Jay came home rather late the day before. It was the last day of VBC and he was one of the people in charge of the activities, it being a Kids Ministry event. I opened up the package and saw that the frames he bought to hold Pablo’s oil pastel works were broken. It was 8:30pm. Shopwise closes at 11pm and we weren’t even sure if they have the kind of frames that we needed. Nevertheless, we donned the kids up and headed out to take our chances. We got back home before midnight, put the kids to bed, cleaned up the mess that the kids left…and prepare the food for next day’s lunch.

In all his 5 years…. Pablo has never memorized an adult song. He has never sung with a microphone. He’s never sung with a minus-one, much more, with a live band. He has never performed onstage. When Jay called me to let me know that Pablo will sing for the mothers on Mother’s day, I froze. I need to trust my kid more. Pablo took on 3 different worship services. He sang 3x in a hall with a capacity of 1, 200 people. Cheers. Hoots. Sighs. A standing ovation. Pablo brought the house down.

If someone told me back in my youth that I would desire being a full time housewife and mother, the career-obsessed me would have laughed, "IMPOSSIBLE!!!" This morning, I'm nursing three glorious, new blisters in two fingers of my right hand I've acquired from sharpening my 5-year old's 24 new colored pencils last night. One of those things you get from being a full-time, hands-on mom, and I love it! The blisters that I get are nothing! Being pregnant with my 3rd child while homeschooling my 5-year old, changing nappies and handling the demands of my 1 year old on top of all the house chores make up the pile of challenges that I face everyday.

I’ve recently finished 3 E-books on homeschooling. I’ve long fell in love with the concept upon getting to know 3 homeschoolers who impressed me with their character at their very young ages of 5, 9 & 10 years old --- their understanding of the Word of God & their relationships with Jesus, their parents & their families, their above-par ability to go forward to speak or participate, and the genuine quality of their confidence & attitude in relating to people of different ages, status & nationalities. I have seen beautiful children who are regular school-goers and I applaud their parents for their evident involvement in their children’s character formation, but I firmly believe that God has led our family to trek the road of homeschooling.

One of my fondest memories of Christmas when I was a child was my mom playing the Christmas album that featured traditional Christmas songs on the cassette player and seeing my brothers make the traditional Filipino parols (Filipino Christmas Lanterns) in Decembers I'm not sure if my parents commissioned my brothers to make these parols, but they used to make them every year, until they didn't. My mom said they stopped making them when my brother almost accidentally burned our house one New Year's Eve. In the Philippines, we don't take down the Christmas decors until January.

I wrote this last year when Oli died. I still want to tell you this story. Growing up, I've always thought that I'd end up doing music as a lifetime career. And in a way, it's come true, just not the kind you see in your screens or pay a lot of money for tickets. I still do music with my husband from time to time, but we're now more behind the scenes, more "in the service of" than anything, and nothing flamboyant. When I was between my late teens and early twenties, I met this group of really talented young musicians (my husband included), most of whom were from a music conservatory.

I grew up with helpers and older siblings, and doing chores was not part of my learning when I was growing up. In fact, I only learned to cook and clean, and use the washing machine when I decided to move out on my last year at university. I remember a male friend looking at me oddly when I was struggling to iron bedsheets and he remarked that I wasn't supposed to do that because they settle by themselves when you fix them on the bed, haha! Another friend, also male, taught me how to work the old washing machine.

I came across an article posted by my friend Nadia about the free admission for kids at the Ayala Museum from the 26th to the 30th. The article says that there will be activities for kids to join and kids-approved exhibits like the Diorama of the Philippine History and the Rizal Virtual Reality experience. For me, a trip to the museum is always a good thing so I asked my husband if we could go before New Year. Since we were going to Pasay today, we decided to include the museum in our itinerary.

There are several things that I love about the story of Mug with a Hoop and you'll find it out as you continue to read on. I recently corresponded with Celia of MAX’IS Creations and even had the chance to send a couple of their Mug with a Hoop products to family in Katy, Texas, and I learned a bit about the heart and history behind these wonderfully designed sports - themed mugs. Image source: MAX'IS Creations on Amazon Mug with a Hoop Designs But first, what is Mug with a Hoop…

I want to start this blog with an encouragement to the Filipino moviegoers to go and watch Tarog's Quezon if only to support the Philippine Movie industry. Technically, the movie is one of the most artistic expressions on film that had been produced recently and the actors do not disappoint. But I would also like to encourage you to also do your own fact-checking of the details included in the movie so you can have a more objective perspective on Manuel L. Quezon, his accomplishments and flaws. Fact-check! I know that people mostly watch movies for entertainment, but Quezon's legacy is so much more than just entertainment.

I know that many think unschoolers are such because they've seen videos or talked to disapproving folks about children spending all their days playing video games or just watching TV. The truth is, there are families who are more radical with the approach than us, and that's fine. Homeschooling is really not a one-size-fits all kind of thing, and even unschoolers are diverse.

