Are You Ready to Take the Plunge?

Many years back, when I was a young girl, I was blown away by an iced tea TV commercial that left my mouth agape every time it got flashed on TV. It didn't matter then how many times this commercial hit the airwaves – its euphoric appeal got me thunderstruck and wowed me endlessly like I've seen it the first time.

Picture this: a young teenage girl drinks a glass of fresh iced tea and quenches her thirst on a hot summer day then suddenly makes an unexpected backward fall into the pool- aaahhh….feeling the freshness of cool water as she splashes away.

Now tell me, who wouldn't want to be in her place? If I were her, I'd do back flips, backward takeoffs, springboard dives, or side flips or swan dives- Ok …Ok…. I don't really know how to do any of those. I was just showing off.

But I still wish I could really venture into a free fall one time in my life. Who cares about a bad fall as long as I get the best time splashing all over and getting out of the water with a big grin on my face.

I may sound a bit of a ballsy adventurer. True. Probably because I'm the type who'd like to embark on a certain level of excitement in my life- not necessarily adrenalin- pumping and hair- raising excitement but I'm talking about everyday life adventures. Although giving adrenalin pumping and hair raising adventure-a try is not a bad idea at all.

Sometimes we don't realize that every single day is an adventure itself. Just think about this, you start your day making an insignificant decision such as how you like your eggs cooked for breakfast- will it be fried? boiled? over easy? or scrambled? Will you wear a green shirt? or a brown one? Will you wear your hair down or curl it a little?

You pick your choice. You decide.

Then you end up your day in bed racking your brains about heavy-weight decision whether to take better job offer or not or whether to marry your boyfriend or stay single. You cull and then you decide.

Whatever we do everyday, we're always left with choices. To risk or not to risk. Accept it or not, it always demands a great deal of audacity to be a risk taker- would you like to have your breasts augmented? or climb Himalayas, meet your Facebook friend in person, break up your relationship in favor of a new one, emigrate to another country or simply decide whether to sit next to a dubious looking character on the plane or not.

These will absolutely require you to come up with a snap or a well thought about decisions that could make you feel better at the end of the day.
If you come to think of it, what are you really looking for? I know. It's the inner joy the certain level of happiness is what you're aiming for like a pot of gold sitting at the end of the rainbow for your prize.

The pursuit for the elusive happiness is the driving force can make you take a giant leap of faith- that no one else can do. The search for the elusive happiness is the one that can make you do what you don't normally do. Seeking for the elusive happiness is the one that can make you suddenly become a different person.

Some may frown or raise eyebrows, purse their lips or downright put two thumbs down on your decisions but who cares? The strength that you mustered going out of your comfort zone to find the indefinable happiness is way admirable.Give yourself a reward for that since not everyone has the temerity to move heaven and earth just to seek his own happiness.

Packing your bags and living in an exotic country or trekking the Himalayas or starting a life with a new person in your life is not as easy and fun as shopping downtown. Not even close. (I wish they were- so I'd be in the Himalayas every weekend.)

Taking chances to experience something new in your life doesn't give out promises that will be followed by a happy ending. But expecting for happiness to fall on your lap while sitting down and watching six o clock news is not going to happen either. Sometimes, it's worth to take boulder sized risks to be able to feel the glory. No guts, no glory as they say. The odd side of chances is that- once you let it go, it may never come back again in the same form.

The line "Life is too short" has been overused (and abused several times.)But it's true. Life is too short. You got to make the most out of it while you still can. Whenever I make decision, I only think about Mark Twain's words, "Twenty years from now, you'll be more disappointed by the things you did not do than by the things you did."

And I hope I won't come to a point when I'm old and gray,as I sit on a rocking chair, pondering, that I'd regret why I didn't do what I had to do before. The truth is, life is teemed with risks and decisions. That's why don't be afraid to up your ante a little. Because life is a game of chance. One can never be sure of what life will bring you.

Like the back fall into the pool or skydiving, I'm doing a full gear check, strapping and buckling up tightly to make sure my parachute is going to open up in mid-air.

Because soon, I'm about to embark on a big sky dive of my life and when I jump, I intend to glide gracefully wherever the wind takes me and enjoy one hell of a ride.-J.A.S.

Spring Cleaning: If You Can Do It-Your Kids Can Do It Too!

