Affirmation: Miracle

I am

a MIRACLE

ALWAYS waiting to HAPPEN.

{image source}

Reflection:

All of us are instrumental in making miracles happen ALL the time. If viewed at a learning and positive perspective, our every endeavor or adversity is an opportunity for us to make a miracle happen in our lives and in other people's lives. This affirmation is a good reminder that unhappy circumstances may be blessings in disguises so let's face our challenges with a proactive and faithful attitude.

Personal:

I was able to compose this affirmation in August when I learned that I am once again facing a health-related challenge in my life. Having health concerns is never easy. There is that initial reaction of surprise and fear. There's also my concern for loved ones whom I know will worry for me. But with faith in God and lots of support and love from family and friends, my fear has turned into excitement...excitement to get well.

Six years ago, I had to undergo a major operation and that experience has taught me to live each moment as if it were my last, to enjoy and just "be". This time around, as I face another major operation, my greatest lesson is to always look for blessings in disguises and that every turning point in my life--whether good or not so good--there is a miracle waiting to happen so I can share more with the people I love.

This week, I face a very challenging situation in order to be healthy again and I am confident that everything will be alright. Thank you to everyone who called, emailed and messaged me. Thank you for wishing me well, for your prayers and good thoughts which inspire me very very much. See you when I'm back from the hospital.

Have a great week!

Our Christmas Bearistas Are Out!

And they will start giving away Christmas pressies today.

Yes, we start attending Christmas parties this weekend. Since some of our Filo friends are leaving for Manila by the first week of December, Christmas parties are usually organized as early as November so we'd still all be here in Sydney. Ganyan ang buhay naming mga Pinoy dito pag Pasko. We have to consider friends' leaving for Christmas holidays in the Phils because we all want to be together and celebrate before we say goodbye to 2009. Our next get-together with our friends is when they come back from their holiday trip.

That is also one reason why we start shopping for Christmas pressies early. Chris and I start shopping as early as October/November...and I do bits and pieces at the start of June every year. We want all gifts to be ready by December because we hate being part of the crowds in malls and we always want a stressful free Christmas. We don't want Christmas time to be about finding gifts and being stressed. We like that Christmas be relaxed so we can focus on spending time with family and friends and celebrating the birth of Christ (which is the true essence of the season).

Other than shopping early for pressies, one of our Christmas traditions is creating our own personalized tags every year and picking out a color for christmas gift wraps.

This is our tag for this year (below) and our theme is silver.

Chris designs whatever artwork we need and our Christmas tags are one of his creations. My role is to supply the words to be written on the tags. Teamwork.

What about you? How are things going with your Christmas preps?

"Me" Time Can Sometimes Be Sushi Time

I've been known to spending "Me" times with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and a cake to go with it. But there are "Me" times of mine, I spend it with Sushi.

The Husband is out with friends tonight and so I went to the mall to see an Optometrist. Before I went home, I dropped by the sushi place and bought myself dinner.

Last night, I teased the Husband: "Yay! You're going out, I don't have to cook dinner and I'll have the house to myself!!!" Hehe. I don't mind cooking for us, but I have to admit that preparing dinner after arriving from work takes a lot of effort sometimes especially when I had a long day at the office. The Husband doesn't pressure me to cook all the time, he actually eats anything I lay on the table. But I can't bear not cooking and just buy take-away food. Once in a while I make an exception, but I really prefer that meals at home are freshly cooked and I know where the ingredients come from.

Anyway, since it's only me tonight, I decided to buy sushi for my dinner as I enjoyed watching "Glee" on TV. It was the episode where they sang "Defying Gravity", my favorite song from one of my favorite musicals "Wicked". I'm one happy camper.

I had a productive "Me" time at the mall after work today. Pag may gimik si Husband, natataranta ako dahil parang ang dami kong gustong gawin o puntahan---hindi ko malaman kung saang mall ako susuot hehe.

This afternoon, instead of window shopping (that sometimes results to buying stuff I don't need), I decided to finally see an Optometrist. I was due for a check-up in September but I've been putting it off (I have my eyes check once a year).