I don't mean to sound like a prophet of doom, I was just thinking of the Starks and you know...Winter is coming...get it? Haha! Okay, so that's a bad one. But I was at ROX's "Don't let the big one hit you where it hurts" free earthquake preparedness seminar held at their branch in Bonifacio High Street the other night, and I want to get your attention so I can share with you the things I've learned that evening. First of all, I'm sure you've heard of the West Valley Fault and the earthquakes that come every 200-400 years.

I’ve been seeing a lot of reels showing how a child’s face lights up when they spot a parent in the audience at their event. These videos usually feature young children, but the truth is, our kids crave our presence and support even as they grow older. Last week, my two older boys joined the Youth Grand Prix Philippines (YAGP 2026) for the first time and their team won. It was a big deal, and now they’re hoping their team will get to travel to Texas for the finals.

We were lucky to still be able to buy tickets to Atlantis Theatrical's Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street on its last week's run. Take note, we got tickets for the Thursday show. Who on earth watches a musical on a Thursday night? Apparently, everyone in Manila when it's Lea Salonga on the bill! Embarrassingly so, the last time I watched a Lea Salonga was in Repertory Philippines' My Fair Lady. And she was phenomenal in it! But now that she's more mature, and JUST BECAUSE SHE CAN, Lea takes on an unconventional role as Nellie Lovett and slams the character home.

A few minutes in, when the character, Evan Hansen (Sonny Monaghan) was delivering his opening monologue, my 14-year old son Judah looks at me and says, "he's just like me!" And my eyes almost welled with tears. I didn't bring him to the show so he can identify with any of the characters, but that he saw himself in Evan breaks my heart a little. Judah has recently been given a medical note for Asperger's. The only one who's read the book in our family is Pablo. I haven't, yet (boohoo!

The UP Manila Museum of a History of Ideas isn’t exactly well-known—I only stumbled upon it through a Facebook post last August during their Buwan ng Wika promo. Since it’s far from where we live, I figured we’d just go if we happened to be in Manila, which is one of my favorite places anyway. Sure enough, on August 29, after my son’s appointment at PGH, we passed by the museum on our way to lunch at Robinson’s. I thought, why not drop by after eating? I didn’t really know what to expect, but since it’s under UP Manila’s College of Medicine, I had a hunch it would be science-related.

Update: BIR no longer accepts payments transferred directly from GCash. You need to register and log in this website and follow these instructions on this page: I just paid my second quarterly tax and I'm quite relieved that the app still allowed me. Normally, second quarterly taxes are paid on the 25th of July but it got extended to August 15. (It's always wise to keep up with the extensions that BIR announces) I'm still a couple of days late but my filing was accepted and so was my payment. 

We adopted a 3.5 month old kitten from Ampon Alaga! I’d been following their page for a while and had always thought I might adopt one of their rescues. But I wanted to be 100% sure we were ready for the responsibility of having a pet so we waited until we knew we could fully commit. To be honest I thought we were going to get a dog.

Do you think it's too late for you to learn to speak another language, let alone, Spanish? Or did anyone tell you that teaching your kids another language may confuse them? TruFluencyKids Spanish' Andie Fernandez debunks all myths on the blog!

ALS or DepEd's Alternative Learning System has been sort of a buzz in the homeschooling community for a while now, most particularly among independent homeschooling families. We could not determine whether it's an option for our family or not because I've not found anyone who could actually explain what it is not until last Saturday, February 29, when I attended a seminar hosted by…

We had our first Parent-Teacher Conference (PTC) last week. Yes, we home school, but we send our kids to a MAPEH (Music, Arts, P.E. and Health) center once every week where they can practice responsibility, patience, kindness, and other values that we teach them in a setting outside our home. So we sat there with their teachers and listened as they showed us their grades for the first quarter and gave us feedback on our children. Our first two kids seemed to have adjusted well. They got mostly A's and B's in character, and their grades in their subjects were just as fine.

I've been meaning to write about this inspiring young man we met a few months back, 22-year old Anthony Abueva. It was actually my husband, Jay, who first met and talked to him when he went looking for buco vendors to buy the juice from on a regular basis. You see, I had mild case of UTI and not being a natural water drinker (I'm one of those who need water ice cold just to be able to drink it!), I felt that buco was the next best thing.

If there is one thing that we deem necessary in our unschooling setup, it’s for our kids to each have a mobile device they can use to access both their academic resources, online meetings, and other projects. And while we have a tablet that the boys share for these, because the two older boys need to leave for training daily and usually access their academics online during their breaks or on the P2P bus, they take the tablet along with them so they can study there. They do have a laptop that they also share among themselves, but it needs to be taken to the shop to get some issues fixed, so Judah, who stays home, has to use his mobile phone for his online meetings and tutorial sessions.

My youngest son asked me yesterday what it means when people say 'just be yourself.' I wish the answer was as easy as just do what you feel is right for you, but I know that he must have heard it online, so I wanted to make sure that he understands it in biblical context. I told him that it's easier for a person to be themselves if they know their identities in the first place. If they know who they are in Christ. I began to tick off what it meant on top of my head:

February is over but it doesn't mean that we should neglect self-love just because the love month has passed, right? Nowadays, health and fitness is the buzz so why not jump onto the wagon since it's a great one to be on anyway. I've got some really great tips from Rauch Happy Day Orange juice on how to do it, too.