A Mother’s Greatest Tool

Great Britain is honouring the mothers today. Back home in the Philippines, we celebrate Mother’s Day in May, not March. Here, they simply do things differently from everything that we are used to, so we go with the flow. At least, in the case of Mother’s Day, we get to celebrate it twice each year.

We paid tribute to mothers in church today and we were prayed over.  As a mother, I am very thankful to be prayed for because God’s grace, wisdom and strength are what I need the most to fulfill my role as mom to my two boys. It’s not my college degree, not even my own natural talents that I can use to be the best mom. It is God’s blessing and anointing and enabling.

I know of a lot of mothers who took their role seriously and prayed for their children until well into their adulthood. Without the prayers of their mothers, great men like Abraham Lincoln or John and Charles Wesley , would not have achieved what they did in their lifetime. One can never underestimate the influence of a praying mother. It reaches into the very depths of her children’s minds and hearts – where they make the crucial decisions that determine how their lives will turn out. A mother’s prayers are with her children even in places where she cannot go with them. A mother’s prayers respect no boundaries, because they even reach the very ear of God.

So, let this be an encouragement to all mothers – pray for your children. If there is nothing left for you to do to show your love to them, you can still pray and pray some more for them. And yet, you can never pray too much for the children you have carried in your womb and nursed in your breast.

Lift up to God anything and everything about them – their protection, provisions, future, career choice, choice of a mate, favour of God and men upon them and whole lot more. Prayer is a mother’s greatest, most potent tool to rear up her children.

“An ounce of mother is worth a ton of clergy.”

Trip Snippets – Seeing the Fruits

As my hubby and I are working so hard here in the UK, we make sure that we hide a small portion of our income in the form of investments so that we can have something to show for all our efforts when we retire. We are paying a small lot in a small subdivision near a top destination in the Philippines.

Real estate, particularly lots or land in general, is one of the best investments as they rarely decrease in value. So, we opted for this form of investment.

It is our first time to see this property so we were quite excited to visit it. In the photo above, we are standing on the exact spot of our lot.

This particular subdivision is being marketed among Filipinos based abroad, so there are no houses built yet, save for one whose owner is a Filipina married to a British. They visit the Philippines once in a while.

Someday, when we are old and grey, we would want to have a house in this windy, quiet and beautiful spot where I can read and read and read my hours away. I want it to be ultra modern but homey and comfortable, with a large kitchen and a library. Well, God wiling, that is. Otherwise, the boys can have it as their inheritance.

Whatever happens, we are happy to be able to set aside something today for tomorrow, and that is teaching our kids loads about life, which I hope, they will also practice when they grow up.

Trip Snippets – Chickens, Anyone?

One of the most special things that ever happened to my boys when they were in the Philippines albeit, for so short a time, was to have an up-close-and-personal experience with their grandmother’s free-range chickens. Well, our little boy had a first-time encounter with a big beetle, too, but that was nothing compared to feeding grandmother’s chickens twice daily.

the boys with their beetle

 Well, my little boy is a naturalist and very much into animals, that’s why I am writing about this wonderful experience (well, at least for him).

Early in the morning, he would get up in time to join my mother in feeding the chickens, which he himself will call with that sound chickens understand – krrrrrrrrrr!.

In less than two seconds after the first call, roosters and hens and chicks would come running from all directions for their early morning or late afternoon corn meal. In between, they scour the whole two-hectare land for seeds, worms or insects. That’s why these free-range chickens are much more healthier to eat than the cage-grown ones. But then, being a vegetarian, I am not having any free-range or cage-grown chicken. I’ll leave that to cornivores like my boys.

Anyway, back to the chickens, Elijah would feed the chickens again later in the day, when he does it on his own or with his brother.

the corn meal bucket

 Jonathan also enjoyed, even though he is not that small anymore. But then again, it’s not everyday for them to feed chickens from their own hands.

jonathan enjoyed the whole experience, too

Amazing!

We’ve been together for 14 years of uninterrupted happiness. I guess I am truly blessed, because this joy in my heart while married to this man never left or faded, never caused me to doubt for one single moment that I did the right thing when I committed to him. Perhaps, it is because we have made the Lord the very foundation of our partnership.

Today, we mark another year in our journey together. Fourteen years and two beautiful kids later, we still call each other “Babes” and still say “I love you” to each other many, many times in a day – every single day! Amazing! But then, if it is God’s doing, why should it not be amazing?

Happy Anniversary to my loving hubby!

Love of the Highest Kind

This fickle world of ours is all set to be lovey-dovey tomorrow, St. Valentine’s Day. Sadly, most of us are of the persuasion that we can only show our love on this one, single day of the year. We just don’t realize that love is not something that goes on for one day of the year and off for the most part of it, for love, in its truest essence, always persists no matter what.

Spread this kind of love, my friends – the kind that is not based on feelings but commitment, the kind that does not only cover romantic love but also all sorts of human-to-human relationships. Parents, siblings, friends should all be recipients of this love, not just our boyfriend, girlfriend or spouse. Most of all, include God in your objects of love and affection for He deserves it as well.

God is love, we often quote and surely so. If He is love, then He must be the only One Who can show it to us in its best form, and the only One Who deserves it from us, too.

I say this in response to this verse:

“For God so LOVED  the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting live.”

John 3:16

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! May you all experience the highest kind of love.

Trip Snippets – Speaking of Hair

While we are in the topic, let me also share that it was not just me who had a date with the beautician, or in their case, the barber. One of the things my boys did was also to get new haircuts.

my brown Adonis before his haircut

This is Jonathan at the airport on our way to Tuguegarao City.

my other long-haired boy

My hubby thought he was a tourist, so he even had his photo taken right after deplaning in Tuguegarao City.

