Does God come down from heaven?

While my daughter and I were in the middle of our bedtime reading routine, she asked, “Mommy, what if God falls down on us?”

I remember telling her every now and then, especially when I have to correct a bad behavior, that God is just “up there” watching our every action and listening to everything we say. I would go as far as telling her that God knows all her secrets.

She looked at me seriously and quite concerned that if God “falls down on us right now”, we would get squeezed. The question sounded so simple, which demanded a simple answer of “God will not fall because He is powerful. He is up there, way beyond the clouds, stars, and planets.”

But how can I answer with much eloquence a question about something I myself cannot really fathom?

Marriage & motherhood

Two words, too bold and grand for me to describe in their entirety.  Maybe I’m too young and inexperienced to be talking about these things.  But let me try. I am a wife and mother, anyway; and I have my share of this remarkable journey.

I realize now, I never understood a bit of how it is to be a wife and mother when I was still single and without anything to worry about but my job, career, shoes, and bags.  Needless to say, I probably had the most superficial appreciation of my mother, which she certainly doesn’t deserve.

There can be no better way to teach a heart how to love and care for others selflessly than being a wife and mother.  Together, they can make me give something I never thought I have and make me act in ways I never thought I am capable of doing.  That fountain of love just keeps flowing and becomes even stronger and more powerful during unfriendly situations.

When I grow up…

“What is your ambition?”

Sounds like a question from your old slum book? There was a time those colorful and scented notebooks became a hit among my friends and classmates that almost everyone, at least the girls, was keeping one in their school bags.

Each slum book carried a profile of everyone. I have signed dozens of them during my elementary school days and I’m sure I never had a consistent answer to that question. Maybe I wrote “nurse” in one and “doctor”, if not “broadcast journalist” in another. I never became any of those though; well, not just yet.

Is she ready for school?

Just recently, my little girl started going to school.  Months before that, I kept asking the question, “Is she ready?”.  After the first day of school, I realized, however, that the question points more to me rather than her.

We have always been together every minute and every hour since we arrived here.  She got used to having me as her teacher and classmate at the same time.  The adjustment that was about to take place worried me somehow. 

Adding to my worries was her occasional refusal to go to school whenever my husband and I asked her.  Sometimes, her ‘no’ would be as strong as her ‘yes’.  So, we tried to wait a little longer.

While facing this issue, I realized during my quiet moments that I had to deal with it, too.  I got used to the same situation and I have to make some adjustments as well.  I have become too comfortable being with her that I can’t stand the thought of being alone, on my own, while she’s in school. 

A full serving of friendship

A mother-and-daughter team carried the huge steaming hot casserole and maneuvered their way down the hall, towards an antique expandable eight-seater table.

As soon as the deep casserole landed gracefully at the center of the table, the soup bowls were more than ready to be filled and hearts were eager to be cuddled by the usual warmth of Brazilian camaraderie and hospitality.

Our host family made sure the towering glass windows beside the dining table were closed to keep the cold air from spoiling the fun that was yet to begin and to seclude us from the busy sidewalk, which from the window, was just more than an arm span away.

The soup dish is called mocoto, which is made mainly of beans, sausage, and entrails.  It was a perfect lunch for everyone.  Just by looking at it, I knew Fernanda and her mom did a very good job.

My Saturday escape

As I write this, I have Jamie Oliver’s Great Escape in mind. Every Saturday, I feel as though I’m on the same road of adventure, away from the usual hustle and bustle of my ordinary day.

My escape though, is a simple early morning solitary walk, which takes me no farther than 10 blocks away from my home. I do it on Saturdays while my husband and daughter are still comfortably cocooned with thick, oversized blankets.

I have at least three reasons for doing this escape – exercise, spend time alone, and buy my vegetables in the market.

For a homemaker like me, it is often difficult to get a full exercise on a regular day. By that, I mean, getting a momentum and hitting the right heart rate. So, during the week, I use my pockets of time for simple exercises. I doubt, however, if I ever achieve the right heart rate each time.

Saturdays are then reserved for a more rigorous exercise. It’s as simple as briskwalking but at the end of it, I would have relieved myself of any physical, emotional, and spiritual stiffness, tightness, soreness, or roughness I felt before hitting the road. Over the busy week, I happen to accumulate these things naturally yet unwantedly.

I’m like my mother

When I was younger, there were times I didn’t agree with my mother and thought we didn’t have much in common.  How wrong I was.  Now at 31, I think I’m just like her in more ways than one.

I’m like my mother when… 

1. I have a piece of biscuit, chocolate, or candy in my bag whenever I go out.
2. Inside that bag, I have at least two wallets, both with money.
3. You can also find some money in the pockets of the same bag.
4. I believe I can be a doctor or I can think like one – prescribing medicines to family members, friends and neighbors who are too lazy to see a doctor.
5. I get a headache after long hours of shopping but I still love to go shopping anyway.
6. I think that seeing a horror movie means paying just to scare myself to death.  Tsk, tsk. 

Dads, tie their shoes

What could be sweeter than this! My daughter wanted to remove the pebbles that sneaked into her shoes and my husband, after removing the source of her discomfort, was putting back those pink shoes. 

I have a similar experience when I was about her age.  I can still recall that early morning while we were all getting ready for school, my father managed to put the tiny ruffled socks on my feet as it was then too complicated for me to do it alone. 

Sitting on a chair, I watched his calloused hands do the job.  That was an extraordinary day for me because he didn’t do it all the time.  In fact, that was probably the first and last time he did it as far as I can recall. 

That’s the sweetest thing my father ever did for me.  It made me look at him without his usual straight and barely smiling face.  As a child, I took it as a message of pure and selfless love.

I’ll show this picture to our daughter when she’s older.  I’m sure it will speak of that same message of love.

So, dads, tie your kid’s shoes and they will love you more!

The season for pretzels

Christmas reminds me of Jack ‘n Jill pretzels – those biscuit sticks thinly coated with chocolate, sealed in crisp matte plastic and packed in a small red and brown box.  They came as Christmas gifts from my classmates in a public elementary school -from someone who picked my name in the exchange gift portion of our class party or classmates who became my close friends.  

During Christmas, those pretzels were always a hot item, at least in my hometown in the Philippines.  They were cheap enough that almost everybody could afford them.  Just before schools would hold their Christmas parties, the local stores would stack up these pretzels, already wrapped in fancy papers that bear Christmas symbols.  The special ones would be wrapped in glossy papers and with a tiny ribbon on them. 

Finding the Backyardigans book

I’ve become a fan of the Backyardigans since my little girl learned to love it the first time she watched an episode during our first month here in Brazil.  I have also downloaded the lyrics of the show’s signature song almost effortlessly as it has been readily made available in the Internet due to, perhaps, a great public demand.  Now, I’m trying to learn the Portuguese version of that song. 

I think it’s a way to immerse myself in one of my little girl’s favorite things.  When we watch Backyardigans together, wouldn’t it be nice to sing the song and dance together with the characters?  The characters – Pablo (penguin), Tyrone (moose), Tasha (hippopotamus), Uniqua (insect), and Austin (kangaroo) – are adorable! I like them too!