All About Clothes!

I spent my me-time today unpacking while ironing our clothes. How cool is that? :) I took the chance to hopefully finish fixing our stuff while the kids had their afternoon nap :)

Well, I am still not done unpacking. Nope, we didn't bring home tons of things from our short stay in Manila. Unpacking, on my terms is: sorting, fixing and putting of new clothes to their proper places. This means I had to make room for the newer clothes, remove the old ones and hand them down to the newest bubs in town :)

While doing all of these and ironing our clothes, I realized: my kids just have so MUCH clothes already! I mean at ages 3 and 1, they already have their own cabinets plus 1 tallboy which they share. They even have enough supply of clothes until they turn 6 (for Liam) and 3 (for Sam), for all seasons, at that! But wait, we didn't buy all of it, okay? Most of it, yes. But there is a handful of hand-me-downs and gifts as well :) There is just too much clothes! I can choose not to buy them new clothes in the next 2-3 years! I am running out of cabinets! Getting a new one is not part of my solution.

And boy are they lucky! I remember that I had my first pair of jeans when I was already in high school and it was a hand-me-down. The first pair of jeans that I really owned was California Paddocks which I earned after landing at the Top 3 of my class. And my kids? Well, almost all their clothes are branded already. Guess, Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, Oshkosh, Old Navy, and even Lascoste! I had my first Lacoste polo shirt when I was already working! Yeah, no one to blame but me :( At this age they are not aware of the value of the clothes they are wearing, we are not actually telling them, because they might ask for it all the time and we won't be able to sustain it hehehehe. And realizing that Liam will only get to wear these only on occasions and weekends once he starts going to the big school (because he has to wear a uniform, right?), is nakakapanghinayang.

So this weird idea came into my mind while I was ironing our clothes. The next time I am tempted to buy them new clothes I would still get the money but I'd put the money some place else. We plan to open an account for the two of them by next week and so that is one place where I can put the money OR I can put it on our travel fund, so it will be easier for the family's plan to travel to materialize ;) OR we can use the money to help out others :)

So there, this is my newest project and hopefully hubby will be happy with it :)

eyes on the "ball"

a month ago alvin asked me if we had some projects in line. you know, stuff to buy, things to do, and the like. when he asked me that time i can't think of any answer, so i just told him there was none that i can think of.

yesterday, it just hit me. since this projects of mine -- clear the pantry and ref -- is admittedly helping us save more, i decided to tell him this project last night :) i have 2 years to save on it. no, it's not our first home, it's something else ;) when i told him about it last night, i think he was ok with it, but of course he had to tell me, "kayang kaya natin yan if you work" hehehe

well, i just realized that if i have this big project in mind, maybe it can keep me away from the shops, and spending money on things we already have. i keep on complaining about all the clothes and clutter we have at home, and yet, i still keep on buying, so what's the use, right? so now, i am dead set on saving for the big project. will not buy new clothes, not eat out too much, not look and visit sites that will only make me spend, not go to the shops often. aja!

when i was a kid, when i wanted to buy something and my parents cannot (and will not) give me the funds to buy it, i really did all possible means to save for it, so i can buy it. i guess, this time, i will have to do it all over again :)

so from today, up until 2013, my eyes will be on the "ball"! :) so help me God :)

snippets

finally! after a day of trying to log in and write a blog, blogger.com is now again functioning normally! :)


winter will officially begin by 1st of June but the past few days we have already been having a taste of winter! well, born to a tropical country, most Filipinos, including me, fret when it's winter. they or we see so many bad things associated with this season. but yesterday, instead of entertaining reasons why I don't like winter, I thought of reasons why I love winter. it's still a very short list but hey, it's a start :) this season will not leave me for the next 3 or 4 months so why not make it a pleasant one?

-- i love winter because the grass in our lawn slows down its growth process, which in turn makes my mowing duty not every two weeks but after a month or longer! yipee! :) less stress and less in electricity use as well :)

-- i love winter because i have more reason to snuggle up in bed with my hubby and kids at night and in the mornings. extended when it's the weekends :)

-- i love winter because i have another reason to go shopping hehehe just like what we did yesterday! Liam, Sam and myself headed off to the shops yesterday and bought winter clothes and home accessories

-- I love winter because our leftover foods' shelf life are extended as well :)

more next time ;)

