This Is The Day!

Life is a flower for which love is the honey ~ Victor Hugo
                                           Roses and daisies are my favorite flowers! 

                                                                   A love in roses ...

and a friendly daisies...

These simple things makes me smile, the wondrous creation of God :) 

This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalms 118:24, 29

How many ways can one complain about life? In most cases there is always a choice. Even if things are up in the wall, we can still choose how we react to every situation.  In Gal 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy , peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control". Here we have a whole range of Godly reactions to our situation plus faith, hope and prayer and how else can we react than what the Psalmists suggests, "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it"? I know how hard and busy life can be or how cruel people sometimes, day to day struggles, difficulties and hopeless situation, but God made this day! TODAY! This day! It is our day! What we do with it may have human limitations, but always remember, nothing, nothing can take us out of the love that God has for us and we can rejoice and be glad in this day. Rain or shine, rejoice!

Today I will have self control and I will be glad in it :) 

My Mother's Love

I can see the Father in my mother's smile

In her touch, strength of His hands

with my mother arms around me

I can feel God's love surround me

To help me learn to sit, to walk, to stand

Her love is patient

Her love is kind

She always seems to have the other one in mind

instinctively a mother knows her love was meant to share

and in my mother's love, I've come to know the Father's care

I can feel the Father when my mother prays

fervently she whispers my own name

With my mother's prayers to guide me

and the Father here beside me

my heart will always know that I'll be fine

Down on her knees

she ask the Lord to use my life,

to find His plan

to know His will and take my step...

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL!

Share the Hope

It was an awesome Resurrection Sunday! We had a cardboard testimony in Church and I am so blessed to read it all. God indeed is on the move in the lives of our people. He gives hope and life everlasting to all.
It was a great privileged as well to share that hope to our neighbour. They moved few months ago, an indian couple from Bombay with three children, same age as my kids. I baked cookies for them to welcome them in our neighbourhood and even hubby snow blow their pathway as they did not have anything to use for winter and obviously not ready for a lot of snow :) They are very shy but nice family.


The other day, someone knocked on our door. It was Tamia, our neighbour and she handed me a what she said an special indian traditional dessert. She is so sweet, she even explained to me how to eat it. She call it Suji Halwa, an indian  Semolina Raisin Pudding. It was so good!

We had a chat, she is such a sweet lady! she shared how hard their life back home in their country and how they struggle to be in another culture now.  Well, I shared to her the faith and hope that God brought into our life. It was beautiful, she listen intently and thankfully. She said she wants to know more about the God that I am serving. That is what I'm going to give her in return for that delicious Semolina pudding :) The Bread of Life and of course maybe with more bakings lol..:_

Help me pray with this neighbour. 

Cooking craze

We are awfully busy for the past weeks. I hardly stay home during the day because of never ending appointments plus some other stuff :)

There are days that I just want to stay home and cook and clean the whole day :) and that day is today! I did all my laundry, some cleaning and a bit of sorting stuff from my wardrobe. Getting rid of some winter clothes.

  I am craving empanadas lately and they are not available to any filipino store anymore. I don't know what happen. Maybe the cook is on vacation:).  So today I baked chicken and beef empanadas! I think the dough turned out good this time. 

If you love spring rolls, you will love it too. You can either deep fried it or baked it. I prefer to bake it rather than deep fried, it's less messy and dough are more flaky and soft. 

You will enjoy eating it with steaming hot macaroni soup.

and the main dish, menudo with rice...yum! that completed a good supper!

Menudo is consist of cube pork, potatoes, carrots, spring onions, garlic, red chilli pepper and snow peas.

And finish it with ricotta cheese almond pie...

and Lumpiang Shanghai or Shanghai spring rolls . Leftovers are for the next few days.

Have a good appetite . What's your supper today? 

Little bundle of Joys!

I don't know how both of my twins managed to get out of their cribs by themselves. It's supposed to be bedtime but they are quietly playing together in the floor. They emptied all the stuff in the closet and open all drawers. My heart skipped a second there. It is not safe for them anymore! I'm trying to figure out how they did it? specially Alex. They are 25 months old but he is quiet small in his age, how did he climb up? his legs are too short to reach the upper rail? and  his coordination are not that develop not until tonight :)
They are into climbing lately. Kayla loves to climb up any place elevated. She will get the stool, climbed up then jump. She knows how to open all doors except the one with safety lock. Alex can go down from his high chair if you forgot to fasten the belt and now he discovered to get out of his crib. The physio therapist wants us to encourage Alex to climb in the couch or going up and down the stairs to develop his coordination but I think he just passed that stage lol. 


Oh well, as long as they are safe, I don't mind them being handful as they are suppose to. They are entering the stage of exploring and discovering new things around them and there is no stopping. 
We love these babies, they are little bundle of joys in our family. They keep our smile and laughter everyday! They are become monkeys now but they are the sweetest foster kids we've had in 8 years :) Kayla sing songs for us all the time, she can sing 3 whole songs by herself, "Twinkle, twinkle", "jingle bells"( feels like christmas in our house everyday lol) and "Baa baa black ship". She's getting smarter each day too, talking non stop now and learning a lot of new words. But she's naughty too, she loves to tease Alex by hiding his toys and give it back later when Alex start to cry. She will put on her jacket and say "goodbye Alek" and that made Alex cry too because he thinks he's staying home.
Alex is my baby. I am his favorite person on earth. He learned his first proper and 3 syllable words "I wanna eat" that's all he can say :) he loves to eat so he practice it a lot.

Kayla, even her hair eats noodles :)

Alex, my baby! He's attach to me, always give me lots of kisses and huggies.

Kayla tease Alex a lot but they are partners in crime lol...

our little monkey :)

Jojo, Tyson, Alex and kayla

It is our joy to share our love and life to them even in a short time. I hope things will work out good with their mom. We want them to feel that there are someone like our family loves them dearly.

