Marriage and Beyond

This site has been awarded with this Arte Y Pico honor by Sheila  and Lisa.  Our heartfelt thanks to the both of you! We are both humbled and blessed even as we know that this award affirms our reason for being here. As most of you know, we do paid advertisements in this blog, but even while we do this, we keep in mind to press on doing what the Lord would have us do. That is to glorify Him in everything we do, even as we share snippets of our lives and how the Lord has been faithful. We keep in mind though, that more than what He can do through us, He is more interested in what He can do in us. This keeps us on track.

 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1Corinthians 10:31

Marriage and Beyond has just celebrated its 6th month and we feel blessed. Indeed blessed that the Lord has used this web site as a channel of blessing to us and to the people around us. We sincerely thank all our regular visitors, even occasional ones and the regular droppers too.

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Thanks Joy for this nostalgic meme.  The hubby and I were four and seven months prego in these photos.  I wrote a post last month entitled “Belly Shots,” but I am nevertheless happy to oblige to do my share to keep this tag rolling.  Continue Reading »

A fun shot of some of the youth who attended our worship service last night.   Most of these young people are faithful attenders and a couple of them are student officers from one of the high schools in Makati that we do outreach at.  We joyfully report that two from this group quoted their discipleship lessons and are actually waiting in line to get their next  lessons printed.   We almost ran out of ink!  We can only hope that we have those Vista Print coupons to save up on ink costs.   It was an encouragement to everyone when one of our members just got awarded with her Bible and certificate of completion after having memorized thirty five verses from the Bible and quoted them all during the service last week. 

It is a joy for both me and the hubby to see our little guy memorize some verses from the Bible. He first quoted his first verse, Ephesians 6:1 when he turned two last year. This past week, he has got another verse memorized and with action Psalm 27:4). Click this link to watch the video.

Right from he was five months old, we introduced Bible reading to him and it has been like a routine since that he has come to know the stories behind each character from his picture Bible. It delights us when we see him browsing through the book even by himself. This week I realized yet again that persistence does pay off. There are just times that I do not feel like pressing on, which is just natural, especially when I am busy with work. We pray that by God’s grace, we will be able to be consistent.

For the cause of me and my family getting healthier, I have been doing a lot of juicing these past few days. I have always believed in going natural for as long as I can remember. I drink no less than 10 glasses a day and on extremely hot days, I swear I could drink a quarter of our 5 gallon supply of water that’s upside down the dispenser. I am not exaggerating. I have been a “water person” in this sense. But for some reason, during the years that passed, I practically selected on the “naturals” that I have been doing.

Let’s face it, it can be a task to go natural. One major non-negotiable was sticking on my little guy’s brown rice staple. He has been consuming brown rice right from when he started learning how to take in solids, or should I say, semi-solids. During that time, I process his ration in a grinding machine before I have it cooked. It worked for him and his growth and development has been above average since. We are glad to have leered away from those usual commercial baby food products. Although I had him on cerelac for a while, I soon got to my senses when I investigated on what I was giving my child.

Okay, so you may ask, why Sweet Potato Tops Juice (Camote Juice) of all the hundreds of different vegetable sheaves on earth, aside from being the most refreshing and easy to prepare. Here’s why, as I go through from one forum to another, I have been getting the same kind of buzz over Camote juice, its ability to cure the deadly Dengue, boost immunity and all. After you get to read the item below, I know I need not say more. Continue Reading »

Here’s another tag from Chie and Hailey.. Thanks girls! Keep those tags coming. Sorry Hails, it took this long for me to get this posted.

Rules:
1. List 6 things that describe yourself today.
2. Add your blog to the list. Feel free to add all your other blogs.
3. Tag other online friends you know.

This is me today:
1. Multi-tasking as usual. Finished two loads of wash while finishing up some online business.

2. Excited for our family dinner tonight, in celebration of Father’s day. The hubby will preach the whole day tomorrow so that means there is no way we could squeeze in anything special.

3. Preparing our little guy for his after nap in a while.

4. My weekeneder assistant came to clean up the place. Yay! My body is sore from arthritis, it’s hard getting around. It’s a relief that I have our trusty automatic washer, it makes laundry a breeze while I get to do everything else.

5. A little disappointed that I still haven’t got anything prepared to give the hubby for Father’s Day.

6. Planning out next week’s line up of activities.

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Appetizer

Do you consider yourself to be an optimist or a pessimist?

