What's On My Iphone Photo Album 2013

Alright. Here we go. "Take a deep breath." That's me pushing myself to breathe and get back to life. Fifteen long months of silence and here I am again, resurrecting from my extended furlough, fit for the battle(?)

As a starter, allow me to walk you through my family photos stored on my Iphone for the last year or so. "What a journey it has been," so the lyrics of a song goes. Where have all those days and weeks and months gone? But God. God has been faithful through the seasons. Isn't it wonderful to have your Iphone handy all the time and snap snap snap capturing those fleeting precious moments.  

Welcome to my world...

My kind of girls De Chavez side. Three of five adorable nieces l to r Keila-Ava-Lala and the Daughter. Missing Drew and Baby Avi here.

The Daughter Selfie a lot.

The Hunny and Me...my friend Tita (Aunt) Carol Jacob and Dr. Jo Arago, my sister-in-law.

My Little Bear just created Spiderman his parachute.

Lord of Harvest AG Church ladies...we love cell-grouping hang-out style at this 
OLD SPAGHETTI HOUSE.

The Daughter with her fishtail.

How about a bunch of bread for your starter at Sofitel's Le Bar? 

Our hotel room with a view of  the evening fireworks at SM Mall of Asia. I know, I know, 
it's a bad picture.

Sofitel's famous Cheese Room at the Spiral Restaurant located at the ground floor.

Matthew Henri or we simply call him Matt, my youngest nephew, son of my youngest bro Henri.

Matt's killer photo....love love love...oh with that quill in his hand oh with that innocent joy 
painted on his face!

Matt on Boquete Island, Puerto Galera.

So this was how our Solar System Project was assembled.

My kids had fun learning about astronomy last school year on Apologia Science. And this was their culminating project done with their Tita (Aunt) Nini whom I've asked  to co-teach on the 3rd and 4th quarters. What can I do? This poor teacher-mom was a graduate of  Mass Communication and she was a bit intimidated by the subject matter. Thank God for lil sisters like Tita Nini, a Registered Nurse, ha!

Solar System show-off...and I couldn't tell how many times he has done this during playtime or pastime!

Church boys foolin' around. The future Dr. Clarence, (bottom center) my nephew. And by the way, he's our Youth Pastor.

Ming and the Daughter

The Daughter and Lara

Breakfast at Auntie Lola's, Calapan City.  My Inay (Mom) and Kuya ( a term of respect for older brother), we also call him Pastor Chris.

Another epic selfie by my Unica Hija.

My Darling Sunshine, selfie a lot.

Who needs a DSLR camera if Iphone's giving you a lot of this?

And this?

And more of this?

And that?

This sold at the public market in Pinamalayan, Oriental Mindoro.

Breakfast at my older brother's place in Calapan City. Extreme left, Dr. Joey, and the rest of us.

The Son's first pet chicks named "TWEETER" and "PEEPER".

\

Cousin BFF Julienne Bianca (right) and Mom Bibian (left) at the cinema.

Julienne Bianca adorable as her cotton candy. She's also a cupcake!

My sister-in-law, Bibian, has a green thumb! Homegrown chillies galore!

Never would have thought of getting my hands and nails dirty with plumbing repairs?

But when the Hunny was far and away, and leaking faucets and corroded pipes scream of disaster, this Girl puts on her plumber's hat. Must she forget, she's a daughter of a carpenter?

That stinking China-made GI pipe crushed like flakes or wafer inside the threaded PVC pipe and this Girl panicked like crazy she might damage the entire water tubing that's buried deep into the concrete CR wall.

So, this Girl had to run to the nearest handyman store to buy a new set of water faucet kit.
Teflon tape around the thread. Check. The right connectors to the right connections. Check. Pipe wrench and a hammer. Check. Safety glasses on. Check. The Daughter with the Iphone camera ready. Check.
My fingers and my shoulders sore for the pounding and hammering and wrenching! Check!

But we have a Daughter who graduated from sixth grade. And this photo taken by her stage Mom with her Iphone inside the studio was forbidden!

Again, this photo taken by the Daughter's stage Mom with her Iphone was forbidden inside the portrait studio!

So, the Tita-Aunt...the lil sister of this Girl sifts and kneads and ferments and bakes away...sour dough...

THOR DE CHAVEZ!!!

