New Sacrifices

Before I start my new entry let me just share two "messages" I got yesterday and today.

Yesterday morning, as soon as I woke up, the first thing in my mind:

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and everything shall be added unto thee."

This morning when I read the reflection of today's reading, the message that struck me was:

"Our God is a God of surprises!"

I guess these two messages set the "stage" of how I am dealing everything what's on my plate now.

I remember mentioning in my previous blog entry that one of our major goals this year is to buy our first home, LATE this year.

I don't know what happened but one thing led to another and we suddenly found ourselves being led to buying our own home, NOW.

It's a big decision alright!

Hubby and I were just reading articles that will keep us informed and knowledgeable of the processes but in two weeks' time so much has happened!

We really haven't bought the house but we are finding ourselves doing baby steps.

We've studied our finances, asked advice, watched and looked at the market for the last two weeks (in two weeks there was so much movement in the market), visited possible sites, compared buying old and new houses,  talked with builders, studied the buying process, registered to new home and land releases and prayed like we've never prayed before! We're not praying that He grants our wishes but we're praying for guidance as this is really a very big investment. To make the long story short, we're new to this and we don't want to make any mistakes so we're carefully doing one step at a time.

Nakakakaba talaga. 

With this new investment comes a whole new set of sacrifices.

If you have been following my blog, you know that there is a deep desire for me to travel locally and globally because I felt I have deprived myself of that when I was younger. I really wanted to go to the US April of this year because I know that once we take the big plunge of buying our own home, travelling will be the first one to be sacrificed. And yes, my worst dreams came true!

Hubby and I had an initial study of our finances and it will be very difficult for us to squeeze in traveling for the family (to give you an idea how much new homes now cost in our area, it ranges from $500,000 and above). Unless I work full time and get the full annual pay of teachers on my level, then talagang maluwag kami, maraming sobra. But I still decided to work as a casual mainly because of the kids. At the end of the day, it will be a choice between spending time with my kids and taking care of my family well over the extra money and owning our own home with much ease.

Knowing me, I should be all grumpy and already super sad because of the would-be scenario. All traveling plans for the year and the next few years, scrapped. But I'm unusually okay. I'm not crying, I'm not grumpy, I'm not mad. I guess I was ready for it. I have long faced the music and so when we found ourselves already in that situation, I was ready emotionally.

I am thankful I'm taking all these things positively. I am also inspired by my kids as they are also cooperative and making their own little sacrifices in helping achieve our goal of saving up for our own home. When we go out and they see something they like, we just tell them NO and remind them of our future plan, and they are okay with it. No more crying and whining, especially for Sam. Everyone is focused on the big project!

I am actually not giving up. In my heart I know that all will fall into place. That there will be a time for all those traveling plans to happen. It might be a difficult start for us, but I'm keeping the faith that it will be easier in a few year's time -- the time when the kids are much bigger and I can go back to work full-time.

The search is on and our hearts are in place ;-)

Friendships in the Future

Admittedly, one of the reasons why migrating became difficult at the beginning was because of the simple fact that we left a lot of established friendships back home.

I found myself getting homesick especially during the times I wanted to rant, ask advice or share joyful stories to my friends. I missed laughing my heart out tears came out from my eyes.

It took me sometime to realise that I needed to move on. I found myself guarding and protecting my old friendships in favor of the newer ones. I have been here for almost five years and in that span of time I have been actually weighing down those people I have met and was checking which among those newly formed friendships I can nurture and keep. Sadly some "bad" points always come up. I'm not saying I'm perfect but I wanted to cultivate friendships that will bring out the best in me, influence me to become positive and inspire me. People who can teach me. People who can share and not just take every time. People who can help us raise our kids. People who can support us and see us as is, no competitions. Actually, the last one is the biggest turn off for me. Being migrants you can't help but sense if one is trying to compete of what you have and what your family can get especially during the sharing of stories. Ayaw papatalo. People who only know you when they have a dilemma or when they need something (yes I know friends should be people whom you can always count on, pero nakakainis when you see them with their other friends pag happy sila or my celebrations sila, pero nada sa iyo unless they are asking for a favor).