I had my first session/class for Term 2 last Thursday. I can't believe that I'm just two more terms away from finishing my Certificate course! yipee! To think that I almost dropped it last year, at the height of my 1st tri discomforts. Good thing Alvin persuaded me to still try all possible means before quitting. He's really my angel! :) I am actually done with all my term papers for this term ;) I am just waiting for our sessions to submit them. I need to do things in advance because I will go home before my graduation in early December :)

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A few weeks ago Liam told me I'm so fat and even asked if I had another baby in my tummy! LOL! Well, who wouldn't get fat? We went to the market this morning and when I was already fixing the things we bought, our ref ended up almost full! I told Alvin that probably, next week, we can skip going to the market and try to finish everything inside it first, just like my empty-the-pantry project. Aside from saving money, we also get to avoid food wastage (the left overs that got spoiled already because neither of us wants to eat it already!)

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Because of MKR and Master Chef Liam's interest in cooking has tripled! Sometimes I catch him pretending to cook, describing what he is doing like the hosts of the cooking shows, using his fireman hat as a bowl and our toiletries as his ingredients. It's a funny and a beautiful sight! :) He watches a LOT of youtube videos on cake decorating -- especially the Fire Engine Cake. He is even requesting me to make one for his birthday! He is definitely interested in cooking, no doubt about that! I asked him if he wanted to be a chef and he said he wanted to be a Fireman Chef! So cute! Well, whatever he decides to be in the future, I will just support him. But as for now, I will foster his interest in cooking :)

This afternoon I made a very simple fruit salad. Seeing me busy in the kitchen he turned off the TV and asked if he can help me. Of course I said yes! While making the salad, I was also teaching/giving him some tips in cooking like: always first wash your hands before you handle food; you taste what you created; and telling him the names of the ingredients we were using, even the equipment. Today he learned what a spatula is. As for his participation in the making of our fruit salad, I asked him to put fresh seedless grapes in the bowl :) I asked him to make sure that the small branches will not be included, it was such a joy to see him double-checking each grape that he is putting in the bowl :) OC.

I am sure this is just one of the many times we will be cooking together :) When he gets a bit older I will be willing to give him more responsbilities :) Who knows, he might really be a Fireman Chef someday! ;)

Saving for the Rainy Days

I don't know what is wrong with me but for the past few days something inside me tells me to save and not spend on things that I really don't need.

I came across a book on Abundance a couple of weeks ago. It says there that abundance is not how much you have but appreciating how much you have. I couldn't agree more. I have shared in some of my blog entries before that sometimes I find myself getting scared already because I catch myself buying and buying some more. May it be food, clothes, books, toys for my children. Name it. It's just that there is this urge inside me that just wants to spend! I shared that I felt scared because I knew it wasn't me anymore. And the fact that I was able to buy those things and still have somethin in our pockets. Simply stated, I felt rich. (Rich as compared to what we had before, that will be another blog entry ;))

So when I came across that book, I felt relieved. Probably that is the reason I felt "rich". I felt "rich" because I got to appreciate everything that I have now, I felt we had plenty, and I am very thankful. I know that we are not really rich as compared to the billionaires and millionaires we see around us, nor are we as rich as some of our friends, but I feel rich because I believe that God has granted us much, what we need and sometimes, what we want, and I appreciate all of it.

Now back to saving. I wouldn't want to abuse this feeling "rich" because I know that it is also good to save up for the rainy days. Last week, I came across this feature that gave saving tips for households/families in Aus--cost of living contiue to rise!. One tip was to look and clean up your pantry. I guess it was doable that is why I am doing it. I have this habit of having a plus1 of everything we have at home. Let us say that if I have opened a new bottle of oyster sauce, the next time I am at the shops I will aready buy a new one to be stocked in our pantry, even if I haven't even used up all the oyster sauce I just opened. The reason? I don't want to find myself rushing to the shops if ever I already needed one. Semi-hoarding? hehehe. So the ending? I have a lot of food and cooking ingredients waiting to be opened. The funny thing is, sometimes, it takes more than 3 or 4 months before the old one runs out and I get to finally open the plus1 stock. Or worse, some of them just wait for the expiration date in the pantry and end up in the bin once I find out it has expired already! Such a waste right?

So now, I am dead set to clean up my pantry and save us well. I told this project to hubby and he is supportive of this. I told him we have to eat everything in the pantry first before I buy new ones, which includes chips and his "pulutans." One beauty that I see in this? Not only am I saving but I also get to buy only the food that I really want to eat.

I made a little progress last Friday as I didn't add anything new to the pantry saving us dollars already from our weekly budget :)

yipee! :)