Posted by julie @ 11:56 am

Article was first posted here but has been edited to suit our present situation.

I will always admire my own mother for her zest for life, her nurturing ways with her children, her gift as homemaker, her stick-to-it-iveness as a wife.

She has faith that, as the cliche goes, can move mountains. Though she is not the party-going type, she exudes a positive energy about her. She tirelessly putters around the house, straightening stuff, cleaning the cheap rugs, dusting and wiping and scrubbing. She has a small business that augmented my father’s income at the nearby US naval station and helped send me and my brother to school. As a small entrepreneur, she is good at calculated risk taking.

She stood her ground when she and my father had a marital crisis. If she wasn’t so strong and resolute, our family might have collapsed.

Inside the tough exterior is a softness. She easily cries — when she remembers the past, when she watches a teleserye*, when I confide my problems. Some of her text messages brim with sadness — sadness that’s often not really hers but my brother’s or mine. When I am sad, she is doubly sad. I didn’t like this facet of her much. “Overacting,” I used to describe it in my mind.

I also didn’t go for her mommyisms or mommy cliches. “I told you so.” “Go ask your father.” “Brush your teeth, comb your hair, shower before bed.” “Look at me when I talk to you.”

In my mind, I called that “over-fussiness.”

When I settled into a family of my own, I wanted to be like her and yet not like her — if you catch my drift.

So you might ask .. how am I doing?

Try as I might to be a good homemaker like her, I fall short of keeping a squeaky-clean polished floor (even if there are rugs that can be used to clean it or even area rugs to use for cover). The yard is full of overgrown grass instead of the flowers I like to look at. I don’t take to yard work much. My excuse: I am too busy.

As a wife, I try to be tolerant and steadfast. There are times I dwell on wrong decisions of the past which are trivial compared with what my parents went through years ago. I still don’t know if I’d be as strong as my mom when faced with a major crisis in my marriage.

My firstborn is now an adolescent a teenager (a few days from now). She is in that confused stage where she is changing fast physically and not quite able to catch up emotionally. We have clashes because we are both lost. I find myself crying shameless tears. Sometimes, when tears fall, I hear that long ago word echo: “Overacting.”

As my children grow and I try to show them right and wrong and instill in them discipline that will mold their character, I find myself chiding them. “Do your homework (or in my case, finish your homeschooling lessons). Fix your room. Do this. Don’t to that.”

The look they give me before turning their backs had “Fussy!” written all over.

The other day Last school year, I was talking to my daughter over how she was summoned by her teacher for writing vicious thoughts of a bullying classmate : “Look at me when I’m talking.” It turned out she was keeping her angst to herself and decided to fight back in writing. (I am glad that classmate has transferred school for this school year.)

That same night, I dismissed my son’s request to watch a dvd movie with a curt: “Go ask your father.”

And I find myself saying more frequently than I want to: “I told you so.”

Am I my mother’s daughter … or what?

___________________________________________________

*teleserye - drama on TV

Posted by teacherjulie @ 3:41 pm
  1. Flicker :: candlelight
  2. Styling :: hair
  3. Episode :: season
  4. Sexier :: it depends
  5. Studious :: hardworking
  6. Mushroom :: oyster
  7. 8 minutes :: bath time for the kids
  8. Bald :: men
  9. Immunity :: a post I have written here
  10. Sectioned :: partitioned

Posted by teacherjulie @ 10:41 am

It is summer already in the Unites States.

Here in the Philippines, our summer season ended a few weeks ago. Yes, we still enjoy a few days of warm (or humid) sunshiny days but lately we have been getting a lot of rains.

My summers as a child were spent going to/attending summer camps. No, not the two-three weeks summer camp but 3-5 days summer camp sponsored by our church. During those times I have enjoyed days sleeping in tents or huts with friends, met new friends, learned new things about God, friendship, and a whole lot of things.

But my summer camp adventures, are not the gist of this post. I have received an email from Sara Wilson, the Outreach Coordinator for The Fresh Air Fund to help them promote the summer adventures for children from the city, specifically New York City.

Now why should I care write a post about this?

There are several reasons:

  1. The Fresh Air Fund has been established in 1887 and has helped a lot of New York City kids experience a different kind of summer vacation.
  2. There are still children, mostly ages 9-12 who are still awaiting for host families who will sponsor their summer adventures this August.
  3. I live here in the Philippines and not anywhere near New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York so I just wrote this post, just in case somebody is able to read it and volunteer to be a host family.

