How To Celebrate The First Day of October And Enjoy A Don Moen Concert

The first of October and my daughter gets done with her 3rd quarter homeschool portfolio.

I know, it's just the third quarter of our school year, three down and one more to go but somehow we always find a reason to celebrate different occasions in our homeschooling. For example, someone gets a perfect score on a quiz one morning, we run to the nearest grocery to get a gallon of ice cream to celebrate that little victory, sometimes never going back to school again later that day, we get carried away. 

Someone loses his last and overdue milk tooth, then we pop open Pringles and sodas in revelry of this significant loss, we find ourselves lounging in the family room for too long and later get amused that it's already dinner-time. Still, someone learns how to read phonetically and we get elated that everyone's reading in the family, we find ourselves staying up late at night watching impromptu movie marathon.

Maybe we're that kind of homeschoolers; serious learners but fun-loving and yet structure-hating; relaxed but panicky on deadlines; hardworking but procrastinating; home-educating but world-travelling. ( Okay, I got a little carried away with the last statement, maybe not yet .)  And always, there's a reason for celebrating homeschooling no matter what stage or age we're in. 

On our tenth year, yes, tenth year( ! ), we realized that we may have reached a stage in our journey that author Malcolm Gladwell coined as the "10, 000 hours of greatness" which is the "magic hours of greatness to be an expert." (Again, I'm getting a little carried away here, maybe not yet.) Celebrate, anyways.

What a way to spend the first evening of October by watching a Don Moen concert billed, "God will Make A Way." Out of our excitement, we made sure to come as early as possible to see the auditorium get filled by expectant audience that night.

Bad idea. I decided to have a tall cup of caramel "Blesspresso" while I killed time before the concert started at 8pm. My drink was loaded with a ton of caffein which kept me awake till 3am. I got tired of counting sheep.

As I said, we intended to arrive early to watch Don Moen crowd build up at the auditorium.

We actually wanted to take selfies as early as we can without the hassle of photo bombers on the background for posterity's sake...because this would be our first concert to watch as a family (as Noah puts it) e-v-e-r... So, for the record, since we've spent most of our homeschooling years from the boondocks, this would be the Mangyan Homeschoolers' first live concert date, "ever." 

And I bumped into these two beautiful ladies, Chet and Bubbles ( l - r )  who were busy ushering people to their respective seats. I sit down with them every "SaturDates" afternoon to Dgroup with them and pray with them and laugh with them and simply be blessed with them. And oh, homeschool with them, too.

What a privilege to worship the Lord that night as brother Don Moen invited us to join him in choruses. I felt like I was transported back in time during the days of the analog, from the wordings of the songs, to the music grove that was distinctly a 'Don Moen.' I'm sure all the 1990's crowd shared the same kind of feeling of "euphoria" that night as we sang songs that have become part of our daily devotions and our spiritual walk more than two decades ago.

There were no fireworks, no frills, no orchestra, and not even a choir that night but Don Moen simply ushered us into the presence of God as we sang songs like "God Will Make A Way," "God Is Good All The Time," "There Is None Like You," and "Give Thanks."

Then Lenny Leblanc was there as a bonus treat.

To a generation that belonged to the age of everything digital, the EDM's ( electronic dance music ), the rich heavenly sound of electronically engineered record albums, this concert served as a "bridging event" to our younger generation of worshippers. Noah kept elbowing me in his amazement, "Mom, I can't believe you know all these songs."

Tsk. Sorry for the blurry photo. We were this close to the stage at the end of the concert. Everyone clamored for "more!!! more!!! more!!!"

How To Be Robbed In Broad Daylight On A U-Turn Slot And Keep On Movin'

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that one day I will be driving through the congested streets of Metro Manila and to actually DO LIFE here on a semi-permanent basis. I mean, I love travelling to Manila, but it is the traffic situation here that I dreaded ever since. I'd tell my kids, "pinch me, pinch me, this is just a dream..." as we sat in traffic most of the time when we had to run errands, pick up our groceries, or go to church, or go to their piano lessons at school. A fruitful day would come by so fast and it was interesting to note that my 14 year-old girl and my nine year-old boy have adjusted well to our new environment in no time. We. are. home.

