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Aug 29, 2012

Sounds Familiar

someecards.com - I'm on pre-vacation vacation


How about adding post-vacation vacation, and it's already Mark John.

Kneading the Frustrations Away

(08.28.2012)
That weekly cravings that got botched makes me want to throw tantrums like a kid. So it was my fault that I got late again for the yoga. It's just it would take too much of my time just to be in the city to get my dose of weekly yoga, and I still mess it up definitely frustrates me like I want to bang my head on the wall for being so lame.

So anyway, I just picked up the "wheat grass" kit by Cebu Hydrophonic Garden from Chez Toztar hoping it would shoo away the BV-ness (Bad Vibes). 

But I'm still angst-y when I got home so I proceeded to get some flour, and knead my frustrations away.
I hope to produce some decent pita breads from the above dough, which is "sleeping" for now. A few of it, I plan to make some mini pizza for the kids. Then, the rest will be pita bread like duh. 

I love pita breads. Most of the time, I use it to wrap veggies ala Taco / shawarma. It's the easiest way to shove vegetables to Mark's throat. (Note that I don't always use home-made pita breads. I'm still far from perfecting it. I usually got mine from Village Gourmet which you can usually find at Rustan's, Robinson's at BTC, SM Supermarkets.)
For pita bread recipes, I'm lazy so I follow recipes which do NOT need oven cooking. So I cook my pita bread like pancakes. So I follow either of the following no-oven pita bread:
* for all-purpose flour, I follow Munatycooking's Pita Bread - Oven not needed recipe here >>. I used this on my first tries as all-purpose is cheaper than whole-wheat flour.

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What has become of my frustration?



Aug 28, 2012

Acquiring New Tastes

What they said that once you have a taste of the "real" version of the foods, it's just totally different from grocery-brought versions.

One of those is the cheese. Once I started getting my cheese from Cebu Dairy Fresh, which is actually already a bit processed, and the Compostela keseyo (another white cheese version) (which for me is less processed), the Magnolia quick melt cheese just loses its appeal to me. You can somehow differentiate the add-on ingredients they added tothe quickmelt cheese that you can't help but feel that probably only 20% of it is real cheese.
white cheese from Cebu Dairy Fresh sprinkled
Then, I happen to chance upon a recipe and instructions on how to make butter from scratch. Looking at it, it's not really that difficult. So I bought 1L raw milk from Cebu Dairy Fresh to experiment making butter from scratch.
raw milk from CEFEDCO / cebu dairy fresh
raw milk from Cebu Dairy Fresh at P45 / liter

You only need to let the raw milk sit at the ref overnight, then there will be these "elements" that would float at the top of the container. Scoop them up, dump it at your food processor. In my case, I use a food chopper. Then, just pulse it until some of them solidified.

From the 1L, I only managed to squeeze these much butter from it. And, the result is home-made butter is just delightful. It melts with an attitude in my mouth.
It brought life to the boring Batard bread. And, it just tastes lovely eating just the better alone.

For a more detailed instructions on how to create butter from raw milk, click here >>.

Aug 27, 2012

Craft?

Yesterday, I watched 2 documentary films -- Bob Marley and Jiro Dreams of Sushi.

10,000 Hours
And, just with other successful people, it takes years for them to reach some sort of "success" level on their crafts. Though, according to Jiro he could not say he's already at his best as every day is a chance for him to be better.

The Dirty Part
Sometimes, we had this thinking that we wish to be successful so we will no longer be doing the dirty work. But looking at Jiro, he only stopped going to the fish market when he collapsed from some sort of heart attack. But then the fish marketing was never delegated to their interns or other stuff, the job was then inherited by his son.

In case of Bob Marley, he went through the phase of performing in cemeteries to overcome stage frights, to distributing their music on his own.

Soul and Passion
It might be just the documentary film's director trying to make Bob Marley look good but all the clips of his performances showed how soul-ful his expression is when performing. Or, maybe it was just my impression.

From the different biographies I read about extra special "successful" people, when they describe their craft, you can always feel a special connection between them and their craft that goes beyond what we can physically grasp. It's far from what is typically described by hollywood movies as successful -- the blings and the $$$.

