my son doesn't want to study

29 June 2009

3 comments
I have posted a few days ago that my son's classes were cancelled until the 6th of July. New lessons, homeworks and other study guides were posted on his school's website. The school thought that it will be helpful so that the students 10-day stay at home will be fruitful. But the teachers just dumped on us parents a week load of new lessons. They didn't even break it down into daily activities.

I tutored some kids a few years back. Teaching my son these past few days was very stressful for us both. His "delaying tactics" was too much for me already. When I call him to study, that's the time he has to go to the bathroom first or last 5 minutes of play time (which extends to almost an hour). Even the peeling of a banana became an excuse to delay his studying, "This banana is so hard to peel, I'll get my book when I'm done eating this banana Mama".

Patience, I need more patience for these coming days.

no school because of A(H1N1)

25 June 2009

1 comments
While watching the latest Transformers movie last friday, I received a text message from my son's school that classes will be suspended for 10 days because one student was diagnosed with A(H1N1) virus. Homeworks and other school projects will just be posted in the school's website to make use of staying at home more productive.
Some parents became annoyed that they have to help their kids everyday considering that they already payed a very expensive tuition fees. The kids won't even be able to go to their tutors since most are around the school area.
For me, the school deciding to call off classes for 10 days was a good decision. This is also for the benefit of the school community.
This is very beneficial for my son because even the yearly swim varsity try-outs was cancelled. He can practice for a few more days in the house.

happy birthday RJ

22 June 2009

7 comments
Today is my son's 8th birthday. He asked me to wake him up at 12 midnight, so I prepared something that will make it memorable. I cut out a big "8" out of a sliced bread, the first one looked like a snowman with a small head so I made another one. I spread Hershey's syrup on the bread and this is how it looked like =)

RJ can barely sit up. He just blew the candle before the "happy birthday" song was even finished and went right back to sleep.

When I woke him up at 5am to prepare for school (service picks him up at 6am), he saw the bread with the candle and asked me if I woke him up at midnight. He didn't even remember blowing the candle =)

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

20 June 2009

1 comments
Tomorrow is Father's Day. To all the loving father's out there -- Happy Father's Day to you!

Here is a poem dedicated to all papa's: What Makes A Dad. Here is a Father's day gift that kids can make for their dads: Hugs and Kisses. Are you interested to know about the origin of father's day? Click here.

Happy Father's Day also to all the single moms who unconditionally took the responsibilities of being both a mom and a dad to their kids.


first day in 2nd grade

15 June 2009

2 comments
Summer vacation went by so fast. Tomorrow is my son's first day of school. I attended the parent orientation today and was quite disappointed that they didn't even put hand sanitizers in the classroom, they did put one in the administration and registrar's office for the school employees. Considering the tuition fee that they charge, the only thing that they did was send out a text message to not let kids with flu-like symptoms go to school. I just hope no one caught the A (H1N1) while vacationing out of the country. Hoping also that those who went out of the country be more responsible and not let their son's go to school if the 10 days self-quarantine is not done yet.

Lasagna, anyone?

11 June 2009

0 comments
As I have said on my earlier post, my son is a very picky eater. I can count on my two hands the dishes that he likes to eat. Topping the list of his favorite food is pasta. He can eat macaroni and cheese on any given day for breakfast, lunch and dinner.


Today, I decided to cook another pasta dish that my son likes to eat. Lasagna. It has more ingredients and takes much longer to cook than the I-can-cook-with-eyes-closed mac & cheese.


Try cooking this Lasagna recipe for your family also. I’m sure they will love it.


