Coming to an end….

I have blogged my personal life over a decade now, from when I was in graduate student to working for 8 years, got married, had my first daughter, divorced, re-married, had my second daughter, to move to live in the Philippines. My life changed a lot and my priorities and thoughts also involved. My interests in blogging also shifted a lot. Now that my girls are older, I think it’s time to close this chapter of my life (blogging publicly about our life).

Yet, I still like blogging as an outlet of my thoughts and interests, so I’ll start a new blog where I’ll blog about our life as expat living in the world, our travels, and my new interests, but anonymous. If you are a long time reader and would still like to follow my journey in the new decade, shoot me an email 🙂

Life Happening 10.28.19: Happy Anniversary

This week I had a short work trip to Bohol, our first family trip in the Philippines in 2017 so I have found memory of this place.

Morning view from my room was lovely

I visited chocolate hills again and learned that they receive 1 million visitor per year

as well as the Tarsier Santuary

to be honest, without the kids Bohol is not so fun, especially the second time around.

Last friday was Halloween party in our building

Sofia was actively participating the games while Lizzy stayed behind and ate all the sweets

then we did the trick and treat together with me losing Sofia for a while

Saturday I went to get my glasses and bought one for Sofia for TV/gadgets. She looks so funny/adult with glasses.

Sunday was our 4th anniversary. Unlike previous years, I finally planned something for the couple. Our day started super early, 2am! Got the pillows to sleep in the car

we arrived an hour earlier and by 5:45am we got ready

first there was 1 hour ride on the 4×4. I first thought it was just for fun but not really needed.. I was wrong. The road was impossible to go with a normal car nor walk, so many rivers to cross and rocks! Quite a bumpy ride.

then we started our 5km trek at this moon like place

we crossed many rivers. The path was beautiful and quiet in the early morning.

we were the first to arrive the Pinatubo Crater Lake. This place is a volcano with a major eruption not so long ago, now one of the popular destination for easy hike

The view is stunning but the facility is very basic, just like many places in the Philippines, amazing nature beauty with minimum if any maintenance. The potential to develop tourism in the country is huge.

after a short break where we had our packed breakfast, we headed back.

a local mom with her baby joined our ride

We got home around 3pm, really happy to see the girls who stayed with the helper. I know it was not the most romantic celebration we could have, and we didn’t really talk that much on the road either since Tony pace is much slower than mine. Still I loved the experience of doing something together, especially something that I love -being in the nature- and I am grateful Tony tagged along. 🙂 I hope we keep up with the new tradition going forward, maybe a mini trip next year?

This past week was stressful at home. I had to fire our two-year live in helper. I felt so bad to realize how blind I was. I thought she was a reliable and kind lady that I could trust my most precious people to her. It turned out she’s mean, calculated and a liar. So I made the hard decision to fire her (or let her go as she was complaining and threaten to quit) since we rely on her a lot. But sometimes we need to endure the painful transition process for a greater future. So I’ve been going through many interviews, so far no luck yet, but we are finding another solution that might work even better. Finger crossed.

Life Happening 10.21.19

This week has been relaxing. My new mantra is more life-work balance. hahaha… not that I haven’t before but now that I am not too busy at work, I try to leave office by 5pm so I get to spend more time with the girls and just chill out.

Lizzy finally embraced painting at school. When she started, she refused to draw saying she doesn’t know how. Then we started to practice more at home with Sofia leading her. I find that when sister shows her how to do things, she’s more willing to try than if adults ask her to.

I’m in post-marathon recovery mode so I got a two weeks unlimited yoga class pass this week. I went there on Thursday and Saturday. Vinsaya 1 and 2. I think I prefer to do it at home. I don’t physically feel I need recovery, at least not evidently as I felt recovered the day after the race. But everywhere I read says our bodies need 10-14 days to repair muscle damages,  so I try to not do anything intense. What I need is a mental break of having to follow a schedule. I love schedules and routines, I need them, but it’s nice to break them once in a while so I enjoy them even more when they are back. Other than yoga, I jogged twice with Sofia (3-4km) as part of our new routine, and joined our sunday run (10km). I did feel more effort on Sunday, mainly on my chest and HR, not so much my legs. Other than that, I’ve tried to walk more as I found it so calming and allows me to listen to podcast.

I took Friday off on Friday and welcomed Lizzy when she got home. She loves making funny faces and I snap it whenever I can 🙂

Saturday was the usual: Sofia activities, me doing groceries, and Lizzy playing at home with Daddy.

Sunday: Sofia had a playdate in the morning while I spent the whole morning in the kitchen. After the nap, Sofia did some crafting while I did my reading. Lizzy is wandered around. Tony was out for golf for most of the day.

this week I took more pics of my food.

Breakfast was the same old same old. Pumpkin oatmeal with PB2 and chocolate granola. Love this combo so much!!!

similarly combo using cacao nips

Lunches: avocado toast (brought from Melbourne) with tomato soup

massive salad. This one had lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onion, roasted cauliflower, avocado and hummus tahini dressing and nutrition yeast

another one with lettuce, tomato. cucumber, roasted pumpkin, avocado, hummus sauce, and a vegan tuna salad made with pulp of soy milk, seaweed, mirin, soy sauce and shredded carrot. It tastes amazing!!!

I am very happy to report that Tony is finally venturing out to vegan meals. The change has been gradual in the last couple of months, from cutting out almost all meat from his diet except fish, to cut fish consumption to 3-4 days a week to now 1-2 times a week. I’ve been cooking more vegan meals for him to try and he’s accepting them! YAY!!! That’s the prefect combo, he gets to eat healthy and yummy vegan meals, and I get to try new recipes!!! It makes me so happy! 🙂

I made this vegan corn chowder and it tastes quite good

I also made vegan mac n cheese for the girls. They were not impressed 😦

Snacks:

homemade soy yogurt with cereals

fig bars (my fav bar)

more avocado toast

Heading to Bohol for work now 🙂