May, 2018 Monthly Roundup

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?
- Pivot Point by Kasie West ♥
- Split Second by Kasie West
- Nemesis by Brendan Reichs
- The Chaos of Standing Still by Jessica Brody ♥♥♥
- Comfort and Joy by Kristin Hannah (Now my favorite author! Her books are the best!)

What movies and/or TV shows did I watch this month?
- Lalaland
- Black Panther
- The Incredible Hulk
- Kasal

What special days did I celebrate and how?
- Mother's Day
- Inlaws' 50th Wedding Anniversary

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?
- Little headaches due to change of weather :(

What fun things did I do with my friends and/or family?
- Stayed in Edsa Shangrila for 2 nights with the family
- Had a lot of family dinners with relatives this month

What new foods, recipes or restaurants did I try this month?
- Salad Stop!
- California Pizza Kitchen
- Abe

What special or unusual purchases did I make?
- Bought a black Tote as a gift for myself for Mother's Day ♥

What have you learned this month?
-

The Less you Own...


Wednesday Happy Thoughts

Happiness is...

1. 50th Wedding Anniversary
2. Work, work, work
3. FREE Snacks
4. Still Thankful for Summer!!!
5. Long Naps
6. Freshly Brewed Coffee
7. Breakfast Buffet
8. Instagram
9. Minimalism
10. Kids' Hugs

To know how this started and credits of the header, click here.

A Life Without...


The 5 Ways We Can Prepare Our Children for Success by MomCenter.com.ph

In a fast paced and constantly changing world, an individual’s ability to adapt to the demands and trends of modern life are key to one’s success.

My own experience as mompreneur teaches me that what we learn in school will not necessarily be related to our chosen profession or work. To be specific, I was a psychology graduate, but now find myself in the field of communications and fashion retail. Much of what I do now was self-taught or learned on the job. I certainly did not learn how to write an effective press release, strategize for social media content, or do e-commerce when I was back in school.

What does this have to do with our children? Everything.

As multi-dimensional modern mothers (who juggle different roles every day as moms, wives and sometimes professionals), we aspire to do everything in our power to set-up our children for success. We want them to be well-rounded individuals who are not just book smart, but street smart. We understand what it means to live full and fruitful lives, and we want no less for our kids.

But how can we do this, without knowing what the world will be like in 10-20 years? “Will my child be ready for the challenges she will face? Will she find a stable job?” we wonder and worry. These concerns are valid, but we want more than that, don’t we? We want our children not just to survive but to thrive.

Thus, for our children to succeed in an uncertain future, as mothers, we need to encourage them to be as adaptable as possible. How can we do this? Here are a few ways you can prepare your child for a successful future:

1. Encourage a love for learning.
How? By giving your child the opportunity for learning experiences that are rewarding, fun, interesting and challenging. Make their playtime activities educational and exciting, so they are able to view learning as something enjoyable.
2. Equip your child with advanced learning skills. Expose your child to different learning styles. Is she a visual learner, who prefers pictures, images and spatial understanding? An aural learner, who enjoys learning through sound and music? A verbal learner, who prefers using words both in speech or writing? Or a physical learner, who prefers using her body, hands, and sense of touch?
3. Explore the multiple intelligences. Book smart and math smart are not the only forms of smart. The Gardner theory of multiple intelligence proposes that learning is multi-dimensional: the visual-spatial, the body-kinesthetic, the musical-rhythmic, the interpersonal, the intrapersonal, the verbal-linguistic, the logical-mathematical, and the naturalistic as different forms of intelligence. Explore them with your child. If you only focus on one type of intelligence, then you may not discover your child’s untapped potential in the other areas.
4. Teach your child self-awareness. Knowing one’s gifts, abilities, and strengths are key to success in any field of work. The important thing is to help your child balance this knowledge with a healthy recognition of one’s weaknesses, or areas of growth.
5. Provide your child with the right nutrition. In today’s environment where children need to be able to learn not just mentally but physically and socio-emotionally as well, they need to have strong minds and bodies more than ever. Aside from proper parenting and care, giving them the proper nutrition is critical in nurturing their gifts. They need the right nutrients at the right levels to help them learn in many ways at their best. They also need precisely balanced age appropriate nutrition to help support their mental, physical, and social learning milestones. Finally, they need a combination of unique brain nutrients for their cognitive development, antioxidants to help maintain their body’s natural defenses, dietary fibers to support their gastrointestinal health, and growth nutrients to support their weight and height. With a balanced diet, only Promil Gold® Four provides this advanced nutrition with its expertly designed Gold Biofactors system, a unique combination of nutrients working together to support strong minds and bodies to help advance their gifts.

