Category: Motherhood

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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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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Sunrise in Oslob

How We Transferred to Oslob, Cebu During the Pandemic

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Hello Summer! It’s been a busy 2.5 months as we started our new beach life here in Oslob, Cebu and I promise, I will be catching up on my blog posts and vlogs until I get more current with what’s happening with us. I may still insert some throwback travel posts from the past since I’ve collected a ton all these years. But for now, here is a vlog on how our transfer from Cagayan de Oro (where we lived, half the time, the other half was in Claveria) from Sept. 1, 2017 to Jan. 7, 2021) to Oslob, Cebu happened, how we got quarantined for 14 days when we got here, and what we did while in quarantine (Jan. 9-22, 2021). 

For those who are considering transferring to their respective provinces in this time of the pandemic, you can check out this related blog post:

BOAT TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS DURING A PANDEMIC IN THE PHILIPPINES (FROM CAGAYAN DE ORO TO CEBU

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7 Months Into the Pandemic – a Life Update

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Hey! How’s everyone doing? How’s the pandemic treating you? I’m writing this down at 3:41 on a Saturday morning (although in my work hours, it’s 2:41 PM central time on a Friday) after 3 quick months of grueling schedule in my home/work life! Man, those 3 months just really flew me by! I’ve been working, and studying,  and taking care of our household, helping Mahal with the biz, and of course, being a mother to an almost 5-year-old boy who still has a very irregular body clock just like his mom! LOL! I’ll probably be babbling a bit at first about how tired I’ve been, how I’ve just gone through a week of depression towards the end of this 3-month-work-study-life marathon; how I thought I was acing this pandemic because for the most part, I’ve been grateful for the boatload of work and opportunities coming in; that I really don’t have the right to be sad because I am still VERY blessed. We are still alive, healthy, productive, and living good lives considering the world situation we are in. And after those 3 months of being on blogging hiatus, I feel like I’ve just come up for air… I’m starting to feel alive again; I’m starting to make new plans for the future… Anyway, let me breathe a little here and give you an overview as to what’s been happening to me the past 3 months that I haven’t had the time to blog here. So here are my updates…

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Being candid with Tuz

Work-At-Home Mom to a Hyperactive 4 Year Old Son [Challenges of a Day Old Single Mom!]

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I took this video the day after I was almost done editing the Real Talk video I did last time. And all I can say is, I salute all single parents out there, especially those who raise their kids with no help whatsoever from helpers and relatives. It is quite rare that I get to be alone with Tuz since Mahal and I are together for the most part of our relationship. But on those days that he is not with us, I can really feel the stress that comes from being a single mom even if we only have one kid!

Tuz is 4 years old now and is so hyperactive (as you will see on the video later) and this is just 1/10 of how he truly is when there’s no camera around taking a peek at our home life.

It started out as a happy video with Tuz being his normal makulit self, then I got irritated, then angry, Tuz cried a bit, then we were friends again with him showing his genius side (naks!)… Then it starts all over again… 24/7! Lol!

Without further ado, here’s what happened…

If you like our candid videos like this, pls. like and subscribe to our channel! Much appreciated! https://www.youtube.com/jennieveemomtraneur

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How to Celebrate Mother’s Day in This Time of Pandemic? [4 Tips]

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I think this is the hardest time in recent history for all kinds of moms out there —>  for moms who are forced to be at home with their children 24/7, especially school-aged ones; moms who are forced to be away from their grown-up children because of the quarantines and lockdowns; moms who are pregnant and about to give birth and are scared of finding themselves giving birth in overcrowded hospitals; moms with babies, with sickly children, with big kids, with teenagers
 basically all kinds of moms.

The pandemic has placed us all in situations that are new to many of us, and for this reason, I salute all moms out there. There is a saying that goes “I can imagine no heroism greater than motherhood.” by Lance Conrad, The Price of Creation, and I do think it’s true.

Just the other day, Mahal jokingly asked me: “So, where to this Mother’s Day?” I just laughed! Of course, there is no other place to go but to stay home. Whether you celebrate Mother’s Day in the kitchen, in the bedroom, the living room, the bathroom (LOL)
 staying home is still the safest place to be in this time of the pandemic. Though some quarantines have been eased in some parts of the country (like in Cagayan de Oro City, some malls have already opened, to the dismay of many residents), it still feels unsafe to do any kind of celebration outside. So we must stay at home. What can we do to celebrate this special day? I have listed a few things I would love to do as I celebrate my special day as a mother. Feel free to add more as you see fit in your situation.

