Trash To Cash and Some TLC for the Garden

I commit to change with an earth-friendly advocacy:

(1) Don't forget to water the plants every morning (they also need a lot of tender love and care)

(2) #1 and clean the garden (do this more often!!! who wants to live in a filthy space?)

(3) # 1 and buy additional pots and soil (the family is getting bigger)

(4) #1 and take out the weeds and put additional soil to potted plants (they need nutrients too.)

(5) # 1 and gather old bill statements and shred them (yes, got lots of them again after months of hoarding.)

(6) #1 and add the shredded paper to compost (add but don't put too much on a pot)

(7) # 1 and prune the roses and other plants (they also need some makeover just like you)

(8) # 1 and re-pot cuttings and seedlings in stock (give the family some more company)

(9) # 1 and gather used batteries to be brought to recycling market. (lots of them around the house, need to dispose of them properly)

(10) # 1 and gather used paper to be brought to recycling market (ohh, the kids really create a heap of paper trash each day, got to teach, teach, teach them how to recycle.)

(11) # 1 and gather old broken appliances to be brought to recycling market. (i need space so better gather them and exchange trash to cash)

(12) # 1 and bring the plants I promised to give to friends (already distributed some, to those who asked but haven't received their cuttings yet, i will bring them soon!)

(13) Go to Manila Seedling Plant with family and mommy, been holding off this plan for the last 4 months (already put this in my calendar and will be visiting soon)

(14) Join the Adopt a Tree Project for the rehabilitation of the La Mesa Watershed (been saving for this)

Keeping and living it all by heart.

Multivitamins Plus Cardio-Vascular Workout Equals Less Afternoon Dilemma

THE WEEKDAY MORNING RUSH-HOUR:

"It is time to get up the time is four thirty. It is time to get up the time is four thirty", I was already half awake when the cellular phone triggered the alarm, my body's internal clock could have been competing with this gadget that I am back to my conscious mind even before the phone's alarm set off. I had to give in to fifteen more minutes of lounge like my bed was dragging me back to sleep before I totally induce myself to wake up. It looks like time was ticking as fast as how we do our morning chores and it helps that I feel a sudden flow of energy to complete the task at hand. I stare occasionally at the wall clock as I also need to prepare myself for work, beat the morning rush hour to get to the office at eight o’clock. Just like any other weekdays, getting up early to prepare the kids for school and myself for work has already become our morning ritual.

At mid-morning, my energy gets less stabilized as I can’t seem to wait too long for break time. It would be tough luck if I made it through lunch break without that tired feeling. Oh how I love weekends and school vacation since I can slumber in bed a little later and feel relaxed and invigorated all throughout the day.



LOOKING BACK:

In my college years I could spend the nights doing assignments or case studies and maintain a stable energy for school the next day. When I had my first born, I could stay awake at night and still find the resistance to take care of the baby during the day (though of course with some help from beloved relatives at home for me to afford much needed rest) . Though it was hard to match a baby's changing sleeping patterns, I made it through all those difficult times. As life becomes more challenging understandably it lessened time for self and that includes hours of sleep. Years have gone by thus adding numbers to my age, weight, blood pressure and cholesterol count that changes the way I deal with important matters in life.

AN AFTERNOON DILEMMA:

HAPONTUKIN, BAD!!! The first time I saw that on TV, I could very well relate to the commercial ad but I fail to connect the importance of the ENERVON MULTIVITAMINS. It could be the result of sleep deprivation that I became too slow on picking up the message. LOL!! Sure I have those “hapontukin” moments and those are days when power nap during noon break is not sufficient to charge me up for the rest of the day. My kind of job makes me fall prey to unavoidable afternoon sleeping trap because around the time when I get too absorbed in my program codes analyzing and thinking the logic for an if-then-else statement, all the more I became entangled in a miserly heavy-eyed state. Ho-hum, and the more I stare at my PC monitor, the more I seem to get hypnotized into dream world. On those “hapontukin” days when yawning becomes so persistent that I just want to doze off, how I wish that the computer table be replaced with a comfortable bed, the computer monitor into soft pillows or the keyboard turned into a blanket.