Just see what happens...

What significantly happens...

What amazingly happens...

When the TV is shut and the PSP is off...creativity spills and all possibilities are limitless. I often wonder, had I not decided to stay home with The Son and The Daughter, and chosen to stick with them as we journey the less traveled road  to homeschooling, would I ever have the privilege of seeing this Boy-Wonder emerge as an inventor and an engineer, clad in his own outfit creation? thriving in his own creative realm? defying expensive store-bought toys and gizmos and gadgets in all their sophistication and he creates his own toys made of recycled boxes and cartons and plenty of markers and duct tapes? 

Me and my Hunny at a neighbor's birthday party.

Our home-made Advent wreath this year and that wooden rotating candle holder stands proud which I haggled from my favorite surplus store. Then I didn't realize that I bought 6 candles when I only needed 5!!! I got too excited, maybe? The four Sundays of the entire month of December and one for during Christmas Eve. We light a candle each Sunday, we talk, we make sense of this family tradition, meaningful conversations purposefully making a room for the true Reason for the season, reading the Word, we all get excited as we countdown to Christmas, a Christ-centered Christmas.
Ann Voskamp says it for us:
"I don't want a Christmas you can buy.
I don't want a Christmas you can make.
What I want is Christmas you can hold.
A Christmas that holds me,
remakes me, revives me,
I want a Christmas that whisper, JESUS."

My Unico Hijo, also my walking buddy...and here we're literally on top of a hill, enjoying the cool December breeze, Calapan City.

We Bake Our Bread, What's Wrong With That?

"We love our bread
 We love our butter
 But most of all
 We love each other..." Madeline

If you've tried baking your own bread at home with all the freshest ingredients to boot, you'll have a different perspective of how your breads should taste like. Thanks to my lil sister who has finally mastered the art and science of baking our home-made breads. She is so focused that she bakes even in her sleep. Being a nurse by profession, she loves baking because it is also a science with all the chemical reactions the dough mixture had to go through to become artisan bread. Her hard work paid off as it has raised the bar for our standard on home-baked breads. And would you believe that we've stopped buying our breads from our local bakeries like Pan de Manila? ( sorry, haha )

Nini's Words
"The rustic looking bread acquire its honest flavor while tucked away in the fridge, sitting quietly in its container, fermenting itself to arrive in its complex state of "breadness."

I used pre-fermented dough. The dough MUST sit for long hours/time even days undisturbed to create that complex flavor. Nutty, warm, and sour. The dough is then shaped into a boule (pronounced as bool). Few    shallow slashes made on top of the dough to let gas escape so it wont collapse during baking. It's called artisan because it is purely  and specially made by hand, shaped by hand keeping that rustic look...thus the name artisan...it's an art.

Anyone who's not really into sweet fancy cake house bread I think would like it... Relentless PATIENCE is the gem among the lowly ingredients such as flour, yeast, salt, and H2O.  Bare hands make this unpretentious bread all the more special. It's warm, nutty flavor leaves you severely anxious for another bite another slice."

And it would be so selfish of us if we don't provide you with the link where Nini has been gleaning lately. Here it is:
http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/

But wait! There's more! Here are some more photos of Nini's home-made artisan breads.

Sprinkled with a good amount of fresh rosemary snipped from my container garden. 

This artisan bread is bejeweled with slivers of black olives. 

One Amazing Filtration System And The Red Ribbon Experience

Over brunch, it was always fun to hang out for a little longer at our family dining table and just let the dishes soak in soapy water in the kitchen sink. We were having family time and it was so precious that I didn't want to disrupt this magic moment. I had just prepared 2 cups of hot coffee for me and my hubby and the kids were goofing around with their Dad. But the idea was to always find out who among them was the best at anything. And our dessert fun-time activity was to find out who can exhale the longest. At the count of three, my three monkeyteers gasped for big breath and exhaled "aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" in unison.

My lil boy was the first one to run out of breath followed immediately by my disappointed girl. As was expected, Daddy was the last man left standing while my kids cheered and booed him at the same time. Daddy with his antics, the kids smothered him with kisses and hugs and sighs of disappointment. "That's so unfair!" Someone said. But Daddy bragged even more and gave out his devil laugh!

