Just last week, Z and his friend Jave had a blast playing together at our apartment. But as they say, all good things must come to an end because last Sunday, Jave and his family moved to another apartment. We were surprised but in a way we were already expecting this because a few months ago, his mom and I were talking about wanting to move and find a bigger place. As it turned out, they found a bigger one but with the same rental price as their old apartment. It is just a walking distance from us but located in a different town. They said the place that they found was two-storey and with much bigger rooms. I wish we could also find a good place when it's our time to move, we are planning to move this coming February because by that time another rent increase is scheduled and we know we can already find a bigger place at that price. We would love to move to our own house, after all, the price we are paying for an apartment is enough for monthly mortgage payment for a house far from the city but we just don't want that sacrifice. I love it that I just have to wait 30 minutes and S will be home from the office. We lived in my grandma's house two years before and we had everything for free but S's travel time was 2 hours in good days and would last up to 3 hours when the traffic was bad. When he arrives home, all he does is sleep and when he wakes up he just say hello to us and he has to get ready for work again. In short, his life was really exhausting and looking back we do not know how he survived that. Because of that experience, S and I agree that our life is better here even if the rent takes a chunk of our budget. Z and his dad have all the time in the world to spend together, and I do not spend my hours worrying where he is and why isn't he home yet. Yes, renting is our option for now but someday we hope to save enough to afford the more expensive houses located in the city where work is available. It may take some time but I'm sure we'll eventually get there.
Going back to Z and his friend, they tried to spend as much time together during the last days of their stay here - up to the time when they were loading their furniture in the vehicle. Years from now, I don't know if Z will still remember Jave so I snapped some more photos to remind Z of his childhood friend.

Laundry, a task that every stay-at-home mom has to tackle. When we first got our washing machine, I would do my laundry with gusto, I would use it happily twice a week. Now that I have been doing our own laundry for a year, I have gone from doing it twice a week, to doing it once a week, then once every 1 1/2 week and then finally once every 2 weeks. Now whenever my husband says, "You have to start doing the laundry I ran out of socks," instead of telling him, "Yes dear," I would say,"Maybe you should buy some new socks, you always seem to run out of socks." And off we did to buy some new socks. A week ago he told me, "You should wash our clothes, I am running out of shirts." To this I again replied, "You should buy some new shirts too," And that we did too. But he always run out of things after we buy this then he will run out of other things, to add to this my son also ran out of shorts to wear and he hated wearing a pajama and it is not that easy to dupe him anymore. So I knew I have to devise another strategy with regards to doing the laundry. I racked my brain and remembered that my grandma used to do our laundry once a day. She even offered this advice to me but I remembered being so shocked upon hearing her suggestion that I did not even give it a second thought. So now I wondered if I was the fool one to not take that advice, maybe the key to doing something you do not like is to do it even more. Do I make sense? Since I am an extreme person, and doing it the opposite way failed miserably, the idea of doing the laundry everyday kind of appealed to me. I decided that the best way to do it is early in the morning so the night before I filled the washing machine with water so I have no excuse in the morning. I also decided to do only 1 laundry a day and no more no less. On the first day my husband suggested I do two loads instead to save resources and I followed him which in turn violated my rule to do 1 laundry a day. It took more of my time than expected and I vowed never to do it again. Now, I am on my second day and I am quite pleased with myself. I am even becoming apprehensive thinking, "What if I run out of clothes to wash?" We are only three in the family if the load is too little then it would be a waste for me to wash 3 shirts and 3 pants in a day, right? What would I do then? I will just worry about that in the future.
Last night I was patting myself in the back while watching my husband put on his newly washed shirt, he then turned at me and I looked back expecting to hear a thank you when he suddenly said, "I think my shirt shrunk." Uh-oh! What now?

Let me share some of the tips I have come across while surfing the net:
1. Put the clothes first before you put the detergent and water. This will allow the clothes to be fully soaked allowing the detergent to do its cleaning more effectively.
2. Do not put cotton shirts in the dryer because it has the tendency to shrink, instead hang it to dry.
3. Do not overload your washer, fill it only up to 75% full so the clothes can circulate and will come out cleaner.
4. Do not overdry your clothes to save energy and to prevent from wrinkling.

If you have tips on how you do your laundry I would love to hear it too.

My son and I had a good time making pancakes for merienda. I braced myself for the mess and allowed him to pour the flour into the bowl, add the baking powder, sugar, salt and mix the batter with a fork. Thank goodness I now know that I had to add baking powder to make the pancake fluffy.. I remember not too long ago I tried making pancakes without it and it turned as hard as a rock. Without internet at home and away from my family I could not find out why, although I have a remote idea it has something to do with lack of baking powder or baking soda, only I could not figure out which is it. So the next time I went grocery shopping I decided to buy one of the two and guess what I bought? Yes, I bought the baking soda! It was only at home that I realized that maybe I bought the wrong one and thank goodness I had the sense not to make a batch of pancakes with the baking soda. Well that's life, you would not learn unless you make mistakes!
Anyway, Z was really proud of making the pancake. While eating he kept on asking me who made the pancake and I reassured him it was all his effort.