MY HAPONTUKIN COPING TECHNIQUE:

Before, I used to drink coffee when an afternoon lull strikes and it gave me a quick bright lift to last me for the rest of the day. However, just months ago, I experienced heart palpitation then I suffered from hypertension that I was advised by the doctor to go easy on salty foods, to exercise and to refrain from drinking caffeinated drinks. Good grief, so how do I manage whenever sleep is chasing me at work in broad daylight? Of course, I need to follow the doctor’s advice as I do not want to put myself in peril and at the same time I cannot risk being caught in the act of sleeping on the job or just endure the miserable state of controlling drowsiness. So I changed method in dealing with this afternoon dilemma. Now when HAPONTUKIN sets in, I usually hit the stairs. “HIT THE STAIRS”, you read that right but not to roll down and bang my sleepy head. :-)



I got that idea from a best chief and one of my dear friends in the office. She knows how my kind of job put me into a sedentary lifestyle, and how those periods when only my brain, my eyes and my fingers were active makes me more lethargic. One time she fetched me from my workplace and invited me to go to the canteen but not to have snacks but to stretch our stiffened muscles without having to do calisthenics. Instead of taking the elevator, we went down through the staircase from the fifth floor to the ground. From then on I adopted her method of hitting the stairs which is an ideal cardio-vascular workout enough to help my blood circulating and most importantly, a perfect style to avoid “hapontukin” moments without distracting my co-workers.

Of course, I also need backup to ensure that I not only elude sleep but I have the energy to last for some more hours at work and when I get home. In my case since I am almost food deprived as most of the foods that I like are included in the "cut on these" category because of my condition and aside from that, I also very seldom get to have a balanced diet, the doctor advised me to have vitamin supplements on top of a "hearty" meal. The physical activity from my everyday chores and stressful activities at home and at work makes me use and lose more nutrients, and that's when ample vitamin intake is very essential. ENERVON MULTIVITAMINS, "More Energy, Mas Happy". “STEADI-ENERGY, GOOD!!!! Now I get the point.

Special Notes from a Short Visit at Daddy’s House

My visit in dad’s hometown provided me a chance to reminisce the moments I’ve enjoyed as a child and also had me thinking of my somewhat severing bond with nature. Yes, severing bond with nature in alarmingly awkward condition because I feel that I already grown accustomed to city life. I am now used to all the wild sounds around me brought on by modernization replacing the sound of birds or roosters, I feel comfortable looking at the view from my window of galvanized roofs, towering building facades and hanging cables rather than magnificent mountains and hanging branches of tall trees, I am very much adapted to passing through walkways festooned with piles of garbage instead of green grass and flowering plants. Then it occurred to me, my kids are already missing out the chance to swim through the river where I used to bathe because the river is now full of silt from animal waste and household garbage. They have lost the opportunity to be delighted as trees transform come nighttime and become lighted with thousands of fireflies in the same way it captivated me and my siblings. I guess fireflies now seem to shy away from humans as we were not able to see even one of them or they could have been totally gone as their habitat had already been destroyed apparently because of uncontrolled logging activities. Most kids today fail to experience chasing colorful butterflies along the meadows and might never have the chance to witness firsthand at how these creatures come to life, and other countless happy moments with nature.

I remember my grandmother used to tell me that during her time Manila abound with fruit-bearing trees and how they enjoyed picking fruits and flowers for free. During my time, the city is no longer like that, you need to travel some kilometers away to benefit from nature’s bounty. I feel fortunate to have experienced there at my father’s place the joy of planting and picking fruits from someone else's yard without being accused of stealing since neighbors gladly gave away their produce rather than being left rotten. Now, you need to travel miles away from the city or to search far-flung island to enjoy nature in finest form. Kids in the city can only see fruits or its packaged dried variety inside the market or grocery store, their idea on how they were grown and produced were mostly learned from books or from the internet. Most of these fruits were mass produced inside plantation where you need to ask the owner’s permission to see them up close or else setting even one foot inside the perimeter would be reason for you to be nabbed for trespassing.

