Hello November!

November always passes by like a blur for me. Probably it's the anticipation of the upcoming holidays for us. The best memory of November that I always have is getting a fatter than usual paycheck which instantly disappears the minute I get my to-do lists (mainly consisting of gift buying and holiday planning) out. That one also passes by like a blur for me (the fatter than usual paycheck, I mean)

I am now making a mental note of getting in some sort of tradition for this month. It is after all a celebration of life since my parents and my mother-in-law are all born on this month.But between the marathon training and several errand backlogs, it all feels overwhelming already I would probably end up with nothing by the time the month comes to a close. And before I know it, I'd probably be cramming for all the things that I need to get done before the holidays. Insane. Yes, that's me.'

This post for instance was started like a week ago. But here I am still finishing up and going nowhere. I started asking myself too, what's the point of making this "Hello" posts. Then it hit me, this is probably again my subconscious trying to organize my cluttered mind. And trying to set priorities.

So let's see. This month, my primary priorities would be as follows:
- Bring the kid back to the Doc Chen's for her semi-annual well kid check up.
- Finish this Photobook that I have been trying to burn the midnight oil on before the voucher expires (which is a week from now. Waaaaaaaaaah). Thank God, I'm making progress. I'm halfway through actually. Just need to find more pictures (and maybe settle on a book theme so I could limit my photo choices. I have gazillions to sift through and that alone is making me want to drop out of this project already)
- Put up our Christmas tree.
- Nail my weekly mileage requirements. And register for my final 21k race this year.
- Touch base a friend (or two) because yes, this also keeps my sanity intact. And by touch base I mean really meet up and spend time (even if it's just a couple of hours).

My dear tarragon plant flowering again. 

So that's 5. And 5 is something I can work with. I wanted to put in there start making more handmade ornaments to give away to relatives this holidays but that might just be the end of it. I don't want to pull my strings hard and snap. So yes, I am accepting the fact that the ornament dream would have to take a back seat this year. But well, on the brightside, there's the next year to look forward to. And that would give me more time to gather more materials.

And there's my herb garden that I've been neglecting for months now. Despite that I'm happy to see that most of my plants are thriving. The tarragon even sported a bloom despite half of it wilting (from too much rain last month, I reckon) and dying. And I take that as a sign that things will quiet down soon.

How's your November going so far?

Marathon Diaries: Aiming For The Stars Now

I started my marathon training today. Last week, I plotted my training days on this Marathon Finisher Plan that I downloaded from Nike Running. As I was looking at the first 8 weeks, I was pretty sure I can handle them easily. I started doubting myself though the minute my eyes fell on 16 miles. Then a question suddenly popped in my head (think thought balloon) - WHAT THE HELL AM I GETTING MYSELF INTO?

Deja vu. Of exactly one year past.

Unlike most serious marathon trainers, I do not have a real (what do i mean by this?) training plan in mind. Nor a training coach. Except for my competitive husband (who doesn't like training with me) and that downloaded training plan, I have nothing else. Well maybe the motivation of finally crossing out this item on my bucket list that says - RUN AND FINISH A MARATHON BEFORE MY 35TH BIRTHDAY. I have less than a year to do that. Although (yes, you got me there) that bucket list is honestly non-existent I still have several things (at the back of my mind) that I would really wish to achieve or experience before well to say it bluntly, I die. And a marathon finish is one of them. Alongside maybe, several dream places to travel, concerts (or rather bands) to see and items to own (yes, i do crave for material things too). After serious contemplation, my husband and I decided that we will try our luck at making our first marathon finish at Condura Skyway Marathon again. If you would remember, it's the same race where I ran my first half-marathon. Condura is  less than 4 months away (roughly). So really, I have about 3 months to train. And I mean seriously, T.R.A.I.N.

I think I can handle the mileage requirement. The scheduled days of the runs are just the right fit to my rather unpredictable life as a working mom to an audacious preschooler. But what concerns me the most are those days on the training plan that were marked - CROSS TRAIN. It suggests of weight training which I have no single clue of. I've also read somewhere that the best cross training exercises for marathons are biking and swimming. Biking and swimming (two things that I never learned and most likely will never learn to do) - if I take that suggestion seriously I might interpret it as a sign that I should not push through with this crazy idea anymore. But I am going to throw that out the window and carry on with this as boldly as I possibly can.