Last Christmas, I found myself slowly forming the very short list. It actually included cleaning my FB list too. I removed from my FB friends those people who only radiate negative energy. Those people I can actually say, "walang akong paki at walang paki sa akin/amin."  Those people who think they are the best, the grammar geniuses (just because they are well-read and are English teachers! yun na! lol)

Seeing a lot of reunion pictures being posted in FB actually inspired me to start acting now. Most of my co-migrants have already started forming friendships and my fear is that by the time I'm ready, I might end up not having any. I am particularly happy to see these group of friends based here, they have long known each other for 10+ years. I guess they have seen each other's family grow and the kids too. In that span of 10+ years you can see that they have established their yearly traditions. Every year, especially during the Christmas season, one family hosts the gathering. Umiikot sila ng bahay which I think is good. This year they had themed parties during their birthdays. Everyone was in even the dads! No killjoys! I can't really say I'm ready for costumes, and so is Papa A, but the camaraderie and joy radiates from the smiles on their faces.

This year started with me and Alvin getting invited to one of our good friends' home here in Sydney and it felt good! It was so relaxing and the stories just kept coming up. We actually felt we needed to do that more often.

I actually am not comfortable in big groups. I may be super talkative, but believe it or not when it's a big group and I really don't know personally each one of them (ex. fb friends lang kami) I have the tendency to be quiet. I am not comfortable sharing my stories with them. I will be super talkative if it's an intimate gathering of friends. For this big reason alone, I plan and I'm praying that this year, I will be successful in cultivating the "small" friendships I have now on my very short list and hopefully in years' time, I will be a much happier and a more positive person because of them.

P.S. Me cultivating and nurturing these newly formed friendships doesn't really mean I'm letting go of the ones I have back home. I guess you understand when I say it's been too long already and I need to move on. I'm sure they have. But we know deep in our hearts that the friendship is there and we have each other's back. I guess this is all part of growing up :-)

Family Traditions

I am inspired to write more family-themed blog entries because a few days ago I got a text message from a friend and told me how she enjoys reading my entries, "so much thought and depth put into each post/blog."

I was actually surprised because I didn't know she was taking the time to read my blog entries! She is one very busy mum! It was a humbling experience. Admittedly, there was a time in my blogging life when I felt I lost focus. Instead of focusing on what really pushed me to have a blog in the first place, my entries focused on some of the not-so-important ones :-) The shallow ones. I'm happy I survived that stage and I'm back on track.

Now to my real entry -- family traditions. Over Christmas break, I chanced upon an article that tells parents that the best time to start introducing family traditions are when the children are still young. It posed a question at the end of the article asking the reader what family traditions do you want to impart to your kids? It made me think and reflect.

Ano nga ba ang mga tradisyon na gusto kong kalakihan ng mga anak ko?

The following are a result of my quite moments:

Christmas

- Christmas eve mass is non-negotiable

- Christmas eve and Christmas day family should  be complete

- Christmas eve dinner, family should be complete
- Mass for the Feast of the Holy Family, the family should be complete

New Year

- bless the home, every nook and corner with Holy Water at the stroke of midnight (this was passed on by my own Mum)

- always start the year right by attending the Jan 1 mass as a family
- reading of "Thank you Jar" notes for the previous year as we have our Thanksgiving prayer during New Year's Eve

Birthdays

- family should be complete in the celebration

- celebrant should always have Mass in thanksgiving for another year

- birthday cake
- birthday photo and hand print for every year

Easter/Holy Week

- annual family trip

- Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday are non-negotiable. Family has to be complete to attend church services regardless where we are

I don't know how to group these, but:

- always bless from the elderly and priests

- use "po" and "opo" when addressing the elderly kababayans here

- praying the rosary as a family everyday (I'm proud and happy that Liam is now okay with praying the rosary and Sam now knows Our Father)

- morning prayers as a family

- going to church on Sundays is non-negotiable

- teaching of "Angel of God" to kids as their first prayer
- grace before meals
- praying over before major trips, major events (like job interviews, exams) or when someone is sick
- there should only be ONE TV at home! no TV inside bedrooms

I realized most of the things I listed above are practices of the faith. I agree with our parish priest when he said that the parents are instrumental in letting the future generation understand and do the practices of the faith so I guess you can't really blame me :-)

I might have missed some so I'll be updating this list from time to time.

Aside from the religious family traditions, we want to have:

- regular mum-son, dad-daughter, mum-daughter, dad-son bonding and dates
- family portraits every year
- one major family outreach to the less fortunate

I'm also compiling a group of projects, which I hope I get to do while the kids are growing up. I'm not expecting them to do the same, but if they continue with the practice, then I guess these projects will now be a part of family tradition :-)
Here are some of the projects I want to do:
- school portfolio of their best works in school with their school photo
- balloon birthday photo (kids holding balloons, the number of balloons depend on their age)
- hand print key chain every birthday
- letters every year they will open when they grow up

I actually have a long list of projects, I'll be making a separate blog as soon as I start doing them. But for now, I'll be doing baby steps.

To date, we have started doing most of the religious family traditions. Hopefully when both kids are much older we can fully explain to them why we are doing such practices. For now, we are happy that they are being exposed to such practices.

As for my personal projects, I have started doing the letters and I'm happy that I have been consistent with it for the last two years! :-)

I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that we will be able to establish all of these family traditions.

What about you, what family traditions do you want to impart to your kids?

2014 Goals

Happy new year!

I really can't believe that Christmas break came too quickly!

Alvin is back to the daily grind so I am left with the kids until Kuya Liam goes back to school on 29 January :-)

It has been a habit that during my quiet moments, I find myself reflecting, thinking and praying for my goals for the coming year.

I started with this list late last year and I can only hope and pray that I will be able to achieve all these goals and projects for 2014.


For 2014, I plan to become more active in helping and in taking care of our environment. After all the natural calamities we had last year, I think it's about time we seriously think about our environment and the ways how we can protect it especially for our kids. As they say every little thing counts! So here is my share. I:
-will bring my reusable eco bags when I go shopping or when I do the grocery
- will be making compost pits at home
- will refrain from using plastic plates spoon etc if there is an affair at home

For 2014, I plan to better take care of my health. I am learning through the sad experiences of relatives who faced major health issues towards the end of 2013.
For 2014, I:
- will bike at least 10 minutes a day (stationary bike at home)
- will continue with apple cider vinegar therapy to start my day
- will continue with lemon water
- will have vegetable salad as starters before having the mains
- will (try) to lessen use of internet, trying to avoid carpal tunnel syndrome

For 2014, I will be wiser in handling our finances. I/we:
- will lessen buying stuff with brands
- will lessen buying and giving kids what they like in a whim
- will lessen my habit of impulse buying
- will continue training the kids how to handle their money wisely
- will start sponsoring a Filipino scholar thru Ancop
- will continue helping our chosen NGOs as a means of sharing our blessings

This year, we are praying that all shall fall into place and:

- I can finally submit and get my Professional Competence accreditation  from NSWIT early this year
- travel as a family (again, interstate or out of the country)
- buy our first home (late this year)

I am actually toying with the idea of going back to school by taking an online course. I feel that my brain needs it :-) Hubby is actually okay with it so we'll see :-)

These are the only things I have considered and reflected to do in 2014. I know there will be a lot of other things that can happen which are unplanned. I am actually not worried for whatever unplanned things that might happen, I am very sure, God is in control. So bring it on 2014!