Ingredients
1 lb lean ground beef
1/2 medium sweet white onion, diced
1/2 large green bell pepper, seeds and veins removed, diced
1/2 lb dry lasagna noodles (requires 9 lasagna noodles - unbroken)
1/4 cup sugar
1 28 oz can tomato sauce
1/2 28 oz can (16 oz) stewed tomatoes
1/2 6 oz can (3 oz) tomato paste
1 lb Ricotta cheese
1 1/2 lb Mozzarella cheese (large flat square slices)
3/4 lb freshly grated parmesan cheese
Garlic Powder
Oregano
Italian Spice
Salt
Garlic Salt
Parsley diced (fresh flat leaf preferred)
1 Garlic Cloves, minced
White wine vinegar


Method
1 Brown lean ground beef in skillet until lightly browned and cooked through. Put a few layers of paper towels in large bowl. With slotted spoon, remove browned beef from skillet draining off excess beef fat and put on top of blotting towels. After all the browned beef has been removed from the skillet, drain off and dispose of excess beef fat. Wipe skillet clean with paper towel. (If your ground beef is sufficiently lean, there won't be any excess fat to drain.)


Add diced green pepper and onion to skillet. Brown for a few minutes on medium high heat, add browned beef back to the skillet, lower the heat to low and continue to cook for 5 more minutes stirring frequently.


2 Transfer browned beef, green pepper and onions to 3 Qt. pot. Add tomato sauce, tomato paste. Open stewed tomatoes and dice, then add to 3 Qt. pot. Add oregano, parsley, Italian Spice Mix to taste, probably 2 teaspoons of each. Add a pinch of garlic powder and a pinch of garlic salt, to taste. Add a dash of white wine vinegar. Add sugar a couple tablespoons at a time, until desired level of sweetness, no more than 1/4 cup of sugar. Note that it is hard to follow a pure recipe when it comes to pasta sauce. One Italian spice mix is not like the other, nor is one can of tomato sauce not like the other. So you really do need to taste the sauce as you are adding the spices, sugar and vinegar.


Stir and allow sauce to simmer 15-45 minutes to thicken (do not scorch bottom, stir frequently). Remove from heat.


3 Cook 1 lb lasagna noodles in 6 Qt. Pot per cooking directions (al dente). (Note noodles may be cooked in advance.) Stir often to prevent from sticking and be sure that water remains at a low boil during the entire cooking to prevent noodles from sticking. I usually add 1 Tablespoon of olive oil to the cooking water to help prevent sticking and I add 1/2 teaspoon of salt so the noodles are more flavorful. Drain in colander and place in cool water filled pan to keep from drying out and sticking together.


4 In dry lasagna pan, ladle one cup of sauce and spread along the bottom of the pan. Apply a layer noodles 3 length wise (edges overlapping). Ladle in sauce sparingly into center trough of 3 noodles. Apply a layer of mozzarella cheese slices on top of lasagna sauce. Place ricotta cheese dollops (about a Tablespoon) every 2 inches in center of noodles on top of mozzarella cheese slices, sprinkle grated parmesan cheese in thin even layer on top of ricotta cheese. Apply second layer of noodles, repeat three time topping with noodles. If you have extra sauce and cheese you can spread that over the top. Tent lasagna pan with aluminum foil (not touching noodles or sauce). Bake at 375°F for 45 minutes. Allow to cool before serving.


Note - Flavor improves for second service and may be reheated in convention or microwave. Leave aluminum tent on for storage (Do not allow aluminum to touch the sauce.)

You might want to try one of my son's fave dessert - the Mango Float.


recipe source: Elise.com

23 people, positive with Influenza A (H1N1) TODAY!

10 June 2009

1 comments
This is getting scarier by the minute. 23 new cases of A (H1N1) were reported today. The Philippines now has a record breaking 77 cases, the most in Asia. DOH official's said that this is due to our government’s "very good surveillance system and transparency in reporting".

As I have said in my previous post, my son's school moved the first day of classes from June 10 to June 16. But due to these disturbing developments, I am thinking of not letting my son attend the first week of classes. If you have been following the news lately, a lot of the confirmed cases were reported by schools on the first day of classes.

I'm sure the people infected with the disease went on with their daily activities before being quarantined. Did any of them go to Megamall while I was there? Did anybody with swine flu symptoms used the MRT while I was on it on my way to work? Those are the questions that might be running on your mind right now.
It won’t help us and our family if we panic. This is the time that we should take care of our health more. We should exercise more, drink our multivitamins, drink lots of water and take care of our hygiene.

