Weight Loss Journey

I cannot believe my pants size shrunk 3 sizes down and I am wearing small again! 

The biggest lie I believed when I became a mom was I can never get enough sleep. There is some truth to it as I desire for that extra needed rest. I took that advice to heart that I am entitled to that pleasure, but it wasn't all beneficial. For five years, I have made use of my extra time (when kids were napping) to slouch on the couch and eat everything I want while I watch junk TV shows. It has been my routine and wished to stay that way, but for some reason, I felt more and more depressed. My body missed being active.
I looked at myself and had a Mulan moment. Who is that girl I see? I did not recognized myself anymore. All I saw was a girl stuck in loop of the same viscous routine. I have not smart in using time I was given. 

Don't mistaken me for being an unhappy stay-home-mom. My heart is planted at home. I couldn't wish anywhere else to be. I made it my mission to bring up my kids to be the best adults. I want to be there when my children are in their most vulnerable stage. I believe this is a crucial stage when trust is built. But in order to fulfill my duties, I have keep my sanity and I remember who I am aside from being the mom.

I could not count how many time I broke my promise. Until one day, I am fed up with my hypocrisy and decided to get more active using what is available of me timewise. I looked at that treadmill that I was blessed to get for free and decided to start using it. I did 15 minute of fast walk and 50 burpees everyday that took my a good hour a day. I made time for and made its as one of my everyday routine. 

I thought I always never had enough energy for exercise, when in fact, it gave me more energy get through all my tasks at home (house chores and taking care of my twins and homeschooling). Losing weight can never be enough motivation to get fit. My main gold is to get stronger to keep up with things I love to do. 

I tried to be smarter with my food choices too. Exercise goes hand in hand with eating smart. There's no way around it. The first few months were discouraging because it felt like nothing was happening. I just had to keep pressing on and be smart with what I eat.

I won't deny guilt is involved. I should have been using that extra hour to give to my kids instead of exercising. I find it to be a lie. I want my kids to see me as not just a mommy. Mommy needs to take care of mommy too. It teaches them the importance of taking care of their bodies. I was so proud when Mirabella said, "Look mommy, I am exercising so I can have more energy too!". 

Sometimes I forget my children learns from things I do as an adult. I don't want to be that parent who hovers over them every single second of the day and be their slaves on demand. To me, that's not parenting. 

 I am thankful and blessed that I am in the season of life where I can teach my kids to be independent, but be available when they need me.

One hour for myself is what I needed and that is not selfishness. 

DIY Coffee Bar

House projects can be so overwhelming especially when I have so many commitments on my plate. One important lesson I learned was, stop overthinking it and just DO IT!

Over the course of the years practicing DIYs, I learned a thing or two. These things are easy but it takes long. Longer if you don't have the right tools at hand.

I am obsessed lately with floating shelves. It makes it look like it was originally built with the house. 

For this project, I used 2x2s for the bone structure and made a box with 1/2 inch thick plywood..

The table was actually an entertainment center that we got in clearance from Home Goods. I have adored it for months. It was still there when we came back. We got it immediately thinking it was really meant to be. 

Goodbye House

The moment I walked into this house, I knew from the very start this is not my house. 

Years passed, I remember saying "I hate this house", mainly because most my memories of this house is 3 years of constant re-doing. I would say it was depressing part of my life when instead of enjoying the magical years of my twin babies, I was scraping ceiling, painting and installing floors.

But now that we have reached the end of living in this house, I couldn't help but be sad we are leaving.

I took my words back. No. I don't hate this house. I looked at the work and the design that I have done in here, and I knew it is done with love. I've had meltdowns, frustrations and hardships during the process, but there are no regrets. I found out that being a stay home/homeschool mom of three under the age of three, re-doing a house was possible, doing it in between naptime and playtime.

Surely, I feel sad for leaving because I feel like I am leaving a part of me with this house. Difficult it may be, I just have to keep it in perspective that I prepared this house for a family who would fall in love with this house looking for a fresh start.

As for us.... we can't wait to enjoy our new home we have built from scratch that would house a bigger family.

