Designing a Life of Intention: Why I’m Slowing Down to Build Something That Lasts

September 10, 20251 Comment

Lately, I’ve been feeling a shift. Not the kind you shout about online or celebrate with a champagne pop. But the kind that whispers gently: “There’s a new way to live, love, and lead. And it begins with less noise, more intention.”

If you’ve followed my journey, you know I’ve always worn many hats—entrepreneur, creative, homeschooling mama, wife, storyteller. For years, I’ve built and juggled, dreamed and delivered, crafted strategies while navigating motherhood and womanhood.

But recently, I realized something:
I don’t want to keep up. I want to go deep.

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Unwrapping 2023 Halloween Magic: A Spooky Saga and a Dash of OCness!

December 8, 2023December 10, 2023Leave a comment

Hey, fellow festive souls! I know, I know—it’s December, and the twinkling lights of Christmas are already stealing the show. But hold on to your elf hats because I couldn’t just let the Halloween magic fade away without sharing the spine-chilling details of our most epic celebration yet!

You see, life threw a curveball my way in the form of family travels right after Halloween. The excitement of exploring foreign lands with my loved ones consumed me, leaving the tales of our bewitching Halloween hanging in the balance. Blame it on my OCness, but I couldn’t dive into our travel chronicles without first immortalizing the ghosts and goblins of October on my blog.

So, here’s the deal—I’m about to spill the cauldron of Halloween goodness, and once that’s done, I’ll be your guide through our international adventures. I promise, Christmas and New Year‘s tales will have their moment in the spotlight come 2024. But for now, let’s relive the most fun-filled Halloween that swept me off my feet!

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Hanz & Jen Pre-Wedding Film Shot in Southern Cebu (Oslob Cuartel, Boljoon, Alcoy, Tumalog Falls)

May 26, 2023February 2, 20245 Comments

April and May up to a week after our dream beach wedding celebrations and tours have been such an exciting roller coaster ride! I wanted to share so much about our wedding — the pre, during and post events but I am still a little bit overwhelmed until now with everything that has happened that I think I need to organize them all here on my blog to satisfy my OC tendencies. Teehee. (^_^)

You can also go back to my engagement posts for more background about us in case this is your first time to visit my blog and you’re curious about us:

A DIFFERENT KIND OF ENGAGEMENT

OUR BESPOKE ENGAGEMENT RINGS

ROMANTIC ENGAGEMENT AND FINE-DINING BY THE SEA AT SHANGRI-LA MACTAN

OF WEDDINGS AND BREAKUPS [A RAW CONVERSATION WITH A 6 YEAR OLD]

HOW TO COMMUNICATE BETTER WITH YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER? [REAL TALK WITH MY THEN LIVE-IN PARTNER]

OUR ENGAGEMENT TEASER VIDEO

BEHIND THE SCENES – THE MAKING OF OUR ENGAGEMENT PHOTOSHOOT AND TEASER VIDEO

SHANGRI-LA MACTAN 5-STAR VACATION

And of course, we already got legalized last Nov. 21, 2022 through a “secret” civil wedding: SECRET CIVIL WEDDING: BECOMING MRS. VILLANUEVA PART 1

And this wouldn’t be possible of course if I had not gotten annulled from my previous marriage. So you can understand how everything feels so miraculous for me. Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I’ll be so much blessed with Mahal and the life we live now. Thank you, God, for all your graces and blessings!

Both our engagement, the civil wedding, and everything in between are all parts of the journey leading to the realization of my ultimate dream beach wedding with Mahal.

But before we head there, let me share with you first our prenup / pre-wedding photo and video shoot done by Lumad Creatives. The succeeding photos are by Marion Dhen of D’PIX Photography.

