Perfect Time to Improve Our Homes

We had a spring cleaning of the house and it’s fun because we all worked for it including our dear little boy. Anyway he’s nearing 10 years of age and he really wants to participate and help. Since I did all necessary cleanups in the kitchen and bathroom he finds it necessary to help in that area too. He always wants to be near me just like any other youngest boy to his Mom. DH did the heavy tasks as expected and it’s good that his summer schooling is finished. Now we have all the time not just for family bonding but family projects too. 

We’re actually looking for something like an l clamp to use in fixing the kitchen pipes and faucets. I already asked my brother hoping that he has one in his construction site. I know he could find one in his warehouse and can also assign one of his workers to fix some needed problem areas in the house. Summer vacation is indeed a good time for repairing and improving the house because we have more time.

Learning Various Mixes to Enjoy Coffee More

 Image from Wikipedia

I love drinking coffee while I’m writing article or reviews. It somehow relaxes my senses and gives me creative ideas and thoughts. If others get nervous whenever they drink strong coffee well it’s the other way for me. When I need anything to calm me down and feel relaxed I just need a cup of my favorite coffee to bring me to the mood I love especially if I received whole bean coffee from our hometown which has a different fresh taste for me. 

I’m used to drinking instant 3-in-1 coffee because it’s so accessible to have as you can buy it anywhere but I still want freshly brewed coffee at times. My niece who is studying Barista course promised to teach me how to mix special coffee broths in espresso machine when she graduates from the short course. She knows I love coffee and would love to learn mixing cappuccino, mocha frappe and others.

Country Style Doughnuts

These are varied flavors of Country Style - Chocolate Boom, Cookies & Cream and other Krazy Squares flavors which I often bought for my pasalubong to my kids aside from the all-time favorite Triple Choco Boom.  What I like about their doughnuts are the not-so-sweet taste and the fillings inside.  The flavors are also exciting just like the ones I bought this week.  

I actually bought just at the same building (Cityland Condo Tower II) where our office is located and where I work.  They have a small cafe at the upper ground and sells their doughnuts at 20% off original price after 3pm which fits our time for afternoon snack.  I can't remember buying without the discount because we always want it in the afternoon to eat while we have our coffee, just perfect.  Try it and enjoy a different doughnut from your traditional sweeties.

Searching for Affordable Textbooks

I’m enjoying this summer vacation because I only go to office twice a week now as my request for part time work was granted last February. I love this season even if the heat is really unbearable sometimes because it’s the time that my kids and husband is free from school activities. Well actually not DH because he has just enrolled in summer classes for three of his subjects. He transferred to Secondary Education course after graduating from Associate in Electronics so he needs to complete his prerequisite subjects to fit it in his 3rd year class in the incoming school year. 

Anyway next month would be enrollment season again and as early as last month I’m saving all my online income for the kids’ tuition fees. For the textbooks which will be available late of May I’m thinking if I can get some of those on other source like Becks Books who has a one-stop resource for textbooks at affordable prices. Books are getting expensive these days and my budgetary allowance should be higher too unless I find a cheaper alternative or better prices. Well if I can save on the kids’ textbooks I could buy school supplies with the amount I’ve saved.

Taking His Vacation

I’m glad my brother is taking a rest from all his work now. He’s spending a 4-day vacation in Bohol where I also love to take my own relaxing vacation. He’s been working hard these days doing residential projects after another and we’re asking him to take it a little bit slower because it might affect his health. Last week he’s asking me about some steel tube bending he needs for his client and I told him I’ll help with the canvassing. 

When I finally searched and got what he needs he’s booked for a vacation. Well it could wait until the end of this week when he and his family arrives from their vacation. Most important is he’s now heeding our advice and taking some rest from work. It gets me into thinking when I can have my own vacation also. I want to go to the coolest place in town.

Hershey’s Kisses Special Chocolates at Cash Cash Pinoy

Another must have from Cash Cash Pinoy…for the chocoholic that is.   Enjoy Hershey’s Kisses chocolate variants with 43% savings.  You’ll get these super yummy treats at P294 instead of P520 and that’s what you can call super deals.

