Butterflies are elusive and it is really hard to take a photo of them, butterflies are like my angels. They’re the one inspiring and making me calm and bring hope into my life. I have been seeing butterflies everywhere, especially white butterflies, like when I am outside doing some chores a white butterfly or black with white spots will surely passed behind me while dancing in the wind.

Well the other day is different, a neighbor kid stopped in front of me, she is carrying an orange balloon and in that balloon lots of white butterflies were printed.

Happiness is like a butterfly;
The more you chase it,
The more it will elude you,
But if you turn your attention to other things,
It will come and sit softly on your shoulder…

— Thoreau

Anyway, the other day I received a photo from a photography website with the following sentences above. It was the second time I have received it on my mailbox, they already emailed it to me on one lonely day when I am too depressed and it was send again to me, maybe it is a reminder, to comfort me and made me feel alive again.

Most of my life, I have been wearing jeans, shirts and rubber shoes so when people see wearing a skirt or dress they’re always surprised and encouraged me to wear this type of clothes more often. I’ve only wore skirts or dresses on special occasions, like graduation.

On my birthday less than a month ago a shopping portal send a special code so I can treat myself for something pretty. I never tried shopping at ZALORA PH yet, I only registered on this site because of curiosity and the desire to browse around the beautiful dresses displayed on their website. Well, by browsing that day I found dresses that were on sale, chic and sassy, with the voucher code given to me they have an extra discount and another extra 7% discount if a MasterCard was used, so I did shop using my card. The next day, I received a call for verification of the card I have used, I was so anxious when an unknown caller was looking for me.

Anyway, I have received the clothes after few days. I was a bit disappointed when I saw them because they look too small for me, but when I tried them they fit perfectly. The black dress  (Aleena Lace on Waist Printed Dress) which I preferred so much ended up to my sister because it doesn’t look right on me since I am long legged making it too short for my body. The three other clothes fits perfectly, my mother and sister says I should wear clothes that are tight hugging to my body because those are the type of clothes that will look good on me.

My sister and I have been planning to do photo-shoots wearing the dresses but we always don’t have a time to do it.

Anyway, if you are looking for beautiful dresses to wear on any occasion or on Christmas day shop now at http://www.zalora.com.ph and use this code ZBAPQWVG upon checkout no minimum purchased to use this discount code.

Tonight while reading some articles online, the family phone rings with the butterfly ringtone, unlike before I didn’t feel anxious upon hearing it, I was very calm but I let my sister run to the phone, we are not expecting someone to call aside from our father maybe he would like to greet our mother a happy birthday. My sister blurted out upon seeing the screen that is an unknown number but she answered it and called to our father since she said it sounds like our father’s voice but nobody is responding in the other line although we heard some voices talking.

My mother came over from the kitchen and we gave her the phone where she’d ask who’s on the other line, when I heard it well I have told our mother that  it is not our father, it might be a wrong number so I told her to turned off the call, an older man’s voice in the other line asking “What is the problem” I blurted out that “He was the one who called” without knowing that my sister turned on the loud speaker so the person on the other line can hear me as well. The man then introduce his self as a police officer “SPO4” and that’s where I felt so anxious and nervous, thinking that something happened to our father. I guess that’s what your going to think as well when a police officer is on the other line, isn’t it?

Anyway the person on the other line became apologetic, we are told that his nephew dialed a number and unfortunately it was our number so it is indeed a wrong number.

The other day we had milk fish in sour soup but instead of using tamarind powder, we used raw tamarind. The tamarind was bought in the local market, there’s plenty of fresh vegetables since it is market day.

