Mother’s Day 2013

 

I woke up with the world’s best greeting cards in sight. Set on top of my laptop on the bedside table. And so, the day just keeps getting better.

Little greeting cards from my kids and a loving one from my husband.

  

The kids made me peanut butter and jelly sandwich topped with over flowing whipped cream and chocolate syrup for breakfast even though I was already up and awake so much ahead of them. It’s more like an early lunch already. Crazy yet very sweet idea.

 

I’m saved from cooking dinner as we had take-out food consist of Super Herfy Burger and Saudi’s best Al-Khareej Broast Chicken.

 

 

To complete my Mother’s Day treat, my dear husband brought home a box full of my all time favorite cinnamon rolls from the one and only CINNABON.

I had a day full of surprises. It makes me wish for this occasion to last the entire year. The good thing about it though is that, I am celebrating with all the other mothers from the rest of the world. Lastly, I would give my salute and appreciation to my dear mother who has made me for who I am today. Happy Mother’s Day!

Chicken a`la King

This is not really my genre to write recipes and cooking escapades. I admit that though I can generously cook to save my life but never will be close enough to become Rachel Ray or Marta Stewart. But, since it’s Mother’s Day weekend, I am sharing my own version of Chicken a`la King recipe in honor of all the mothers in the world who need not to have authored a great recipe book or a cooking show to prove their reign of being the queen in every family home’s kitchen. I cooked this dish for dinner earlier and my husband and kids told me I am the best cook ever. The comments brought genuine smile to my face. They, however might have said that because obviously, it is Mother’s Day or my Chicken a`la King version is killing it for real. So, here it goes!

CHICKEN a`la  KING (Pudding girl’s version)

Ingredients:

1 medium size green bell pepper (cubed)

1 medium size yellow bell pepper (cubed)

1 medium size carrot (diced)

1 onion ( chopped)

1 cup of sliced mushroom

2 tbsp. of  margarine/butter

2 pcs. of MAGGI chicken cubes

3/4 cup of milk

1/4 cup of all purpose flour  whisked to dissolve in 1/2 cup water

Chicken Meat (breast part-skinned,sliced and boiled to cook with water. Set aside the chicken broth from cooking the meat)

salt

black pepper powder

parsley flakes

1. In a heated pan, melt the butter and add the onions. Add the bell pepper(green and yellow), carrots and mushrooms. Cook for 5-6 minutes. Set aside.

2. In a separate pot, add the chicken cubes to the chicken broth used when cooking the meat and heat to boil. Add the milk and the flour mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3. Add the mushroom, pepper and carrot mixture. Stir until it bubbled and becomes thick.

4. Add the chicken meat and simmer for at least 3 minutes.

5. Before serving the dish, add a dash of parsley flakes. It is best if served with plain rice.

It doesn’t take  complicated and extra ordinary dish to make family dinners great. In fact, it doesn’t need to have a special occasion such as Mother’s Day to gather for family dinners. And since my husband’s job takes him away from home most of the time, we took advantage of every chance we get to share together our family dinners and create memorable and precious time of being together.

Cheers!

Love Anthony

When my kids started swimming, I met Adrienne. I knew she was different from the very first time I looked at her. What ever it was that made her different, I can’t put my finger to it. I knew her parents because they were educators from where I graduated high school, they still are. I’ve come to meet them again but this time around we are all parents. Talking to her mother confirmed my wondering questions. Adrienne has autism. With regular swimming training my kids and Adrienne attended, I started to knew her and familiarize her. In behalf of her parents, I feel happy whenever my daughter talks about her little conversations with her by the poolside. I appreciate whenever she acknowledged my greetings though this doesn’t happen all the time but once she did, it’s amazing. It never failed to catch my attention that she always have a pink plastic folder slider that she plays with her fingers. Sometimes, it is a green colored slider or white in some days and I remembered how it upsets her when she lost it one time. I wasn’t really sure what it is for but I believe it has something to do with her psychomotor development or to my understanding, diverting her energy. Specialists called it autism but for us, Adrienne is special.

Few days ago, I came across another novel from Lisa Genova. The book title didn’t get me interested but the author did. She wrote the book Still Alice and made me see Alzheimer’s Disease in a very compelling way. Without reading reviews and synopsis, she amazes me once again with her writing about autism and a lot more about true love, relationships and family.

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Love Anthony is the heart warming and life-loving story of Beth, a mother of three girls, who is struggling with her husband’s infidelity, confused and wondering if she can forgive him and Olivia, a recent divorcee who is trying to know herself once again after a heart breaking separation with her husband following the death of her son Anthony, who has autism. In a total coincidence, these two women find answers to life’s questions through the unspoken voice of Anthony in the form of words composing a book written by Beth.

