Friday, April 29, 2016

Bathe With Perfume With Lux Soft Touch

I must admit, after a tiring day, I never really feel rested until after I take a long shower. There's really something about hot showers that seem to take the feeling of tiredness off my body. I love using fragrant beauty soaps and body washes that make me feel and smell wonderful hours after I have stepped out of the shower. I have a few favorites that I use on heavy rotation. The latest of which is LUX Soft Touch. It's like taking a bath with delicate French Roses!

I like that the body wash foams up nicely but doesn’t leave my skin feeling dry and tight. I always use body gels with a bath puff, this way I don't need to use too much of the product. Just a coin-size amount is enough for the entire body. I love also that the fragrance lingers on my skin, so when my kids lean in for a hug and to kiss me good night, they always say, "Mommy, you smell so good."  


LUX Soft Touch Moisturizing Body Wash (P55 for 100ml, P120 for 250ml)

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Healing Power of Vaseline

I enjoy spending time in the kitchen cooking, it is an activity that is very therapeutic for me. But cooking a lot also means that I wash my hands a lot. I wash my hands after contact with raw meat, or if something is sticky. You can say I'm an obsessive hand washer. 

Constant hand-washing can leave me with hands that are dry and rough, that's why I always have lotions in different areas around the house so I can put a little every time I remember.



Monday, April 25, 2016

My Motherhood Journey + EXPO Mom 2016

As women, we need outlets to express ourselves - to vent our frustrations, encourage us during our struggles and share our elation. Our mom friends understand us. There is a common connection that can only come from someone who understands exactly what we are going through.

My mommy friends are my constant understanding ear as I tackle the hardest and most rewarding job of my life. I always enjoy spending time with them because we always end up laughing about how we are going through the same things. It's so much comforting to vent with someone who understands almost exactly what I'm going through.

I don't even meet up with them that often. Most of the time our interaction is online, we just chat on FBC or though our viber group. We understand that motherhood is our priority and it takes up a big chunk of our time.


Friday, April 22, 2016

{Weekend Footnotes} Bazaar Weekend + Meet Ups

This weekend footnotes post is several days late. I should have posted this last Monday, but I was busy sorting out the items from the bazaar. My living room is like one big bodega, and my husband is not too pleased with it. Hahaha!

The past weekend was a very busy and tiring one for my entire family. My girls and I were invited to participate in our very first ever bazaar. I was excited for my girls to experience working for their money that I offered them all the proceeds from selling their pre-loved clothes. It's just too bad that my oldest spent a part of it shopping the bazaar. Cry emoji here! Hahaha!

My girls saw for themselves how hard it was to earn money. And when we got home on the fist day of the bazaar, B goes, "I don't know why I feel so tired. I just sat the whole day in an air-conditioned room, but I'm so sleepy already." I don't know why, too, but I felt the same way, anak!

As far as my oldest is concerned she missed the memo for the bazaar dress code twice! I told both my girls the night before the bazaar to dress comfortably and in clothes that allows for movement because we had to do ingress and egress on both days. Nag pencil skirt on the first day! At nag dress nung second day!


Wednesday, April 20, 2016

How To Help Our Li'l Ones With Their Big Worries

Just less than a month ago, my youngest, R, graduated from grade school. How can that be, right? It wasn’t that long ago when I first brought him to his nursery classroom, where his teacher assured me that he’d be OK on her watch.

When it was his first day of first grade, I couldn’t rest easy (even if he was my third kid to be going to grade school.) How could I, knowing that he was now sharing the cafeteria, field, toilet, hallways —with the big boys? Where big (and bad) words (particularly starting with the letter “F”) can be heard and are used so often!!

This is such a lovely reminder of how fast our kids grow. Look at the difference 2 years make! 
May binata na ako! OMG!

Monday, April 18, 2016

Hello, Blog Reader + Rundown of TPM Top Posts

Just like other writers, there are days when I seem to not have anything to write about, or I feel too overwhelmed with real life that I can't seem to stop and calm my mind enough to write about things I am passionate about.

I have certainly felt that way the early part of the year, hence the silence here. I hope you don't mind it too much if you hear less from me. Just know that infrequent posting means real life is happening - in mega BIG doses. hahaha!

Anyway, if you follow me in my social media accounts (if you don't yet, then you can follow me now: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook), then you must have seen this post already. But please forgive me for still posting about it on the blog. You see, this is the first time ever I was stopped by a reader. So I'm still kilig about it - big time!!! Hahaha!

I really felt "legit" Meron palang nagbabasa other than my family and friends. Hahaha!:)

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Belo Baby: 100% Certified Natural, 0% Harmful Chemicals

Belo Baby

Now that it's summer, it can only mean one thing for my swimmers - twice a day training. Twice a day swim training also means taking a bath twice a day, which means drier skin.

Every stroke my kids take in chlorinated water, and even the after-swim shower damages their skin. I make sure that the shampoo, body wash and lotion they use is gentle enough for frequent use. It's right timing that I discovered Belo Baby. Belo Baby is a new product line from Belo, crafted with care for the most delicate skin, for the most meticulous moms.

Even if my kids are not babies anymore, they still need gentle and all-natural skin products for their skin, which is prone to dryness because of their constant exposure to chlorine water.

