Loving Green

 My Naomi, who just turned 12 on Nov. 10th, is loving her green shirt. It's a gift from a dear friend whom Naomi calls "Auntie Theresa".
There is a story behind this shirt.
When Auntie Theresa was shopping for "pasalubong" (a Filipino term for a homecoming gift), she saw this shirt and she loved the design. Actually, the original message is about loving the planet earth or something about the taking care of our environment. But Auntie Theresa had another message in mind. She thought of the Bible verse which talks about God's love for the the world.


"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." -John 3:16

Another reason why this shirt is special to the the birthday girl is that at the back it has her name on it. I love the white print over green but I love the name more!

When life is hard...there's always a brighter side...

Now that I have my own college student to send to school, the more I am amazed how my parents were able to send all their seven children to good schools. Ahhhh, no wonder why my mother was so thrifty at that time. She would go to the cheapest grocery shop or to the local wet market to buy the food we needed. Only the basic. No junk food or whatsoever. Then we were taught not to waste water and electricity. She would save the laundry water to clean the bathroom or water the plants. Smart mom, she was and still is! The money she could save from cutting the bills would help pay for our tuition fees. That's how she managed my father's take home pay and that's how we all got our degree.

Another thing that my mother taught us was to maintain a good credit score. Her very words were "You still sleep well even without money because you know you don't owe anybody." She said that we have to save the opportunity to loan in hard times and only when necessary.

I'm not sure how much am I like my mom to my children. Maybe I'm not as thrifty as she is. I only have 3 children and she has 7! But I surely like to learn from her example.

Healthy Way To Get Rid of Aphids From Your Garden

I came home with a 5-inch twig from a mulberry tree in hand. That was last year when I visited a friend's farm. I planted that little twig in a pot in my balcony, hoping that it would grow into a bush, bear fruit and draw more birds.

It grew and bore fruit, but it didn't do well as it should. Aphids feasted on it.
So, came the search for a solution. I came across a gardening site that has homemade recipe for pesticides. I couldn't find that site again so I made a concoction based on memory.

Ingredients for homemade anti-aphids spray

• 10 chilli 
• 10 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp hand-dishwashing liquid (bio-degradable)
• 1 tsp cooking oil
• 1 cup water

1. Crush garlic and chili together. Mix it to a cup of water. Let it sit overnight.
2. Strain the mixture. Add oil and dishwashing liquid.
3. Put mixture into a hand sprayer and spray liquid to the affected area of your plants. Spray once a week or every after the rain.

The concoction may hurt young leaves a bit but it certainly wont kill your plant. Keep spraying until there's no more sign of aphids in your plants.

You can keep the sprayer in the fridge for 4 weeks. Wow, a pesticide that you can keep in your fridge!

Note: I think you can experiment on your mixture depending on how strong you want your concoction would be. what is important is that you know that you can make your own pesticide that is not hazardous to the environment and is safe to keep.

This really works! I've been wanting to share this formula but was waiting until I proved it myself.  My Rose of  Sharon that was also infested is now budding for the first time!

Eating Fresh and Going Green

It's all about stewardship!

Eating fresh and green is one habit that our family  keeps. Our children are not picky eaters. They grow up eating vegetables. In fact, my Naomi has composed a song that we teach children in our community project:  "Vegetables are good for you! They make you strong and they make you grow. Vegetables are good for you!                                 

Fresh celery stalks, cucumber, bitter gourd and green apple. Fresh and raw straight to the juicer. My Zoe loves it in the morning before eating breakfast.

Aside from keeping ourselves healthy, we all keep our own surrounding clean. We throw our trash the right way and we buy eco-friendly products only. 

We try to minimize our use of non-biodegradable products. It's not much but the little contribution we do everyday would mean a lot if every family will do the same especially these days when flooding in our city is getting worse.

In my garden, I no longer use store bought chemicals or pesticides. I just successfully made a concoction using edible products to combat aphids in my plant. I will blog about that soon so stay tuned :-)