So, to appease my kids, I told them that Daddy won because obviously he has the biggest chest among the three of them. And since he has the biggest chest, he can store more oxygen in his lungs. I told them that our chest protects our lungs which store and filter the oxygen that we breathe. "And that was how God designed our body," Daddy added, "because we are fearfully and wonderfully made." My hubby sensed that he needed to elaborate more on the subject as we both noticed that our children's eyes were glued on him.

Dad.
"Do you know that God has the most hi-tech filtration system designed to filter the oxygen that we take in our body? And do you know that the air passes through a sort of coiled filtration system in our lungs the size of a tennis court or 40x the human skin area? Isn't it amazing to learn how our God cares for us? God wanted to make sure that each time we breathe in fresh air to our system, we take in the cleanest and purest air in the form of oxygen that will keep us healthy and alive. He is the best engineer in the whole universe for He created everything. And he designed everything for a purpose."

Kids.
"Cool." "Wow!"

Our kitchen was charged with fun and excitement. We were all stirred up at how our topic was developing.
My hubby and I exchanged meaningful glances as we took turns talking to our children. It's as if saying "are you thinking what I'm thinking? Our God is an awesome God, come on!"

Mom.
"Our God has one amazing filtration system built to make sure that we are kept pure from toxins! You know what? Since we're talking about filters, this reminds me of the verse from Psalm 12:6 that says, "The words of the Lord are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible, like gold refined seven times." Therefore, before our Lord uttered a word, He thought about it several times before saying them. That is why, His words written in the Bible are guaranteed pure and true, refined as gold. And we can count on His words because He thought well of them before uttering them."

Dad.
"What an example the Lord has set before us! Let it be a reminder to all of us, including me and Mom, to be careful with the words that come out of our lips and think first before we speak. Our Lord showed us how to honor Him by choosing our words carefully when we talk to others."

Spontaneity Is Priceless.
We are on our yearly school break but the learning we've had this late lunch was spontaneous. The words that we speak are so powerful that they can make or break someone if we don't choose our words wisely. And that makes all of us guilty one way or the other especially when we're the type who don't think before we speak. That is why it is very important to pay close attention to our thoughts because "out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." (Luke 6:45) Another verse from Proverbs 18:21 says, "the tongue has the power of life and death..."

Once again, we were reminded of why we're homeschooling our children and why we've stayed in the program now running on our eighth year. It is the invaluable learning that we experience together as a family, not just for our children, but for us as parents as well. And we won't have it any other way. It is the opportunity as their parents to be able to directly influence our children to develop Godly character within the bounds of our own home.

The Red Ribbon Experience
I remember an incident a few years ago when we were at a favorite family restaurant called Red Ribbon. We just finished our merienda allowing for a few minutes to pass by, when an elderly lady approached us and greeted us with a big smile on her face. She looked very friendly and told us that she had been watching us from the corner of the restaurant and was so impressed at how our children behaved while we ate. My hubby and I felt a bit embarrassed  because we didn't know we were being watched. I chuckled as I smiled back at the lady and jokingly told her that she should see us how we all behaved at home. So we all gave a light laugh and felt the ice breaking.

The old lady said that she came up to us to tell us that watching  how our two kids behaved at the restaurant from the moment we got in pleased her. "Other kids these days are so boisterous and unruly in public places while their parents just sat around watching them. So, really, you parents have a big role in disciplining your children. I am so glad that your children are well-mannered. Where do they go to school?" We homeschool our children, so she was told, the rest was history.

That moment, I wanted to give the old lady a big big hug, just to thank her for the kind words she had for us. Then I thought, this precious lady, well advanced in years knew how to process her words carefully and knew her timing well. I mean, you don't bump in to a stranger everyday to praise you about your children's behavior or character. Our children are not angels, I know, but her words meant the whole world to us. We know that there's a long journey ahead of us as our kids are still young and WE all screw up on a daily basis. But we felt that day that God sent an angel to speak to us and encourage us to pursue teaching our kids about the ways of the Lord.

As we chatted, we learned that she was a retired chief nurse at one of our private hospitals in town. She sits on her favorite corner of the restaurant almost everyday and paints on her canvass for hours. It's what's keeping her busy as she is a retired senior citizen already. So, that explains why she took notice of us and perhaps the many families that walked in and out of Red Ribbon everyday.  We said our sincerest "thank you" to her as we parted ways but the big smile on our faces stayed longer as we drove back home.