What gets me with this book is Genova’s brilliant way of putting a voice to an autistic child who doesn’t even express a voice but to no other than himself. I only have a very minimal encounter with autism and I can feel the perfect expression of unconditional love of a parent to a child with the writing regardless if the child is autistic or not. The book simply pictures stories of moms and wives and their frustrations in life. The stress they face everyday and the hopes and dreams they wish to acquire. With the unique presentation of autism, the complexity of the reality of life was carefully fed to the readers in details making it quite compelling and moving. The story of both couples and their marital situations became a side dish to the main course. Unfortunately, I find it quite a bit hanging and wish for more sparks emphasized on Beth’s forgiveness to his husband Jimmy. Nevertheless, the package was wrapped nicely with a bow perfectly done. I consider this book among my best reads for this year and with that I highly recommend for you all to grab your copies now.

In Memory Of…..

The night I left for Singapore, I went to visit and checked on my Granny- Mama Natz as I call her. She had an episode of dyspnea earlier that day. After weeks of being confined in the hospital, we were advised to take her home and so we did. Her room was set up in hospital-room-like in a way that it will be convenient for her care. I never regret that I woke her up and kiss her that night because…… It was the last.

I came home this morning to her in this state. I know your pain has ended and you are in the hands of the Eternal. I love you my Mama .

Thank you for everything Granny! Forever you will be in our hearts.

Gold medal– enough as a good excuse?

 

My kids and I were actually back from the weekend competition last Monday and I was too tired to even take a peek on blogosphere. I miss you guys! All of you….

I mentioned that my daughter was advised by the doctor not to swim and we’re pretty obedient with the order not until the day of the competition. The coach found out that there were very few participants in her age category and wanted to take the risk and go for it. Yeah! That’s the fighting spirit! He asked Water(the name of my daughter, if you all can remember) if she wanted to compete. My little girl said yes but was doubtful since she was feeling intimidated and somewhat scared of the 50meter swimming pool. Heck! We are training on a tiny pool of about 10-12 meters only and recently moved to a longer one of about 20 meters-not even close to a 25meter pool for novice competitions. With a  bit of encouragement and a little push, my daughter and her 5-year old friend and team mate, Heidi finally agreed on competing. They were  the last minute registrants for the 6-under Girls category. The coach signed her up on four events and she competed them all, sans weeks of training absences, sans warm-up, sans SUIMSUIT!!! – Yeah, right! We really thought she won’t be competing at all and I didn’t bring her stuff. Well, I sort of packed and was ready, but I brought rash guards and bikini bottoms for her so she can take a deep and play at the warm-up pool if she feels like it. We borrowed an extra swimsuit from Heidi’s big sister, Hazel and I am so thankful for them and their assistance.

Water took home 2 Gold medals for 50m Back Stroke and 50m Freestyle , 2 Silver Medals for 50m Butterfly and 50m Breast Stroke

Water and Heidi

Another GOLD for Most Be-Medalled Award for 6-under Girls Category

The team brought home a total of 3-Golds, 2-Silver and 6-Bronze medals

The team had fun and the experience was exceptional! My son, like some swimmers of the team didn’t get any medal but he had a good time and his races are also good. He did his best and he enjoyed the game. The young swimmers had proven a thing or two to themselves. Win or lose, being a participant of competitions is always an honor. Nevertheless, I am a proud mom of two good swimmers.

Water will turn seven soon and her next competition will be on a new age bracket. The Most Be-Medalled Award has given her a good exit of the 6-under category. She was actually worried because we disobeyed her doctor. I am a medical professional, Me of all people supposed to know better about following doctor’s orders but….. is a gold medal enough for a good excuse?

more of our swimming stories:

- TAKE YOUR MARK

- beginnings

- Raising Future Olympic Swimmers

 

Take Your Mark

In about three hours, I will be leaving with my kids and into a four-hour drive to the venue of their next swimming competition. I can already feel the goose bumps creeping all over me  every time I see my children at the end of every pool lane and when I hear the voice saying “Take your Mark….!”

Yes, the Tagum City Stingrays Swimming Team will be competing again. My daughter will make a pass with this competition this time though. She was disappointed, she had a cough that progress into a pneumonia that requires her to undergo a medication for one week with a strict doctor’s order of no swimming. My son has been looking forward to it and I can tell he is excited. As for me, I can’t tell what I feel. All I know of is, I will forever be proud for not all children in their ages competes like them. Win or lose, a participation to every competition is an achievement on my end.

Get well soon Water baby!

Good luck dear Wine…. I’ll be cheering by the grandstand!

Am I Ready?

I opened my inbox and this particular email sets my mind into a deliberation mode.

The image above is a screen shot obviously, so I can’t get the entire mail content in there. I swear I will never go back working in Saudi Arabia. I don’t hate the place, don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate the people… well, maybe I do, only a little and not all of them. The culture is okay, though deep inside I think most of it is very degrading specially to women and third country nationals that came to work there. The job experience I had three years ago is absolutely great!

