by The Happy WAHM
A few days ago, I came across a post of a fellow WAHM, Martine de Luna, who’s running a contest at her blogsite. I’ve been slowly getting our cabinets and drawers organized since June, but I have to admit that housekeeping has never been my strongest suit. Those fancy drawers from Howards Storage World will definitely push me to the right direction.
The contest says I just need to blog or write a Facebook note on why I deserve to win a Php10,000 wardrobe showcase from Howards Storage World. Well, I can do that!
I have to LIKE their page on Facebook. Did that this morning.
Sign up for Dainty Mom’s newsletter. I’ve been a subscriber for more than a couple of months, I think.
Tweet about the contest. Uh-oh! That, I can’t do. No Twitter account. So I went ahead and created one. While I was creating my account, I got to thinking that maybe pursuing tweeting even after the contest would be good. Facebook is kind of limited. Tweeting can be fun!
So now I have a Twitter account with a total of 3 tweets there. Ha ha ha! Now I need to start writing that note, or blog post, so I can officially submit my entry. I won’t win without an entry, right?
Wrong!
Even with an entry, I still won’t win.
Because I went back to the Dainty Mom’s site just now, and in asterisk and bold letters, it says: **Contest is open to Philippine residents in Metro Manila only.**
Oh, well… I still have a blog post. 🙂
by The Happy WAHM
Here’s how I have planned my day:
I would start my day early and attend to my work inbox first thing, pick up the girls’ dresses for the recital on Sunday, then we’ll do the grocery shopping, buy shoes for the girls, buy me a cake since it’s my birthday, pick up some goodies for Xia’s classmates who are coming over after class to the house to do their group project, go home, take Bea to practice, then while Bea’s at practice, I’ll be taking pictures of her drawings for documentation and have Bea insert them in her portfolio, get Bea, attend to Xia’s guests, then finally sit down for more serious work.
That was my plan.
But God has other plans.
I was awakened by Jude’s kisses. I know the kids all have something for me. Xia wanted to know what time I would call it a day last night. I knew she wanted me to get my “gift” the moment I wake up.
So Jude was in charge of waking Mommy up. And Xia was already in her school uniform when she came in the room to ask if I’ve seen “it”. “It” turned out to be cards that each of them made for me with dedication that brought happy tears to my eyes. They were lying neatly beside my pillow.
Xia’s card reads:
Mom, I want you to know how much I love you
Your smile brightens up my day like sunshine
I am lucky to have a great mother like mine
You always encourage me
To become who I want to be
I know there are things that I can never repay
But still I just want to say, happy __rd birthday!
Bea’s card reads:
Dear Mommy,
Your birthday means so much to me
The time I spent enfolded in your love
I cherish the very special bond we have
I celebrate your life
I honor you and love you
Jude’s card is a whole long bond paper with a pencil drawing. It looked like… uhm… planets? And a big heart right at the center. I see the earth. And lots of dots.
Take a look:
When I asked him what it was, he said: “It’s the universe, Mommy. ‘Yan lang ang kaya kong ibigay sa ‘yo.”
I cried.
And I mean, CRIED. But with a big smile. Didn’t want to frighten the kids and make them think I didn’t like their gifts. I LOVE them! My son has given me the universe, my middlechild honors and loves me, and my smile is sunshine to my firstborn. Who could ask for more?
Ah! I should remember to smile more. A lot more. Since they are giving me so much to smile about. Laugh, even. And Bea’s card… it came with pressed sampaguita flowers. I know she and Jude started on that project last week. Jude circled the date on his calendar. And a fight would always ensue when Jude would try to check on the flowers. He doesn’t have Bea’s restraint.
So what went wrong?
