One of our duties as mothers is to disciple our children and plant in their hearts, the seeds of faith that will help them become followers of Christ. As a new mom back then, I was not able to take this seriously other than the usual religious rites my children must go through. The daily rigors of meeting their basic needs such as breastfeeding, bathing, and then later on cooking, tutoring, among other activities were the front and center of my motherhood journey.

But now that they are growing and developing their own personalities and character, I was roused to the fact that I should start taking discipling even more seriously. I figured that investing in their spiritual growth is intrinsic since life is short, and no parent can say that they can always be there for their kids when they face life’s challenges. Life happens, we can all get called by our Creator anytime.

Investing on our child’s spiritual growth

One of the reasons why I am eager to invest in my children’s spiritual growth is the fast-paced changes of this modern world. It really is scary that we are living in the present times, and depression and suicide are but common solutions despairing people turn to when life’s challenges seem to overwhelm them.

By trying to help my children nurture a personal relationship with the Lord, I get the peace of mind that even if I am no longer here on Earth, they know whom to turn to for guidance. They will know whom to run to when their problems are too big for them to handle. They would not have to resort to vices, to other people who might break their heart and not truly look after their good, and they would not even think of ending their lives. 

Encouraging kids to follow Jesus

I want them to know that by following Jesus, and abiding by the Lord’s commandments, they get shielded from huge troubles. While they could not understand this principle fully given their young age, there are ways to explain it to them that they could understand. And as moms, that will be our challenge.

And the good thing about taking on this challenge is we get to accomplish God’s commandments while we are at it. Deuteronomy 6:7 says “Teach them to your children. Repeat them when you are at home and when you are away, when you are resting and when you are working.”

Moreover, teaching our children (and others) to abide by the Lord’s commands also come with a promise to those who teach. In the Gospel of St. Matthew, it was said that “Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:19)

Four ways to plant seeds of faith to children

So here are some ways we can plant the seeds of faith into our children’s hearts. No matter what age they are, I am sure you can adjust these suggestions based on how they could understand and absorb it:

1. Introduce Jesus to them. Talk about Jesus at home by teaching your kids how to pray and making a habit out of it. I taught my children to pray before and after meals and before sleeping at night. Tell them about your past experiences and how God has helped you with all that. Teach them to thank the Lord for everything.

2. Bring them to church. No matter what religion you belong to, it is important to bring your kids to church. And it is not just enough to bring them and to make them observe the religious rites. Explain it to them, and try to explain the priest or the pastor’s message for the week in terms they will understand.

3. Expose them to the Word. If there is a catechism or Sunday School in your church, then by all means bring the children to them. It is important to expose them to the good news of salvation in a way that they will understand. Read the bible with your children and try to impart some snippets of messages that they could understand. If they are into gadgets then download a bible app for them to discover and use. 

4. Make learning about Jesus fun and understandable. Purchase or borrow kids bible story books and read it with your children. If they are older kids, then buy or borrow age appropriate devotionals that they could read during their daily quiet time. Let them watch films and videos about Jesus and the Bible. The Chosen is one of the best series to stream and watch as a family. You can watch it for free online in their official website here.

All the above mentioned ideas will be more effective if you become a good example of Christ follower to your children. If they see Jesus’ light in you, then they are bound to bask in that light. “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16). As parenting experts say, “children will follow your example, not your advice.”

Thank you for stopping by and till next post!

A happy homemaker is a Happy Pinay Mommy!

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Hello everyone! We were out and about for almost a whole month! With God’s grace we were able to take time off for a vacation. Sharing with you one afternoon we spent in an old pet store – more like an aquarium fish shop. Well, it reminded me of the fish store my childhood friend owned since it is old yet full of happy fish life, but this fish store is a bit bigger.

Lots of aquarium fishes!

The kids are super thrilled to visit the pet store even if it is not as shiny and new looking like mall pet shops. The pet store surprisingly has a lot of aquarium fish varieties which include: Tetra glow fish, Flower horn, Gold Fish, Betta Fish, Angel Fish, Janitor Fish, Arowana, Molly fish, Platties, and more. The kids did not even notice that time is passing, and we spent like half an hour or so there ogling the fishes!  

