Changes and a new blog, too

With all the changes that have happened and they have happened so quick, I have decided that instead of overhauling this blog, that I would just create a new one instead. Please visit my new blog I have titled, All The Worldly Things. Here's the link: http://alltheworldlythings.blogspot.com

Thank you all very much for supporting my pursuit of becoming everything I want to be. 

May you all be blessed for your kindness. 

Hello 2014!

2013 was an amazing year. There were a lot of very wonderful things that happened for us. Like every normal family however, not everything came easy, not everything was always picture-perfect but what mattered was that we endured, we learned a lot, we survived and we made so many happy and loving memories in the process.

New Year's in the Philippines is always welcomed with much excitement and enthusiasm with a great uproar of fantastical fireworks displays and terrifying booms and bangs, sometimes clashes and clangs from banging pots, pans, lots of toots and hoots from noisemakers, honking of horns and whatnot. If it makes a noise and it can make it loud, use it and do it!

We also prepare a lot of Spanish influence dishes as we have Media Noche on New Year's Eve. Medianoche is a Filipino tradition of having a special gathering of family and friends for a wonderful feast to welcome the new year.

I may not be able to light up the sky for Zenon and I to watch in awe and amazement, and get close to having asthma attacks from smoke inhalation, I tried to at least give ourselves as much a special night I could though very simple and quiet. Given that we were all a bit unwell from having a cold, too, we really didn't have energy for anything more anyway.

So for the night, I prepared a very simple, very cheap traditional Filipino dish called arroz caldo. It's made with rice, chicken broth flavored with some garlic, salt , pepper and ginger, with chunks of chicken. The ginger was very good for our sore, dry throats.

 

I arranged 12 different types of round fruits for good luck, proof of the prominent Chines influence in Filipino culture that I had grown up with.

 

I also put together a few decorations we had to make a beautiful New Year's centerpiece on our dining table.

 

 

We watched the shows and waited for the countdown and gave each other hugs and a toast of champagne and sprite for Zenon. Greetings given to everyone, including Sandy, too.

2013 had its ups and downs, it was rough at times but good to us all in all. Zenon has grown up so much in the past year. Most times I wish time would slow down, but watching Zenon learn and slowly turn into a man of how own is an amazing sight and a wonderful experience that I am forever grateful for.

We're definitely up to the challenge to make 2014 as amazing if not better than the year past.

Happy New Year everyone!

 

 

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Zenon and the Minecraft addiction

Zenon made this today in a game called Minecraft. He's so addicted to this game, I think it's good because he gets to be creative. I have to watch out for the videos he watches about it on YouTube though. Some of them contain bad language.

 

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Waffle Recipe using Pancake Mix

Zenon loves breakfast for dinner. I'm not a baker, I'm more a cook so I don't really have any baking products at home except flour, so I had to figure out a recipe to make good waffles using pancake mix.

I found this recipe originally from the internet and just tweaked the measurements a little and added the vanilla extract.

Ingredients:

2 eggs

4 Tbsp softened butter

1 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups pancake mix

 

Directions:

Ready the waffle iron. Beat the eggs and start adding all other wet ingredients. Add the flour and continue mixing. Cook! :)

Crispy on the outside, nice and moist on the inside.

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Zenon and the Minecraft addiction

Zenon made this today in a game called Minecraft. He's so addicted to this game, I think it's good because he gets to be creative. I have to watch out for the videos he watches about it on YouTube though. Some of them contain bad language.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Sandy Baby

We adopted Sandy on the 1st of Ocotber last year. Our lives have never been the same since.

I admit I've never been big a dog person and because of the many, many challenges that came with her not being trained and myself not being a dog person, I thought about returning her so many times. Time passed and I never gave up. Zenon eventually started warming up to this huge beast that I insist is his baby sister.

I never realized how much we had fallen in love, mostly how much I had fallen in love with our baby, until she ran away a week ago.

It has been a while since I prayed so hard, but I did. I prayed hard because Zenon cried for his puppy, his beautiful beastly sister. I kept calm the whole time, called Home Again, informed my supervisor just in case I had to leave work or not be at work at all, called up local news stations, local police stations, local vets, local shelters, posted on FB, made posters and had friends help me search. I was calm but I started feeling depressed. I missed her. I started thinking about coming home from work and there was no overly excited, overgrown puppy welcoming us home -- jumping up on me and Zenon, too.

I prayed so hard for her to be safe, to come back home, to just be safe.

So much tears of joy shed! We love you Sandy! You overgrown puppy you! We're so happy you're back home!

Advanced Happy Birthday you overgrown baby! We love you!

 

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Tutorial Fail

Whenever I'm working on a project, I try to have a plan - a design in my head and a guideline as to how it should be done step-by-step.

As I make progress however, I find myself having spontaneous bursts of creativity either for the purpose of adjusting the original plan to work better or scratch the original plan in its entirety. So I realize just how bad I am at trying to be a blogger of DIY projects.

When I'm in the zone, nothing distracts me. I do it, I enjoy it, no matter how agonizing the task is, I enjoy the agony that comes with it.

So maybe I shouldn't feel so bad about not taking pictures at every step of the way because it just doesn't work out well for me most times.

S if I'm lucky, ill do tutorial, if not, well....leave a message and I'll put into words to as much as I can, clear, concise and easy to follow instructions when asked.

For now, a picture of Zenon's finished binder. I got the Pokemon images from his Pokemon card boxes. His initials were made using 3" letter pads from Hobby Lobby. I used different colored sharpies to create the abstract patterns.

 

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