January 2015 – The Zamboangueña

Gone and Done It

Published on 28 January 2015 in Blogging Matters/Random Prattles by Claudine

I hate myself sometimes. Well, ok, hate is too strong to use on myself, but it’s the most appropriate for the anger that I am directing at my person. I’m just in a rage of gigantic proportions right now! If you’ve been doing the Comment Exchange rounds via BC Bloggers since the start of the new year, you’ve probably noticed by now that this blog is practically empty. Yes, dearies, this post you are reading ended up being the first and only article on this blog. *hangs head* Here’s what happened: I woke up really early today (around 2AM) so I decided…

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Ella’s 5th Birthday Celebration + The Baker’s Triumphant Return

Published on 21 January 2015 in Oven Fresh/Planet Motherhood by Claudine

It was our first gathering of the year and a double celebration at that! We spent the day with family and friends to celebrate the Feast of Sto. Niño and my Ella’s 5th birthday. Ella’s birthday wasn’t until Monday, but because we always spend Sundays over at my parents’ house I decided to hold the celebration in advance. The birthday girl really enjoyed her day as she went around talking with party guests, many of whom she didn’t really know. This is such a big change because Ella used to be so aloof especially in the company of strangers. Many of my own…

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Raising Financially Smart Children

Published on 17 January 2015 in All About the Money/Planet Motherhood by Claudine

Earlier this month, I had resolved to build up my savings by joining the 52-Week Money Challenge. Well, I am happy to report that I had already started the program. In fact, I am already on my fourth week and my motivation is still very high. At the spur of the moment, I had also decided to include all four of my children in the challenge. It’s never too early to teach young children the value of thrift. While our children can continue to expect us to work hard to give them a better life and a brighter future, it…

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My Dream Gadgets for 2015

Published on 15 January 2015 in All About the Money/Blogging Matters by Claudine

I consider myself a techie, a person who is either an expert in or enthusiastic about technology. Well, I’m more of the latter; technology excites me but I’m no expert. I can very seldom afford them, but I look forward to new gadgets even when it usually means I can only read about them. Now that I’ve decided to be more serious about blogging, I intend to equip myself with what I consider the tools of the trade. I have my laptop and desktop so I’ve got writing blog posts covered; the only struggle is in coming up with things and…

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Painting the Town Red

Published on 7 January 2015 in Random Prattles by Claudine

Unlike most women, I’m not very diligent when it comes to wearing makeup. I have nothing against women and makeup. Whatever one wants to do with her time and her face is her business. It’s just that vanity and I have never been the best of friends. If anything, I find it cumbersome (as in, REALLY tiring) to have to paint my face every single day. I don’t feel compelled to put that much effort to prettifying myself. I only put on makeup if and when I want to, not because I have to. My interest in makeup had increased after…

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New Year, New Me: Saving Up

Published on 5 January 2015 in All About the Money by Claudine

The start of a new year offers a fresh start, an opportunity to change for the better. Looking back at how I spent 2014, I find that there are a lot of things that I could improve on to make 2015 better and more enjoyable. Admittedly, I am very bad at handling money. To be more blunt about it, I lack discipline when it comes to spending money. I don’t own a credit card so at least I don’t spend more than I can afford. However, I often unconsciously revert back to my impulsive buying days that I thought I…

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Stop the Time!!!

Published on 4 January 2015 in Random Prattles by Claudine

There’s really no point to this post except to lament the end of the long Christmas break. Tomorrow the kids will start school again and I will go back to work-related craziness. How fast time flew! I will surely miss playing with Baby Yna and taking siestas with all four kids. Still, I’m happy and grateful that I have work to get back to. With the unemployment rate in the Philippines as high as it is, I’m blessed to not be part of the unemployment statistics. While I could use and appreciate a higher salary, I’m content that I at…

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The Birth of a Baker

Published on 3 January 2015 in Oven Fresh by Claudine

I have always been interested in baking, but it wasn’t until December 2013 that I finally started doing it because my husband was so against it. He is usually supportive of my hobbies. He lets me do the things that I enjoy because he believes that “a happy wife means a happy life.” It’s just that he has seen me many times go crazy over a new hobby only to lose interest in it a few months after. So he drew the line because he cannot allow me to invest in expensive baking tools that may just end up in…

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A Failure Yet Again

Published on 2 January 2015 in Blogging Matters by Claudine

This I can easily admit: I really suck at blogging. Judging from this blog’s performance in the past year, it’s not a stretch at all to say that I’m a crappy blogger. Four posts in a year? Yeah, pretty pathetic! It’s not that nothing much is happening in my life, because there’s so many I’m already breathless just thinking of the things I need to do. I have so many things running in my mind even I can’t catch up. The thing is, I have very short attention span and really bad memory. Whenever I think of something to write…

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Bring It On, 2015

Published on 1 January 2015 in Random Prattles by Claudine

Happy New Year, everyone! Despite having to endure the hardships and loneliness of being a single parent while waiting for my husband to finish his contract in Ethiopia, the past year had been generally good for me and my family. So many things have happened – both good and bad – but I will only write about two that impacted my family. First, I am extremely grateful that none of my kids had been hospitalized. Thank God for that! I was especially worried for my eldest daughter because she has very weak lungs. While each kid did see their pediatrician…

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