The hubby and I “hoarded” on copies of the March 2010 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine. After browsing through racks upon racks in supermarket and department stores for days, it was only recently that we were able to get hold of them. Sure enough, we took everything in the magazine stand. They only got 4! That does not really count as hoarding yet, right? And if there were more, we would have gladly gotten more. For how often does anyone get to be featured in a magazine, right?
The hubby and I were interviewed by Rowena Wendy Lei last December for Good Housekeeping March 2010. And I was finally able to get copies yesterday! Yey! It is our first time to be featured and allow us to just relish the moment! The hubby and I basically talked about how we ventured into monetizing blogs and shared some bits and pieces how we make money online.
The article is pretty lengthy. Here’s just to give you a peek..
Hmm.. they switched my middle name and last name. But it’s still me all right. I don’t mind much. But it would have been perfect if they got that one right. Go grab your copy now!
The hubby has announced some weeks ago about launching his online store. I recently did a quick tour and the store did look very interesting. Smilds has allowed for people to venture into this kind of online business without the hassle of leaving the house and having all the transaction done in a click of a button.
Here are my son’s office and mine, side by side. Both were hand made by the hubby. It was imperative that both tables were placed like such. It would be the most convenient, even as we do our home school classes everyday. I couldn’t have imagine we will be able to pull it off. I remember at around the same time last year, we were trying to figure out how we will be able to fit in our son’s study nook in our tiny house. Just look at what we were able to squeeze in. Not just our son’s office but mine as well.
It is the day after Christmas and guess what I have been up to? Rummaging on stuff struck by Ondoy that I left at the table in our garage to dry. Most items were already discarded months ago but there are still a few things we hoped to salvage and so after exactly 3 months, some documents, books, even pictures are now completely dry. I still had to sort them though and finally throw away the hopeless stuff. It’s heartbreaking to throw pictures away but I’m left with no choice. But there were a bunch that I was able to salvage and that’s just a blessing. I had to sanitize everything as well. Read the rest of this entry »
I so love this time of the year! Ever since December stepped in, the cool weather breeze has been giving us more reason to be jolly. The weather is always at its best around this time of the year. I remember even having a cooler temperature around first week of January last year in Manila what they had in Texas, where my folks where during that time.
My folks house now looks spanking after the post Ondoy makeover. They used to have Narra plywood over their walls but they were compelled to renovate the whole place after the flood. There was just no other way to make the house livable again.
So I haven’t yet come up with a domain name fit for our family’s homeschooling blog. This week being a busy week for us, I figured it’s going to have to happen next week. Read the rest of this entry »
This week has been pretty busy. Hence, the lack of post. But we’ve been very good, thank you. I lack sleep, though and I need to catch up (as if that is at all possible). My little guy and I are soon to go through his first unit test after that crazy Ondoy storm. In line with that, I have a post on queue concerning A Father’s Role in Home Education.
The hubby and I had our initiation on what Degustation dinner is over at A.I.C.A. (The Academy for International Culinary Arts) last Thursday, October 29. It couldn’t be more interesting — her greatness, culinary legend chef herself, Ms. Nora Daza was there to grace the event. It was a night, a full three hours of fun, learning, savyy dining experience and yumminess galore.
First off, what is degustation? Prior to last night, I had no clue what that was. We arrived pretty early at the venue, went to check the night’s schedule and got rather clueless when I saw that the night’s event is called degustation. Okay, what does a blogger do during such times? Google it up. That’s what I did. Who can better define the word than Wikipedia.
Degustation is a culinary term meaning “a careful, appreciative tasting of various foods” and focusing on the gustatory system, the senses, high culinary art and good company.
The French term dégustation is still commonly used in English-language contexts, even though a standard Anglicized spelling and pronunciation exist.
Modern dégustation probably comes from the French kitchens of the early 20th century and is different from earlier meals with many courses because these meals were served as full-sized meals at each course. Dégustation is more likely to involve sampling small portions of all of a chef’s signature dishes in one sitting. Usually consisting of eight or more courses, it may be accompanied by a matching wine degustation which complements each dish.
Sampling a selection of cheeses, at home or in a restaurant, may also be called a dégustation. Three to four varieties are normally chosen, generally including a semi-soft cheese, a goat’s cheese, and a blue cheese. The stronger varieties are normally tasted last. See the article “A Cheese Lover’s Tour of France” from The New York Times.
A dégustation is always held during the Japanese television show Iron Chef.
Three weeks and some since typhoon Ondoy and we’re still picking up the pieces, so to speak. My son and I are back homeschooling. Some important documents, birth and marriage certificates, Read the rest of this entry »
It has been almost three weeks since we were hit by Ondoy and although clean up isn’t officially done yet (still some more stuff to sort and throw out), we’re picking up the pieces and slowly going back to normal. Although our 4 year old son’s paces got wet as well with flood water, we have resolved to sanitize, dry and still use whatever was left. Buying a replacement for every single wet pace would cost a lot and that’s something we cannot afford anymore right now. We had to order 16 paces that we failed to retrieve (8 Science and 8 Word Building Paces). The sets will be available Monday next week but we’ve already resumed homeschooling Monday of this week and I cannot be more thrilled to see my son’s fine motor skills has improved a great deal!
Nine days of cleaning up the house and we’re still not done. While it is true that we are extremely grateful that we are intact through it all, we cannot help but still feel exhausted from time to time. It’s like we’ve been cleaning up since forever and it doesn’t seem to end. The Lord alone sustains us, this much I can say. Counting the blessings and people who ministered to us by reaching out, have done a great deal.
Just to give you a glimpse of the devastation this typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) has done to our abode, allow me to share some before and after pictures.
This was taken Sunday, September 27, 2009 at 8:19 AM, the day following Typhoon Ondoy’s wrath. The flood has receded approximately a couple of feet since the rain stopped. Took this shot from the room we stayed in at the neighbor’s. That’s my son’s bicycle. The night before, it was completely covered in flood water. Barely slept, following closely the flood’s developments. Although we were on the second floor, even during the rain stopped for a while, the flood continued to rise. We didn’t know where to head to next in the event that the flood would reach the second floor. It helped that the neighbor’s house has high ceilings. I reckoned, it was gonna take a great while before flood reaches our floor. But now that I come to think of it, if the rain refused to stop, it was not far from happening.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at 2:03PM. Three days of cleaning up and still not half done. Everyone in the family is tired. We are blessed to have my reliable weekend helper report everyday for work this whole week. It helped that classes were suspended. That made her available, she has 4 girls.
My folks’ place suffered a more terrible plight. Their house has wood parquet flooring. All the installed wood tiles came off and the Narra plywood walls also peeled off. Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s a photo essay of what happened to our family during the rage of Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana). The above picture was taken last Saturday, September 26 at 10:19AM. The flood water covered the street but we were confident that it was to subside in no time, like it always does. We were not even anticipating that it will climb up our already elevated garage.
At 1:03 PM. Jeff walking towards our pedestrian gate. Flood waters not quite touching our doorstep just yet. This sight alone was a shock to all of us. We’ve been living here since 1980 and nothing like this has ever happened before. Just for us to know hours later that we haven’t seen anything yet.
Typhoon Ketsana, locally called Ondoy, has brought record rainfall in Metro Manila, producing hours of extreme heavy rains, the volume of which exceeded that of Hurricane Katrina, which led to this tragic flooding. The rainfall that we usually receive in one month was brought by Typhoon Ondoy in six hours.
And if there were more, we would have gladly gotten more. For how often does anyone get to be featured in a magazine, right? 
