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Home is What you Make of It

Saturday, August 14th, 2010
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It’s been almost a week now since we’ve moved in to the new place, and let me tell you, it is still not yet comfortable. Yet….since I have plans of making this the best place possible for my family, given the limited budget we have!

Here’s an update on how this place we now call “home” operates:

  • Our bedroom is still a mess since we are waiting for the cabinets and shelves to be finished…everything is still boxed up.
  • We still have no bed so we are now sharing a room with the kids. The kids’ room, by the way, only has one twin-sized bed and one cushion we just lay out on the floor for sleeping.
  • We have no dining table yet so we are eating off my coffeetable which I’ve  brought in from our old house.
  • We are just about to have our shoe cabinet made so all my shoes are still in two large sacks…and I am left with no choice but to wear my trusted flip-flops everywhere I go.
  • The playroom is still not so play-able.
  • My couches are still quite an eye-sore…they are also from the old house so their colors emphasize their bulk relative to the color and size of the walls.
  • Ooh! The kitchen is clean now! :D (Whew! I thought I’ll be ending this with “we still have no…”)
  • I have helpers to help me clean the house now. MAJOR Woohoo!!! right there.
  • We have made our first trip to the supermarket the other day. The one near our place is a bit more expensive compared to where we used to do our grocery-shopping, but everything you need is there so it’s very convenient.
  • The kids are happy with their new room.
  • Dennis’ faith for God to provide has just upped ten levels.
  • I am learning to let some of my “wants” go in order to stay within the budget.
  • It is getting easier and easier to say “okay, no problem.” to Dennis every time he decides on something concerning the house (uh, more of concerning the budget for the house.hehe)
  • We are all learning that “home” is really what you make of it. Even if our house is not yet in tiptop shape (far from it), we are actually already enjoying our stay here as a family.

Someone told me that studies show that moving is the second cause of stress and anxiety (or was that depression?) in family members, next to death in the family (whoa!). I don’t doubt that that particular study was legit, but allow me to disagree. Even though this season probably is one of the most tiring transitions our family has had to go through, God’s grace has been and will always be there to make sure that this will also be one of the most memorable and most exciting times we can look back to. :)

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Top Five Lessons from Moving

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
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Heehee!

Okay, NOW my excuse for not writing a single entry over the last couple of days is because of the house-move. I have been going back and forth almost everyday, trying to fix whatever I can so we can finally move in to the new house.

Huu-whhhaatt??!? You’re too slow Thammie! I thought you’ve moved in a month ago???

Whoa! Before you judge me, let me explain!

I have had no helper whatsoever so I have been doing all the cleaning and arranging and moving around of all the furniture all by myself! (Well, the moving around part… actually that’s Dennis….I just wanted to sound like a superwoman. Hahaha!)

But yes, that’s really why I have been taking so long. Add to that the fact that simultaneous to all the moving and arranging, I’m having some repainting jobs done, plus the shelves and some cabinets are still being constructed as we speak.

The good news, though, is that I think by tonight I can get at least ONE room of the new place clean enough for us to have our first sleep-over! Woohoo!!! I am so excited to move in to the new place. I have been living like a nomad for a few months now, and though I love the idea of having no household responsibilities and not having to think about what to feed the family daily, I would not trade having my own place to call home for anything in the world.

Here are some of the main things I have learned (or have been reminded of) over the past couple of weeks:

1. Go for “progress”, not “perfect”.

I have to keep repeating this to myself. I have a tendency to perfect the details and sweat the small stuff, and then later on realize I’ve been spending too much time on one thing and haven’t made any real progress!

2. Small is big.

This can apply to so many things. Every small thing you acquire adds big time to clutter; Every “cheap” thing you put into the cart adds up to a big amount at the check-out counter; every small gesture of generosity refreshes someone else in a big way…small is big.

3. Slow is fast. (and labeling really is a homemaker’s best friend!)

Initially I felt that I was kind of slow because I had to be so detailed in labeling all our things, but oh wow…because I have tons of boxes and sacks, I CANNOT imagine how it would be like if I didn’t take the time to label everything carefully. The unpacking is so much faster because of that system.

4.  The urgent will always seem to be the most important.

But often, it is not the case.

There were a lot of times when Dennis and I had to stop taking care of the renovation and house move because our daughters would start to remind us of the lack of time we have been spending with them.

It is so easy to get caught up with what the concerns that are screaming “urgent!!!” that we sometimes forget to listen to the cries of those that are really important.

5. When God told husbands and wives to “leave and cleave”, He really had our best interests in mind.

I am super thankful….beyond words….for the kindness shown by my in-laws. They have been so generous and patient with us. We stayed there for over a month and it really was a lot easier for us especially since I could leave the kids there and not have to worry about them inhaling all the dust (and messing up the already-messy place) and pretty much not have to worry about anything else but the move. BUT like I said, I would not trade living with my husband and kids in our own place for any of the convenience and benefits of living with our parents. It’s really just different….a good kind of different. :)

******

Okay, there’s really more than five points that I want to share, but I’m afraid I’ll stop at seven of eight….and I always prefer my lists to be divisible by five. :D So for now, that’s it. :) I have to get back to cleaning up. :)

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Posted in family, home making, household tips, marriage, mothers, parenting, random, shopping | No Comments »

Being Shut Down and Shutting Up

Saturday, July 31st, 2010
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Hello again everyone.

