PERSONAL NARRATIVES, MOMMY TIPS, AND THRILLING DISCOVERIES TO MAKE DAILY LIFE THE HAPPIEST
There is always something comforting about home scent. At first, you may not be aware of it, but then when you walk into a room and smell that familiar scent, you immediately hit memory lane.
I remember when I used to stay with my grandparents in the province. The whole kitchen smells of sweet pineapple candy. My grandmother lovingly prepares these sweets for her favourite apo. And that smell always makes me feel loved.
I don’t enjoy online shopping before. I still prefer heading to the mall and fitting that dress. Or I enjoy walking at each aisle and checking on the latest inventory. But because I am stuck at home with two toddlers I can’t leave behind, online shopping has become a stress-relieving activity. And just before I hit the sack, I would often spend another hour or two on the internet clicking and adding cart.
Most likely, many of us grew up on stories narrated to us by our grandparents, parents, and other elders in the family. Those were the days we shared the bed with our loved ones as they take us to the beautiful world of magic and sorcery, enchanting places, and talking animals. Such stories that taught us life lessons and helped us realize our dreams and aspiration.
All our five boys grew up knowing almost all of Aesop’s Fables. That perhaps explains their vast imagination. With only pictures in front of them, they can create a short story out of the characters and things illustrated.
Last month, I went back to working away from home. My mother set up an office for her business, and she got me as her Accounts Support.
Our weekdays become busier, giving us the reason to have a more relaxed weekend. Our Saturdays now are quite comfortable as we tend to spend more time in bed. Perhaps, that’s the best part of the weekend – waking up on a Saturday morning at our liking.
Most likely, it’s already past breakfast that we stretch our arms and leave the bed. As it’s too late to prepare for breakfast and too early to eat lunch, we often have our brunch instead, the lovechild of breakfast and lunch.
This mother went back to work-away-from-home come August 2019. My mom got an office and hired me as an Accounts Support. So every day, after tending to the needs of the boys and cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner – we head to the office. My four-year-old and two-year-old boys also go with me. They have a small room at the office where they can play, watch tv, and even sleep.
Since we went back to work, one of the adjustments we did was pamamalengke. Unlike before when we do our palengke every Monday, now, we do our shopping every Sunday. And we have to wake up real early to get fresh vegetables and meat because the talipapa near our place is just small that it only caters to the limited needs of a few households. We find this new set up as quite challenging because weekends are the only days we get to sleep an extra hour or two.
Very timely that our good friend Kat of Petite Momma’s World introduced to us Atreena Fresh Market.
Keep Calm and Have Some Brownies
We got an invite to what we may call as close to perfect paradise for brownie lovers like us! All our favorite brownies and even new exciting treats from Brownies Unlimited are readily available at their first-ever flagship store in SM Makati.
It seems pretty much normal for kids to misplace and lose their belongings at school. My boys, for instance, went home a lot of times without their lunchboxes with them. They likewise left their books and even handkerchief on school bus or classroom. This may be considered a petty concern but often results in stress and frustration for us parents. After all, we spent a fortune on school bags, lunch boxes, books, pencils, and other school items. Replacing them can be both hurtful for the budget and time. This is especially true when we don’t have a ready replacement at home.
Now, how to help our school children from losing things? Momi Berlin shares practical tips you may add to your failproof techniques, too.
After about a dozen pencil replacement in a month, we advised our son to set up a routine. We told him after each use, make sure he returns the item on the same place he got it. Pencils are kept inside a pencil case while the pad paper goes back into the bag. Before packing all his school things and leaving his table, he needs to double-check all his belongings and look around him if there are still unpacked items on the table or floor.
Repetition is a good practice for kids to master new skills. When he makes it a habit to always put his pencil inside his pencil case after use, for instance, it will become a habit he will find too hard to forget.
Misplacing things isn’t a doomed case. Youngsters can improve in keeping track of their things and whatnots by practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness is the skill of paying attention.
Being mindful means focusing on a specific task and reducing distractions to easily take note or quickly retrieve things. To practice mindfulness, ask your school kids to do one task at a time and be sure to return materials on its proper places after use. More than not forgetting items, practicing mindfulness helps improve concentration level and even happiness.
Stickerkid Review + Giveaway
Putting personalized labels or name tags on belongings make it easier to retrieve lost items. With their names, section or even contact details on items, there is a better chance of having lost things returned.
Ideal customized labels are washing machine-safe and those that cannot be easily removed or erased. The children wouldn’t find these name labels a bore, too, if the colors, fonts, style, and designs used are their favorites. Such an example of these personalized stickers for children is Stickerkid we stumble upon online. They have different kinds of name tags from clothing label to book label, gift card, iron-on name label, and shoe name labels among other sticker names. Each sticker name is so easy to use; just peel off and stick anywhere that needs a label.
Stickerkid Review + Giveaway
Navigating the site is so easy the same with choosing the design, color, and font. Order processing and payment are quick, too. And when we got the package, we easily distinguished the quality of materials used to print the name labels. Each sticker paper is durable, indeed perfect for kids’ use.
Now, we would love you to try Stickerkid as well. Stickerkid is sponsoring a worldwide giveaway to all Momi Berlin followers. Simple mechanics below:
This is open worldwide and the winner will get to choose from the value packs the design, look, color, and font he prefers for his sticker label. Shipping is also free of charge!
Just like how Stickerkid power couple Chris and Doerthe describe most kids as real champions in losing and forgetting things, we can help our youngsters minimize if not put to past those lost items. Introducing to them a routine and helping them to be mindful are a few tricks, plus putting on labels helps a lot.
Stickerkid Review + Giveaway
Money spent even on small school items easily adds up and as we wonder where our peso went by the end of the quarter, it’s in all those ballpens and lunchboxes. Now, with these practical tips and using sticker labels, we wish to reduce the stress in your life.
Momi Berlin Directory
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In our household, we often bake, roast, and steam meat. We believe that fried food is high in fat which may be bad to our health, thus as much as possible, we refrain from frying meat. Fried chicken, pork belly, and tofu are an exemption, though. That crunch as your jaws clamp down on a juicy bite of fried chicken is such a pleasure to behold as my boys enjoy our lunch or dinner. So if we fry meat, we only use palm oil.
Why We Trust Jolly Claro Palm Oil
Even if many say instant food is no good to our health, we still have a few of this kind of food in our pantry. They are hassle-free and require minimal to no cooking skills. This mother chance upon The Maya Kitchen’s trove of recipes and would want to share three simple ways to transform your instant meals into tastier, healthier, and over-all, fancier dishes.
When I was a schoolgirl, we used to pass by Lilac Street in Marikina City. It’s just a few blocks away from our school and most of my service mates live within the area. The long stretch of the street is home to middle-class families, mostly awardees of government housing projects.
Years passed and the houses turned into commercial dining spaces, making Lilac Steet as one established food district. Little by little, volumes of restaurants started to sprout like mongo plants in other Marikina areas like Calumpang, San Roque, and Katipunan. And though the city is still known for shoes – thus earning the “Shoe Capital of the Philippines” title – Marikina City is slowly becoming famous as an ideal food destination, too. A lot of food crawls happened already in these areas and even if you’re inside SM Marikina, all the more that you can have an awesome gastronomic experience. Allow us to share our recent first-time food crawl stops.