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:

• Why I Love Summer
• Mother’s Day for Me, My Mom and Mothers around the World
• Nintendo DSi: to Buy or not to Buy? 
• Buy Collectible Insect Mugs Online
  

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:

• Celebrate Small Successes 
• Find the Silver Lining

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At last, after a few weeks of trying, Mama Sez broke the 90 mark today in her hubber score!  This figure is between 0 and 100 and represents the overall quality of activities of a writer/member, most especially the hubs (=articles) published at HubPages.  Being in the 90s is especially significant as some of her hubs may now be featured at the front page of HubPages.  This would mean extra exposure of her work, and consequently a chance to improve traffic to her hubs even more.

Actually, she has tasted 90 a few weeks back but only for a few hours as the hubber score really fluctuates.  Today is different as the fluctuation is well within 90 and 91, convincingly not a fluke.

We think these five of her most recently published hubs prop her score up with their popularity within the community and outside as seen in the incoming traffic and comments posted:

1. Weddings: Interesting Facts and Trivia from Around the World
2. Why I Love Summer 
3. Mother’s Day for Me, My Mom and Mothers around the World 
4. Nintendo DSi: to Buy or not to Buy? 
5. Wedding Traditions from Around the World

So true to Happiness Tip # 61 Celebrate Small Successes, let us congratulate her and you bet we would have a nice dinner and lively nightly gratitude ritual tonight.

Hurray to Mama Sez!!!  Excellent work!

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Island Travel is giving away cash!!!

One of the easiest way to get easy money is to join the GUESS WHERE WE ARE CHALLENGE, one of the three contests of this Island Travel Kick Off Promo.

All you need to do is follow Island Travel on Twitter, Facebook or Google Friend Connect, or subscribe via email. Then, watch out for posts that challenge the readers/followers to guess where the island travelers are starting March 23 when the road trip begins from Davao City.

Based on the photo(s) and other clues posted, guess their location on that post and write it as a comment of that particular post. You may give as many guesses as you want as long as you post them in separate days. The winning guess will be announced immediately after verification.

For more details, visit Island Travel or click on the icon above.

C'mon and join the fun and win cash at the same time!!!

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Starting today and every week thereafter, Fatherhood Adventures would round out the week that was by providing highlights of activities of Papa Sez and Mama Sez in the blogosphere. This is not just a summary that could be valuable for followers/ readers of our sites, but also a good overview for those who just happen to pass by to check out our sites. For us, it would mean a commitment to regularly review our efforts and to be able to make informed decisions regarding our work.

For now, the Weekly Highlights would just be a rundown of our blog posts, but may also include announcements and highlights of significant posts in terms of milestones, launches or personal favorites. In terms of feedback, popular articles for the month will also be identified and we may also highlight comments, reviews, ratings or other forms of feedback received from readers like you. All in all this would "force" us to stay on our toes and get data necessary for informed decision-making.

In this first Weekly Highlights, I am going to cover two weeks, instead of just the recent week. The review of our first sets of HubPages articles and Mama Sez's easy to follow recipes would be the endpoint of the period that would not be covered by this new system.

LAUNCHING OF ISLAND TRAVEL

A significant event for us during this period under review is the launch of our new travel blog-- Island Travel: A Summer Family Vacation. Three blog posts introduced the idea behind this new adventure:

1. The Countdown Begins is where Mama Sez announced our intention to travel and to blog about it, which also signaled the start of the countdown.
2. Happiness is an Island Travel Adventure relates our travel plans to my happiness project.
3. Our Summer Family Vacation: An Island Travel Adventure explains that key factors that had been preventing us from embarking on such an activity are converging to make this adventure happen this time around.

The new travel blog site itself contains pages that explains the project, including Welcome, Why We're Doing It, Travel Plan, Travel Map, Travel Calendar and About Us.

To increase our reach, we also launched three contests in the Island Travel Kick Off Promo. We hope you'd join the contests to win easy money by guessing where we are, blogging about the contests, or blogging about the photos we'll be posting at the site.

I also posted a blog about a promo to win a Boracay vacation package.

Beyond this launch of a new travel blog, other concerns kept us busy as well.

