Water All Around!

Rivers are overflowing.

Roads are turning into rivers.

People are evacuating their homes....

or are being rescued by rescue workers.

 The rain continues to pour.

That's what's happening outside the safe confines of our home.

I am glad that our house is located in an area that is not prone to floods.

Thank God!

So I can sit here, make my test questions, and type this post.

Unlike my fellow Pinoys who are in deep water (literally and figuratively), I am lucky that I can still  afford to reflect at this moment.

After the flood caused by Ondoy, mountains of garbage were everywhere.

I even saw plastic bags hanging from tree branches.

As I watch the news, I see the same thing.  Garbage floating!

I hope that we learn a lesson from this.  

Let's not point our fingers. Let's stop blaming others.

Let's start taking responsibility for our actions...

or for the lack of it.

We have left our mountains bare,

and as if that was not enough, 

We leveled mountains.

We bathed our bodies, cleaned our homes but dirtied the streets, the gutters, the creeks and the rivers with our trash.

Goodness gracious!

We haven't been good stewards of the earth.

That's the ugly truth!

It's just so frustrating! I'm so worried for my son.  What kind of earth, what kind of city would he live in when he is older?

When I was studying, floods like these happened only in nightmares!

So this is a call to all my countrymen,  please let's match our prayers with action.

I know you care for your children as much as I do for mine.

Let's do our part.

Be good to mother nature.  Take care of the earth.

It is our only home...the only home we can leave our children with.

To my foreign readers, please whisper a short prayer for my country and for all the flood victims tonight.

To my fellow Quezon City residents, St. Paul University Quezon City is accepting relief goods.

If you are one of those lucky enough, please bring canned goods, instant noodles, blankets, and the like to the school.  It's along Aurora Boulevard, corner Gilmore Avenue.

To end this post, let me share with you a beautiful prayer I found on a friend's fb timeline.

"When the oceans rise and thunders roar
I will soar with You above the storm
Father you are King over the flood
I will be still and know You are God"

Dear Monday v. 5

a link-up with Megan

Happy Monday friends! It's time once again for another round of Dear Monday!

Dear Monday, you're supposed to be stress-free today with the suspension of classes.  Still, why am I so stressed? Is it because of the tons of work  I have to do, even on a non-working day?

Dear Saturday, you were specially busy last week!  You made me cook up a storm!  It left me exhausted but entirely happy for my son who celebrated his thirteenth birthday.

Dear Sunday, you were a delight! You filled my stomach to the brim!  Hahaha! Does it even have a brim? Oh what the "h", it's just an expression!  We celebrated our mom's 70th birthday in advance at Midas Hotel. I had a glorious time eating everything their buffet had to offer.  Sorry, I didn't get to take lots of pictures of the food, specially the pretty desserts.  I was so busy eating!

I can't remember enjoying a veggie salad as much as I did this one!

       I had grilled seafoods too! Yum!  And I could live on their bread and cheese! Oh, I can feel my mouth watering again!

Dear Mom,  happy birthday in advance!  Thanks for taking care of me and my son! I hope you will still be strong enough to take care of another child of mine sometime in the very near future!  We are all very lucky to have you!   May God give you many more happy birthdays!

Mothers never stop being mothers. See? My mom still fixes my hair!

Mom at almost 70

Dear family, I am really so blessed to have you! I know we are always noisy and oftentimes arguing over little things, but still we do love one another and that's what's most important.

Dear paperworks, I hope I get to do more of you this week!  I really need to!

Dear God, thank you for the love and the blessings!  Please continue to bless the people I love!

My Greatest Blessing Turns 13!

Exactly thirteen years ago today, God gave me my greatest blessing.

in the nursery

He gave me a healthy baby boy...

a cute healthy baby boy!

peacefully asleep in my arms

Looking at your tiny little face always made me smile!

Ninang and I had so much fun goofing off with you!

             And I loved kissing your chubby cheeks and biting your cute tiny chin!

