Maybahay ng OFW
Wife of an Overseas Filipino Worker.
mirror collage in 7 easy steps
My project last week is a mirror collage. I got the idea on a facebook group that I joined called Home Buddies. Most of the members here are Filipinos who are enthusiasts of home improvement. Since, we just moved in here in our new house, I got really interested on the ideas that are shared in that group.
One of the projects that I got from that group is the mirror collage. I really loved that idea because the mirrors that they used are so cheap and the installation is quite simple but tricky.
There is this buy 1 take 1 mirrors in a furniture store that is only 380 pesos (more or less $8) only. So I bought 6 pcs to put on that wall.
So today, I will be guiding you on how I installed these mirrors. Looks simple though but it is somehow tricky.
So here are the things that you need for the installation.
- A meter tape
- A level bar
- A pencil
- Construction Adhesive and Cartridge Gun
- An electric fan
How to do it?
- Measure the width of the wall. Then, divide it to two and put a mark in the middle. In my case, the measurement is 100cm, and so the mark is on the 50cm.
- Measure the width of the mirror. Then, draw a line from the middle of the wall, with the width of the mirror. In my case, the width of the mirror is 33cm and so I draw a line 33cm from center to left and 33cm from center to right.
- Use a level bar to make sure that the lines are straight. To know that it is straight the level bar bubble should be in the middle (just like the photo below).
4. Check if there are hooks at the back of the mirror. Remove if there is any.
5. Apply the construction adhesive using the cartridge gun at the back of the mirror. Be sure not to put a lot on the sides but put more on the middle part. Reason why you should not put more on the side is because it might overflow when you stick the mirror on the wall.
6. Place the first mirror on the middle part of the line. Before doing that be sure to turn on the electric fan, facing the back of the mirror you are about to install. You should hold still the mirror, maybe around 5 minutes to ensure that it is already stuck on the wall.
7. Do method no. 6 on the rest of the mirrors.
I used electric fan because I did this alone. You could also use blower if you have someone to help you hold the mirror.
If you are in the Philippines, you could check these mirrors in SM department store and All Homes. Enjoy!
lazy sunday
Woke up a little early today, the house is quiet, my children are still sleeping, but I can’t go back to sleep. I’m a little bit under the weather. It’s been a long time that I haven’t seen my husband. Having our breakfast together, joking around in the morning, taking advantage of the moment when our kids are still sleeping.
It’s Sunday and I prefer not be doing a lot of things during this day. However, there are things that moms should still do everyday.
It’s my cat’s (Blue) schedule of vaccination today. I asked my kids to come with me to the veterinarian, so we went there around 9:30 in the morning. However, the vet did not tell us that she changed her clinic’s address. And so, I just asked the vet if she could do homeservice instead for Blue because he might be a little cranky. Blue is really not used to ride the car, he is so scared realizing that the car is moving while he is just sitting down.
When we got home, I just bought lunch for our kids, for lesser work. Haha.. I let my kids rest also today, though my eldest needs to study as her term test will be this week.
I bought a hammock online, so that the kids could relax there while cuddling the cats.
I took a nap in the afternoon after cleaning a bit at home. Then, the vet arrived. Finally, even without replying on my messages.
Blue was a little anxious when he saw new people in the house, so he was behaved when he was vaccinated.
I think it’s quite normal to be feeling down sometimes. I pray to God when will this end, when can I see my husband again. He just whispered to me saying, just wait. Count your blessings, be grateful and wait patiently. Okay Lord, that is the best thing to do now.
Instead of whining of the things that I cannot control, I perhaps need to focus on things that I should do and should be enjoying. So the feelings just turned 180 degrees, I blamed it on mid-life crisis, hormones and lack of travel.
I will wait patiently then…
My father’s birthday
Since I started blogging, I always want to write something everyday because writing is really what I love to do. However, because of my dear father’s birthday, I need to postpone my writing yesterday. It was a simple celebration of us, his children and grand children.
My father cooked his favorite dish, (you might be surprised) it is chicken feet with coconut milk. Sounds not delicious huh, but I tell you, it is superb. He puts a lot of spices like garlic, ginger and chili. He cooked it for 2 hours. Then I cooked air fried pork, I marinated those with salt, pepper and lots of garlic. We had cake and pizza too on dinner.
I need to pause from writing yesterday because my father’s birthday is just once a year and it needs to be celebrated.
My father did not leave me, especially when I needed him most. As I have mentioned on my previous posts, I went back to Philippines because of work, I had panic attacks. When I came back here in the Philippines, my father is the first person who understood me completely. I knew it because he experienced working so hard and he just knew what I felt that time. But he is always like that, he always finds a way to understand his children, in a different perspective. People might have different opinion about us, but he will understand us.
