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!

Lighting the World

I just want to share with you all a portrait I made on this cool site You Are Your Words

The site helps you turn your photo into a work of art using words.  

For this portrait, I decided to use something I wrote a while back which tells about how I light the world as a teacher.

It is entitled, Lighting the World.

You can read it in full below the portrait.

Come, take a closer look at my words.

Lighting the World

I am a Teacher.  I teach, I listen, I motivate. I heal, I build, I transform.  I love. Most of all, I create sparks. My heart is a torch that forever burns. It burns with a passion to change a world that has grown cold with arrogance and pride, with selfishness and greed, with the hunger to be, to rule and to conquer.

Every year, I set out to share my flame, to create sparks in the hearts of young souls.  Strong winds do try to put out the flame in the torch I keep but the thought of the souls who count on me shields the flame from burning out.

New sparks are created every year. The sparks will not be equal in strength or brightness.  Some of them may die out in case of a storm, but hopefully, a lot of them will survive storms and hurricanes.  They shall not yield.  Instead, the storms will make them even bigger, stronger and brighter.  They will live to be great fires themselves.  They will turn the cold world warm with their light and turn the night into day.

They are my hope....little sparks in the darkness, lighting my way as I light theirs. They will live on and share their flame with others, creating sparks here and there, until the world is ablaze with light and humanity is warm with love.

I hope you like what I have written, and my portrait.  

Thanks to Maria Isabel who introduced me to You Are Your Words.

Nutrition Month Culminating Activity

I may have found a milk substitute where calcium is concerned.

Moringga or malunggay has about four times the calcium in milk. I found that out today while I was trying to look for info about moringga. Okay....I think I have to find out just how much moringga has four times the calcium in milk.  Note to self:  Do more research on moringga.

Anyway, here's what I know.  It's good for breast-feeding women.  I actually ate a lot of it after I gave birth.   It's rich in iron, vitamin A, B1, B2, B3, Vitamin C, copper, calcium, chromium, magnesium, phosphorous, etc. etc.  Wow!  Good thing I like moringga.  

So should I say, "Goodbye milk tea, hello more moringga"?  Hmmm...I wonder what moringga shake tastes like. Or maybe, I should look for moringga tea and THEN add milk. That's even more nutritious!

So why am I talking about nutrition all of a sudden?   The kids at school inspired me to think of vegetables...weird huh?

Nutrition Month is celebrated throughout the country every July.  This month's theme is "Pagkain ng Gulay, Ugaliin, Araw-Araw Itong Ihain"   (Make It a Habit to Eat Vegetables; Serve It Every Day)

The nationwide campaign is done with the help of public and private schools across the country.

To make it meaningful for the kids, we had several activities, including cooking demonstrations which were done by parents, poem writing contest (which I judged), essay writing contest, parade of vegetables, best vegetable costume which included a question and answer portion, etc.

Today, the kids paraded around the campus in their vegetable costumes.   

Then they shared useful information about their chosen vegetables.

     

The most popular vegetables were carrots, corn and squash.  

There were only two kids dressed like moringga. :(

And I didn't know that broccoli had cancer-fighting properties.  I have to eat more of this! If only it wasn't that expensive!  The more I read about broccoli, the more I want to eat it!

That's me, the official photographer !

Oh...and I wanted to show you what the Science teachers gave me as a token for judging the Poem Writing Contest.

I love the gift!  So cute!  I already have three ports in my laptop though.  I don't see why I'll be needing that many.  Still, the gift made my day!