OF CLAY POTS AND SLING SHOTS

Saturday eight o'clock in the morning, clear skies and a bit humid already. But here in the Philippines, this kind of weather had been God's answer to many Filipinos' desperate prayer for sunshine and dry ground as the country experienced almost two-weeks of non-stop rains. And although we are located in a city province which was not hardly hit by the monsoon rains, we felt for those Metro Manila residents whose homes and streets where inundated by tons and tons of garbage at the onslaught of this week's heavy downpour.

So, waking up this morning to see my daughter taking photos and videos of her latest Saturday fun-time activity had been a clear indication that we're expecting a fine sunny weekend. My daughter's contagious smile and the smell of freshly cooked rice greeted me as I stepped out of the veranda. So her headline goes that she was able to cook rice in her new set of miniature clay pots successfully and her matching earthen kalan worked just as good. "And Mom, I'm going to eat the rice for lunch! Finally, a rice that I was able to cook in a real palayok. And finally, I now know how rice tasted when cooked in a palayok, hah!"

My daughter was so inspired by the fact that at school we talked a lot about how our Filipino ancestors lived and managed their households during their time; what kinds of food they ate; where they get their food supplies; what kinds of kitchen implements they utilized or how they handled kitchen affairs. We discussed that food had always been a part of our culture, the way we prepared it, the way we cooked it, the way we served and ate it. In fact, our food defines our unique identity as Filipinos despite having been colonized by the Spaniards, the Americans, and the Japanese. "Do we still have our own identity as Filipinos after having been ruled by these countries for centuries?" "What can we do to preserve our Filipino culture at this modern Internet Age?" Rich discussions and questions such as these would arise as we tried unearthing our precious history, the connection we get was always priceless.

Driven by her curiosity to connect more with our own heritage, my daughter suggested that we buy the palayok and the kalan that I always referred to each time we talk about the old days. She wanted to learn for herself how to cook the old-fashioned way; the nitty gritty of charcoal and firewood cooking. And then I thought, where else do we buy these clay vessels but at the lumang palengke, our marketplace. I felt hesitant saying "yes" at first because I dreaded the traffic at our market place, I dreaded the parking spaces we have there, I dreaded the smoke pollution there, I also dreaded our security going there. I don't know what I was thinking that time, but it's an embarrassment to think that perhaps old age was the culprit for having my hesitations. Whatever happened to that girl a few decades ago that used to call the palengke her piece of paradise?

Prior to the construction of huge malls and supermarkets in our city province, the palengke used to be the only place where you go to shop for daily supplies, it was the only center of commerce for most Batanguenyos where the "rich" and the "poor" brushed shoulders with each other, a haven for shoppers of banig, kapeng barako, sitsirya, suka, komiks, vegetables, clothes. How I loved to go to the palengke with my Inay and get rewarded by the orange-colored butchi and the nilupak wrapped in banana leaf that we bought from the peddlers which lined the side walk. So that afternoon, not wanting to zap my children's enthusiasm, we braved going to the palengke.

Here are our precious finds.

A set of earthen cooking pot and tungko, PhP 50.00, a little over $1.00 dollar.

An oldschool slingshot we call tirador PhP 40.00, that's almost a dollar! 

A pair of Nora slippers at PhP 70.00 or US$ 1.60.

Incidentally, August is a month-long celebration of the Buwan ng Wika at our schools. It is a campaign to use the Filipino language as a medium of communication. Most schools would culminate in festive celebration by having their students wear the Filipino national costumes such as the barong tagalog for boys and the baro't saya or the patadyong for girls. As homeschoolers, our version of celebrating the Buwan ng Wika is slightly different from the mainstream. Going to the palengke alone that afternoon was enough to speak to us how we ourselves help preserve our unique identity even when it's not Buwan ng Wika. My girl found a clay cooking set and paid for it with her own allowance. It was the same kind of cooking pots that I used to play with as a girl. My boy for his part saw this green slingshot we call tirador which he immediately hung around his neck. While we were at the palengke, I took the opportunity to drop by at our favorite Chinese panciteria and ordered a take out, dinner was solved that day as it was getting dark already. We bought the palayok, my son wore the tirador around his neck,  we ordered the pancit wanam to-go, my daughter successfully cooked rice in the palayok in a charcoal-fueled tungko all by herself...now, were these Filipino enough?

