I’ve been sick for the past week and after taking medicines, drinking lots of fluid, and eating fruits; I still am. I feel lightheaded every time I move which is why I’m writing this lying down on my son’s play area while I watch him play and watch his favorite show. Picturing myself in this condition but managing to watch out and take care for my son pushed me to write about the things that keeps me going and motivate me to be the best version of myself.

1.       My dear son, however sick I am or whatever I am feeling at the moment, his needs will always come first. He always push me to be an adult even if I couldn’t and don’t want to. He helped and reminded me always how easily we can be happy if we want to. 

2.       My supportive and diligent husband, he’s actually sick, too, probably he caught the sickness from me. But, that didn’t keep him from work which is truly inspiring. He also took care of me at times when my body totally fails me.

3.       Believe it or not, the stress of the long list of pending items has pushed me to report to work after a day’s leave. I managed to go to the office on Tuesday to Thursday, and finish some week’s deliverables. This may have not helped in my recovery but it sure did avoid me from a lot of stress.

4.       My dear readers, I have long wondered if there are any, but the trust of someone, sponsoring a post in my blog says something. This blog has been an outlet for me, for my passion and creativity, my thoughts and misadventures. Thank you for those who read through my post, I’d love to know you. Feel free to comment below.

5.       In relation to item #3, the bills that need payment would push anyone to work, however, condition they are in. It works for me, too. I guess that’s our survival instinct working for us. 

6.       My goals. My list is longer this year because of last year’s unachieved goals, so I need to take an extra effort and keep finding things and people that will motivate me. Share with me things that motivate you!

I hope in one way another, this list makes you want to keep going and to not stop on chasing your dreams and achieving your goals. However hard life gets, always find a reason to rise in the morning and live. Always decide to live and be happy!

Here's a photo of me from the time I consider myself as fit. Original post here.

 

Love

~A

 

Mommy A's Goals: First Month Review

Hey y'all! Hope all is well. How's the first month of the year for you? It was exhausting for me. Yes, EXHAUSTING. Haha. I know these months would be very demanding at work, but I didn’t anticipate how exhausting it would be now that I have my baby and our family to take care of. There’s no time to not be an adult. Oh, but I am not complaining with my life, I am very grateful for my family and for my work, however, stressful it may get.

I do hope your handling life more gracefully than me, though. As with all the demands of our work, I hope you still find time in achieving your individual personal goals and spending precious time with your family. I am happy to report that however, demanding my work was and is, I was able to start on some of this year’s goals.  

RECONNECT WITH FRIENDS

 

Finally, I get to be with someone of my age, my dear friends from college. Last Saturday, we had a surprise bridal shower party for our dear friend who will get married in a few days. We had a blast and so was the bride-to-be, I sort of lost my voice the next day. As much as I missed my son the whole time I was at the party, I really enjoyed just being with myself for that moment. Looking forward to my friend’s wedding and more reasons to get-together with my friends.

CREATE MORE MEMORIES WITH MY FAMILY

We’re still on our weekly routine which involves grocery shopping, attending the mass, dining out and strolling in the malls near our house. Because of our hectic schedule at work, I could not demand my husband to go to new places. These past weekends, what I look forward is the comfort of our routine. But we will surely plan something special after all this has pass.  Anyway, whatever we are doing, I'm so grateful that we are doing it as a family.

COOL AND PROTECTIVE MOM

I’m still a paranoid mom but little by little I am trying my best to be in control of my emotions so as not to limit my son’s exploration and learning. We try our best to let him have little bumps and fall so he’ll learn what to avoid the next time. He has a lot of interests these days but most of all he is enjoying on trying to stand up on his own and testing his balance by letting go on his support. My baby is growing up so fast! Aaaaggghhh! I am both delighted and frustrated with his growth. Delighted that he seems to be growing really smart and naughty; but, frustrated that I might not be able to have enough time to enjoy this moment with him. 

BLOG MORE CONSISTENTLY

I know I still haven’t managed to blog weekly as promised, but having three posts in a month feels like a really good improvement for me. I also have planned topics in the coming weeks so that’s another sign that I’m getting more committed in updating my life online. I do hope that you will still be interested in my thoughts and stories.

Here’s one of my major improvement, cutting my hair this short. I feel like I’m ready for anything! I know you do!

Hair by David's Salon

Better than Stress Balls

Last Thursday night, I had what I would probably called a near-to-death experience. I was walking on my way home from work, on top of my emotions. I tried my best to gather and fight my emotions as I didn’t want to get any attention to myself. But then instead of keeping myself together, I found myself gasping for breath, unable to open my mouth and was about to choke to death. I felt a tightening on the muscle of my throat, so I panic instantly.

I thought of stopping, so I can sit down and relax, but, again, that would attract some attention so I continued walking and, instead, filled my thoughts with my son and our family.  These thoughts helped me calm down and I managed to breathe deeply and little by little, my throat relaxes and the air finally went in. The breathing did not feel natural at instant but I’m not struggling anymore.