The littles were so worked up to see lots of fish poo! Anyway, the lady who owns the store was so gracious that she kept on answering our questions, even allowing us to film in her store. So there, thank you Ma’am Pet Shop Owner  It may be an old store but it really is worth exploring. Truly, we cannot judge a book by its cover! The old shop brought a lot of happiness to the littles.

Affordable fish, fish supplies, and aquarium accessories

Of course, the prices of aquarium fish there were much cheaper compared to mall pet shops. They are also complete when it comes to aquarium accessories and fish supplies. They have various types of fish food, vitamins, aquarium tank supplies and accessories, among other needs of fish keeping families.

Food for the soul

At this point, I hope you can allow me to share with you one of my favorite bible passages, this time from the First Letter of St. Peter:

“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”

1 Peter 5:10

Thank you very much for stopping by and till next post!

A happy homemaker is a Happy Pinay Mommy!

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Hope everyone is having a great day so far. Sharing with you my daughter’s artwork. Well we all love our kids’ artworks right but this one is very special to me. She gave it to me when she heard me trying to troubleshoot a situation so that things will go well with our home schedule.

It made me thankful because in her young age she knows the value of scripture and trusting the Lord. As adults we get to struggle on that when we try to make sense of what is happening around us.

Little hearts that trust the Lord

I am just thankful that God has given me this little soul, a lifelong bestfriend, that reminds me that He has my back and the whole world in His hands.

Sharing with you the bible passage I keep in my heart as I try my best to teach my kids about God, His words, and His powet. Hope it will inspire you too.

DEUTERONOMY 11:18-20

“Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.”

Thanks for stopping by everyone, and till next post!

A happy homemaker is a Happy Pinay Mommy!

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Making oatmeal raisin cookies is one way to help increase your children’s fiber intake. This recipe I will be sharing with you today, is super no-fuss, and it can even buy you time (click here for more kids activities) to do other chores, or have a half an hour to yourself to catch up on your reading and enjoy your homemade iced americano!

How so? Just prepare the batter, and get the little kids “help out” by forming the cookies with their cute little hands! Yes there may be an added mess that you must clean up, but hey the 30 minutes these squiggly bodies would be more than enough to compensate for that. Plus of course, the cookies that you and the tots will surely enjoy!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Recipe

The first thing to do it so assemble the ingredients. Make sure to melt the butter first. Salted is best, but if you do not have salted butter then just add a pinch of salt to the recipe. Here goes!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup muscovado or dark brown sugar

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 egg

1 1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 to 1 cup raisins

You can add nuts too!

Make cookie baking fun

You can then make the dough balls using an ice cream scooper, or get the little tots making the dough balls for you. Yes it would not be perfect, but it is an excellent activity for them. You can help them out or leave them be! whatever the case, this recipe is so forgiving it can withstand all those tiny hands and it would not melt or become too gooey in the end. But if you do not have time to make all those dough balls and the tots are not too keen to do the activity then you can check out this post on easy choco chip cookie bars.

Place the cookies in a cookie sheet lines with a silicone mat or a parchment paper for easy clean up.

Ready to bake the cookies

When you are ready to bake the cookies, you can preheat your oven to 350F (or 180c), and bake the cookies for 12 to 15 minutes! Your house will surely smell like Christmas even if it is Summer! Enjoy the cookies any time if the day (or evening). You can store it in an air tight container and it can last for up to two weeks! Thanks for stopping by and till next post!

A happy homemaker is a Happy Pinay Mommy!

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If you are ever on a road trip and want to have a less common experience that is not as crowded as some tourist destinations, the Angono Petroglyphs and Pililla Wind Farm are excellent choices. 

When traveling with small children, the scenic drives make for a great experience. The views provide plenty of opportunities to play car games. Road trips are perfect for family bonding, and exploring hidden gems together creates lasting memories.

The only downside to road trips is the possibility of getting a small dent in your car because of debris on the road. Thankfully, these dents are easy to fix on your own with a plunger, or if you prefer a repair shop, they can cost around 800 pesos.

