13/52

"My daughter's photos, once a week, every week, in 2014."

Last week was yell fest at its finest. I'm not proud of it, OK. I dread the many times I regret it, the many times I see my little treasure's face in distress and fear. I knew that what I was doing was not good for her, for me and our family. Yelling is so unhealthy in any relationships. Aware of whatever negative consequences I may face in the future, I decided to battle out my own Hulk inside. It's not easy to win over that, the personal battle, especially if it involves my child's future. My irrational self will tell you that the yelling I did for the past days is my form of disciplining her. No, no, I'm not fine with it. I'm glad my good side won and decided to mother her child and not just raise her up. We, my husband and I, despite having no budget for it, treated our daughter out. We first bought her her favorite lollipop, made her ride a carousel, bought her popcorn and just be with her. It's all about her for hours. Guess what? It did great ― to her, to our happy hormones and health. I hope this progresses. Oh, I want to blame the heat for my short temper. I'm sure you understand, unless you live somewhere cold. Speaking of summer, I still don't know what I'd do with it with my always-bored-preschooler. Wish me luck! ♡

Baked Hawaiian Ham Dinner Rolls

My daughter's school has officially ended its classes last week. Students just go back to school thrice a week to rehearse for their Moving Up Day presentation on April 4th. And as a simple token of appreciation for her past and present teachers, I made them sandwiches like no other.

OK. It looks like an ordinary ham sandwich that looks like it doesn't need a recipe but let me tell you a juicy secret ― I drizzled butter mustard sauce on top of the dinner rolls before baking it! Ooh. Isn't it salivating? Before I hit our fridge and prepare myself one, I'd like to share this recipe with you that I adapted from King's Hawaiian and All Recipes. 

I made the 'Pizza Manila Hotel'!

So this month's a month of firsts because of the My Manila Hotel tour weeks ago ― first time to step on to the luxurious floors of the Manila Hotel and first time to wear a toque. Imagine, I wore a real toque and actually did my kitchen goddess thing inside the Manila Hotel! Woot, lucky housewife. But hey, it takes good PR-blogger relationship to even experience this once-in-a-lifetime domestic glam! Anyway, five bloggers were given the chance to make the Pizza Manila Hotel ― as in the signature pizza of the grande dame. 

Bebengisms Turns Two: Making Bliss

So it has been two years. Two real and royal years, mutherbelles! I never thought I'd last this crazy beautiful world of blogging. Oh, make it craaaaazier world of mommy blogging. Moms, known to be supportive and attached and devoted in rearing up their children, can have their days of nasty anonymous comments and nonsense competitions. Yup, I am assuming that all my past and current bashers/trolls/haters aka readers who love to hate me, are moms. As for the nonsense competitions, it's the tiring and never-ending contest of who wrote the best article, who got to feature the sponsor first or worst, who's the better blogger. IMO, it's a sign of insecurity. Why can't we just support one another instead of lambasting each other? Why do we have to push others down to pull ourselves up? Is that how we want our children to envision women in general? Ohhhh, this momma can't preach that much 'cause I have my days, too, you know. I am not perfect. I never said that I am. I never claimed my life is even close to perfection. I'm just chill. I'm just embracing my life as it is, one day at a time. Although at night, I cry and pray to Him for some petty problems, I am generally happy. This blog has been a blessing to me. Believe it or not, really.

My Home Away from Home

When DogVacay asked me to write a post about a topic, which is this post's title, I automatically thought of my husband and the military camp where he is assigned. As an Army wife, I am fortunate to have him home on a monthly basis. Other families only get to see their soldier dads once or twice a year. When we were not married yet, I have learned to accept that fact that being with me is just his second priority. However, now that we have a child to raise and we know she needs us to be present in her life, I often see my husband's house slippers worn. I know it's cliché to say but really, "home is where my husband is". So our home away from home isn't the camp but the car! Since I don't drive, you know he's home when the car's here. And the best parts? Sunset + music + him driving = bliss. ♡

How about you, what's your home away from home?

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12/52

"My daughter's photos, once a week, every week, in 2014."

This was the day after the official last day in school. It's a bittersweet photo as I loved the natural light the window has but I know the amount of sadness my daughter felt that day. I told her that it's summer vacation and there will be no everyday classes until 2nd week of June. She kept on saying "but I love my school!", "I will miss my friends" and "what will I do now?" It kinda annoyed me when she cried for three good minutes. It almost awaken the sleeping Hulk inside me. Good thing she voluntarily stopped when the kid neighbors called her for a chitchat. Oh, she won't be doing nothing at home as how she puts it. I already talked to her teacher and we agreed that she'll join his voice lessons. She'll eventually be a part of his Chorale. So excited for her! I hope she'll enjoy. I will surely update you how she's doing. ♡

The Many Voices of Meryl Streep

OK. I got hungry I can't sleep, it's 2:45 am now. I went down, got myself two dinner rolls and a slice of sweet ham. I smothered mayonnaise and mustard in my rolls and never cared that I tried to eat less the past dinner. So while I munch the fattening friends I made, I watched some Julia Child videos on YouTube. I like Julia primarily because she taught French cuisine to servantless Americans (that we Filipinos eventually learned, too); secondarily, because she started culinary school at the age of 38. The latter made me still believe I can study culinary arts and be a chef and/or write an extraordinary cookbook for y'all. Anyway, in the movie Julie/Julia, which is one of my favorite movies of all time, Julia Child was played by Meryl Streep. Streep really copied Child's mannerisms, accent and tone of voice. And while watching Julia's omelette video, one of the suggested clips on the sidebar was this video below. Watch as Meryl Streep mastered many accents for the roles she portrayed in her movies. Superb. Amazing. Wow. 

My most favorite accent she did was Polish for the movie Sophie's Choice. She sounded so different that she actually looked like she's a different person! Guess what? She was praised for that role that it actually won her the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1982. So... what was yours?