As someone working to develop patience, here's my holiday wish to all of you in a form of a text message.
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The last post in this blog declared an end to a quarter full of challenges to our family and posed a question as the new quarter began- "Will it be a quarter for writing and blogging?"
As I reviewed the past three months, I still can answer the above question in the affirmative mostly because of Mama Sez's writing and blogging that contributed majority of our combined efforts. Here's a rundown of her output in the past 110 days or so, starting with the latest:
Hubs for the Holiday Season
Gifts that Tickle Your Senses
Buy Christmas Decorations Online
Gift Ideas for Men: Buy Mens Leather Belts Online
Buy Halloween Costumes for Toddlers, Kids, Teenagers and Adults Online
Hubs in response to requests for information on infant care
Dos and Don’ts in Introducing Solid Food to your Baby
How to Successfully Switch Infant Formula Milk
A Hub in response to the alarming increase in Dengue Fever cases
Practical and Effective Ways to Treat Thrombocytopenia and to Prevent Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever
A tribute to her sister's 21st Birthday
Free Apprenticeship to Motherhood
As for me, I only published two articles in Hubpages: Top 5 Reasons Why Eating Insects is Better for Us and Globe WiMAX, Smart Bro, PLDT myDSL: Broadband Service Comparison. The latter received fairly good traffic as many people are looking for reliable internet service providers in the Philippines.
In Parenting Journey, of the 11 postings, eight were written by Mama Sez:
About the candidacy of my father-in-law for Barangay Chairmanship
Campaign Jingle with Lyrics
Barangay and SK Elections 2010
About the joys and challenges of caring for four kids
Moments
Every Child is a Blessing
LEVEL UP in Parentingville
About how proud she is with her kids' achievements
It's a Gold Medal for Leon!
Fashion- Don't You Wanna See Those Clothes on Me
About spreading information on a practical remedy for Dengue
Sharing Information about Dengue Herbal Medication
As for me, the three blogs were about my disappointment with PLDT's customer service or lack thereof, a tribute to the late Dr. Eliseo P. Cadapan, and fun dance exercise videos that Mama Sez and I occasionally use to fulfill the minimum requirements for health benefits.
In Island Travel, there were only five postings:
About living again in a typhoon-prone area
Typhoon Basyang Reminded Us about the Downside of Living in Laguna
Road Trips during the Typhoon Season in the Philippines
About a long-postponed trip to the far north
We're off to Central and Northern Luzon
Insect Adobo and Exotic Foods in Northern and Central Luzon
About the Banamos Festival
It's Banamos Festival here in Los Banos
Posted in our other blogsites are:
DAILY HAPPINESS TIP - Look Beyond the Dark Clouds
DAILY HAPPINESS TIP - Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
DAILY HAPPINESS TIP - Put a Smile on a Sad Face
Happy Quote of the Day
Happy Image of the Day
I hope the writing and blogging continues this last quarter of the year. Our ten-year-old daughter seems to be interested in writing some articles and book reviews this semestral break.
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I can't believe that the second quarter of 2010 is gone. The first quarter ended in a frenzy as the family embarked on our island travel adventure with an early good start. However, plans got off-tracked when we encountered a bump in the road, literally and figuratively speaking, on the first day of the second quarter.
Not a good start and as Mama Sez pointed out, we better listen and open our eyes as there's an important message in this incident that we cannot afford to ignore.
The month of April went by with us dealing with the consequences of the accident as well as trying to keep the kids and ourselves occupied with summer activities that did not involve long travel. Indeed the kids got to spend more time with the relatives in Laguna and got to do summer stuff as well. Blogging activities slowed down to almost a complete halt but we managed to published these:
UPLB Museum of Natural History and IRRI Rice World
Papa’s 73rd Birthday Celebration, a belated post on an event that happened before we left Davao City.
DAILY HAPPINESS TIP #68- Keep Your Word, which reflects my exasperation in our dealings with parties involved in the accident.
Happy Quotes Happy Images and Daily Laughs continued to post as scheduled. But it was zero posting in Parenting Journey and Hubpages.com. Our circumstances really did not allow us to sit down and do any writing.
The month of May found us walking our talks about keeping one's word as we went on with the awarding of prizes to the winners of our promos/contests despite the interruption of our travel plans. In the final days into the 2010 National Elections, I decided to go public with my preferences for certain candidates for the national posts primarily on the issue of trust, and exhorting readers to go out and exercise their right and duty to vote.
The decision to stay in Los Banos, Laguna was also finalized in May brought about by developments that opened up as we interacted more with relatives and friends in the area. So blog posts In Island Travel became more about what's happening in Los Banos as the month of June arrived:
The First Rain
Top Five Signs that the Rainy Season is Here in Los Banos, Laguna
An Extended Vacation
These were later followed by features on the Romualdez Museum as we start to write about our summer travel, and a post about southern bias of certain travelers.
