Return Of The Comeback

Domestic Drummer 2019

HI everyone. I really don’t know if anyone is still reading this. If you are, thank you for sticking it out this long with me J For the first timers….. I hope you enjoy this new part of the ride with me.

SO! Wow, two years have flown just on by and I’m thanking my stars I haven’t forgotten my password!

Kidding aside, I’m glad to be starting this journey again and I KNOW, for sure, that I will be sticking with it this time. Why? Because for once in my life I’m going to truly have the time, and more importantly, I can make the time.  Yeah I’ve given myself that luxury now.

Ok, ok so coming from where I left off.

Minimalism. Ok, I’m still trying to work on that and I’m still interested in it, and I’m still trying.

But the biggest news right now is that I’m moving out of the city I’m living in. Currently I’m living in Manila, and not to sound like I’m traitor to my city or country, but it’s become a little toxic for my liking.

I’ve also always somehow deep in my gut wanted all those picturesque even pastoral scenes for my little kid. My present partner and I have been planning this move for the last three years and I’m excited, as well as nervous, to get things going. But as with any move it isn’t without its own set of problems as you can imagine. The scheduling by far is the worst of it all, but we’re almost at the tail end of this journey, and too close to the beginning of the next to quit. NEVER SAY DIE! 🙂

So back to the minimalism. Boy, do I need to practice what I post. I figured that this move would help me do it and wow. You really forget all the stuff you accumulate whether or not you realise it, in your lifetime. Now, imagine that times two, seeing as you’re moving with your partner. On top of which you need to figure in your kid’s and dogs’ combined stuff as well. YEAH. I cannot wait to get rid of more than half this stuff. Clothes that don’t fit properly, chargers for forgotten electronic devices, empty bottles of lotion (my partner as it turns out, is a low key hoarder), old discs and CDs, and all these other things that can and have induced stress. But, we have powered through and here we go.

June 10th, I’ll be flying ahead with my son, and my partner will meet us there in our new house a couple of days later after his work here in the city is done.

SO! Here is to new writings and new adventures that I hope to share with you on this platform. Let’s see what the horizon holds, and I’m going into it like an old time explorer trying to find new stuff to do and see and learn! I cannot wait. I hope you guys (whoever is still reading me) will join me on this little journey and new chapter of my life.

And of course, there will always be music.

Here’s one from one of my favorite bands.

Minimalist?

Question: have any of you here gotten into this? 🙂

 

http://www.theminimalists.com/

Been joining groups online. Seems like something I want to aim for. Have you tried? Any tips? I’m looking to minimize my wardrobe.

Rainy days

WHEW. I’ve finally, FINALLY found time to sit down and write. I’m so sorry it took ages!

So where were we?

OK, my Bullet Journal journey is seemingly bad as it has no washi tape or any of those fancy drawings. I’ve kept it to a minimum, seeing as the whole point of it is to record what is important to you, and not to show off what layout you did handmade for 6 hours. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, and if that helps motivate people then YAY them. But for me, I see that the minimalist thing is working better and I get to open it up every day, along with my appointment planner and basically get to see where I am in my life, figuratively and literally. It’s nice to check in daily and see where I’m going, and it makes my dreams more of a reality when I see it on paper. Thus far it is helping.

Though I really should get on with the planks and walking every day.

Nonetheless, it is raining again in my part of the world, and it is coming down in BUCKETS. Ok no, barrels more like.  A perfect Saturday for me 🙂

Now, when I left this blog (again, I know I know I’m so sorry) in the beginning of June, I said I’d make an update on the food situation. I have the pictures but I will wait to post another time as I didn’t get it together or have been able to look through them.  I succeeded in making a few dishes. Out of the 5 dishes I listed I made 2 and an added four more. They are the following:

• roast chicken
• vegetable soup (need to perfect this yet; not too happy about the turn out)
• carbonara
• pork adobo
• lasagna
• chili

Must say that the one I was deathly afraid of was the chili. I was really hoping everything would taste good especially because I kept out the beans. It actually came out ok! So now, these are the 5 Go-Tos for this house, and I will be making stocks and stocks of it. This coming week, I’m going to grocery shop for two weeks again. Will do some more of the roast chicken, make it even TWO and perfect that damn vegetable soup. There’s a taste I feel like I’m missing out on… anyway. I also need to figure out measurements. *groan* I do everything by look and feel and taste (Taurus much?) so it may be hard to do so, but, let’s see.

Maybe I can turn all these things into a cook book of some sort? Each dish will be accompanied by a playlist whilst cooking? There’s an idea. Hmmm….