I didn’t have time to do my scheduled laundry in the past days, so seeing the great sun up and bright, I just thought I’d throw in a couple of loads. I knew we’d be busy over the weekend because of the recital, so I thought I’d take advantage of the sunshine and do my laundry a day early. While the first load was spinning, I attended to my inbox, and disheartened to find out that for some reason, all the links in one of the websites I manage just stopped working. They’re no longer clickable. So I have to attend to that, pronto, or my client will lose clients. Then there’s another link in another website that is supposed to go to a shopping cart, but it lands on a blank page, so another troubleshooting task on top of the regular stuff that I do daily.
A few days back, I’ve noticed that the belt of the water pump needs to be replaced already. So before my first load, my husband replaced the belt. We’re supposed to switch off the pump when the gauge reads 40, and we’re actually alerted that it needs to be switched off when the pump starts to sound like the wheels are no longer willing to turn. Or something. After the belt replacement, my husband warned me that it will no longer emit any sound, so I just need to be alert. After my second load of laundry, I totally forgot that I had the water pump on. And I succeeded in rupturing our water tank.
Panic time.
With the tank leaking, we could no longer pump water into it. So off the husband goes to search for a welder. He found one, but the guy was still busy with a prior commitment, so we had to wait. There goes the trip to the grocery and the department store to buy shoes. No cake. No more having classmates over. With no water, it would not be a good time to be entertaining at home.
Oh, but there’s water! Because by lunchtime, it was raining cats and dogs. There goes my hope of having the laundry dry and folded by afternoon.
We simply could not leave the house coz the welder might miss us. So we just made a really quick trip to pick up the dresses, and settled in for the long wait until it was time to take Bea to her practice.
The rain has been incessant, so when the welder finally arrived, they had to take down the tank under the pouring rain. And put it back up with just a teeny weeny bit of rain still.
But the good part is… in the midst of all the chaos that was happening at home, I was truly happy with all the birthday greetings (which actually started to trickle in last Monday) via Facebook, on my wall, thru private messages, SMS, FB Groups, Yahoo Groups and phone calls. I may still have some messages that I need to reply to, but those can wait. I just needed to write about today’s blessings. I’ll just worry about the shoes tomorrow, and the fact that there is not a single slice of bread in the house, and there is not a single piece of egg in the fridge. Today was a challenging one, but that’s all it was. A challenge. And I survived.
I had a really happy birthday!
And by the way, when I went to my desk (this was before I started work), I found these on top of my open notebook…
by The Happy WAHM
It was a training for homeschooling parents, and my eight-year-old just wanted to tag along, so I brought her with me. She woke up promptly at 5:00AM so we could leave at 6:00AM and be at TMA for the 8:30 sked, with time for breakfast before going in. It was a full day activity, so I feared that she’d get bored. I asked her: “What will you do while Mommy is attending the training?” She said: “I’ll just bring my sketchpad.” And she did.
She lost her pencil somewhere (maybe when she took out her jacket from her bag while we were on the bus) so we made a quick trip to National Bookstore during the break. We made a pact at the beginning of her school year that we are not going to buy any coloring materials as we have a boxful of old crayons that we collected from the past years’ purchases. That pact was about to be broken.
At the bookstore, she saw these Faber-Castell watercolour pencils and an artistic template. I could feel she wanted to have new pencils. Sure, we have dozens of crayons, but colored pencils are different. Aware of how much she loves to draw, I know just how much she would love to have a new set of good quality pencils. And dust-free erasers. It was painful to watch her lovingly touching the boxes of colored pencils and making an effort not to ask for one. So I asked: “Would you like to have new pencils?” She replied with a question of her own: “Do you have money?” I said, “I guess we can buy a box.” Then she said: “Just the small one, Mommy.” Although I could feel how much she would prefer to have the big box with the brush and sharpener.
And so we ended up buying Faber-Castell pencils, the 12-piece watercolour pencil box with the brush, and I threw in an artistic template, too.
So here is the latest addition to Bea’s drawing portfolio.
Bea at work, while a speaker was discussing Singapore Math.
