Friday the 13th Miracles

Last week, we lost 3 things.

It started with Swe-cha's hoodie. The weather has been chilly in the mornings lately so we've been sending Swe-cha with a hoodie in the morning. Early last week, he didn't come home with his hoodie one day and we've been trying to find it ever since. I checked the gym, the after-school care, and even his teacher, no one has seen it.

Then, on 9/12, Swe-cha's tooth fell out (he actually pulled it out). The tooth was placed in a baggie by the teacher, it had a card attached with his name and the date that the tooth fell out. After school, he must have played with the tooth so it was no longer in the bag by the time he got home. I was upset.

That same day, the teacher had sent home a note mentioning his tooth and that it was funny how swe-cha tried to ask her for money (tooth fairy) and I replied and said that we gave Swe-cha a penny which made him happy but unfortunately, the tooth was nowhere to be found.

And on Friday, 9/13, I topped things off by losing my wedding ring. I had already picked up Swe-cha from aftercare and we were driving home when I noticed my bare finger and started panicking. I told my family and was inundated with the usual questions...
- where is it ?
- is it loose ? tight ? really lose ?
- did you take it off when you washed your hands ?
- did you leave it ... ?

Hindi ko alam.

My mommy, nakakatuwa,...then asked for a photo of the husband's matching ring. She offered to replace my ring, I declined. The husband and I have 2 sets of wedding bands anyway so it's not like I don't have a replacement.

Later that night, Mom sent a mysterious message to our viber group - "It's okay. Just pray. You'll get the ring back, no need to get a replacement". Mom has feelings like these...

On Saturday morning, things started turning around....

I opened Swe-cha's backpack and found another note from the teacher. Surprise, surprise! The custodian was cleaning the gym and found his tooth. Can you imagine that ? Technically, Swe-cha lost his tooth TWICE :) and it still found its way back to us.

Then on Saturday afternoon, as we were all set to go to mass, B & R - Swe-cha's therapists - dropped by because they'd made a mistake on their timesheets and needed to make a correction. They made us late for mass so we didn't go anymore and just went to Sunday mass instead. On Sunday mass, my ears perked up during homily when the priest talked about how he lost his favorite ring. He didn't stop praying for it and a few weeks later, he moved to a different seminary and after he moved his things to his room, he goes to the bathroom and to his surprise, finds his ring under the sink (no, he didn't put it there).

While the priest was giving his homily, I couldn't stop myself and kept whispering to the husband - "eto na! eto na! there's hope for MY ring!"  even though in my heart, I still had doubt.

Nevertheless, I prayed.

And this morning, what do I see when I get in the office ?

My wedding ring on my desk!!! It was placed in the center of my mousepad which had been moved to the middle of my desk. The placement was deliberate, making sure that it was the first thing I saw.

Happy, I called the husband to let him know and he tells me that Swe-cha's hoodie has been in the bus all along!

and just like that,.... everything that we've lost has been found. God works in mysterious ways.

Window Screens

We haven't cleaned our window screens in so long and I'm glad that we finally decided to roll up our sleeves and do it this weekend.

It didn't take long as we just took everything down, labeled them, and the sprayed them with the garden hose (high pressure) outside - we got to water the grass too! The windows took longer to clean but everything looks bright and squeaky clean.

When we took the screens down, we also found 2 which had holes - we've never noticed them because they're normally covered by shades and/or curtains - this explains the occasional fly / insect that we see inside the house.

I ran over to Home Depot to get a repair kit. Back when we were living in the condo, we've tried replacing the screen on a screen door and even though one has all the tools, it takes some practice to get the screen on nice and tight. This time, since the holes were small anyway, we decided to just use a patch. The best option available seemed to be a product called ScreenMend which sells for $7, it worked great. It should hold (these are not high-traffic screens anyway).

Do you like Paw Patrol ?

Today, as I was picking Swe-cha up from after school care, we met a boy who high-fived him. Said boy was wearing a Paw Patrol shirt.

Swe-cha: hey, do you like Paw Patrol ? (while pointing to boy's shirt)

Boy: Yeah.

Where are you ?

So S runs off and Ms B calls out to him...

Ms B: S, where are you ?

S: I'm changing!

....

later, he runs off again and Ms B calls out...

Ms B: S, where are you ?

S: I'm making yucky! (Pooping)



...

So glad that he is learning to answer now.

Mother's Day 2019

On Mother's day 2019

S: Mom, Mom, wake up!
Me: No
S: It's time to wake up!
Me: No, I need to sleep a bit more. Let me sleep please.
... so S goes off to play for a bit and soon ,he comes back again ...
S: Mom! God said it's time to wake up.

It does not work

S: Mom, Mom. I need help

Me: Why ?

.. he gives me the blue Kindle...

S: I need to read a book, it does not work.

Me: What book are you looking for ?

S: 50 below zero

Me: okay, so what's wrong ?

S: I need to have the next page and the previous page

... as it turns out, the app for reading the book only displays on the iOS....

Separately, he takes out a gallon of milk from the refrigerator, opens the cap and says "Mom, this will not open" (it was still sealed).

