Category: Motherhood

Fun & Brain-Boosting Online Games for Kids and Adults Alike

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As a homeschooling mom who spends a lot of time curating engaging yet educational activities for my son, I’m always on the lookout for games that are both fun and beneficial. While browsing online, I stumbled upon CulinarySchools.org, a site that offers a variety of online games catering to different age groups and interests. What intrigued me the most was the range of brain games, puzzles, and even sports-themed games that go beyond just entertainment—they also help with cognitive skills, problem-solving, and coordination!

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Childcare

Reclaim Your Time: The Filipina Mom’s Guide to Dependable Childcare Solutions

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As a Filipina mom, finding reliable childcare solutions is essential to reclaiming your time and maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Juggling the demands of motherhood and personal responsibilities can feel overwhelming, but with the right approach, you can find dependable childcare options that cater to your specific needs.

In this guide, we will explore the importance of reliable childcare, identify your childcare needs, explore different childcare options, evaluate potential childcare providers, and make a smooth transition to a childcare solution that best suits your family.

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Teaching My 7-Year-Old Financial Literacy: Exploring ‘The First Ten Rules of Wealth’ by Richard Templar

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As a parent, I’ve always believed that education extends far beyond the walls of a traditional classroom. This belief has been a driving force behind our decision to homeschool our 7-year-old son, giving him the freedom to learn in ways that suit his interests and needs. One area that Mahal and I are particularly passionate about introducing to his curriculum is financial literacy. In today’s ever-changing world, the importance of understanding money, saving, and investing cannot be overstated. I grew up with a poverty mindset… that feeling that we’re always lacking… that belief that I’m not worthy of the good kind of life… and it took years of reading self-help books, and wealth-related books, and listening to Oprah and Tony Robbins before I was able to fairly say I that I’ve somehow overcome my poverty mindset and started my journey towards abundance. I want Tuz to have the right kind of thinking when it comes to money and wealth so that he will be able to live a more abundant, rich, and fulfilling life.

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How to Encourage Your Fussy Kids to Eat When Travelling the World

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Now that the big ticket items on our wish list had been ticked off (our dream beach wedding, making sure our businesses are now up and running smoothly — Mahal takes care of our little resort Oslob New Village and restaurant Lami-an while I take care of digital marketing for my clients via my new biz VirtuPro, — and overall management of our life here in our own version of paradise), we are now about to start our travel adventure outside of the country and one of the things I think about is how fussy our son is when it comes to eating. When traveling locally, Tuz already has a list of food he is willing to eat. But how about when we visit other cultures and places where the food is totally different from what he’s used to? Are you in the same situation? If you want to travel with your kids but feel as though it’s always an uphill battle to get them to eat, then you’re not alone. So many people are in the same position as you (as us), but there are things we can do to try and make things easier on ourselves. If you want to find out more then simply take a look below.

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Happy Father’s Day to All Amazing Dads Out There!

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HAPPY FATHER’S DAY TO ALL DADS! ❤ ❤ ❤

…especially to my Mahal, Bebeko, Bebe, Tuz’s Dada… we wish you the happiest Father’s Day! You are the greatest support to our little family and Tuz is truly blessed for having the coolest, kindest, funniest, loving, and most doting father! You are our safe place, our haven, the source of our strength. Thank you for being our protector. I am so blissful and joyous that I got married to you, God’s miracle, and together, made a fantastic little family. We love you so, so much Dada… Now and forever… ❤ ❤ ❤

Have a fantastic Father’s Day Weekend, everyone! This is just a short post since we’re off to another adventure! Ciao!

Til my next post!

#Fathersday2023

Why Do We Need To Adopt Our Own Biological Child and How? An Ongoing Story of a Not-So-Common Adoption Case in the Philippines

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Why do we need to adopt our own biological child?

That was actually our question when it was first brought to our attention that fateful day in February 2016 when I first met up with my then annulment lawyer to file for the nullity of my first marriage. He’s a bright, hardworking, albeit 90-year old family lawyer at that time who mentioned it in passing as he was selling us his services because at that time, if I get annulled, and if we want to legitimize Tuz’s succession, we need to undergo the process of our own child’s adoption. So right then and there, adoption has already been on our mind.

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Of Weddings and Breakups [a Raw Conversation with a 6 Year Old]

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On October 30, 2021, about 14 months ago, even before Mahal and I got formally engaged, we faced a lot of trials in our relationship. We actually fought and broke up a few times and Tuz was there to witness it all.

We didn’t mean for our young son to see our fights at that time because we always did our best to be careful. But he is such a perceptive and sensitive kid that even if Mahal and I are not shouting, Tuz can recognize the differences in our verbal tones and non-verbal expressions.

It’s a good thing that the stormy season in our relationship has passed and we are now in a much, much better place. Because of those fights, Mahal and I learned to communicate better, love each other better, and Tuz witnessed all of that too. Perhaps that is why he is such a happy boy who acts and thinks more maturely for his age.

