Green love

The past summer, I've been growing my modest herb garden. We don't have a big yard and the soil isn't good for plants.  So I had to do a choose the plants I want to grow and also buy garden soil.

There's my Basil, Celery, Taragon (herbs), Sampaguita and Pink Roses

Our very small front yard.  I fancy myself a gardener LOL

Tools of the trade - gloves and clippers

New buds - Taragon, Roses, Lemon Grass and Citronella

I'm still growing my garden and I've added Lemon Grass (Tanlad in Bisaya), Citronella to keep the mosquittos away, Bell Peppers, Calamnsi and a couple more flowering plants.  I'm a little bit proud of what I've been able to do.  I grew up with professional agriculturists - my Mama and my Uncle - so I thought I'd have this easy, but gardening is hard! It's labor intensive and sometimes frustrating too, especially when your small buds suddenly die.  The insects can be quite harsh as well.  In our area, red fire ants are abundant and they even got to my Bell Pepper before I did.  Kainez! LOL

But it's also fun and a great stress reliever :)  Who knew that this girl who always tried to skip gardening in grade school would be growing a garden, eh? LOL

From Cartoon Network to Basketball

As summer rolled in, we enrolled our little boy for a summer basketball clinic.  It's not a school based program but it's being done in my son's previous school.  Their program combines basic basketball skills thru drills and application of the skills thru a real game, they even had a tournament half way through the clinic.

He's one of the youngest in the clinic, and one of the most involved.  If before the clinic, he liked basketball, right now, he's crazy about basketball.  Crazy enough that he no longer watches as much Cartoon Network, but shifts to NBA :D

The little boy isn't the best of the players... yet :P But he's learned a lot and he's become more active.  He's made new friends and basketball has taught him teamwork, discipline and following rules.  I'm sure this won't be the last summer clinic he'll join, in fact, he's interested to join throughout the school year.  I'm a bit hesitant though since he'll be starting in a new school and he'll be Grade 1.  We can look it up again next summer.

Best Ice Cream Bar EVAH!

While waiting for my little boy's summer Math lessons, I browsed inside a small Korean store in the building.  I found this ice cream bar.  It looked interesting and it's only for P25, so I got one.  And boy, did I not regret unwrapping it!  It was so good!  Probably the best ice cream bar I've had.  It was creamy and tasteful, but not too sweet.  I can't do sweet much as I'm diabetic.

Another movie to watch in the cimena - The Bourne Legacy :)

Call Me Maybe - More Fun in the Philippines! INDEED!

Empty Nest?

School's about to start in our side of the world. My son will be in grade 1 in a week. And he will be having lunch at school, every weekday. That's five days a week. For the next 12 years. Whoa!

I'm beginning to feel a bit sad about this not-eating-lunch-at-home set-up. I've arranged to work as much as I can at home and have been used to eating lunch with my boy. But now that he's not going to have lunch at home, should I still work from home?

Looks like mommy's having a separation anxiety. While my little one was so excited yesterday when we toured his new school and he saw his cafeteria. He asked if he can carry his tray and if he can eat with classmates.

I know, I've got to let go. But not yet. Not until summer is really over and he starts back at school. And that's still 10 days away.

Where is home?

The little boy with his Lolo - playing with Ada, my parents' black lab

I went home to Cagayan de Oro last weekend and came back with my Mama.  She stayed with us for 5 days.  It felt good to have my Mama here, we talked non-stop for days.  I brought her to church.  She went with me when I picked up my little boy and my hubby.  She went with us to shop for grocery, ate dinner somewhere and we watched TV together.

Both hubby and I are from Cagayan de Oro.  We're both strangers here in Laguna.  I came to Manila when I studied in UP, back in 1994.  So I've been here in Luzon for 18 years.  My hubby came here after he graduated from Engineering school in 1998, so he's been here for 14 years.  But we always consider Cagayan de Oro as home.  When we plan to go "home" for a vacation, we mean Cagayan de Oro.  In fact, we do plan to go "home" when we're retired.

Lately whenever we (my hubby, I and our little tyke) go home or have family come visit, I've always wondered what it would be like to move back to Cagayan de Oro and be near family.  Be with people who have known you since you were a kid.  Be with people you can just call out to whenever you need something.  What would it be like?  Would it be so comfortable?  Would being with and in the familiar, be relaxing?


I so envy those who have their families within driving distance.  I also want to be able to just drive to my parents' house, and find them home.  I so want to call my sisters, and we could go to the mall or get frozen yogurt.  I so want to text my cousins to meet up for coffee or tea.  I'd so like to see my son so excited for weekends, so he can swim non-stop with his cousins while my hubby bonds with his brothers, and I catch-up with my sisters-in-law.  I'd so like to go grocery shopping with my Papa, coz he buys the biggest can of milk haha

But we can't.  They're there and we're here.  We make do with a few days a year of being together, like how families should be.  And we try to make the most of it.  We'd bunched up all the activities - talking, eating, swimming, playing, drinking, and yes, sometimes, arguing - in a few days a year.

After we dropped off Mama at the airport earlier, I still wonder.  And I guess I'll always wonder, what would it be like if we all moved back to Cagayan de Oro?