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Anyway, after watching the films, it made me think what is my craft. What is that one craft that I could relentlessly pursue to perfection and beyond?

Migi's 8th Birthday (08/10/2012)

He asked for a lunch treat for his classmates. But we settled with afternoon snack's treat.
Then, at home, we had some spag and chicken.
with the boys
with the girls
This Saturday will be Meg's. Then, we'll just repeat the formula again. =)

The Week That Was 2

It's quite a slow week for us last week. All the babies had 2-day off. I don't know what were the holidays (Yes, I'm lame!).

Ate Mona was also off for the 2-day holiday so I think I was busy during those days I could not recall what happen. So my best guess was that I let the video games babysit for my kids.
Then, add a few threats in between to force Mati to study alphabets.

Then came Saturday, Migi and Meg had some activity at the school. It was something about for their holistic development. Anyhoo, I had to send them and pick them up from school as Mark was away in Camotes for a bike ride.

When I picked them, Meg asked to finish her food before we go home.

We tried the buko juice at the roadside while waiting for a jeepney ride.

Aug 24, 2012

I, Me & Myself

"I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best." Frida Kahlo
via @pestimo via incenses.tumblr.com

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In my case,
I write self-centered interests because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.
Alone? I blame it on my being an only child. I read somewhere that only-childs tend to create their own world, and talk to their selves. I am all of those.

I'm definitely not alone. But I guess part of growing up alone as an only-child, I develop the talent to isolate myself in a bubble of my own world even if I'm in a crowded party.

And, because of that I'm clumsy and distracted, and that's why I keep losing stuff. It's because though I'm physically present in a certain place, but my mind is wandering somewhere away.

It probably can be also the reason why I look like I'm a good listener kind of friend. If I find someone's story boring, I just listen and create another version of it in my head.

Write? I could no longer keep how many blogs I created and abandoned. I probably have one in every blogging platform on the www.

Sometimes, I want to whack my self on the head why I cannot stop writing and blah-ing and writing and blah-ing. Really, if people get annoyed of my endless chatter on every social network / blogging platform, I'm more of annoyed of myself.

Sometimes, I scream (inside my head) at myself of why I cannot f*cking stop to blah and blah (like right now). But then, after some time, I thought it is I. If I'm going to stop writing and blah-ing, it will be no longer me.

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I'm not comparing myself to Frida Kahlo. I don't want to insult her. But I'm happy to know that it's normal to be so interested of myself.

Aug 21, 2012

The Week that Was

(I wanted to make a weekly post on snippets of my kids' life in a week, as some sort of souvenir.)

Land Forms in Clay
Migi and Meg had projects that asked them to bring clay to school. They'll be making clay models of different land forms.
Migi's
Meg's
Migi's New Schoolbag
We let him choose what he would want to receive as a birthday gift, a new school bag or rubber shoes. I was hoping he'd go for a rubber shoes, but he chose a new school bag. So Wednesday, we went to SM City Consolacion so he can pick his new bag. He specifically asked me that he should be the one to choose his new bag.

His choice was a confirmation that's Migi has somewhat the same taste with Mark when it comes to choosing their stuff. 

His first choice was a spiderman bag. But after more looking around, he went for this more plain-looking school bag but has all the features in the world, which might take him until grade 6 to use all of them. And, best of all he can sit on it. So it's actually a chair sidelining as a bag.

And, the thing that confirmed him most that he's Mark's son is that the bag is expensive (compared to the other available bags). We agreed that it will be his bag until grade 6. 
Clay Craze
Since their clay project, they'd been asking me to get them more clays. With their everyday nagging, I just had to give in.

meg's penguin
Mati's "tawo"
None from migi as he did not want me to take pic of his as it's not perfect.

Doodles
Last week was an exam week for them. In between studying, Migi had these doodles. There were actually more of these.
Looonggg weekend
Someone had his holiday earlier. Friday, Mati went to school but only to drop his siblings. He did not like school that day.