Here’s the video:

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Secret Civil Wedding: Becoming Mrs. Villanueva Part 1

December 30, 2022August 22, 20237 Comments

It was supposed to be a “secret wedding”… We wanted our partnership to be legal and official even before we lay out all the plans for 2023, one of which is being able to do our dream beach wedding. Blame it to my “segurista” and OC personality, I just want everything ironed out on the legal front before the year ends. And I’m very grateful for the fact that Mahal has always wanted to marry me and supports me all the way, til forever and beyond… ❤

Actually, if we didn’t have the funds to do a beach wedding next year, a simple, “secret”, intimate civil wedding one is what we’ll really do. We are both introverts after all. I was even content to just have a piece of thread tied to my finger as a promise of his love. But thank you, God, for blessing us with a beautiful engagement, complete with an engagement photoshoot and engagement video shoot, and even an engagement honeymoon in Camotes Island which I’ll share here soon. We really feel so grateful plus I feel like such a celebrity (lol!) doing 2 kinds of weddings. Actually, even before J.Lo and Ben Affleck did their two weddings, doing the same had always been my plan… the two stars just beat us to it! Lol!

Didn’t JLo say

“Life is an art… and we are the artists… make it as beautiful as you want and create exactly what you want it to be…”

So that’s what we did!

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Oslob New Village Christmas 2022 Celebration

December 25, 2022February 2, 20243 Comments

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

How’s everyone doing? I hope you’re all having a wonderful holiday season!

It’s been a year since Typhoon Odette hit us and just remembering that makes me feel all the more grateful because this Christmas, the weather has been good to us. Though it’s a bit cloudy and sometimes windy here in Oslob, at least so far, there’s no typhoon in the horizon. Thank you, God!

And so, we decided to celebrate our Christmas here at Oslob New Village. The original plan was actually to check in at a nice resort like what we used to do before in Cagayan de Oro but then we figured it would be more fun to celebrate it here at our own mini resort because we have Jona and Wenie (our staff at Oslob New Village) to celebrate with.

I created a vlog about it. Enjoy!

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Holiday Musings [and a Recap of Halloween]

December 7, 2022December 11, 20221 Comment

Our 2022 is about to end. I’ve been reviewing my previous blog posts here and my life has really been “more of the same” kind of thing. Just like last 2019, when I wasn’t even able to blog about our Halloween celebration because of my jam-packed schedule at work, with motherhood, and family! And it’s happening again this time of the year!

Don’t get me wrong though — I DO LOVE OUR LIFE AND THE LIFESTYLE WE’VE BEEN LIVING — it’s been the best year so far — so many celebrations, so many happenings, so many blessings despite the sleepless nights from my VA work, being a homemaker, and homeschooling our now 7-year old kid! So, I’m gonna give myself a little pat on the back here…

Jen 1: “You’re such a superwoman, Mommy Jennie!”

Jen 2: “I know… I know…” 😉

Anyway, I am not going to let 2022 pass by without documenting here my most favorite holiday. For those who have just started to follow me here, Halloween is my most favorite and Christmas comes second. Though I like Christmas, Halloween is just more fun for me with all the trick or treating, candies, and costumes. Don’t you think? So though it’s already December and we’ve started decorating our little home resort for Christmas (you can check my FB page for updates), sharing my favorite holiday here with you this late is better than never, isn’t it?

But before that, let me just give you a rundown of our Halloween activities since Tuz was born. Re-reading my blog entries here… Oh what a roller coaster ride it has been! So many trials, joys, financial troubles, and tribulations. From being in a long distance relationship with Mahal, to finally living together in my first dream home, to giving that up in exchange for living the hard kind of life at the farm, then back to city life and experiencing tiny home living and finally, living the beach kind of life which has always been my dream. It makes me all the more grateful for the life we have now because we are living our best life so far and we can’t wait for things to keep getting better and better…

(2014, 2015, 2016) Nuvali Night Sky Cinema

(2016) Thoughts This Halloween

(2016) Nuvali Night Sky Cinema 2016 Family Event

(2017) Halloween 2017: How to Let Go of Attachments

(2018) Halloween 2018 – Transformative Lessons and Realizations

(2020) How to Celebrate Major Holidays During a Pandemic: Halloween Feature + a Guide

(2021) The Root of Happiness (And How I Found It Around Halloween)

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Thoughts About Real Estate and Mortgages in These Trying Times

June 30, 2022June 30, 20221 Comment

Hello, hello, hello!

