old pants, new pants!

Almost a year ago I just gave birth to my beautiful baby. As you all know, most mothers gained at least 25 kg over their original weight during the pregnancy. After a few months I tried on my old clothes but my pants and shirts could not fit anymore. I was saddened by the fact that I might need to overhaul my whole wardrobe.

Until a month ago, while I was cleaning out the "aparador" I decided to try on my old pants. Guess what?!!!! IT FITS!!!! I was sooo happy to be able to fit to my old clothes again. I tried on all my other pre-pregnancy pants and they ALL fit now!!! I am so happy I wore my trusty old blue jeans to the grocery. It felt really good. I did not know that this simple event can truly make my day and weeks to come.

I did not blog about it immediately because I thought this might just be for this week I might gain it back. But they still fit. Yehey! I dont have to buy new ones. I love my old clothes. I love my old pants!

Trace Trajano

When the student is ready the teacher arrives yet again. Today was a very good day to discover a possible mentor! I discovered the blog of Trace Trajano.

"...Not only are these millionaires “just millionaires”. I want these millionaires to be enlightened millionaires or millionaires who give back to the poor and millionaires who teach other people how to become millionaires.

This is the reason why Larry and I, together with a real estate billionaire and a preacher set a BIG, HAIRY, AUDACIOUS GOAL: One Million Pinoy Millionaires by 2020! We’ll start with peso-millionaires, yes but a million of them helping the country, a million of them helping the poor, a million Pinoys teaching our youth the basics of money…this is big, or I would say BHAG – for Big Hairy Audacious Goal!..."

As in sobra akong natuwa sa pag share nya ng maraming information sa kanyang blog. If you have time please see the complete entry of Trace Trajano. I have yet to email him of how he inspires me.

I've attended the seminar of Bo Sanchez "How to be Truly Rich" last February 2nd. This was after I read the book of Jamie McIntyre. I also just finished the free on-line program of Bob Doyle. It is amazing that I am now finding Filipinos who are actually using the same principles of Robert Kiyosaki and Napoleon Hill.

celebrate life

It is always good to celebrate as a way of thanking God for all the blessings that I received. A few years back, I have a different perspective in celebrating birthdays. Before, I always thought that it is best to be unconventional and un-commercial and just have quiet personal celebration. But through time, I realized that it is important to celebrate the joys in our lives. Indeed it is these moments that will remind you that you have lived a full life.

Yesterday, we had a great shared meal with family. I can't remember the last time when I cooked a huge meal for family to celebrate this day. Last year, we just ate at a restaurant and it was good. But this year I realized that it is indeed so much better to celebrate at home. Albeit a bit crazy marketing, cooking and preparing the meal but still, it was a joy to prepare. We ate so much I can't remember how many servings of vegeroni pasta in white tuna asparagus sauce, pita pizza with basil and pineapple, blue crabs and fried chicken. For dessert, we had home made chocolate fondue with sliced apples. All these, at a fraction of the cost if we ate out. All this time I am reminded by Susan's words that our home will be blessed as we open up our home for celebrations. It was good spending time with family indeed.

An un-expected valentine

I was really really happily surprised with the bunch of roses and the card that I received from my hubby. Thank you so much! I love them when I found them smiling at me on the dining table in the wee hours of the morning on my way to the bathroom! hehehe :)

I did not expect anything because usually we do not really celebrate hearts day. We do not have a tradition of going out either on this day. Also, we were on a very tight budget the past month and anything out of the usual expense is a luxury. But always always we find ways to express and renew our love to each other.

Tatay I thank God for you! love you!

learning gratitude everyday

Every new experience brings learning. I recently learned that is really hard to convince a one year old to brush her teeth. I never thought before that it would be difficult to brush the teeth of your toddler. And Yes! it is very difficult. We have tried many different ways to get her to brush teeth. Like showing her how it is done. Then letting her brush our teeth. Then sometimes make her hold a toy to distract her attention so that we can sneak in the toothbrush into her small mouth.She knows it and keeps it shut haay. We bought special baby toothpaste for her haaaay. Still it is a struggle. We dont want to make it a sad exercise everytime we need to brush her teeth. We sometimes let her play with her baby toothbrush which is like a small bell when wiggled up and down. I never ever expected that small things can be both difficult and challenging and yet very rewarding because I am learning to be a Nanay. Now I know how difficult it was for my caregivers when I was young.

I thank God for all these experience. Every moment is a learning experience.

Now we are trying to potty train her. Really some of the most simple things we do each day is a huge learning for a small toddler. Imagine all the people who took care of you when you were young.

create abundance in your life

I need to get rid of many limiting concepts that "society" infused upon us. We need to know that we need to think that the Universe is infinitely abundant. That we need to always operate within this concept of abundance.

I work for environmental conservation and I truly believe in saving our resources. But I need to re-orient my way of thinking from scarcity to abundance. It doesn't mean that when you operate from the vantage point of abundance is that you are wasteful -- of course not! There is a difference between knowing that we are blessed and taking care of these blessings. We are always responsible for the blessings we receive.

What I am trying to say is that we should not fill our minds of negative thoughts. We need to fill our minds with positive energy. Thoughts are the ones that empower us thus we need to be careful of what we think about.

get your bearing

“Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.” --Og Mandino

I remember one movie that mentioned about finding your true North. I did learn orienteering and I love it so much that for a couple of semesters, I volunteered to be one of the trainers. I love the whole idea of setting up the control points and setting the various coordinates for the fellow new mountaineers to enjoy learning. Ok, going back to finding your true North. I always wondered why we always, always orient ourselves to the North. We learned that we should always find the North first before finding our coordinates. We also need to orient our map to the North before using the compass to try to find the paths and trails we need to take. it was so much fun. And even though I got married a few years ago, I still got a chance to join one of the training climbs that involved learning this concept.

I think I need to be grounded first. For me, I realized now more than ever that my true North is related finding my spirituality and knowing that my true North is God. Then and only then, I can now focus on the other "coordinates" that I am supposed to find.

It has been a while since I am able to write my thoughts. I am thankful that finally He has quenched my thirst and watered my dry spell.

goals

“The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.” --Denis Waitley

It has been almost a month now, that I have written my annual personal goals. I feel good that I finally took the time to really consider writing this goals. They say, when you dream of things, you are simply thinking wishfully that hopefully these things will come about. But to be truly responsible for order in one's life, one has to take action. One of the first step to action is knowing what you want. You need to decide what you want. Then write it. Writing your goals is one of the most powerful things that you can do. I've heard it from many sages, read from books and listened to speakers. But one thing you need to do is affirm your own goals. May authors recommend that I read and repeat these goals. And of course take action.

May kasabihan po tayo: " Nasa Diyos and awa, nasa tao ang gawa".

This is hard to translate because it seems different in English. It says that God has the mercy but we should take action. We should not expect God to do something that we should do for ourselves.

I guess I just want to share that I am happy that I am learning everyday. I am excited everyday because I am learning something that is not really thought in school. I am discovering things everyday. I can barely keep up and can not even blog about it everyday. But things are moving full speed ahead.

Life is indeed exciting!