Tag: Martha Moments

Day 14: Hello sunshine, home-baked cookies, and missing my husband

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Hello, Sunshine!

1. Hello sunshine. If Rain likes taking baths, Dawn likes waking up in the  morning! (I mean, really, can their names be any more prophetic?) It was Saturday morning and Daddy was leaving early for the last day of Men’s Encounter. I can’t really remember how he managed to leave while this little girl was doing her morning round of cuteness! Interestingly, Dawn is not this happy any other time of the day. She would be smiling randomly alright, and would respond when you try to make her smile. But her best, widest smiles are always in the mornings. So yeah, if you want to start your day right, come visit us around 8am everyday to see this little darling’s good morning show. Email me for ticket prices!

2. Home-baked cookies. Left alone with the babies and our yaya, and in need of some form of change in our Saturday routine, I knocked on the door of our favorite neighbors and invited myself to bake some cookies. Pics or it didn’t happen, I know! But I wasn’t able to get any remembrance of our oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, aside from the memory of its yumminess. Ehem. Ask her! I enjoyed baking, and it was gratifying to eat something you worked for.

3. Missing my husband. During the Men’s Encounter, D would leave early in the morning and come back home very late at night. I know it was just two days, but I still missed him! It’s funny how you live under the same roof as this one person, and you share the same bed, and you still miss him when he’s away even for just a while. Is that normal? Or am I being totally clingy? #thismarriedlife, what can I say.

Photographs on our Christmas Tree

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After deliberating if we should buy a new Christmas tree and waiting around for Christmas trees to go on sale (for real!), we finally put up our tree sometime mid-December. We bought a bigger tree replaced the small one I had for years. And because the girls in the house outnumber the only boy (hello, Daddy!), I took the liberty of replacing last year’s red poinsettias with pink ornaments this year.

No complaints from the husband! Promise.

Our little Christmas tree

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Two years ago, I pinned polaroids on my Christmas tree just for trips. Last year, on our first Christmas as a married couple, my husband and I thought we should make it a tradition, putting up photos on the tree like a timeline, representing milestones and beautiful memories of the year that was.

And so, for tradition’s sake, here are the photographs that made it to this year’s Christmas tree. Expectedly, these photos are mostly of the twins.. our year’s greatest milestone.

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Christmas Tree 2013

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And yes, they’re all from the ‘gram. Oh how convenient it is to just print out our best photos from Instagram throughout the year. Thank you, IG.

I can imagine how much fun it will be when the twins are older—they’ll choose the photos themselves for the tree. Ahh. Christmas is making me soooo happy, you know? I think I’ve crossed over.

Week 21: Getting the House Ready for Our Soon-to-be Family of Four

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I thought getting married would be the end of my apartment-hopping. Guess not. Less than a year after my husband and I moved into our first home, we’re packing our bags again. At least we’re not changing our address; we’re just moving to a bigger unit in the same building, one with more space to raise twins.

That also means we’re saying goodbye to the roof top we’ve grown to love. But how can we complain, right? I’d take having more space for the twins over having a pretty roof top view anytime. And it was just the perfect timing. We’ve been praying for a bigger space, and suddenly a tenant was vacating one of the units, which makes it, yay, available for us. God answers prayers just in time.

And so the new apartment is like a clean canvass for me to play with. We’re definitely adding more furniture and shelving, and colors! Times like this, it’s always a good first step to start with an inspiration board. Here’s mine:

I know I’ve always complained about not having Ikea in the Philippines, but just this week, I found that there are a few shops selling Ikea items here in Manila. Say hello to Ikea Source Philippines, Invicta, and (this one’s been around for a while) 5 Corners! We scheduled to visit their showrooms this week. For now, I scouted their websites for some major items I consider getting, added some pegs I found here and there, and put this inspiration board together.

I think yellow is a really pretty, gender-neutral accent color, yes? We don’t know yet what our babies’ gender are, but even if they’re girls, I still don’t think I’d pick barbie-pink colors for our home. Whether the twins are boys, or girls, or a boy and a girl, I think my turquoise and apple green color scheme fits just right.

On the other hand, as I was finishing off my inspiration board, I found these really nice *pegs from Pinterest..

..and thought heeyyyy, orange and pink looks good too! I didn’t want to consider these colours at first, but they could work!

So maybe I’m getting some coral pinks and orange too. Like fake flowers, vases, and pillows maybe?

Ahh, the Martha in me is crazy. excited.

Next up: pegs for the babies’ nursery!

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Some notes on the board: (1) Ikea Rast Drawers, to be painted yellow maybe? (2) Ikea Expedit Shelving/Divider, or some alternative; (3) Ikea Bursjon storage/stool; (4) Ikea Rexbo Shelf, a phased out Ikea item which I happened to already have – mine used to be red but now it’s black; (5) Fab Manila Storage Boxes; (6) Black photo frames, fake plants, new curtains.

