peek@myweek: office relocation

more space. more quiet. more thinking time. more work done.

lifestyle check: reduce, simplify and reduce

Because reducing consumption is the simplest way to make a difference.

we boodle. one of our fun and creative ways to reduce water and soap consumption.

Who says you need to live extravagantly to get a lifestyle check? Not if you live with me in the same household. If I have a motto, it would be “simplify.” And this goes not only for every aspect of housekeeping, but for most aspects of my life in particular. Simplicity of lifestyle is, in fact, a Benedictine value that probably got ingrained in me back in my St. Scho days.

So, I acquired this attitude of always wanting to live a simple life, I put little value to material possessions (except those that are really useful, gardening tools for example), and I happen to exist in a generation filled with overwhelming economic and environmental constraints. There goes my reduction equation.

Reducing consumption is a must. It is NOT uncalled for. It’s a social responsibility. To be honest, I get really turned off by people who buy or collect things that have little utility to them. I hate being invited to houses with rooms full of stuff that they don’t even use but still keep. I hate seeing food thrown to waste. I just have an aversion towards those who seem to purchase too much. It doesn’t even have to do whether you can afford them, but whether you can consume them all, or if your survival is at stake if you don’t have them.

I guess I lost track whether this aversion is something that I have acquired from living in a material-obsessed world in the last three decades, or if it was my interpretation of a virtue that was taught to me when I was young, austerity perhaps, I’m not sure. But this is how I am now. And while I respect what people do with their money, I would just like to emphasize the repercussions of their purchases and activities to the environment, be it in terms of waste generation or resource depletion, and if they even feel any amount of responsibility or accountability to what is happening in this world because of their actions.

For the most part, I wonder why it takes so much energy (persuasion energy) to make people realize this. I don’t understand why millions of people turn off their lights on earth hour, but still don’t see that what they really need to do goes beyond their light switches. I do not observe earth hour. But I turn off my lights when they’re not in use.

There are a lot of things that ordinary people, busy people, employed people, can do to reduce their consumption and their waste generation at the same time. Unfortunately, some ways are not as practical as others. But there are little steps that can be done. Below are examples of how my reduction equation is practiced in real life, in my own household.

1. We skipped the grocery. The grocery is a huge warehouse full of stuff, half of which can be consumed, half of which is synthetic packaging that goes to waste. While we have been refraining from a lot of processed food in general, I allowed myself to purchase a number of processed or semi-processed items that I have yet to find non-processed alternatives for. The exceptions include:

     – flour (white flour and wholewheat flour)

     – oil or shortening (vegetable oil, olive oil and butter)

     – spices and condiments (I have a lot of these, unfortunately)

     – sugar (refined sugar for baking and brown sugar for everything else)

     – pasta and noodles (I have tried making these fresh but it’s not worth the time it takes to make them)

     – toiletries and laundry aids (soap, detergent, shampoo, toothpaste)

     – alcoholic beverages

2. Plan your meals. Meal planning to me is like hitting many birds with one stone. It allows me to choose to prepare food that uses ingredients that are in season, and therefore fresh. It reduces food going to waste because all ingredients purchased are going to be cooked according to the meal plan and not left rotting in the refrigerator. It allows the proper scheduling of cooking times and eating times, which increases time efficiency and reduces the energy consumed during cooking.

3. Make food from scratch. This takes more time and effort but is way cheaper than buying instant food products. And it’s healthier and fun. I make my own pizza dough and pizza sauce. We cook our own noodle dishes, and never eat instant noodles. I make my own salad dressing, and never buy those bottled stuff. We eat freshly prepared sandwiches and home-baked cookies instead of store-bought biscuits.

3. Use more physical energy. I walk to work, Turo rides a bike to the farm, we walk the children to and from school. We water the plants by walking around with a pail instead of using a hose. If it’s not unbearably hot, we fan ourselves or go outside where it’s cooler instead of turning the ceiling fan on.