Need help with your Spring Cleaning? You don't have to do it alone. Your kids can join you too in cleaning up the clutter, dusting off furniture and tossing old worn- out stuff that you haven’t used up for ages.

Teaching kids to get involved with household chores prepare them for their responsibility in the future. According to Marty Rossman, a researcher and an Emeritus Associate Professor of Family Education, "Teaching kids at an early age to take part in the household tasks will enable them to develop sense of responsibility, competence self-reliance and self-worth."

So before you rack your brains in figuring out how to complete your Spring Cleaning adventure, here's how you will do it in 5 easy ways.

1.Make Spring Cleaning a Fun Activity:
Just like kite flying, swimming and other fun activities, spring cleaning should be considered as an enjoyable activity too. However, that depends on how you present the idea to your kids. If you want to make them join you, put a little excitement in your tone. Hype up spring cleaning activity few days before you do the actual work. And when you start, play some games as such sorting, classifying, counting, identifying colors and beginning sounds of words among others to make it real fun.

2.Give Special Rewards:
Helping you with gardening, cleaning the closet, or sorting broken toys could be quite a challenge for young kids. So to increase their motivation, give special incentives like stickers, ice cream, a trip to the park, arranged play dates with friends among others. You don't have to spend a lot of money for rewards. Remember that children love simple joys in life.

3.Use the Opportunity to Teach:
If you're encouraging your kids to learn how to do household chores, make use of this chance to teach values, learning concepts or basic ideas so learning would not only be confined in the four corners of the classroom. Share the goals and objectives of your spring cleaning task. Let them know that they are already growing so fast. And it's time for them to do what big boys and girls do.

4. If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It:
An old saying that means if everything is alright, then don't do something about it. With regard to the kids' spring cleaning exploration, this means the other way around. I'm sure you know that kids will never clean up the way adults do. It will always turn out that the finished job would be needing some polishing somehow- you know how kids are! However, if your child's completed job is far from your neatness standards, then leave it at that. It will add to your child’s self-confidence to see that you appreciate their efforts even if the job needs a lot of tweaking in the end. By recognizing his efforts, chances are, you'll get a help again from your children with your Spring Cleaning next year. But ofcourse, nobody stops you from fine tuning their finished job when they're away or asleep. Just don't make it too noticeable, they'll surely spot it.

5. Be Proud of Your Child:

Tell other moms and dads, your friends, family, relatives and colleagues at work what you turned your child into. Flaunt his small but meaningful accomplishments. When he hears you're proud of him, he develops his self-esteem and self- worth subsequently.

By getting your child involved with tasks like Spring Cleaning, you consequently, make your child become responsible, caring, competent and more matured for his age.

So what are you waiting for? Ask your child to help you now before he changes his mind.

Enjoy your Spring Cleaning!

-J.A.S.-

Helping Your Child Get Back on Track

NOTE: This article is a repost of an article that I've written exactly one year ago on American Chronicle. Just thought of sharing this again to my blog readers who are parents, teachers, child advocates or care givers who may be struggling with some post Christmas holiday issues with your child. I wish you a smooth and an easy going back to work or school transition on Monday.

Now that the holiday season frenzy is over, after getting yourself ginger up with home decoration, shopping, cooking, planning your family winter skiing holiday, the next thing that you wouldn't even dare to think about is to go back to the old grind, isn't it?

The thought of coming back to a desk with high pile of papers, driving your kids back to school in an early morning traffic rush and beating deadlines at the office are not only akin to being visited by your Christmas past but thoughts that you wouldn't even want to muse about in the midst of your relaxed family bonding this holiday season.

Adults are not the only ones feeling the jitters of the first week back to the old routine mode.

Your child feels the same way too.

This is why some children sometimes revert to the adjustment period stage exhibiting episodes of crying, whining, temper tantrums and clinging when they go back to school. Children spent three long weeks or even more with parents at home during the holiday break. From the first day of their Christmas vacation ending to its last day, children have adapted new set of I-can-do-what-I-want-to-do-at-home routine. This includes, staying up late, frequent play dates, watching late night TV shows or DVD, skipping afternoon naps, getting up at ten, tagging along with mom on a shopping spree and other similar free wheeling activities.