The main reason why I needed to see him, other than have my eyes checked, was because I broke my eyeglasses yesterday. So I brought it there to get it fixed and at the same time buy a new 2nd pair of glasses so I'll have one for the office and one for the home or at least if something happens to either one of them, I'll have a back-up. The bad news is the glasses I broke had to be shipped to some woop woop place because they don't have a certain part for the glasses in stock, so that will take a few days to be repaired. The good new is they have put my new glasses in the "rush" list so that I can pick it up in a few days. They asked me if I can survive without glasses and I said "I think I can". I'm just going to take it easy and give my eyes lots of rest so it can function normally for the next couple of days.

On my way home, I realized that I will be watching a musical tomorrow night and I need glasses when I watch stuff like that. Ayayay! Tomorrow, I'll just drop by the chemist and buy temporary prescription glasses (the cheap ones). Hope that helps.

Other than buy new glasses, I had my eyes checked and the verdict was it is generally healthy. I was a bit worried because two weeks ago, I had an eye infection that lasted for almost a week (didn't go to work for two days). I told the Optometrist what happened and he gave me eyepad cleansers for cleaning my eyelids. He asked me what activities I do that involves the eyes. When I mentioned to him about photography, he gave me this optical lens cleaner that he said might help in cleaning the viewfinder of my camera. He said hopefully it disinfects my viewfinder so the germs won't get transported to my eyes. That was very nice of him.

What about you? Have you had your eyes checked lately? According to the Optometrist, our eyes should be checked at least once a year.

Nearly Summer

The best thing about summer is the fabulous sunsets that the Australian skies produce. Such lovely colours, I can't stop looking outside our balcony. Summer in Australia officially starts on the 1st of December but the country is already experiencing heatwaves and bushfires (not good) but otherwise, no matter how hot some days are, I'm glad that summer is here.

I just want to share how the sunset looked today. This was taken around 8:00PM.

Summer also means that the Husband and I have dinner while watching the sunset (between 6:45-8:00PM). Our dining table is adjacent to the balcony of our apartment so we have a great view infront of us while we eat and catch up on what happened to us during the day. Simply beautiful.

Recipe: Homemade Thin Crust Pizza

I love pizza. But I can't eat pizza all the time because I know how fattening it is (I used to work for a pizza company in Manila and I've trained in the kitchen) and how there's so many preservatives pizzas have in it. The Husband and I have always dreamed of eating take-away pizza for dinner on nights when we're lazy to cook but it has never happened. No matter how lazy I feel sometimes, I can't bear the thought that we will eat take-away food at home (we have exceptions sometimes but rarely does it happen), so whatever mood I'm in, I force myself to cook in order to avoid unhealthy food.

So what does a health-conscious Wifey like me do when take-away pizza is not really an option? I make my own pizza at home!

Please note that pizzas are not entirely healthy even when made at home. But at least I can make an alternative for the dough, use low-fat cheese, know where my ingredients come from and luckily find organic ingredients too.

Making this pizza is a spur of the moment thing. I made this on Saturday (14/11/09) when I realized that I could use my multi-grain wraps as pizza base (it was actually for making chicken wraps for our baon at work). Good thing I have a few ingredients at home to make a pizza.

What you need:
2 Organic Multigrain Wraps
2 Tablespoons Pizza Sauce
1 cup shredded low-fat Cheddar Cheese/Mozarella Cheese
3 pieces medium-sized Cabanossi Sausages, sliced thinly
1/2 cup Mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup Red Bell Pepper, sliced

What you need to do:

1. On your pizza base, spread pizza sauce evenly with the use of spoon.

2. Sprinkle cheese, then arrange sausages, bell peppers and mushrooms on top of your base.

3. Sprinkle another dash of cheese on top before placing inside the oven (this is optional, I love my pizza filled with lots of cheese that's why I add an extra dash).

4. Bake at 200 degrees for 15 minutes.

5. Cut into quarters.

Serves 2 people.