Angono Binangonan Petroglyphs

Located in Rizal, the Angono Binangonan Petroglyphs are rock drawings made by carving into a rock wall in Angono, Rizal, Philippines.

There are many symbolic representations associated with both healing magic and sympathetic magic in these engravings. Tagalog folk religion considers the site sacred, believing it to be the home of anitos or ancestor spirits.

Visitors can explore these ancient drawings independently or take guided tours led by experts from the National Museum of Anthropology in Manila or other private organizations certified for tourism services.

The National Museum of the Philippines declared it a National Cultural Treasure in 1973. The Angono Binangonan Petroglyphs is the perfect stop for those interested in the culture and history of the Philippines.

Pililla Wind Farm

Also in Rizal is the Pililla Wind Farm with 27 wind turbine generators. The whole wind farm can generate enough electricity to power more than 66,000 households.

Pililla Wind Farm is a must-see for any visitor to Rizal. The site offers panoramic views of Laguna Bay and Tanay, and lush greenery surrounds the wind turbines. Visitors can walk to various parts of the site, making it accessible for all ages and mobility levels. 

Pililla Wind Farm is located about two hours from Manila. It is considered one of the country’s top leaders in clean energy, contributing to its vision of becoming a clean energy economy. 

Hidden gems can be found all over the Philippines. Whether you are interested in history, culture, or nature exploration, there is a hidden gem waiting for you to explore with your family on your next road trip.

Thank you for reading up mommies! Till next post!

A Happy Homemaker is a Happy Pinay Mommy!

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Here is a list of kiddie and toddler vitamins to help increase appetite. (Photo Credits)

While chunkiness and weight will never be the only factors to determine if a child is healthy, a “patpatin” but healthy Filipino child will usually have parents endlessly worrying about their child’s physique. Kiddie and toddler vitamins to help increase appetite seems to be a much sought after phenomenon among Filipino parents.

And this is the reason why most mommy huddles (in real life and online) always touch on appetite stimulants and ways to get their child eating well. I’m sure pediatricians are likewise bombarded by questions about what children’s vitamins, appetite stimulants and boosters they can give their child who seems disinterested in food and is just so thin and lanky.

Before buying though you may want to try natural ways to boost your child’s appetite and get him to be more interested in his meals. Offhand, this could be lowering or removing distractions while eating (no TV, gadgets or toys at the table), no snacking or heavy beverage an hour to an hour and a half before meals, eliminate junk food in the house, try to make their food more interesting to eat – find bento tools and accessories here if that will interest you both, and allow him to help out in the grocery shopping and cooking. Learn recipes as well of his favorite food so you can make healthy tweaks.

Well, for those of you who are wanting to try some over the counter vitamins or appetite stimulants (ASK YOUR PEDIA FIRST IF THESE ARE FINE), here is a list of —

Kiddie and toddler vitamins to help increase appetite:

1. Appeton Weight Gain-– is one of the most widely advertised appetite stimulant for children and adults. The manufacturer claims their brand is clinically proven to help children three to 12 years old to gain way healthily. It is available in major drugstores nationwide.

2. Propan with Buclizine — This requires prescription so ask your pedia about it. This appetite booster also comes with multivitamins. Not to be confused with Propan TLC, this appetite stimulant syrup comes in a white box packaging and is available in Watsons and Mercury Drug.

 (Post Continued Below)

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• PART 1: Lunch Baon Ideas for School Kids
• Part 2: Lunch Ulam Baon Ideas for your Grade Schooler
• Baon Ideas for your Pre-Schooler
• How to get kids to sleep early
• Yummy Sandwich Recipes for Baon
• Happy Breakfasts for Kids
• Eight Recipes under P100.00 – 2016 Edition
• Kid-Friendly vegetable salads
• Where to buy Cheap yet good quality Bikes
• Meryendas you can prepare with your kids
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3. Appebon Kids – This one is advertised as a vitamins-slash-appetite stimulant for children. Some kids though comment that it could use some improvement taste-wise. Available in most drugstores.

