Working with a Family

This week marks the end of Josiah's infancy, and the beginning of his life as a toddler. This year has been a crazy roller coaster for all of us as a small family. For Josiah, for mommy, for daddy, for uncle Josh, for grandma, for nanay.  When we were married, we decided that we would try to get pregnant right away. We knew there were many couples who, after trying, it took them 3 months 6 months one two three to ten years or more of trying until they were pregnant. For Rhea and myself, our years of fertility are limited but we want to have a large family with a lot of children and eventually a lot of grandchildren and great grandchildren. During these first few years, there is no other happiness or purpose that drives me more than to create an atmosphere at home where we can bring life into this family and where we can raise them, allowing Rhea to take care of them full time without having to worry about money. That's a very big and important decision, that we have held t...

If I were to write to be frank, honest and transparent, the way I wish to be on this blog, it would be obvious that life was not always filled with rainbows and butterflies. What I write on other social media platforms highlights the best of my successes and some of my jokes, showing only the most positive and uplifting as I have always striven to inspire and motivate those around me, that or put a smile on someone's face, or to make someone laugh. After having such a great January, it was hard for me to write about this first week of February, but I've resolved to log it down like it came, and to move on. Without further ado, I quit training in dispatch. Everyone around my job avoids using that word and prefer to say I'm putting my training on hold until a better time, but really, I quit it. Why? I wasn't up to speed, I couldn't multitask fast enough, I was overstressed, I spent my days and life filled with anxiety, trauma, social and mental fatigue, frus...

This week was a very exciting week. From Christmas with the family to New Years Day. We had the cousins and auntie over, as well as the missionaries for kamayan. Mom and dad have a new firepit and patio set up in the backyard, where we set up some long tables and set out rows of white rice, beef, pork, chicken, fish, shrimp, mixed mango tomatoes onions and eggplant, bagoong, and soup. Delicious, but very cold out, and the food lost heat before all the guests arrived. Maybe next time we have an outdoor kamayan, we’ll wait until after we bless the food to lay out the kamayan… and maybe have some outdoor heaters around the table. We played board games galore with the siblings and spouses almost every night. Kuya really got a lot of board games this year, and a lot of them were fun to learn and play. One of my favorite new games was citadel. Josiah climbed the stairs all the way for the first time. Camille and Andrew left for Arkansas in their new baby blue pick up truck early New Years E...