I’ve been catching up on a TON of work since we got engaged!!! A lot of things have been going on in my personal life as well but I’m hoping to share more of our adventures real soon. And one of these adventures that I’d like to share here with you now is not just about travels that we’ve been doing but more importantly, stuff that we’ve been accomplishing to help fulfill those goals we’ve set out for ourselves for this year and the next. I gave you some ideas before about how to reach your goals for 2022 and I’ve also shared with you some financial tools if your goal is a financial one.

So, this other adventure that I want to share here with you is also a bit related to finances. As you may know, Mahal and I are getting married next year and we are in the works of fulfilling our dream of having a beach wedding in Mactan, Cebu. Even if what we want is just an intimate one with only a few guests, it would still be considered as a big spend for us frugal folks so we’re doing everything we can to augment our income. We don’t want to spend so much on the wedding because we have a bigger fish to fry so to speak. Or shall I say “fishes”? Teehee.

And these “fishes” are:

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How We Celebrated Valentine’s Day Throughout These Years

February 13, 2022February 13, 20221 Comment

I was planning to have a repeat of how we celebrated Valentine’s Day last year because I really liked it so much. But because we are in Cebu City today (we’ve been here since Feb. 11 doing a different kind of shopping spree and running some important errands), and we won’t be traveling back home until probably evening of Valentine’s Day itself, I just thought of sharing with you here some of the things we did to celebrate the love occasion throughout these years.

This post is actually a long dedication to my Mahal, who stuck with me throughout all these many years (we’ll be celebrating the 10th anniversary of our best friendship this March and we are now on our 90th month of being together as life partners); who loved me and continue to love me through thick and thin; who, despite all my flaws and craziness, continue to show his patience, dedication, and commitment to me and our little family. I just want to declare to the whole world how much I appreciate everything he does for me and our son, and I thank God every day for him coming into my life…

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2021 Highlights: a Gratitude Post for the Year That Was

January 3, 2022January 8, 20221 Comment

I saw this image quote on my social media feeds and it struck a chord in me. It says:

“This January, start the year with an empty jar. Each week, add a note with a good thing that happened.

On New Year’s Eve, empty the jar and read about the amazing year you had.”

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Typhoon Rai (Odette): Nightmare Before Christmas

December 30, 2021January 9, 20222 Comments

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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The Root of Happiness (And How I Found It Around Halloween)

December 7, 2021December 9, 20211 Comment

I’ve been listening to Rob Dial’s podcasts. He’s a mindset mentor and one of the things he discussed was about happiness and the root of it or the key to achieving it. He based it on what Will Smith said before that it’s not the material things nor money that will bring you happiness (I think many of us know this already), but it’s peace. Peace is actually what I have been experiencing just recently, around Halloween time. It’s not because Halloween is my most favorite time of the year and this year’s celebration has been the happiest Halloween I’ve had so far (I thought last year’s Halloween celebration was the bomb! Didn’t think we’d top that off this year!), but it’s more than that.

I’m not sure if I mentioned it here before or in some other diary of mine, but living here in Oslob, for as long as I can remember, wasn’t really a good idea for me because I know and I feel that there are people here who don’t like me… they don’t like me because I’m with Mahal… because I used to be married to someone else… and maybe because I am just the kind of person they couldn’t believe achieved so much in life without much help from others. The way people think here is that you can either only be successful if you work abroad or if you’re married to a foreigner. I’m neither, so, maybe that boggles them. Honestly, I don’t really know why they don’t like me. The reasons I mentioned above are just my assumptions.

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