Hello guys!  I now got out from my shell and I hope you miss my post already. I was sick for almost two months and just recovered from some health issues (which I am going to share in a separate post). However, I am not yet completely relieved from my acid reflux as it was my first time to deal with this kind of health issue (eew).

This article has been sitting on my pending posts for a month now because I could barely find a time to complete my write-up as I was soo soo busy then on hunting a yaya, chasing deadlines on my job,  and attending healthy seminar workshops which just finished last week.

So Psalm just turned one last September 19 and we had it celebrated at Mergrande Ocean Resort just a few minutes away from us. Normally, we celebrated birthdays at home for my older daughter, Chesska, but I found it very stressful to wash a pile of dishes, mop the floors and clean the house after the event. So we ended up celebrating outside our home. It was not actually a typical children's party with all the clown, a bunch of children,  exciting games, or whatsoever. It was just a thanksgiving party! Less grand, less stress. More simple, more meaningful, right?

We rented a room for 1, 800 pesos per day. Apologies, I don't have pictures of the entire room, but it has one room with sala and balcony where we put our decorations. Not so fancy!

It's hard to believe that a little baby whom I carried in my womb for 9 months is now a little lady.

Psalm and Chesska's Ninang

My father-in-law who is a former chef cooked all our foods except the lechon. Unfortunately, all of the foods we prepared were food triggers to my acid reflux (poor-self)!




This was the best celebration ever because most of our relatives came despite their busyness and we got to chat casually after a very long time.

If there's one thing I've  always wanted to be doing every day,  it is cooking a variety and hearty meal for my family. But here's the problem. I can't do it as I've always been swamped with babysitting and working online. So my mother is usually in-charge on preparing our meals throughout the week. However, I always observe that she prepares the same dishes over and over. For example, this week, from Monday - Wednesday,  our breakfast was straight fried eggs. A kind of boring to the appetite, right?

So Our Solution? Meal Planner!

It's actually been a thought to create a weekly meal planner, however,  Ronan and I always forget to do it. But over the weekend, we finally found time to sit down and brainstorm what kind of meals we are going to prepare each day. And here's what we agreed upon.

Meal Planner Version 1

Creating a meal planner is not difficult to do.  First, we listed down all kinds of foods we've been eating ever since we became married (of course, with the absence of pork since we are not eating pork na). Then, I organized our gathered menus using a meal planner template and created two versions so we can use either of them alternately.

Weekly Meal Planner Version 2

Though there's no 100% assurance that I can follow these menus faithfully and cook all of them myself as you know I am always tied with many things, but I will make sure to post these on our kitchen's wall so my mother will not have difficulty figuring out what kind of dish to prepare next meal.

I am thrilled to use this budget-friendly, healthy, and hearty meal planner starting next week. Fingers' crossed (hehe).

A couple of weeks ago, Ronan and Geero's birthday were held simultaneously at Japanese Tunnel Resort. Geero is Ronan's nephew whose birthday falls on June 22nd while Ronan's on 23rd. It's only one day apart, so we decided to have their birthday celebrated on June 25th at Japanese Tunnel, which was suggested by truly yours as this is accessible to both families.  As expected, nothing compares Japanese Tunnel as far as amenities are concerned. I won't elaborate further, as I blogged on this two years ago. Just read it here.

Disclaimer: It is not a review. 

I think car is as important as our basic needs especially that we are living far away from the heart of the city. When our old and cranky car broke down for almost a week now, my mother and Chesska had to commute going to school every day,  same was true when my husband went to the office for work. Even though our place is accessible and there are other options such as jeepney to ride on, having a car is much more comfortable where you can bring anything you want and can go anytime most especially when an emergency strikes.

Just a couple days ago, my husband and I talked about a car loan. Honestly,  it is an idea that we often reject a hundred times but upon remembering our experiences when our car broke at the middle of the road and we had to get down and just take a taxi going home  or call a friend to help us tow our car, we discuss it with open minds.

Just to give you a few background of our car, we bought it second-hand in 2010 but the model is 1995. You see how old it is? Maybe it's time for him to retire (hehe).

Yesterday, we searched online the possible car companies that we are planning to loan with by next year, summer to be exact.  We found Toyota car company that sells our top choices namely Toyota Wigo and Avanza, and the other one is Isuzu company that sells Crosswind brand.  These have been the favorite choices my husband and I have been discussing in the past. Now let's make a comparison.

1.  Toyota Wigo (Model: 1.0 EMT)

via: www.toyota.com.ph

Toyota Wigo has a capacity of five people which will perfectly work for midget people like us (hehe). Using a loan calculator this will be the monthly amortization.

SRP: P 473, 000

If down payment is 50%

Monthly Payment (for five years): P 5, 164

My thoughts: The monthly amortization of P5, 164 is acceptable for us since we fully paid our house already. It's not really a burden to our budget.

2.  Toyota Avanza (1.3 E M/T)

via: www.toyotafinancial.ph

SRP: P 764, 000
If down payment is 50%

Monthly Payment (for five years): P 8, 341

My thoughts: My family and husband's love to travel and we need a big car that can go through rough terrains and endure long hours trip. Aside from that, the interior is big enough to accommodate people of 7. The monthly amortization of P 8,341 is a little burdensome but it's still negotiable.

3. Crosswind XL

via: www.isuzuphil.com

School summer vacation is finally over. It's back to school again! As much as I want to wake up late in the morning, watch news while sipping a cup of coffee,  or take my younger child for a stroll around our subdivision, but having a kindergartener in our home is the end of our not-so-busy days.
Chesska's classes officially started last week and I am happy to announce that she already went straight to her classroom without the need of our company. This was one of our dilemmas last year when she needed to be chaperoned in going inside the classroom, knowing parents are prohibited from getting inside the school premises. Gladly, she learns to become independent right now. I just notice that as the older she gets, the more mature she becomes.