Ingredients:

Milk Fish, Tamarind,  Green Pepper, Onion, Vegetables (Ladies Fingers, Eggplant, String Beans and Water Spinach)

Procedure:

1. Separately boil the tamarind to create sour soup, then squeezed the tamarind to get more juice out of it
2. In a new pot, use the sour soup and add the vegetables, simmer a little
3. Add the fish, green pepper, onions and let it cooked for 5 minutes
4. When it is almost cooked add the water spinach and seasoned with salt to taste
5. Serve with hot rice

Today is our mother’s birthday, we have no plans to prepare something because we are financially lacking since my father’s a week salary was used to pay the farmer who harvested the grains and plowed the rice field, and our father wasn’t around too because he works out of town. But when they went to town in the morning, instead of buying fish for our viand, my sister suggested buying rice noodles so we could try something new and then it will look like a pancit too for our mother’s birthday.

My sister cooked it, and after lunch we went to town to buy cake since I have a little savings but before doing so, we went to the surplus shop, they were on huge sale again. We just look around and buy few shirts since we have no extra funds for them. The clothes too were bigger; I am quite thin now a days that I have to wear belt even on my daily shorts, after it, we bought the almost $8 chocolate cake roll for my mother’s birthday.

Well, at home I teased my mother that since she is already 50 years old, she should get matured now and stop being a child to us, that even a little thing she will ask us to do it for her. There are times I felt like I am the eldest of three daughters, and I have two younger sisters, my mother and my younger sister.  We always end up fighting because we don’t agree with each other, we have different perception and likes and to avoid it I learned not to middle on their business and insists what I think is right. I guess, I have grow so much and get tired of our little fights.

It was been a habit around here to dedicate the child on his 1st birthday because it was economical for parents to prepare and held only one reception in span of one year.

Well, it was a year ago when we visited my younger cousin in the hospital after giving birth to her first child, it was a joyful occasion because her daughter was the first grandchild of her parents when two of her older siblings were already married but no child yet, and with less than a year this younger cousin gave birth to their second child which is a son.

Anyway, today is my younger cousin’s daughter 1st birthday and dedication, their house is about 300 meters away.  Most of their visitors are just relatives and the church people, they really prepared for the celebration because they have plenty of food and the reception was decorated well.

After eating, kids and kids at heart went busy getting the balloons decorated around the reception, I took one in a shape of a pretzel.

It was All Saints Day yesterday, and we went to the cemetery late afternoon to visit departed relatives. When I asked for candles I was told to get in the stock room but I blurted out that they were quite thick since I will wait for them to melt before going home, so my mother suggested to bring the pink ones instead which are smaller and thin. We brought orchids too and just add fern flowers to make it like a bouquet.

The cemetery wasn’t busy like the previous years, at the facade there are people giving 2016 calendars courtesy of funeral life plan company.  Along the busy narrow path, was surprised when someone bumped on me and say “Oi” it turns out our cousins and their parents they were already going home. I wasn’t looking at people that’s why I didn’t notice them.

When we arrived at our relatives tomb (grandfather, uncles, cousin and other older relatives) nobody is around anymore, was told that our grandmother and aunt went to my great grandfather’s tombstone. We lit the candles I brought but since it is windy, the fire keeps dying. We also lit the candles that were left and didn’t melt fully, and even the candle my sister found in the ground.

Guess what, I brought the smaller and thin candles so they will melt easily but they melt very slowly which my mother and sister laughingly says our grandfather maybe is punishing me on what I did, bringing the pink candles.  I offered silent prayer while looking after the candles, the calendar that was given at the facade of the cemetery became useful when I used it to cover the candles from the blew of the wind. The weird thing, the candle that my sister found in the ground didn’t die despite the wind blew strongly and it melts quickly too.

When the candles are already so small, we left I would like to wait until they were done but my mother says it is getting late and we have to go. We went directly to old town to drive around, but it is empty and the shops are closed.

At home, at six o’clock my mother lit candles around the house which made me disappointed for not waiting for me since I am in the bathroom. I took two candles and lit them myself they were for my cats, grandfather maternal side and someone I was not able to meet, my cat stays with me while I am waiting for the candles to melt and when I talked with him, he always replied with a different sound from other cats. It was windy outside but the candles didn’t die even once.

