Chop, Chat and Chomp

    When I closed my business (Internet Cafe) in my hometown in Bataan in 2009, I promised myself I will start to do the things I missed doing. All my married life, I became busy working and taking care of the kids at the same time. One of these things is cross stitching. My fruit of the Spirit ready for framing     I want to make more of this before I reach 60, two for my girls when they get married and one for myself. Create in me a pure heart,  O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Psalm 51:10-12

    One Saturday morning in November, Rachelle, my sister-in-law, and I decided to go together to various places in Tagaytay for reasons each of us have. One of the 60 things before 60 in my list is to go to Memory Lane in Tagaytay and Rachelle was kind enough to accompany me there. She, on the other hand, had this coupon which she got for 50% less on food and drinks and it is expiring end of November.     Our first destination: Ilog Maria Honeybee Farms in Silang, Cavite. We passed along Aguinaldo Highway, with GPS as our guide.      As soon as we reached Ilog Maria, we went straight to the store, looked around and before we choose what to buy, we asked the lady in the store if we can go and see the bee farm. Entrance to the bee farm The bee farm The girl behind mixing toothpaste, the girl in the foreground packing the soaps The girl mixing/cooking soap     We found the factory, entered it...

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,  neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,  will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39 3. Because He loves us. Our early years of marriage had been a difficult one. Everything was wrong. Wrong time, wrong place, wrong situation. It was like hell for me and the only thing that kept us going is our (or should I say my?) love for each other. So many times I wanted to quit and sometimes I just wanted to die. And we know that in all things God works  for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 I then realized that if life is like hell, where should I go? I searched for that place, a sanctuary, a refuge, where I can rest, where there is someone who would understand me, whose shoulder I could cr...

  2. Because He is our Heavenly Father. When my father died, a part of me died also. He was a famous dentist of his time, who made a mark in the history of Bataan. I have known him to be a jolly person and a very loving father who wanted the best for us, his family. I can say that he loved us unconditionally and was always proud of his children. He would always say good things about us and I had not heard him say even one bad thing about us.  I was given the opportunity to be with him the last years of his life (when I opened a business in Bataan). He gave me moral support and he became my number one customer.  He was a very supportive father till the end. How I miss him. I praise God for giving me such a wonderful father. I realized then, now that Daddy's gone, I have our Heavenly Father who is much, much greater than my earthly father. He provides everything I need, loves me unconditionally and eternally, always there for me, and will never leave me nor forsake me...

 We had this for lunch on the 28th day. Picadillo (sauteed ground beef with upo and talinum). Dinnertime, we had pechay baguio and carrot soup,...  ...pan-fried pork steak with toasted garlic toppings... ...and Kimchi which I prepared several days ago. The following day, the 29th day, I cooked chicken adobo (with coco aminos, tastes great!) for lunch...  ...and sauteed patola with okra. It was Sunday, we had dinner at our favorite place, S&R. As usual the same chicken rotisserie and caesar salad. Tommy loves this. On the 30th day, our last of the 30-day diet, I prepared Sweet and Sour Chicken with pansit-pansitan as garnishing. Tommy brought as pasalubong 2 pieces pineapple, we ate the whole piece, the other one was not as sweet so the half I added to this dish,... ... the rest I made into jam. I used coco sugar and cinnamon with a pinch of sea salt. It was good. Now I'm getting used to coco products :) We ate the same dish for di...