Since I love dark chocolates I got special dark mildly sweet chocolate.  It’s got pure dark chocolate that’s mildly sweet and melts on your tongue.  As always with all Hershey’s products it’s made with high quality ingredients and packaged with that exceptional cute shape which defines Hershey’s Kisses.

I also bought milk chocolates with almonds for the kids as they love choco with nuts on it.

Pick-up starts May 2, 2013 to June 2, 2013 at CashCash Pinoy Office in Makati.  Mondays to Fridays 10am-5pm.

Choosing the Right Flooring for Your Home

I’ve always loved wood furniture and flooring because it reminds me of our old Spanish theme house way back early 70’s when I was still a child. I like the look of walnut and deep brown color in every corner of the house creating a very exquisite and elegant look. Now that we’re planning to renovate the upper floor of our house we’re thinking of replacing our flooring not with the intended slab flooring but of the good old hardwood flooring. 

Since our budget would just be enough we need to search and canvass carefully to maximize our resources. We need a supplier like Flooring America which supplies wood floors and more. They carry all name brands and provide wide range of hardwood flooring colors, shades and finishes to suit your specific taste and needs. 

Choosing the right floor for your home is vital because it can make or it can break the beauty of your interiors so you should think carefully before deciding which really fits your lifestyle and budget. With Flooring America you can make better choices as aside from hardwood flooring they also offer wide variety of floors including carpet, laminate, vinyl and tile flooring. They have flooring professionals that can help you plan the best flooring for your home.

Chicken Tinola for the Rainy Days

I never expected a rush of strong rains today and I'm just glad I already arrived in the office before it happened.  It rained the whole day and it seems like it's not summer.  The weather is really unpredicable and you'll never really know when it's hold, cold or when it rains.  Well this is something that I should take note as the kids' body condition may suffer from this kind of season.  Sudden changes bring about colds, coughs

and a lot of weather-based sickness.  

To set the mood for the rainy night I cooked chicken tinola which is my Mom and DH's favorite.  The food is so perfect for the weather and for my Mom who is not feeling good.  Hope this one will change her mood and somehow lighten her cough and headache.  She's requesting this since the other day so I bought the ingredients over the weekend to come up with this.  I'm also not feeling well but I can't get sick as Bayantel will make their assessment tomorrow for our company's standard procedures and policies.  

So for my chicken tinola I prepared the following ingredients:

-  1/2 kilo chicken breast
-  1 big sayote, ginger,
-  1 onion
-  1/3 head garlic
-  bunch of pechay
-  sili leaves
-  pepper and salt to taste
- 1 chicken cube for seasoning

For procedures: 

- Heat oil and saute ginger, garlic and onion.  

- Add chicken and stir for 5 minutes then add water

- Bring to a boil and when chicken is cooked already add salt, pepper and chicken cube.  

- Add sayote and when cooked you just add the remaining ingredients- pechay and dahon ng sili.  

Enjoy while hot.

Plans for Learning Musical Instruments

It’s first week of school break for the kids and we’re planning out our home activities after the holy week. Since they’ve got plenty of time for themselves they lined up our English 101 lessons and their much-awaited continuation of musical instrument learning courses. They’re very interested in learning each instrument they fancies and to update they’ve started learning piano, drums and a month ago their favorite guitar. 

I believe that my ancestor’s flair for music and playing instruments is running right through their blood because their love for music comes naturally. I didn’t force them to study and learn but they’re the ones who requested their own musical instruments and music courses. Now the little boy will have his violin from his cousin and as early as now he’s looking for his own music teacher to teach him the basics of playing violin. He wanted a home tutorial study this summer. 

Their love for instrument makes me wonder if they’re up to learning classic sousaphone also as they still don’t know it. I even teased my daughter that it’s only for their little brother because it fits boy rather than a girl. Well there’s still plenty of time for them to decide and all I can do is wait and hope that whatever they decide they will continue with it.