However,  our problem does not end there because there are still lots of behaviours of her that need to be resolved. They are actually existing ones (when she was still pre-school) that until now need to be addressed by us in a nice and smooth process. Here they are:

1. Waking her up on time.

Although it's not her first time to big school and she was used to early morning schedule, we still find it difficult to wake her up on time.

Action to take:

a. Have her nap at least two hours in the afternoon to restore the energy used in the whole morning class. Also, she won't really feel extremely tired when the night time comes.

b. Have her sleep at exactly 9:00 p.m. so she will get 8 hours sleep whenever we wake her up at 5:00 a.m., which is the earliest.

2. Getting her to eat. 

Action to take:

a. List down her favourite meal minus unhealthy and processed foods. She has only a handful of favourites such as eggs, chicken, arozz caldo and champorado.  She loves hotdog and burger but these foods are processed.

b. Aside from the foods mentioned, prepare new and variety of healthy foods that will entice her appetite. It's quite challenging, I know.

3. Getting her to sleep early at night. 

4.  Motivating her to study.

We didn't really have anything planned last Sunday until my 5-year old remembered that we promised to bring her again to Davao Crocodile Park. I must say this was our last "hirit" for Summer Vacation because, in a few days from now,  she will go back to school again (hilaan-and-kumbinsihan period again).

Honestly, I wasn't so excited to share our laag in Crocodile Park because we've already been there when Chesska was old enough. As a matter of fact, my mother and I didn't enter anymore to the park as the entrance fee was quite expensive. Instead, I spent our supposed entrance fee to food trip at Picobello Ristorante Italiano (sounds deliciouso, hehe!), just a few minutes drive from the Crocodile Park.

Apart from that, Ronan's brother is a chief cook of the said resto so we purposely visited him, and at the same time ate at some of his invented dishes.

Half Hawaii &  Half Rustica Quattro Formaggi

Good thing about Picobello is that they offer pizza with a fusion of two flavours. Half-half of any flavours of your choice. In fairness to their pizza, it is sticky and cheesy that deliciously melted in my mouth.

Pollo al Porno with Mashed Potato

Chesska loves chicken so we ordered Pollo al Porno with mashed potato. She didn't consume everything as the serving is big enough for a small child so we ate the left-overs. Their roasted chicken paired with mashed potato is a perfect combination (I was still craving for rice, though). It was tender and it did taste good! No complaint about it.

Ice Cream Cake

I truly love the ice cream cake for our dessert. Unlike the other typical ice cream, this type of ice-cream doesn't have "sawa" factor.

Bread for free while waiting for our order to be served. Juice is not included.

exterior

interior

Chesska enjoying inside the crocodile park

Pity us, waiting outside the park & just taking fresh air under the big tree lol

Picobello is located at 2nd floor, The Shoppes at Woodlane, Diversion Road, Ma-a Davao City. You may browse their Facebook Page if you want to learn more about their restaurant.

I am fully aware that SPC's enrollment just started in the early week of April. However,  I just enrolled Chesska a couple of weeks ago as I was still saving money to reach my projected amount so I could pay half of the whole year’s tuition fee. But here lies the problem when you enroll very late. She nearly went to the afternoon class, but when I complained to the registrar that we made a reservation prior to the enrollment, Chesska was inserted in the morning (what's the purpose of the reservation after all). I sighed with relief when I learned that there's one remaining slot in the morning session as Chesska was used to this schedule. A lesson learned, indeed!

Chesska & Mama

But why is the tuition fee so outrageously high nowadays in private schools? Isn't it stressful to become a parent, hehe? 

The whole year tuition fee including the miscellaneous is P 44, 500 and I gave an initial payment of 20, 000 so the monthly tuition fee would, at least, go down. While I want to transfer my child to other private schools where the tuition fee is much cheaper than SPC, Chesska will again adjust to her new classmates, teacher, and environment knowing how timid she is. If I also move her to the public school where the tuition fee is absolutely free, I am also skeptical about the quality of education the public school has. I am not generalizing and belittling all the public schools, but I was once a student of the public school myself and I knew how the system went. Maybe things are quite different right now as I learned from my co-teacher who is currently teaching in the public school that their teaching performance is now closely monitored and evaluated.  She even complains that she feels as pressured as the teachers working in the private school as far as preparing lesson plans and syllabus is concerned. Meaning the public school is now attempting to give quality education to the students. I hope so!

Initially, Chesska will stay in her previous school until she becomes independent and goes to school on her own.  No matter high the tuition fee is,  we are willing to pay for it for a brighter future for our child.

Happy weekend!

What better way to reward myself on Mother's Day than treat "myself" with foods (lol)!  We're supposed to eat at Taklobo restaurant just across Karlo's Gourmet cafe but I decided to try another cuisines for our lunch. Yeah, I know, I am a rice-eater gal but there's nothing wrong to try something else other than what we were used to. The cafe (daw) serves Italian, Mexican and French dishes , so we gave it a try!

Here's what we ordered:

The Chef's Burger at 238

Special Spaghetti at 200

Clubhouse Sandwich at 198

Chocolate Cake

Strawberry Mocha at 150 & Double Choco cookies & Cream at 120

Though I was still looking for a heavy meal such as rice but the foods made us really full. The prices of the foods are outrageously high but it is just right because the venue is classy and cozy. The food's taste was as typical as the other cafe I've tried. So nothing really special!

Main entrance of the cafe

cafe's interior

Overlooking to Davao City