During the day before heading to the cemetery, a black butterfly with purple spots keep flying in front of me, it is maybe someone I know, visiting me.

Today is the first Sunday of the month so the church service started at 7:00 am, I have only sleep 3 hours but it didn’t stop me from waking up and getting ready for church. I was not able to sleep because thoughts are kept running on my mind and our pet dog keeps barking all night, he is restless too.

November is thanksgiving month and the scripture topic for this Sunday is Stimulants for Thanksgiving, we have three ways to give thanks and appreciate the blessings around us, which are by looking out, looking in and looking up.

On looking out there are three B’s, these are the beautiful scenery, broken sinners and bountiful supply.  By looking around us and seeing God’s beautiful creation is one way to appreciate the things we should be thankful, we also should be thankful that God forgave our sins and give us a chance to do what is right and He never let us run out of supply and starved on our daily lives.

Through looking in to ourselves, on our inward being God gave us new position, our new self and new peace.  With our new self, we should know that our old self has gone and the new has begun and new peace because we are always with God wherever we will go.  And by looking up, we are going to see a pleading Christ, Powerful Christ and Perception. We should stimulate each other and appreciate what the Lord has done in our lives, we should always be thankful; either we received small or big blessings.

It is a fact that there are times we forgot to appreciate things around us; we forgot to be thankful especially when a trial came to our lives. These trials are God’s way to mould us a stronger person and to test our faith.

[ Tagged In ] Giving Thanks, Thanksgiving

It was such a boring day yesterday, the silence was screaming at me.  I sleep the whole day again and I didn’t mind if I am sweating from the hot weather.  We’re told by our mother not to run the electric fan during the day so we could save money on paying less electric bill monthly. We just received the electric bill for the month and it is high than normal and we have to pay losses too which is disappointing.

Well, they called me crazy when I just screamed out of frustration, I was so depressed and I felt like doing something non-stop.  I have told them to turn on the DVD player and put non-English songs since it will be better for me if I can’t understand nor digest the lyrics. It was ironic because before I always told them to play English songs and I hate listening to the K-pop songs they downloaded online.

They went to town last night to buy bread for dinner and I tagged along to get some fresh air because it feels like my heart is stuck in my throat, yeah right we had coffee and bread for dinner and I guess it doesn’t help me because I wake up with a headache. Since I have nothing else to do today, I decided to dust around and clean the floor, and when I get up my surrounding is turning around and it is pitch black.  I thought for a minute I am going to lose consciousness but I manage to close my eyes and stand firm in the ground.

It is almost lunch time and we didn’t ate lunch yet,  we decided to prepare sauteed sardines in can for lunch so I’ve picked camote tops beside our house and my mother picked some in our grandmother’s backyard while my sister went to the hill to get raw papaya.

A popular food establishment is going to open in our town, first one in the province. They currently hiring for staff with the age limit of 18-22, my sister tried to submit a resume but she exceeded the age limit so she informed some distant cousins and neighbors that were younger to try their luck. So last night, I was startled why my family is sitting in our porch, it turns out two distant cousins in different level came to have their resume created since we accept encoding jobs, I end up creating the resumes since my sister think I can do it better.

Before that, in the afternoon one of our male older cousin informed my sister that a shipping company is looking for an office staff to do booking and printing of ferry tickets, but it turns out they need a male employee. After a while my sister was surprised when someone came to our house and wanted to learn on how to use a computer and printing, maybe he was told of hiring news and wanted to apply for the job. My sister declined because it isn’t easy to teach someone in just a few hours how to use a computer in instant, well she is right I have classmates in college who still doesn’t know how to operate a computer while we are already graduating students that time. LOL

My family informed one of our very distant cousins who came to have his resume created to apply for the opening in the shipping company since he graduated college and  he is computer literate too. You might wondering, in Philippines especially in rural areas, all the people living around the neighborhood are related on different level of bloodline and sometimes it stretch up to 1-3 kilometers that there is blood connection.