MILESTONES IN PARENTING JOURNEY

PARENTING JOURNEY made great strides in the past two weeks. The first good news is topping the Mommies Faves Blogs as the No. 1 Top Blog for January. We hope you'd continue to support Parenting Journey this month and beyond. You can show support by clicking on the icon "Congrats! #1 Top Blog" at the right column, which would lead you to a landing page and another click to "Enter the Mommies Faves Blogs" to see the ranking.

Next is the launching of a series of articles on discipline every Friday. The first one is on Discipline and Parenting Style, followed by Discipline Methods: Communication and Role Modeling *Papa Sez's fave*. Watch out for the third one on Friday or better yet subscribe via email or RSS, or follow us on Twitter or Facebook by using the buttons at the lower right corner.

Semi-Vegetarian Detox Diet Plan: Healthy Parents for a Happy Family is our most popular post for February in Parenting Journey. It outlines do's and don'ts of natural body cleansing detox diet.

The other two postings are about the mixed emotions we have about our baby girl's developmental milestones, and a camping activity that I attended with my two school age kids.

WEDDINGS & GRADUATION in HUBPAGES

Three new hubs were published by Mama Sez at HubPages:

1. Wedding Traditions from Around the World that introduced notable wedding customs and traditions in selected places.
2. Weddings: Interesting Facts and Trivia from Around the World talks about the origins of wearing the wedding ring on the fourth finger of the left hand, of wedding cakes, of the bridal showers, and many more facts and trivia. *Papa Sez's fave* is the video on ring placement
3. Great Graduation Gift Ideas provides some suggestions on what to give graduates as graduation season nears.

HAPPINESS MILESTONES

Our regularly updated blogs had broken through Google's Page Rank in just two to three months:

1. Daily Happiness Tips has PR 2.
2. Daily Laughs has PR 1.
3. Happy Quotes Happy Images has PR 1.

Here are the most recent happiness tips posted during the period:

• Enjoy the Moment
• Share Your Happiness *popular*
• Be Kind to Yourself *popular*
• Live the Moment
• Express Your Love

For our daily dose of laughter, here are the most recent posts:

• Sweet Vengeance (funny video)
• Deaf Genie (funny joke) *Mama Sez's fave*
• The Optimist (funny picture)
• Dying Nun (funny joke) *most rated at yousaytoo.com*
• Attitude Change (funny joke)
• Romantic Outdoor Date (funny video)
• Viagra (funny joke)
• Croak (funny cartoon)
• Plants Gone Bad (funny video)
• Old Rooster (funny joke) *Papa Sez's fave*

Happy Images in the past two weeks:

*Papa Sez's fave*

*most rated at yousaytoo.com*

Happy Quotes in the past two weeks:

"We've got to convince our egos and our minds that if we want to live happy lives, love is more important than anything else!" -Ken Keyes

"Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give." -Eleanor Roosevelt

"There is only one happiness in life: to love and be loved." -George Sand *Papa Sez's fave*

"There are three kinds of love, - unselfish, mutual, and selfish. The unselfish love is of the highest kind. The lover only minds the welfare of the beloved and does not care for his own sufferings. In mutual love the lover not only wants the happiness of his beloved but has an eye towards his own happiness also. It is middling. The selfish love is the lowest. It only looks towards its own happiness, no matter whether the beloved suffers weal or woe." -Sri Ramakrishna

"We love to the degree we're happy. While we are unhappy and attending to our fears, we are not loving. The self is always crying out for acceptance. When we deny it that acceptance, things get hairy. Our attention gets sucked into a void inside ourselves, leaving nothing left to give to another." -Jennifer Hautman

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Although I signed up on blogger in May 2009, it was only in October that actual writing started and momentum gained in November. Mama Sez joined the blogging world towards November as well. So the oldest blogs Fatherhood Adventures and Parenting Journey are about four months old, whereas those pertaining to happiness topics are two to three months old. We've been writing at HubPages also for about three months now.

As we review our output to gain insights on what worked and what might be abandoned to streamline our blogging efforts, I compiled some interesting data on the popular articles in our blogs. I am going to share here what I found out.  I distinguished between the most popular pages (=top content) from the most landed (=entry) pages.  The latter are what attract/drive visitors to the blog site.

