with a Filipinianan slant are not given as much air-time or ad-space as others, and are almost always excluded from special promos. But then again, maybe it's because they are already priced way lower than other books sourced from abroad. That's not to say they are of lesser quality though. Definitely not.

And while we're on the vein of easy reading, I started on the much-awaited sequel to Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert: Committed. It picks up from where Eat, Pray, Love left off: when Elizabeth met and fell in love with Felipe. Because they both came from first marriages that ended in divorce, they vowed to NOT get married ever, and which apparently made their relationship last. The complexities start when Felipe is banned from entering the US, except if they get married. The search for the meaning of marriage becomes the overarching theme of this book. I'm about a foruth of my way through, and I think I'll be able to finish it off this weekend.

While experimenting with the focusing mechanism on my camera, I was able to get this nicely blurred effect of the four books I've just written about, a photo of which is at the start of this post.

Quite interesting!