Lemon Crinkles ala Expert ;)

So i bought a convection oven two months ago and this has awaken the baking diva in me. Really, i've been on Pinterest almost every time for baking ideas and inspiration.  

So far, this Lemon Crinkles have been our favorite and i'd like to share the recipe. :0 You can expect more recipes in my succeeding posts as i am really on a baking streak!  

Yummy lemon crinkles - best served with freshly brewed coffee and a big smile. :0. 

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.

Test of my conviction

I had to look twice or thrice when i checked my stock portfolio at COL today. I'm seeing MOSTLY RED in my account! Wait, what? Even my prime blue chips are in the red? I was so used to  just seeing 1 or 2 of my basura stocks plunging. But in the last few days my entire portfolio is in that deep, pathetic bloody color. Is the dreaded market correction finally here?

Of course don't trust me on that. I am a newbie stock market investor, just got in last September! That's why i get so jittery whenever I log in to my COL account these days. Hhmmm i need to relax and think this through. I have to look at the bigger picture.

A bank account for your little one

Finally, after months of meaning to do so, i was able to open a deposit account for my son. The husband and i have long been planning to open a deposit account for him. We plan to park his aguinaldo (Christmas cash gifts) here. Well, until the amount is big enough, we'll store it here then transfer to a higher yielding investment. Para dito namin sya ituturo kapag hinanap nya ung mga kinita nyang aguinaldo. hehehe 
Read more...

How to Store Expressed Breast Milk

If you are a working mama, you must master how to properly and efficiently store your precious breast milk. From my experience, i think moms must develop her own system of storing breast milk 2 to 3 weeks before the end of their maternity leave.  

The first thing you have to decide on is whether to  refrigerate or freeze breast milk or to leave in the fridge. This depends on the amount of milk you have on hand.  Do you think you have enough to freeze or do you have just enough supply for until tomorrow? Some "lucky" moms do have the problem of whether to freeze or not because, yeah, they have that much breast milk. Oh... i remember those days when i was able to fill the entire freezer with breast milk. I remember grinning from ear to ear, amazed at how much milk i produced for my son.