For more information on how to stop the spread of the disease, read my previous post.

Sources:
Inquirer

May pagasa pa ba sa PAGASA?

06 June 2009

1 comments
Classes were postponed today in Metro Manila at around 5AM, when most kids are already on their way to school. This is not the first time DepEd made a late announcement. Yesterday, they made the announcement at noon already. Day before yesterday, they postponed classes at 3PM, right when dismissal bell is going to ring already.

When my son was still in preschool, I was so *toot-toot* when I heard DepEd's announcement that classes were postponed for that day. I almost fell out of the school service because it was so unbelievable that they didn't know it was raining hard the previous night. Why make the announcement when everybody was in school already?

News reports today said that PAGASA announced to expect more rain today. More rain today compared with the past two days? Why then was I able to do the laundry and dry it under the heat of the sun. I didn't even use the dryer today. Yes, it did drizzle in the morning. Rained a bit in the afternoon and rained in the evening. But more rain today compared with yesterday and the day before that? No way!

Gift Kids Can Make For Dad

05 June 2009

1 comments
Fill a jar with Hersheys Hugs and Kisses. Take one pair of new sports socks and one pair of gloves (gardening gloves, work gloves, etc.) Tack the socks together toe to toe. This makes a pair of arms. Tack one glove to the the open end of each of the socks. Now you have arms and hands. Wrap the arms and hands around the jar a couple of times, crossing the hands at the front and tack together.

Attach this poem:
DADDY,
If all these Kisses aren't enough,
There's two hands to help with garden stuff.
If all these hugs don't work their charm,
There's two arms to help keep you warm.
If this gift doesn't show how much we care,
We have REAL hugs & kisses to share!

source: Morning Glow

A poem dedicated to father's

0 comments

What Makes A Dad

God took the strength of a mountain,
The majesty of a tree,
The warmth of a summer sun,
The calm of a quiet sea,
The generous soul of nature,
The comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages,
The power of the eagle's flight,
The joy of a morning in spring,
The faith of a mustard seed,
The patience of eternity,
The depth of a family need,
Then God combined these qualities,
When there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete,
And so, He called it ... Dad
Author is unknown

lemon cookie recipe

0 comments
Lemon cookies
Liz Scott

INGREDIENTS
• 1 pkg. lemon cake mix
• 2 c. (small carton) frozen whipped topping
• 1 egg or 2 egg whites
• Lemon juice

DIRECTIONS
1. Mix all of the ingredients together.
2. Form the dough into balls and roll in powdered sugar.
3. Place on lightly greased cookie sheet.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Be careful not to overbake.

TIPS
You can refrigerate the dough to make it easier to form into balls and roll in powdered sugar.

Who is Liz Scott?

Cookies worth $13,000

0 comments
One of the guests in The Today show this morning is Liz Scott, mother to a girl named Alex. Alex Scott battled neuroblastoma, a type of childhood cancer, before her first birthday until she died in 2004 at the age of 8.

Alex was a determined, courageous, confident and inspiring child with big dreams and big accomplishments. After she received a stem transplant the day after her 4th birthday, she said to her mother that she wants to have a lemonade stand so that she can give money to the hospital to help them find a cure. Later that year, her first lemonade stand raised $2,000 for childhood cancer research.

After she passed away, her family continued her inspiring legacy through Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation. People from all over the world held their own lemonade stands and donated the proceeds to her foundation. Alex’s mother, has raised additional funds by auctioning off her lemon cookies. This year, the cookies raised $13,000 on the eve of what would have been Alex’s 13th birthday.

Isn't this a very inspiring story?

To know more about Alex and the foundation, check out Alex's Lemonade Stand and The Today Show.

Do you want to try out Liz Scott's cookie recipe? Of course you do! Click here.

mango float

04 June 2009

1 comments
My son's all time fave fruit is mango. Whenever I can, I prepare his all time fave dessert -- Mango Float.

