Time Well Spent

Happy new year to you all! Before anything else, I pray that you will have a blessed new year and this would be a better year for you.

It’s been a while since I wrote here in my blog and a lot happened for the last three weeks. The last three weeks were the times my husband was here in the Philippines for a vacation.

If you read my last blog, my husband was able to come home to spend Christmas with us. Last November 2021, I already accepted that my husband would not be able to spend the holidays with us. The moment I accepted it, I felt peace in my heart. Then, my husband told me that the Singapore government’s rules on workers going back there have changed. That is the reason why my husband was able to come home.

My husband is back in Singapore now and I could say that we spent the time well when he was here.

Daughter’s Birthday

When I told my daughters about their father’s arrival, they were so excited. They are very close to their father, to the point that they were not able to sleep well knowing that he will be arriving the next day.

My heart was so happy knowing that my youngest will be spending her birthday with her father.

We were so cautious about Covid-19 reason why we really made her birthday very intimate. We just spent it with my parents and siblings. Though, it was celebrated that way, my daughter was very happy because her father was here.

A Lot of Cooking

My husband is really not cooking. I know his cravings. He loves vegetables and fish. A day after he arrived I cooked “otan” (recipe from his hometown) and fried fishes. Otan recipe is from his hometown in Cebu, it is a mixture of different kinds of vegetables.

I was so excited to cook for my husband as I know he was not able to eat real home-cook meals. I always anticipated his coming back, and so the recipes that I will cook are already engraved to my mind.

Travels

My husband and I love to travel. When I was still working in Singapore, we always spent holidays outside of the country. Now that we are here in the Philippines, we thought it is time to explore the beauty of our own country.

We went to Subic.. This is in the northern part of the Philippines. My husband drove for more than 4 hours. It was his first time to drive that far. It was an experience that our family would not forget. My children saw a lot of beautiful sceneries while travelling.

We booked a condo from Airbnb and stayed there for 4 days and 3 nights. We always book on this app because it is really dependable. It was a pleasant stay. The views from the place we stayed were spectacular.

During our stay in Subic, we went to the beach. We are really fond of going to beaches. My husband is from Cebu where there’s a lot of beautiful beaches. This was one of his travel goals, to be able to go to a beach.

We spent more than 5 hours in the beach. Though there were lots of swimming pools in the resort, we opted to stay in the beach. My daughters enjoyed a lot. We brought the toys for sand castle making and we enjoyed playing in the sand.

We let our youngest daughter experienced being in a zoo too. We went to Zoobic Safari. My children were amazed to see well-taken-cared-of animals. There are lions, zebra, different kinds of birds, tigers, deers, donkeys, snakes, crocodiles and a lot more in that zoo.

Catching Up with Friends

Since Covid cases last December here in the Philippines decreased substantially. The government eased the quarantine rules. Hence, we were able to catch up with our friends. We have an annual get-together every end of the year and due to pandemic, we were not able to have our reunion for two consecutive years. Last December we were able to celebrate Christmas.

It is always a happy moment when we spend times with loved ones. It was good also that we were able to see each other complete and all healthy.

Family Bonding

It was my husband’s first time to see our new house when he arrived. I saw his happiness seeing the fruit of his hard work. I am happy that he appreciated the effort that I gave for the house too.

Eating, sleeping, playing, practically doing everything together made my husband’s stay memorable. Pre-pandemic, we thought my husband could go home every month. Everything changed. And so, the usual things that we do together became so memorable to us. Those were the times that we really cherish.

This pandemic really gave us a lot of lessons. It made us realized a lot of things. It is still a blessing to be able to learn from this experience. I just pray that this will be over so that the time that we will be spending together will not be less. I also pray that people who are longing to see their loved ones will be able to go home too.