Money Matters

This is a pile of unfiled bills and statements I have accumulated from last year. As part of my goal to declutter the house this year, this is my first task of order. I hate the task of filing...so it really helped that I had some motivation to do this ( bank statements and credit card bills for the last 3 months are some of the requirements for Australian Visa application).

Julia wanted to help as usual, so I had her highlight the dates for easier filing. I didn't realize it was such a good opportunity for teaching her about money until she asked. " Mom, why are the checks you paid Enopi with you now?"- She saw the checks returned by the bank. I tried to explain the mechanics to her in the simplest terms until she was finally satisfied with my answer. Then she paused to ask, "Mom, how do you pay when you sometimes buy something on the internet?". "I use my credit card.", I answered. "Aah, ok. You know, before, I thought you scanned the money and sent it to them, then they go to the bank to get it.", she explained her theory. I was amazed at how she tries to come up with the concept of things-money in particular. So, I guess its not too early to try and explain complicated things to her now.


I took this experience further by training her to do the filing lol :-) - for future contingency plans he he he. Just today, when the phone bill came, I asked her to do the filing, and she was able to do it! Yey! I'm planning to retire early.

Good Kids

Julia used to be a nerd. She hates it when school gets called off, loves to write and study and is the one to remind me of her homework (not the other way around). Nowadays, she has slightly shifted from that state. She now enjoys vacations more than school (she joins Nico is rejoicing for school holidays) and occasionally needs to be reminded to do her homework. I always tell friends that Julia has become "normal".

Julia does well academically. Honestly, I don't have problems with her at all. What she routinely does is to open up pages of her homework and assignment notebook and all I have to do is sign them. Last quarter, she was top 4 in her class and was in the honor roll. Yesterday, she gave me the good news when she handed me her honor card. Sigh! I know...I'm so lucky.

Nico is doing pretty well himself. Although not on the honor roll, Nico has a general average of 91 each quarter. This, he achieves all by himself, without me coaching him or a tutor. I know its not really a feat when you compare how we were in school before. But with kids these days mostly dependent on tutors, I consider it something.

Last year, from out of the blue, Nico told me, "Mom, thanks for teaching me and helping me with my homework." I became teary eyed when he said this because it means he valued the time and effort I spent in teaching him. How many kids would know and be grateful of this?

DH and I always discuss how lucky we are to have good kids. We feel really blessed and hope they become good adults in the future.

Dashing Diva

Last Sunday, Julia attended a birthday party of her friend's held at Dashing Diva inside Beauty Bar. She was pretty excited as it was her first time to attend a party like this. When we got there, most of the girls were already on their seats having their nails done. Mommy Jeneen, the celebrant's mom, suggested I help Julia pick her nail color and also the nail art design that she wanted.

While waiting for her manicure/pedicure, Julia decorated her own cupcake with pink icing and "lipstick" marshmallows. The girls chatted away while having their nails done. Their smiles evidently showed that they were having a great time. I made Julia wear her flipflops so she won't ruin her pedicure. Some girls, who wore closed shoes were made to wear disposable slippers while they stay at the drying area.

When DH came to get us after the party, he only has one word about what he saw - "Kikay!" as he shook his head repeatedly.

Christmas gifts

The Christmas tree and decors have been put down and this marks the end of the Christmas season in our house. The kids are back to school and I'm back to reality.

One of my goals for the year is to minimize the clutter in the house. But right now, while putting away gifts from Christmas, I realize that its more than material things that I need to declutter. I just checked the text box on my phone and it has 225 messages while the count on my personal email has 1348 messages (most of them trash). Anyway, I'm really seriously planning to change this habit so I'll be posting updates now and then to help me achieve this goal.

While lookin through the kids' gifts, I thought it might be interesting to post them here - their favorites anyway :-)

Julia got this Zip-It bag from Auntie Maleen. As the name suggests, its made of long 2 toned zippers that when zipped all throughout, makes into this cute small body bag. I actually had fun zipping and unxipping it. Felt it more like a toy than a bag :-)

Nico instantly loved this Mickey Mouse Mp3 player when he opened it. It comes with a silicon case and lanyard earphones. To switch on/off or adjust volume, you have to turn the ears of Mickey as knobs. Nico has his own playlist album on our ipod, so the very same hour he got this gift, he transferred the songs to his new mp3 player. Clearly, this gift is the coolest he got for Christmas. thanks mon and jen!

Reed Diffuser

I recently got this reed diffuser for Christmas and instantly loved how it made our room smell so nice. It gives out an atmosphere that's cheerful and relaxed. The diffuser set contains a bottle of scented oil, a glass jar with cover and rattan sticks that absorb the fragrance oil. What makes this really convenient is that you don't need any candles and is basically maintenance free - no need to turn on or off. I'm not sure if this is already available from our local Body Shop stores, but I've seen other brands from the home section at Robinson's. The fragrances available are not as unique as "cherry blossoms" but since it only costs P200, it was worth a try.