Bento Lunches

We call it "baon" in our own dialect. Bento lunches are very common in asian countries specially in Japan, Korea and China. Bento means "meal serve in a box". I grew up in bento lunches. My mother usually prepare bento for our lunches at school. This includes rice, eggs, marinated sweet pork or dried fish or sometimes rice with longganisa (sausage like but taste like sweet pork) or some veggies and fruits like mango, pineapples or cantaloupes. Although some prepare their bento artistically, ours is just simple, usually placed in divided lunch boxes. Some preferred their bentos hot and warm for lunch so they have this kind of special layered container and wrap with fabric to keep it heated.
When my kids started school and up to this day, I usually prepared bentos for their lunches, not everyday but at least 2 to 3 times a week and when I don't, they kind of miss it they said :) I have many cute bento lunch boxes that I left in Hong Kong, I should had brought all of it here lol. I can't find anything like that in any store here. But when we were in California I found bento lunch boxes in one of Asian store there that I wanted. It has four detachable dividers and comes with chopsticks and small container for sauces. 
Since that my kids are sometimes getting tired of rice, I make a variety of healthy food they like to eat, like chicken wrap slices and fruits and added small amount of meat. If I have time, I make sushi and spring rolls and added it to their bentos. I seldom buy process foods for their lunches (make me feel guilty, although it's ok once in a while) or sometimes sandwiches, but I prefer freshly cooked meal. 

simple bento lunch I usually make. Josel and Jason's bento

This is Jessica's bento lunch box. It's two layered container

this is just like the one I have when we were in Hong Kong but yellow and beige bag. I usually bring it with me as we were always on the road and boat. It comes very handy specially when Josel got hungry. He's a year old at that time.

This is the one that I really wanted but can't find anywhere here in any store. I found this bento lunch boxes online and they are selling this kind of containers and I think I'm going to buy it :)

Elaborate and artistic bento. Jessica and I once made a rice face with hair made of black sea weeds, the one we wrap for sushi :)

Complete bento stuff.

This is not only for lunches but also good for picnics on summer time. It's fun to me and for my kids too :)

If you're interested in bento making, visit this site

Cute Bento Making

http://www.cookingcute.com/recipes.htm

Just Bento @   

http://www.justbento.com/recipes

Have a nice day!

Healthy Habit

One of the bad habits I've developed few years back is eating midnight meal...yes a meal not a snack. It started when I'm working night shift in an electronic company. As soon as I got home around midnight I hit our kitchen and looked for a bowl of rice, if can't find some, I look on something to munch or nibble, worse, I usually eat ice cream, anything sweets preferably chocolates or cookies or sandwiches. It was just too good to sit, relax and enjoy my midnight meal uninterrupted. Doesn't matter if I slapped those fats and carbs right straight into my thighs as long as I have my midnight meal. 

That habit goes on and on even when I'm not working anymore. Until one day, I looked in the mirror and I could clearly see how healthy I become....ewww those hideous belly fats and chubby cheeks! It's a message telling me that I have to do something to myself. Developing a habit are hard to break! It is very true about this saying that habit is like a bed of roses, it's easy to get in but it's hard to get out and that's what happen to me :(

You know the rest of the story. I tried many fad and yoyo diets but it's just get worse, my appetite in food is too high to suppress. When we were in Australia, I gained another 10 lbs. in two weeks time. Every time we travel, I gained pounds. Till I come to my senses and realized again that the key factor is self control and discipline. I have to control myself of what I put on my body and to discipline myself in eating healthy food with moderation.  

So far, I started eating moderately, healthy foods with low carb diet and NO MORE midnight snack. I gave myself a pat on the shoulder with that one :) the hardest struggle I've overcome for the past weeks.  Since our foster kids are all in daycare and school during the day I have a chance to walk in the mall as my daily exercise lol at least an hour before I go home and do my chores. This morning, I weigh myself and I lost 15 lbs. already :)

Now I can see why many people are striving to get in shape. It makes them feel good about themselves, accomplishing something that is worth an effort. I try to discipline myself not only in food but something that are worth and beneficial. If I developed a bad habit why can't I develop a good one. Few years back, I established my prayer life. I oftentimes convinced myself that I do have a consistent prayer life but I admit and honestly tell you that I forgot to pray often than eating my meals three times a day. That's just sad.

 So I decided to establish and develop a lifestyle of prayer. I made it simple but special time with God. I am a morning person and I usually woke up around 5:30 am. My mind are more active than the rest of the day. During weekdays, I prepared everything at night for kids in the morning so that I will not rush myself in my time  with God. I have list of my devotional materials that I use everyday or a scripture that I can meditate for the day. It don't have to be a long prayer, or need to be a super spiritual talk to God but just pouring out my hearts to Him so that He can heal, soothe, encourage and deal with my inner needs. Helps me get through the day. No matter my mood is, I pray anyway. If I am in my computer, I try to utilize some of my time to read online bible in youversion.com. I also developed the habit of reading at least one or two good books a week and I encouraged my kids to do the same.

I know developing this habit is a constant battle, like abstaining from food I love to eat, there are struggles but I always keep in mind that my battle is the Lord's. "...do not be afraid, don't be discourage by this mighty army, for the battle is not yours, but God's 2 Chron. 20:15. 

God has graciously chosen to give us the privilege of being His partners in both the physical and spiritual areas of life. Through prayer we work with Him in defeating the powers of evil and in bringing about the fulfillment of His loving purposes in our life. The more I pray, the more I wonder why I do not pray more. The benefits are more rewarding than any other way I spend my time. I want to know Him more each day. God's work is done by those who pray. I want to keep this habit forever.