$200 (something) Master Bath Redo

I had to do some small changes in our master bathroom. I had to work around a small budget. I wanted to keep it simple and clean. I love things simple and neutral. I chose a light colored paint  for the walls (Sherwin Williams: Rare and Radiant). For me, it's easier to change the color/theme decorations than to change the color of walls. The popcorn ceiling was scraped and the vanity and mirror were painted white.

I apologize. I am not good at getting the "before" photos. This was taken when I started prepping to paint the cabinets

I updated the hardware and I used what I had left from redoing our kitchen cabinets. I wanted it simple and affordable.

Updating a decor doesn't have to be pricey. Just get creative with what's on hand. In this case, I bought 3 big hooks and screwed it on a painted old piece of wood.

I spent barely nothing on this project and that included the decorations and small things (most decorations were my old stuff that I DIY'd). 

It's amazing how a new fresh coat of paint and a little bit of elbow grease can make a big difference to the old dingy outdated bathrooms.

A Poor Woman's Dream

My definition of success is the ability to buy as much as I can. I feel more valuable if I have more money. People are nicer to you when you buy things from them and or give things away. Thankfully, I am not obsessed with my so called definition of "success"

How I define success probably came from my upbringing. My mother valued earning more than staying home. She wasn't that kind of woman. She spent all life earning every bit of income so she could provide proper education for all of us six children. Maybe, that's what molded how I see success.
As a child, I remember thinking,..
 "I hope my mother would get enough money to buy everything, so she can finally stay home and be with me".
It didn't happen. Till this day, she doesn't stop working so she had something to give to down her grandchildren.

At the airport

                                 

 Recently, she traveled to visit me in U.S to check on me. It was our great chance to bond. I heard backstories that made her cry,.. that also that made me cry. I always saw her as my mom. To hear her backstory, it was like seeing her as a person for the first time

My mother is the strongest woman I've ever met. She faced unfortunate situations since the beginning of her life. I've always wondered what her dreams were when growing up. The answer broke my heart.

My mother was never allowed to dream. She had no idea that there is life beyond poverty. To her, comfort doesn't exist and all there was, only surviving the next day. She had brothers and sisters died  at a very young age of disease and hunger , some of them were, I imagine were infants. School wasn't an option, but at least she made it to third grade. She started working at six years old. Being the oldest girl, she was expected to help and take care of her younger siblings.

Eventually, she fell in love and hoped to start a happy family with the man who promised her the stars. But her marriages didn't work quite as she hoped. Her in-laws oppressed and maltreated her during her first marriage while her husband brought another woman home and cheated right in front of her.

My mother was a young, naive teenager who was forced to climbed over a glass-spiked wall as a chance of escape, carrying all her three kids under the age of four, including a breastfeeding infant.

Out of poverty, her father (my grandfather) suggested that she put her children to orphanage, for they too barely have anything to live on. In spite of circumstances, she managed to send all her kids to college and bought lands as their inheritance that presently helped them start their own business as a means of welfare

My mother made her life's mission to make sure all of us have a comfortable life. She made sure she gave the six us proper education so that we have options in life.

 I've always resented her absence in my life. But now as a mother, I understand she did what she had to do, and life made her who she was and is. I know, if she was given a choice, she could have lived differently, but that wasn't the case with her upbringing.

Life can sometimes be unfair, but my mother found a way around it with hard work and determination that her children would live differently from the life she had.

My mother gave her best to protect her children. She succeeded. It was tough on her when I, her (baby) left to live to another country. There was this fear that she couldn't protect me if anything goes wrong.  She never pushed me to marry in exchange for a comfortable life. In fact, she was against the idea that I leave the country and get married. It wasn't what she taught us. She taught us that success has no shortcuts. It can be achieved in any place. But I fell in love with this man who just happened to be from another country.

There was a calming sense of relief on her part to see I am living a life she never had. Happily married to a kind and wonderful man whom I have three beautiful children with and with In-laws who love and accepted me as their own.

I cannot take all the credit for  the blessings I've been given. Maybe part of that was my mother's reward for winning life's challenges even when odds played unfairly. 