Maybe I can make use of some of the suggested exercises in this guide from Runner's World or this guide from Active.com. I'm sure the internet is a treasure trove in itself. I could try You Tube as well. I know that I have very weak endurance and I have to especially work on that since I've never been spared of cramps before. But there are still several half-marathons lined up this year that I can join just to prove that I can finish without a cramp attack. I also have very strong lungs. And a huge fighting spirit (check back with me again in December, will you? hahaha). SO...I CAN DO THIS. I WILL DO THIS.

Hello October!

October is one of the busiest months of the year for me. I celebrate 2 anniversaries this month. The first would be my motherhood anniversary and the second would be my wedding anniversary. Two of my personal life-changing events happening just 2 days apart.

In the past, the wedding anniversary was always overshadowed by the kid's birthday. Although by experience they do tone down every passing year. This year we celebrate our 5th year wedding anniversary. I still don't have any idea how we are going to celebrate it. I do have an unused coupon for a resto in Tagaytay that I've set aside for special occasions and we might decide to use it for our anniversary brunch. One thing is sure though, we will definitely still go and hear the 6am mass at Ina Ng Laging Saklolo just like what we've been doing for the past 4 years. We are not very religious but we both believe that keeping faith on something (in our case that something is God) is one of the ties that strengthens our bond. And hearing the mass on our wedding anniversary day at the same church where we got married is also our way of reminding each other that a few years back we promised and made vows to each other. 

October (also by experience) is also one of the months where most of our intense fights as a married couple happens. I would like to think though that we have since become a wiser couple because just the other day the hubby told me that these fights are actually healthy for us. They serve as our reality check. And they bring our attention back to our family goals. Yes, that should be healthy right? 

I have been laying out plans for the kid's birthday in mind in past couple of days. She's been persistent about keeping the fairy-theme though so I will try my hardest to give her that. But I'm sure treating her classmates to lunch and having them witness her blow her cake should really suffice. The cake blowing after all almost always is what defines birthday for kids. If the school would allow it, we might just add in a couple of balloons to complete the show. 

Lots of things happening around the Metro to celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness month as well. I still don't know if we will get to participate this year, I'm hoping we could. But since the kid started preschool, weekends have been pretty hectic for our household we could barely squeeze in time for non-family related appointments. Oh well, we participated in several Avon Kiss Breast Cancer Goodbye events in the past so we might just join the walk this year again. 

And we also usually start feeling the cold holiday breeze at this time of the month. Oh I can't wait for that to happen. I've been wanting a reprieve from the rains (and news of floods) for sometime now. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I finally get that wish this month. 

How about you? How is October coming along for you?

Stop Cyber Crime Martial Law.

Updated this to share the link to the online petition to junk the Cyber Crime Law. Click here.

Change.org|Free Online Petitions

more of this in HERE

FROM THE FILIPINO FREETHINKERS FACEBOOK PAGE

Define Happiness

After a recent petty fight with the husband, I decided to list down the things that make me happy. Well, basically as a reminder for me more than for him.

What really is happiness for me? These are the few things that immediately came to my mind:

• a healthy, nurturing marriage
• an improvement in the house (repaint? pwede! new furniture? pwede din!)
• good health for our entire family (and that includes the extensions most especially)
• new running gear (GEAR and NOT GADGET)
• a good camera (not necessarily expensive)
• new school/art supplies
• an oven or maybe even just new pots to use in the kitchen
• a big bar of dark chocolate (no particular brand, even Goya would do the trick)
• a positive balance on our bank account at the end of the month
• date nights
• lots of hugs and kisses

It's a mish-mash of both tangible and intangible stuff. But you would see really, how mababaw I am. Some days though, I do get swept by the materialism of this world and would wish for things that would probably fall under the category of WANT rather than NEED. And I guess this list can help me get back to my senses when I am overwhelmed by my material desires. 

BUT REALLY. THIS.IS.HAPPINESS.

What makes you happy? Please do share.

Recipe: Pancit Molo Soup

A heaping, hot bowl of pancit molo always transports me back to my childhood home. During school breaks (back in the day haha), my siblilngs and I would cook a potful of this for meryenda. I couldn't make it from scratch then but my mom always had several packs of the soup in stock for us. 

