How To Take The 30-Day Challenge (Turn A New Habit Into A Way of Life)

May 20, 2018May 22, 2018Leave a comment

I’m now on the 12th day of my very own self-imposed 30-day blog post challenge because I wanted to make daily blogging a habit, a way of life. I didn’t want blogging to take a back seat anymore because writing has always been my way of like since I was a little child. And in the past 11 days that I’ve consistently written and shared my thoughts and experiences, I noticed a huge leap in my levels of happiness and contentment. And isn’t that what’s more important? We only live once so we might as well do things that make us happy (within the boundaries of social norms of course!) and hopefully help and inspire other people to be happy and do what makes them fulfilled as well.

Today, I want to dig a little bit deeper into habit-making. I’ve already taught you How to Do What You Love Each Day, and this is in consonance with that. Do you notice that there are people who always make their dreams come true while there are others who always seem to run out of luck? It’s all about their habits. Success and failures are not actions. They are the results of the habits we do every single day. Continue reading →

How to Start Your Own Vegetable Garden At Home the Affordable Way

May 19, 2018May 27, 20185 Comments

I’m now on the 11th 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 them is planting my own vegetables. This hobby actually started during my elementary years in St. Scholastica’s Academy of Marikina when our Science teacher assigned us to plant monggo seeds at home. I did as instructed and I was really amazed to see them grow!

We didn’t have a wide space at my parents’ house to plant some more, plus I already became busy with my academic life and other hobbies (like craft-making, painting, and sewing) plus I was trying hard to maintain my honor student status so suffice it to say that planting took a backseat. The desire got repressed and it would just surface every time we’d vacation at my grandfather’s farm in Bukidnon. But even then, I was already busy exploring other things that planting just became a desire that never got fulfilled until in my 30’s when I started a mini vegetable garden at my balcony in my own house.

So I thought that before I continue to tell you what’s been happening in our farm, I should go back to my roots first. After all, not everyone has a huge land to farm and most people I know would like to start vegetable gardening in their own backyard like how I started years ago. With that said, I’m going to post here my old indoor vegetable farming posts. The content is evergreen so it doesn’t matter when you read it. The tips you will learn will always be useful in case you want to start your own vegetable garden too.

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A Job A Million Girls Would Die For… (The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger)

May 18, 2018May 20, 2018Leave a comment

I’m now on the 10th 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 them is reading books as I’ve mentioned in my previous blog post. But it’s not just reading books I love per se, but blogging about what I’ve read as well. So I’m going to transfer to this blog all those book reviews and blog posts I’ve written before. I told you I’m a bookworm! A sexy bookworm that is… hahaha!

So on those days that I may be in a hurry and don’t have much time to sit down and blog about my life, my travels, my thoughts and stuff that require at least 4 hours to curate my photos and edit my post (like today I need to go to the doctor), I’ll just blog about one of those books I’ve already read.

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Don’t Just Make Plans; Make Options!

May 17, 2018May 19, 20183 Comments

I’m now on the 9th 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 them is reading books. An iBook copy of a fantasy adventure story entitled TWO SPELLS was sent to me by an author named Mark Morrison from the U.S. and I can’t wait to start reading it. I wasn’t expecting to be staying at the farm for a week now so I didn’t bring the current books I am reading (I also didn’t bring more clothes and underwear, lol!) This is what happens when I don’t make options and just basically try to stick to my plan which I keep forgetting usually don’t really happen in real life! Life is full of surprises and events that we don’t really get to plan but happen anyway. Like this kind author who out of the blue gave me something nice to read. I’ll do that as soon as I’m done with my blogging tasks and other online work for today. And when I finish the book, I’ll tell you all about it here. Coz I’m a bookworm too, in case you didn’t know.

For today’s blog post, I’d like to talk about making options. It was Jennifer Aniston who said that she doesn’t make plans. She makes options. And I say to Jen, good for you! I should have done that a long time ago too!