Here goes


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hustle and bustle

Hustle and Bustle of a Momtraneur’s Life

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Hiiiii!!!! I’m back!!!! How’s the holiday season going for you so far?

Back in September, when I said my calendar was fully booked, I didn’t realize that that was nothing compared to what was ahead of me the following months — October, November, December. I know I’ve always been the busy kind of gal ever since I can remember (I’ve been a busy bee since my grade school years, lol!) but really, the past few months until today (and I predict including the coming days ahead until April at least!), have been nothing but a blur
 I’ve been ultra, mega, super, duper booked with activities, business stuff, family hooplas, usual work, and other extra-curricular activities that a week would pass me by and I don’t even feel like it’s been a week! One week is like one long day for me! And there are times when all I wanted was sleep because honestly, I don’t know anymore how I’m still alive with so much lack of sleep in my system. I feel like one day, I’ll just drop dead from all this overfatigue!

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The Abba's Orchard

THE ABBA’S ORCHARD, A MARIA MONTESSORI SCHOOL: A REVIEW

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To homeschool Tuz or to enroll him in a real school?

I already shared with you a homeschooling seminar we attended November of last year. The month after that, December, right after we went on a 9-day tour of Siargao (which I have yet to blog about), we enrolled Tuz in a 3-day free immersion class at The Abba’s Orchard Montessori School. I was thinking if we have the budget for it (we must make a budget for it!), why not just enroll Tuz in a Maria Montessori school? And according to my research, The Abba’s Orchard was considered by parents as one of the best in the Philippines. And after that 3-day free immersion class Tuz went to, I fell in love with the system as well


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Homeschool

Homeschooling in the Philippines – A General Overview

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We attended a homeschooling seminar here in Cagayan de Oro sometime last November 2018 before Tuz turned 3. It was the very first time we attended such an event as we have begun thinking about homeschooling Tuz instead of enrolling him in a traditional school.

I remember way back in 2013, when I was traveling here in Cagayan de Oro with my then “bessy” (Mahal), and we were watching this celebrity show on TV. It was showing Brooke Burk, building her new house at that time, including an area in their basement where she could homeschool her kids. That was the first time the thought of having a kid quickly crossed my mind and I thought “If I am going to have a kid in another life, maybe I will homeschool him/her.” I guess the thought of being with one’s child was just so attractive to me because I grew up with my mom working all the time and other caregivers were left to take care of me. I would have loved it if my mom was there for me 24/7. I don’t blame her though. She had to work because my dad was jobless and was the one left at home to take care of our needs.

Anyway, going back to that CDO Homeschooling event we attended, we learned that there are 3 general styles of homeschooling: Continue reading →

dream catcher

Rants of a Sleep-Deprived Mom

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Hello Monday!

As usual, when I haven’t been blogging for several weeks, it just means that the next time I will, I have to rant my way into blogging first as a form of catharsis before I get on with my regular programming. It’s part of my OCness. I have to recognize in written form what have I been up to the past month so I can let it all go in my head and happily blog again.

So
 the past month since I last posted here has been nothing but super busy. I always tell myself that I’ll blog tomorrow, or I’ll finish that vlog entry this coming weekend
 until 4 weeks have passed and I’m still where I left myself.

I can’t believe it’s been a month of mostly just 2-3 hours of interrupted sleep every day. How did I survive??? I’ve been handling more and more tasks for my clients (which means more pay so for that I am grateful, more money to save and set aside for our farm business) and Tuz has been so much needier and hyperactive from the time he wakes up until the time he falls asleep. He has no downtimes at all. It’s either 10-12 hours of sleep when I also do most of my work and 10-12 hours of hyperactivity and neediness! When do I get to fully rest??? Either I sacrifice my work, I sacrifice my time with Tuz, or I sacrifice my sleep! Yeah, you guessed it right. My sleep is the one that’s taking the most hit. No more peaceful slumber for this overfatigued mom and it’s been basically going on since the time I gave birth to him 3 years ago. OMG! Continue reading →