This was only my second attempt to make the soup from scratch. I got the recipe from a college friend and tweaked it a bit to include carrots for the kid. Our first time was a huge mess because majority of the meat balls came off the molo wrappers it eventually looked like a meat ball soup instead of pancit molo. This time around though I'm happy to report that we were almost successful  and so when Maqui requested for the recipe, I did not hesitate a bit. So here it is:

Prep time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 30 mins

What you will need:

1/2 kilo lean ground pork
1/2 kilo chicken soup pack, boiled and flaked
2 big white onions, chopped
1 bunch of green spring onions, chopped
1 medium sized carrot, minced/chopped finely
1 pack store-bought molo wrapper
1 small can full cream evaporated milk (optional if you're not fond of milky soup)
about 8 cups chicken stock (saved from the chicken soup pack)
olive oil
2 tbsp patis (fish sauce)
salt and pepper to taste
1 head garlic, minced and fried over low fire till slightly brown (for garnish)
All-purpose flour (to dust the balls and prevent them from sticking together)

How I did it:

1. Boil the chicken soup pack till meat is tender. It usually takes just about 10 mins for chicken meat to tenderize but since I plan to use the broth, I boiled it for 20-30 mins. I threw in a handful of chopped onions  as well to make the broth more flavorful.
2. Set aside chicken to cool for flaking. Set aside flaked meat and discard the bones.
3. Combine spring onions and carrots with ground pork. (I usually work with my hands. I'm confident they're mixed evenly that way). Season with a dash of salt but with more pepper (maybe half a teaspoon)
4. Spoon about half a teaspoon of the ground pork mixture over the molo/wanton wrapper and seal as tightly as possible (the way you would seal dumplings). Do this till all your mixture is wrapped up. Once in a while dust with all-purpose flour to prevent the dumplings from sticking together.
5. Saute your onions in olive oil till fragrant and translucent.
6. Add in flaked chicken meat and stir fry for a minute.
7. Pour in chicken stock and boil.
8. When stock is boiling, lower fire to simmer and drop the dumplings one by one (dumping them slowly is the key to preventing them from breaking)
9. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Season again with fish sauce, salt and pepper according to your taste.
10. Pour in the evaporated milk about 5 minutes before you put the fire off.
11. Garnish with chopped spring onions and fried garlic.
12. Enjoy!!!!

Our recipe yielded about 50+ dumplings. The big pot lasted us till lunch time. It was my little girl's first time to try eating pancit molo and she liked it so much she requested for me to cook it again. Requests like this from my picky eater is always a huge compliment for me!

Household Tip: Keeping Your Greens Fresh

I blogged here about my favorite way of reusing the brown paper bags that our mall/supermarket purchases are usually packaged in nowadays. I obsess a bit about the way the baggers handle the wrapping of my purchases because I would always want to bring the bags home is the best condition possible so I can reuse them that way. The reality is, however, I would often come home with torn up bags which at first sight would seem to merit an immediate trip to the trash bin. But not in our household. They're always given second and even third chances.

Most days, they are more organized than this. hehe.

These torn up brown paper bags are folded as neatly as their present state would allow and stored for future use. What future use could that be, you ask? Well we normally only do our supermarket and palengke duties once a week but with the help of these paper bags our vegetables especially the green leafy ones stay palengke fresh for at least 3-4 days more. When I was still religiously making my green smoothies, I would stock up more on the leafy greens and I worried about how to keep me crisp. And this solved my problem. 

Only had this two remaining veggies in the fridge today. Too bad, I couldn't show how fresh they still were.
These two veggies by the way were bought 3 days ago.

Amazing paper bags. It really pains me seeing how they're being used indiscriminately (and wastefully, in fact) with no reverence for where they came from or how they came to be paper in the first place. My heart goes out to the millions of trees that were cut down just to turn them into paper. Sometimes I start doubting the real purpose of the plastic usage bans that majority of the cities in metro have adapted especially since I know it doesn't really solve the problem of waste and flooding (you moderate plastic use but were the trees  ever considered here, I wonder). I'm no environmentalist. I just really care so much I just couldn't help but be overly sentimental. 

So anyways, back to the real purpose of this post. What we do is wrap the greens and veggies with these brown paper bag and properly arrange them in our fridge's vegetable crisper. Denser veggies at the bottom and leafier ones on top. And that's it!