So, is this a YES?… or a NO?

I need to wear my thinking hat on and I hope the light bulb on the top of it will spark soon.

  

Related Topics:

- The Jobless Me 

- What is a Medical Technologist

- Power Moms

- Boiling Point

- When Boredom Strikes

“talking my way out”

Year 2007, I left and worked overseas when my daughter was just a year and nine months old. She can only utter couple of syllables such as “ma-ma” that time and I never get to hear her first full words. I noticed her development in speaking only on phone calls I made back then. Now that she is in the 1st Grade, she is talkative and rarely quiet. She wants to talk while dressing, eating and brushing her teeth. She talks to herself in the mirror when she’s playing and acting. She discovered the audio recorder on my cellphone and records herself mimicking the newscasters on TV. She talks a lot in the poolside during swim trainings, Heck- she talks in her sleep sometimes. She is a kid who loves asking questions and enthusiastically talking about her experiences and the surroundings. If she doesn’t have anything to talk about, then she would just keep repeating the rhymes, telling self-imagined/invented stories and counting numbers.

For the past two years, I only have one concerned question to her teachers during classroom meetings. “Is she noisy and talking too much?” So far, both Junior and Senior kindergarten teachers that she had told me she’s just like the other pupils. She is active and participates well. That doesn’t really answer my question, does it? Since they don’t complain, I assume that her chatty character is only at home or other places where she feels at home(like the pool perhaps? after all, I named her WATER). Without negative feedbacks from school, I am proud that she is smart and maintains her rank in the honor roll.

It’s been three weeks since current school year started and I am surprised with both of my kids’ adjustment to schedules. School work is manageable and school assignments are something they both look forward to work on with me. With that, I am thankful and silently hoping for this good vibes to last.

Today, my daughter told me something that caused me to realize that her chatty behavior after all is now unstoppable. She is just as chatty and talkative in school as she is at home.

I understand, that as parents, we should never discourage our  talkative children. This is because they show interest in talking and this is their way of expressing their feelings towards us and to people around them. Communication as a matter of fact is an effective means of interaction. It is easy to picture out what they have in mind when they speak about it. It would be helpful too determine if kids are being bullied or not because they are comfortable talking about it rather than keeping it a secret as most aloof and introvert children often do. If my daughter is quiet, I start to worry and often times it happened when she is not feeling well.

If a talkative child is being disruptive and interrupting in class, therefore, it is an issue that needs careful attention and approach. I asked my daughter how it made her feel when she was told to move to the front because she is talking too much. She said she was embarrassed. On the lighter note, she was glad because she had always wanted to sit in the front. I told her that chances are, she will be asked to move again if she talks too much while sitting at the front. Her looks told me she doesn’t want that to happen and I acknowledged this reaction as positive. Hopefully.

I admit I am chatty and talkative too, so she must have inherited that from me. Though I was never reprimanded for being talkative during my own school years(as far as I can remember). I used to hear the line that says “Children are three times more of what their parents are” and I guess that is true for this case.

crayons and color pencils

Sunday night last week, I checked my kids’ school bags and prepared it the way I wanted(not how they want) for the week since the next day is a Monday. Their notebooks were numbered by subjects according to the teacher’s preference which I arranged carefully. I will open their pencil cases and sees to it that pencils were sharpened and puts an extra pencil in case there is none. I will remove bits of pencil shavings because both of my kids have the habit of doing their sharpening in their pencil cases while in the classroom. Everything was going smoothly with my tidying up until I picked my daughter’s crayon case and this is what I found:

Barely two weeks passed since school started and my daughter’s crayons were already peeled, removed from the crayon box, lost some of the other crayons which were originally bought in a box of 24’s and some to my slight disappointment were found at the side pockets of her school bag looking like this:

I cleaned up the peelings and stuck the broken crayons to her color case. We actually have an old large Mackintosh Chocolate can which I use to store old crayons and coloring pencils. I know that other moms like me always have this kind of situation. Many of us have bucket-full of old crayons, broken, peeled, or otherwise which our children ignored and would ask us to buy new sets every time school started. For craft-loving moms, this broken crayons will be recycled, melted and molded to create new multi-color pieces of crayons.

I was up to the mall for some stuff  few days ago and as usual, paid the bookstores a good visit. Approaching the counter to pay for my purchase, I saw these “eight in one” coloring pen in a shelf beside the cashier’s counter.