Season for Swimming Activities

As summer started to show its humid and hot season people are planning to take vacation in nice beach and pool resorts. It’s their way of beating the heat and spends relaxing moments with their loved ones. I just love summer season because it’s the time when we can have the kids all to ourselves. The kids are free from school work and activities and want to spend their time away playing and vacationing. 

We have our regular resort where we always go with our church mates occasionally. We love going there because we can choose whether we want cold water or natural hot spring water. When we go there on colder season we can’t just swim without the warm water so it’s a lot of help to be able to have both. 

Well on other resort or private pools where they don’t have natural hot spring water they can avail of poolsupplyunlimited.com for pool heat pumps to heat their pools whenever they want to enjoy swimming on cold season. It’s a lot of savings too using this kind of heat pumps because they don’t generate heat; they capture it and move to wherever they want.

Huge Living Room

For people like my family who entertains big number of visitors frequently this is one good living room idea that you can have.  When I saw this at hgtv.com I immediately had a nice idea that it can be a good one for our bible study where we have many attendees, actually we're usually 40 brethren who conducts bible study every midweek.  We held it in our church but sometimes one of our brethren would invite us to their homes and this would fit to that kind of occasion.  Anyway we also have plenty of friends,family and relatives and this one is just perfect. This is from Elizabeth A. Rosensteel Design / Studio

Guitar’s Little Accessories

Since the kids have their own guitar now they can learn any piece they want anytime. Of course the girls are more active with learning because the little boy just try to learn it once in a while. He’s more engrossed with learning drums nowadays. I was just amazed at how fast Gen can learn a new song in little time. She even learn one song in 5 minutes wow! When we get to pass or drop by music store she would look for accessories that will suit their guitar. She loves little things that can make guitar easy to operate and those things that supports guitar. 

Oh there are so many things that you can buy for your own little guitar like guitar capo and other accessories for your well-loved guitar. Just make sure that it complements your instrument in its body and also in the quality of sound that it will create and play. Playing guitar wouldn’t be so fun without those nice little accessories.

Loving the Instrumental Sounds at Home

Since I’m now working at home again and only serving my company as part-time employee for twice a week I get to stay more at home thus learning some new home things too. It was quite a respite from the office work stress but it took me quite a while to decide on what I’m going to do with my work life. 

Anyway it was fun staying at home again with the company of my Mom who is always on her best mood to chat and watch TV with me. What I like about when I’m working is my music background. Most of the times I choose instrumental music because it will help you think of creative ideas as you can hear the instruments playing so softly and with the clarity of each music notes. 

It doesn’t matter to me if it’s piano or saxophone as long as the music is good, the instrument is perfectly played to the tune and the whole music befits my mood. I was also thinking what would the sound if they use the accompaniment of pbone, the plastic trombone that sounds like the typical brass trombones. I’m sure it will sound better because it has ergonomic grip that will help the player be comfortable with holding it. I learned it has various stylish colors.

Green Kitchen

Photo: Sarri & Forrai Photography

For those who love to see green surroundings in their interiors you might want this one.  Last summer I had my own kitchen renovated and though it's not as grand as the above picture I can say that I'm satisfied with the changes.  I had my kitchen appliances arranged and fit in one line and had the repainted with cool green color.   I had my gas range fitted to the wall as previously it just stand in the middle of the kitchen.

Well I love to have a kitchen like this in the future but for now I should be contented with what I have, anyway the colors are the same and so is the ambiance, very cool and anyone who enters this kitchen will feel peaceful and comfortable. 

I saw this at kitchen.com and  this one is from Sawhill Custom Kitchens and Design, Inc.

Enjoying Their Guitars While at Home

My kids are enjoying their new guitar from my sister who gave it to them last Christmas. Well not the very beautiful and quality good dean electric guitars I saw online but a simple regular guitar that the kids can learn and play at the same time. As they’re really fond of playing various musical instruments they find it very worth of their time to study playing guitar. 

My younger daughter learned it first because she really gives an hour a day to practice the pieces she wants. When they last offered a song my eldest daughter Ruth and youngest Josh sings while Gen plays the guitar. I’m happy and proud of them.