Growing Backyard Vegetables

When I have nothing to do in my downtime at work, I love back reading my blog posts. One afternoon, I read my post about how we successfully became homeowners from renters. I mentioned in that post that in order for us to survive the new financial task we took of buying our own home, we will make everything work out and one of the tips I joked about was planting kamote tops to get by.

Two years on and I am literally planting kamote tops in my backyard, lol!

I'm sure many organic and urban gardeners have blogged about all the benefits of growing your own food and I just wanted to add more benefits that it gave to my family. For me, the convenience of having vegetables in your own backyard is the best! Nowadays, when I crave for tinolang manok or ilonggo's famous laswa, all I need is the main ingredient of the menu! My household is taking advantage of having to just pick all the vegetables we need. I'm also thankful we have amazing neighbours who offer us some of their homegrown vegetables and herbs that we don't grow or ours are still too young for harvest. We also share seeds and seedlings. How lucky we are!

More so, I get to spend less in my grocery budget because I don't need to include these veges in my list and I get them fresh! The only vegetables I buy now include pumpkin, carrots and mung beans. My weekly menu in the house would usually include ilonggo laswa, mongo with alugbati, tinolang manok, tinolang isda with kamote tops or kangkong or mustasa and so on. It really is a wonderful life!

I never knew I got green thumb! All I did was throwing seeds here and there and started replanting them. The best tip I could give I guess was to maintain soil moisture so your veges won't dry out.

Sharing you snaps of my homegrown vegetables.

Mustasa babies!

Okra

Ampalaya (bitter melon)

 

Alugbati

 

 

Onion springs

 

 

Calamansi babies

 

 

Papaya

 

 

Malunggay shoots

 

Freedom busy in the garden!

 

 

I am actually waiting for the flower garden to reach its full bloom and I'm gonna share it to you right away. I suggest you try growing your own vegetables too. It's a major stress reliever for me and you literally get your greens straight from your garden to your dining table! Awesome.

My 18th Letter To Freedom

 Dear Son,

Lately I've been asking, what did I do to deserve a blessing like you? You definitely changed our lives upside down. It's not that I didn't have purpose before you were born. It's just that, now that Tatay and I have you in our lives, it is more meaningful and purposeful.

In a few weeks' time, you'll turn four. How time really flies! These days, all you love doing is the total need of you wanting to spend time with us. You often ask if Mommy doesn't need to go to work anymore or if Tatay has a gig or something.

You are still crazy about robots. And mad about The Last Airbender series, The Lion King and Tangled. You are more independent at this age. You can get water or other things from the fridge already. How you love opening the fridge to see if there's something to eat or Tatay might have hidden a surprise candy he forgot to give you. Clever kid.

You  love helping Mommy and Tatay cook! Yes, at the age of 3, you love to cook! And knead some dough, water the plants, sweeping the floor and jumping and wrestling and being a normal kid. I just don't get why you don't like swimming in the village pool unless you have another kid with you :(

 Kneading some dough

Lounging in the village pool.

I guess all I want to say to you, Anak, is that I am super happy that God blessed us with a wonderful son. The thing that you do when you lose patience easily and always forget to say "please" and "thank you" are just some of the rough edges that I think will slowly shape who you really are. But I can't complain. You are cute and sweet and loving and kind. I wouldn't want to change a thing. I only pray that Tatay and I get to spend more days with you for the rest of our lives.

Love,
Mommy xxx

My Home At Christmas

Happy New Year, readers! I just wanna share you some snaps of how my home looked last Christmas. Last December was really a busy month for me and these are the only DIY decors I came up to. Happy 2016 to all!



My table centerpiece.

The dining table that witnessed a lot of love for food.

Christmas chalkboard wall.

Real pines! 

Valenciana on New Year's eve.

Bilog bilog for luck! And health, of course!

The always pasabog home made vinaigrette for fresh greens.

Lasagna making.

And Tatay serenaded us on the first day of the year while enjoying the windy, cool breeze in our garden. (The kid who hates picture taking)