(photo credit: Google)

It is made in plastic, clear and transparent barrel which contains eight retractable basic colored crayon sticks with a rotating change tip for selection. Each cost Php70.00(US$ 1.65 approx.)so I picked two of these and gave it to my kids as a surprise. They were surprised indeed and thank me as they checked it out and tried using it in awe. It may not have the complete set of colors like Crayola’s box of 24 or 36 but I hope this will keep them from loosing crayon pieces, or breaking and peeling them not unless the entire coloring pen will get lost-which I am fervently hoping not to happen.

This current school week is my trial period for the said coloring pen. I am waiting for complains from my kids regarding the item. Whatever feedbacks I will get, I will let you know.

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Here are some sites that gives cool ideas on what to do with old crayons. Check it out!

 My Green Crayon by Overflow Creations

 Hot Rocks Project on A Bird and a Bean

 Melted Crayon Art by Playful Learning

Recycled Molded Crayons by Recraft

 Hot Easter Eggs on The Chocolate Muffin Tree

 Recycled Crayons by Busy Hands Blessed Hearts

What a swimmer’s parent must know…

As the team management’s secretary of my children’s swimming team, the coach asked me to search and check out websites of different Swimming Federations and Associations so as to get ideas to develop the team, more considering that we are newbies and rookies to the field. Browsing around, I was able to find these thoughts to ponder, not for the swimmers but for the most important factor on a swimmer’s life- the PARENTS. Reading the content, I made a conclusion that this doesn’t just apply to a swimmer’s parent but to all parents in general. Hence, I am posting this for all the world to see.

…………….…………

10 Commandments for Swimming Parents
by Rose Snyder, Managing Director Coaching Division, USOC
Former Director of Club Services, USA Swimming
(adapted from Ed Clendaniel’s 10 Commandments for Little League Parents)

I. Thou shalt not impose thy ambitions on thy child.

Remember that swimming is your child’s activity. Improvements and progress occur at different rates for each individual. Don’t judge your child’s progress based on the performance of other athletes and don’t push them based on what you think they should be doing. The nice thing about swimming is every person can strive to do their personal best and benefit from the process of competitive swimming.

II. Thou shalt be supportive no matter what.

There is only one question to ask your child after a practice or a competition – “Did you have fun?” If meets and practices are not fun, your child should not be forced to participate.

III. Thou shalt not coach thy child.

You are involved in one of the few youth sports programs that offer professional coaching, do not undermine the professional coach by trying to coach your child on the side. Your job is to provide love and support and a safe place to return at the end of the day. Love and hug your child no matter what. The coach is responsible for the technical part of the job. You should not offer advice on technique or race strategy or any other area that is not yours. And above all, never pay your child for a performance. This will only serve to confuse your child concerning the reasons to strive for excellence and weaken the swimmer/coach bond.

IV. Thou shalt only have positive things to say at a swimming meet.

If you are going to show up at a swimming meet, you should be encouraging, but never criticize your child or the coach. Both of them know when mistakes have been made. And remember “yelling at” is not the same as “cheering for”.

V. Thou shalt acknowledge thy child’s fears.

A first swimming meet, 500 free or 200 IM can be a stressful situation. It is totally appropriate for your child to be scared. Don’t yell or belittle, just assure your child that the coach would not have suggested the event if your child was not ready to compete in it. Remember your job is to love and support your child through all of the swimming experience.

VI. Thou shalt not criticize the officials.

If you do not care to devote the time or do not have the desire to volunteer as an official, don’t criticize those who are doing the best they can.

VII. Honor thy child’s coach.

The bond between coach and swimmer is a special one, and one that contributes to your child’s success as well as fun. Do not criticize the coach in the presence of your child, it will only serve to hurt your child’s swimming.

VIII. Thou shalt be loyal and supportive of thy team

It is not wise for parents to take their swimmers and to jump from team to team. The water isn’t necessarily bluer in another team’s pool. Every team has its own internal problems, even teams that build champions. Children who switch from team to team are often ostracized for a long, long time by the teammates they leave behind and are slowly received by new team mates. Often times swimmers who do switch teams never do better than they did before they sought the bluer water.

IX. Thy child shalt have goals besides winning.

Most successful swimmers are those who have learned to focus on the process and not the outcome. Giving an honest effort regardless of what the outcome is, is much more important than winning. One Olympian said, “My goal was to set a world record. Well, I did that, but someone else did it too, just a little faster than I did. I achieved my goal and I lost. Does this make me a failure? No, in fact I am very proud of that swim.” What a tremendous outlook to carry on through life.

X. Thou shalt not expect thy child to become an Olympian.

There are 250,000 athletes in USA Swimming and we keep a record of the Top 100 all time swimming performance by age group. Only 2% of the swimmers listed in the all-time Top 100 10 & Under age group make it to the Top 100 in the 17-18 age group and of those only a small percentage will become elite level, world class athletes. There are only 52 spots available for the Olympic Team every four years. Your child’s odds of becoming an Olympian is about .0002%.