Small victories: Shower apparatus

Just wanted to share.

Our shower was leaking for weeks now, and it has gotten worse in the last few days. I finally decided to fix it. There were some pieces I had to shatter and dismantle. When I finally thought I had a  solution, I found out that my initial remedy was just a band-aid solution. Knowing the real source of the leak, I bought the necessary things to fix it. The first roadblock, I found out that our shower apparatus is already old, nobody was selling the exact parts that I need. So I ended up buying the parts that resemble the original piece that I needed to replace. When I got home, I modified the newly-purchased parts to fit our shower apparatus. I got a small burn on my finger trying to cut rubber with a hot knife.

I eventually fixed everything, and it worked well.

Kudos to me!

I am not new to fixing stuff around the house. My sister and I joke around that one day, I will have my own fixing business. I will call it "Bear Fix-It Station." This was the first time I fixed a shower apparatus. It's not a monumental success, but for me, this is a small achievement. With things happening in our lives right now, small victories feel empowering.

Hoorah for small victories! (-_~)

Online classes struggle

 The struggle of online classes is real.

My daughter likes moving around since she practically grew up in the province where in she was allowed to run around, climb anywhere (with guidance of course), and exhaust herself to her limit.

She learns through play. And since the online classes are limited to video conferencing and given worksheets, my daughter is not interested. Don’t get me wrong, my daughter likes the idea of school, she just does not like the idea of school being at home.

She likes doodling, coloring and painting, but not tracing or writing (letters and numbers).

She knows her colors, but refuses to do worksheets, she likes using them on arts and crafts.

She knows her numbers, but on paper, she likes it when she plays hide and seek.

She likes building stuff from different toys and making stories with these toys, but is scared and shy of video calls.

She is caring, tender and helpful, but bashful and sensitive. I am fine with that.

My daughter’s sleeping habits have changed since the pandemic. At the end of the day, she still has so much stored energy that it takes time to tire her out, thus she sleeps later that her usual bedtime schedule.

The struggle of online class is added to my pile of worries and anxiety, but what can I do, this is the new normal.

I try my best to teach her, and I know she can do these things. I guess the home environment is really getting to her. I can’t blame her for that. Maybe play is her only way of compensating for not being able to go out for five months now.

This is totally different from the open area that she was used to when she was in the province. Even when we moved here in the city, we still found time to go out and walk around, explore our surroundings. Now with this new normal, she is practically a prisoner in her own house.

I am currently contemplating on asking help from my previous professors in my former school/work place who specialize in child education, because really, my daughter deserves more than I can offer her right now.

Ps. I just thought of something as I was ending this post. Asking for help from professionals for your kids’ education should be normalize and not looked down by others. There is a notion that if you ask help from professionals, that child is incapable of learning (or in Filipino culture “bobo”). When in truth, the form of learning may simply be different from how the child processes information, and that is okay.

Different learning styles, specially in early childhood education, should be normalized and understood by everyone.

ate jen's surprise birthday celebration

we had a surprise birthday celebration for ate jen last june 7!

her birthday is june 15, unfortunately, she is at the province during her birthday,

so we decided to give her a surprise party a week before her birthday!

surprisingly, her guests last year, were the same people who attended this year with a few additions. (^_^)

here are the pictures.

in addition, since all of the attendees were music ministry members,

our entertainment that night were each other (^_^)

we sang our heart out to different songs that would randomly come to mind.

it was really a fun night and ate jen was really happy for the surprise celebration (^_^)

advance happy birthday ate jen!

we love you!

birthday celebration

i would like to take this opportunity to thank those who were able to attend my celebration. i really hope you guys enjoyed the night. (^_^)

pictures

one of the may performances that night


and lastly, pizza making video!

epic friday

things happen for a reason. (^_^)

this day was one of those epic days for me when the usual reaction would be to lose once temper or what not,

in my case, i was even laughing about it. (^_^)

on my way to work, i usually take the train.

since i woke up late, there was already a long line at the train station.

i decided to buy a train ticket from the vendo machine and take the bus to the next station where there would be less people.

