When you invite guests into your home, you want them to feel as welcome as possible. Having a messy bathroom is a sure way to make your guests feel uncomfortable. Before anyone comes to visit, do a few simple things to straighten up your bathroom so that it is clean and inviting. Clean the tub and the sinks, put out fresh towels, put the bathroom scale away and use a scented candle to clear the air of any unwanted odors.

If you have porcelain sinks, scrub them thoroughly until they are as clean as they were when first installed. Get rid of any unsightly stains in the tub, and give the toilet a good cleaning. Do not forget to wipe any smudges off of the mirror. If you are all out of clean sheets or towels, do some laundry before your guests arrive so that you have enough linens for them. Make sure that you tell your guests which towels they should use to avoid any confusion. Whether you have a bathroom digital scale or a bathroom analog scale, you should put it away before your guests arrive so that it is not in the way. 

Whether your guests are just visiting for an afternoon or are staying with you for several weeks, it is important to make them feel welcome in your home. By taking the time to clean your bathroom, you can ensure that your visitors do not feel awkward when they are using it. With the right touches, you can make sure that your guests leave with nothing but good memories.

When I was in High School, I hate writing essays required by my Language professor. I always do it last as I can’t find the energy to start on my essay work. But look at me now, I maintained a number of blogs and one of my sideline work is being an article writer and freelance content provider. Who would have thought that I am one of the students before who thought that they can’t write.

This is the aim of World Poetry Movement, which is to encourage more people to write especially amateur poets to express their thoughts, emotions, ideas through a poem. One of their ways to achieve this is through the poetry contest that they have launched.

They have this contest several times per year and anyone can submit an entry for free. To date, they have awarded almost $250,000 in cash and prizes to the talented poets that they have discovered through the contest.

The World Poetry Movement also have a Facebook page where members can interact, share their poems with each other, have a poet discussion or just find a venue where they can get to communicate with individuals who share the same passion as them for poetry.

So start composing your poem now and submit it to World Poetry Movement. Who knows, you might be their next winner.

It was a very busy weekend for us especially for hubby. He has been working overtime for more than a week now that he will arrive home late everyday. The latest was last Saturday when he arrived at 6 AM so he worked for almost 2 whole shifts.

He was supposed to go to Ulingan with me but I let him stay at home and he just drop me to Ulingan so he can sleep and rest.

In Ulingan, we have two celebrants who sponsored our feeding program. One was Evelyn who is one of the volunteers and the second one was couple Sarah and Noel who is celebrating their anniversary. They are the former teachers of our volunteer, Ben.

We had the usual feeding program and after filling the tummies of the kids, this is what we had for the Brain Booster:

They will wear these Halloween masks on our Halloween event next Saturday. I’m so excited for the kids.

On November 4, we will be attending our first Christmas Party. This will be for my Bebots/Twitter friends.

We usually have our parties early, as we are all busy especially during the Christmas season. And we made sure that we will be having an early Christmas party again this year as one of our friends from the US, Trin and her family, is here in the US to celebrate with us.

It will also double as a Trick or Treat event for the kids as the kids will come in costume and we will setup a Candy Buffet station, courtesy of Sweet Royals and as gift from our friend Apols, Ems and Faye (thank you girls).

As for the mommies and daddies, we are asked to come in our funny hat or fancy headdress for I am already looking for Women's Dress Hats at hat country so I will have something to wear for the party.

I am so excited already and I can’t wait to meet up again with all my online friends.

I was feeling a little down last Friday, but this gave me an ultimate lift: 

I received an email from one of Project PEARLS’ Scholarship committee to give me an update about my scholar, Jenny Rose Caparida. I am glad that she attends school regularly as we believe that education is one way for them to escape poverty.

I regularly go to Ulingan every Saturday to volunteer but I rarely get a chance to see Jenny Rose there. Probably because there are a lot of kids at the Day Care during feeding program that it is difficult to spot her. Hopefully, I can visit her one day so I can talk to her mom and Jenny Rose.

My wish is that I will be able to support her schooling until she graduates from college. God willing…

Sponsor a child. Join our advocacy. Visit www.projectpearls.org

It was a fun Musical Saturday in Ulingan as we have been fortunate enough to be visited by the group Feed Hungry Minds (FHM) and some casts of the famous musical, Phantom of the Opera.

They had a mini concert as they sang for the kids and for the volunteers that we really had fun. But aside from the entertainment, they also brought 500 packs of rice meals for all the children in Ulingan. They also hand out hand towels that the kids can use.

Thanks again to FHM, for the cast of Phantom of the Opera and for Fionna who celebrated her birthday with our kids.

This week has not been a very good week for us as we received some bad news that will affect our financial state for the coming months:

* the tenant who is renting our commercial space said that they will only stay until October.

* our second tenant who is renting our residential unit also told my mom that they will only stay until November

We were even planning to replace the tacoma seat covers of our Toyota Vios but looks like we will not have a budget for it. The rent that we are getting from these tenants is what we use to add to the amortization of our car loan and housing loan and without these, we will experience a big financial problem.

I don’t want to think about for now as it is really stressing me out. I believe that God will provide, which He never really fails to do and everything happens for a reason so I am hopeful that we will surpass this.

I have been going to Ulingan to volunteer in the Saturday feeding program of Project PEARLS since March and I feel really happy every time I influenced friends, relatives, and even strangers to join our advocacy.

My good friend Ate Annie has been seeing my posts of Ulingan in Facebook and she and her daughter Mimille, joined us one Saturday there. Upon seeing the plight of the kids, Mimille was heart broken. Majority of the kids in Ulingan are malnourished and have pulmonary diseases. Their houses stand on a dumpsite and they walk around bare footed. That is why the very next day, Mimille started a campaign / challenge to raise 700 rain boots for the kids and she created a Facebook page for it called “Botang Maliit Para kay Bulilit.”

With the help of her family and friends they were able to raise the 700 rain boots (and more) in a month and last September 29, I joined them as they had an art workshop, story telling, feeding and distribution of the first 200 rain boots to Project PEARLS scholars.

One of our regular volunteers who joined us kept on saying that the kids have never been this pampered as the food was really overflowing and they really enjoyed the different activities that Ate Annie and Mimille’s group prepared for them. It was nice to see the smiles on the kids’ faces.

Thank you again to Ate Annie, Mimille and the Guzman family and friends who made all of this possible.