Work Efficiency: List of Five

Work in the office continuously pour in. When one task is done, another one comes along. Some colleagues of mine get stressed with this never ending workflow.

I already resigned to the fact that tasks in the office never stop. I have found a new but simple way of making life efficient at work: to create my own List of Five Things to Do for the day! I've already practiced this for 3 days and I hope to continue this for 3 weeks more since I've heard that it will take about this time of consistent implementation to make one exercise a habit.

Creating my own List of Five Things to Do enables me to focus and gives me a sense of fulfillment after marking them as done. The List of Five also makes me flexible enough to prioritize tasks not in the list such as within the day "urgent" requests from my boss or other important emails that needs to be addressed. I also use the "extra" time to organize my email outlook once I've done all items in the list.

As I shut down from work, I get a sense of pride finishing my tasks for the day and put on a happy smile on my face as I go on my way to take my Wellness Group Classes or Gym Exercises.

Prayer for Everyday Marriage

About a year ago, I walked inside Papemelroti store to buy nice looking boxes to organize our DVDs and VCDs. I chanced upon a scroll type wall decor with a marriage prayer scribbled on it. Having realized then that in daily occasions, marriage is not a bed of roses, I silently did my own prayer while reading the marriage prayer. I felt a sudden warmth inside me after reading the wonderful prayer. I tried to memorize it but having been in 2 consecutive anesthesia during childbirth, I had to make do with what I remembered from the prayer. I would like to share this prayer to those who are married. May they have a blessed union and fruitful years ahead in their marriage

Almighty Father, we would like to thank You for letting us experience this marriage.
In trying times, we would like to seek for Your assisting hands to help us remember when we first met.
Help us to remember the strong love that grew between us and work that love today into practical things

Strengthen our partnership so as nothing can divide us
We ask for caring words and for kind and forgiving hearts.
All of these we ask through jesus Christ Our Lord and through the Power of the Holy Spirit,

Amen.

SOM'S : A Sumptous Thai Experience

We had lunch earlier in SOM's after hearing mass in St. Andrew's Parish. Tucked near Rockwell Makati ( I would fondly call this area Rockwell gilid), every Thai cuisine lovers should visit this spot as it never fails to draw in crowds of people even during Sundays.

Since we have our young daughter with us, we decided to stay in their aircon area (despite additional charge of 10%) as people normally dine in SOM's al fresco. We also decided to order non-spicy version meals such as Tom Ka Gai, Chicken Pandan, Chicken Fried Rice and Garlic Pepper Shrimp. I wanted to order their must try Spring Rolls but hubby said we've ordered enough food for 3 1/2 (my daughter being the half count) =) I was thinking maybe I'll order Spring Rolls next time when I'm with my officemates as we sometimes pay SOM's a visit during lunchtime.

For the drinks I ordered their Milk Tea while yaya and hubby ordered Coke Zero. It was my daughter and yaya's first time to dine in SOM's and they loved the Chicken Pandan and Fried Rice as much as we did. We ordered their must try dessert as well- Sticky Rice with sweet mangoes.

We highly recommend SOM's to everyone. A sumptous and authentic Thai cuisine is expected at reasonable prices. I see regular customers ranging from locals, foreigners, young and senior professionals. I've heard they even get orders from celebrities and politicians alike. What most of their customers do would be to call up beforehand and have their orders picked up at SOM's to be consumed at home. If you want to dine at SOM's be early as it is hard to find an empty table during peak hours.

Reliable Products I grew up with

I was recently amazed by the fact that I have a few products that I grew up with now being used regularly in my own household. There are times that we try out new products in the market but we always keep coming back to these reliable, efficient and effective items in the list:

1. Safeguard - Skin Germ Family Protection proven in its performance. We use this as our hand soap and body soap. We've tried many soap and bath gel products but my husband always request that we use Safeguard Pure White instead.

2. Colgate -I've patronized Colgate ever since I was a kid. We've tried their other variants and we like them all. When we need to buy a new toothpaste, what we do is we purchase one Colgate variant at a time.

3. Silver Swan Soy Sauce - We love how it contributes in making our dishes flavorful. A seasoning and sauce all rolled into one! I've tried Datu Puti but since Silver Swan is relatively cheaper and has equal performance with its major competitor, I go for the more cost efficient option.

4. Maggi Savor - My favorite is their Garlic Variant. Although they've undergone some packaging changes, I still can't let go of my teenage habit of putting a few drops of Maggi Savor on my sunny side up served during breakfast. Sometimes when pork chop is the main dish, I put 2 drops of Maggi Savor both on it and on my rice as well!