Contact The Fresh Air Fund here and help a child have a memorable summer.

Posted by teacherjulie @ 1:23 am
  1. Intimidated :: snobbed
  2. Brush :: flick
  3. Masquerade :: hidden
  4. Procedure :: steps
  5. Tattoos :: body art(?)
  6. Square :: four sides
  7. Tuck :: put inside
  8. Boyfriend :: not husband
  9. Badass :: kickass
  10. Thousand :: ten hundred
Posted by teacherjulie @ 8:24 am
Shelved under Information, My Thoughts

I am turning a year older tomorrow and so will my only son. He will be seven and I will be thirty-something ;)

When I was younger, thinking about 25 seems a long way to go. Now that I am much more older than that, I tend to reminisce and look back at how I have lived my life.

During college, in a major subject called Group Dynamics, we were asked to make a time line of what we have been through, our experiences, be these major or minor, and how these experiences has changed our lives. Mine was a bit “tame” compared to the experiences that my group mates went through.

Save for one major family problem that could have broken up the family which we have survived hurt but not broken in spirit, I felt that I have been living an insignificant life, unexciting even, a “normal” life sans teenage angst and (mis)adventures.

Do I still feel the same today?

Now that I am at this stage in my life, I feel that I have accomplished things far greater than I have ever hoped I can do.

I have helped children more than I can possibly imagine I can ever do.

I have been helpful (I hope) to parents, not just the parents of my students but also those who have been reading my blog.

As of now, I like to think that I am doing a good job, together with my husband, in raising a family that we way we want it to be.

My father who got sick almost two years ago is now better. My mother is well and strong. My brother has a good job teaching in a university.

So many wonderful things to be grateful, so may blessings to count.

If there are some things I would probably go back too and change, there would be three challenges.

First would be being more strong enough to take risks. I did take some risks but I was cautious and I wasn’t able to accomplish half of what I have expected to accomplish. I know it is still not too late to be able to do these things again for the opportunities abound for me, it is just probably me who is holding back.

Second would be to have more time focusing on myself, taking care of myself. I have not been exercising and have gained significant of weight. How would I focus achieving the goal in losing some of the excess weight? Walking? Exercise? Diet pills? Yoga? Less time spent sitting? Restraining myself from eating my comfort foods when I am stressed and tired? Yes, I know, it is not the physical appearance that really matters but as I said here in a post I have written, it is not the kind heart and wonderful disposition that matters in a fitting room :D

Third would be to learn how to drive. Yeah, at my age, I admit I can’t drive. I am afraid to try. If one sees how Filipino drivers drive, one would understand. But still, I would not be able to accomplish my first challenge. This too, would still be up to me.

Amidst all the hardships and struggles people are experiencing these days, I still find lots of reasons to smile about and thank God for the blessings :)

Posted by teacherjulie @ 10:35 am

I got this Define Love tag from Joni who did this tag about her brother’s wedding day after Frank came to the country. Joni is the creator of my A Long Journey Wordpress theme.

Then I also got the Best Gift Ever tag from Rachel.

I decided then to put these two tags together. Joni asked me to define love and Rachel asked me about my thoughts on the Best Gift Ever story which can be read here.

For Joni:

When I was younger I remember singing “Love is the greatest gift of all, with God’s love in my heart, I can be a shining light, for love is the greatest gift of all.” I wrote here that time is probably one of the greatest gifts we can ever give and that is true. But all in all, love is the greatest gift we can ever give. A whole chapter in the New Testament talks about love and about faith, hope and love. Love is the greatest of all the three. You can read the 1 Corinthians chapter 13 here.

To Rachel:

The lesson of the story in the tag which can be read here also talks about love not just by the father to his son but by our God the Father to us. We may not be able to see and count the blessings He gives us because sometimes we don’t have the time to reflect on His words. If we only do so, we would be able to know how much He loves us.

I am not tagging anyone in particular but feel free to do these tags and give the greatest gift of all to those who will read your post. _______________________________________________________________________________________

1. Outback-Pinay 2. My Precious 3. Eds Mommy Life 4. Just Me.. Eds 5. My Life in this Wonderful World! 6. My Online World! 7. MindBubbles 8. VanityKit 9. SomethingPurple 10. Stripe&Yellow 11. Em’s Detour 12. BOTH SIDES NOW 13. Soulful Thoughts 14. Teacher Julie 15. your blog here

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