I thought we were late for yesterday’s party. We arrived just when the party is starting to have its full swing.

The party was Sofia’s 1^st birthday celebration. Sofie is my husband’s first cousin’s daughter. I was having second thoughts on this one because the restaurant, Chili’s on Morato Avenue here in Quezon City, has mostly an adult menu.

But I was wrong.

The party was so fun. In fact it was one of the children’s parties that I had a lot of fun.

The foods for the adults were delicious too, steak, corn on the cob, chicken, squid rings, and fried rice. I ate three pieces of the buttered and spiced corn that I didn’t mind if I will have acne after gorging on those. The children enjoyed their pasta and fries as well.

Oh, and there was lechon, a whole roasted pig which didn’t need any sauce for it was soooo tasty. Yes, I ate a bit, just one tiny bit for much as I was tempted to have a plateful for myself, that would definitely not do.

The children and the adults too had a lot of fun watching the magic show featuring sleeping turtle doves, sleeping bunnies and a toy squirrel that they thought was real. The highlight of this was the ventriloquist show featuring Spike, a French bulldog (see picture above) who was so funny they children thought he was real. It doesn’t look like his “handler” was talking for him

Parents expect a lot when they have their children go into therapy, whether it is occupational therapy or speech and/or language therapy and physical therapy.

Of course, they expect a lot because they pay a lot of money to be able to get these services for their children.

Here in the Philippines, parents/families of children receiving therapy services pay for these services, unlike those children in other countries who get these as part of their tax benefits.

Getting into these therapy services don’t mean instant relief and instant improvement of the developmental and behavioral problems that need to be addressed.

So what should parents expect during the first few weeks of therapy?

Below are a few observations I have made during the course of working with these therapists:

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I have written about my son and us too, drinking fresh lemon grass tea here. I have written about having a vegetable garden here.

I am now proud to say that the plants, mongo or mung bean plants, lemon grass, calamansi plant, Italian oregano and those spring onion plants (that I separated from the bunch I had for the chicken noodles I cooked) in my vegetable garden are alive.

Except for the basil plant which seems ready to face its untimely demise. I don’t know if it had hard feelings so it chose to dry up. Maybe because I removed all the leaves with small white bugs on it or maybe because of the ants bothering the plant, eating the small white bugs on it, it just chose to dry. Oh well, I hope I can get another plant to replace that soon.

I feel bothered that some of the leaves of the mongo plants (which were planted as a part of our homeschooling lesson) are being eaten by something. Whatever it is that bother these leaves will be hunted by me. Hmhp.

Poor mongo plants, something seems to be trampling on them too. When I observed closely, I saw paw prints. Of course, we only have one dog so I know who the culprit it.

I hope now my husband will believe me that we really need to have some sort of fence installation done to protect these plants from harm. Nothing fancy, just something that will prevent the dog from stepping on these poor plants. I know he likes plants because it was this same dog that trampled and destroyed the marigold and hydrangea plants we had last year. Sigh.

Every Saturday, participants post photos based on a theme. The theme for this Saturday is FAMILY.

The topic of family is a topic very close to the heart of everyone. Family does not mean just blood relations like parents and their children or the extended family members. People close to our hearts and people who we can rely on when times are both good and bad are considered as family.

My husband and I live close to his family home. My parents live a little far from us so we are not able to visit them as often as we would have wanted to. When the children have school break, they spend time with my parents.

The road below is the road that brings us closer to my family.

Here in the Philippines, there are a lot of families that do not stay together. More often the father or the mother or sometimes both, live far from their children due to economic reasons. A lot of these parents even work overseas or work in the city so that they could send money back to their family members for expenses.

One proof would be at the airport, when one can see so many families saying goodbye to their Delsey luggage carrying loved ones who will go overseas to work.

One can also see Filipino families eagerly awaiting a relative, a Filipino Overseas Worker (OFW) hauling a big and heavy Balikbayan box full of goodies for family members.

Ironic but they leave behind their children and/or their parents, to care for the children and parents of other people as nurses, caregivers, domestic helpers and even teachers like me.

I too have plans of leaving the country to search for greener pastures so to speak. I am still weighing my options but there are good offers for teachers like me to bring my family where I am qualified to work.

For now, my husband and I savour the wonderful times that we are able to spend with our family.

The children may have squabbles at times, or we may be too tired to listen to each child who wants to tell us something, but at the end of the day, we are able to thank God that we are still together and that no matter what happens, we love each other. That is all that really matters, isn’t it?

We run our household on a tight budget. With the way the prices of things go, one has to oversee the expenses to get every worth of the money being used for buying the things needed.

When buying food, we tend to buy in bulk. We get the biggest cereal box, the biggest oatmeal pack, a big can of milk, cookies or biscuits in packs.

In buying the toiletries, we get a big container of shampoo, a big soap, a pack with several tissue paper rolls in it and even the biggest toothpaste tube. I transfer shampoo contents in a used bottle so we can have two bottles of shampoo in both the bathrooms.

We also do the same for school and office supplies because as a homeschooling mom, we need supplies handy for some of the things we do at home. A ream of white paper, a pack of lined pad papers, a box of pencils, a big box of staple wires, a box of fasteners, a pack of clear tape, a big container of glue and a pack of erasers are what we normally purchase. The glue is also transferred in a smaller container so everyone has his/her glue to use.

Sure, buying in bulk is more expensive, especially when one is, like us, as I have already written, running on a tight budget. But in the end, it saves time and money when a piece of fastener is ready to be used when the need arises and there is no need to run to the nearby bookstore to get one.

As it is bound to happen, one will not have just the fastener needed in the purchased items but other products not intended to be bought.

I know, I have done that already. You know what I mean, going to the supermarket just to buy a bottle of fish sauce only to go home with three grocery bags of mostly chips and sweetened drinks

Walking is probably one of the most underrated exercises one can engage in. When the weather is nice, walking is a good way to loosen the unwanted pounds, sweat it out and stretch those legs.

Having a young child is not an excuse to not walk. I have seen families with young children sitting in strollers as they do their walking.

Some even bring their dogs for walks. Others have ear plugs with music playing plugged into their ears to make them feel better.

If my neighbourhood is only safe for walking, I would have started walking a long time ago. Now I have thinking about this again because I see a group of elderly people walking on the streets near our place every morning when I go out to accompany my daughter when the school service picks her up.

I am thinking of introducing myself to them and joining them. But i know my husband will not like me doing that, even if I have suggested already that I may bring the dog with me.