It’s July 1 and I can feel it! I’ve been working my ass off (pardon the term) since I woke up at 1am EST (it’s now 12:32 PM EST) and I still have lots of client tasks to finish. But before I forget, I need to blog. I said I will blog every day and so just like any committed human being, I am showing up here on my blog and writing down my thoughts.

Again, it’s July 1 and I can really, REALLY feel that the first half of the year is over! So many things have happened, both good and bad but I sometimes do feel that the bad outweighed the good ones because of the magnitude of emotions that came with it. I don’t like to dwell on these things much, but it’s also good to not forget them because they did come with lessons learned.

So before I resume with my VERY busy MomTraNeur life, let me just jot down below what those things are so I can finally let them go:

 

1. I AM NOT AS HEALTHY AS I WAS BEFORE

This is really a no-brainer. With all the sleep deprivation I’ve had since Tuz was born three years ago, it has now caught up on me. And because of that, my January was all about doing blood tests and taking medications for my blood pressure, my cholesterol, my blood sugar, my uric acid levels, and my heart. We were in Oslob, Cebu when all this was happening and I really felt like my heart was going to stop because of the other side effects of the medication I was taking. After a month, the readings went down to normal levels, thank God! I have yet to do another blood test to see if I was able to maintain it so I’ll just update you on that next time.

Related blog post: https://momtraneur.com/2019/02/24/after-the-storm-comes-the-rainbow-im-back-and-feeling-better-than-ever/

2. MY  SECOND SET SET OF CHINESE TENANTS VANDALIZED MY BEAUTIFUL ALABANG TOWNHOUSE, BROKE MY WATER PIPES, AND LEFT ME WITH A P54K MAYNILAD WATER BILL AND I FELT LIKE HAVING ANOTHER HEART ATTACK!

I don’t know what it is with some people, how can they do such a thing? I was so lenient with them and this was what I got. But because of this experience, I found trustworthy people to entrust my house and a new set of tenants with. I revised my lease contract. I am now more cautious and observant. This happened in February. And by April, I had a new set of tenants. So far, so good.

Related blog post: https://momtraneur.com/2019/02/24/after-the-storm-comes-the-rainbow-im-back-and-feeling-better-than-ever/

3. MAHAL AND I HAD THE WORST FIGHTS EVER DURING THIS PERIOD I FELT LIKE WE WERE FINALLY BREAKING UP!

But no, no, no. It always happened when I was having my period so it doesn’t count. My orgasms were also much more intense after every fight! So… no. My hormonal levels are just at their worst so I know it’s because of those hormones. If we do have the same intensity of fight when I’m not ovulating, and I don’t get to come anymore during lovemaking, then that is something to really think about, don’t you think? TMI again! Haha!

4. OUR 3RD SET OF FARM HELPERS ALMOST KILLED MAHAL! OMG! SO, OF COURSE, THEY WERE FORCED TO LEAVE.

We haven’t been lucky at hiring good farm helpers. The original caretakers who have been at the farm since Mahal was still a child showed their true colors when we finally lived there. They were feeling so entitled that they got into an argument with Mahal and decided to leave expecting us that we will beg them to stay. The second set of caretakers were always going home to their own province in Naawan that we can’t rely on them to always get back on time. The third set of tenants, we really took care of them. We really thought they were “the one”. Here’s a FB post I did about them before:

The real story behind our 3-week summer travel to paradise…

The flights to Caticlan and Cebu have already been booked last October 2018 when I availed of Cebu Pacific’s promo fare. I already have a suki accommodation I can contact for cheap rooms in Boracay, the one I’ve been using since 2011. The rest of the expenses will just come from our usual budget in CDO like instead of the budget we use for our weekly groceries, gas, shopping, electricity in CDO, it will just go to our pocket money for Boracay. So money-wise, it won’t be such a huge dent on our budget.

On the other hand, up until 2 days before our scheduled flight, we have already decided not to push through with our plans coz Mahal wants to oversee the operations at the farm. As for me, I have my usual work and Tuz to take care of. Though I’ll miss the beach, we can always go some other time.

Then Mahal finds out that one of our farm workers (the one with a wife and 3 kids staying with us), has been drinking and not doing his work (which was okay, Mahal reprimanded him) but then he went overboard by saying bad words and feeling so entitled that he even attacked Mahal with a huge dagger in his drunken stupor. Good thing that Mahal was in his proper mind, stayed calm and did not further provoke him. And good thing too that Tuz and I didn’t go with him at the farm coz for the first time, Tuz expressed that he didn’t want to (which I believed was his angel’s doing). That’s when I told Mahal to come home, have our worker compose himself, pay his debts through work (he was always asking for advance salary), and send him and his family back to Dipolog. I was pretty shaken up when I found out about it coz they all live under one roof and the old farm house doesn’t have very sturdy doors and windows. Our farm worker could easily kill Mahal in his sleep if he really gets crazy and wants to.

The next day, Mahal found a replacement for him and he came home scratch-free to my relief! The day after that, we headed to Boracay. A week into our vacation, our other farm worker called and told us that Joshua ( that’s the attacker’s name btw) and his family already fled. Good.

This is the same guy we fetched personally from Dipolog. A week after, we again drove back to Dipolog (about several hours away from where we live, mind you!)  to pick his wife and 3 kids coz he said he can’t work without them by his side. He is the same guy whose family we have been feeding and providing shelter for for free, the same guy we treated last Christmas to a resort vacation with his family, the same guy we treated last New Year and during his birthday a month ago, the same guy who always asked us for advance salary. This guy served Mahal’s mom when he was still a young teenager but was banished for his bad behavior. We thought he has changed coz he’s a family man now and there are no jobs available for him in Dipolog. We thought we could help him. And then he does this to Mahal.