- Pessimist

Soup

What is your favorite color of ink to write with?

- Black

Salad

How often do you get a manicure or pedicure? Do you do them yourself or go to a salon and pay for them?

- Once in two weeks. I do it myself. I have my own set and just the thought of using a common set is a major no-no. I guess it all started when I heard of one news that someone got infected because of unsanitized tools. Continue Reading »

I am officially off my leave from the ministry. I have been practically out of touch to the girls I have been discipling and counseling for the last couple of months because of my health issues. The brief greetings during the times that I meet them in church do not suffice, I know. But with my worsened health problems during those months, there was nothing much that I can do. Now I’m back in business - God’s business, that is.

It’s never easy. It can actually be draining sometimes. Frustrating to say the least. But even as I press on doing what I should do, it helps me to get my spirituality checked. More than what God can do “through” me, He is interested what He can do “in” me. Even as I get burdened with stacking issues of these girls, I leave everything to the Lord. I saw His faithfulness in the past, in the lives of other struggling young people and these girls have the same God as those previous girls that were under my care then. They have now soared and are now passing on discipling the next generation. This is one of the hopes that keeps me going. No matter how bad things are for them, I choose to battle with them. But ultimately, they make that choice of victory in the Lord or be defeated by their circumstances. May the Lord bless their hearts as they keep on their faith and I pray for wisdom and guidance as I lead each of them.

A nice break from a tiring week that was. My sister and father did their barbeque specialties again and invited over two of our relatives. On the rightmost seat is our aunt who treated us for a whole week stay in Baguio last month. This photo was taken before our attorney/cousin came in. He is the one taking care of the title transfers of some properties. ‘Twas a fun and yummy BBQ lunch.

It has been a while since I last joined those tagging games. Thanks Pinaymama for this meme. I love sharing some bits and pieces about our little guy.

@ 7mos. his first two fave toys

@ 2 yrs, 8mos. with his fave musical instrument

his toy car collection @ 2yrs old

@ 3yrs. old - the current favorite Continue Reading »

I know it’s not much, but I finally made the sign to jump start our overly delayed plan to hold a garage sale.  Check out this post from my other blog. Two months delayed.  This is not me.  But to give myself an inch of slack, I have been through some pretty rough times.  I got hospitalized a day after I posted that entry and come to think of it, the real jump start to the garage sale was when I sold our bed for PhP 1,000 in less than 30 minutes of putting up the sign.

Appetizer
What is the nearest big city to your home?
Pasig City Continue Reading »

I have missed last Tuesday’s toot, even if there was a great deal of things to toot about, I just had to miss it. I was then on a vacation up in the Northern mountains of Benguet Province having the time of my life with my family. The hubby and I meant to get a prepaid WiFi connection that we could make use of with our trusty laptop when we get there. Even if we had the WiFi connection, there is but limited places up in that province where WiFi connection is available. In hindsight, it was good. We were compelled to stay out of the blogosphere and enjoy nature with our family.

Check out these entries on our trip:

And the ultimate tooting news of all, at least for me and my family that made the vacation all the more timely. All those domestic juggling of keeping house, having a toddler to attend to, having this work from home career plus studying at the same time all paid off. What made it so much sweeter is, my passing the board was seriously UNEXPECTED. I got sick in the middle of review, thus my inability to attend the classes that we paid for, which is not cheap. If that wasn’t enough, I even got hospitalized. So tell me, how on earth could anyone expect to pass such a gruesome exam. For which, I give God all glory and praise.

I took the board April 6 and the result came out May 2. Here are my entries on my passing the board:

Read the full story here.

The hubby came home Friday night and were we glad. He was tired as expected, it was a long week for him at the camp in Tarlac. We all went together to the doctors I had to see first thing the following morning. We could have left the little guy back home, but five days were way too long already for the son and his father to not spend time together.

Here are some snapshots from our day. I took this shot from my mobile when we were waiting for the doctor to arrive. The hubby just had to doze off, he still felt tired and really could use all the power naps he could get. The little guy would try to wake him up as he throws him kisses.

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I intended to stay within hubby’s arm’s reach for full twenty four hours since he came back from Tarlac last Friday, and that I did. We first planned to leave the little guy home when I had to go check with my doc in the morning, but decided to have him tag along since this is the only day he could be with his father and won’t get to be with him until the second week of camp comes to an end this coming Friday. Continue Reading »