Playful

Nothing too profound.

I just realized that my son is growing up fast and he's quite a playful child.

In his early years, he was initially diagnosed with speech delay. We took some preventive maintenance steps and exposed him to more children. He was already going to Kindermusik and playschool at the age of 2. Eventually, he learned how to talk and he can now converse clearly and maturely. Not surprising as he's the only child in the house and he mostly spends his time with his grandfather.

This evening when I was spending time with him, he proclaimed that he's putting me in jail because he's a policeman. I couldn't help but laugh because he's finally playacting. His previous teachers said that that was one thing that he lacked. I'm glad that his imagination is now working overtime and he makes me laugh with his antics.

He's also quite social and "bibo". The other day while we were at my sister-in-law's house, he commandeered the microphone of the videoke machine. He sang Rey Valera songs one after the other with aplomb. After that, he greeted everyone Happy New Year and acted like he was the host!

Right now, I'm trying to teach him how to play hide and seek. Whenever I look for him, he would immediately come out. One day, I'm sure he's going to get it.

Cold Turkey

Not exactly cold turkey.

We had lunch at TGIFriday's earlier. When we eat there, I usually have Chicken Quesadilla or any of their pasta or burgers. But today, I ate what my health-conscious husband ate which was salad and soup. I conceded by getting their Cheese and Broccoli soup and shared a Caesar's salad with him. I also ordered the Chicken Fingers kids meal which was a smaller serving.

After lunch, we walked around a bit while I shopped for birthday gifts for my staff. I could feel myself getting woozy but struggled on. When we passed by the grocery, I was so shaky that my grip on the shopping cart caused it to wobble. My husband ordered me to sit down while he paid for the groceries.

I'm trying to figure out what's causing the nausea and dizziness. It could probably be that my body is adjusting to the lack of carbs and sweets. It happened to me before when I did Atkin's. My rice intake decreased a lot as I've been sticking to my one-rice-a-day resolution for the past five days. I'm also taking Metformin HCl for my polycystic ovaries and that's making my stomach churn since this morning.

I have a very long way to go. Hopefully my body will adjust to this soon.

Losing Weight

This has been my perennial struggle. Every year, I would wonder how I will finally lose all the poundage that I gained the past 15 years or so of working. I know I did it once but thinking of going through that torture again makes me weak.

I love food. I mean, the way for me to enjoy a new city or country is if I love the food. I loved NYC and Cebu because of the food that we consumed. I derive pleasure when something sweet or delicious touches my tongue. It maybe mental but it has always been this way for me for the past 30 or so years. Depriving myself makes me grouchy and short-tempered.

But if I am to have another child in the next two years and be more healthy, I have to lose all these weight. The first week is always the hardest so good luck to me.

I started off my limiting myself to one rice a day--meaning I either eat rice breakfast, lunch or dinner. So far on the fourth day of the year, I've been successful. I hope to maintain this streak for the rest of the year.

Probably in a month, I'll be cutting down on fried foods. I don't know why I'm babying myself like this when cold turkey always works for me. I've also taken to parking a long ways from the office so the walk will do me good. I just don't relish the feeling of sweat when I get to the office. I should think of wearing something else and just change when I get to my place of work.

And then I will cut the sweets. That will be the hardest but it's something that I have to do.

Road Trip - City Style

I always look forward to 530 as I get to go home to my family. My 30 minute drive in the morning turns to almost an hour in the evening as I go with the rush hour. I try not to schedule anything after work as I really want to get home and be with my husband and son.

This evening, I was looking forward to going home on time when my sister in the US reminded me that I need to bring her paintings to her friend who's leaving to return to the US on Monday. As I did not want to go anywhere this weekend, I resolved to do the errands tonight.

Thank God that traffic is still light as most people are still on vacation as well as the kids. I had to pick up the paintings at San Antonio Village at Makati first. As per advise of a colleague, I took Buendia from The Fort and then Jupiter. I made it to my dad's house under 30 minutes. Not bad considering that it's Makati.

