While waiting for Dennis in his office, I decided to make wise use of my time by reading. I wanted something that wouldn’t require much of my brains, yet at the same time will add value to my life. I decided to read a book on marriage by Harold Sala, entitled Connecting: 52 Guidelines for Making Marriage Work.

As it turned out, I only had five minutes before Dennis and I had to leave. Usually, I take my time in reading and so five minutes is not really enough to get me through the introduction. What could I possibly learn in five minutes??

Fortunately, I came across one sentence that I know would serve as a good reminder for me, and one that I would like to focus on for the rest of this week: You get out of marriage what you put into it.

This means that if you put in respect, unconditional love, joy, excitement, fulfillment, and contentment….that is what you will get.

Put in indifference, disrespect, sarcasm, unrealistic expectations, frustration, trouble, and boredom….it won’t take much time before you find yourself crying over your marriage.

The same is true in parenting our children and in managing our homes.

Put in joy, excitement, encouragement, faith, love, and order….that is what you will get.

Neglect your priorities and put in disorder, stress, impatience, and again, boredom….don’t get surprised if you find yourself always stressed and impatient….and your kids, bored.

I can say the same thing when it comes to our relationship with God.

Be diligent in reading your Bible, praying, listening to His Word, obeying, spending time with other people who are built up in their faith…..for sure you will be amazed at how God will reveal more of Himself to you.

Again, same goes for all our other relationships.

You want loyal, reliable, trustworthy friends??

Be loyal, reliable, and trustworthy.

You want real, loving, sincere friends??

Be real, loving and sincere.

I think this reminder is worth repeating: You only get out of your relationships what you put into them.

Then again, this is not at all a new concept. “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows .” (Galatians 6:7)

Aah….yun pala yon!

Moving from a three-storey house to a three-bedroom condo unit is quite a challenge, especially when you are blessed with a mother who loves giving you stuff.

Since we got married, my mom has always had this habit of finding something for us, convincing herself that it is something we MIGHT just need sometime within the decade, and then buying it and shipping it over to our house. When we had kids, all the more my mom wanted to give us things so she could hear that her grandchildren had a “wow” moment over something new that she has just bought for them.

This is something I am most grateful for, especially since we cannot really afford to buy a lot of the things we want, but now I am faced with the challenging task of purging all my stuff and learning to live with irreducible minimums.

“Irreducible minimums.”

This is what we always have to repeat to ourselves if we want to progress in our quest for a less cluttered household. Every time we start sorting out our things and letting go, there is always that temptation of “I MIGHT need this someday”, even though in most cases that “someday” never comes and we know it. When we find ourselves stuck while in the process of purging, this question would come in handy:

“What are the irreducible minimums?”

I got this concept of irreducible minimums at a teaching training a few years back. The technical definition for this term is something that is impossible to reduce to a desired, simpler, or smaller form or amount.We were reminded to stick to the irreducible minimums when it comes to teaching and speaking in public. Oftentimes, there are way too many things we want to say, so much so that we overwhelm our audience and they end up not remembering anything from our session.

I love how this concept applies to most areas of our lives, not just in public speaking.

Whenever we try to teach our kids a new concept, we have to try to stick to the irreducible minimums so they can better grasp and remember the new things we teach them.

If we are to prioritize and fix our schedules, we have to narrow down all our engagements to the irreducible minimums so we do not stretch ourselves too thin and lose focus on the things that really matter.

Whenever we find ourselves in a discussion with our spouse (or anyone else for that matter), it is always wiser to stick to the irreducible minimums with our words. As the Bible says it, “When words are many, sin is not absent…” (Proverbs 10:19).

In organizing and decluttering our household, again we have to think through all our stuff and decide which are the ones that we really cannot live without, the irreducible minimums. Everything else falls into the “nice-to-have” category.

In our lives, what are the irreducible minimums we know we need to accomplish or to have so at the end of it all we can say we have lived abundantly and to the best of our abilities? Do we live each day accordingly?

Irreducible minimums.

I’m sure by now you get the concept.

I want to confess something I am semi-addicted to that I am afraid I am starting to pass on to my children: my love for cold, heaping Milo with lots of buo-buo (translation: already-insoluble granules).