Anyway, this video that I am sharing with you here is my raw conversation with Tuz at that time. Mahal and I just patched things up and I wanted to document how it affected our 6 year old boy. (Actually, he was just 5 but would be turning 6 in 17 days at that time, so I just rounded it off, hihi!)

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Calculators.org Online Games: Perfect for Mental Breaks that Bring Back Good Childhood Memories

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Happy Halloween, everyone!!! 

We’ve just celebrated Halloween the last 4 days (Oct. 28-31) and again it was a blast! I’m still in the middle of preparing a vlog and blog post for it so I can share with you all how we celebrated my most favorite season this year. I hope yours was a happy one too! Stay tuned!

On the other hand, I feel like this will be the last time I’m celebrating this way my fave holiday. It’s been 20 years of blissful spooky celebrations, from Malate street and Boracay beach parties in my early 20’s, to Oktoberfest celebrations in my late 20’s, to house and costume parties in my early 30’s, to trick or treating with Tuz and Mahal in my late 30’s to early 40’s. My wish every year was to have more of the same and I was lucky enough to be given that. Thank you, universe! You’ve been good to me all these years, making me happy to have the chance and budget to party. I’m now passing on the torch to our almost 7-year old son, Tuz. I told him about my plan to retire and pass on to him organizing such parties but he said he’s not yet ready! 

Maybe I‘m just feeling a wee bit sad, tired, and drained as of late. Adulthood  is probably taking a toll on me and I will soon need a proper break — break from work, break from taking care of Tuz, break from taking care of our household, from thinking and worrying about it all. We’ve just been  on a one week trip to Cebu City to run some errands and take care of some medical stuff. Though the trip has been very productive and positive, it just left me over-fatigued and wanting of a much-needed mental reprieve. 

But since work has always been hectic (which I am thankful for, don’t get me wrong!), I really can’t afford yet to take a real vacation (give me 8 hours/day of sleep please with nothing to do in between if possible!) But I do need to take mental breaks every now and then to keep my brain fresh and ready to tackle again the next task. So one of the things I actually do especially now that HBO’s House of the Dragons Season 1 has ended is I actually play online games. I’ve mentioned to you on one of my previous posts that Tuz and I love to play online games to keep our brain refreshed and functioning well in between homeschooling and work. One of the sites I go to is https://www.calculators.org/games/board-games.php. They have these games that remind me so much of my childhood. My favorites are: 

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Relax and De-Stress with Online Games at Solitaire.org (and Decrease Your Chances of Dementia As well)

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Work has been non-stop lately (Well, what’s new? Thank God for work!!!) that the only thing I can do to de-stress is play some online games! Remember before when I shared with you 3 Simple Ways to Reduce Stress During These Hard Times? One of those stress-relieving activities I do (and I sometimes do it with Tuz too) is playing online games.

I discovered another website that brings back so many childhood memories simply because it reminds me of my mom’s favorite game that I’ve seen her play a gazillion times while I was growing up — SOLITAIRE! 

The website is solitaire.org and the best thing about it is, it has a lot of other games you can choose from like other card games, mahjong, logic puzzles, word puzzles and more! But what really caught my eye and what I’ve been playing around the past couple of weeks during my break are these three games:

 

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Typhoon Rai (Odette): Nightmare Before Christmas 

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Just when you had everything planned out for the remainder of the year — your tasks, projects, finances, celebrations… the biggest typhoon of your life hit you — metaphorically and literally. 

We were minding our usual business… I was working and finishing my deadlines for the week and getting ready for client meetings. Mahal was busy with the resort. Everyone was working. Though we were getting news reports about an impending typhoon, upon checking, the eye of Typhoon Rai or locally known as Typhoon Odette won’t be hitting us but instead, it will head straight to Cebu City which is 3-4 hours away from where we are. We had plans of doing our Christmas shopping there that weekend so we figured that we just had to reschedule. Plus, we’ve already experienced so many kinds of weather conditions here that we became complacent. We felt confident that it’s just another one of those storms. There could possibly be a brownout (electricity getting cut off) that will last for an hour or two, or at the most overnight, but that was it. We didn’t do any kind of preparation at all — we didn’t save water; we didn’t charge our phones and electrical devices; we didn’t check if we still have enough gas; we didn’t buy supplies… nothing. It was as if it was just another day in our beach kind of life. 

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reduce stress

3 Simple Ways to Reduce Stress During These Hard Times

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How are you? We are on the 18th month of this pandemic and so many things have already happened… deaths left and right… Covid getting closer and closer to home (if it hasn’t hit yours already… it surely did mine. 5 of our family members caught Covid and thankfully survived it despite not getting vaccinated)… businesses shutting down… people suffering…. freedom getting suppressed in many places around the world…. and all this is starting to get on my nerves. Do you feel the same? Am I alone in feeling this way? If you’re on the same boat as I am, don’t fret. There are ways we can do to try to ride these waves. And we must. I just read an article on Bloomberg that this pandemic can last for a really long time. We can’t just give up, can we?

So what can we do to help reduce our stress during these hard times? Let me share with you some ways we try to do at home to help cope with this depressing worldwide situation:

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