I know it’s been a long time since I last wrote anything. I also know that I should be writing something that’s well-worth reading as some sort of a “welcome back” post.

But please, please allow me to rant just this once. Maybe just for the next few minutes.

You see, I am now crying.

I am crying because this is the first time I got the courage to type in “www.thammiesy.com” again and see a different look, one that’s not yet fully developed. This is my first time to log in again, and see that I now only have 43 posts and 3 comments because everything else has been wiped out.

I am left with no choice but to officially say goodbye to the 200 something posts that have been lost due to Philhosting’s….what do you call it– incompetence? Negligence? I don’t know, really, because I don’t even know what  happened.

I am not that well-versed when it comes to world-wide web matters. All I know is I trusted this hosting company to run my website and then one day, it just disappears. Apparently, Philhosting just shut down my website. Just like that.

I wrote to ask them to fix whatever they needed to, and their reply was that they would see what had to be done. The next day, I got an email informing me that they couldn’t fix the problem and that the best they could do was give me another domain to host my site. To which I’d like to say, “Thank you”, but… I don’t want another domain. I want my posts back!

I again wrote back to ask them to please recover my files, but they told me they had no back up whatsoever, plus a defense that they had informed me about the “shut down” days earlier.

I never got an email from them days earlier.

All this happened three weeks ago. Quite a number of people have asked me why I haven’t been posting anything lately, why they couldn’t enter my site. Most assumed that it was because I have been busy with our house-move (which I have been, but that’s not why at all!). All I could tell them was “Please pray they could fix whatever is wrong. Please pray that my blogs are still in tact.” And for the past two weeks that has been one of my prayers.

My well-meaning husband tried to encourage me by saying “Ga, if worse comes to worst, at least you get a totally new look for your site.”

But really, now….???….

I explained to him that all my previous posts were more than just “blogs for the heck of having blogs”. They were more than just posts to check in and make sure people were still visiting my site. Every minute that I spent writing, was also spent pouring out my heart and soul. Every word written was supposed to help me keep precious memories with my family and with my God fresh and alive. Every attempt to add insight was me discovering valuable principles that I needed to apply; me learning important lessons that I wanted to pass on to my children, too.

Funny. A few days ago I was being sentimental and told Dennis, “Ga, that was my legacy. Now it’s gone.” He just looked at me and said, “Uh….love, ang bata mo pa. Ang dami mo pang pwedeng iwan na legacy.”

Hehe. Well, He’s right. I am not that old and I still have much to learn. There are so many more memories I can build and still so much wisdom to be gained from future experiences.

I will not let this stop me from learning and sharing what I learn. I will not let this stop me from building relationships with all you beautiful women and sharing my life with all of you.

God can and will restore what was lost a thousandfold.  :)

See? This is what writing does to me. It helps me process things. And it is during these times when my brain and my heart agree to cooperate with each other and help me get over myself and remember to look to God and His plans and purposes.

So, yes. I am now (as in, NOW—right this minute!) able to stop crying. Hopefully, I can log in again tomorrow and not be sad anymore.

God allowed this to happen, so be it. :) All this, after all, has always been and will always be for His pleasure and for His glory. My life, and whatever legacy I would leave in the future will always be about Him and about serving His purposes.

So be it.

What’s done is done. Let’s have a go at this thing again.

See you! ;)

PS: Thank you, my love and best friend Dennis Sy, for your attempts to recover whatever could be recovered and for setting up a new site for me. I appreciate all your effort, even if sometimes you say the wrong things with the best intentions. Hehehe :) I know you’ve been praying for me, that I won’t get that emotional and sad. I think your prayers worked….a little. :D

PPS: Thank you Mia, for teaching us to check the cached files in Google. Now I know what “cached” means…I think.

PPPS: (Is this a valid PS?) TO ALL MY BLOGGER FRIENDS: Please make sure to copy-paste all your posts and have your own back up!

(Shucks. Now I have to open Word more often. My brain doesn’t like Word very much— brings back memories of toxic college days of papers and deadlines. Oh well. :) )

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Posted in God-moments, random | 14 Comments »

Dennis is out

Friday, April 23rd, 2010
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This is one of those days that I’d really love to just blog. How I want this day to be one of those days when I can just sit down, think, and write. I want to write and be able to share something valuable with all of you. I want to be able to not think of anything else and to not have to run back and forth from one room to the other, and just write.

BUT this is not one of those days.

Today, Dennis will be leaving for Hongkong to minister to our church there. He’ll be gone for five days.

Today, I might have to run around from one room to the other. If I do get to sit down, it’s to do arts and crafts with the girls. I’m sure I would have to stop and think, but it’ll be about how to communicate to my girls better to make them understand what I’m trying to teach them, or perhaps to stop and try to decipher what it is they are trying to tell me. Oh, I think I would be able to write after all!….but today it’ll be only the letters V, W, and X— as those are what I am teaching them for the time being.

I guess I won’t really have time to sit down and share something valuable with all of you, but I do get the privilege of choosing to share something valuable with my kids. And I’d take that option any day of the week.  :)

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