Monday, April 11, 2016

TPM Baon Diaries: Finding the Best Lunchbox For My Kids

If you google "#TPMbaondiaries" you will be brought to my instagram page and you will find photos of all my baon postings. Although I don't always remember to take photos of everything that I pack, but what you see is basically a rotation of the food that I usually prepare for my kids' baon.



I love packing healthy lunches for my family. I think packing nourishing + delicious food is a big step to making sure that we are living a healthy lifestyle. It's also important for me that the food I prepare are not too complicated to prepare in the morning because I don't want to wake up too early. It has to be still hot by the time they eat it and delicious so that my kids will actually eat and finish, otherwise it's a waste of my time, money and effort.


I've been packing school lunches for close to a decade now - I started when my oldest was 7 and just started grade school. And now, she's about to enter senior high.  In that time, I've tried a LOT of different lunch containers and lunch packing strategies. There are a lot of good lunch containers out there, and I definitely tried many of them.

There are many factors to consider when determining what lunch container to use. For our needs and the way I like to pack lunch, my favorite lunch containers, by far, are Bubee Lunch Jars. They just work for us. 

One set of Bubee Lunch Jar includes two jars and a carrying pouch. 
It is made of thick, food-grade stainless steel which is double layered. 
It keeps cold foods cold and hot foods hot for up to 5 hours. 



Wondering what lunch box food storage containers are the best for sending to school with your kids?
Does it leak? Can it keep food hot? Will it break? Is it safe? How long will it last? 


Reasons Why I Love Bubee Lunch Jars:

I'd like to tell you more about my favorite containers, and why I love them. I realized that I've used them for several years already, but I've never actually shared why I think they're so great. So it's about time.

1. They are really versatile. They keep hot food hot, and cold food cold... for hours.
Being able to make sure that my kids can eat their lunch still hot is essential to my choice of lunch container. There's nothing more unappetizing than eating cold rice and ulam, di ba? Their lunch gets packed around 6 am, and by the time they eat it at noon, it is still warm.

I can let them bring beef stew or pork belly without having to worry that "sebo" will form because the food is still warm by lunch.

The manual says you can pre-heat the container by pouring very hot water into the lunch jar and letting it stay for about 5-10 minutes. Then pour out the water and simply put in the hot meal, and quickly cover it. I skip this step, and my kids' meal still turn out warm by lunch time.
I also use the Bubee Lunch Jars for cold foods like yogurt, guilt-free banana cream pie, and the likes


For cold foods, the manual recommends pre-chilling by simply flash freezing the container by putting it inside the freezer for 10 minutes before adding cold contents.



2. They are durable.
My lunch jars are a several years old ( a decade - give or take) and are still in perfect shape, despite having been dropped, dumped and bounced around numerous times by my kids. Parang bullet-proof lang.





3. They are safe.
These containers are made of premium 18/8 stainless steel, and the food storage jar's lid and plastic base and lid cover are BPA-free, phthalates-free, PVC-free and lead-free.

With the recent concern about BPA, nothing comes into contact with plastic with these containers because the inner lid is also made of stainless steel.



4. They are easy to clean.
 As an added bonus, they are also very easy to clean, none whatsoever of the greasiness even with just one washing kase nga stainless steel..:)

Since they are made with stainless steel, they haven't stained and they haven't gotten a funky smell like plastics are prone to.


5. They are leak-proof, vacuum-insulated, double-walled.
The containers are double-layered so they remain cool to the touch even when filled with hot foods, and moisture-free when filled with cold foods. The container is vacuum -insulated and double layered to keep the temperature longer.

The food-grade silicone sleeve on the lids protects against leaks and spills so there is no concern over spilled sauces or liquids.

The upfront cost might seem high, but I've been using mine for a decade already so the containers have already paid for itself. PLUS, there's comfort in knowing that my kids are enjoying a hot, nutritious and delicious lunch everyday. And if you factor in that these stainless steel lunch containers have no harmful plastic whatsoever touching the food, it's just a WINNER in the true sense of the word.

The good news is: I have stocks on hand!! Please PM me on FaceBook or Iinstagram.   





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Thursday, April 7, 2016

#BetterMePH + How I Deal With Teenage Eye-Rolling

As a mom of 16 years, you'd think that I'm an expert at it already. But I'm not. I still struggle through parenting my kids. I feel like as my kids grow older, the challenges also differ, so I have to adjust to them. It's like being given a whole new set of rules for a brand new game. Parenting teens puts me in the extreme end of emotions. One moment, it's all rosy, and quite quickly, things can turn ugly, too.

When I am "frenemies" with my teen, one of the things that helps me calm down and allows me to take a step back to view the situation objectively is when I talk to my mom-friends. When we get together, it is inevitable that we compare "war stories." We usually laugh at how similar our stories are, and we agree on one thing: teenagers are geniuses at doing things that will irritate us! It always makes me feel better after talking to my fellow moms, and knowing that I am not the only one going through that. Talking to other moms always helps me feel better.

taken during my most recent #BetterMePH session


Monday, April 4, 2016

{Weekend Footnotes} Start of G-League Season 2016

The past weekend was too hot to handle! The family had to stay under the sweltering sun in the middle of the hot and humid Manila summer!

The first swim compe of the year just happened, and that means a handful more swim meets to follow. But I'm not complaining. I always enjoy watching my kids swim!