My certificate for the training. But nothing will ever beat the drawing. 🙂
by The Happy WAHM
This is an actual three-way conversation between me and my two homeschoolers, Bea and Jude. I started the conversation as an avenue for an oral recitation in Math – addition and subtraction for Jude; and addition, subtraction and multiplication for Bea. But the conversation turned out to be a lesson in something far more important than Math. A lesson for me, on love and selflessness, and how my children’s respective characters are being developed.
Me: Jude, bibigyan mo ba si Mommy ng money mo? (Referring to Ninong Ogie’s gift to him.)
Jude: Yes, sa ‘yo na lang, pero kukuha ako ng isa. (There were 6 bills.)
Me: Bakit isa? Ano ang bibilhin mo?
Jude: Gamot. Wala na akong (name of his med) e.
Me: Hindi toy? Meron ka pa namang gamot, bagong bili ni Daddy.
Bea: Dahil ‘yon ang kailangan, Mommy, saka may toy pa s’ya.
Me: Okay. Ganon nga ba ‘yon, Jude?
Jude: Ilan ba ang money ko, Mommy?
I showed him the bills.
Jude: Sige, dalawa na ang kukunin ko. Isang pang gamot, isang para pambili ng electric guitar ni Ate Xia, para four ang sa ‘yo.
Me: Bakit para kay Ate Xia? Paano ka?
Jude: Sayang ang money ko ‘pag toy ang bibilhin. Pwede ba ‘yan sa electric guitar, Mommy? Kasya ba? Pag hindi, saka na lang.
Me: So talagang ayaw mo ng para sa ‘yo?
Jude: Ikaw, Ate Bea, ano’ng gusto mo?
Bea: Violin sana, pero mahal ‘yon. Pwedeng idagdag ‘yong coins ko, Mommy, 400 na ‘yon.
Jude: Three na ang kukunin ko, Mommy.
Me: Hmmm… Gamot, electric guitar at violin… So ano’ng gagawin natin sa natitirang money?
Jude: Sa ‘yo na, Mommy.
Me: Ano’ng gagawin ko don?
Bea: Pambili ng pagkain at gamit sa bahay.
Me: Bakit? Kulang ba ang pagkain natin sa bahay ngayon?
Bea: Hindi, Mommy. Para hindi ka mahirapan mag work.
Me: Hmmm… Ano’ng connection sa work ko?
Bea: Konti na lang ang work mo pag dadagdagan namin ang money mo.
I cried.
This is homeschooling at its best. You never know when you’ll get hit right in the solar plexus. When you’ll feel torn between feeling like your chest would burst with pride, and bawling like a baby for being humbled by the selflessness of your six- and eight-year-olds!
And these two are getting a perfect 10 in Character for this quarter.
by The Happy WAHM
Jude is now officially a first grader at the Aberásturi Home Academy! He was supposed to start last December, but with my crazy schedule, it simply was not fair to get him on board without me 100% ready for his needs. Plus, I needed to run an errand in Mindoro, so I had an out-of-town trip that ate up my time for lesson planning.
As with all the best laid plans, the AOP Science curriculum that Bea (now in third grade) used will just be a supplement. Recognizing Jude’s special interest in astronomy, we will focus on Exploring Creation with Astronomy for the whole year.
For the rest of the subjects, we’ll have the following:
Math – Lifepac Level 2 – Alpha Omega Publications
Language – Speak, Read and Write 1 – C & E Publishing
Reading – Reading Network – Sibs Publishing House
Bible – Following God 1 – ICI Ministries
Character – The Power for True Success – Institute in Basic Life Principles
Filipino – Binhi 1 – Jo-Es Publishing House
Social Studies – Mystery of History Volume I – Bright Ideas Press. To be supplemented with Makabayang Lahi from Ephesians Publishing, because we have to comply with DepEd’s directive that Social Studies be taught in Filipino.
Music – We are still fluid on this. He’s still deciding between the ukelele, the guitar and the piano.
Arts – Online materials, and Sing, Sketch, Stretch 1 from Abiva Publishing House.
Etiquette – Family Book of Manners – CLC
Welcome to A-HA, baby!