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Farm Life in the Philippines – What is It Like? (Part 2)

May 16, 2018May 17, 20183 Comments

I’m now on the 8th 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 them is actually living at the farm. This is Part 2. If you missed Part 1, you can read it here: FARM LIFE IN THE PHILIPPINES – WHAT IS IT LIKE? (PART 1)

OUR FARM LIFE TODAY

Tuz and I came to the farm with Mahal last Saturday. I honestly thought that we’ll only be here for the weekend, just to catch some fresh air and enjoy the view, because, you know, I can be high maintenance like that. Lol. Seriously though, it’s because of the following reasons:

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Farm Life in the Philippines – What is It Like? (Part 1)

May 15, 2018May 18, 20182 Comments

I’m now on the 7th 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 them is actually living at the farm.

DISCLAIMER

This is going to be a long blog post, hence the two parts. So prepare some popcorn and enjoy the first one… ^_^

BACKGROUND

What I’m going to blog about with you today is my life here at the farm to give you all a glimpse of what farming is like here in the Philippines, at least in these parts of Northern Mindanao. I used to vacation at my grandfather’s farm in Bukidnon when I was younger but of course, it’s not the same. My grandfather is a typical haciendero with all his drivers and helpers; has 2 nice farm houses complete with all the amenities of modern living and he doesn’t farm… he just orders around people to do the job and collects money from all his harvests while here, at Mahal’s farm, it’s really back to basics – no running water, no proper toilet, no proper housing and we also do the planting ourselves. There goes my expectation of being a typical haciendera down the drain. Hahaha! Work and sacrifices first before enjoying our harvests. Continue reading →

How to Let Go of Toxic People in Your Life

May 14, 2018May 16, 20183 Comments

I’m now on the 6th 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 them is being able to focus on my work and not be bombarded with so many distractions. I have an 11AM Skype meeting with a client and I want my blog post task to be done so I can focus on my work at hand. So suffice it to say that this post will be short and sweet… just something to help you like it helped me when the going got tough in some of my relationships.

I’m sure many of you have experienced in one form or degree letting go of people you once held dear in your heart simply because they have been toxic and unhealthy for you. It doesn’t matter if they were friends or family members or people of authority in your life. You just had to let them go.

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Tuscany Highlands Organic Farm Mushroom Chili Paste – How It Came to Be

May 13, 2018December 13, 20198 Comments

I’m now on the 5th 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 them is helping out Mahal in our agribiz venture.

Mahal and I are always thinking of ways to preserve our mushroom harvest. The only ways we can do that for now are either to freeze them (which can be costly since our own personal fridge at home is small and can’t accommodate a lot of harvests), to dry it which is good because that’s very easy to do and you only need the sun to make it possible, or to process our harvest which is the best alternative. We chose to do the last 2 alternatives since they fit very well into our current lifestyle.

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Farming is Like Mothering (A Mother’s Day Post)

May 12, 2018May 13, 20183 Comments

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.

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How To Be Clear Why You Are Here

May 11, 2018May 28, 20197 Comments

I’m now on the 3rd 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 things is reading my books, particularly Jack Canfield’s The Success Principles. I bought this book in 2009. I started reading it and finished a few chapters, then life happened and before I know it, years have passed and I haven’t continued reading the book. So I started reading it again from Chapter 1. I remember blogging about it here too: HOW TO TAKE 100% RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR LIFE

I am currently in Chapter 26 when I thought to myself, why not continue blogging about it? That way, I get to analyze each chapter, be more conscious of applying the lessons and principles I learned, rather than just trying to finish the book?

So that’s what I’m doing for this post. I am going to share with you Jack Canfield’s Success Principle #2: Be Clear Why You’re Here.

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Random Thoughts of a 40-Year Old Mom

May 10, 2018May 12, 2018Leave a comment

So it’s Day 2 of my 30-day blog challenge which I hope to turn into a daily routine for as long as I live. (The first day of this challenge was yesterday) I’ve only slept 4 hours because baby Tuz woke me up to have his diapers changed and I couldn’t anymore sleep after that.

I think one effect of doing this challenge is that I have something I love that I am now looking forward to in my day. It’s not just work-eat-sleep anymore (long version: take care of Tuz-chores-work-feeling a bit empty and lonely coz Mahal is at the farm during weekdays-cook-social media-watch videos-sleep). I am now actually adding a bit of excitement to my day by thinking about what to write next and then actually writing down my thoughts.

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