Anyway, little reminders for me now that the new month is starting!

1. BLOG MORE OBVS
2. Get the house in order (I finally found a neighborhood all around handyman!)
3. Try to have rice only in the mornings
4. Eat more vegetables (obviously)
5. Spend more time with my son
6. Do something with my savings
7. Perfect the recipes I’ve listed down and add 3-4 more

I think that will do for now.  Because the weather seems to be calling for it, here’s my favorite classical dude, Ludwig. All 6 hours of him. Hahaha! Funnily enough, this is a great soundtrack for me in the office, when I need to zone out and just get to working. I should play it more often actually.

Enjoy your weekend!

Wet and Wending Wednesday

Catching my breath today, the middle of the week.

Thus far, my team in my new job has been as productive as can be, but we can always do better so…. there are two more days and we will kick ass.  But for now, I will leave the professional posts on my professional blog 🙂

That aside! 🙂 Slowly getting the house in shape. Getting back into the spirit of cleaning and nesting.

Updates: I did start a Bullet Journal, but it is as of now, very sparse. It’s doing what I want it to do, which is let me be able to keep track of the things I want to achieve. I’ve joined Facebook groups that help with the obsession  hobby and give really good tips and tricks. Though the thing is, for me anyway, there seems a little too much, with the glitter, the colors and such, that’s why I’ve just stuck to the black and white pens, sometimes using green ink to strike out those I’ve achieved. I have to say, those little green checks really does help motivate me. I WANT MORE! 🙂

I’ll show a picture as soon as I am more comfortable in my uh, writing skillz. 😉

So yeah, I’m just taking a break right now to see how how far I’ve come from Monday, and how far I have to go til Friday.

Planning to do another meal plan for the next week as last week’s cooking spree is working out awesome. SO! This weekend, I plan to make 5 things in amounts that will last another week:

• beef and cheesy lasagna
• meatballs
• potato salad (coz YUM)
• egg breakfast cups for my punkus
• chili – both super spicy and not so spicy, and no beans because my BF has gout 😦

Do you have your favorite recipe for these? I actually should take note of them, because sometimes I forget one ingredient or two.

Have a good rest of the week ahead guys! 🙂

So many memories of mine come back alive when this song is played 🙂 I’m so happy he came up with a video for it after 40 years. HAHA!

Sunday Sloooowing waaay down

Whew what a week it has been! Sorry I’ve left you alone for awhile again but I’m seriously keeping to my promise this time around!

It’s now the beginning of June and the past few weeks have been incredibly crazy for me and my little tribe. The most recent development is me moving back into the corporate world after nearly 3 years of not being in it. Suffice it to say, that it took a LOT for me to move out of freelancing, and my new job gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse. (Yeah, I did the reference there.)

OK OK OK ONTO BUSINESS WE GO.

So because I’m spending less time at home (this, by FAR is the biggest drawback and my biggest fear about going back to corporate world), I’ve gone back to doing what I call “package meals.” What do I mean by that?

Well first and foremost, there are 4 heads (and two rambunctious furry ones) that I need to feed in this house. Because we’re still trying to be as frugal as we can be, so we can save up for a rainy day, I’m trying to find the best ways to keep our food natural and less package-y so we all more or less know what goes INTO everyone’s tummy and internal system. Also, we would like to do it without spending a ridiculous amount in these artisinal organic stores, that though are SOOO yummy, are also one of the many reasons why my wallet weeps. So I tend to make stuff myself.

In the past entries I’ve put in here, you probably noticed that I usually cook in vast quantities. Now, this is because as I am out of the house a lot, now more than ever, I need to be able to know that everyone, in their various schedules are still eating. I would rather they eat IN than out, apart from the cost, most times we grab the easiest thing there, and those tend not to be healthy.

For example, as far as Sunday lunches are concerned, I made a healthy one today:

This is my favorite version of the mighty tomato sandwich. Just lightly toasted bread, butter and sliced tomatoes, with mixed salt and pepper on it. In the cup is a roasted vegetable soup I’m still trying to perfect, though the grated ginger adds the kick I want to it. The whole lunch probably cost me about P150. It is still relatively healthy (bread is whole wheat, and the only “packaged” thing I put in that is one bouillon for the soup), and will last us a few days.

The problem with vast quantities is that most times the whole thing doesn’t get eaten, and tends to get rotten… and thus wasting more, rather than letting everyone save instead. So I am about to tweak this mentality a bit. I’ll still buy and cook in quantity, but I will do a specified version of my packaged meal. What do I mean by that? I mean I have been teaching myself to approach this with more strategy, than just wanting to save money. I need to make sure that the HOUSE will also EAT all the damn food in the fridge.