I then consulted Google Maps and it took time before I found the address where I was supposed to deliver the paintings. I then pointed my car to where my phone was directing me and was able to find the place in Merville also in 30 minutes.


On a side note, I also got my own painting--that's the one on the left. It's by Edmund Mamuyac and his ink is coffee with water. Quite extraodinary.

All in all, I drove from 530PM to 8PM. Not bad on a Friday night. I look forward to just chilling at home this weekend as it will be all systems go next week when everyone gets back from their vacation. If the rest of the year will be like what the past 2 days has been like, my batteries would really need to recharge (or maybe my crankiness is due to my diet. Haaaay).

First Working Day of 2014

This day did not start the way I wanted it to start at all.

I've always been a stickler when it comes to my people's attendance. I send out reminders every year on what my policies are in terms of absences. One important item that I have always reiterated is that only two people per team can be absent on any given day. Being in operations and with a manually-driven process, manpower is an important component that I have to manage properly. When people were filing for leaves for today and tomorrow, I enforced the previously mentioned rule. I freaked out when one team had 5 people who wanted to go on leave today and returned the requests with instructions to fix the schedule. I went home last Friday thinking that I will not encounter anymore problems regarding this issue.

On  January 1, a staff requested for permission to go on leave today. As he caught me on my weak moment, I quickly agreed. However, I had second thoughts about my decision but since I already gave my approval, I let it be.

I was rudely awakened at 4 this morning by a text message that one staff also wanted to go on leave for another reason. It irked me as she used the same reason that she has always been using -- nobody would look after her son. My point is that I am also a working mom but I would ensure that my yaya problems will not interfere with my work. In fact, my son's yaya was supposed to return today but I insisted that she return last night so I will not have to worry about getting to work. Moreover, there was also another staff who wanted to go on leave today with a similar problem but I disapproved her leave. She then made arrangements to leave her son with another caretaker.

As if a signal, text messages started pouring in requesting permission to go on leave. What made matters worse was that the people who wanted to go on leave belong to the same team. That really got my goat and the team leader, who was unfortunately on leave today, got an earful (textful) from me. I did not answer any of the text messages and as per our rules, no acknowledgement would mean no approval.

I scolded my team leaders this morning as apparently, there were others who were absent and did not even text me. Only one team was complete and I'm rewarding them tomorrow with breakfast. I left instructions that no one was to go home until all work that was scheduled to be finished today was finished. If they have to render overtime on the first working day of the year, then they don't have anyone else to blame but those who are supposed to be present but for some reason, chose to be absent.

I did not want to start my new year with negative vibes and with sermon galore, but my people have to understand that there is a line that should not be crossed. It's hard to be consistent with a large team and it's always a never-ending balancing act. I just hope that everybody concerned learns from this lesson.

My 2014 Personal Projects

I barely made headway in my 2013 list. Hopefully, I will have much better luck on my 2014 list:

1. Limit myself to 1 cup of rice everyday.
2. Declutter (this was in my 2011 list and I was very successful. However, I again accumulated much stuff between the last 2 years).
3. Finish another cross-stitch project.
4. Learn a new craft.
5. Visit a city that I have never visited before.
6. Make a scrapbook.
7. Write at least one blogpost a week.
8. Run 3K (race or treadmill).
9. Close at least two credit cards.
10. Celebrate birthdays and anniversaries.

My 2013 Recap

I thought that I was not able to make a 2012 recap but upon checking my archives, I found one which I made late December. To remind myself of my 2013 highlights, I had to resort to checking my Facebook timeline. However, instead of going month on month, we'll just go with the events:

BALIKBAYAN VISITS
I mentioned in my previous blogpost about the visits of my balikbayan family. My twin sister came over early this year and we had a blast. We went around Metro Manila with her two kiddies and bonded. It was great seeing her again and I really hope I can get the chance to see her again this year.

