Cokaliong Shipping Lines – a Review

July 4, 2019July 5, 20191 Comment

I’m on my 11th consecutive day of blogging which started last June 24 when I wrote that post about being a sleep-deprived mom, and the pressure is getting real, lol! I’ve actually started working on a post about Boracay more than two hours ago. I’ve already published 2 Boracay posts before…

BORACAY 2019 – WHAT’S NEW? HERE ARE THE DOS’ AND DON’TS, UPDATED LIST OF AUTHORIZED AND ACCREDITED HOTELS, GOVERNMENT FEES, AND MORE!

EXPERIENCE THE NEW BORACAY – A VLOG – CHECK IT OUT!

…and there are still at least two more about our summer vacation I want to share with you. But until now, I’m not even halfway through my draft yet! There are just so many photos and videos to sift through and I would need 24 hours of focus to do it which I can’t afford right now since Mahal is asleep and Tuz is being his hyperactive self. I still have deadlines I set for myself at work because I’ll be going to the farm this weekend to take care of our vegetable beds and to do another round of cleanup and redecoration for our bedroom and lounge area in the old farmhouse.

So, I went back and forth for a few minutes between finishing my next Boracay blog post to doing a totally different one when I just decided to tell you about this shipping line we rode on our way to Boracay — COKALIONG SHIPPING LINE. The pictures I took here were the first ones that came up as I was reviewing this trip of ours to paradise. So why not just focus on Cokaliong, right? You might be someone in the Philippines or planning to do boat trips in the Philippines, you might be wondering what shipping line is best to take.

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Mommy Jen Cooks Pasta: Beef Loaf-Mushroom-Veggie Pasta in Olive Oil

July 3, 2019July 3, 20198 Comments

It feels like ever since Friday, it has just been one looooong day of work with catnaps in between. If you’ve been reading me since I started blogging every day (again) or even if you’ve read me since way back 2016 when I started this MomTraNeur blog, or even way back in my numerous other blogger websites since 2010, being workaholic (and travelholic) is my middle name. Add motherhood to my journey, so I’m now a sleep-deprived workaholic mom! Lol!

Most of my clients are from the United States which means that before they head off to their summer break this month, they are handing me more tasks than usual which also means, work overload for me. And that’s okay. I appreciate all the work and the $$$ income it brings our family. I’m just at home anyway, I still am able to take care of Tuz and our tiny pad and one of my most favorite activity — I still get to cook my own dish inventions, especially when Mahal is not around to cook for us. #WAHM #WotkAtHomeMom #MommyCooksBest

I’m not the typical mommy cook (if there is such a thing as “typical mommy cook”). I don’t follow any given recipes. I make my own based on the taste that I am looking for in a given day, and I get a little bit more creative than usual especially when our grocery supplies are about to run out.

And yes, our grocery supplies are about to run out as I write this. Because of the emergency farm run Mahal did last Friday, we weren’t able to do our groceries which usually happens every Saturday. But Tuz and I managed. We were able to stretch our food supplies at home and even as I write this, there are still some food in the fridge and the pantry. Mahal would be proud! I could even stretch them for a few days more… maybe even until Saturday. This makes me save a week’s worth of groceries. Yes! More money for our dream farm fund! #FarmGoals

Anyway, having said all that, let me share with you one pasta dish I like to cook every now and then. I’m such a pasta lover even when I know I should cut back on it because I am not getting any younger and losing weight or maintaining a healthy weight is getting harder and harder every day (especially with my kind of work where I just sit mostly all day in front of the computer when I’m at home). I’ve actually cut back on it. It’s been several months since I last cooked pasta. So now I’m really CRAAAAVING!!!

I posted this on my Facebook Page recently and I’d like to share it here with you. I think I’ll be sharing with you more of my dish inventions in the future. They will be the type of dishes I plan to incorporate in our cafe menu should our dream of setting up our own farm cafe becomes a reality in the future. They’re easy to do and usually with healthy ingredients from our farm and very yummy too!

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Finding Calm in the Midst of a Storm – How Do You Calm Your Nerves in the Middle of Chaos?

July 2, 2019July 2, 20197 Comments

I’m in the middle of a tight deadline today so I’m going to make this blog post short. Mahal is at the farm since Friday evening. It was actually an emergency run because… remember the new motorcycle I told you about in yesterday’s blog post? The brand new one we bought in cash for our farm helpers so they can have transportation to use for mushroom delivery instead of renting someone else’s motorcycle (which we have been doing for a long time now)… yes that motorcycle! Did our farm helper steal it???!!!

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Hello July 1! Leaving the Good and Bad This Past 6 Months and Looking Forward to An Exciting Second Half of 2019

July 1, 2019August 27, 20193 Comments

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:

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TINY PAD – LIVING SMALL IN A BIG CITY AND THE REASONS WE DO IT

June 30, 2019June 30, 201913 Comments

I mentioned a few times here on my blog how we are living in a tiny pad down the mountains in Northern Mindanao. I first mentioned it here (THE BIG MOVE PART 1) when we left my big townhouse in Alabang, Muntinlupa to try our agricultural luck in the land of martial law down south of the Philippines. Then I mentioned it again in one of my most recent posts (#MYGREENCDO – IN SUPPORT OF CDO BLOGGERS 2019 SOCIAL MEDIA ADVOCACY).