Who would  know, that little vendor girl who sold tomatoes in the slums of Manila would one day see the other side of the world

I guess, not knowing what to dream worked on her best interest. She believed actions spoke louder than ambition. She loved all her children equally with all her heart and strength, and the result of that is a reward beyond dreams she could imagine. She succeeded to win in this game called life. Family is her crown. Her story is my heritage

Happy Mother's day to the queen of my life!

"Moving with In-Laws"

I cannot believe it has been five months since the family talked and thought about merging two families in one big house. Everything went so quick. Although it wasn't considered as an impulse buy. The family was convinced that this is meant to be, for as everything is going so well, though not perfectly.

It hasn't sink in to me yet, being our house is not in the market yet. We still have a good amount of time to wait till we are close into closing our newly purchased home.

I have thought of possibility moving to a new house, but never in my wildest dream that the home will be built from the scratch. I feels so unreal. I feel I don't deserve it because I am just a stay home wife/mom who doesn't earn an income and my husband earns just enough to support a family of five, but the Lord blessed us with an amazing relationship with my in-laws who we can share a future home and live together.

prepping the ground

We went to a process of which I've only seen on TV, where we went to a design room to pick all the elements we want to put in our design. It's a builder home so the choices and designs are limited. Thankfully, we nailed the time record in picking the designs, considering there were four opinions sitting at the table.

Pipes are lining and getting the foundation ready

Although, our decision to live in one house is a little unorthodox, as I have received a lot of wide eyes reactions when I said, we are are living with my in-laws, the house is good enough to cater two families. My in-laws will make an apartment type space, perfect for empty nesters who wants to be as close proximity as possible around their grand children.

Structure up soon!

We are so excited about this. I am very close to my in-laws. They adopted me as their very own daughter since I am a country away from my family.
I miss my family, it hurts. I feel the Lord has heard my heart's desire to re-live my cultural values (family ties)and apply it with my new family.

To us Filipinos, family is everything.

Bathroom Refresh under $200

With a motivation in mind, family from abroad visiting and selling this house, two months later, I finally finished three bathrooms, upstairs hallway, stairs hall redos. It was a crazy journey but I did it! Just a tip, if you have three kids 4 and under, homeschooling and working from home... don't do it. Unless you really have no choice. However, it's doable 

It is a beautiful bathroom, but it needs refreshing. There were popcorn ceilings to be scraped and the right lightness paint color for more of updated look. 

I find it unnecessary for a giant mirror. I found an antique wood mirror and painted it. I added a narrow shelf for more storage and a space saver. 
This bathroom doesn't have an impressive source of light. It is best to paint the solid wood vanity white.

We are on a tight budget. There were a few things in my original plan that wasn't executed. It was frustrating but it challenged me to be creative and be more resourceful, using what I already have in hand, including using wood palettes I hauled for free and made a cute decorative storage.

Tiles are still pretty intact and beautiful. I spray painted old hardware to save a few bucks.

This bathroom is in great shape. It needed some fresh caulking and a good floor scrub.

This is my under $200 budget bathroom redo and yes, that included the decorations.

"Moving-in with In-laws!" Series

We were driving our mini van home from Christmas vacation. My husband and I had a side chat with an idea of us all living with our mother in-law and father in-law. I wasn't against this idea. I get well along with my in-laws. They adopted me in the family like a daughter, so the idea of us in one place doesn't scare me one bit.

It was just a playful idea. One month later, we found ourselves buying/building a new home from the scratch that would cater 2 families combined. The idea was to combine our resources to get our dream house that ends up costing the same as what we were paying right now.

I like our current house, but it is not the house I imagined to function for our lifestyle. We have done a lot to make it more updated and livable. There will be a hint of sadness because I felt I failed to execute everything I wanted for this house. But I guess, there's someone who would love the layout of this house and not change how it was supposed to be built.

prepping to paint the cabinets from oak stain to white.

Now, I am on time crunch to do the best I can to complete renovating our bathrooms in small budget but does not compromise the design. I want the future owners of our current house to fall in love with it the way we did when we first bought it.

With all what's happening and responsibilities of homeschooling, taking care of toddler twins and started a small business, it's going to be a rough few months. But all in all, we are in awe of how much our hard work and patience was blessed.

Sincerely yours,
#CastleLemon