The month of June, of course, saw articles/blogs about school (School has Began, School Bag Designs and Style Trends, Is a Trolley Bag Really Necessary for School? and Fear of Failure), Father's Day (Fatherhood is a Blessing), and change as President Noynoy Aquino takes the country's top leadership position (Inertia and Change in a New Philippines and Taking Small Steps towards Change).
The second quarter was challenging not only because of the disruption to our original plan and the stretch it demanded of our impatient selves, but more so because of the decisions that had to be made and immediately implemented. Change always brings discomfort as new situations had to be dealt with, particularly the unexpected ones. But we look at the second quarter as a necessary phase, a transition to better quarters that we can look forward to down the road.
Today, a new quarter begins. Will it be a quarter for writing and blogging? We'll soon find out.
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These photos were taken on 20 March 2010 in our residence in Davao City. My father’s 73rd birthday was on 21 March 2010, the same day we kicked off our island travel. Because we were traveling separately, we celebrated his birthday a day earlier.
The best part was an unexpected visitor came by that day. We received a call from my father’s old house informing us about Uncle Lope from Houston, Texas waiting at the gates. It was a pleasant phone conversation reintroducing ourselves and to make arrangements to see each other, especially my father that day. It’s been many years since we saw each other and I was embarrassed to admit that I didn’t remember the last time.
My father did not recognize him at first when he casually came up to his chair in a barbershop to start a conversation. My father was indeed very happy to see him and readily agreed to go with him while the rest of us went to buy pasalubong and do our last-minute preparations for the road trip the next day.
Kinilaw (raw fish in vinegar), lechon manok (roast chicken) and fish with vegetable soup were the main entrees for dinner, which was made more interesting by a power interruption about halfway through it. The candlelight birthday party was capped with chocolate cake for dessert and non-alcoholic sparkling wine for the toast.
As we’ve been occupied by our island travel adventure since then, stories like these were relegated to our ‘to-do later’ list. One good thing about being grounded in Laguna these days because of a vehicular accident in Quezon early this month is that we can now revisit this list and attempt to resume writing. It’s also time to email Uncle Lope and remind him about our blogs…better late than never.
Subscribe in a readerIn less than five days, our whole family will be off to a 60-day Island Travel Adventure--a road trip to see the whole Philippines!
Therefore, to put things in order, I would just like to point out that most of our blogging and updates during this 60-day period will be posted in our travel blog-- Island Travel. However, you can see/follow our latest tweets in the box labeled "Island Travel Tweets" at the sidebar, together with the Island Travel contest banner that you can click on to bring you to our travel blog.
As much as we'd like to regularly update you here at Fatherhood Adventures, we have to be more realistic in our commitments. So please bear with us. And instead, let's just enjoy the Island Travel Adventure together. Some of these limited blogging time/efforts during this summer break will also go to our other blogs, namely: Parenting Journey, Daily Happiness Tips, Daily Laughs and Happy Quotes Happy Images. Mama Sez and Papa Sez on Hubpages would also slow down a bit.
Here's to FUN in the SUN this summer...CHEERS!
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Even though we only have a few days to go to prepare for our Island Travel Adventure, we still continued with our blogging activities, perhaps knowing that some of our blogs might have a reduction in posting frequency when we're on the road for 60 days.
Three of the four posts in Island Travel were about our activities in Davao City: Friends Swarm to Davao City, Fruits In Time for Araw ng Dabaw and Crab Buffet Treat. Expect to be reading more about Davao City this week as the city celebrates its 73rd Charter Anniversary, popularly known as Araw ng Dabaw. The fourth post is a travel resource for travelers to Surigao del Norte where contact information of tourism-related local government offices were posted.
Two of the three posts in Parenting Journey were about our seven-year-old son. Mama Sez blogged about how proud we were about his excellent Show and Tell performance that his own teacher (Mr. Michael) confirmed under the comment section. I voiced my concern about the kids' interest on Manny Villar and the impact of his advertising/propaganda blitz on the Filipino children and parents alike. The final post during the week that was is the fourth article on the series on discipline methods, where Mama Sez discussed prevention and tolerance.
As for Fatherhood Adventures, the past week's posts have all been on contests: A Contest Post for a Friend and the contest's major sponsors; and YouSayToo's campaign to support relief efforts in Haiti.
For Hubpages, Mama Sez published about what's hot this summer in fashion trends for swimwear.