Am glad though that he is learning to explain what he wants / needs better these days.

Mom, Look at this!

My little boy has a new favorite phrase now "Mom, Mom! Look at this".

When he started saying this a few days ago, I thought it was the cutest thing. But today, I realized that all things come at a price because he just came running to me, "Mom, Mom! Look at this" and showed me his iPad. He had the browser open to eBay and had a Wii controller on the page.

*ulk*

S: "I need this, Mom. I really really need this."

*ulk*

9 to 5

Productive day today.

Hubby and I spent the day doing some spring cleaning, including the following:

- swept up the dead leaves that accumulated in the back patio from last fall.
- cleaned all the stand-fans (3)

While we were cleaning, we have Swe-cha singing 9 to 5 in the background. Can't ask for a better day :)

Sealing Gaps (Doors)

The 4th bedroom, currently designated as Swe-cha's playroon, is drafty.

VERY DRAFTY.

The insulation and sealing isn't great and its location (uppermost part of the house/attic area) isn't helping either. Worse, there is a 1.5 inch gap between the door and the floor.

When the wind is blowing or when it gets really really cold outside, I can literally feel cold wind blowing on my back if I stand in the upstairs hallway just outside of our bedrooms.

I have a draft stopper - sort of like a long beanbag - that I put against that gap to stop the draft but Swe-cha keeps going in and out of that room and NEVER puts that draft stopper back in place.

Today, I fashioned a seal made out of foam pipe insulation and it works great. This didn't cost me anything as the material is just scrap that I had left over from a previous project but if you have to buy one, it'll cost around $2 for a 6 foot long pipe insulation material.

Optometrist - milestone

Brought Swe-cha to the Optometrist today to get his eyes checked. He's 9 and this is the first visit because, well..., we've been dreading going and I wasn't really ready for the fight.

As it turns out, today was a good day or rather, "these days" is a good time.

Thankfully, his eyes checked out fine and his eyesight is good. He does not need glasses. The best part is that things are much easier now, we can sit down with him for any schedule deviations and new activities, explain what is going to happen and what to expect and he can understand now.

Thinking back, if I had been asked the same time last year if I would be able to bring Swe-cha to a new specialist all by myself, I would not have the confidence to say "Yes". But today, I picked him up earlier than usual  ( they had a scheduled half day at school and I took the afternoon off from work ) and brought him to the optometrist and then to the pediatrician for a well-visit.

Skating Party

Swe-cha attending friend Z's birthday party at the skating rink today.

He had loads of fun - he saw old friends C and M and asked to skate with them. He also ate some pizza (around 1/3 of a huge slice).

He didn't show any anxiety at all. So far, it looks like that with proper preparation, he can be ready for anything.

Things are looking good!

Winter Storm Harper 2019

The worst of winter storm Harper is over - in our town, at least. And while the husband is very happy that there's barely anything to clean & shovel, I have to say I'm a bit disappointed.

First off, Swe-cha had declared last Friday that he plans on "throwing snowballs at Mommy, only Mommy and not Daddy" and I'd just convinced him that it would be more fun to team up against Daddy and make him cry. I wanted to get at least a few inches of snow but as it was, we got a small amount which was followed by icy rain.

Then, I over-prepped as always, including picking up a 50 lb bag of salt by myself, it was tough getting it from the bottom of the Costco shopping cart onto the back of my SUV. I also charged all the batteries I could find and looked for the LED lanterns which I put away in some forgotten place last year.

Lastly, I was also excited to see how our new car arrangement will work out this time. We normally park our cars side by side but when it snows, we've always parked both on one side of the driveway. The theory was that it would keep half of the driveway free of snow and we'd only have to throw the snow away on half. This time, we parked the cars in the middle of the driveway with the thought that it'd be easier to throw snow to the sides if the snow were at the sides (and not in the middle).

2019 Weddings

It hit me today that 3 of my cousins are getting married in 2019. The first one is in March, followed by 2 more in June.

Weddings make me feel old, these cousins used to be my baby cousins and now,.. they're old enough to have their own families. How did time fly by so fast ? E, I still get startled when service people in Pinoy stores call me Tita (yep, I'm still in denial, apparently).

2019 Resolutions

A friend and I were chatting earlier and she asked me what my resolutions were for 2019 and I explained that I didn't really think of any this year.

I did have an ongoing goal of losing weight and keeping it off. The thing is, since I don't exercise much nor am I willing to drastically change my diet, I don't expect to lose much in a short period of time. My kind of weight loss is more of a slow & steady approach which I plan on accomplishing through portion control - so slowly, in the past year, I've just been lessening and lessening my lunch. For example, when I have a sandwich, I only eat half of the bread or skip the bread altogether.

So this year, I started 2019 with a bang. That bout with the stomach flu gave me a head start when it made me lose 7.5 lbs - 2019 has barely started and I'm already way ahead. Realistically, I do expect to gain some of that back when things are back to normal and I've recovered completely but I do hope to "normalize" at the 5 lb mark.

I'm now at the last notch with my belt and the hope is to maintain this, at the very least, or at a stretch,... go down to a smaller size.