Great News, Good Memories, Healthy Stuff

The Alphabet Mom has been very happy the past days. I can't reveal the details yet but as of late last week, I was already granted permission to work from home. That means, I will have a fuller devotion to my other career, which happens to be my most favorite thing to do in the world at the moment: Mothering.

While counting the days though, I have made use of my time wisely. Well, I've still been going to the office for the past two days while I wait for my new contract to be drafted, however, I've also been giving myself some pampering by going to Core Yoga for my long-overdue fitness regimen. I bought a coupon for a week long unlimited yoga classes  from Deal Grocer a few months ago but I had to wait for the perfect timing to use it which happens to be this time of the month, before the coupon expires on May 30.  I've gone to two classes last week and tried both their Bikram and Vinyasa routines.  Although I missed their weekend classes and yesterday's (forgot to bring my mat), I'm looking forward to going tonight after work. I think four days of yoga are well worth the 600 bucks I paid already. Imagine 90 minutes of pure sweating, stretching, and concentrating. It was my first time to try Bikram and I thought I was gonna pass out some time between the 70th to 80th minute but I survived it. I felt divine having finished the session. While I was already doing Vinyasa before, as part of my pre-wedding fitness activity (naks), it wasn't easy coming back to doing the postures perfectly (at least in my standards). The instructor had to coach me in some of the postures and it felt like I was doing yoga for the first time again. Well, I don't mind much, what's important is that I'm giving the alone time we all deserve while I can. I really wish there's a yoga studio as nice as Core Yoga in Malate area that I and my husband (yes, he wants to try!) can go to.

Meanwhile, we were at Sta. Elena Fun Farm last Sunday for the Balik Bukid Country Fair. We had a terrific time and I can tell from the face of the little one he found the whole place A.W.E.S.O.M.E. He laughed really loudly when we took him near the carabao resting beneath the tree but was really quiet when we rode the carabao-driven cart that took us around the farm. We decided to hang around the Kids' Playground where he enjoyed sitting on the swing, jumping on the trampoline, and balancing on the bamboo bars. Here are some of the photos we took from our phone (forgot to bring the digicam, geez). Our friends though brought their very nice DSLR so we are waiting for them to upload the pics on Facebook.

Daphne blogged about it and that's where we learned about the place. I also saw a big banner along the highway on the way there. The parking lot was full but the place is vast so I hardly felt the crowd. When we arrived there was a band playing and it felt just like Saguijo, my husband joked, only it's more General Patronage.

As it was also a country fair, there were so many local goods being sold. I was giddy to see the colorful flowers and cute paper weights made of stones and covered in crochet pictured above. I also took home some organic vegetables from Holy Carabao which I cooked with the organic beef and chicken we bought from Landmark. I've been a fan of free range chicken of Bounty fresh for quite some time now and have also been buying Farm Organics meat whenever we shop at Landmark. The chicken and beef are packed with flavor and with just little salt, the flavors are even more enhanced. I love serving not just nutritious food to my family but also those that are artificial flavoring-free, hormone-free, and preservatives-free! Now if only they would do away with the styro and plastic packaging of these meats, that'd be perfect!