Few months after I arrived here in the Philippines, I just found out that I was betrayed by someone who is very very close to me. The heartache is excruciating, I don’t know what to do and why it happened. I got scared to trust people. My father never left me. He protected me. He knew I was vulnerable that time, that I would give in to the person who betrayed me, but he just protected me. I am so thankful for his care and love for us, his children.
Everything is doing well with our family now. By God’s grace, we are fine and our health is okay. I am thankful that God gave us a father who is always there for us. He who gives time for us, when we needed him. I mean, my father has his weaknesses, but we all do have these.
So last night after dinner, we had few shots of beer and some chips while singing our hearts out. My father loves it when he sees his children enjoying. It was fun to be spending time with family once in a while.
things that stay-at-home moms do everyday
Aside from homeschooling and my every week project at home, there are things that every stay-at-home moms do everyday. I am speaking about the majority of the moms. I never thought that being a mom is a never ending job, 24/7 of alertness and tasks. Some of people who are working are having this perspective that stay at home moms are not busy and they have all the time in the world.
I think this is true when kids go to normal school, I mean not online schooling. At least moms can manage their time well. But nowadays, it is not the same and different approach is needed.
Here are some of the things that stay at home moms do everyday.
- Preparing food – During normal school, we usually prepare food for breakfast then when kids are at school, we don’t prepare the food for lunch, we just eat the breakfast food. Though I must admit, this is my favorite task at home.
- Washing dishes – My husband usually do the washing of dishes, but since he is overseas, I need to do it after meal. I usually do this with radio on. Surprisingly, I also consider this as a “me” time.
- Bathing my toddler – Since my youngest is still young, I am still in charge on her hygiene. I bath her twice a day because it is really hot here in the Philippines and they are already use to this routine.
- Watering the plants – I do water the plants twice a day. I think plants need more water nowadays because of the weather. At night, I could see how dry the soil is and how my plants desperately need water.
- Cleaning the house – I feel like it is less stressful when the house is in order. I do sweep the floor everyday. Mopping it every other two days. Making the bed is my daughters’ task. I believe this is a way of disciplining my kids. My youngest cannot sleep when her toys are messy. So she really cleans up before sleeping.
- Tucking kids to sleep – There are two reasons why I am doing this. First, it is way of being closer to them. This is one of our routines that I think they will remember when they grow old. Children don’t remember much when they are already old, but the routines and traditions are the ones that they usually remember. The second reason is, when they are asleep, I can do whatever I want to do. Haha..
Weekly tasks and weekly projects are not included here. I usually have a project in a week because I feel fulfilled accomplishing something unique aside from the daily house works that I do.
I will be sharing to you some of the projects that I did in my next blogs. See you!
Basil in our garden
This morning while I was watering our plants, I was so happy to see my basil plants growing. I planted for five plants but only four grew. However, they were growing fast and I am so glad to see how the leaves bloom over the weeks.
I am so ready for the basil to grow, reason why I always have olive oil and pasta. My family is really not familiar with pesto pasta, I am not sure with some other Filipino families. I learnt to make pesto from my brother, who is a very good cook, extremely gifted in cooking. My father does not know about this pesto, he doesn’t even know what basil plants are for. So, I taught him how to do it (though I know he would not do it.. haha). My father is here with me because he wanted to spend his birthday with us.
Let me also share with you how I did the pesto sauce.
Ingredients:
- Basil leaves
- Olive Oil
- Garlic
- Pine Nuts or Sunflower seeds (I don’t have these ingredients this morning but I still did the sauce)
- Salt
- Pepper
- Parmesan cheese
How to prepare:
- Wash the basil leaves thoroughly.
- With the amount of basil leaves that I harvested, I prepared seven garlic cloves.
3. Put the garlic cloves, olive oil, salt, pepper, cheese and pine nuts in a mixer grinder. I put around 1/4 cup of olive basil. If you have pine nuts, you could also put 1/4 cup of it. Salt and pepper depends on your taste. I put parmesan cheese to add more flavor.
4. Turn on the mixer grinder and when all the ingredients are finely grinded. Then you have your pesto sauce.
I also put this pesto sauce on baked salmon, baked chicken breast and toasted bread. I love it. It is really a blessing to be able to grow plants that I really love. If you have a small space for planting in your home, you could try to grow your favorite plant there too.
Vaccination
As we moved from Singapore to the Philippines, there are some vaccines that are required here that are optional in Singapore. And so, we needed to catch up with their vaccines here in the Philippines.
Why is it important to be vaccinated? Covid-19 is a deadly virus that (should I say) most of us are scared of. March 2020 was the time when the Philippines implemented a total lockdown. Everyone was scared because of what was exposed on some of the parts of the world, like China and Italy and also to the number of deaths that Philippines have. People were so cautious on their every encounter with other people. It was heartbreaking too in my part as this is the only time that I was separated with my husband for the longest time.