Living in a tiny pad has its pros and cons. And sometimes, when my hormones are in haywire and pictures of my beautiful home in Alabang show up on Facebook Memories, I develop a negative state of mind which I really do my best to avoid or get over with because for the most part, we are living in abundance even if we are not rich – yet. After all, real wealth is not all about how much money or material things you have or how big your house is… wealth, in its truest sense of the word, is having a happy state of mind. Like what Rhonda Byrnes wrote on the sand at the end of the movie, The Secret, —> FEEL GOOD. Continue reading →

How to Believe What You Want is Possible

June 29, 2019June 29, 20193 Comments

When I started this blog, sharing about what I learned in Jack Canfield‘s book THE SUCCESS PRINCIPLES has been one of those topics I really want to tackle chapter by chapter and dig into. It still is. And because I want to practice the principles I’ve gone through before putting them here, it usually takes a while before I get to write my thoughts.

So far, I’ve already told you the first three fundamental principles of success according to Jack Canfield:

Now, let me share with you the next principle I learned in this favorite book of mine.

The Fundamentals of Success #4: Believe It’s Possible Continue reading →

Seven Seas Waterpark – The Biggest in the Philippines – A Vlog!

June 28, 2019June 29, 20191 Comment

I first blogged about the Seven Seas Waterpark last May and I said there that I was going to make a vlog about it so that you’ll get a better understanding on how it really feels like to be there inside their water theme park, riding the various heart-stopping rides and just simply enjoying the scenery. The Seven Seas, located in Bara, Opo, Misamis Oriental, may I reiterate, is the biggest in the Philippines and certified world-class. So, if you are visiting Cagayan de Oro soon, you might want to enjoy summer any time of the year by heading to the Seven Seas Waterpark! Again, it’s the biggest in the country and certified world-class! They even offer night swimming now!

For a more detailed post about the Seven Seas Waterpark of Cagayan de Oro, please read my blog post: https://momtraneur.com/2019/05/18/seven-seas-waterpark-of-cagayan-de-oro-a-review/

To watch the vlog, you may head to my Youtube channel or watch it below. Continue reading →

#MyGreenCDO – In Support of CDO Bloggers 2019 Social Media Advocacy

June 27, 2019August 17, 20193 Comments

This will be a very short and sweet blog post as I am running a little fever today. I guess all those sleepless nights have caught up with my poor human body and realized that I am not a robot, that I get drained too. I actually should be resting right now. I really did go to bed 4 hours ago after sending an email to my client saying I’m sick because I was already shivering. I was so looking forward to slumber and waking up feeling all better and refreshed because I got a ton of work to do but our 3-year-old kept rolling all over me urging me to play with him. I, of course, reprimanded him, several times, to no avail. I didn’t want to be stressed further and I didn’t want my toddler to get sick too so I got up, sat here in my little office where he usually leaves me in peace when he knows I’m on work mode. I turned my Kenko back massager on and was planning to sleep upright but then I couldn’t sleep. You know that feeling when you’re so very tired, your bones feel like they’re shaking from overfatigue but you could not sleep? It’s such a bummer! So I thought I might as well do something a little productive. I did promise myself that day I ranted about being a sleep-deprived mom that I’ll blog every day no matter how short. This is after all my online diary and more than a blogger, I am a diarist.

So having said that, I just want to share here with you the CDO Bloggers Group’s latest social media advocacy for 2019 — #MyGreenCDO, which I am really happy and excited about! Continue reading →

Homeschooling in the Philippines – A General Overview

June 26, 2019July 7, 201912 Comments

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 →

Rants of a Sleep-Deprived Mom

June 24, 2019June 24, 201911 Comments

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 →

Seven Seas Waterpark of Cagayan de Oro – a Review

May 18, 2019August 17, 20196 Comments

Seven Seas Waterpark has always been one of my top dream destinations ever since our transfer (A.K.A. The Big Leap) here in Cagayan de Oro City in September 2017. Our son was still a baby then and we thought it might not yet be the right time for us to enjoy what this world-class waterpark has to offer.

So we waited another year until Tuz was already a little old enough to be able to enjoy kiddie water slides and shallow swimming pools. Then Mahal and I can just take turns in taking care of Tuz and enjoying those scary water slides and rides I’ve been hearing about. That was the plan. So last year, a day after Tuz turned three, we headed to Seven Seas Waterpark. Yey!!! And just a week ago, I was here again with my fellow CDO Bloggers. Double yey!!!

On this blog post, I’ll be sharing with you my review of Seven Seas Waterpark based on my experiences in this world-class tourist destination. Read on…

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