The Happiness Blogs posted the following:
- Find an Alone Time (Daily Happiness Tips)
- Bad Trees (funny cartoon)
- Brother-in-Law (funny joke)
- Gossip (funny picture)
- Hilarious Pictures at the Right Moment (funny video)
- Happy Images of the Day
- Happy Quotes of the Day
"If it is a new thought to you that gratitude brings your whole mind into closer harmony with the creative energies of the universe, consider it well, and you will see that it is true." -Wallace Wattles
"Those who thank God much are the truly wealthy. So our inner happiness depends not on what we experience but on the degree of our gratitude to God, whatever the experience." -Albert Schweitzer
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ATTENTION BLOGGERS!
Here's your chance to contribute to a humanitarian cause and get all benefits at the same time.
First...
SUPPORT RELIEF EFFORTS IN HAITI and EARN A CHANCE TO WIN CASH PRIZES by PARTICIPATING IN THE YOUSAYTOO SOCIAL BOOKMARKING CHALLENGE FROM MARCH 8 – MARCH 22
While helping Haiti, you also have a chance to win prizes!
How? You just need to tweet, buzz or share YouSayToo's post about this contest. When you’ve specified the URL of the bookmarked page, you will be assigned a number on the Awards page. These numbers will be used by a random numbers machine to select the winners from each bookmarking service: one Twitter winner, one FaceBook winner, one Yahoo Buzz winner.
What is the prize?
$100 Twitter winner
$100 Facebook winner
$100 Yahoo Buzz winner
Prizes will be sent via PayPal.
Second...
Unite to donate $30,000.
You can also support the effort by adding your blogs at YouSayToo. All AdSense revenue including YouSayToo’s share generated by your added blogs will be donated to Haiti. Plus for every blog you add to support Haiti, YouSayToo will donate $1.
Every single dollar is important for the people of Haiti.
C'mon join the campaign because when you come to think of it, we're all in this together.
YouSayToo is an ad revenue sharing program that also supports charities around the world.
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Below are the four MAJOR sponsors of Kaye and Pehpot's Blogversary contest:
I Am Buraot
A blog about politics, the environment, religion, philanthropy, and everything else that is life. Author is known for his generosity in sponsoring contests. The home of the famous EntreDropper.
Anak Ni Kulapo
Yet another blog of Buraot. If you want to die laughing, then go visit Anak Ni Kulapo. His life in the US and hilarious stuff about his home country are only two of the must-sees in this blog.
Seiko's Diary
The blog title says it all. This is Seiko's journal about being a mom to her five gorgeous kiddos, her take on life in general, and random musings of a woman who loves life.
Mom Conversations
A new blog about everything concerning mothers: pregnancy, health and fitness and babies are the current categories, under which are detailed articles containing tips and valuable information for moms everywhere.
Please drop by these blogs if you have the time and see why they are worthy of a special mention. :)
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Being relatively new to online activities, I got help from a friend at YouSayToo in deciding to go with Adgitize for advertising. She has joined this contest and I am supporting her win. So for my readers/visitors who are bloggers, please help me support her by going to her site and join the contest through her referral. It's quite easy to join, just look at this post and the next one...most of it are given as codes to copy and paste.
Thanks for your support.
Level 1 Sponsors:
Level 2 Sponsors:
Brisbane Australia : The Latest Buzz : 113Tidbits - Social Feeds And Daring Commentary : Thoughts And Obsessions : Just About Anything : Blog Appetite : Home Buddies
Level 3 Sponsors:
Level 3 Sponsors:
Azumi : Fab Momma : Mara's Personal Bubble : Mara's Appetite : The Pinay Blogger @ Home : Diva Fabulosa : Best vacation Places : Momma Wannabee : Advising Writers :United World Poets : A Mom's Life and Loves : Travelin' With Marie : Happy Thoughts : Stalking Mind : Living Life To The Fullest : Online Mommy's Corner : Her And History : Careless Whisper : In My Psyche : My Quality Day : Just Throw Money : My Journey To Life : Cotton Candy Buzz : The Mommy Journey : Super Gulaman : Pen, Paper and Pan : Niko's Blog : Lover's Mushroom : Yena's World : Girls Rule! : Trendy And Heartily Yours : Husband of A Blogger : Glitter Page : Here Comes The Bride : Heart Random : Novice On Blogging (Noob) : At Home Here : Sexy Blogging : My Camerasexy : Dishes By Pehpot : Wonder Wifey : Coffee, Anyone? : Clarisse After Dark : Jena Isle's Random Thoughts : Where The Moon Shines : Crossroads.. Where Ideas Meet : Simple Pero Rock : it's not always about me... : Pinay Mommy Online : How I Earn Money Online :
A Woman Remembers : Beng's Entertainment Spree : My Thoughts, My Heart, My Turf : Yashiro : The Blogger Hub : Embrace Life
A Woman Remembers : Beng's Entertainment Spree : My Thoughts, My Heart, My Turf : Yashiro : The Blogger Hub : Embrace Life
Red, this one is for you. Cheers!