Notes:
(1) If you can't find organic wraps, at least find multi-grain wraps as it is possibly one of the healthiest pizza base you can ever find. A multi-grain wrap is low in fat, low in GI and a good source of fibre. If it is organic, you can be sure that it is free of preservatives.

(2) Having the multi-grain wrap as pizza base made me achieved the thin-crust kind of pizza. It's crunchy and light on the tummy as compared to eating the normal pizza made of dough.

(3) If you can't find multi-grain wraps, the normal Tortilla Wraps can be an alternative pizza base.

(4) You need two to three wraps in making a pizza base as one wrap is too thin. It may not hold the your pizza toppings.

(5) If you don't have mozzarella cheese at home, a good alternative is cheddar cheese. It would be better too if your cheese at home is low-fat.

(6) You can definitely be creative when it comes to pizzas, I guess that's why it's so easy to make them--there's really no concrete rule when it comes to what you can put on top of your pizza base.

(7) Next time I plan to cook my own pizza sauce.

Before We Say Goodnight

We pray and say thanks...

for a busy but productive week at work
for sunshines that gave warmth
for drops of rain that nourished
for sunsets that never cease to amaze me
for happy surprises in the family
for a chance to walk along the beach
for unexpected coffee dates with girlfriends
for being able to help organize two parties
for Thursday dinner at a Chinese resto with the gang
for Friday dinner with another group of friends
for phone calls from friends that asks, "How are you today?"
for positive messages that put a smile in my heart and comfort to my soul
for days that end when I come home to a cheerful home and a Husband who holds my hand til I fall asleep.

Thank you God, thank you universe.
Photo by Ibyang Sanchez 2009 - Sunset taken today.

Why the scarcity of blog entries? Life on my side of the earth has been busy. The Husband and I are juggling work and several personal matters at hand, plus the fact that Christmas is just around the corner. This week, I helped our two groups of friends prepare for our early Christmas parties (some of them are leaving for Manila on the first week of December). This weekend we're rounding up our Christmas gifts and wrapping them so they'd be ready to be given away.

This week, we were also full-on when it came to gimiks with our barkadas: (1) Coffee date with girlfriends on Tuesday; (2) Dinner at a Chinese Resto on Thursday and (3) Dinner with FilOz Gang on Friday. Wow!!! We were in a roll this week aye? The late nights from these dinners were all worth it though as being with friends is always like a breath of fresh air for us, a good way to end a tiring day at work.

Work has settled down a bit but it is still hectic at times. I'm happy to say that our big project (a new training program for employees of our company) which we've worked on since the start of this year has been well-received by our trainess. There's still a couple of things we're straightening out (change is the only permament thing especially in Training) but the pressure has been taken off in terms of deadlines now that we had launched our new training program.

However, work is busy for me because I'm also preparing for a two-week leave from the office as I will undergo a medical procedure soon. My health is one challenging thing for me at this stage but I believe that I will be alright. I'm not worried as family and friends are praying for me and sending positive vibes my way and I know too that God will never fail me. He never did on the first time I had undergone a major surgical procedure so I know I he will never fail me now. God is always faithful.

On that note, health is a priority at the moment so at times when I need to rest I just rest and give up some of my time for blogging. In the principle of time management and prioritizing things, some things I have to let go of in order to give way to my goal of being healthy.

The forthcoming two weeks will be crazy and happy. Chris and I are looking forward to spending time with relatives and friends (we have three parties to attend to and I really hope we can attend all of them) and at the same time celebrate our 34th wedding monthsary (we're excited because we're watching a musicale). Life is good, really good, inspite of the challenges we are facing.

I wish you all a good night and a great week ahead. Smile and be happy!

Menu Checklist (for Hosting Parties)

I'd like to share with you a checklist I've created in order to help me organize my menu whenever we host a party at home.