*Feel free to view my pinterest board to see the sources of these photos.

I’ve been thinking about blues and greens

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..and yellows.

It’s the second trimester adrenalin kicking in, and I think I finally have the energy to start moving things around the house and getting it ready for the babies! We don’t have a lot of floor space around here (which is a problem), but it doesn’t seem like we’re moving to a different apartment anytime soon. So we’re thinking of adding more shelves (we do have a lot of walls!) and just making the most out of the space we have instead, at least for another year or so. And of course, we want to add more bright and happy colors! Now that is the part I’m most excited about. :)

I would have considered pinks and and corals really, but I keep reminding myself that there’s a man living in this house with me so I have to choose the right colors that would satisfy us both. Besides, we’ve already invested on lots of blues and earth colors when we moved in, so that’s a plus.

Quite obviously, my recent color obsession has found its way on this blog as well. (I’m on a roll, take that progesterone!)

Ahh, is this what they call “nesting”? It’s like we’re converting our whole house into a nursery!

Photo credit: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Saturdays and solitude

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There was a point in my life when being alone made me crazy; times when I made it a point to be surrounded by people whether I knew them or not. Good for me, those days are gone. And now that I’ve come to acknowledge solitude as a gift, I welcome it with a huge smile on my face and a long, exaggerated, happy sigh. Thank God for Saturdays. And solitude.

Two Saturdays ago, I spent my alone-time studying and marveling at the book of Ephesians, in preparation for that message I had the privilege of sharing at our church last February 19. Ephesians is beautiful (not to mention cheesy), you know? Go, read it and see for yourself! :)

A clean house, a cup of coffee, some vanilla oreos, and a solid, quality time with God’s Word—it was another happy Saturday for me!

Do you feel it too, when something BIG is about to happen—a new adventure looming in the horizon? Time spent in solitude, they say, prepares us for changes and challenges that are about to come our way. My husband and I don’t know what our new adventure is going to be exactly, and when, and how, but something inside me is feeling giddy and restless these days. In a good, bring-it-on-Lord kind of way. :)

Meanwhile I’m Putting Up More Twinkly Lights

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I like quoting from movies, even if no one gets it. And sometimes I like explaining them too, when no one gets it. :p

In You’ve Got Mail, when Kathleen Kelly’s book shop was starting to lose sales after Fox Books opened within the block, she confidently shrugged off the concerns of her worried employees and simply said, “They’re new, it’s a novelty. It’ll all shake out. Meanwhile, I’m putting up more twinkle lights.”

I love that scene. I love how Kathleen said that line as if putting up those lights was more important than worrying about her business. We all could use some of that attitude, don’t you think? (:

Last week, I woke up from a quick nap to the sight of this beauty *points to the picture*. We were supposed to do this together, but the husband thought he’d surprise me so he went ahead putting the Christmas lights up while I was sleeping. A word to husbands out there: big or small gestures like this are very much appreciated. Never get tired surprising your wives with kindness, rest assured, your act of love will be returned tenfolds. ♥

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Here’s some linkworthy stuff to start the week:

+ Interesting thoughts on making disciples by Laura Hamilton. I agree with her, Christianity does involve a bold, unashamed declaration of faith, rather than a quiet commitment you keep to yourself.

+ I cried like a loser, watching this Coca-Cola OFW Project. Good job, Coca-Cola! You make me want to buy boxes of Coke and give them away for Christmas.

+ Alie Edward’s December Daily hybrid journal project makes me wish I have time and skills to do one of my own. Paislee Press and Paper Relics are doing it too. I started scrapbooking (again) lately, I just don’t think I can do it with the same passion and commitment as these ladies here. At least not yet. Maybe someday. (;

+ Pentatonix won the Sing Off last week. I love this video I found in Youtube, a montage of all their performances this season. We still watch them at home until now.

+ I love how Seth Godin’s blogs transcend both business and life. He may be using marketing terms like “products” and “customers” and “services” or may be directly referring to entrepreneurial principles in his posts, but for all we know, he’s actually imparting to us important life lessons on achieving real-life breakthrough one step at a time. Oh, and he’s got some interesting thoughts about Christmas lights, too! This guy thinks about everything! LOL.

+ I’ve been thinking about this SEO and Online Marketing industry I happened to have been exposed to for the past 6-7 years, and I thought, even though I don’t really see myself doing this forever, perhaps I shouldn’t give up on it just yet.

+ Lastly, you might want to help Wikipedia, since, you know, we’ve all somehow benefited from it at one point or another.

Here’s to starting, and ending, the week right! (: