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

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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financial goal unlocked

How I Reached My Financial Milestone Without Sacrificing Health

I Hit My Big Financial Goal—5 Months Ahead of Schedule!

When this year started, I wrote down a quiet, deeply personal goal.

It wasn’t about going viral or building an empire. It wasn’t even something I shared with a lot of people.

It was simply this:
To reach a financial milestone I had never hit before.
By December 31, 2025.

At the time, it felt impossible. Insurmountable.
But as of August 2, I’ve done it—five months early.
And I’m still in awe.


I’m 47. And for the first time…

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Why Slow Travel Just Works Better for Kids

Why Slow Travel Just Works Better for Kids

Okay, so here’s the thing about family vacations. They sound magical in your head, the kids are smiling, everyone is bonding, maybe even a sunset in the background. But then you blink, and you’re sweating through a zoo map, your kids are being picky eaters, someone’s crying about their shoes, and you haven’t eaten since breakfast. Now, does any of this sound familiar? Well, it’s not you. It’s not the kids. It’s the pace.

Yep, you read that right, so that’s where slow travel comes in and quietly saves the whole trip. A lot of parents make the mistake of thinking they can cram everything into one trip. Now, sure, you might have been able to do that before having kids, but it doesn’t exactly work that way once you have a family of your own. But how?

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2024 LOOK BACK: A Year of Growth, Celebration, and Dreams Taking Shape

As the clock ticks closer to the end of 2024, I can’t help but reflect on what an incredible year it has been for our family. This year wasn’t just about celebrations; it was about growth, stepping out of comfort zones, making bold moves, and seeing long-held dreams start to take shape. And so, as I sit down to reflect on 2024, I feel a mix of emotions. Though the latter part of December saw me struggling with a wave of depression, I now realize it was likely hormonal — my period suddenly arrived after a delay, which made me wonder if I might be entering perimenopause.

It wasn’t just hormones, though. My VA business has grown exponentially this year — I now have 12 clients! On top of that, I juggle multiple roles in our businesses: as co-owner and Chief Marketing Officer of our hotel, restaurant, café, and catering business, all while trying to keep up with the many business and personal development courses I’ve enrolled in. Somewhere along the way, I over-fatigued my already overloaded system.

Thankfully, I have my husband, Hanz, by my side. His unwavering support, his constant reminders to take breaks, and his effort to make sure my “love cup” is always filled to the brim helped me push through. Looking back at all that we’ve accomplished this year, the sadness has lifted. It’s been replaced by a deep sense of gratitude, hope, and joy for every big and small blessing that has come our way.

Here’s a month-by-month look back at the highlights of this unforgettable year. (Note to self: I hope to blog about each of these things in more detail this coming 2025…)

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2021 Highlights: a Gratitude Post for the Year That Was

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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Sunrise in Oslob

How We Transferred to Oslob, Cebu During the Pandemic

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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Oslob

Reminiscing My First Time at Oslob New Village Lodge – Cebu Accommodation and Things to Do

It has always been on my mind to blog about Oslob, a quaint and beautiful municipality in southern Cebu. After all, that’s where I met the current love of my life back in March 2012 (check our love story) and which I now consider as one of my second homes because I  can no longer count how many times I’ve been to this charming place known for its whale sharks and beautiful falls. I’ve also mentioned it quite a few times on my blog, particularly when I’d do my yearly How to Travel and Look Back posts, but I’ve never really come up with a detailed blog post about it yet, until now. And this is just the first. More coming as I continue with my daily blogging.

I was also reminded of it once again when I got interviewed recently by BlogMeter Top (the article hasn’t been published yet, I will share once it’s out) and one of their questions was what is my favorite blog post here in MomTraNeur and I mentioned that it was the story of my current love life. I’m a mushy kind of person after all (in case you haven’t noticed yet), hihihi!

You see, I’ve been married for so long before (2002-2012) and it crumbled in 2013. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I will find love again. I never dated. My ex was my first and last. I never had any other sexual encounters aside from my ex. Despite my being “Sexy Nomad” at that time, I really am a naive and conservative girl deep down. Everything that happened after, with my now current life partner, is nothing but miraculous. And the more I look back how it all came to be, the more I cherish our love and the life we have now. And little did I know at that time that it all started in OSLOB.