Elijah at the Incheon Airport

And of course, my baby had longer than normal hair as well.

This is how they looked like just two days after we arrived in the Philippines:

the lookalikes

Elijah having a bad day

Before

 

After, with my wonderful Mama

Trip Snippets – Dyeing

For the first time in my entire four decades of existence, I succumbed to an unseen, intangible, inexplicable  but nevertheless real pressure to colour or dye my hair. I succumbed because being a weak, ordinary mortal, I have no strength to turn back the hands of time. Seeing my used-to-be-thick,-black-&-shiny mane turn into grey ruins my self-esteem on a daily basis.

It was not a compulsive move, though. It was a calculated and deliberate act to give myself a new lease on self-confidence – something that is slipping away from me as fast as a person going down a water slide. Well, I am referring only to my self-confidence with regard to my looks. Inside, I still believe I am the same person, albeit older, wrinkler and greyer (where are all these terminologies coming from?).

Besides, hair colouring is affordable back home. So, it was inevitable that I would do it.

me at the hair salon

Oh, and yes, I cut my hair real short, too. Dyeing my long hair would have been more expensive, hehehe! The colour is hardly noticeable because I went for the most subtle brown.

You will not understand why I bother to write about this seemingly simple and common practice of dyeing one’s hair unless you know that I have, er had, an unspoken vow (yes, I never said it or intimated it to anyone, but I felt very strongly against it, nevertheless) to never ever colour my hair and be in denial of my own true age. It was too late when I learned that I got the genes of my paternal grandmother who started having grey hair when she was only in her thirties. In fact, we used to call her Snow White because by the time she was 60+ there was not a single strand of black hair on her head anymore.

So, anyway, there you go, I succumbed at last. I went on to completely humiliate myself by accepting defeat. Now, I am happily in denial of my true age.

I’m Back!

I am ecstatic, delirious, happy, glad, joyful, excited, exuberant, cheerful… and all those superlatives to describe a wonderful feeling. Actually, I feel like I have won the lottery, simply because I have my website back – yehey! I’d like to thank Gem of Lady Programmer and Jessie of  What Have You for their patience and tolerance of my constant cries for help. Thanks, guys! You are angels in cyberspace, really.

So, now, before anything else, let me greet everyone a Happy New Year (don’t tell me I’m late because I mean the Chinese New Year – lol!)! And yes, Happy Valentine’s  to all of you as well!

We had a great time in the Philippines for almost four weeks last month. It was a most fulfilling adventure for our whole family. I have a lot to write about that trip but that will be for later. This post is just some sort of an intro into 2010. Before I end, I can’t resist posting this cheeky photo of my hubby secretly smiling at the camera while standing as a sponsor in a child dedication. Clearly for this guy, there is no such thing as candid camera – he’s always ever-ready and alert to pose for a photo.

Happy Weekend!

It was a hectic week for me. I just got home from work as I write this. Over and above work, there are the usual Christmas concerns and church work as well. I am not complaining. In fact, I am listing all these reasons of my busy-ness, in order for me to be more thankful for the weekend.

Having my boys around and having a few precious hours with them in the house makes winter days more bearable for me. We don’t need to do anything special – just hang out and chill. Food, of course, is a given for such times and I can’t wait to get into my weekend cooking.

Simple life, simple joys, simple needs. But then, happiness does not need to come from complicated things, does it?

Happy weekend, everyone!

CHRISTmas

It’s December. When I hear this word, my mind starts to clog up with all sorts of thoughts, memories and ideas. My brain goes into high gear sorting out the crazy schedule of the family for the coming days and figuring out how to manage buying, wrapping and distributing the presents we want to give to those very important people we usually give to – and the new ones in our list. The fact that money has become more difficult does not help things for me.

 image: borrowed from Google images

But then, as I sip my coffee and stare at my flickering spiced apple -scented candle , I get reminded of the simple joys and the real meaning of this occassion. Time and again, I have resisted the urge to go with the materialistic and money-oriented Christmas culture both here and in the Philippines. While gift giving is indeed very important to me, I don’t want to be distracted from the true meaning of Christmas.

I hope this serves as a reminder to everyone, as well. It’s not worth moping over that we have less money to buy things, it’s enough that we are with our loved ones, isn’t it? For me and our family, though, Papang’s absence will make this Christmas and every Christmas henceforth a little bit less happy.

And the most important thing of all, is that we know what Christmas is all about – the giving of God’s only Son to us so that we can have hope of eternal glory with Him.

Anyway, I cannot put up my Christmas tree this year, for the simple reason that we have run out of space in our tiny flat. The addition of two guitars and an amplifier among our earthly possessions made our space problem all the worse (not that I am complaining, as we need these in church). We are practically suffocating due to congestion in here! But it’s ok, as long as there is room for the presents, hehehe! It breaks my heart, though, that I had to say “no” to Elijah, who was so keen on putting up the tree with all the decorations and trimmings (bless him).

This December, Jonathan, my oldest son, is also turning 13. Come 20th of December, I will be officially a parent to a teen-ager. I hope and pray that it will not get as worse as what is being portrayed; having a teen-ager, I mean. My son is a lovely young man who is smart and sensible. But then, I cannot discount the hormonal changes that may affect his moods. To God: “Lord God, just please give me the grace to come out of this alive and sane.” Do I hear someone saying ”Amen”?

So, anyway, to you, my dearest relatives and friends, may this Christmas be all the more meaningful as you ponder on the greatest gift God has ever given to us. Don’t feel so bad that you will not be as weary as the past years doing your Christmas shopping (with less money to spare these days), don’t even be disappointed if you don’t get the presents you were hoping to get. As long as you know why there is such a joyous thing as Christmas, then you will be fine.