Caroleen’s Treasures

It’s Saturday once again and where else could we be found but in the market. We live lightyears away from malls and though it is kinda boring out here, I like here more because we can save a lot of money from unnecessary purchases and spendings. In the morning, I went to the market while Donald and Ella are still in bed in hopes that I could find maternity tops in the ukay-ukay. I did find one nice cotton blouse from Crazy Doll and a pair of nighties for me; a diaper bag that I could use soon with lots of pockets, a cotton newborn shirt and a size 24 mos maong shorts. That would be such a long wait for my baby to wear and what if it will be a girl? But I don’t care as long as it’s from OShKosh B’Gosh and I got it for only P50. It’s a great deal! Going there while drizzling paid off.

Since I have not found something for Ella, I bought 3 donuts with filling like the ones from Dunkin Donuts. The man selling them offered me his donuts and when I asked him how much, he answered “Diyes isa. kung unsang color ana, mao na ang labor.” (Twenty cents each. Whatever the color is, that is the labor) WHAT????? I thought he was saying that I am paying twenty each donut inclusive of that is the LABOR. Of course! We have been making rice muffins and some other delicacies before and we sell it for a price that would cover the cost of ingredients, LPG and labor. I asked once more and I heard it right. LABOR. LABOR. LABOR. While he was wrapping the donuts, I then realized what he means. It is not LABOR, but FLAVOR.

When I arrived home, it was still drizzling. Tatang and Marlon, the brother of his daughter-in-law, were here. It’s their group’s turn to do some cleaning in the churchyard and the building. Tatang brought a small bag of rice. We will cook the rice for him for our meal fellowship tomorrow and he will cook one dish as his share of our potluck. For  their lunch today, he brought frozen lechon (roasted pig). I do not know how long it was sitting in their fridge. Maybe two weeks? :roll: I was doing something in the pc so Donald cooked. He asked me how to cook Lechong Paksiw (Roast Pig Stew) because it smells like Marang and the only dish that could at least remove the smell is this. Even though Marang is one of his favorite fruit; he could not eat lechon with that flavor. :lol: Tatang and Inang’s fridge is packed with Marang from their own Marang trees and this makes everything in there smells like Marang. I sent him back telling him to add more pepper to remove the smell but to no avail. I just ignored him, thinking it was his favorite fruit anyway. So what we have for lunch is called “Lechong Paksiw Con Marang”. I didn’t realized that it just didn’t smell like Marang but tastes like it too when I was sitting here after lunch and burped with that distinct smell. I don’t like Marang like Donald and I almost threw up. Even he could not take a food with that flavor except for ice cream maybe but no way for a dish that taste like it. I bet, Tatang’s dish tomorrow will taste like marang too.

After lunch and after Tatang and Marlon left, Ella played in her playroom while Donald tried to take a nap. When Donald was about to doze off, Ella entered the room with her baby. I told Daddy will sleep but she said she just brought her daughter to see her grandpa and grandma. So we now have a granddaughter????

After some cuddling and kissing with our granddaughter, we let ourselves fit in the bed. Four of us and none was able to sleep so we changed clothes and went to get groceries instead. We just bought ingredients for spaghetti (since I was dying to have it since yesterday), Ella and mine’s bath soap and kid’s snacks for our Sunday School. I also picked a pack each of disposable plates, spoons and cups in case some member don’t have eating utensils tomorrow. Then we went straight to the market to get the rest of the stuff we need for our dish tomorrow. We just buy vegetables since we still have meat and fish in the fridge (and we are going to Davao tomorrow afternoon or Monday morning). We will cook everything in there for our meal fellowship so we could defrost the fridge, this way I could sleep well while in the city not worrying about the house getting burned down to ashes.  

Ella kept herself busy before dinner, running around the house. She also did some tickling with Daddy and just when I turned around to call her to the table, she was peacefully dosing off in her Bratz bean bag.
 

The kid could sleep that fast! The purple bean bag was a gift from Tita Crislyn on her 4th birthday but I wasn’t able to get the stuffing to put inside so I hid it for over a year. When I was cleaning the other room, I found it so I took it outside and filled it with blown fiber temporarily. Hope I could find some beans for it in Davao and maybe some light fixtures that I could put in her tiny playroom.