In Fatherhood Adventures, the most popular contents from the start until today are:

1. How We Reduced Medical Bill Without Jeopardizing Our Kids' Health  
2. Our Daily Gratitude Ritual
3. Choosing a Name for the Baby 

 The top landing pages are:

1. Fatherhood is a Breeze
2. Choosing a Name for the Baby 
3. Our Daily Gratitude Ritual

For Parenting Journey, the most popular contents are:

1. Top 6 Natural Immunity Builders for Kids 
2. Semi-Vegetarian Detox Diet Plan: Healthy Parents for a Happy Family 
3. Essential Newborn Care Protocol: a Must-Know for Parents and Would-Be Parents

Whereas the top landing pages are more or less the same:

1. Top 6 Natural Immunity Builders for Kids
2. Essential Newborn Care Protocol: a Must-Know for Parents and Would-Be Parents
3. Semi-Vegetarian Detox Diet Plan: Healthy Parents for a Happy Family 

The Happiness blogs have done well in terms of Google Page Rank even though they are at least a month younger than the first two blogs.

DAILY HAPPINESS TIPS with Page Rank 1 has the following top contents and top landing pages, which are mostly older posts.  The most popular happiness tips are:

1. Live Life Without Grudges 
2. Accept the Things You Cannot Change 
3. Decide to be Happy

 These happiness tips got the most landings:

1. Accept the Things You Cannot Change 
2. Never Regret Decisions You Have Made 
3. Surround Yourself With Happy People

DAILY LAUGHS has Page Rank 2.  The top or most popular pages are older posts, namely:

1. Henpecked
2. Adrenaline Rush
3. The Spoon and The String

whereas the most landings happened among these younger posts:

1. Kiss 
2. Stiletto-Heeled Shoe 
3. Wrong Idea

HAPPY QUOTES HAPPY IMAGES is Page Rank 1 and has the following popular pages:

As for the entry page, here are those that have the highest landings:

 

  

 

For HubPages, the Valentine's Day hubs proved to be the most popular:

1. Cute Valentine's Day Gift Ideas for Young Sweethearts 
2. Valentine's Day Gift Ideas for Him 
3. What Both Men and Women Want for Valentine's Day

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Yes, you read it right...it's ISLAND TRAVEL for the whole family this summer.  We are not talking here about a couple of weeks of island hopping, it's a splurge as we're looking at two months of touring the whole Philippines from south to north and back.  It's a splurge and a big deal for us considering our history and natural tendencies, which I wrote about in a hub Happiness is an Island Travel Adventure.  Mama Sez also wrote about it as she announced the big plan and started the countdown.  

We had it in our minds for a long time already.  We kept mum about it to guard us against our tendency to be impatient.  So the right time just came.  It's a GO as the factors that were holding us back changed:

1. Work.  We have no commitment except for our online writing and marketing.  Thankfully, this can be done almost anywhere and so we're reaping this huge benefit from our decision to do what we love.
2. Kids.  Our youngest kids are now more ready (and hardy) for an adventure like this.  The older ones can take time off from school but we decided to wait for classes to end anyway.
3. Money.  Not that we won the lottery but our attitude about money changed as we gave ourselves time to think about what it is that we really want in life.  We think of it as an investment with so much profit before, during and long-after the activity not only for us, but most especially for the kids.  This is explain fully in this hub.
4. Attitude.  Not only did our attitude about money changed, but more importantly our attitude about life is now more focused on flow, pleasure and meaning that are components of true and lasting happiness.  Words like positivity, optimism, gratitude, health, laughter and the phrase "buying experience, not stuff" that all relates to happiness are in our minds in recent months as reflected in what we write in these websites:

• Papa Sez on HubPages
• Mama Sez on HubPages 
• Parenting Journey 
• Fatherhood Adventures  
• WannaBeHappyNow.com
• Daily Happiness Tips
• Daily Laughs
• Daily Thank You 
• Happy Quotes Happy Images

The final trigger was when an airline advertised a two-day sale that prompted us to book a flight in March 24 for eight people.  As we contact relatives and friends to coordinate about the trip, some new factors had to be considered such as the cost of renting a van in Luzon.  Renting a van for an out-of-town road trip over a weekend could cost 15,000 pesos (~$320) depending on distance, and we're of course not just thinking of one weekend trip.  So my father-in-law made a suggestion to ship our family car to Manila so we can use it in Luzon.  Since we have done this before (we bought the car from Batangas in Luzon and shipped it to Davao), I had a pretty good idea on how much it would cost.

