Sunday

I'm happy because...
mahal is back from his busineSs trip
It's raining! Therefore, more water for our dams and trees. Also more customers for our laundry shop
Cool weather
We might have found a new all around yaya

I'm sad because...
Too much rain might cause another ondoy
Raya has high fever since last night
*pls let it not get worse. It's making me go nits! She'll miss school and sad to add, we couldn't afford it.

Gotta save more and invest on health insurance.
Gotta pray some more and more frequently

sweet ending

finally, our helper left. good riddance! haha! i am glad that we, especially my kids, and our wallets are safe ;)  i am sure that we'll find a better one even if it's hard to find a very reliable and trustworthy yaya/helper these days. we lost money, true, but we've learned. that's the most important thing. so let's move on...

it's been 2 days since we have no helper and no husband. hey, i'm a single mom!! :) hubby  is on a business trip. so far, the kids and i are ok. catching up on laundry and cleaning and putting things in order of course. tiring but ok. in the midst of this, i got to spend quality time with raya through playing le crosse (spell check), golf, horsey, play dough and puzzles. she's crazy about puzzles these days. she's so good! im proud. rob, on the other hand, well, she just sleeps and drinks milk. i can't wait for her to grow up too. but not too fast ;)

last night, we slept at grammy's (my mom) house who lives like a few meters away from us. hehe. we had dinner there too. it's comforting to have a few companions rather than just me and the kids alone in the house. it also helps me not to miss gelio too much (cheesy!). it's really different when he is not around. oh well! my night ended sweetly anyway. i was putting robin to sleep when raya decided to join us on the floor. she wants to be beside us! that's what i've always been praying... that we will be a close and happy family always!

helper issues

this morning, i finally had the courage to face our helper of almost 1 year. i don't know why it took me so long to do so. perhaps i'm just not confrontational as what others think or maybe i fear for our safety especially for my kids.

like others, she was ok at first. she was even worried because she wasn't doing anything much at home. well, our apartment is just small and we don't have lots of stuff to begin with. i do the cooking for all meals cos she doesn't know how to cook. clothes and bedsheets are mashine washed. she does the ironing only once a week. cleaning could be done in a few minutes since we don't have much stuff. we don't even have a sala! so i can say that work for her should be easy. and guess what? her day off starts saturday afternoon and goes home monday morning.

the problem started when i noticed that some of my money was missing. started with just the coins then some Php20, Php50 and then the piggy bank. this prompted us to purchase a cash box with lock. it didn't stop there. she even gets money from my wallet which is inside my bag that's inside my room. if there's big amount missing, i'll ask her to look for it cos "it must have fallen from my bag" and then she'd "find" it.

for the past weeks, i noticed that she's masungit, mabigat ang paa, nagbubuntung-hininga, she's not responding when we call her, etc. i know she's not tired. mind you, i do most of the work at home. i seldom go out. i go out when i bring raya to school. that's it. last night was the last straw. she went out to go to the store [i think] without saying anything to me nor to my mom who was there. she just passed by us. when she got back, i asked her if there's a problem. she didn't answer.

so this morning i again asked her if something's wrong. she didn't answer. so i let her sit and talked to her. good thing gelio was there too with me to talk to her. i didn't expect her to deny everything even if we cited some incidents! i was thinking she will just keep quiet. but no! hay....  

anyway, she said she'll buy ticket. sana nga umalis na sya. i want her to pack in front of me. my wedding band is still missing. we talked to our family and the guard in our village already.

are we so lenient? maybe we have to go through this to learn the expensive way.  :(  an officemate of my husband advised me to set the rules right from the start. i'll do that. i've listed [in my mind] the rules for the next helper/yaya. i'll be strict this time. if i see something's wrong from the start, i'll have to confront her. i should NOT be scared that i'll lose a helper or that she might hurt my daughters. the more i should act on it to prevent anything bad happening to my family. anyway, i AM the boss!

what's your choice?

if you have a choice, what will it be?

     1) SAHM - having lots of quality time with family, seeing your kids grow, being able to take care of family, 24/7 day "work", no pay, no benefits, no rest days...

OR

     2) working mom - with pay & benefits & rest days, no worries about having a regular income, bills being paid on time, but lesser quality time with family??

time out

i love my husband and my kids very much. they are truly God's gifts to me. infact, i consider them my life. totoo pla yun?  i mean, a person could be somebody else's life! i can say that when i became a mom and a wife. but, can i just say TIME OUT muna?  sometimes, i get tired too from all the crying, the disciplining, picking up scattered toys & clothes on the floor, putting things in order, preparing food, fixing stuff, interrupted sleep, budgeting, thinking of ways to earn extra and so on and on and on. now i question myself if i allow myself to rest. yes i do. i am not sure if it is enough. am i the "do-it-all" person? i don't think so. it's just that my current maid doesn't know how to cook so i do the cooking. i also do not want to completely entrust my kids to her. i want to be the one to give my girls a bath, feed them and i want to be with them. do i need another helper? but we can't afford it yet

:'(  and i'm home most of the time so i don't think we need another one. so what is it? oh no, might be a case of time management. but its not. when my first daughter raya, started to go to school, i have somehow managed my schedule. maybe having a new baby & a toddler, a workaholic husband, a not-so-efficient helper in the house, a tight budget, and 3 business on the side is really quite a handful. i wonder how my lola who have 8 kids managed it before? or my mom who have 3 kids did it? to think she was a working mom. maybe it was really different back then. hay, kakaloka tlga!      

birthday boy!

The choice for my gift was...

... an ipod touch by Mac. Simply becuase it fits the user, which is of course, my loving husband. And did he like it? hmmm, let me show you...

... he opened the present an hour before his birthday, and tinkered with it right away ....

 

... and during our dinner, only half of his attention was with me. the other half, well, as you can see, was with his new toy!

i think he loves it, don't you think so? hehehe.

it's so worth it!

happy birthday Mahal!

birthday gift

they say that it's hard to find a gift for somebody who has everything. and i say, it's harder to find a gift for somebody who doesn't have everything! :) not only that funds are scarce, there are just other priorities such as bills, tuition and a bit of travelling on the side. hehe. so now, i'm having difficulty on finding the best gift to give my kind husband for his birthday on the 28th. i have 2 choices.

here they are:

samsung wave mobile phone (which i just found out from techie.com) OR

ipod touch (which i just found out about the features the other day).

i hope my hubby will like it. this time, i want to give him somthing like a "luho" since most of the time i give him something that he needs. i want him to enjoy. besides, its his birthday anyway. i hope he likes it. let's see. can't wait to give it to him. i'm so excited!

for my Mahal, i believe he deserves the best just because he IS the best!

happy birthday, my Love! love you much!