Vaccination here in the Philippines for Covid-19 has a very slow progress, to the point where I am not expecting too much already. I admire those countries where their government prioritizes their people on the vaccination.
I have just read that some of the countries that had the most number of people who were vaccinated experienced a hike on the Covid-19 cases. Why? I believe that people have faith on the vaccine that was given to them and so they enjoyed the freedom of being vaccinated. For me, this is one of the main reasons of the increase. However, will their sickness be critical or severe?
Here in the Philippines, why do some of the children who were given a chickenpox vaccine are still infected by chickenpox? Is the vaccine not effective?
Of course not! Vaccines are not given for us to be mutant but for us to fight on the virus that would come to our system. In this case, we will not be suffering severely because our body could withstand this virus.
The pediatrician discussed to me the effect of the vaccines that were given to my children this morning. She said that the vaccine also includes viruses that would fight the bad bacteria or viruses that would infect my children. They might experience some itchiness or fever within two weeks.
I mean, I am not a doctor or a medical person but I believe that these vaccines are studied and concluded by experts, hence we should believe in it.
WHY YOU SHOULD HAVE A CAT AT HOME
How was your weekend? I was busy last weekend, meeting my sister-in-law, bought a couch and some stuffs for our house. We also got our new kitten from my sister-in-law’s cousin. My kids were very excited when they knew that the kitten can already be released last Saturday.
When we were young, my father used to adopt a lot of cats and those became our toys. My father loves animals and he was the one who took care of them. I was not really hands on in terms of taking care of them. There are cats at home and so we have to live with it.
However, I became fascinated with cats, with good breeds, just last year. It was when my sister-in-law brought her new cat at home. The cat is so adorable and cuddly. Her cat is a mix breed of persian and munchkin. At that moment, my daughters fell in love with cats. I told it to my husband, and being a very generous father, he asked me to look for a cat for sale.
With a great surprise, cats here in the Philippines are very saleable and many people love to take care of cats. So, I searched carefully on where to buy our first cat with a different breed.
We ended up having a pure persian cat. We named him Blue because of his blue eyes. Oh my, when we first saw him, we were mesmerized. All the attention were with Blue. Haha.
Now, Blue is already a 6 month old cat and he always wants to go outside and be sociable with stray cats. I was scared before that he might get lost, but to my surprise he always comes back.
I just want to share with you my thoughts why you should have a cat a home. I mean being a stay-at-home mom, what could be the advantages of having a cat as a pet.
- Easy to take care – Cats are easy to take care. I mean, I could just give then cat foods, cook squash, chicken, fishes and they are okay with it. They know where to poop and pee. They have this litter box, where they will do that.
Though they said that cats are aquaphobia, they have good hygiene. Blue is very conscious on his cleanliness. Whenever, he will be cuddled for a long time, you could just see him, cleaning himself for a long time. We bath him occasionally, but usually I use wet wipes to clean him.
- House will not be smelly – Yes, because the litter sand sometimes has flavored smell. Even if they poop, it will not be smelly at home.
- They are very sweet – If you feel tired or overwhelmed with the loads of work at home. I mean, aside from cuddling your kids, you could also turn your attention to your cute little cats. They are very cuddly and sweet. Am not sure, but maybe they know if you are down and need cuddles.
- Good toddler-sitter – Our kids nowadays are all at home, together with us 24/7. And so, during those times when I am busy (like now), my daughter will play with our cats. Our new kitten is upstairs with my youngest daughter now, playing blocks with her.
During the time when there was a typhoon here in the Philippines, my cat was the one who somehow, pushed our anxieties away.
Blue is really close to my eldest daughter. They are the ones who are always together. Blue always sleeps beside her (during naps only). My eldest daughter is so protective of Blue and she is the one who bath him.
- Good Training for Kids to be responsible – Being able to take care another living thing is somehow a huge responsiblity. And so, I can see how my kids are becoming responsible on taking care of our pets. I think this could have a huge impact on how their lives.
I hope you could consider having cats too. We used to have a dog but being busy at home, I could not have time for our dog. Cat is a very option for a pet.
I will be updating you about our new kitten. She is also a persian cat. She is very playful at the moment. We needed to give her more time with Blue because Blue is somehow jealous of the attention we are giving her. By the way, our new kitten’s name is Pink.
See you on my blog.
online selling
I am quite busy today, not only because of my tasks at home but also with online selling. I started online selling, year 2010 but again needed to stop as I need to work overseas.
Since I am again here at home, though the tasks of homemaking are never ending, I still find time to do online selling. Early 2020, online selling here in the Philippines was really great. I had a blast with live selling and selling online. However, pandemic came and the struggle is real on selling stuffs.