Ever since I was a kid, I have been introduced to Milo and I could say I have mastered the art of enjoying this drink. And no, I don’t just drink it for the purpose of having some chocolate milk to drink— I savor it. I enjoy its every taste. I drink it and take it in… and then I scoop out every drop left on my cup.

Okay, hold on. I better stop. I’m starting to crave again.

Breathe in, breathe out….

Why did I start writing about Milo again?

Oh yes. The Expo.

Imagine my glee when I went to attend Nestle’s I Choose Wellness Expo at SM Megamall yesterday. The first booth I saw was Milo! Of course, I just had to line up and get my free “taste” (heehee as if I don’t know how it tastes like yet!). I was also excited to find out that they now offer Milo for adults. Again, I had to go get my free taste. “For assessment purposes“, I told myself. I wanted to see if it tasted any different from the “normal” Milo we grew up with. Overall, the taste is the same, except it was a little less sweet, which is a good thing, I guess.

Yay!

My kids are still scared of mascots, so ako nalang!

At the risk of sounding sentimental, I really got nostalgic when I visited the many different booths and activity areas yesterday. I realized that almost all the brands I grew up with are from Nestle. It is also quite a delight to learn that they are now advocating wellness for the family. I listened to some of the talks given yesterday and brought home three short points that I think we can all learn from, not just in the area of wellness.

1. Wellness is a choice.

…. So are all other things in life.

2. We need the support of those around us to be able to sustain our choice.

…. Thus, the importance of surrounding ourselves with people who will build us up and can speak into our lives.

3. We need to enjoy our journey to wellness.

…. As it is with our lives, we need to enjoy every season life brings us….and learn in the process.

Since we are in the topic of enjoying already, I’d like to share with how I choose to enjoy my Milo.

NOTE: This really has nothing to do with being healthy, but I promise you— IT’S REALLY GOOD!!!! Hehe! Enjoy!

It’s seven-thirty in the morning as I am writing this, and I haven’t had any sleep yet. I am now here in the ER of St. Luke’s Medical Center, waiting for the attending doctor to sign Mika’s discharge orders. I requested for them to allow us to go home first, since Mika already fell asleep and there’s not much that they can do for now but to observe her. That’s really all they can tell us for now— “Let’s observe her.”, and that’s precisely what we have been doing since we got here.

At this time, Dennis is seated beside me, asleep (or at least trying very hard to be able to). Mika, too, is sleeping soundly on the bed they have here. Alyanna, on the other hand, well….Alyanna is there in our house sleeping by herself. I am praying she doesn’t wake up until we are back home.

Oh, I forget. I haven’t even told you yet why we are here.

I don’t really know how to describe the events leading up to the time when we had to bring our second daughter Mika to the ER, because there really hasn’t been any “symptom”, as you would call it, that seemed significant enough on its own. I guess I could start from early this week (Tuesday), when Mika all of a sudden lost her appetite. If you have seen Mika eat, you would know that she really eats. She enjoys eating. She got that from m-…uh…DENNIS. Since Tuesday she would refuse to eat proper meals and would always ask for water. I attributed the sudden loss of appetite to probably teething (molars), and the thirst to the heat. No cause of alarm there. Then came Wednesday morning. After breakfast as Mika was walking all of a sudden she vomited a lot of what seemed like her entire breakfast meal. This happened four times, consecutively, so I’m not sure whether to count it as four or as one event, but at that time I considered it as one so I didn’t think it was a cause of concern either. That day, there was still no change in appetite. She then took a nap from 2-6:30 pm. She slept late the previous night, so it made sense for me to think it was because of that.

Thursday came, and I had to leave her over at my in-laws house for the day. They said she didn’t eat much except for a few spoonfuls of rice and some crackers. They’ve seen how she normally eats so they pretty much had a good point of comparison. They also noted that she had no energy the whole day, and that she has lost a lot of weight (they last saw her Sunday). I only saw her that night but already I could agree with them. I also noticed that she had loose stools when I changed her diaper in the morning and that night. Thursday night I thought I should be observing her health more closely.

Yesterday, it was better. She ate more than she has for the past few days, though still not as much as before. All she ate for the day were pasta, rice, some bread, and potato. No meat, no veggies– she refused them. Her stools were very watery and grayish, and quite frequent. (By this time, I already decided to take her for a checkup the next day).

