Wais Wednesday #7: Manuka Honey

I first learned about Manuka Honey from a friend who takes it for acid reflux. I had to take it then, instead of Nexium which was prescribed by my doctor for acid reflux. I always opt for home remedies than prescription or over the counter drugs.

I had this cough for the past two weeks. After first week of increased liquid intake, I decided to see our doctor at the office clinic. Cough has gone bad and so inconvenient at night, even my whole family is awake when I would cough so hard. As usual, doctor prescribed cough medicine and zithromax antibiotic. I had never taken zithromax before, but I heard it was very potent that you only have to take it for three days and happy days are back again.

I am having second thoughts if I would take the prescription or not, so days had passed before I really decided to buy meds. But before that, I first check what are the home remedies for cough and among the long list came honey. Instead of buying ordinary honey from the grocery, what came to mind is Manuka Honey because I remembered its antibacterial properties. And so finally, last Sunday, husband brought home a bottle of Manuka Honey from Healthy Options. It was pricey, but I guess, I would have spent the same amount buying antibiotics.

It was the first time in two weeks that I was able to sleep straight without any cough interruption. During the day, I also noticed reduced frequency of coughing and it was not as difficult compared to the past few days. I know I am on my way to recovery, at the same time, tummy won't be suffering from antibiotics which kills not only the bad bacteria but also the good bacteria. So the next time someone from family is going to have cough, a spoonful of honey will surely replace prescription drugs. Safe and effective.

Wais Wednesday #6: Kalakal

In our household, we practice waste segregation. We have at least three waste bins, one is for food scraps and anything biodegradable, second for the recyclables and lastly anything in between.

The food scraps are collected by the property management maintenance team two times a day, in the morning and in the afternoon, a little after lunch.

The recyclables or often referred to as "kalakal" by the maintenance team are collected and sold to a nearby junk shop or material recovery facility, and so the name "kalakal" which means trading. The money collected are pooled to fund their quarterly rice subsidy, of which they source from
Camaso Rice Dealer.

I just wish that every household will do waste segregation. Not only that we care about the environment but at the same time we help those who make our hallways, common areas, pool and other areas clean, just a way of thanking them for a job well done.

CD Art Thursdays #1: Painting CD

I will be starting another series in my blog which is all about CD art. I fell in love with altered CD art the first time I tried my hands on them. I had to put this aside though due to a busy schedule. With this series, I am hopeful that I can revive my passion for altered CDs which is another great way of upcycling CDs and reducing our wastes. So stay tuned and and together we will explore various mixed media techniques applied in CDs to recreate our unique work of art.

As a starter, let us learn the basics of painting CDs. Gesso is an all around medium that you can use to prime any surface. It prepares the surface so that you can apply paint or any medium into it. For comparison, I used two types of gesso, a liquid, thin gesso and a thick, paste-like consistency gesso.

Photos below will show the difference between using liquid, thin gesso and thick and paste-like consistency gesso.

Thick Gesso

Liquid gesso

I am not sure if the first coating is thin because of the watery brush that I used. But notice that after several coating, you will achieve the same effect on the CD. 

Based on experience, liquid gesso is better to use on papers and canvass and thick gesso can be used on non-porous surfaces like plastic or even metal. 

There are even other types of gesso out there but you are free to experiment which one suits your preference. 

Wais Wednesday #5: School Reminders

I have two boys in grade school now so imagine how difficult it is to keep track of the homeworks, quizzes, schedules and things to bring.

I see to it that I check their assignmet notebooks as soon as I get home, and at the same time look at their respective notebooks, workbooks and books to ensure that they have done what is due for the following day.

However, there are just homeworks and notices that are given way ahead of time. This brings the challenge of tracking and monitoring. To avoid surprises, I have converted our big calendar, the give away calendars from rice mill, to a big bulletin board. Using post its, the kids will write down what is due on a particular day, be it homework, quiz or what have you, and stick it on the day it is due. Everyday, we can look at the calendar and have a snapshot of the two boys' class schedule.

Websters Pages: Park Drive Collection

It is CHA Summer sneak peak time and here is one of the newest Websters Pages collection.

Head on to Webster's Pages for a chance to win the Park Drive collection.

Wais Wednesday #4: Class Schedule

I am now on the fourth week of Wais Wednesday. This is the first time I became consistent in posting a series here in my blog.

This week let me share you what I did on my kids subject plastic envelopes. In their school, they are required to have 6 plastic envelope. Each envelope will contain all the materials (notebook, book, workbook, folder and what have you) for a single subject. This way, the kids will just take out the envelope for a particular subject and all things are supposed to be inside this envelope.

Last year, everyday, for my older son, we have to look at his schedule to check if all his subject envelopes for the day are inside his bag. There are days that he forgets his subject envelope since the schedules are different everyday.

This year, since we have two kids in school, with no help to prepare breakfast and lunch in the morning, we cannot squeeze in the time to do the checking everymorning for the two boys. So what I did is I put a masking tape on the envelope and wrote down the schedule days for the particular subject. This way, a day before, they will be responsible in removing today's subject from their bags and put tomorrow's subject inside their bags. This also makes it easier for them to identify easily which subjects they need to focus on the following day.