The year that was....

It's been so long since I last wrote here simply because I was so busy. Busy with the hubby, baby, Pink & Pearl and all the things that Christmas brings. 

The year 2008 has been filled with blessings upon blessings. The year started when I became a mom again with the birth of our second son Timmy and ended with the birth of the business that I was praying for. We were also blessed with memorable vacations with the family. 

I could go on and on about the details of 2008 but bottom line is the Lord has been faithful. He has allowed good and not so good things to happen in our lives to bless us in the end. 

"He is the Rock, his works are perfect,  and all his ways are just. 

A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he."

Deuteronomy 32:4

It's Christmas Time Again

It's that time of the year again when shopping malls overflow with people, bazaars are everywhere and roads are packed with cars. Everyone is busy buying gifts and preparing for the festivities that sometimes we lose sight of what Christmas is all about. I too am guilty of that sometimes but God has given me a reminder of what the true essence of Christmas is. God has blessed me with a wonderful family and they are the reminders that. 

Christmas is all about the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the reason we celebrate December 25. It is His birthday and we should truly celebrate this for without Jesus Christ we are nothing. Thank you Jesus for coming into this world and for dying on the cross for us. Happy Birthday Jesus!

"She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."

Matthew 1:21-23

Happy Birthday Zion!

It was our eldest son's birthday yesterday and I tried not to be sad that he is not with us. He's two years old now and I imagine him to be a little big boy playing with his angel friends in heaven. 

It still hurts that he is not with us but I am at peace knowing that he is with the Lord our father. My life has changed so much because of him. I miss you so much son. I look forward to see you one day in our Father's house. 

Hugs and kisses to my little boy. I love you very much. 

Canon Ixus 80 IS

photo taken from Canon USA

Hubby and I have a new toy. It's the new Canon Ixus 80 IS! We sold our two DSLR cameras since I'm not using the 20d and the other one's value is slowly going down. Anyway, we replaced the 20d with the blue Ixus today. Than you Lord! We chose the Ixus because of it's impressive features, 8mp, image stabilizer, it's compact size, nice design and fun colors to name a few. It's value for money too. 

I went to Hidalgo this afternoon after 3 years of not going there and the place has changed. It gives me the creeps now. Well, that's a different story. Anyway, when we got there I went to Watson's photo supply since they were the only one who had the blue Ixus on stock. I went to Mang Ramon first and he said he could deliver the blue Ixus tomorrow if I'm willing to pay the shipping fee of a whopping! 800 pesos. Heck no! so I ended up at Watsons. 

I'm so excited to try the camera and take photos of anything and everything which would mainly consist of Hubby and Timmy hehehe.....ha I miss shooting. How I wish I could go back into shooting photos but that has to take a back seat to give way to more important things like family. 

French Vanilla Ice Cream

A few months ago hubby and I ordered at amazon a Cuisinart ice cream maker and it arrived via a balikbayan box last week. Oh boy! we were so excited! 

Last night we tried our hand at making our very first homemade ice cream. It took us awhile to decide what flavor to make and we decided to start with the basic french vanilla ice cream. We had all the ingredients on the table, placed the ice cream tub in the freezer earlier that day and had our Ben & Jerry's recipe book on hand. 

It was quite easy to make it with eggs, heavy cream and milk. What was difficult with making ice cream was the long wait. After churning the mixture we placed it in containers and the long wait began. 

This morning I inspected the finished product and wasn't 100% happy with it's appearance. The taste was SUPERB! Yummyness! SUPER! but it looked blah. It was rich and creamy. a bit too sweet for me but it was really good.

After much assessment, we came to the conclusion that it lacked air. Ice cream is suppose to  be 25% air and this had like 5%. 

Since it was too early (in the morning) for ice cream, hubby decided to make  milkshakes with it. SARAP! I like my vanilla milkshake unadulterated while hubby wanted his with decadent dulce de leche. The vanilla milkshake with dulce de leche was good but it was too sweet for my taste. 

And where was timmy in all this? He was sleeping while his parents were making ice cream at 10pm and the next day he was curiously watching while his baba made milkshakes. He was drooling over the vanilla milkshake so we decided to give him some and he LOVED it! 

Now, we will play around with the recipe to get the texture and taste we like. Of course we will make flavors that just oooooze with yummyness...so now the journey begins hehehe

Epicenter

A fairly recent book is the talk of the town today because of it's relevance in our world today. Epicenter by Joel Rosenberg is about how the events that are happening in the Middle East will change our future. 

Unfaltering Faith

It's been a few months now since hubby and I started praying for something really big to happen in our lives. When the news came we talked about it, if we wanted it, consulted a few people and agreed that, yes we both wanted it and prayed that God would bless us with it.

From that time on, we claimed God's promise to bless us with it if He wanted it for us. We got excited and started talking about what we would do when God blesses us with it. I thought that I had faith in God's promise. 

Yesterday, I told my hubby that if we didn't push through with it that we'd do this and that. I realized that my faith had faltered. For a moment there I doubted God and I feel bad that I did. I was reminded that I should be dependent on Him moment by moment and that I should fill my mind with thoughts that are pleasing to Him. 

Bottom line: Depend on the Lord for everything and anything. Always be at the center of His will.