January 2020 was when I started the facebook page for my business and it did great, I do live selling in another platform, not on facebook but on Shopee. However, since I am alone, it became very hard for me. I needed to pause a bit. I really wanted this but I cannot be that active since I am busy here at home.
I just finished my live selling today, as it is payday here in the Philippines. I am selling kids wear and there are only few who watched. I was tired already and so I just ended it. I am thinking of other ways to sell where I will not be that tired, like taking photos and post. I need to do a lot of boosting though.
I am still optimistic about it, I mean, I always have sales in a week. Though it is really minimal but at least I have something. I am seeing this as a stepping stone, as eventually everything will be back to normal and my business is already here just waiting. My dream is to have a store for kids, be it dresses, toys or anything that kids love and need. Still praying for things to be okay and my dreams to come true.
I had a screen shot of my facebook business page. Those are some stuffs that I am selling. Keeping my faith that everything will be back to normal and businesses will again prosper.
grocery day
I am living alone with my two daughters and here in the Philippines, it is prohibited for kids to go outside their houses. And so, I need to leave them home and buy groceries as fast as I can. During this time of the month, my husband is giving me the budget for our groceries. In order for me to not go out often, I need to buy the non wet goods that are good for a month.
I used to buy online for my groceries then pick up at the grocery store. However, I had some not so good experiences on buying online. There are some advantages though, but I think I will just stick on going to the store and buy personally.
I just want to share with you the things that I am buying that are good for a month’s consumption.
- Shampoo
- Soap
- Toothpaste
- Hair Conditioner
- Deodorant
- Sanitary Pads
- Bathroom Tissue
- Detergent Soap
- Fabric Conditioner
- Bar Soap
- Dishwashing Liquid
- Dishwashing Pad
- Cleansing Liquid for Toilets
- Liquid Detergent for Floor
- Air Freshner
- Lotion
- Cotton buds
- Cotton
- Wet Wipes
- Alcohol
- Kitchen naphkin
- Usual Condiments that I use: Soy Sauce, Fish Sauce, Vinegar, Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder, Sugar
- Cooking Oil
- Cheese
- Butter
Basically those are the list that I have, which I already memorized on buying on this time of the month. Some of the things that are buying are for weekly basis, the wet goods, biscuits, vegetables, fruits, cereals, chips, juice, milk, etc. I still need to go to grocery every week but the time that I spend is not that long anymore.
Sometimes, I need to buy some things that need to be replaced quarterly, like toothbrush or razor.
I do love spending time in the grocery store, seeing different people once in a while. How about you? How’s your grocery experience nowadays?
PLANT FERTILIZERS THAT ARE AVAILABLE AT HOME
As I have mentioned on my previous blog, I have been planting for almost three months now and I am still learning about this hobby. I agree with what other people say that having plants is really a stress reliever. When I am watering our plants, I feel like I am in another dimension, outside of our house having connections with the plants. They are like my pets, I sometimes communicate with them.
Aside from water, I would want to feed my plants some natural nourishments. I searched for fertilizers that are available here at home so that it would be easier for me to feed them. And here are the three plant fertilizers that I use that are available here at home.
- Egg Shells – When I was young, I noticed some of the orchids of my grandparents have eggshells on top of the soil. Of course, during those time, I really don’t mind it but it stuck in my mind and I searched why my grandparents put eggshells on their plants. And so I learned that plants need calcium and they can get it from eggshells. They said it can also keep some pests out. When you put crushed eggshells on the soil, slimy pests would not dare crawl there.
So, I washed these eggshells, dried it and crushed using a food processor. I put it in loam soil then used the soil when I repotted my plants. I will show you my indoor plants where I put the eggshells in my other posts.
- Rice water – So, rice is a staple food for us, Filipinos and I learnt that the water that is used to clean the rice is very nutritious for the plants. The starches from the water are helpful for the growth of the plants. I use this often to my indoor plants and some plants that I think are not blooming. I made a video on facebook on how I use the rice water as extra food for my plants.
- Vetsin – Monosodium Glutamate. My sister told me about my grandfather using vetsin in his plants. He has a very beautiful garden, flowers that are well taken cared of. And so again, I searched why he needs to use it. Then, I learnt that sodium is needed by plants to enhance growth.
I put 1 teaspoon of vetsin to a pale of water, then pour it in my vegetable plants and roses. I usually do this, twice a week for my plants. I can see how my plants grow and bloom.
I read that hydrogen peroxide is also good for plants. I haven’t used that yet as I am a little hesitant about it. Let me try it for a few times, then I will update you on improvements of my plants.
The day is about to end here in the Philippines. Good night everyone and see you on my next post.
Maybahay ng OFW 