Aug 13, 2012

Advanced-sitis

Is it just me that I feel my kids are victims of "advanced-sitis" syndrome of our school education system? I feel like every thing in school is designed for the kids to be "advanced." It's always about who has advanced subjects, advanced technology, advanced facilities, advanced teacher. What happen to having the basics???

For a long time, I've been ranting, inside my head, how impractical our school education system has turned into. But I kept it because if I don't like the school system, then I should be pulling my kids out from it, not whine.

My youngest is 4 years old. When I enrolled him, I was expecting him to be in nursery, the very 1st level in pre-school. But some recent changes in our education system, which they called K-12, demanded that at his age, he should be in Kinder 1, the next level. Kinder 1 already expects the kids that they know the alphabets and numbers and maybe algebra.

During enrollment, knowing Mati's talent, I asked the school staff if they could just put him in nursery. But they reasoned out he would be delayed if he'd be in nursery. So they advised me to enroll him in some summer class or teach him during the summer time the alphabets, numbers, and how to write his name. So he could catch up with the Kinder 1 level.

Of course, the good mother in me did not do any of it. I mean, seriously, hello, it's summer vacation!

So now, Mati and I both suffered the consequence. He always has to take his reading / writing exams twice. I'd asked twice the teacher if I could downgrade Mati to nursery but they always reasoned out that he'd be delayed. I told them that I really do not care about my kid being delayed. There's such thing as catch-up. But then they assured me that he's also too "advanced" to be in the nursery; mati's quite good except that he does not know alphabets. Duh!

So after getting a LOT of notes and messages for him to practise writing alphabets at home, I finally got the message --They want ME to teach my kid the alphabet. I know mothers are supposed to be the 1st teachers of their kids, but they certainly cannot expect us to learn the 26 alphabets in a few months. I remember when I intern-ed for a pre-school back in college, one letter was taught for days.

I'd been "tutoring" him the alphabets in such a lazy manner. And, it showed that it was not effective as we still get notices and messages to study.

So Mati and I finally got into a pact -- one letter per day. But not before becoming a monster to him (the details are horrible). We will study one letter per day.
If I'd still get notice and messages to study, I would send the below chart so that the teacher would be updated about mati's "advanced" level.

Death Plans?

With news of tri-athletes dying on ironman races made us think about the odds of doing this kind of endurance sport. But what I realized is how we have plans of how to LIVE, but not much of us plan on how to DIE. We can probably narrate our various grand plans on what we want to do in each phase / age / quarter of our life, but not much when it comes to dying, except buying a memorial plan.

Before death on ironman races came out, I already have a plan on how I want to die. It was inspired by death of Caballo Blanco (Micah True). He died while he was running on a trail. If you had read "Born to Run" book, you already have an idea why his death is sort of symbolic. But if not, google can help. =) So the point is he died while he went out for a run on a trail, he died while doing what he loved and what he was passionate about -- running.
 

My death plan is to die in an ironman race. I'm no tri-athlete. But I love watching ironman videos. The raw pure human soul is just so amazing at ironman (or any endurance sport). Except for 10-20% of elite / professional ironman participants, the rest are just typical "average" (physical-wise) people who do it without getting any thing, monetary, in return. Thus, it's always a wonder why these people are putting theirselves in such "torture" for nothing? There must be something more than the world-can-understand that fuel them to get thru an ironman.

If you've been watching ironman videos, one tri-athlete that is consistently shown is Sister Madonna, an 80-year old nun who is usually present in Kona Ironman Hawaii. (You can find a nice short story of Sister Madonna Burder here >>.)

I fear growing very old. I always think that 65 is my sweet spot to die. I'm more scared of growing old, than dying. So when I saw Sister Madonna, I thought to myself that if I get to reach beyond 65, I will join Ironman. I want to actively seek out my death. I want to meet and greet it, look it in the eye. I want to hold death in my hands.

Of course, God may have different plans but I'll do what I can do. I don't want to be lying in bed, or do nothing, but wait for my death.