Two AM this morning, Mika all of a sudden vomited out everything she ate since lunch—the rice, pasta, potato, bread….all came out. She had a hard time breathing since they were all still in their undigested form, meaning, how they came in through her mouth was exactly how they looked like as they came out. It was not even watery. It was a good thing that she threw up at the exact moment that Dennis woke me up and asked me to move so he could have more space. I knew it was God who woke both of us up, or else Mika might have had difficulty breathing in her sleep and she wouldn’t have known it. She then made poopoo twice within 30 minutes after her vomiting episode.

We decided to bring her to the ER.

So here we are. Forgive me for having to give you the details of her whole week. I think I’m writing this more for my sake, so in case there’s a need to recount the progression of symptoms, it’s all here. Thank you anyway, for sticking with me up until this point.

Later today, Dennis will be preaching at two of our services at the Fort. We have no nanny. We have two events that we’re supposed to go to. What I’m saying is a good night’s sleep is something that both of us could really use today.

That didn’t happen, so now what do I do?

I do not have much control over what will be taking place the rest of the day. I do not have much control over Mika’s condition. I do, however, have control over how I am going to respond. I could use the lack of sleep as an excuse to be all jumpy and cranky; I could use the stress as a reason to snap at my husband and my children. I could, but I choose not to.

Today, I choose to have joy. I choose to rejoice in the fact that no matter what happens, my God is faithful and sovereign. The God who holds my family knows what He’s doing. I can rest secure in the fact that my God loves me and my family…and that’s just the beauty of it— despite not having any sleep, I can rest. I can rest because my God is on His throne, and He’s watching over me.

“Water please!”

I never thought the day would come that Mika would actually be begging me for water, but it has! I owe it all to the summer heat.

This morning I was reading my Bible when I saw Mika getting out of our bed and walking towards the table where we had their cups and a pitcher of water. Of course, she wouldn’t have been able to lift such a huge pitcher, so I am so glad one of the cups were actually filled with water. She quietly looked at the cute-colored cups, hoping to get one that had water in it, and when she found the orange cup with water, she drank away…this whole time not minding that I was out of bed and seated by our window. Usually, when she wakes up seeing that I’m not beside her, she calls for me. Not this time— she just wanted to drink, and after she finished her water, she wobbled her way back to bed and went back to sleep.

Two hours later, here they are, still asleep. Just a few minutes ago, Mika started talking in her sleep. I kept trying to figure out what it was… “Ten I haf wo-tuh please?”… I went to watch her, trying to see if she was really asking for something or was this part of a dream she’s having. I leaned closer….and saw that she opened her eyes a little bit. As soon as she saw me, she started asking in a more demanding tone, almost about to cry “Wo-tuh please! Wo-tuh…please!” And she started gesturing with her hand. I then understood that this little girl was really thirsty and needed some water.

As I propped her up for her to be able to drink her water, sleepy as she was, I was reminded of some conversations I’ve had with people who were telling me how they’re “feeling dry” in their walk with God. I sometimes come across old friends who used to have so much zeal for the Lord and now all they say is, “Nawala eh.”, and they’d start to tell me how they don’t know what had happened, but their passion just ran out and their journey all of a sudden became dry. Until now, I hear this from friends who seriously love the Lord and want to know Him more, but are struggling because they simply feel…nothing. They feel that it is a season of drought for them and their faith.

Here is a fact of life: we will not always be on the mountaintop, all high and hyped up in our faith. There will really be times when God will take us down to the valley, sometimes to the desert…where our faith will really not feel as vibrant and full of life. There are two things that can happen when we get to this point: either we allow ourselves to completely dry up OR we thirst and make an extra effort every time to drink in more of God’s presence and His Word. We either completely DEhydrate or we can choose to get up, wobble if you may, and REhydrate. Sometimes we might have to reach the point of crying out as we ask for more of God’s presence, but we do it anyway….until we get that drink that we so desperately need.

We cannot choose where God would place us. We cannot always control where the seasons of life would take us. We do, however, get to choose our responses and how we grow in each season. If you’re in the season of plenty, good for you. Praise God for that! Keep on flourishing! But if you’re in the season of drought, rejoice and praise God still! Keep on, anyway! Keep on asking God to fill and refill you until you’re once again flourishing and thriving. Remember, you lose not when you feel dried up. You lose only when you stop seeking and thirsting for Him.