Appebon kid is marketed as one of the country’s kiddie and toddler vitamins to help increase appetite. (Photo taken from Appebon’s Facebook Page)

4. Biobita — This is one appetite booster that is subject of online groupbuys. Like Propan it is quite pricey and is available in some pedia clinics and in mercury drugstores nationwide.

5. Heraclene – This appetite stimulant calls for a prescription. My eldest once took this as ordered by our pediatrician. It is in capsule form, and the pink powder inside is drizzled on drinks or food. It worked for her but this is somewhat pricey. It is available in major drugstores nationwide.

6. Propan TLC – This vitamin supplement claims that it has Lysine to help boost the appetite. There are a lot of positive feedbacks from moms online that this particularly affordable vitamins helped make their kids become magana. This is widely available in all drugstores nationwide.

Propan TLC is a children’s appetite booster that has received good feedbacks from Filipino moms.

7. Appetite Plus Syrup – This one is at around P280ish per bottle. It has multivitamins, lysine and Buclizine which help stimulate appetite. It also received some good feedback online.

8. Mosegor – Could be the priciest among the appetite stimulants mentioned above but a good number of moms swear by it. Ask your pediatrician if your child can take it.

9. Tiki-tiki — I can’t help but hear tiki-tiki’s jingle playing on my head whenever I read or see this vitamins. It may be the cheapest appetite booster in this list but hey this one worked on my eldest. It is available everywhere — health aisles of major groceries, and almost all drugstores nationwide.

So there you have it. Hope this post was able to help you in your quest to find the best Kiddie and toddler vitamins to help increase appetite of children in the Philippines. Again, IT IS BEST TO CONSULT YOUR PEDIA ABOUT THIS TYPE OF STUFF.

Hope you can drop by my Facebook page and hit the like button so you could receive weekly meal plans and happypinaymommy.com updates straight from your newsfeed.

Thanks and till next post!

A happy homemaker is a Happy Pinay Mommy!

Leaving you with some natural ways to help boost your child’s appetite

2016 Free Christmas Attractions in Manila

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Six Summer Activities for Kids that they will Absolutely Love

As promised, here is the second installment of the Budget-Friendly Kids Summer Activities. This time we will be focusing on house activities that will guarantee hours of fun for the kidlets.

Budget Friendly Summer Activities for the Kids

1. Pretend Lemonade Stand – Just outside your house, set up a small table and a big old plastic container where the kids could mix some water, yellow food coloring, and pretend lemons using cardboard. Give them ladles and plastic cups and there goes your instant lemonade stand! If you want them to get more creative, ask them to come up with a signage!

2. Fairy Soup Kitchen – Let the kids gather stones, flowers and leaves. Give them now old pots, ladles and plastic bowls, and allow then to mix up what they collected with water. Sprinkle some food colouring and they now have their fairy soup. Guaranteed to keep them pre occupied for a couple of hours!

3. Swim— If you do not have a pool nearby, why not invest in a small inflatable pool or if your kids are smaller, your trusty “batya.” Just make sure that you supervise your kids, because young ones especially can drown in an instant

4. Garden Hose Bath – Since water sprinklers are not too common here in our country, why not let the kids bathe using a water hose, of course with the supervision of a competent adult!

5. Pretend Laundry – Bubbles and Water make children so happy! Allow your kids to play with some dirty clothes, a small basin and some kid-friendly bubbling soap. This will make them feel like adults especially if they see you doing this too. J

6. Blow Bubbles – Definitely a favorite among kids! Instead of buying them expensive bubbles from toy stores, why not recreate our childhood bubble solution by picking out gumamela leaves and flowers in the neighborhood, add dishwashing liquid or detergent power, mix up, and then your kids now have an instant bubble solution!

Hope you enjoy the summer with these budget friendly kids’ play activities. Please drop by once again for the third installment of the budget summer activities for kids. If you have other creative play suggestions, please feel free to share in the comment box below. Thank you!

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Why you should read to your kids: Kids and story telling. Photo Credits

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