Now that classes have just started or perhaps to some are about to start next week, getting back your child on track may be an onerous attempt like pulling a tugboat with bare hands. To make your home-school transition in a smooth fashion, here are a few tips that can make wonders and less stressful for you in dealing with your child's post holiday struggles.

1. Psych Up Your Child Gradually. Inform your child that holiday season will be over after the New Year. Thereby, he'll be going back to school and doing the same old routine of getting up early and being picked up in the afternoon just like before Christmas. Whether your child understands the concept or not, it doesn't matter as long as you made him informed and reminded about the series of events that will come his way soon.

2.Establish the Old Routine Few Days After Christmas: It doesn't matter whether it's few days after Christmas or few days after the New Year for as long as you start putting your child to bed early-instead of ten in the evening, try nine then move down to eight ( if that was his ideal bedtime.) Slowly, his body gets to be readjusted to new habits gradually and will get accustomed to it before he goes back to school. By the same token, if waking up your child early could post as a problem, try getting him up the usual time he wakes up before he goes to school. Remember that the earlier you put him to bed, the more chances he gets the ample 8 hour sleep.

3. Do Your Bedtime Story Earlier: If your child can't sleep without your mom-child-story-bonding-time, then adjust your bedtime story earlier. This would entail an early adjustment of your household routine such as making dinner, tidying up the kitchen and putting on his pajamas then accentuate the end of the day with a bedtime story before tucking him into bed.


4. Control Late Night TV Viewing: Say goodbye to late night cartoons, DVDs or computer games. Staring on the TV screen or computer monitors for a long time has harmful effects on children. According to Dr. Sigman, a psychologist who studied on the effects of television watching on children, "Excessive TV viewing may cause physical, cognitive and educational damage later on."

Ergo, limit your child's TV viewing in the afternoon for one to two hours. Don't deprive him of his pleasure to watch instead monitor TV watching strictly.

5. Start Doing School Work Piece by Piece: Some schools give homework or essays about a recount of their Christmas holidays. Some don't.

If your child's school sent some homework, you may start doing it one piece at a time. There's no point in putting pressure on the child to accomplish everything all in one go. Few days after Christmas or New Year are still part of their holiday. So, let your child set one foot in winter wonderland and the other foot in the school door.

The point being here is to make them do their homework on a scheduled time consistently while enjoying the rest of the holiday season. Whether answering pages of workbooks, writing essays, book reports or coloring pages, as long as these tasks are done while on vacation religiously-at least for an hour, you'll see that redirecting your child's mind to go back to school won't be a Herculean task after all.

6. Prep Him Up The Night Before:

Don't forget to give your child a plethora of encouragement anchored to the idea that school is fun. Cheer him up with the assurance that his classmates and favorite teachers are there waiting for him. You may entice him to tell his friends at school about his wonderful holiday skiing trip, memorable time with grandparents, presents he got from Santa or the tallest snowman he ever built. Providing a feeling of excitement to your child a night before the first day of school after the holiday break will evoke a more positive disposition which consequently will make your child look forward to go to school.

Spending the holiday season is such an invigorating respite from the endless humdrum of daily work-home routine schedule. The sad thing is, in as much as you would wish that the alignment of stars will be in your favor bringing no end to those blissful moments of vacation, you'll always reach your vacation's last day, no matter what. In this case, you might as well get yourself armed to the teeth and accept the fact that holiday is over.

That's when reality bites.

Wheat Filled Life

The taller, the greener and the stronger the wheat sprouts until Christmas Eve -the more prosperous your life will be for the coming year. At least this is what they believe as part of the Christmas holiday tradition in Croatia, Hungary and some other parts of Europe who have been planting wheat at this time of the year in honor of St. Lucia. More than just blessings and prosperity, a sheath of wheat symbolizes new life, growth and resurrection.

I never knew this before until I saw my husband planting wheat on a clay plate for the first time- I was awestruck. Since I come from Asia, where countries prefer rice than bread, wheat is not a common plant to see (not until recently as they’re promoting wheat grass as a nutritional drink in Malaysia and Philippines.)

As I gapingly watched my husband embedded the clay plate with pieces of cotton, (yes, not soil but damped cotton) before he sprinkled wheat seeds on top, my stupefied face looked like a 3 year old girl’s first time experience to see how icing is spread on a cake with unblinking eyes.

