Cloud 9 – MomTraNeur – The Self-Help Mommy

Six more days to go and it’s already Christmas! Oh my! How time really flies when you’re having fun! Have you gotten your Christmas plans down pat? As for us, we’ll be checking in at a nearby affordable hotel resort on Dec. 22-23 with our farm helpers and their kids as our Christmas treat to them since they’ve all been cooped up at the farm since they started working for us a few months back. It will be a pre-Christmas celebration and we’ll incorporate our planning session as well. Then come Dec. 24, we’ll transfer at a more luxurious hotel in the city, just our little family, which we haven’t done yet here in Cagayan de Oro City. It’ll be a very relaxed kind of Christmas compared last year when we celebrated it at the farm with all our previous farm helpers and neighbors. Those previous farm helpers of ours left us early this year at such a bad time and in such bad taste that I think I got traumatized by it (which is why until now our mushroom growing house is still not up to its capacity) so I’m choosing not to celebrate there because it’ll just bring bad memories.

Anyway, if it hadn’t been Tuz’s 3rd birthday last November, December would have been the perfect time to head to Siargao since I’ve never experienced Christmas in that beautiful island yet. But because it’s hard to leave our farm during the holiday season, we decided to visit Siargao last month and for this post, I’ll share with you how to get there all the way from Cagayan de Oro.

Are you currently living in Mindanao? Or somewhere in Misamis Oriental particularly Cagayan de Oro? Do you wish to go to Siargao any time soon and would like to find out how to get to Siargao from Cagayan de Oro via buses and boats? Well, that’s exactly what this post is about so read on… Continue reading →

When I started this new blog, I’ve shared with you that I’m re-reading Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project because I want to bring more happiness into my life, the kind that really comes from within me and not the type that is pressured into my life by other people or caused by pride and envy (which is why I started this whole new blog and let go of my old persona even if people close to me advised me against it). I want to be just me. Be me. Be Jen. Which is why I am writing a lot more now about my life, my thoughts, my past experiences, etc. because I am first and foremost a diarist more than a typical blogger, more than a marketer or any other kind of writer. I like looking at my own past experiences, enjoying those happy forgotten memories and using the positive energy they give me to bring more good things into my present life so I can forge ahead with a bit more wisdom, inspiration and strength towards a brighter future. And one thing about my not-so-far-off past that gave (and still gives) me so much joy is SURFING.

This is more of a story of love and letting go of fear rather than a pure guide to surfing. Although there’ll be bits and pieces about how to surf, where to surf, how much it costs and what not, more than anything, I’d be sharing with you a photo journal about it and how this water sports activity has changed my life and influenced me (hopefully for the better). Continue reading →