It’s Mother’s Day today, Philippine Time (I am perpetually on US Time Zone) and I’d like to greet everyone, especially my mom, a Happy Mother’s Day!

I’m now on the 4th day of my very own self-imposed 30-day blog post challenge which also propelled me to restart doing other things I love and one of those is enjoying our farm and doing farm stuff.

I don’t have any special blog post planned for this. I thought I could think up of something but having been sleepless the past week due to work, Tuz’s fussiness, body aches coz I started working out again, and that one small fight I had with Mahal that brought me chest pains and sleeplessness, my body caved in this weekend and I slept for 11 hours straight! It helps that we are at the farm, Mahal and I kissed and made up, the weather is so cold even without air conditioning, the air is so fresh with crickets and frogs singing in the background, it really made me fall into a long slumber. And then I woke up to this beautiful view of a hidden sunrise, who wouldn’t feel so rejuvenated and refreshed? So as the sun continues to rise in the horizon, I figured I will try to make a Happy Mother’s Day blog post.

We don’t have anything special planned. All plans went down the drain when our people asked for permission to take the weekend until Tuesday off coz one of their family members will be running for election and they need to do all the campaigning activities they can squeeze in before Monday. So that sort of forced me to go with Mahal to the farm.

It’s been about 4 months since I last stayed here. There’s actually a not-so-nice-story behind this but I won’t dwell on that anymore… Okay, maybe I will for a bit, hihihi… Suffice it to say that the son and daughter-in-law of the long-time caretakers of Mahal’s farm who has been living here since before their 9-year-old daughter was born grew proud and ungrateful for everything that we’ve been giving them that they suddenly decided to leave (take note that the wife is 27 years old, pregnant and very hormonal) just because of a misunderstanding the wife had with Mahal. And Mahal, being a very kind, gentle and compassionate person was hurt by all this. I actually cried too. I thought, whatever happened to all those parties [Halloween, Christmas and New Year) that we threw for them that I paid for? Whatever happened to that excursion we did when we had our planning seminar so they can experience being in a classy resort? Whatever happened to the birthday parties we did for the husband and their kid? It all meant NOTHING to them! All the sacrifices I did for them at work just so we can give them what they need meant NOTHING 😦 ]

This happened while we were vacationing in Oslob last January and the wife just suddenly went berserk and hormonal threatening to leave as if we couldn’t survive without her. It was such a harrowing experience. The husband couldn’t do anything because he is a loving husband and will always say yes to his pregnant wife. So we let them go.  Everything we’ve worked so hard for since September last year was put to a halt as we scrambled to find their replacements. Good thing that Mahal’s parents own a lot of lands in Mindanao and have a lot of other caretakers manning those lands that his mom was able to ask a few to replace the previous caretakers. So the caretakers we have now are originally from their coconut farm in Naawan. Nang Nanda has been around since before Mahal was born. She’s in her 50’s too, such a happy lady. So hopefully an incident like this won’t happen again. She asked her son and grandson to come work for us here at the farm and they all agreed. Everything went back to almost normal with just a few things here and there to learn once again. So that was why I haven’t been coming here… because I was too broken-hearted by the previous caretakers that I didn’t want to see them again. They just live nearby with their in-laws. Everything is okay now, we’re all on speaking terms, it’s just not the same anymore. It’s like having your heart broken by someone you love. Because the truth is I did love them. Oh well, that’s that. That’s why we’re spending our Mother’s Day weekend here at the farm coz we couldn’t leave the farm unattended.

It’s not so bad. I kept telling Mahal last night that I am actually happy I went. I’m also giddy to report that I am very much in love again with Mahal and that everything seems to be fine in my life right now, like this… Me, Tuz, Mahal… just as three here at the farm, doing farm stuff. Maybe I’m born for this? We’ll see. Hehehe.

Speaking of farm stuff, it’s good to see other things growing here aside from mushrooms. Let me show you some pics.

The dragon fruit cuttings we bought last August 2017 at Three Lucky Mountains in Bulacan have finally started crawling up their posts. Yey!

The baby lemon trees  have started growing lemons! I’m so excited for this because I love love love lemons! I drink it every morning, I put the peelings in my water and salad, I use it to scrub my face, etc!

We now have a nursery for bellpeppers and eggplant! Hoping to plant some other veggies this weekend.

The camote tops and kangkong continue to grow. We’ve actually harvested from them several times which I used to cook our meals at home.

The pechay and coffee trees have been harvested ready to be sold in the market.

I once posted a video last year on facebook about this little farm that practices permaculture in the US. And I want our farm to be like that too. Mahal has already downloaded some designs we could incorporate into our farm and hopefully, we really get to do it. Slowly… little by little as our time and resources would permit it. We want that to be our legacy that we will leave to Tuz — an organic permaculture farm.

So what’s all this got to do with Mother’s Day? I guess organic farming is like mothering. You can’t do it fast. It takes time, patience, grit and a lot of persistence and perseverance. Pretty much like becoming a mother. When your child starts acting up or rebelling or doing things you don’t want, you just can’t say I don’t want to be a mother anymore! It’s a lifelong process where you keep learning and growing and doing better again and again and again.

My mom is actually like that. With all the sacrifices she did in her life to be able to raise us three siblings and even until now that she continues to support my brother and his three kids, I am just amazed at her resilience of not giving up. That’s the essence of motherhood which I have yet to experience since Tuz is only two years old and the gravest problem I had to face with Tuz is his tantrums.

So anyway, I just wish every mother out there a very happy Mother’s Day! No matter what trials you’re facing in your own respective lives, know that you are perfect. Know that you are always doing your best even if it seems not enough and know that that is okay as well.

Rest too when you can dear moms! Let’e enjoy our day!