What I realised is that they inevitably, get tired of what is in the fridge, like “OMG wtf, it’s chicken breasts again.” To me, it is a bargain if I buy the chicken breasts in bulk rather than piece by piece (I really need to top my S&R membership again), or porkchops by the pound. Now, what I realised is that I need to be more creative with what I make with this. Example: instead of making 2 big dishes with a kilo of chicken breasts, I should divide that by 3: make one dish I’d like, one that the house would like, and the other pieces should be left to whomever wants to cook them themselves, in whatever way they want to eat it.

In other words, though I’ll still buy more or less in bulk, I will make it so that there is more variety. SO! To get this challenge started, which I will do in the coming weeks, I’ve decided my first mission is the two of the more easier meats: beef and pork. Beef just because it can be made into many things, and pork, well coz the meat is yum.

So here I go. Another mission into the (guerrilla) culinary world. I will record the process every step of the way, and I’ll keep you updated with what’s going on.

What are you budget food tricks you do for your family and friends at home? Any tips you want to share with me (god knows I need it haha)?

Here’s a little slowdown music for your Sunday from a friend of mine 😉

Here goes…..

So! I’m attempting to bring back the blog to life. Resuscitation officially starts now!

What to write about? Well, since I’ve grasping for a bit of creativity here, need for a jump start if you will, I decided to look into things that help my creativity juices flowing and the muses dancing.

So what gets my gut going? Music. Seriously I get my muse on when I hear music. Today I listen to a whole bunch of stuff, but being as old as I am, I have become that lady that wants only my old rock n’ roll and I’ve starting to say that “I don’t understand these young ones and their shit music.” Yes, sadly, I’ve actually shouted out the window, “KEEP THE RUCKUS DOWN YOU LITTLE SHITS!” Pathetic. But I have also tried, really and earnestly have been trying, to keep up with the latest music. There are just some songs that get repeated enough that it filters through all the clubs and gets to mine old ears. One of them is Justin Timberlake. I mean really, who does not like the Justin?

When “Can’t Stop the Feeling” came out and people were talking about it all over the internet, I had to click. Damn, that thing is catchy as hell. And feel good too.

I kind of have been listening (trying very, VERY hard), to the new electronica music and the hits and, well, I just do not get it. I used to be able to tell house and techno and drum and bass apart, and now is it just me or does everything sound the damn same? Even the pop songs that the artists are putting out, more or less, sound the same? After 4 or 8 counts, you drop the beat, another 4 to 8 counts you bring up the music so loud you bust eardrums open? This is one of the reasons why that I don’t go to clubs any more. Well one of the MANY, MANY reasons. Another would be shit conversations, if you can even get a word in without shouting. I guess it’s just not my scene and I’m not one of those who go there “for the music” anymore because…well, I don’t understand the “music” they’re playing.

And really, I’d rather play drums.

Am I being a dumpy old hag? Possibly. But when the beat of the song is really predictable and is the same throughout the next 3 songs, it gets boring. I am trying to give the new music a chance, seeing as how technology has moved it forward and the sounds that are being created interest me, but I just wish it weren’t so… predictable.

There are some with great talent out there, for sure, and I wish they would be given more courage to push the creativity envelope further. I mean, sheesh, look at Madonna. The woman is in her 50s and still making the world gasp at her being outrageous, even if it is just the outrageousness of her doing what she’s doing at 50 plus.

So I guess I got my groove back…a bit. I need to hone this a little more and I’ll get back to more writing soon. I’ll leave you with this for now, from an old lady, who loves her old rock n’roll.

Sunday Musings

Ah Sundays. The day of the week that I feel most in control of the upcoming week, that everything is still in my hands, and the chaos is manageable. I like the planning that comes with lazy Sunday afternoons, and nights, that hopeful look forward to the potential the new week can bring.

So recently I’ve decided to join some groups on Facebook in the hope that my interests will become hobbies and hobbies will become habits. One of these is that of Bullet Journaling. Now, a disclaimer: I HAVE NOT, REPEAT, I HAVE NOT STARTED A JOURNAL as of yet. Crazy as it may sound, I didn’t feel like I grasped the whole concept of it, nor was I ready for it, at the beginning of the year. The more I’ve been reading about it on my Facebook feed though, the more intrigued I’ve gotten and thus, now I’m bingeing on YouTube videos on “how tos” for the best ways of starting and keeping it simple without losing my mind. There are a hundred different ways to have one, and the very idea of it being flexible is the reason that drew me in to begin with. The fact that it involves doodling and such is even more up my alley. The only thing is that I was worried that I would have too many planners, as I already have one for my day to day activities.