5. Zonrox - for super dirty whites, we put Zonrox. Our household help still practice this today.

6. Tide - Whether its the bar or the powder it still does laundry magic for us! I like the clean smell of Tide whenever I put my newly washed (and pressed) clothes on. The price is right for me with Tide as we don't need to purchase Downy anymore whenever we use this ever reliable laundry soap!

7. Perla - Tide for regular clothes, Perla for the delicate ones. It's great to use Perla in washing newborn clothes as well as stained underwear.

8. Toilet Duck - Toilet Duck has proven its efficiency in cleaning our toilet bowl for many years

9. Johnson's Baby Products - the cologne, lotion, oil, powder, bath soap, baby wash. You name it. We've used it! I sometimes apply my kids' Johnson's Baby Lotion to this very day!

10. Del Monte Products - similar strategy with Johnson's, we use quite a number of Del Monte's products: the ketchup, tomato sauce, fruit cocktail in special occasions, and their pineapple juice every day!

Standard Souvenirs

My dad is about to go back to the province tomorrow after two weeks of stay here in Makati for a business seminar. We picked him up at his hotel to have dinner and buy some pasalubong(souvenirs) for his officemates and for our family. First in his list: the Double Dozen deal of Krispy Kreme.

Our standard pasalubong procedure would be to request to have these doughnuts in boxes of 6's for it to be manageable to bring back home. He was tempted to buy UAAP doughnuts as well but since Ateneo won and Season 71 is finally over, he managed to order our family's favorites instead: Hershey's Cookies and Creme, Dark Chocolate and Honey Glazed Doughnut. I used to get gaga over these doughnuts until one of my former classmate in high school thought I was pregnant when she saw me few months ago. That ended my weekend craving for Krispy Kreme and their doughnut became a once in a while tasty treat for me.

Next in my dad's list would be a box or two of French Baker brownies. He bought about 3 boxes for his officemates. French Baker brownies along with Brownies Unlimited used to be one of the top pasalubong we give to our family, relatives and officemates. It was overruled when Go Nuts Donuts came into the picture and now replaced by Krispy Kreme given the minimal price difference between the two.

My dad's officemate asked us if we know where to buy Eng Bee Tin (EBT) Hopia. EBT also ranks high before as the top pasalubong list during my aunt's era. I told his officemate that I used to see Eng Bee Tin stall in Waltermart Makati. I used to think that Landmark Makati and SM Makati are complete in terms of key pasalubong in their supermarket area. Unfortunately, EBT is in their out of stock list when we checked these supermarkets recently. I hope his officemate was able to buy a few EBT hopia as pasalubong.

Working Mom on Working Mom

I would like to encourage working moms to get a copy of the Working Mom Magazine. If they can afford to subscribe to get hold of a copy annually the better. They've got relevant articles related to fashion, motherhood, childcare, health, career, food and household tips all condensed in one great and affordable magazine.

Most of the time, I share my copy to moms out here in the condo neighborhood. Once they return my copy (which is already a back issue by then), I leave it to my nearby suki salon once I get my next foot spa/pedicure so that their customers can read this lovely magazine as well.

Thanks to ABS CBN Publishing as they never fail to send me a free copy every month (part of current job perks). ABS CBN is the only magazine publication who send me free copies of their Working Mom Magazine under my name! As I got hold of my latest copy, I would like to pay tribute to their publication by sharing to everyone how fabulous their Working Mom magazine is!

Care to Share in Saving the Environment?

Many of us are living in condominiums and working in well-equipped buildings. Given the environmental issues we face today, would like to request that each of us do our own part in minimizing the impact of global warming.

A few little shares I can randomly think of:

- If we need to go to a floor or two from the point of origin, please try using the stairs rather than the elevator (I hope all the people I've been with in the elevator today who went from the second to the third floor would be able to realize what a big help this "little sacrifice" can do).
- Given the weather is pretty much cooler these days, try to have fresh air at night or at the very least use the electric fan rather than using the aircon.
- If its just a few meters away, walk some more rather than driving the car. This enables you to save gas and improve physical fitness
- Pile up the laundry. This will enable you to use water (as well as laundry powder) efficiently
- Allot a certain day to iron clothes altogether to save electricity
- Unplug appliances when not in use (especially the TV sets, Electric fan, cell phone chargers and laptop chargers) This will not only save the environment but also lessen your electricity costs.
- Recycle. Recycle. Recycle!

Little as they seem these simple shares will definitely go a long way in saving our environment!