I used to have a one-dimensional Menu Checklist but in the course of organizing parties and events in the past years, I have improved my Menu Checklist to a three-dimensional one. Here's the menu checklist I used for my Husband's birthday party this year:

This checklist is just a simple table format in a Word document. My checklist consists of three columns: (1) FOOD, (2) To buy and (3) To Do. You may also add a fourth column that says "Person Responsible" if you have a big family and you'd like to delegate a task to each member. In our case, there's only my Husband and I for now and we always share the tasks between the two of us.

Under the Food category, I have subsets that lists our Appetizers, Mains, Desserts and Drinks. In my To Buy category, I list down the ingredients I need to buy at the grocery store. In my To Do category, I write down what needs to be done and when it should be done. If you noticed that some of the things listed here have been strikethroughed already, it means it has been bought or accomplished.

This checklist has proved to be very helpful for me and the Husband. We posted this on the fridge a week prior to the event and we refer to it to make sure that we're right on track when it comes to the party preparations.

I hope this will help you in time for the Christmas parties ahead or in case you will be hosting a party in the future.

H&M Gray Jacket

My Husband calls this my Michael Jackson Jacket...whenever he sees me wearing this, he teases me to sing "Beat It".

He can tease me all he want but I don't care. I love this jacket and if it ever somehow reminds him (or other people) of MJ's wardrobe, then that makes me happier (I'm an MJ fan anyway).

Reasons why I love this H&M Gray Jacket:

(1) It's from H&M and it's one of the many things I bought when we were in Dubai last year. H&M has great stuff, some were created by famous designers (i.e. Comme des Garcons) and yet they sell their clothes at reasonable prices. I wait for the day when Sydney will have an H&M branch here.

(2) The jacket is light and has a flimsy look but can be worn during early Autumn and Spring season. Even with the seemingly thin fabric, it amazingly brings warmth during drizzly weather.

(3) It's gray! It goes well with a lot of colors :)

First photo by Chris Sanchez. Second photo by Jon Dael. Shot at Darling Harbour (6/11/09).

-o0o0o-

Extra news: I was able to try Nikon's D700 last night...it was spanking hot!

No, I'm not making the switch, but it's nice to get to know other cameras and learn about their technology too.

Nike Ads featuring Roger Federer

Sharing with you these two cool ads from Nike featuring Roger Federer. Enjoy!

According to his latest FB message, Roger Federer will be at the Australian Open next year. Anyone here planning to watch the Australian Open in January 2010?

Recipe: Noodles with Shrimps and Scallops

I'd like to share with you this very simple and easy-to-cook noodle recipe my Tita Cyn shared with me.

What you need:

2 tablespoons Olive Oil
Crushed Garlic
125 grams Vermicelli Rice Noodles/Sotanghon (soak in water to soften, then strain)
Lime (to taste)
Scallops
Prawns/Shrimps
Salt & Pepper (to taste)

What you need to do:

1. Saute garlic in olive oil.

2. Add the scallops and prawns/shrimps. Cook for 5-10 minutes.

3. Add the vermicelli rice noodles (sotanghon).

4. Stir in lime, salt and pepper to taste.

5. Leave for another 10 minutes until noodles are cooked.

Serves 3-4 people.

Notes:

1. You can use other oils like canola or sunflower.

2. This only took me 20 minutes to cook, very time-friendly for working wifeys like me :)

3. Scallops are a good source of vitamin B12, omega-3 fatty acids, magnesium and pottasium. {source}

4. Prawns/Shrimps are a good source of selenium, vitamin D, vitamin B12 and omega-3 fatty acids. {source}

Sakura Egg Bag by sashiko design

Discovered this red egg bag during the Floriade 2009 Festival. It caught my eye because of it's shape, simplicity and versatility. Just like the candy bag chain I discovered a few months ago, it can be worn two different ways: as a handbag....

or a shoulder or sling bag.

It's called a Sakura Egg Bag, designed by a Japanese woman who named her store sashiko design. All her bags are handmade but durable. sashiko design has a gallery/studio in Hobart, Tasmania but for Sydneysiders, their products are being sold at the Object store in Bourke Street, Surry Hills, Sydney. You can also shop online via http://www.sashikodesign.com/store/index.php. They ship internationally and offer free gift wrapping.