But the more I look into it, the more it seems that this is more than just a planner, this is something that can help me motivate myself into getting my tasks done, and hopefully be more productive. When you go to the official site of Bullet Journaling, http://bulletjournal.com, they say that it’s an analog system for the digital age, another aspect that I like because I know it sticks more in my head when I write something down. That’s why though I work in digital, I need to have my pen and paper around somewhere. Still different to get those ideas down in a book or a pad of paper. Long story short, I love this thing.

Now, the question is when to start? Because it is flexible enough, I’ve decided to start one in May, my birthday month. By then I’m sure I’ll be able to make things more organised and make the Bullet Journal more personalised than just a task reminder. So, what better time to start than my birthday month? The start of a new rotation around the sun 🙂

So back I go to watching videos for now, and preparing for a kiddie party later today. I’ll leave you with sad news today, as Chuck Berry has passed. He was one of my favorite rock n’rollers, and in my mind, should be dubbed the Father of Rock n’Roll. Go Johnny, go indeed. Rest in Peace good sir and thank you for the music </3

Starting over

Oh wow. It’s been awhile since the last entry… A year!! Urg, for shame for shame!

Needless to say, I’m behind and have not been able to update as I promised I should. As with most things, life has had other plans and last year, 2016, was and is a doozy for me. Lots of things happened that I wish did not, but having the luxury of a bit of hindsight now, I’m glad it happened. I know that this may sound odd, but I am. There are now lessons I’ve learned about myself and those around me, such as what loyalty means, and the importance of family, to name a couple. Another would be too never doubt myself and the deep well of resilience I have that I didn’t know was even there until there was nothing else to do but dig.

In this new year, upwards and onwards we go. Thus far, I want to thank those few who have taken a look at my little blog that could, even if I’ve left it and come back a few times. At least I’m persistent, in a way. So where are we now? J

I’m reformatting the blog to see what we can start off with. If there’s any of you out there, and would like to give me some pointers, or ideas, do let me know.

For now, back to brainstorming. Just wanted to give a cyber shout out after a year of being quiet.

Here’s some of The Who just to help me figure it all out 😉

Holidaze and breakfasts

These last few weeks have just flown by so quickly!!! The one thing that has remained the same is that every morning I’ve been trying to find the PERFECT no hassle, semi healthy, super filling, make ahead breakfasts that everyone in the house could eat.  Add to that list that I only have a toaster oven to play with, and ideas are whittled down to the essentials 🙂

I found these recipes if you’re in the same predicament as I am 🙂

TWENTY yes TWENTY breakfast casseroles (this site is always awesome anyway)

Because I love Jacques Pepin and eggs, here is his recipe 🙂  This site is also a great resource for recipes too! They recipes for every day of the week if you sign up to their newsletter 🙂

And if you want something quick, this is an easy peasy one. 

It is rainy in the metro today so it has to be Ella singing Cole in my ears 🙂 Here’s the first disc 🙂  The second disc is in youtube as well. Have a great weekend!

Collecting Tips

Everything in my email recently has been all about making my life easier. Some of them are actually worth a read and those ones I’ve included here.

Such as, if you have a small kitchen like I do, this article has good ideas, like those open cabinets. The only problem is that we’re prone to dust so I’m having second thoughts.

I’m more than a little paranoid than most with my security at home, so I don’t really scrimp on things like padlocks (with the main windows in my house, you can open them and use as an emergency exit), but here are a few things I should look out for next time I get new ones (and I need a few I need to change downstairs).

Fellow parents out there, I’m sure that you feel me when I say that my kid’s room is never “clean”. It comes with the territory when one has kids, and especially a toddler, that nothing will ever be “neat” again.  Here are a few tips that can help, especially in their rooms!! Thinking of getting the open shelving to keep my son’s baby stuff.

I’m also one of those annoying people who need plants indoors to make my house cozy. I have a little rosemary plant that I use for cooking and some other ones too, like mint and aloe vera. I have several citronella plants outdoors, but I have been wanting more indoors because the pollution situation here in Manila is really bad 😦 Not as bad as Beijing but still bad. So I looked up some to get like these plants that NASA says is the best. After the spider and mother in law’s tongue plants, I want to get flowers, like mums. Surprisingly, they clean the air apparently.

Do you have any house tips for me? I could use some, especially the tidying UP department (there I said it). I’ll leave you with this first because I love this song 🙂 hehehe 🙂 Have a good one!