Motherhood is definitely challenging, and we tend to put a lot of pressure on ourselves about our children. We worry about their safety, their health, their happiness, and their futures. This is why I am so grateful for any form of help I can get. Raising and caring for a child is a lot of work, and it is comforting to know that there are brands out there I know I can trust (such as Promil Gold® Four, which has been around for at least 30 years!) to help me on my journey.

As moms, the most we can do is love our children, do our best, and trust that when the time comes, they will be ready to do the rest.

SOURCE.

Wednesday Happy Thoughts

Happiness is...

1. Happy Weekend!
2. Lunch outs and Dinner Outs
3. Simple Blessings
4. A Home to Stay
5. Shopping at the Mall
6. Salad Stop!
7. Parties
8. Summer Outings
9. Long naps
10. Freshly Brewed Coffee ♥

To know how this started and credits of the header, click here.

More Gratitude to be More Joyful...


Sharing a Song this SUNDAY: Psycho

How to Talk to Your Children about Work By: Paula Cabrera of www.MomCenter.com.ph

Check this out, another nice article worth sharing.

How to Talk to Your Children about Work By: Paula Cabrera of www.MomCenter.com.ph

Given the demands of my work as well as its flexibility (by which I mean I am not confined to an eight-hour desk job), there are times when I get to (or have to) work at home. As such, my daughter hears me say, “Wait, baby, Mama’s still working.”

One night, shortly after dinner, my two-year old eagerly wanted to play with me, but I had a pleading I needed to finish right away. My husband immediately stepped in and said that the two of them will go read books while I had to finish work. I heard my little one say, “Mama, you’re always working.” Mom guilt kicked in faster than I could process how my toddler made such observation. I have to admit – the honesty of our kids enables us to see things through their eyes.

I realized that I can’t underestimate my toddler and I shouldn’t disregard her comment, which really bothered me (Mom guilt. Mom guilt. Mom guilt.). I also realized that it would cause no harm to somehow start explaining to her the concept of work. Of course, I know that my two-year-old cannot fully understand i. the fact that both her parents are lawyers; ii. what exactly it is we do; iii. how we do our jobs; and iv. why we even do it to begin with. But I had to try. I didn’t want her to feel that she isn’t a priority or that I can’t spend time with her because of my work, and so, I started talking to her about work (in general) and relating it to concepts she could already grasp.

As working moms, we need to take baby steps in helping our kids comprehend the whats, wheres, whys, and hows of our jobs. Here are a few suggestions on how to talk to kids about work:

1. Introduce the concept of a community. Talk about the home, school, church (if any), clinic or hospital, park, shopping center/mall, market, grocery, etc. By starting with this, we get to introduce our kids to the fact that there is a whole world existing beyond the family. It will be easier for kids to understand, for instance, when they’re sick, we bring them to the doctor; in school, the teacher helps kids learn, and so on. This way, they get the picture that people have different roles in the community and we, as their moms, take on some of these roles as well.

2. Use media and concepts they are familiar with. Kids don’t understand the vocabulary our work usually deals with; hence, we need to talk to them using words and concepts they understand. There is room for creativity here. Draw, use clay/puppets/building blocks, etc. to talk to your kids about work. For example, my job involves a lot of paperwork, and so I sit down with my daughter and let her scribble on scratch paper as I tell her stories about my work. Also, my daughter loves to sing so I make up songs about going to work, dressing up for work, talking to my friends at work, etc. I find it easier this way to engage her in the topic.

