photo credit: Marco Raaphorst

Today Anton and I went to our next door neighbor for his very first playdate. My neighbor, Lisa, invited me for coffee while our toddlers played. Lisa’s daughter is only four months older than Anton. They played alongside each other, rather than with each other, which is normal for this age. Fortunately, we had very minor sharing issues. And Lisa said the mess afterwards was very minimal compared to their other playdates.

It was refreshing for me, since I haven’t had a girlfriend to hang around with in - wow - 8 long months! While I consider myself an introvert, my “old” friends are an important part of my life. Man, I miss them. I’ll be sending them my weekly E-mail tonight and telling them about my newfound friend.

Oh and the best part is that Lisa is willing to have Anton over once in a while so I can get some work done. This is an amazing offer considering that Lisa has a 6-week-old baby as well as a toddler. God bless you, Lisa!

I promised myself recently that I would stop buying any new Internet marketing product. I am already subscribed to a number of Internet marketing and other resources and although they individually don’t cost much, they do add up. So I decided to curb my expenses and put an end - for the meantime - to my “education” expenses. But something happened last week that made me lose my resolve.

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The KitchenAid artisan mixer. Isn’t it a beauty?

There I was, minding my own business, when this sales clerk comes with a box of the said gadget, puts it down on the counter right in front of me, near enough for me to see that it was marked down to $249. I couldn’t help myself: “The original price of this item is $349, right?” (I’ve been stalking it enough to know its price by heart.)

“Yes,” she said, the devil herself, “I just marked it down.”

And then to make matters worse, she tapes a brochure in front of the box and continues, “And after the mail-in rebate, you get $50 back.”

I firmly turned on my heels and headed to my original intention: a Conair garment steamer for over $100 that would end my ironing woes.

One thing I discovered about myself since moving here is that I abhor ironing. I hate it so much that I’ve started feeling resentful toward that particular household chore. So I decided, if it’s going to take $100+ to remove this source of resentment in my domestic life, then so be it! So I marched to Sears that day.

And we’re going back next week, because the garment steamer will be on sale and we can get a refund of about $20. So I don’t feel so bad about being too weak to carry my weekly cross of ironing clothes.

Meantime, that KitchenAid artisan mixer will just have to wait. Maybe until Anton starts school and I have time to actually use it. Certainly after I can afford an iPhone or iPod Touch….

Photo by Lewis Chaplin

Today I was up at 2 am fixing everybody’s lunches. Anton had waken up and, although he had fallen back asleep, I, on the other hand, was wide awake. So I thought I might as well get a head start on the day’s work.

I have suffered from insomnia since my college days in Ateneo. I would lay awake in the middle of the night or wee hours of the morning. I would read my Philippine history textbook or pray the rosary in Spanish. I knew I was in trouble when I have finished a chapter of history or the entire rosary and I was still awake!

This morning, I said the rosary again, but in English because I have completely forgotten my Spanish prayers. I also drank some herbal tea for insomnia, and taken my homeopathic medicines for insomnia. To no avail.

I suspect it’s because I’ve stopped taking my calcium-magnesium supplements, to save money. I think I should swallow the cost and take my supplements again, or else!

http://clothcrafter.multiply.com/photos/album/39/Last_Days_of_Summer

http://naturalmomstalkradio.com/blog/confessions-of-a-baby-sling-junkie/

Read all about it here.

Photo by e453753

Tonight after dinner, we biked to the nearest Tim Horton’s for some dessert.

It was refreshing to deviate from our usual routine. The temperature was perfect and it felt good to be outdoors.

Paula had a minor accident, though. We were crossing a major intersection and she missed the ramp down from the sidewalk to the street. Her bike went flying off the curb and she fell down. Poor Paula! She isn’t too confident yet about her biking skills. Even though she can already balance on 2 wheels, she refuses to remove the training wheels. But at the same time she’s always worried about other kids finding out….

Her knee (and self-esteem) got bruised, but overall she’s ok. Bobby and I reassured her that nobody learns how to bike without getting a few boo-boos now and then.

Well, maybe except my nephew Cito, who - if I remember correctly - simply got on a 2-wheeler and rode off.

The secret is in the buttermilk — and having “the perfect recipe”. Which I have. It’s in “The Perfect Recipe” by Pam Anderson, one of my favorite cookbook authors.

She is also the author of “How to Cook Without a Book”, which basically taught me how to cook. I’d be lost in Canada without it.

So back to the pancake recipe. No, I’m not going to post it here. That would be a copyright infringement. I’m sure you’ll find other buttermilk pancake recipes out there but this one is tried and tested. Ms. Anderson set out to create the recipe that will result in light and fluffy pancakes that spring back when you slice into them. And she has found it.

These pancakes are so good, we eat them without butter and maple syrup. And yet they have whole wheat flour and only a few teaspoons of sugar.

This is one of the cookbooks that were shipped from the Philippines. I’m so glad I didn’t sell or give it away! Back in the Philippines, I couldn’t find buttermilk and I tried this recipe using milk with vinegar. It didn’t work. Buttermilk is milk fermented with lactic acid. A better substitute might be plain unsweetened yogurt.

What I don’t like about the recipe is having to separate the egg yolks from the whites. Really, that’s almost too much to demand of me so early in the morning. I will experiment and see what will happen if I skipped that part. Maybe the kids won’t notice any difference.

Scientists have long known that the mother’s brain is flooded with oxytocin when breastfeeding. But until recently, they had been puzzled as to how enough oxytocin was produced to alter the mother’s moods. Now they know.

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