My Bento Tools Loot

Two weeks ago, we went to SM North and Trinoma to look for a school bag for the little one. You see, we didn't buy a school bag for him before the school year started simply because we weren't sure yet as to how big a bag he needs.

Anyway, we were able to buy one at Trinoma. Before we went home, I asked dear hubby if I could go and check out Saizen. You know, I wanted to see if they have cute bento tools available. 

And guess what, there were a lot! I was like in bento heaven, hahaha! Thank you, dear husband for allowing me to buy some tools. I was really so genuinely happy!

Here's my loot!

Lightning McQueen Bento

My son was really happy when I made him this bento. Actually, I, too, was so happy! I must say that it was really a lot of fun doing it. Honestly, I googled so many bento designs of Lightning McQueen where I could get inspiration from but considering my limited tools, I couldn't find the right one that I could try to do easily. In the end, I decided to just draw inspiration from my son's Lightning McQueen toy. 

You see, he has this small Lightning McQueen toy (pictured below) that he loves to play with. So, what I did was draw the car while it's fronting me. I thought it was easier to do it with the egg sheets using the frontview of the car. Hihi! 

Here's the end result of my imBento. :-)

White bread with cheese inside, apple and grapes under it, and fish nuggets

Piano Bento

I made another auditory discrimination - inspired bento for Trev's baon on his fourth day in class. This time around, their lesson was about musical instruments so I decided to make this simple piano bento for him. 

A Simple Animal Bento

I decided to make a bento inspired by their lesson in school. Since they had a lesson about auditory discrimination on their second day in class, I prepared a simple animal bento for him. You see, their first auditory discrimination lesson was all about animal sounds. 

When I showed him his baon, I asked him the sounds of the animals in it. Hitting two birds with one stone, ey? Hihi! Reviewing while eating healthy food. 

Rocketship Bento

Short kuwento muna why I came up with this bento. It's kind of funny for me actually. You see, everytime I make a baon for my son, I always show him what the contents are. Yesterday, our convo went something like this while I was showing him his first day of school bento.

Me: Trev, anak, here's your baon. What do you think it is?

Trev: Wow, Nanay, it's a rocketship!

Me: No, anak, it's not a rocketship. It's a pencil, look!

Trev: No, Nanay, it looks like a rocketship. 

Me: Anak, it's a pencil. 

Trev: But I want it to be a rocketship, Nanay. 

Me: Okay, anak, I'll try to come up with something tomorrow. 

Trev: Okay, Nanay. I want a green rocketship please. 

Haha! Wala na akong nagawa. I really need to work on my bento skills. Sorry, not an expert yet although I've been doing bento for like 2 years now, I've not done a lot of kyarabens yet. I'm still learning and I need lots and lots of practice. :-)

Long story short, here's his green rocketship for his second day in school. 

First Day Of School 2015 Bento

It's back to school time for my little one. They started their school year two weeks ago. My three year old boy is now in kinder 1. I am really excited about what's in store in his new school. I am sure he will learn so many wonderful things and will meet new friends. 

He's really, really excited to go back to school and he's been asking me everyday if it's school time once again. Haha!

Anyway, here's a simple bento that I made for him on his first day in his new school. 

Back To Bento-ing

I am so back! Well, I never actually stopped because everyday, I still prepare bento baon for my hubby and son but they're just simple bento baon or snacks. 

Now that the new school year has started, I have been inspired to really get into this interest of mine. So, I decided to go to the next level. Naks! Hihi! Yeah, I am into making kyarabens / charabens lately. I thought I couldn't make it since I don't have all the tools needed, but I just improvised with what's available in our kitchen. Good thing it works so far. 

Before the school year started, I have been practicing making bento breakfast or lunch for my little one. Here were some of the ones I prepared for him last month. 

 This I made for him and for hubby. Hubby's baon is tamagoyaki, ham and my home-made atchara. For Trev, I made a chick from a boiled egg, a banana with a note that says "I Love You, Trev!" and two onigiri using the molds I bought from Japan Homes. :-) 

The Military Diet And How I Lost 14lbs. in 2 months

And counting! Yes, because I haven't achieved my target weight yet.
Please don't get me wrong, I am happy with my weight now. But if I could just, you know, make it go down just a tiny bit more... :-P

When I was still single, I have always been skinny. I can't even remember if I ever reached 100 lbs back then. I was almost always at 90-95 lbs. There was even a time I weighed only 88 lbs. Despite that, I have always been healthy and very, very rarely gets sick. I was honestly comfortable with my weight then. I can easily fit into extra small to small-sized clothes. I was even an active mountain climber back when I was around 90 lbs. By the way, I am only 5 feet flat. :-)

Fast forward to present time. Okay, now that I have given birth (well, 3 years ago actually!), and I am in my mid 30s already, my metabolism has slowed down. I was really alarmed when I saw (last year) that my weight was increasing! Waah! I couldn't wear most of my clothes anymore. I resorted to loose shirts so I won't feel uncomfy with my weight gain. I peaked at around 114 lbs. That's when I realized that I needed to do something quick else I would balloon even more. I was already feeling the added weight on my body. My injured knee (injury I had for more than 5 years now) hurt badly, too. I was feeling conscious and depressed. It was really frustrating. 

I tried to look for a fast, safe, healthy and easy way to lose weight but nothing worked. Until I learned about The Military Diet / 3-day diet from DavaoMommy Maan's blog (thank you, sis, for sharing!). I googled about it and read other people's feedback and experiences when they tried it. First thing I noticed is that the food listed was almost always in our kitchen, meaning they're basically very easy to find, so I thought, maybe I could give it a try. If I lose weight on my first 3 days of doing it, then that would jumpstart my weight loss journey, I thought then. So, I tried. And guess what, I lost 4 lbs. on my first round! Yes, that's 3 days after doing the diet. 

Image Source: http://girlsaredolls.blogspot.com

Trev's Summer Classes 2015

Trev had attended two summer classes this vacation. The first one lasted for a month and the second one lasted for a week. Thank God we were able to juggle the two during the time that the classes were almost in conflicting schedules. 

The thing was, we didn't expect the second one to come. We've actually been looking for a school (preferably a Montessori school) to enroll Trev this coming school year when we found this school. I have heard good feedbacks about that school so I asked hubby that we go and check it out. Luckily, they were offering one week free Montessori class in preparation for the coming school year. The problem was, Trev was at that time still attending his current summer class. There was only an hour between the two classes but the distance between the two schools were kind of far. Plus the heat during noon time (his summer classes were from 11am to 12nn and 1pm to 3pm, respectively) was almost unbearable. Not to mention that we're commuting via jeepney from the two schools. Thank God we made it through that one week. 

Anyway, they had a mini commencement exercise after the one week Montessori summer class. They even performed a dance number during the program. So cute! It was only a week's worth of classes but they were able to squeeze in their practice, nice!

With his Montessori teachers.

ShopBack: Shop Online, Earn CashBack

Eversince I became I stay at home mom, I never really got the chance to go out alone and shop without thinking about my little tot at home. If I get the chance to go out, I would always hurry so I could go home and see my baby boy again.

So, online shopping is such a relief for me because I could shop without leaving the house. I would still be with my little one while shopping. Isn't that awesome?

What's more awesome nowadays is that there are sites that actually pay consumers to shop online! Amazing, huh? 

Very easy way on how to use ShopBack

ShopBack is a cashback site that does just that. I love that you can actually save while you online shop because ShopBack will give you a portion of your purchase back as cash when you shop online through their site.