4. Monitor utility consumption. Utility bills take up a considerable portion of our monthly budget. The good news is that such expenses can be controlled, at least to a certain extent. We recently switched refrigerators because the one we used previously was several cubic feet larger than what we really needed. We collect rainwater for watering the plants and for cleaning. Turning off appliances and unplugging them is pretty basic, but it still takes some effort to do so religiously.

5. Cut down on fuel use. Thanks to unending oil price hikes, my once locomotive family has spent the last few months without going on a trip. We miss traveling though but we’ll probably be limited to just a couple of road trips a year. Daily travel is no problem because we can easily walk or ride a bike to get to anywhere we want. Our weekend recreation is going to the park, with no fuel consumption involved. We recently got into the habit of cooking with charcoal, also thanks to increasing LPG prices and a char-broiler lent by our landlady.

We are contemplating on many other ways to reduce our consumption but that would involve investing in specialized equipment such as a brick oven, saving up for LED lamps and maybe an LED TV, solar garden lamps, a hybrid car, who knows?

These are some of the ways I could think of which are actually doable given our current lifestyle. What about you? Why don’t you think of your own ways by which you can reduce. Remember the economics of reduced consumption go beyond your monthly income and expenses.

the big move: ten months after

If there’s such a thing as the equivalent of postpartum depression after moving out of your birth nest, I can safely say that we have passed that stage with flying colors.

So it’s actually been ten months since we’ve moved to our new home in Los Banos. It’s also been a couple of months since I last checked on my blog, and even longer since I posted anything in here. Finally, I got around to writing here again. I have a lot of news, lots of stuff going on with me, and our new life in our new home, the farm, and the kids. But the most important stuff I really want to share right now are the things we already thought we knew, but are learning over and over, especially since we went on our own.

back on track

finally slowing down and taking life at a stride. funny how i seem to cover greater distances now than when i was in a frantic pace i myself could not keep up.

The economies of scale are against me again. But time is on my back. These past days are the bravest I had ever been. I quit my job. I needed to. I needed to save my soul and get my life moving towards the direction I squarely missed over the past year.

I am back to freelance work, the only kind of work I ever really felt comfortable with. I am now able to assist better on farmwork and the business. And I have more time to prepare my kids for school season this June. It will be Uri’s first time to go to school. And Ari will be moving up to big school. I even plan to go back to school myself. I am back on track. Really I am.

Today I celebrated this fact with my little boys. My boys whom I pray will be as brave as I am when their time comes. We went out for a game of frisbee. It was a beautiful day to be out, under the cloudy skies, running through the scented grass.

I had promised to take them to the park the day before but I got caught up in a meeting until midnight. Thank God today was a better, beautiful day to be out.

It was my way of telling them that I was back. That while I worry and struggle to save for tuition fees and other expenses, I can be with them the whole time. To teach them and help them get ready for bigger things that will be coming their way.

When they were tired of frisbee I took them on a quick walking tour of UPLB. We started with reading lessons on road signs. My children just have a thing for road signs. I am thinking of going back to my driving school manual so I can better interpret some of the signs we see along the road whenever we go on trips.

Then we stopped by some heritage sites that we passed along the way. They were awed by the huge cotton tree and the baby Kapok trees beside it. We saw a fire truck rushing along. I introduced them to the mystical Mariang Banga and accompanied their eyes along Molawin creek.

Our last stop was the oblation statue. Here I tried to teach them about service amidst difficulties. I’m not sure if they even understood anything I explained to them about Oble’ and his meaning. Maybe in time they will. I pray they will imbibe his significance as I do. I am UP by the way. Now I am back on track and I am certain where it leads.

everyday bounty

It is amazing how nature creates, transforms and sustains itself. And we are lucky to be witnesses to the abundance and wealth that our good earth offers to those who are willing to cultivate it. The earthy smell of the soil being dug, the miracle of the seed transforming to a living plant, the crisp of leaves fresh from the picking. This is bounty that we are blessed to experience every waking day.

Our garden is our inspiration. We look out to it the moment we wake up. Our first greeting is to our beloved children, then to our beloved bushes right outside our porch. We take a closer peek at insects and pests that may be on the attack. A quick check on the soil especially if it did not rain the day before. This is our morning habit, which sometimes extends until noontime, or even until the late afternoon.

a learning discovery

I learned to read before I turned 3 and the best gift I had ever received as a child was an encyclopedia. But I never learned to catch or kick or shoot a ball. As a child I may have been cognitively superior, physically inferior to my peers; but looking at myself now, I am a mother just as every other mother is to her child.

celebrating good life in puerto princesa

Puerto Princesa City is as straightforward as it can get. So much like haggling for south sea pearls.

My brother and I are not twins, but we were born on the same day. This makes for one unique, ultra-special birthday celebration come September each year. This year, we spent our forever-shared birthday on a short vacation in Palawan.

how the dough’s not as tough as before

 My grandmother is a baker by profession. She’s tried to teach me to bake cakes since I was in grade school. But I cursed baking ever since my first (flop) pineapple upside down cake, and the rest of the flop cakes and flop cookies that followed.

For reasons I could not explain, Turo and I find ourselves with much more free time now than when we’d lived in the city. We’ve started to enjoy lazy weekends even when we have more housework now than when we lived in my parent’s house. Before we had a laundrywoman and an ironing lady, now I am both. It used to be my parents who took over house repairs and garden work, but in our tiny apartment, this was Turo’s domain. In addition to the usual cooking and cleaning and looking after the kids, now we also take turns fetching Ari to and from school.

Running a household on our own certainly means a lot of work. But it’s the kind of work we lovingly attend to however physically exhausting it gets. Still, at the end of the day we get to sit down with a cup of coffee or a couple bottles of beer before getting some real rest. And in the morning we are woken by our hungry little monsters clamoring for breakfast that we all enjoy without the rush.

I also found myself accessing the internet less, reading more, bonding with my kids more, even cooking more. Proof of this is my recent reunion with la germania. After years of enjoying my lola’s perfect pastries without ever having to learn to make them myself, I realized I still wanted to learn how to bake—bread in particular. I love bread, I love herbs in my bread, but gourmet bread is not as easy to find here. No Rustan’s, no delicatessen anywhere close. If you can’t buy them, why not bake them yourself.

After some serious consideration and more second thoughts, I signed up for Italian Bread, Pizza and Pasta lessons in Sylvia Reynoso-Gala’s Culinary Studio. Up until the first day of my cooking classes I felt reluctant to go. What if I start baking perfect flops again?

But my hands found themselves kneading dough for the first time that day. I felt liberated and satisfied.

when green gets greener

And so we live a stone’s throw from a forest reserve. We are forever in awe each time we roll down our car windows and see through the tall trees outside and breathe the fresh forest-y air. And all these happen each time we try to avoid traffic and take the PCARRD shortcut. We may have the worst traffic this side of Laguna, but, we have the best shortcut in the world.

UPLB sits at the foothills of the Mt. Makiling Forest Reserves. It is a science community that is up in arms when conservation and preservation is concerned. The environmental consciousness of the UPLB community is one of the many things that has been very exciting for me.

this provincial life

We have not stepped into a shopping mall in two months. Riding a jeepney has become such a luxury. And remembering to bring an umbrella is a blessing in disguise under the sizzling Los Banos sun.

We have moved into our new home and realized that the process of  “settling down” is indeed very long and tedious. We spent our first weeks painting floors and shelves, buying furniture, installing appliances and finding a new home for all of our stuff… clothes, books, toys. We had to get used to so many things in such a short time–Ari starting school, Uri having a new yaya, the longer trip to the office.

The kids suffered the bad end of this entire adjustment phase. They started getting sick, losing weight. Ari slept through his classes for an entire week before he kicked out the afternoon nap altogether. Uri had a recurrence of separation anxiety because he was never used to not having Kuya around. He suddenly felt really lonesome especially with a new yaya that he barely knew and he would cry his heart out every time anybody stepped out the front door.