Few days after the planting ceremony that includes making sure the cotton is damped all the time, keeping them at room temperature and exposing the wheat with sufficient light needed-lo and behold, fresh apple green colored grass started to germinate.

I didn’t know how I was supposed to react over a natural plant growth sequence- you plant then ofcourse it will grow. So what’s the big deal?

My husband gingerly said, “Congratulations, lovi, your wheat grew just right before Christmas Eve.” At the back of my mind I was like, “Ok so what?” But after my husband told me about the significance of the growth spurt on Christmas Eve – he explains that the noticeable increase of height of the grass bespeaks of how fruitful and progressive my life would be next year.

Then that was when I started to literally jump and cheered a resounding “yehey, yes! yes! and yes!” I admit -my over reaction was more like the wheat predicted that I’d be winning lottery next year (ok that’s quite an exaggeration but you’ll never know.)
However, if you want to see a dramatic growth before the big day, make the most out of your nurturing skills few days before the 24th. Ok I know that’s partly cheating but well…ok erase that part.

Just hope against hope that you’ll see a growth spurt before Christmas Eve. And you'll be all set for the coming year.

Everyone is excitingly looking forward to the breaking of a new year on Friday. With full anticipation of blessings, prosperity, good luck, positive energy and perfect alignment of stars on your favor, we somehow plant wheat inside our hearts to embrace a new life for a new year with fervor.

I wish everyone especially my faithful blog readers abundant blessings, Christ centered and a wheat filled life for 2011.

My Christmas Past, Present and Future.

Few days away from today, a new year is about to begin. As I mull over how each day of my 2010 went by,I can’t help but be amazed how time flies so fast that I didn’t even realize the brisk ticking of time as the new year approaches.

I don’t know how your year unfolded- but mine was chock full of blessings, challenges, unexpected trips, opportunities, struggles, decision makings, dilemma, compromises, lost of a loved one and yet a birth of a new life. The first half of this year sailed on steadily without hassles. However, I had no inkling that the second half of the year would have spun around to its opposite direction.

An unanticipated and unwelcomed visitor in my life- a familiar name, called anemia happened sometime in June that inextricably scared the living daylights out of me. My first time with blood transfusion made me wonder for a second what was wrong with my body which I thought was well pampered with vitamins, exercise and good food.

But since I am a feisty fighter, I mustered the strength to literally stand on my feet the next day and begged those red blood cells to reproduce some more. And so they did. Though, I still looked pallid like half-beaten by a vampire towards the end of June but I considered myself lucky enough to have looked that way than appearing like a character in The Twilight Saga.

Gradually my determination to get well paid off. And a holiday trip with my husband to the Philippines spruced up my summer 2010. After the amazing time with my family, we went back to Croatia and went through the old grind-work, home and weekend activities.

Just a month after, a startling phone call turned my life upside down. Mom was in a critical condition due to a massive brain stroke. I was overwrought. Distressed. My body juddered incessantly. At that very moment, I was wishing that it was just a bad dream.

But it wasn’t.

I flew out of Croatia immediately and upon arriving to Manila, I dashed to the hospital directly from the airport. It wasn’t a pleasant sight to see your mother plugged to machines, shaved head and recuperating from craniotomy.

My faith barometer worked overtime. I prayed for healing miracles to God every single day in a span of a month while mom was in St.Luke’s Hospital Global City. Blessedly, she was checked out on a significant date, November 1, 2010, her birthday. What could be a better birthday gift than that, isn’t it?


God is indeed so good.

My mom went through stages that beckoned signs of recovery. It was overwhelming to see her milestones of improvements.
I had peace in my heart knowing that she was being taken care of by my overzealous sisters Reina, Mai and Chip, who are naturally gifted with nurturing spirits. Brenda my other sister’s impeccable financial management prowess and my brothers’ knack for logistics details made me a firm believer of the saying “There’s always good in bad.”

Clearly, this predicament made us gleamed in a dark situation such as this not only as an individual but as team players- we did our best we could to see our mom back the way she was before.

Surprisingly, three weeks later, God showed us a different route to my mom’s happiness. He took her with Him to heaven where she laid resting comfortably in His bosom. God shared to us a wonderful and a loving mother, our first teacher who touched the lives not only of my family members but a whole lot of people whom she had helped before.