I wish I could say that our homeschooling journey has always been predictable and turned out the way we planned it to be. But I would be lying. Take this incident that happened to us last week on our way back to Manila from a short visit to our beloved Batangas City.

Driving from Manila to Batangas via C5 road - SLEX - STAR Tollway and vice versa? Ha, that was something else...especially when I was stopped by a traffic enforcer for "swerving" or "reckless driving" along E. Rodriguez Avenue, Pasig City. "Me??? A reckless driver?" "Yes, Ma'am, U-turn slot po 'yan, swerving kayo at reckless driving." I wanted to disappear at that moment as I imagined my kids and myself dissolved into thin air. Focus. I needed to focus. My kids watched me talk politely to the traffic enforcers almost begging "patawad po," I overlooked the sign that says "U-turn Slot No-swerving." "Ma'am sa Makati po tutubusin ang lisensya n'yo, 2,000 pesos ang fine, maghapon pong seminar..." In my mind , I said, Makati? What Makati? I don't even know the directions going there and my kids are late for their piano lessons at school! And we're on car-coding and we're just here because of your limited window hours!

"Ma'am, may porsyento ho kame d'yan, kalahati, para di na kayo maabala." Got the picture?

I got my driver's license back and headed towards our destination to CCF Center in Frontera Verde. I felt robbed in broad daylight for an amount of 1, 000 pesos that I unscrupolously handed them for a very minor offense that I've committed. There was no traffic at that time of 11:30am. My chest felt heavy for what just took place. I asked the traffic enforcers if they stopped every single motorists that made a little mistake of swerving along that area. But no matter how sarcastic I sounded, I still felt I was on the losing end. I wouldn't forget that sly grin on their faces.

Alrightee... crunch time! On our short visit to our beloved Batangas City last week, Bethany practiced her "Moths Scherzino."

 We braved the traffic just to see our very first granddaughter, and my children's very first niece by their cousin, my nephew. I hope I got that right. So, I'm a Lola.

We saw this face. The cutest girl on earth, her name is Abira Cymphony. Don't call me "Lola" just call me "Tita Mema," that's what I'm going to tell her when she's bigger.

Too bad Uncle Noah can't kiss her because he had a cold.

"Ate Mana," as my kids call her is Joanna, my niece, don't you think she's too pretty to become a policewoman someday? She also wears a black patent stileto to school.

Condo living with thirty-two square meter living space, my children are learning to scale down everything including this teeny-tiny origami boat.

But there's a bonus of spacious play area for kids.

"Mom, are you posting this on Facebook again? Please don't post this on Facebook."
"I won't post this on Facebook. I promise." Of course this isn't Facebook!

Before I left to get some groceries, I took a snapshot, a stolen shot of my kids doing school at a tea shop in Hypermarket. "Mom, please stop posting our pictures on Facebook."

This is The Mom's birthday treat happening on the month of October. Can't wait!

Batch-cooking is ideal when you are homeschooling and when you have a limited condo space. That way, you will have plenty of time to attend to other school-related activities. All you have to do is re-heat your food before each meal.

But these pancakes are an exception. You can't "batch-cook" pancakes to save for later because they sell like newspapers! In fact, this was what we had for lunch, one rainy day. What we had for breakfast earlier on was tinola. We like it in that order.

"If Grace is an Ocean, We're All Sinking..."

Are you ready for a walk along the park? Get ready because I've asked my daughter to walk you through her quarterly portfolio, to show you a sample of what is going on in our homeschooling, our learnings, our adventures, our family values. Below is a sample of what my daughter would include in her quarterly portfolio. She has chosen the reflective form of presenting her ideas where she  applied subject integrations and their applications in real life. I hope that you will enjoy the walk, take time to look at each slide and perhaps pick up something good along the way.