My Valentine

We're just 4 days past January and my mind is preoccupied thinking of what to do on Valentine's. Again, it's not about me but it's all about the cookies and pastries my family will be selling. Everyone knows how a big thing it is here. There are concerts left and right. Prices of flowers shoot up a few days before the 14th and people are "in love" on this day. I'm hearing "ooohs" and "aaahs" when someone at the office mysteriously receives a bouquet of flowers. Well not me. (Do I sound like I'm complaining?)

I'll be busy in the coming weeks preparing for new concepts in the baking room. As always, I look forward doing creative work. It does make me uptight thinking about the whole thing. On second thoughts, I shouldn't be at all.

Daily Devotional

My prayer time hasn't been that frequent. No excuses. I haven't been to Mass either and for that, I offer no excuses still. However today, I found myself reading the daily devotional that Delwyn, my high school friend, gifted me with. Though it's the 3rd day of January and I know I should have started reading it on the 1st, I read each story I have missed to read the past few days.

Our common idea of what a prayer is when we make the sign of the cross and talk with God. As I've learned the past months, prayer can be said in several ways and reading devotionals is one. God can be experienced in so many ways and not simply when we stop and pray the rosary. My experience of God lately is not the festive, singing and clapping way of rejoicing His presence. It is a quiet way of celebrating and knowing that He is with me.

Eureka!

I thought of trying the recipes I learned from Chef Dennis Hipolito's class. I couldn't get my mind off the Moist Banana Chocolate Chip Loaf and the Bailey's Irish Cream Cupcakes. My morning was spent sifting flour and preparing the other ingredients we needed for the baking experiment that afternoon. My good friend Winnie came over to join in the session with Ma and Orie.

We spent a couple of hours baking both recipes and I was salivating from the smell of freshly baked pastries. Yummy! I see myself baking more as this is all part of product development. I'm satisfied with how the banana loaf turned out. I will be offering this soon in another way. Kaya abangan!

New Year Messages

My cellphone was busy receiving several new year greetings and I'd like to share the nice and touching ones I received.

Let's all stay young!
1. Throw out non essential numbers. This includes age and weight.
2. Keep learning.
3. Enjoy the simple things - good food and good sleep.
4. Laugh often, long and loud.
5. When tears come, endure, grieve and move on.
6. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it is friends who are positive, pets, music, plants, whatever makes you happy.
7. Prioritize your health - physical, mental and emotional.
Happy new year!

2008 is nearing its end. It was a great year despite and inspite. We smile as we look back at happy moments, victories and success no matter how small. We relish life and all its struggles. Let's forget the unpleasant times and thank our Lord for giving us new mornings and better tomorrows. Have a prosperous new year.

We spend Jan. 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives not looking for flaws but for potential. Happy new year.

Happy new year!