So the first tidbit of news I heard about the casualty in the recent Cobra Ironman in Cebu, my first impression was COOL! That's the way I want to go. But later on, I felt my reaction was quite blunt when I realized that he was a husband of a runner, who I am familiar.
Photo credit: John Domingo
But this image poster by Tony Galon pretty sums up of what everyone feels about the incident.
Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life.
So, dear death, see you in my ironman race!

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(Quite apt as my 1st post here. I'm trasfering my owrange.multiply.com blog here.)

Aug 12, 2012

moving on my 8-year worth of trash?

So I don't know how to say this. Multiply will be closing their blogging platform. I'm sad but at the same time relieve. I've been wanting to place this blog under owrange.com, which I was hoping ever since that multiply would allow domain personalization but they did / do not. Prolly, if they had allow it, this would not happen as it would make their original users stick here. There were a lot of wonderful "thinkers" here, but I noticed have been moving on to other blogging platform -- maybe they also need that personalization feature.

Of course, I can always migrate and such all my stuff here a long time ago. But I'm LAZY. And, I love it here. It's a long story why. One is that I learned to "write", but more of learned to express myself, here. When I'd post here, it's more of like having a conversation with myself. As such, I don't really care how my post would come out.

Anyhoo, I am wishing Multiply the best of every thing. When I learned that ABS-CBN was a shareholder of multiply, I became more of supportive of it -- like paying an eeny weeny fee to my account. It was nice to know that part of it is owned by a Filipino. So I only have best wishes for them. I hope their new direction would be the boost they needed.

So I'll be de-linking my owrange.com from my posterous (which is now spaces) blog, and re-link it to a blogger account which, I created at the same time I created this multiply account. I'm not really sure why I stick with multiply. But I'm guessing, way back then, multiply had a more user-friendly features for a tech-dodo like me.

It would be nice to use wordpress. But I'm going for blogger as it's linked to picasa, so easier with photos and such. I guess that's what made multiply click to me before as I can have my photos and thoughts in one place. =) Wordpress hosting for photos is a bit price-er. And, I think any pro-blogger will advise to go for wordpress.

So, yes, to my 101 and beyond readers / fans here, please do find me soon at owrange.com. But it's not yet set-up, I need to link that domain to orangerose.blogspot.com. Yada yada yada. =)

(follow me go forth and multiply!)

Aug 8, 2012

race-cation

I think I got this term from Dean Karnaze. It's when you schedule your vacation around races, or something like you vacation with races.

I'm not or was not fond of going to places for vacation especially when it's just Mark and I. Well, it's fun, but then I cannot help but think of the kids that are left at home.

Anyhoo, the 1st time that I agreed that we would go just the 2 of us was Camotes last year. And, it was when I met this Europian couples who were doing a bike tour on different islands of the Philippines, which then I had some "Aha!" moment. It's that kind of "vacation" I want. I want to be moving, and not lounging at the beach sipping margarita, watching the clouds pass by. Owkei, my view of vacation then was limited to what's on movies.

But after seeing that couple, I realized that there are different ways of spending a vacation. That's why after that incident, it's one of the reasons why I then started running - to build up a little endurance and strength for biking. So Mark and I can then go bike touring. But then I fell inlove with running, and the biking dream was put on hold.

Anyhoo, our 1st race-cation was Kitanglad Race in Bukidnon, which we did not make it! =) But it was fun.
Two Trees, Malaybalay, Bukidnon

These coming months, a few are lining up. Next week will be Leyte, then next will be Bohol.Both will be my firsts to be in those places. Boo me! Then by November, it will be Dumaguete! =) December, if the marathon in Ilo-ilo will push thru, I might want that. I've never been to that place too.

Next year, I'm thinking of going to races in Luzon, and maybe that All-women marathon in Malaysia, which is finally a stronger motivation for me to process our passport. =)

That made me pant! =)

Aug 6, 2012

of dirts, worms, and celebrations

* August to October is straight months of celebrations to us. August 10 is migi's birthday, sept 1 is meg's, then my mother and mark on october. with having to party every month, we'd end up not putting up any party.