The sisters of my dad also came over for a visit this Christmas. It was the most fun that we've had since my paternal grandparents passed away six years ago. At least I know my dad really enjoyed himself.

WEDDINGS AND CELEBRATIONS
I think I attended two weddings this year: that of Agnes, my friend from SFC and John and Hid, my colleagues from my former employer. The former wedding, I hosted the wedding reception. Fortunately, guests are not that young so I don't have to try to be too energetic. As for the latter, good thing I was just a guest so I was able to enjoy the celebration.

I also had the chance to test my make-up skills again when I did my own face for our Leader's Night. I was very happy that it was held just a few minutes away from the office. At least I didn't had to rush.

FAMILY
We switched Basti to a different school. Because of the new K12 system, the nursery/kinder grades got renamed. Actually, Basti has been going to school for the past 2 years. It's just this year, he's now in Pre-Kinder--which is still not yet part of K12. We tried putting him in this famous school but for some unacceptable reason, they didn't want to accept him. We decided to put him in another school near our house which accepted him with open arms. Nevertheless, my husband still wants to give it another try for this coming school year.

TRAVELS
Not much travelling in 2013 as much as I would like.  I did go to Cebu last June for a food trip with my bestfriend Kay but other than that, nothing. Oh, I did go to Liliw on the 30th of December on a roadtrip with my dad and a couple of my aunts. It was still fun though seeing the provincial roads and I did most of the driving. I wish more travels for the new year.

ARTS AND CRAFTS
I made headway in my arts and crafts. I finished one cross-stitch piece that I started before Basti was born. After stitching the last stitch, I shipped it over to my mom as she asked for it. She's asking me to make another piece but I asked her to wait as I have more pieces that I need to finish--especially one for my mother-in-law.

I also gave away some of my personalized stuff for Christmas. I made coasters and some clips. It was a hit but it drained me so much. I was not able to give presents to most of my list as I lacked the time to shop anymore and even the funds. Nevertheless, I hope to do more crafting in the future. My Ninang gave me a longstitch kit for Christmas so I hope to do something with that.

HEALTH
I had a small in-patient procedure done in the middle of this year. I tried not to make a big deal out of it as it will raise a lot of questions. Hopefully though, it will help me in our quest for another baby. Actually, everything is half-hearted now. I've somehow lost hope that we will have another baby as the odds seem to be against us. I guess if we are meant to give Basti a younger brother or sister, nothing will stop God's will.

TEACHING
I am the perennial substitute teacher. When I started teaching, it was because one of the teachers had to go on leave in the middle of the term. I gladly stepped in and found my teaching legs. I decided to return next term and was given another subject--Public Finance--which I learned from scratch. However, I didn't return the next term as my maternal grandmother passed away and there were so many things to be done. I went back this school year and I was given the same subject. However, I again became a substitute for another subject in the middle of the term. The additional income was not bad though. This term, I was only given one subject but I'm going to take in another subject next week. Good thing we only have less than 8 weeks left so good luck to me. I guess I must be good at what I'm doing which is validated by the faculty feedback that I've been getting. I wonder if I can sustain this?

DEATHS
I've lost count on how many funerals I visited last year. Probably the poignant ones are that of my paternal uncle who passed away due to cancer last October and the mom of my VSM friends in Mandaluyong.

NATURAL CALAMITIES AND OTHER EVENTS
Probably the biggest one was the big storm, Yolanda (International Name: Haiyan) that hit Central Philippines this November. Death toll was around 5K and obliterated most of Tacloban. We made the world news because of this sad event.
Other than that, there's the Janet Napoles scandal where she managed to siphon much of our taxpayers money to her pockets and gave numerous government officials millions of kickback. Until now, it's still unsolved although she's already in custody.

Overall, it's been a great year. I still have to feel something akin to overwhelming joy but I am still thankful for all the blessings. Here's to a better 2014.