So back to Oslob

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How to Travel with a Toddler? (A 2017 Travel Recap)

OMG! OMG! OMG! This blog post has been on draft mode since January! And because I’ve been sooooo busy like never before, it’s only now that I am trying to finish this so I can finally publish it!

This is a two-part blog post, a bit long yes, but I think I owe it to you (and myself) since I haven’t really posted in a  while.

The first part is about tips on how to travel with a toddler. The second part is a photo summary of all our travels in 2017. I want to have a look back at the past year first so I can appreciate more how wonderful 2018 is turning out to be. We’re only in the 3rd month of this year but so many things have already happened and I’m just so grateful for everything!

Just in case you’re new on my blog and you’re wondering how we can do so much traveling, it’s because we don’t work in the corporate world. We’re setting up our farm in Mindanao and I  work online which means we can pretty much travel when we want to as long as everything in our life is in place – our workers at the farm, my online work schedule and our finances.

Anyway, I first drafted this post while we were doing our annual trip to Oslob, Cebu 3rd week of January and I was hoping to not leave without recapping all those wonderful travels we did last year! But then life happened — I hit the ground running at the start of the year with work, Tuz was very needy, we were traveling a lot, I had to rest and sleep… the usual, lol!  — so I’m only able to write about it now. I know I am super behind in sharing here with you my travel posts. What I usually end up writing here are things about my life as a mother and provider in general and all those self-help stuff I’ve learned (I’m a Psychology graduate so I really do like dissecting my thoughts most of the time by writing them down here). As one of my resolutions for 2018, I want to write more travel posts since we’re traveling most of the time and I’m starting it with this one — our 2017 travel recap and how to travel with a toddler (coz Tuz is two years old now…Yep, time really flies fast, I know!) Hopefully, it won’t take me another 2 months or so to write the next one!

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motherhood comes first

Motherhood Comes First – A Mom’s Rants About Being a Mother to a Hyper Toddler

This blog post is mostly a one long rant so please bear with me…

I was very much excited to write several blog posts about our long Boracay vacation last March. I still am looking forward to writing down all my stories, travel tips and what-have-you but I just don’t know when I’ll find the time. Life just got busier and busier that I didn’t realize it was already April and we are once again preparing for a one long family travel, this time, a fun road trip with my parents from Luzon all the way to Mindanao.

Anyway, going back to life getting busy and all… Continue reading

Baguio Panagbenga Flower Festival 2017 Guide

The Panagbenga Flower Festival 2017 is currently being celebrated in Baguio. It started on February 1, 2017 and will end on March 5, 2017. I’m not fond of festivals in general because I don’t like being with a lot of people, getting hot and sweaty (and worse, mugged!) or being caught in horrible traffic but Panagbenga Festival (aside from the Hot Air Balloon Fest) is one of those few festivals I attend almost every year. I even celebrated a long weekend here back in 2007 for my 29th birthday together with my best girls as we were also stalking Brownman Revival (we were a groupie back then, hahahah!) Gosh! That was a decade ago. (Photo below)

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Horizon Hotel

Horizon Hotel Subic Review

We didn’t plan to stay in Subic for one more night. But after doing a ton of activities like the Hot Air Balloon Fest, Ocean Adventure,  Valentine dinner by the bay,  etc., Mahal just didn’t have enough energy to drive us back to Manila anymore. And so, with a very limited budget at this time, we looked for a very affordable hotel in Subic, around the price range of P1,000 or so per night. If there’s a lower-priced hotel than that, then all the more okay for us.

Unfortunately, those priced below P1,000 are located in Olongapo, a bit farther than where we already were which was in Freeport Zone, Subic, Zambales. Thank God for the deals at Agoda, we found a seemingly good hotel at around P1,200 per night and that hotel was Horizon Hotel. It had 7.9 (Very Good) rating at Agoda so that was good enough for us. We immediately booked using my data on my mobile phone then we headed straight to the hotel. Continue reading