I'm not good at prepping and hosting parties. attending parties is another thing though. We rarely have parties at home. Living in 'lacion close to mark's whole clan means i need to invite the whole town when there's a party. And i thought that it would mean much more to use the money to help out a few than spending it on a party. Sometimes it's a wonder why we don't have parties for my kids. That's the reason.

Anyhoo, migi has been narrating what he wanted for his birthday. He's not the type who would talk about his self, or demand any thing for a party. Since he rarely does it, I could not help but do some extra effort... like ordering pizza and cupcakes. =) And a seedling as a giveaway? =)

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* The feel of earth is therapeutic. When I started trying to grow a few plants, I (re)discover how the feel of earth is soothing, and, that worms are such beautiful creatures! Once I overfed the takakura compost pit we have, fat worms (or maggots) were showing up. They looked eeekkky, but then it's just amazing how they make our scrap turned into something valuable -- healthy soil.


A worm / garden tower would be something I wish to have / build before the year ends. Scraps can be fed into then with help of worms, vermicompost is produced. Sweet! I'm on the lookout for a handyman who can get me something like this. Or, maybe I can do my own.

Aug 3, 2012

cravings. new and old.

* I crave for sbux date with the husband. It's been our once a week ritual. It used to be figaro. But I just love starbuck. it's bitterness is just richer. Or, maybe i just read too much of sbux books. Howard Schultz' 1st book is an inspiring read.

Taken this week with Jesse at the counter. I like Jesse! =) We've been thru different sbux branches. I was just glad to see him again at their new branch, still in IT Park.
* I crave for razon's halo2x and something spicy or salty combo (rice shawarma, sizzling chef's sisig, palabok, batchoy). This combo is the best exercise for the taste buds!

* I crave for raw food early in the morning to go with my instant coffee. This comes a bit of a surprise. I'd prepare some veggie-fruit salad early in the morning. At first, it was to sympathize with my nanay's diet. But then later on, it just becomes automatic that I'd fix something raw for breakfast.
* I crave for yoga once a week. If the studio was closer, I'd love to do it more often. But travelling to the city is too much. And, no I don't like doing it on my own.

With teacher Fer, she's small but she's strong. It's her class sched I always chanced upon.

I'm aiming to at least lift my body for a (pseudo) crow pose. I think crow pose is the easiest of this variation. My weakest length is my arms. My legs is quite strong, thanks to running. Let me do any tiptoe pose, and it would be not much a problem. But let me do some easy pose with arms and I want to cry. 
* I crave for a longish run once a week. Before, I'd go for a 4-days-a-week-of-longish runs. But now, I'd settle to once a week with Mark. This has been a weekend habit. And, I think i finally saw a balance to this running thing.

I'd like to think I'm doing myself a favor. I was on a very high mileage since September last year. I need to tone down a bit. Probably by November, I'll up the mileage again for the CCM 2013! =)

* I crave to punch dough or burn something in the oven in a week. Sometimes they come out owkei, sometimes not. But one thing is sure when Ate Mona does it, it's way much better than mine.

* I crave to plant something new once a week. Sometimes they grow into something; sometimes they die into a fertilizer.

keeping you

Because I saw a wonderful "before" pic of me here, I'm renewing my "premium" multiply account. Premium like magnum.

I can no longer recall who took this picture. This was during some party in Xlibris, when they newly put up an office here. I used to work for a BPO, OSI, who serviced Xlibris before opening an office here.

I was pregnant with my 1st baby, and I remember I was about to pop in here. At that time, I never felt so huge in my entire life.
The irony is that I'm now about that size, and I never felt so "slim" in my entire as pointed out by other people.
Yes, I'm posting this on all my social sites just so I could show off:
* How I was pregnant and "slim"
* and that basing on my 8-month pregnant self, I'm still huge

But, whatever size I'm in, I am HAPPY!!! But I don't know; I'm not really that happy when people congratulate me for "slimming" down. Am I being defensive or not? But I was not really after being slim. I just love running, yoga, and learning about food.

But if its the "physical" thing that gets inspired people, then, fine.

I guess my point is that it's hard to maintain being fit with just the notion of being glossy-magazine kind of fit. Just love what we do!