on the bus, i was checking my wallet for money.

to my surprise i DO NOT have money.

i thought i was robbed, but that was not my main dilemma at that time.

my dilemma was how to pay the bus fare.

luckily, i had enough coins for the ride.

i got down at a train station that was 3 stations away from the usual station i ride.

suddenly, the train ticket was not accepted by the machine.

i was assisted by the guard to the customer relations office.

they told me that since i bought the train ticket from the vendo machine, i could only use that ticket in the station where i bought it.

so i had to surrender my ticket.

so there i was, 3 train stations away from home and no money.

i called my dad and told him about what happened.

as i was telling it to him, i was laughing. (^_^) no joke!

it was only that time that i realized that the reason i did not have money was because i bought something last night so i have spent my money.

in short, i was not robbed (^_^)

i then rode a cab to our house and my mom paid for it.

i asked money from my parents and took the train again to get to work.

i was an hour and a half late but i was still laughing about it.

actually until now, while writing about it, i am still laughing. (^_^)

i cannot explain why i did not lose my temper or something.

i would not even say that i am an optimistic type of person.

what was running in my mind was,

"maybe it's God's way of telling me to slow down,"

or "take care, don't rush, be safe."

or "i'll delay you for a while becuase if you continue, something might happen."

this is not the first time it happened so i'm not very bothered about it. (^_^)

i guess that all i can say for today. (^_^)

chiao~

happy holidays everyone!

greetings from the siblings to the world!

love, peace and serenity!

oh christmas tree, oh christmas tree~

tired with preparations 2

part two of the of the cleaning of the living room of the house.

seriously tiring!

i felt tired and had a need to sleep after sitting still for about 15 minutes to pray the rosary.

my eyelids felt so heavy and i just wanted to sleep right there and then,

sitting on a metal chair that doesn't even give proper lumbar support. (-_-)

tired with preprations

spent my afternoon doing the part one of of two ofcleaning of the living room of the house.

part two tomorrow will be very tiresome too. (-_-)

been busy preparing for events nowadays.

i wonder why...

/sigh

pancakes

rei and i made perfect pancakes yesterday good for 10 people. (^_^)V

i haven't made pancakes recently.

so creating "perfect" pancakes was just a bog deal for me. (^_^)

please forgive me for i am a type of person who is easily satisfied and small victories makes me feel really happy. (^_^)V

french toast pandesal

i prepared a big breakfast this morning that is good for 10 people.

of all the food that i prepared,

my favorite was the french toast pandesal. (^_^)

half day

i woke a little earlier that usual to prepare breakfast for about 9 people.

there is nothing unusual that.

what is unusual is that after preparing and eating breakfast,

i slept half of the day.

not even on a bed,

i was sleeping on an reclined, cushioned chair.

no neck pains or anything.

just plain unusual for me.

when i woke up, it was lunch time.

add to that, i had a dream that felt so real.

in my dream, our aunt came here at our house with a foreigner.

she wanted me to take her blood pressure but she wasn't exactly cooperative.

i felt i was skipping from dream to reality,

to the point that when i woke up,

i asked my sister if our aunt arrived.

there was also a part on my dream where i saw a cover of a dvd movie with furukawa yuuta and suzuki hiroki (zukki).

it looked like they were walking along the beach talking and laughing,

and they each had a surfing board with them.

i wonder...

(~_~)

music ministry practice

i'm not really part of the music min per se, but i like joining in with the singing and learning new praise songs. (^_^)

we just finished with a practice session a while ago, oh by the way, the venue was at our house.

anyways, aiza was the first one to arrive so we took some pictures before the other members arrived. (^_^)

talking about playing around.

there could have been more pics but the others started to arrive already. (^_~)

anyways, we practiced for about 2-3 hours.

we had a short break when ate weng brought us some snacks and a drink.

out of fun we decided to take pictures. (^_^)

did you notice what we were drinking?

no~ that is not beer, it's actually sparkling iced tea. (^_^)

did we fool you nya? (^w^)

night night~

delicious words

this was a conversation between me and my brother ryo while i was reading a book with him.