3. Incorporate the concept of work in story-telling time. There are plenty children’s books that talk about different kinds of jobs. We can also use our imagination and make up stories that involve simple problem-solving scenarios and include our job in the equation. This allows us to use characters kids can remember, and hopefully, they can start grasping the idea that our work helps answer problems people encounter.

4. Talk about how the day at work went. We should share with our kids mini stories about what we did at work during the day. It could be as simple as telling them that we used the laptop or more detailed such as telling them about a meeting/class/court hearing/check-up or operation, etc., of course, in terms they can grasp. This is just like story-telling time, except here, we are the main characters.

5. Bring your kid to work – if possible. If work permits and if it’s not anything dangerous to kids, we should bring them to work or to our offices just so they can see where we go to when we say we’re going to work. Most children absorb information visually, and letting them see our offices will help them understand the concept of work. There are times I bring my daughter to the office when I know I won’t have any meetings or hearings and she already knows that in “Mama’s office, people are working so Ceecee has to be quiet and Ceecee can color but only on paper.”

6. Encourage pretend play. It can’t be all work, no play, right? Let’s remember that our kids learn during playtime. We can play dress-up with them to explain our work. We can take on roles and act out scenarios. There are no hard and fast rules here. Explaining our work to our kids can and should be fun!

7. Set a routine. It will help our kids understand that there are work days and rest days, that we dress up to leave for work but we will be home later, that while we are working, somebody else will take care of them, and that we have to leave the house for a while so we can help the community.

8. Spend quality time as a family. As working moms, we shouldn’t just focus on letting our kids understand our work, but we have to make sure they don’t develop ill feelings about working. Hence, we should make sure that as a family, we get to spend quality time with one another. Again, we’re not working individuals; we’re working moms.

Kids are sensitive human beings and they’re eager to learn and to discover. Simply because work is an “adult thing,” it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t talk to our kids about it. We shouldn’t underestimate their capacity and willingness to learn. After all, they’re really probably wondering what other super powers their moms have!

SOURCE.

Wednesday Happy Thoughts

Happiness is...

1. Another Relaxing Weekend!
2. Sunday Services via YouTube
3. Work ♥
4. Friends
5. Not too hot weekend
6. Real Success ♥
7. God's Love and Hugs
8. Photobook Deals
9. Long Naps
10. Orthos

To know how this started and credits of the header, click here.

A Shabu-Shabu Night with the Family.

One night last year, we tried Nikuya in Capitol Commons for their Shabu-Shabu.


The restaurant was fine and the setup was nice.



But the highlight was the food!


We all enjoyed the wagyu barbecue and the shabu-shabu. We will definitely be back here! ♥♥♥

The Gratitude Mantras


Sharing a Song this SUNDAY: If Our Love is Wrong

A Family Dinner with a Perfect View in Antipolo

Long Weekends will make you decide for an impromptu dinner date with the family. This time we decided to check out the beautiful view of Antipolo. ♥


And had dinner too!


The food was not spectacular nor special, so will no longer blog about it.

But, the view, still UNFORGETTABLE!


We also love that the breeze was a bit cool. ♥♥♥


One of the best nights we ever had.


We'll definitely be BACK!

Filipino Breakfast from Bizu, Anyone?

Oh, I can't believe I almost forgot to post this.

Our sumptuous breakfast from Bizu, a couple of months ago.


Now, I'm craaaaaaaving.


Maybe I should grab a plate or two now?

Truffle Chips, Anyone?


More, please! This photo made me crave this yummy, light, truffle chips from Italliani's.

YUM!

Wednesday Happy Thoughts

Happiness is...

1. Happy and Relaxing Weekend
2. Movie Night
3. Glass of Wine (more, please!)
4. New eBooks
5. Blogging
6. New Adventures
7. House Renovation
8. New Photobooks
9. Family ♥
10. Positive Thinking!

To know how this started and credits of the header, click here.

Loved the Sister Act Broadway Play!

I know, it's been a year since we watched this play, but it is definitely worth posting!


Just look how excited we looked...



The kids were so excited too!



What's my verdict?

Well, I think it was not made for kids. There were scenes from the play that made me wish I didn't bring the kids. But the overall music and dancing were great!