Here is the recipe for a very creamy, delish mango float.

Ingredients:
Mangoes
Graham crackers
nestle cream
Condensed milk or sweetened creamer

Steps:

Prepare the bowl. Mix the cream and condensed milk. Slice the mangoes into thin and small slices. Put a layer of graham crackers at the bottom. Spread a layer of the cream. Put a layer of mango slices. Repeat the last three steps up to the desired thickness. Add a final layer of cream.
Crush graham crackers and put them on the top. Put it in the freezer or refrigerator. Make sure it is cold when served.

Opening of classes postponed

1 comments
I received a text bulletin from my son's school today. Opening of classes, which was supposed to be on the 9th of June, was moved to June 15. I was expecting this already when they postponed the parent orientation early last week.

The school made the decision after careful evaluation of the swine flu situation in the country. They also know that a lot of the families in the school community went abroad for their summer vacation.

I hope that everybody will heed to the school's request not to use this week for any last minute trip or to extend vacations out of the country.

Father's Day

03 June 2009

0 comments
We will be celebrating father's day once again on the 21st of June. To all the forgetful mom's out there, set your reminder alarm on the 3rd Sunday of this month. If you forget still, please stop blaming it on the "expensive" pain killers that you used during childbirth, I am already reminding you now.

Where did father's day originated? It all began in Spokane, Washington on the 19th of June, 1910. Sonora Smart Dodd thought of the idea for Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909. Her father, William Jackson Smart, was left to raise six children by himself when his wife died in childbirth with their sixth child. She wanted her father to know how special he was so she chose to hold the first Father's Day celebration on her fathers birthday.

On Father's Day, don't forget to honor the special men in your life.

a poem for a son

02 June 2009

2 comments
outcome of who you are
Author: Jamme
A son is God’s blessing to a family
He might be imperfect at times
He does not always pick the right choice
But parents like you
Who sets a good example for their child
Produces a product that you may be proud of

online book club

0 comments
My son loves reading so much. He reads anything from K-zone (his fave magazine) to Geronimo Stilton books. He loves borrowing prehistoric books from his school library (though he has lots of dinosaur books already in the house).

I am planning to join an online book club. This online book club was featured on a television show last week. It is a social networking site like friendster or facebook, but it caters to people who love reading. It is a website for book lovers.

Once a member, you can create your own bookshelf to show the books that you have read as well as books that you would love to own. You can also meet new friends, who like you also love reading books. You can invite your blogger friends, and your non-blogger friends, to join the online book club by adding a widget on your blog's main page.

I will check if my son can join also, he is only 7 years old. Will give you more details. Later.

Ben 10 Alien Force

01 June 2009

2 comments
My son likes Ben 10 Alien Force so much he chose it to be his 8th birthday theme. This is different from Ben 10, another cartoon series in Cartoon Network. In Ben 10 Alien Force, the character Ben is already 15-years old. In Ben 10, the main character is just 10 years old and he has different DNAliens.

Since this show is fairly new here, it is hard for me to find things with Ben 10 Alien Force that I need for the party. What I'm going to do is DYI everything from the invites to the giveaways.

I'm done with the invites already. I'm thinking of printed shirts for the giveaways. Still have to design it as well as the tarpaulin & standee. But I can't find a printer that accepts 30-40 shirts only for printing. Can anybody recommend one that doesn't charge so much?

Night at the Museum 2

0 comments
We watched Night at the Museum 2 yesterday afternoon. The movie is funny and informative as well. My son was laughing hard the whole time, good thing the people around us didn't mind (because they were laughing so hard also).

I didn't like the love story part though, it might confuse the kids. Amelia Earhart, the first person to fly solo across the Pacific, fell in love with Larry Daley, played by Ben Stiller, the main character in the movie.

Do watch the movie, you will laugh to your hearts content. Bring your kids, they will surely enjoy it too.

Copyright © 2010 my baby rj | Free Blogger Templates by Splashy Templates | Layout by Atomic Website Templates