Leaving behind my Christmas past in 2010 is not all about completely forgetting it. But clinging on dearly to the sweet and bitter memories of the past year inspire me as I make first bold steps towards my emotional healing in my Christmas present. What my Christmas future holds? Honestly, I don’t know.
I’m as clueless as you are with yours.

But I believe that every cloud has a silver lining. And from where I’m standing, I can already spot a blinding glint radiantly illuminating from afar.

Have a Blessed Christmas and a Prosperous 2011, Everyone!

Special Note:

On behalf of my family, I am thanking the members of Neurology Department of St.Luke’s Hospital, Global City, Manila, Philippines headed by Dr. Roy Torcuator, Dr. Vince De Guzman and other members of his team who put a new meaning to excellent medical service.

To all members of the professional nursing team at Critical Care Unit and 7th floor particularly Nurses Kim and Randy, you guys are modern day angels. Your care went over and beyond the call of nursing duty. Thank you for making my mom’s life joyful and comfortable while she was there. The surprised early morning birthday greetings, flowers and balloons from all of you surely made her last birthday a day to remember.

Thank you.

Tis the Season To Be Jolly

“Deck the halls with boughs of holly fa la la la la la la la” Do you like that one too? When I was a young girl, whenever I heard that Christmas carol, I had always been curious how boughs of holly looked like. All I knew before was that we used to scrunch pieces of paper into small marble sizes and wrapped them with red crepe papers that we wired to green spiked edged elliptic shaped paper leaves-and voila, we had an instant holly plant for Christmas décor in a tropical country.

That wasn’t hard. You can try that yourself especially for children’s art activities.

But ever since I moved to a place where temperatures go below zero, it’s a great relief that during Christmas, I save my fingers from crumpling pieces of newspapers and few bucks for red crepe papers since holly plants here are real.

And they look absolutely gorgeous!

As I got enthralled not only with the Christmassy tune of the song, but with the endearing Holly plant as well, I went few steps further than just admiring a pot of Holly shrub that I bought from a plant nursery- I researched more about them.

And here’s what I found out.

According to a site called piglette.com, the Holly plant’s evergreen nature made it so special during Christmas. The Druids of the Celtic Society used Holly for head dresses while brandishing the beauty of red berries on their heads since they represented the sacred blood of their goddess.

During the Roman period, they used Holly to decorate their houses as it symbolized kindness and friendship. In fact, the pagans during this period left Holly plant outside their homes because of their belief that fairies sought Holly Shrubs as shelter during the cold temperature of winter. (Now, since I’ve got a pot in my balcony, I’m expecting a slew of Tinkerbells to fly around at night.)

For Christians, holly became a symbol of Christmas with its sharp edged leaves that bespeak of Christ’s thorns and red berries for His precious blood. In essence, holly represents peace, joy, friendship and good cheer.
Now that we know that there’s more to holly’s beauty than meets the eye, next time, you’re buying Christmas plants, don’t just pick poinsettias- grab a pot of holly too.

Holly plant is more than just a bunch of sparkling dark red berries sprucing up our balconies or end corner of the living room. With its real meaning, it awakens us to open our hearts and homes to the needy during this time of the year.

Let me assure you that not only that holly’s sparkling glory can make you smile in a cold winter morning, but these little bright red balls with evergreen leaves can also make you sing fa la la la la la la.

I am Thankful For....

Meister Eckhart a German Philosopher said that” If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is ‘thank you’, it will be enough.”

Often times, we forget to say thank you not only to people who go out of their way to extend help to us but to our God who never misses a day sending bountiful blessings.

Though I’m still grieving for the death of my beloved mom, but tomorrow’s thanksgiving is a perfect time for me to give thanks to God to have known such an endearing soul, an admirable woman, a dedicated teacher, a loving wife and a selfless mother.

More than anything else, I thank the Lord for giving me an amazing three weeks to be with my mother at the hospital before she passed away last Monday. The time I spent with her-sharing stories, staying at her bedside and watching her sleep was one of the memorable moments that I’d treasure for the rest of my life.

She left the world with peace in her soul and happiness in her heart knowing that we, her children loved her more than she had ever known. But the peerless love of a mother is unconditional and unmatched.

And this is what I am thankful for.

How about you? What are you thankful for?