About a year ago, I noticed how engrossed my 12 year old son playing a game over the internet where he was able to raise animals, till the land, reap what he sow, sell what he reap until he was able to acquire another land to cultivate. I was even more surprised when I heard friends excitedly talk about their farmlands, a virtual farmland that is. How they spend several hours each day attending to their crops to prevent them to wither. Just imagine spending more than an hour in a given day virtually getting something done without much real gain. I remember asking my son lightheartedly if he was able to harvest enough for our dinner or earned that much to pay for our electric bill That is all saddening because the first hand experience of the natural world I used to enjoy as a child is bit by bit being replaced with a digital world my kids and the rest of the world is now addicted to, a digital world far from realism. While in the middle of these thoughts, I heard a call from my father then handed me a plant for me to bring back home in the city. This, I said to myself, is something to remind me that it is not yet too late to introduce my kids to environmental consciousness and to renew my bond with nature.

~ written in Dec. 2009~

I Commit to Change With An Earth-friendly Advocacy

Lately my teenage son called my attention when he told me that I have been too engrossed writing about our travel that I was already breaking off from my “earthly” theme for which I explained to him that “earthly” could mean a lot of things. Then I came across with the I Commit to Change Facebook page through an email by Nuffnang and it all seems like reminding me too about my advocacy for blogging just what I wrote in my previous posts at the start of this year. Okay, I am not writing about committing to change my blog but I commit to change by living up to what I promised to do and one of them is to lessen our family’s carbon footprints as I wrote at the start of the year. With all the devastating scenario left by typhoon Ketsana (Ondoy) late last year, the most recent El Niño phenomenon, the heat wave in parts of America, and other natural calamities happening around the globe which most studies claimed as caused by climate change, I affirm that “I was totally moved and very much eager to give my own share of commitment for our planet’s sake”.

I think my posts and my guidance somehow influenced my children to become more “earth-friendly” because if it didn’t, my son could not care enough to remind me of what I should be writing about, my little daughter could just throw away the biscuit wrapper anywhere instead of asking me to throw it in the garbage bin for her or they would not be too eager to help me in my gardening. I also noticed the change in my husband whenever he comes home and surprises me with pots of roses instead of bouquet of roses or any other flowering flora after I told him that I prefer to have more flowers in my modest garden and that I really like to have them longer unlike those bouquets that would last only for some days and would only end up as trash. Somehow I knew that my family is making some progress little by little. Sadly there are times that it seems too hard for me to stick to that promise and that is why I decided to make this commitment. I think I should make a list of what our family has already done to offset our carbon footprint and what other things we intend to do for the environment,

1. do gardening with the kids during weekend or special holidays, I also made a pledge to plant a tree when I signed up for the Ten Million Movement, hoping my project will push through as planned

2. always remind my kids and ourselves to be conscious of every piece of litter that we have most especially when we are in public places and to throw them properly in garbage bins

3. always practice the 3R, reduce, reuse and recycle. Somehow done that with plastic and paper clutter at home

4. replace energy-intensive appliances and limit the use of electricity inside the house as much as practicable

5. be mindful of the products I use at home by buying earth-friendly goods as much as possible

6. Be more active in earth resources preservation and conservation effort and movement such as Earth Hour and Earth Day and put into practice and share with others whatever is learned from that experience

Above things could be so little effort and might also have very little impact to undo the damage we have done to earth but as they say, collective effort may go a long way. There are many other simple things that we can do to help our ailing planet. In our case, our family already made the first step and what we should strive to achieve is to keep on doing what we have started and to be truly committed in this undertaking and I just hope that our actions be far greater than the carbon emission that we put through to pollute this earth. I also hope that all my writings about the environment also create a positive influence on people who stumble upon my blog. I just want to reiterate what I wrote in one of my posts “I hope that true concern for each other spring forth within us and when most of us already decided to pledge some serious time and effort for the benefit of the environment the damage is still reversible and we can still be able to heal the earth.”


You can also write about your commitment and share it with the whole world, visit the I Commit to Change Facebook Page now.



~ Photo Illustration:
When you sail alone in vast ocean and you know that you will face rough waters, commitment is what fuels you to keep going to reach your destination. Faith in God is what gets you there.