One Saturday - A Family Day

Several days ago, our maid left us (several days back, our daughter's nanny also left). I had to call my sister to man the house and accompany my daughter while my wife and myself are in the office; luckily, my mom was scheduled to visit us last Thursday.

It's difficult not have a maid in the house, worse if you have a kid and no nanny to take care of. But for us, it gave us a chance in the family to be together, doing households. Our daughter woke up during the weekends, and my sister was already downstairs making our breakfast.

I didn't have a chance to have breakfast during the weekend, instead I did the laundry (I am the only one who could operate the washing machine). After the first batch, I realized that our former maid transferred the drying area; there are now designated drying area with your unit no. on it. And I also found out that we didn't have enough hangers. When going back to the unit, I decided to ask my dad (who arrived while I was doing the fist batch of clothes) to bring the rest to my grandma's house. We are going there tomorrow anyway to celebrate my mom's birthday.

While doing the second batch of clothes, I decided to cook our brunch - fried rice with eggs (next time, I will get fried garlic in the supermarket to make garlic fried rice); while my sister helped me prepared the ingredients.

Right after doing the laundry, Tin and I decided to make Ampalaya (bitter melon) con Carne. It was already past 12pm when we finished hanging up our clothes to dry. Tin did most of the chores; but the major thing I did was to add chopped hot chili to the Amapalaya. Tin did all the cooking; I was the one who added the seasoning and ensure it just tasted right (well, Tin decided what is "right"). While she was cooking, I was washing the dishes (that we used in the morning).

Nanay liked the Ampalaya con Carne, but she almost choked when she had the first bite - it was very hot! I chopped 3 hot chili on sliced 3-pc Ampalaya.

We finished lunch around 2pm. After an hour, my mom asked me to prepare the snacks (which I promised her since tomorrow is her birthday) because my father wanted to leave before 5pm. Kristine's idea of snack is a honey-coated Saba, rolled in corn starch. I just followed her instruction (she fell asleep while texting). I didn't slice the bananas into thinner pieces, but Tin woke up on time to remind me. Since the bananas were ripe already, it was difficult for me to slice them vertically. I just improvised, as long as I sliced it into smaller pieces.

Then I bought ice cream (Mango with Cashew nuts) that would go with the honey-coated banana. To make the story short, they liked it. It was an improvised banana ala mode (but I need to remember to do it on a non-stick pan next time). By the time Tin was half-way with her snacks, Tatay and Nanay were done and asked me what he will bring back to Sun Valley. My parents left shortly for Sun Valley.

It was a long day for everyone, but it was all worth it. I realized that due to the convenience of life, sometimes I would tend to forget that household chores bring a family together.