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This week marked the start of the hectic month of March. Hectic in that Mama Sez and I had to take care of lots of stuff before our Island Travel Adventure.
These are elaborated in the first post of our travel blog and another post that announced a revision of our kick off schedule. Calls to Surigao del Norte is a post about my coordination activities for the first two days of the 60-day road trip. A shoutbox to facilitate interaction with visitors/readers was also added this week in the travel blog.
An achievement this week that I am proud of is the release of a promotional video in youtube that also announces a contest to share the video and get a chance to win MDPlus Golden Shield with SPF50. Check out the said video below:
Related to Island Travel is a launch of Pinay Beauty Care featuring MDPlus Products. Highlighted first is MDPlus Golden Shield with SPF50.
Mama Sez posted a popular article on how to prepare healthy school lunches. The third article for the discipline methods series was published on Friday as scheduled. This time the topic is on time-out and reverse time-out.
I posted a timely note about bucket filling and bucket dipping. Before adjusting the countdown widget placed in Parenting Journey, I offered an explanation for the changes.
Mama Sez published two articles at HubPages:
- Maria Montessori Method of Teaching and Our Children
- Infant Baptism, Christening, Baby Naming Ceremony and Baby Dedication
For the Happiness blogs, here's a list of postings:
- Be Happy and Be a Success
- Gated Community
- Black Eye
- Photos Taken at the Right Moment
- Car Accident
- Happy Images:
- Happy Quotes:
"Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy." -Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"I hope life treats you kind; And I hope you have all you've dreamed of; And I wish to you, joy and happiness; But above all this, I wish you love." -Dolly Parton (I Will Always Love You)
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Hey Bloggers! Wanna earn easy money doing what you do best?...Blog It!
In Island Travel, you'll have a chance to win $5 in a raffle and/or $5 for having the best blog promoting any of their kick off contests.
Easy, isn't it?
Just click on this link or the icon above and grab an icon code promoting one of the three kick off promo contests. Embed it in your blog post and write anything to attract your readers to join the contests. The full explanation is found in the site you link to so you don't have to worry about explaining details to your readers.
You can have more chances to win! How? Blog the three contests separately. If you more than one blog, you may post announcements about these contests separately in these blogs and earn additional raffle entries. When you're done, just email the link to islandtravelphilippines[at]gmail.com so your entries can be validated.
So blog right away. Join the other contests as well! The more you join, the better your chances of winning!
Sample blog posts promoting Guess Where We Are Challenge and Blog It Contest were provided by Island Travel. So now you know how easy it is!
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The week just breezed through and another month is almost over. So I will also report on our statistics for the month of February in a separate post.
In Parenting Journey, Rica Emmanuele posted her first book report online- Island of the Blue Dolphins: A Review. She has written a couple of book reports for school but we thought it would encourage her to read and write more if she finds her work online. Indeed, she was very excited and plans to submit to us another report for posting online this coming week.
Mama Sez also followed through with her commitment to post the second article for the series on discipline methods with Discipline Methods: Merits and Demerits last Friday. She also recounted certain challenges, that are at the same time blessings, of parenting in Looking on the Bright Side of Life and Hair Cut at Mama Sez's Hair Salon. A short blog on Countdown Adjustment was posted to explain the change we had to make on the countdown widget.
In Fatherhood Adventures, after the Review of Our Popular Pages and Weekly Highlights 1, there were only two posts: on promoting the Island Travel Guess Where We Are Contest and celebrating Mama Sez's latest feat at HubPages.
At HubPages, Mama Sez has published four hubs:
At HubPages, Mama Sez has published four hubs:
In trying to come up with details of our plans for Island Travel: Our Summer Family Vacation, we posted our decision to proceed with the road trip but Lolo will have to fly to Manila, a wish to visit Sohoton Cove in Siargao, Surigao del Norte, and a desire to have at least one camping out during our sixty-day travel.
For the happiness blogs, here are last week's:
HAPPY IMAGES:
HAPPY QUOTES:
"Love, you know, seeks to make happy rather than to be happy." -Ralph Connor
"Only when it is a duty to love, only then is love eternally and happily secured against despair." -Kierkegaard
"Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness." -Bertrand Russell
DAILY LAUGHS:
- Half Price (funny picture)
- Outsourced (funny cartoon)
- Blessed Day (funny video)
- The Cruise (funny joke)
- Photos Taken at the Right Angle (funny video)
DAILY HAPPINESS TIPS:
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