DIY Play dough

How's your child's summer break so far? My son's classes have ended three weeks ago so he's at home the entire day. IT IS a challenge to keep him busy, but i manage to squeeze in a few ways to he keep his hands off the Ipad even just for a few hours.

His most requested activities so far include making volcanoes (you know the reaction when you mix baking soda with vinegar?) and play dough. These keep him busy for a while and i like it because he's able to practice his fine motor skills on a sit down activity.

Let me share how we make our own play dough.  I found several different versions online, but the recipe below seems to be the simplest and i readily had three main ingredients in our pantry.

"Thou shall not fear the Credit Card"

Yes! You read it right. This has been my mantra these past few months. Expenses have been piling up and I had to resort to swiping the dreaded card more than i planned to just last month. Honestly, i think my goal of having zero credit card debt seems unreachable this year. I originally planned to eliminate using "plastic", but we had a huge unexpected expense last November, and i needed to take an emergency loan from our cooperative. I had to pay the loan for 3 years, at Php 6000 monthly. This loan made a big dent in our family fund, sending my budget on haywire. I ended up relying on the credit card for daily needs like groceries, school requirements, even gasoline, along with some little indulgences like dining out here and there.

An Ode to my Nanay...

It's mother's day once again, but this year's different for our family.

I'm so glad that we approach this day and our Nanay is still with us today.  You see, just last November, our mom had the biggest health scare - she was diagnosed with coronary heart disease. She needed heart surgery ASAP.

The whole family was devastated but we rallied behind her.
Now, five months after her operation, she's thriving again! It's as if nothing happened to her. We are truly glad that she survived and we have her here with us this mom's day.