I was able to get to the grocery alive. I’ve got a few on my list for our dinner, but ended up getting more on my list. Filling up may cart gave me comfort and relief. This had proved what we all know that shopping will melt your stress away, in my case grocery shopping. It made me feel better, so I went home. 

There it was waiting for me, my favorite little human, my son. Eagerly approaching toward the door with the help of his walker and ready to give me a kiss and a hug. What a sweet boy! All the pain and heavy emotions finally melts away, and I was happy. I am happy, again. However bad my day was, it ended sweetly because of this little human who is filled with happiness and curiosity.

I am so grateful to the Lord for keeping me alive, for my son and our family. Whatever plans He has for me in this new life, I am ready to take action. 

The next day, I decided to visit a doctor just to be sure that nothing serious happened to me. The doctor interviewed me a little and did a regular physical checkup, And it was cleared! I am a healthy mama. The tightening of the muscle on my throat, i.e., laryngospasm is actually cause by the strong emotions I had that night. Stress and strong negative emotions can really make you sick. So, the doctor’s advice is to go shopping like four times on the consultation; and to focus on what’s important, and don’t give so much fuss about those things that are making me ugly.

Anyway, here’s a photo of my blissful son who is so fluffy and better than any stress balls!

Copyright belongs to me

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Love

~A

NEW YEAR'S GOALS

I planned on posting this on the first day of the year but couldn’t make it so my draft introduction does not apply anymore. As it always is, my first work week of the year has always been busy and this year it didn’t fail my expectations. 

By the way, my previous introduction is supposed to go like this: “My phone is on its own holiday vacation since yesterday. It is currently buried in a pile of rice grain to dry out the water that sips inside it. I don’t know how I feel about it because I honestly think that checking on my phone was becoming a habit. So maybe, it was really a sort of intervention from above that my phone got all wet, oh, I miss it badly.” It’s better now, all dry. Thank God, as I don’t still have a budget to replace it. With this, I got some spare time to somehow reflect on the past year. 

So here is an assessment of my last year’s goals, I tried really hard to be objective:

1.       To be a cool and protective mom. – I know there’s still a lot I need to learn, but as early as now, I’m practicing to be this kind of mom. I want him to figure out things on his own and only help him if he asks me to, which he already knows how. I can see that he is really a smart one.

2.       To create a house that will be a home of love and God – This is still a work in progress but I love the new additions we have in our house. Will share it soon on the blog, once they are all presentable. Can’t wait to have it all done this year. 

3.       Visit at least three new places and travel at least once with your new family. – This one is something I should work on more this year. I have some new food finds but the adventure part with a baby is something my husband and I need to work on.

4.       Be a mentor and a teacher. – I’ve been a bad teacher, but hopefully through motherhood I’ll be better.

5.       Feed your soul with excellence – I have attended a few seminars and trainings this year about personal development but haven’t really applied the relevant principles I learned. So I guess, this year is the time to do so.

Again, this is not a new year’s resolution, and setting goals should not be limited at the beginning of the year. It may be a force of habit, setting goals at the beginning of the year for me is refreshing and a sign of people having faith that good things will come their way. So, I’ll make sure to have one at the beginning of every year.

In addition to the things I still need to work on based on my 2016 goals, what I want to achieve this year are as follows:

1.       Achieve my pre-pregnant weight – A lot of people has told me that breastfeeding will definitely help you lose pounds, but lo and behold, and I’m not proud to say this, but it seems that after I delivered Little N, the pounds I gained during pregnancy never shed and sad to say, more has been gained. So yeah, this is on top of my list. I need to be healthy and fit again, soon, my son will be walking and running; and I want to be able to catch up with him.

2.       Read at least five books this year – And hopefully more. Nothing specific, it could be fiction or non-fiction. While doing moderation in my regular food intake, I need to have more food for my brain.

3.       Learn Spanish – I really want to. It’s too bad that our college curriculum did not have this anymore. But, I’ll try to do it online and later on, maybe, enroll in a short course. Haha, let’s see. I’m excited.

4.       Reconnect with friends – Dear friends, this my short open letter to you. I have not forgotten you all; I am just in phase in my life where my family and work demands most of time. But please keep in mind that I long to have conversations with you, to laugh with you and have new experiences with you. Hopefully, our schedules will be more agreeable this year.

5.       Create more memories with my family – Maybe, a little bit more adventure, other than grocery shopping and strolling the malls near our house. Haha. More parks, more nature trips.

6.       Blog more consistently – Due to the intervention, I had last week (on my iphone), there was a point where I want to totally unplugged, delete my account and stop blogging or micro-blogging. I was really stressed out because; I have never achieved any goals I set for my blog. But then, I stopped thinking and remind myself on why I am blogging. It’s not really for anyone, it’s for me. Blogging has been my outlet. So, I told myself that I shouldn’t be stressed out because blogging should help me distress and not otherwise.

Since this is what blogging is doing to me, I want to do it more, but no pressure self. Just take it one at a time.

There goes my list, it’s kind of a long list but hopefully with the help from above, I will be able to achieve them. Let’s claim this year of the Lord as a success!

Happy New Year everyone!