You were a brave baby.  You never cried during immunizations.  Needles never scared you. Grimace did not scare you either.  I think he was the one who got scared ....

when you kept climbing all over him on your first birthday!

You were a happy little boy who charmed strangers with your songs and dances, and with your sweet adorable smile!

                          And everyone ooohed and ahhhhed when they saw how handsome you looked during Ninang's wedding.

God did not only give you a good memory, a talent in writing and drawing, a good singing voice, He also gave you a talent in playing the violin.  As Sr. Corazon once  said, "He has a magic touch."

I was so afraid you'd make a mistake during your first violin recital.  You were not nervous at all but I was shaking and it felt as if my heart was in my throat.  

But you performed excellently and then I knew I shouldn't have been nervous.  So I was never nervous again during your succeeding recitals.  

If anything, I was just soooo proud.

Whenever I  hear people whisper, "That's talent." or  "He's so good." while you  playing, I always want to stand and say, "That's my boy!"

And that's how Grandma feels too!  

She actually feels so proud when parents of other violinists and pianists would call her "Manuel's grandma"

I hope you know that everyone is proud of you!

Even though you have grown to be so naughty!

And though Grandpa and Grandma get annoyed with you sometimes...as they are in this pic,

I want you to know that we love you and we will always love you no matter what.

       We have loved you ever since we learned that you were in my womb.

We still love you now that you're thirteen.

And no matter how old you'll be or how tall you'll get, we will always love you.

I will always love you.

You will always be my baby.

You cannot stay in my arms forever...

but

you will always be in my heart.

And though I know that someday some girl might steal your heart, she can never change the fact

that you loved me first.

I am your first love.

And you will still love me in a very special way forever!

That is my greatest blessing, of which I am so thankful for!

I hope and pray that you realize:

your giftedness,

your goodness,

and that you are loved.

I hope and pray

that you discover more of your gifts,

that you develop the gifts that you have,

and that you use them for the good of others, and for God's greater glory.

I hope and pray

that you'll have true friends who will remain your friends for life,

that your burdens will remain light,

that you succeed in all your endeavors.

I hope and pray

that God will keep you safe, healthy and strong,

that He will bless me so that I can provide for all the things you need,

that He will help me give you a happy and comfortable home, 

that He will help me raise you to be a respectable, productive citizen, a loving Christian and a faithful Catholic,

that He will give you a long, happy, and fulfilled life, 

that He will give me a long life to spend with you and with your future children.

I hope and pray 

that God will give you many, many, many more happy birthdays.

Happy Birthday my son!  I love you very much!

Thursday Thoughts v. 5

It's Thursday and it's time for my weekly link-up with Sar.


(1)

It's been a rainy week and we've had two suspensions of classes.  Many areas were flooded.  I feel really blessed that we live in an area that is not prone to floods.  We have lived in this part of the city for almost all my life and we have never experienced floods, thank God!


(2)

I feel for those who have lost their homes, their loved ones, and their personal possessions because of the typhoon.  I pray that God will heal them and comfort them.  May they be able to quickly regain whatever material possessions they have lost.


(3)
I am most grateful to Carley for coming up with this Penfriend Project which I was so excited to join.  However, due to the bad weather this week, I haven't been to the post office to mail my letter.  I will hopefully be able to do so tomorrow.  I'm hoping for good weather.


(4)

Yay! I am so happy that I finally know how to make a button for my blog!  I followed the instructions over at http://ellisonlane.blogspot.com. I'm so grateful to Ellison for making the instructions so easy to follow. I was able to do it!  I'm not satisfied with it though.  It's way too small and the text too. I'll have to make another one.  But here is my first attempt!

<a href="http://www.teachlovewrite,blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img alt="The Secret Notebook"src="http://i1171.photobucket.com/albums/r546/bbpaula888/button1.jpg"/></a>

(5)

The teachers and I are going to have our first Taebo session tomorrow.  I am so looking forward to this. I heard it is so much better at burning calories than aerobics.  Hmmm....I might look better on my wedding day after all!

What are you thinking this Thursday?  Head on over to Sar and link up!