As I consider that it would cost more than 20,000 pesos (~$425) to put the car on a ferry to Manila, I said to myself "Why not take a road trip and spend that money in a leisurely drive to Luzon?"  The kids would surely enjoy it and the experience unparalleled.  When I mentioned it to Mama Sez, she was amenable to the idea as it was really what we wanted- to drive from Davao to Manila with the kids.

The next question is how about the plane tickets we bought.  From what I read, heard and understood before buying the ticket, they can be rebooked, transferred or put in a travel fund that can be used within 90 days from canceling.  But boy was I wrong.  It turned out that the particular promo seats we got are only rebookable for a fee and are actually non-transferable and definitely cannot be placed in a travel fund if canceled.

I probably would have been enraged! and took it on the ticketing clerk and then be resentful of my mistake (or the unclear fine prints of the document in their website) have I not learned to control my response to an unexpected negative stimulus and to look on the bright side of what happens to me.  I have proven to myself that I have some progress in this as I somehow able take it in stride.  Not that I was not bothered about the likelihood of losing 8,500 pesos (~$180) because of a rush decision (because of a sale!).  But I am looking at the bright side that the "sale" triggered actions from me to facilitate this long awaited trip.

For now, we haven't made up our minds on how we are going to Laguna to A) fly in and ship the car or B) to hit the road and rebook (there's a penalty charge of about $15 each ticket to rebook, most likely to a non-promo seat, which is double the ticket price we purchased; and we don't really need to travel again in the months after this vacation) or C) hit the road and just forget about the tickets and learn from the costly mistake.

Hmmm what do you think?  I'll give you updates as the date gets nearer.  For now, your suggestions would be much appreciated.

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About three months ago, I joined HubPages and had a great start with a nomination for the weekly HubNugget, a recognition given to new members for excellence in writing. Indeed, I was proclaimed a HubNugget that week with much help (=votes) from you my readers and friends. However, this initial push was not enough to churn out more hubs (=articles). As we're relatively new to blogging and internet marketing, there were just so many things to explore and learn that writing was placed in the back burner and my study of the finer details of blogging and marketing was prioritized instead. As a result, I only posted four articles up to now or about one article per three weeks (see Papa Sez's hubs). These are as follows (click on the photo to read article):

Thanksgiving Every Day

The Science Behind Daily Gratitude Ritual

Books on Happiness: Gift Ideas and Wish List

What Both Men and Women Want on Valentine's Day

Mama Sez has a better track record in HubPages. She joined a couple of weeks after me and wrote 18 hubs in two months or more than two posts per week. Pretty good isn't it? Her range of topics is also wider than mine, having published hubs on parenting, weight loss, holiday tips, gift ideas, relationship tips, recipes, and even one on a celebrity. Here they are and you can judge for yourself (click on the photo to read hub):

Proper Nutrition and Kids' Immune System

Childbirth Preparation Tips

Gift Ideas for Girls

Gift Ideas for Little Boys

Gift Ideas for Kids at $10 Budget

Gift Ideas for Kids at $20 Budget

Gift Ideas for Babies and Toddlers

How to Have a Stress-free Christmas Celebration

Modified Pollo Iberico (Roast Spanish Chicken)

Cute Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas for Young Sweethearts

Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas for Him

Feng Shui Tips for Love and Marriage

Buy Her a Valentine’s Day Gift Online: What Women Appreciate

Buy Spectacular Insect Brooches Online

Home-made Facial and Body Scrub Concoctions and How to Make Them

How to Lose Weight the Fast and Natural Way

Taylor Swift: Music, Movies and Mansion

Chicken Curry and Fried Rice Recipes

Mama Sez is also enjoying the HubPages community and participates in many fora and activities.  She's accumulating many followers and I wouldn't be surprised if she'll be one of the mainstays in HubPages.  Besides being an outlet for her creative energy and talent, she's also earning on the side.  So if you are interested in writing and making money online, check out HubPages and feel the warmth of the community.

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