Missus Bounty Basket

Just wonderful!! This week is filled with accomplishments, great time and discovery. better late than never--my tulips in the pots, Saturday in the open market! vin chaud and cider this was supposed to be Karen's curtain but we moved, so I made it as her duvet cover instead, now you see it... now you don't! and here's Erin who just roll on to her stomach. Till next week.

It's Thursday again and this is another lunch cooking challenge for me.So here it is: corned beef with potatoes and rice From the looks on her face it seems she's not too enthusiastic about her lunch. I have the confirmation when she suddenly said "Ayaw, ayaw!"( I don't like!!)and ran away. I guess, Nanay needs some help here.

I wonder why is it that on Wednesday my day seems so hectic and stressful. So with Mozart mildly playing I try to remedy this negative situation. Trying to be calm and filling my mind with the soothing music, I started my chores. Laundry(✓),beddings(✓),Erin(✓),opps Karen just did her 2nd pooh of the morning(wait mode)another load of laundry(✓)Karen needing attention(yeah,the diaper,I forgot),Erin crying for hers,too. Now as I sat and post this my mind is wondering around the house, trying to figure out what do next--take the dishes out of the machine,or have a cup of tea.

Erin will turn 4 months in two weeks and she is just adorable. Always smiling and babbling, she gets poke by her sister all the time but still love to have Karen around her. I wish they grow up well together. Anyway, it's funny how her hair turned up like that even after her bath. So I let her with the hood on. and be a little bunny for a while.

How I love to draw and color when I was a kid. This was also heightened due to lack of television in our household until I was 10 years old. My works encompassed girls with long hair and beautiful dresses, nipa hut, mountains and trees. With my cousins, I had used only Crayola crayons. Started with 8 colors then moved up to 16. I was hoping to own a big box but never had the chance to. Now that Karen is into "fim"(film) I introduced her to coloring books and Crayola,so as to divert her interest from watching Nemo or Disney films for a long period of time. Our first one is Finding Nemo coloring book. She managed to scrawl her crayons excitedly, but after a few strokes decided that it was more interesting to watch Squirt- the turtle. Oh, well...I guess she needs more time to appreciate my Crayola. In the meantime, it's up to me to  finish the noble task and give Nemo a proper orangey look.

Oh, how I miss my dear husband on Thursday. He usually does the cooking at home and during this particular day he is not home for lunch. It's not that he still cook lunch after school, I just heat up anything left the night before or just cook some pasta dish. So it's just Karen and me on lunch time. While my eldest love pasta, I also want her to experience Nanay's cooking at the highest level---a two-year old girl can tell if you're a good one or not.Ha! This is why starting today, Thursday would be a special cooking day for me.I still need to have an appropriate title for that,so in the meantime here's my first one: Carrot and polenta soup I'm not a polenta fan but this one turned out well for me. I wonder if Ms. Karen felt the same way.

A few months ago I discovered Farmville in Facebook and thought that was something fun to do while taking a time off, but I soon realized that playing the game ate up most of my precious time and however I tried to minimize my playing, to totally stop farming is something so hard to do. So just before going on holiday, I harvested all my crop and left my farm bare except for the animals and trees around. It is now almost a week since we came back and I can proudly say that this farmer has totally stop farming. Now my only worry is to sell or not my log cabin. :)

With two girls now vying for my attention, I have decided to wake up earlier than usual so as to accomplish more before they wake up. Today is my second day and hopefully it will go smoothly as yesterday though my dear loved one thought it was not right to vacuum clean at 7 in the morning. So I promised him that was the last time beside it seems that he wanted to read the news in peace. Silly me. Back to my duties: washing is piling up and so is my ironing. The fact that Karen enjoys her toys too much didn't help at all. She's into transporting them all around the house. Today, I need more than just a 10-minute dance exercise to start my day. Any suggestion?

We just got back from our 3-week vacation in the Philippines, still have jet lag and nursing nostalgia. Now the reality of life sets in and here I am with loads of work, cold weather and snow. How I wish to stay longer so that my siblings and I could catch with family news not just a two-hour dinner, that my daughters specially Karen could play more with her cousins,dance more to the tune of Nobody but You, converse in Tagalog and eat more rice(she's not into it, but somehow she ate a lot when we were in the Philippines), so that I could talk more with my Itay and he would learn more about my daughters. I wish, I wish... but thinking about it- the time spent with my family however short was full of meaning and as I write, the images of laughter, tears and love of that vacation flowed in bringing tears to my eyes. Great! Time's up--there's vacuuming to be done, and the girls are awake calling their Nanay(mother). Well, till next vacation.