Adventures and Misadventures in Parenting Journal#1

Becoming a mother for the first time is what I consider the most challenging yet nurturing gift I received from God. Parenting is demanding but fulfilling. It requires 101% dedication, perseverance and commitment. 

I once read an anecdote about GOD instructing an angel to create a MOTHER. The Lord God instructed the angel to give the mother a 360 degrees revolving head so the mother could keep track of her children at all times. The angel was also instructed to put four eyes so the mother could monitor her children. The angel was also told to include six arms to the mother to take hold of her active kids, a penetrating ear to hear conversations, etc. etc. Finally, to complete the package, God instructed to include a BIG HEART so the mother could love her children unconditionally.

I am now reflecting if I receive all the gifts God instructed the angel. Hehe ;-)

Anyhoo, I am a working mother. I juggle time for work and my family. Andrea Marielle is my topmost priority (and hubby of course). One of the greatest challenges I am trying to solve now is on how I could home-school her especially that she would be entering preschool next year. I try to download some of the ready / custom made activity sheets. I also find time to follow the blogs of my fellow working mothers.

I want to keep her abreast of the lessons appropriate for her age. I am worried sometimes I introduces activities and exercises not fit for her. So I call upon my fellow working moms, if you have some comments and suggestions, please feel free to contact me. I would appreciate that very much.

Birthday Impromptu

I hope that I could return once to being an innocent child.

No tract of time. Always, happy. No inhibition. Tactless. Opinion of others are not important.

I am happy that my Little Mermaid, Arielle, is enjoying the gift of being a child. 

She approached my husband one day and asked him to buy her a cake. My husband obeyed and bought her one. Arielle even asked him to sing the Birthday Song for her. Then, she blew the cake.

It was 04 October 2012. Arielle birthday is every 23rd of February. ;-)

My Second Chance ;-)

It was year 2008 when I quit my MBA due to untimely pregnancy. I stopped since my pregnancy was considered high-risk so I really had no choice but to quit. One of my batch mates and best MBA buddy, Ate Myrna opted to continue, Rigor and Ate Lolit also stopped.

It was last year then when I decided to continue. I wrote a letter to the Dean of Graduate School and I was lucky to be given another chance. Since it has been almost five years when i quit, i was asked to take three (3) subjects as a refresher course. Luckily, again, the offered courses for the first semester (2012-2013) were the required refresher subjects for the Comprehensive Exam.

Upon enrollment, I met a new friend, Ms. Amor Vida, unfortunately, she stopped on the first few weeks.

On my first day of school, I met my new set of classmates. I had a not-so-good impression with them because they were cool but a bit noisy. I said to myself, how could I get serious with my studies if I would spend the rest of my MBA days with them.

I must admit that first impressions never really last or at some point there are still exemptions to the rule. As months passed, I enjoyed learning with them. They were not that "pasaway" but were even dedicated to their studies. I had my fair share of kakulitan and I credit it to them.

I hope to bumped into them on the next semester. ;-) I will miss you all.

Hopin' that you'll miss me, too Guys! (and gays)

"Procrastination"

One habit that I am struggling to avoid is PROCRASTINATION. It is avoiding difficult tasks and deliberately look for distractions.  Nowadays, it is easy to procrastinate because of increasingly available distractions -- Internet, Movie, TV, online games and the like.

Everyone procrastinates. A lady that needs to exercise and refrain from eating junks would easily shrug the idea away and say "I will thread the mill tomorrow...". A student whose finals will be on the next day would say "I still have lots of time to study tomorrow...". A worker that would enjoy the sunshine first before hitting the brick would say "There's more time before sun down..". A office clerk that would file the documents away would comment "I am soooo good in cramming.."

Procrastinators (including me) may say they perform better under pressure, but more often than not that's their way of justifying putting things off.

Well, how to avoid procrastination? This is something I bumped into and I would like to share this to you peeps:

1. Stop thinking. Start doing.

“To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.” - Eva Young

2. Don’t blow a task out of proportion.

”Putting off an easy thing makes it hard. Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible.” - George Claude Lorimer

 

3. Just take the first step.

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

4. Start with the hardest task of your day.

“Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.” - Dale Carnegie

5. Just make a decision. Any decision.

“In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” - Theodore Roosevelt

6. Face your fear.

“Procrastination is the fear of success. People procrastinate because they are afraid of the success that they know will result if they move ahead now. Because success is heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the “someday I’ll” philosophy.” - Denis Waitley

7. Finish it.

“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task” - William James

So true. I hope I could apply all the tips mentioned above the soonest.

I am procrastinating while writing this article. i should be preparing for my finals on Saturday. Today is Thursday and I am telling to myself, "I still have the whole day tomorrow to squeezed 10 chapters in my mind...."

I would end with Hermione Granger's quote:

"If you don't do this today, you will perish tomorrow!"

Source:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/procrastination
http://www.positivityblog.com/index.php/2009/04/23/how-to-stop-procrastinating-7-timeless-tips/

Genesis

edited 20 December 2013

Hello. I am Nini Starr. Welcome to my new space on the web. I have started too many blogs that I was not able to maintain because of my busy schedule. I juggle most of time for my family, studies and work. Of course, I allot most of my time to my daughter and husband because they are my number one priority.

Expect my posts to be more on my adventures and misadventures on parenting, marriage, career life, hobbies, travel and MBA.  Forgive me, however, if this blog will also be sometime my outlet to vent out my frustrations. I am a person that need to express my emotions, though I am not an artist, lol. I do believe that life could sometime be bitter-sweet and not always sugar-coated. Our faith and family will move us up to attain our goal in life.