It's a palayok, so lining it with a banana leaf  was just the natural thing to do. My daughter admitted that although she considers her first attempt at clay pot cooking a success, the rice was not that soft as compared to the ones that we cook in the electric cooker.

The Internet Age: 

I think that learning to cook the old-fashioned way which begins by starting a fire with charcoal and wood fuel are basic survival skills that the internet generation should learn. Whew! That's quite a challenge I abhorred when I was a kid myself. But at least Moms, we should show our kids an alternative source of energy for cooking besides the LPG or the electricity. And if  you're like me, who consequently did not learn this basic survival skill, our ever reliable house helpers are always around to pitch in for us.

LET'S BEGIN WITH RICE

A Little History

Pinoys have always been rice-eaters dating back to centuries ago long before the Spanish colonizers came to our shores. Early settlers from Taiwan migrated here and built the Banaue Rice Terraces in Ifugao Province, Cordillera Region. With impressive engineering plan, it was believed to be built with our ancestors' bare hands. Our Hagdan-hagdang Palayan is proof that rice had since been a major part of our daily commodities. To this day, it continues to supply our country with rice and other agricultural crops. UNESCO has named it the 8th Wonders of the World.

Have you heard about the “UNLIMITED RICE” promo being offered at our food chains lately? Our food business sector has been very clever in coming up with creative ideas bringing rice at the center of their neck to neck competition for sales. Now, these business establishments really work hard doing their assignment because they figured out a way to address the constant demand for rice, a demand that is ingrained in every Filipino’s system. 

We Can't Live On Bread Alone

I personally know of some people who would throw tantrums if they don’t get to eat rice at least once a day and worst, making them weak and unfit to work. Others would regard it as a form of punishment if you serve them with bread instead of rice. So, if the Parisians say that they get depressed without having bread for a day, we Filipinos have our own stand about such claim: that we cannot live on bread alone but by every scoop of rice which we consume 3X a day. And because rice is very flexible, we pair it with different kinds of dishes that we can think of. Rice and adobo, rice and bistek, rice and sinigang, rice and toyo (soy sauce), and these are just our starters!

The list goes on along with our cunning neologisms for easy recall of rice with ulam combinations. Tapsilog for tapa-sinangag-itlog; longsilog for longganisa-sinangag-itlog; bangsilog for bangus-sinangag-itlog; chicksilog for chicken-sinangag-itlog. Please take note, however, that the rice part - the sinangag - is always stuck in between two ulam combinations. Our love for rice, really, must be one indicator that we are a unique nation, it is our shared identity as Filipinos. It is our elixir in its purest form and solid state! Imagine our diet without the rice being served at the table. Our tablescape must look gloomy and cold.

Have You Ever Snacked on Tutong?

Rice comes in many different varieties. We have the very common milagrosa, pinaula, sinandomeng, dinorado, wagwag, kamuros, among others. We also have the malagkit or sticky rice, which is perfect for cooking kakanin like the old-time favorite biko or sinanglay. How about our childhood comfort food like arroz caldo and champorado that kept our bellies warm during the rainy days? And what about the reddish brown rice which supermarkets now label as organic rice? Back in the 1970’s, (perhaps earlier, forgive me, I'm a Martial Law baby,) eating brown rice was a commonplace in an ordinary Filipino home.  I remember we used to sprinkle it with brown sugar topping. It was more chewy as compared to the soft white rice that we now have at the market. More masticating was needed in order to benefit from its flavor. It was also gut-heavy.  Then there was the famous tutong, the left-over rice which was either mildly burned or charred to the bottom. Family members would come rushing to their batalan or tungko in order to bag the much coveted tutong. Anoint it with soy sauce and used cooking oil from lunch, or better yet, with molten pork fat that was stashed for snacking purposes.

A simple sinaing na kanin would be normally washed 2- 3 times with clean water and then cooked in an open fire, usually in wood-fuelled tungko, or kalan with uling. Fresh pandan leaves would be added to the pot of rice to complete the whole experience of stimulating the sense of smell and the sense of taste. Ahh, the fragrant smell of pandan leaves in boiling rice at the batalan would send signal to family members that it’s almost meal time.