me: ryo, you are eating your words!

ryo: but it's delicious~

me: i'm serious!

ryo: me too~ (T_T)

i could not resist laughing after that. (^_^)

pizza making

like what i said yesterday, i was quite busy and tired today. (-_-)

i assisted in the pizza part of my sister.

it was also a way for me to see what might happen on my own pizza party a week from now. (^_^)

the preparation and the making itself was very tiring.

i guess i'll also be this tired on my own pizza party. (>_<)

food

this days is just all about food!

it started with the "grand breakfast spanish tortilla"

i usually make omelette for breakfast, but with this much ingredients and being more meticulous with how i cook it,

it obviously was something "grand" for me to do.

when we went out to buy ingredients for lunch,

we passed by a stall selling guavas.

we could not resist, we had to buy some.

we love the guavas we ate when we were still staying in the province.

rarely do we eat guavas here in the city. (^_^)

for lunch we had eggplant tortilla.

it was rushed due to my laziness but based from those who ate it, they said it was delicious.

lastly, dinner.

after seven years, i was finally able to "recreate" the squash soup that i ate that i tasted during our high school prom!

it was the perfect color, taste, texture, everything! (^_^)

but right now, i feel so tired that i can't even think of a single dish for tomorrow. (TwT)

stay in

i stayed in the condo unit the whole day.

my morning started with the preparation of breakfast which seems to be my responsibility already (unspoken task?).

i guess it was more difficult to fight the sleepiness because i did not exactly have a good sleep.

but as i said earlier, it has become my responsibility so i had to force myself to make breakfast for everyone.

the rest of the morning was washing the dishes and preparing early lunch.

after lunch, i was the dishes and spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping and catching up with sleep.

when i woke up, i had to make dinner and since i was already in the process of preparing food,

i also decided what to eat for breakfast and lunch tomorrow.

yes you heard me,

until lunch tomorrow...

wait, i just realized i may have also decided what to have for dinner tomorrow. (>_<)

i guess, i just want to make sure that we eat on time. (^_^)

anyways, i heard the the weather was extremely warm today.

i would have to partly (only partly, not totally) disagree because while i was taking my afternoon nap,

the wind was very strong that the posters and the papers in the room were flying around the place,

(i was half awake when i heard the flapping and i saw the flying of the papers).

i also remember facing the window while sleeping because the wind was so strong it was cooler than our fan.

add to that, the sky was rather cloudy and gray, not the usual sunny, clear blue sky.

anyways, tonight, it's very hot and there is no wind coming from outside. (-_-)

i just hope i can sleep with this warm weather.

mango cream dessert

i made this dessert yesterday, i mixed light cream, condensed milk and mangoes, then i chilled it.

to tell you all the truth, i wasn't following any recipe list and i don't even know what this dessert is called.

but hey it was delicious and it was a success. (^_^)

i made another batch today because my dad was not able to eat some last night.

my mom and my brother suggested that i put graham crackers next time or even milo. (^_^)

my true self

good morning everyone~

i now present a new song that i have been listening to since last night.

it's a depressing song.

well, i guess it merely reflects the events and the feelings that were involved last night.

this experience is not mine alone.

my sister rei might relate more with the song.

my true self by kagamine len

sweets galore

recently, we have been going to the other house to clean it up and to do our laundry there.

while staying there, we decided to have some sweets. (^_^)

my mom bought donuts for us.

well, it was actually for my younger brother ryo because he had a fever and that was his "sick food"

"sick food" is the food that we would request to eat when we are very sick. (~_^)

anyways, while also staying at the other house, we decided to make leche flan.

we made around 5 regular shaped leche flan and one big "family sized" one.

it was the perfect dessert! (^_^)

under the open sky

we had lunch at the main house a few days back.

it's been two months since we ate together at the main house and under the open sky.

it's kind of cramped at our place right now,

so having a big space where we can eat is sort of a luxury nowadays.

but please don't get me wrong.

i'm not complaining about our current place.

i actually feel comfortable in it.

it's just that, every now and then, it's nice to have a different view or experience. (^_~)