Have you been to Refresher's Gourmet in Silang, Cavite? It's a nice and cozy place, with the right ambiance if you want a break from a long travel.

Although we've been to Tagaytay a lot of times already, it was the first time that we dropped by this place last February. We were with our friends in our church community and we attended a retreat in Tagaytay. We also had our family day and when it was time to go home, the kids who really had a grand time, were all having tantrums because they didn't want to go home yet. So, what did we do? We decided to stop by Refresher's Gourmet to have some coffee and also to extend a little bit the bonding time of the kids, and of course, the adults also!

The staff and crew of Refresher's Gourmet were very accomodating and they didn't mind that we stayed there for almost two hours. It also helped that they had a mini-playground at the back where the kids spent most of their time.



They also had a free taste of the different dips that they sell. But I guess we took advantage of it too much that there was no more left for their other guests! We were even waiting for them to refill it, but I think since it was almost closing time, they had no intention of doing that anymore, and besides, I guess they knew that we will just again eat everything --- without buying even just one bottle of their dip!


For those who love to brew their own coffee, they offer different kinds of coffee beans for sale. Too bad, I can't have coffee due to my heart problem, so I just satisfied myself with inhaling the aroma of the newly-brewed coffee.



They also have well-stocked shelves and for sure, you would want to extend your experience by bringing home some of their goodies for sale.



So, next time you go to Tagaytay, take a break and spend some time in Refresher's Gourmet!

Again, in my quest for living frugally, I have to be more creative in coming up with ideas that could save me a few hundreds of my hard-earned money.

Aside from the homemade hair conditioner that could really help our monthly grocery budget, there are also the all-natural skin care products that you can whip up right from your kitchen. Aside from being easy on the pocket, these products are void of the chemical ingredients that come in every package of the commercially available products. These will just take time to prepare unlike the ready-to-use products that we buy from the supermarket. But, I'm sure it will be worth it. So, why not check out your kitchen right now and try some of the recipes here, and let me know what happened.

Life may not be easy, but we still need to dream. We should not lose the faith that everything is given to us for a reason. God will never forsake us no matter what. I have seen this happen in my family, and really, although we have encountered so many trials, He has never forsaken us.

I have stood my ground and lived my faith by remembering that all these things are temporary. In God's time, everything will heal itself, everything will be alright. Most of all...

- i live in awe of the beauty of the things around me, the nature, the people.
- i hold precious in my heart my family and friends.
- i love the work that I do each day, whether it be in the office, at home, or in our church community.

I think the most important thing that we should remember is, when facing life, we should all be spontaneous --- with the inquisitiveness of a child --- and let those positive inner thoughts be a beacon to inspire others.

We have all been born in this world for a special reason. As we proceed through the years, it is like unraveling a mystery story to discover who we really are.

Each of us is the author of our unique mission here on earth.

Don't forget to dream!

With the ever-increasing cost of our everyday needs, we should start finding ways on how to save money. Little adjustments on little things around the house will have a very big impact in the long run on our household budget. One item which puts quite a dent in my budget is the hair conditioner that I buy every month. It doesn't help that my youngest daughter has a very long hair --- and she has no plans of having it cut in the very near future! Her hair requires a lot of conditioner otherwise I will have an endless battle with her because it will be really difficult to comb her hair with all those tangles, and then I will remind her again that she should have her hair cut, and of course, she wouldn't agree, and it will go on and on.

A bottle of hair conditioner can cost a fortune, so why not try homemade hair conditioners? These will help a bit, and may make our hair look even better, although they may not also be easy on the pocket because mayonnaise are also expensive. Another drawback is I doubt if my daughter will let me put vinegar on her hair!

But for us, mommies, we can give this a try and please let mo know what happened at your end.

Last Saturday, we went to the CCP in Roxas Boulevard to watch the Aliwan Fiesta 2009. We had this planned since last week, but when Saturday came, we were hesitant because of the rains. But we decided to go anyway, when the sky cleared in the afternoon. It was fun and we enjoyed watching the parade, the colorful floats, the elaborate outfits and costumes of the participants, and of course, I had fun taking photos. There was even a photography contest so there were lots of photographers who wanted to grab the chance of winning P50,000 --- the first prize for best photo.

The parade was scheduled to start at around 4:00pm, and it has already started when we arrived. Although it wasn't raining, the sky was not so clear and we knew that anytime soon, heavy rains will pour down on us, and true enough, at around 6:30pm, we had no choice but to run and take shelter in the nearby restaurant. We admired the participants because although the rain was really heavy, they didn't mind it at all and they just continued with their performance.

It was an adventure of sort for us, especially for the kids. Since we were worried that the rains will get heavier, and we will get stuck longer, we decided to brave the rains. Our car was parked two blocks away and we only had one umbrella, so we had no choice but to squeeze under one umbrella, except my husband who went ahead to get to the parking lot, with only a handkerchief as cover. I told the kids to just have fun, and that they had to experience this once in a while, and yes, they really had fun!

I attended a Basic Photography Workshop last 28-29 March 2009 arranged by our Camera Club in the office, and since it was subsidized, the fee was very minimal, Php500.00 only for 1.5 days. It was a good deal already, so I grabbed the opportunity.

The workshop was conducted by Mr. Nathaniel Salang. He was good and he was able to cover a lot of topics in just one day. The 2nd day was photo shoot and we were given a chance to take photos of anything around our office building; one of the criteria was to apply what we have learned from his lectures. We were asked to submit one photo and then he asked the group to make some comments and suggestions on how to improve the photos; and of course, he also made his own comments on the photos that we submitted.

This was the photo that I submitted. One of the most important thing that he told us was we should avoid a distracting element in the composition of our photos. For this photo that I submitted, he said that the distracting element was the wall on the left side; he said I should have moved a little bit forward so that it wasn't captured in the frame.

While I was taking a photo of this spiral staircase, Nathaniel also happened to be there, and he said that the distracting element here was the signage which was positioned right in the middle of the winding stairs below. So, when one of the attendees submitted a photo of this spiral staircase, that's what Nathaniel said. He said the photographer should have taken the time to go down the stairs and put the signage away from the camera frame before going up again and take the shot.

This was taken below the staircase. It was a hit and miss shot because I would have to lie down on the floor if I wanted to frame the shot correctly.

Can you see the chairs here? One of the attendees took a close-up shot of the seat and it turned out really good. When he showed it to me and he asked me to guess where he took the shot, I couldn't tell. His photo almost won him a prize.

I love this shot and should have submitted this. It was a plant in the courtyard which looked like a flower taken from this angle.

Nathaniel's comment was, our office building has lots of opportunities for photo shoot using the different creative techniques that he showed us especially the Lines, as shown in this photo.

I really enjoyed this workshop, and I'm looking forward to the Advanced Photography Class later this year. Finally, my camera is not so alien to me anymore!

Due to time and budget constraints, I haven't had the opportunity to fix my home lately. I just feast my eyes on contemporary furniture that I see online. Although I'm not sure if I'm ready for black furniture, I think they look great and very elegant. Browsing the internet for ideas really help, and what I do is, I just compile everything, print some and put in a binder for easy reference.

Six months ago, my dining table which was made of glass and was already 16 years old, was accidentally broken by my son. Fortunately, he didn't get hurt when the glass suddenly collapsed. I still remember the worry on his face when it happened, and since I was in the office, he didn't know how to break the news to me because he was scared that I will get mad. When he finally had the guts to tell me, my initial concern was whether he got hurt. And when he said no, my next reaction was, I was sad, because it was one of the first purchases that my husband and I made when we first got married. We immediately bought a new one, but I think it was a substandard type of glass because after only about 2 months, the glass broke again. So, when we looked for a new replacement, we made sure to thoroughly check the glass that we bought, and so far, I think we're lucky, because there is still no sign of crack.

Lesson learned: We really should be careful in choosing our glass furnitures, especially if there are kids in the house. Next time, I will make it a point to browse the internet first for ideas on how to choose the right kind of glass furnitures.

My kids just love our African Lovebirds. We even hand-fed them when they were little, and the kids enjoyed doing this. It's very refreshing to hear their sounds in the morning, it's like we're very close to nature, and it makes us all feel good. We still have several birds but we only have one remaining hand-fed bird which is really very intelligent. Whenever we call his name, he will stop whatever he's doing, and will go near the door of his cage, and will wait for us to put our finger inside.

We have had several African Lovebirds already, but one accidentally flew out of its cage while we were putting bird seeds inside. We were all very sad, and we even waited outside for a long time hoping that she will come back. But nothing compared to what the kids felt when our very first African Lovebird died. They were inconsolable and they even provided a box with which to bury it. But they soon recovered and were again ready to take care of another bird.

Every morning, our birds' singing are music to our ears. And putting bird baths even encouraged other birds to go near them. There was even an instance in which we were able to capture an African Lovebird because it kept on visiting our birds and taking a dip in the bird baths that we have put outside.

We had Visita Iglesia last Maundy Thursday. The last time we did this was three years ago, and we didn't even have the prayer booklet with us which we didn't know we were supposed to read for every station of the cross inside the churches. What we did then was to just pray inside every church that we visited. This time, we bought the booklet, although we weren't able to go to seven churches --- the intention was to pray at two stations for each church, but we only got to visit five.

Our first stop was the Manila Cathedral. There were lots of people that we had to line up just to go inside. There were also plenty of tourists who wanted to experience Holy Week traditions in the Philippines. And of course, there were also lots of Filipino entrepreneurs who took advantage of the large number of people in the streets with their food stalls, assorted accessories, and a lot more.

Our next stop was the San Agustin Church. The stations of the cross were set up outside so the church was not so crowded.

The third church that we visited was the St. Vincent de Paul Parish. Our Visita Iglesia wouldn't be complete without visiting this church because this is where we got married 17 years ago, and where our three children were baptized.

Next on the list would have been the Paco Church but it was closed. Strange for a church to be closed during Holy Week. So, we moved on to the next one on the list, the Ermita Church. Actually, this was the first time that I heard of this Church. We weren't able to go inside because there was an ongoing mass and the church was small and too crowded.

Last stop was the Malate Church. We were supposed to visit two more churches, but it was already getting late and we were starving. We didn't want to eat in the nearby restaurants --- although my son was already eyeing one --- so we decided to make this our last stop, and then we went home.



It was a different kind of experience, and we plan to do it again next year, and hopefully we will be able to visit seven churches.

My son graduated from High School last March 27.

He's now on to new challenges in his life.

At this moment, he hasn't decided yet which school he wants for college --- although he really wants UST, but his Dad and I have told him the advantages and the disadvantages of going to UST, and for us, the major factor would be its distance from our place.

But, although we haven't decided yet on the school, at least he's sure about the course he wants to take --- it's Human Biology, because he really wants to be a doctor. Oh well, we really wanted him to take MedTech as a pre-med course, and that's that course that we put in most of his applications, but he changed his mind. He now wants Biology, and we didn't want to impose on him of course. Whatever he wants, we're just here to support him.

Congratulations, Earvin!

Update: He has finally decided that he wants to take MedTech as his pre-med course.