Santa's identity

Ever since we had our own home and Christmas tree, its been our tradition to open gifts on the morning of December 25. The kids really look forward to this and I think the element of suspense and surprise in waiting for Christmas morning to open them makes it really special. Each year, Santa's gift would be the most awaited. This is probably because Santa's gifts always come on Christmas morning itself when they the kids don't really have time to shake, feel, peak and try to guess whats inside :-).

This year has been a bit tough for Santa - who thinks its become more and more dificult to stay unidentfied. Nico, who's just recently discovered (around 2 years now, i think) Santa's true identity had to pretend he doesn't know who he is for Julia' sake. He's not doing a good job of it and often makes meaningful faces whenever the topic of Santa pops up. Also, Julia, who's just lost her first tooth this year, had been disillusioned when her Kindergarten teacher told her that tooth fairies aren't real. I'm thinking, it won't be long until she discovered the same thing about Santa, thus the apprehension.

I wasn't sure how to go about it especially when Julia started to make comments and reactions after opening Santa's gift. Julia gave me a big surprised but happy look when she first opened Santa's gift. I wasn't sure what she meant until she explained that one of the Sanrio notebooks Santa gave her was the same one we gave her cousin. Oops...I forgot that she'd be able to see what I wrapped for her cousin.

Later on that the day, Julia commented that there was a trace of price tag on the notebooks. "Santa removed the price tags.", she mentioned. Then she said, "Mom, Santa bought this from the store. Maybe he's shopping when we're sometimes at the mall and we just dont recognize him." I responded by saying, "Maybe its the elves who does the shopping for him."

It was so much easier to go about these things with Nico before. Probably because Nico was half as perceptive as Julia at her age now. Imagine Julia, who had to ask what was inside the wrapped packages I prepared, who knew all the designs of wrappers I had at home, who insists on helping me with wrapping, who patiently watches me after I tell her she cannot help and you'll understand what I'm talking about. From the way she phrases questions and make comments, I wouldn't be surprised if she figures things out before next Christmas.

I'm running out of creative ideas to keep Santa's identity safe. Any suggestions?

Realizations afer reading Twilight

It's been a while since I've gone to the movies since the "ber" months ushered in, so when Twilight made it to the silver screen a few weeks ago, I didn't have a hard time to ask DH to go with me. I've heard about Twilight several months before and got curious what the hype was all about. I wouldn't rate the movie "A" but decided to read the book version to answer some of my questions about the plot. After reading the 4 books in the Twilight saga, I realize that....

1. ...the theme of "love" is universal. Stephenie Meyer wrote it to cater the the young juvenile but clearly, the age of the characters were not an issue for the older and more mature audience. Reading the book at my age, felt like experiencing first love in high school all over again. I guess the appeal extended beyond the teenage years because it was reminiscent of how young love was. (sigh)


2. ...I don't buy the "you can love 2 people at the same time" idea. With regard to this issue, I'm no "Switzerland", either you're on Team Edward or Team Jacob, not somewhere in between. For me, trying to hold onto the 2 loves in the story made the female protagonist Bella look selfish and greedy.

3. ...I'm terribly old fashioned; or else, I wouldn't find Edward's lines such as "Charlie, I realize that I’ve gone about this out of order. Traditionally, I should have asked you first. I mean no disrespect, but since Bella has already said yes and I don’t want to diminish her choice in the matter, instead of asking you for her hand, I’m asking for your blessing. We’re getting married, Charlie. I love her more than anything in the world, more than my own life, and – by some miracle – she loves me that way, too. Will you give us your blessing?" chivalrous and romantic. If I didn't enjoy or appreciate gadgets and technology so much, I'm inclined to think I'm an old soul.

4. ...that I should have stopped reading at book 3 - Eclipse. I was more than a bit disappointed with Breaking Dawn. The main characters were quite inconsistent with how Meyer built them up in the first 3 Twilight books. Its as if a different writer finished the last sequel to the saga. By the ending chapters of the book, I even found myself wishing Meyer wouldn't finish it with a happy ending that everyone was waiting for- which was very unlikely of me. The plot just got crazier and crazier it was getting really hard to imagine. Instead of being able to enjoying the book, I found myself spending time questioning and trying to fill up holes in the plot.

5. ...that I miss reading fiction. For a while, the materials I've been reading are mostly under the non-fiction category like biographies, inspirational essays and journals. I've almost forgotten how fun it is to get lost in a book and let my imagination lead the way.

There's a lot of contradicted opinion on Twilight, some call it trash yet others are obsessed with it. All in all, I think it was good book. It delivered well its purpose which was to entertain and I was. So, if you're piqued at how a vampire/human love story would go, go ahead and read it. Only, take my advice and stop at Eclipse. :-)