Me, I’m just happy Mahal iz alive. And so, off we pushed through with our summer vacation… to think… meditate… to re-strategize… we have been spoiling our people too much. Time to do the opposite. Just let them work and pay their salary. No more coddling, no more special treatment. They always end up feeling so entitled.

And yeah, travel… to celebrate life, to forget the problems, and to make something better happen.

What do you think?

5. I FOUND OUT THERE ARE STILL A FEW UNFINISHED BUSINESSES WITH MY EX

It has something to do with my house. I finished paying the last 2 years of our ten-year home mortgage (amounting to almost a million) through sweat and blood only to find out that I still can’t get the title from the bank because of some unpaid insurance that I thought he already paid for back in 2013. In this ten-year mortgage period, there have been many times when it almost got foreclosed by the bank because of non-payment. And I would always shoulder the payments for the defaulted months plus interest. So, I’m not surprised. The bulk of our marital problems had to do with this kind of problems I’ve had with him. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Tas iniwan pa nya ako with all these financial problems (he left me with all these financial obligations)…  Kaya nga nagpa-annul ako eh (hence, my petition for annulment)…. Heniwey…. Hay… 

So, I felt like those were the major bad things that happened the first half of 2019.

 

On the other hand, so many other good things happened too during this first half of 2019:

1. 1. We traveled A LOT (Oslob, Cebu City, Iloilo City, Sicogon, Boracay, Bukidnon). I still owe a lot of travel posts about these places but don’t worry, they’re coming soon.
   2. We had Farm OJTs for a month.
   3. We were able to find 2 new farm helpers and so far, they haven’t done anything wrong… yet. I hope they won’t. They seem reliable since we got them last March. I’m hoping they will last because we have so many plans for their growth as our farm biz also grows.
   4. We finally got that motorcycle that we’ve been planning to get since last year. And we got it in cash. Thank you, God!
      

      Our two farm helpers with our motorcycle during their Claveria Viewdeck mushroom delivery.

   5. Mahal has been busy with his Enhanced Business Learning Seminars at the Dept. of Trade and Industry Go Negosyo Center. He will finish his course this month. We are so excited to apply everything he’s learned to our farm business!
   6. My petition for annulment was granted by the regional trial court and there are just some things I need to do to finalize everything before the Office of the Solicitor General revokes the decision (If only my ex stayed true to his word, but no, ako na naman ang gagawa ng paraan para sa lahat. Ako na lang palagi. Ako, ako, ako. (I’ll be the one to take care of everything yet again). Okay, I’m ranting here, sorry.

    

   So, what are we looking forward to this second half of the year? I don’t know yet everything that will happen but so far here are the things I do know:

   1. I will definitely get my annulment papers processed and finalized no matter how stressful and such a hassle it may be for me. There’s still a huge sum of money that needs to get paid (ex said he will take care of it to no avail, just like all his other promises) and I still have to go back to Quezon City Civil Registry to nullify my marriage certificate.
   2. Mahal will be graduating from his DTI course this month!
   3. We are rebranding our business. There will be a change in logo,  product name and other branding elements that will also be used to other mushroom products that we will be launching.
   4. Our farm business is just registered with DTI. Because last year has just been a one long beta test of our product and we haven’t really earned much, everything just went back into the farm biz, this year, we plan to register it with all the proper government offices like BIR, register it as an MSME, get the FDA approval, etc.
   5. We will be opening a mushroom training biz sometime this year also if our schedule will allow it. Mahal has been so ready for so long because of his extensive experience in mushroom farming but he is just the shy type! He doesn’t want to talk in front of people! But after this business course he is taking with DTI and after interviewing a renowned farm owner, Mr. Henry Binahon of Binahon Agro-Forestry Farm in Bukidnon, he is inspired and ready to train more than ever! So watch out for it. I am so excited about it!
      

      With Mr. Henry Binahon, owner of the Binahon Agro-Forestry Farm in Bukidnon after we interviewed him.

   6. We have been planning to build a proper bathroom at the farm. But the carpenter who made our mushroom growing house has been so in demand that our schedules always failed to match. We’ve contacted him again and again and hopefully come August, he will be free to work for us again to finally build that much-needed bathroom. Next would be a hobbit house just like what we saw at Mt. Kitanglad Agro-Eco Farm, also in Bukidnon. These two, we plan to finish before 2019 ends. The next stages of farm development will be for next year. “Hinay-hinay lang.” Slowly… but surely is our motto. This will be our legacy.
   7. We will be going on a  month-long road trip all over Visayas and Mindanao to tour Mahal’s eldest sister who will be coming home from Belgium from middle of July to middle of August. Then my parents will be coming for a 4-day visit and we will be touring them too.
   8. When all these travels are over, we will be focusing on our farm projects – further develop the veggie beds, construct the farm bathroom and at least one hobbit house, plus a little renovation of the 40-year old farmhouse if the budget will still allow it, and just increasing the production of our fresh mushrooms and mushroom products.  Then repeat! …Until the end of 2019.

   

    

2. MY PROMISE

   ‘Of course, I will still keep blogging every day. My VA work still takes priority since it’s our main bread and butter right now. Also,  I’ll be easing my way into homeschooling Tuz who will be turning four this November. God, grant me extra energy, please!

   It’s going to be an exciting second half of the year and I pray there’ll be no more surprises!

   How about you? How was your first half of 2019 and what are you looking forward to these next 6 months?

   See you tomorrow!