What I Have Been Up To During The Lockdown

Hey, what have you been up to these days?

Are you making the most of the Enhanced Community Quarantine period?

Or are you spending most of your time watching Netflix, checking Social Media, or doing Tiktok?

Well, I know we all deserve to have a break and there’s nothing wrong with all of that, but…

can’t we at least try to be productive and accomplish something worthwhile during this period? 🙂

And when this pandemic is all over (hopefully soon), we’ll come out better physically, professionally, and spiritually.

I’m not perfect, but I’m trying to be as productive as I can be.

Now let me share with you what I’ve been up to lately and how I make the most of my time at home with my family…

My Sister’s Birthday

My youngest sister, Jean, celebrated her 28th birthday on April 8.

She lives at my eldest brother’s house in Cubao, which is not that far from where we live, but because of the lockdown, we could not go out to celebrate her birthday.

We made pizza, baked macaroni and cheese, and fruit salad for her, and she also prepared some food on her birthday for all of us.

Thanks to our Kuya for taking the time (and risk) to bring and pick up the food. 🙂

And we virtually celebrated her birthday together as a family through video call.

Happy birthday to my dearest sister and best frenemy! 🙂

And oh, I remember! My two sisters-in-law announced that they are pregnant and they’re both due to give birth in October.

What a pleasant surprise!

The two grandkids in the family, Macey and her cousin, Xian, celebrate their birthday in October.

And we’re having another two Octoberian babies this year. 🙂 God is good!

Holy Week At Home

Starting January, I had been practicing with my choirmates for the Easter or Resurrection Sunday service at church.

We had exciting plans at church for the Holy Week.

But the Lord has His own plans. And I believe it is His will that we spent this year’s Holy Week at home with our loved ones.

We listened to God’s words online as a family, we had bible study, Macey and I sang the worship songs that we’ve been practicing at church before the lockdown, and we watched Episodes 1 and 2 of A.D. Kingdom and Empire movie on Netflix.

We might not have been able to go to church this holy week as what we’re used to, but God reminded us of his grace and great love for us in a different but still a good way.

Thank you Lord for dying on the cross so that we can be saved and have eternal life.

Gardening

I’m glad I have more time nowadays to care for my plants and to grow new ones.

I spent hours clearing the garden. I pulled out the weeds, buried kitchen scraps on the soil, re-potted some plants, and planted eggplants, papaya, okra, and pechay.

This time last year, I had plenty of eggplants, okra, and chili in our urban garden. I hope I could have the same harvest (or more) this year.

Blogging and Working

It is also during this quarantine period that I find more time to work on my personal blog, The Pinay Investor.

I have been able to update the theme or the “look” of my website and I have published more blog posts in the last 30 days compared to the last three years.

I also feel more inspired, motivated, and determined to build my brand as a personal finance influencer who shares practical tips about personal finance and personal development.

And hopefully, I could make it to the list of the best personal finance blogs in the Philippines this year. Who knows? 🙂

My Morning Routine

In my earlier post, I shared a little bit about my new morning routine which I started on January 28.

For 35 consecutive days, I was always excited to wake up early and follow my morning routine.

But when the enhanced community quarantine started, I have been slacking off and my morning routine has slowly changed.

I lost control over my mornings as I spent more time watching TV and Netflix, social media, and sometimes, just doing nothing.

I regret it. I wished I did not stop.

But I cannot bring the time back. What I can do now is to manage my time more efficiently and follow my morning routine again.

I know it’s hard, but I know I can do it. I will do it.

On April 10, I decided to follow my morning routine again.

And this has been my morning routine in the past five days.

• 6:00-6:30 – wake up, pray, and meditate using the Abide Meditation app on my phone.
• 6:30-7:30 – work out while listening to worship songs and inspirational and motivational resources
• 7:30-8:00 – water the plants, prepare breakfast
• 8:00-8:30 – take a shower
• 8:30-9:00 – eat breakfast with my family
• 9:00-9:30 – wash the dishes and clean the house
• 9:30-10:00 – read daily devotional book, bible, and write on my journal
• 10:00-10:30 – read a book (about business, personal finance, or personal development)
• 10:30-10:45 – write my top 15 goals this year and review all my goals
• 10:45-11:00 – rest a bit, check social media
• 11:00-12:00 – homeschool Macey

My schedule may change from time to time but I try my best to follow these 6 important habits everyday:

1. Spending time with God – praying, meditating, reading the bible
2. Writing in my journal
3. Working out
4. Listening to motivational resources
5. Reading a book
6. Writing, reviewing, and praying for my goals

Our family, work, and other tasks are all important. But we must learn to prioritize things.

As what Jim Rohn once said, if you want things to change, YOU have to change.

If you want things to get better, YOU have to get better.

Being consistent with my morning routine is one of the things I’m doing to hopefully get better as a person, as a mom and wife, as a steward of God’s gifts and resources, and as a child of God.

And hopefully, someday, I’ll be able to share with you how my morning routine has changed me and made my life better.

Dad’s New Job

My husband resigned from his work last month.

We’ve been praying for it for the past six months, but he only got the courage to do it before the month ended.

It wasn’t an easy decision, but we believe in God and we trust in His plans for dad and for our family.

Right now, he is already working for another company, but they are still finalizing the terms on their contract because some of the plans of their company have changed due to Covid-19.

We hope everything turns out well for the company and for its employees.

Food and Groceries

We’re grateful that we can still afford to buy our food and groceries even though the prices have increased and many items are already out of stock.

The alcohol which we ordered from Lazada has finally arrived after two weeks of waiting.

Vitamin C tablets are still out of stock in all the grocery and drug stores in our area.

There are still long lines at the grocery, banks, and market, but we’re getting used to it and we are learning to be more patient.

We are also grateful that our barangay provides relief goods every week. It’s not much but it’s still a big help.

Thank you Lord for your provision and protection.

Giving Relief Goods

My high school batchmates in Samar came up with the idea of giving out relief goods to other batchmates who were affected by the lockdown.

I’m blessed and grateful to be part of this cause.

I may not have a lot of resources nowadays, but I try to help even in small amounts.

I know that no act of kindness is too small.

When we help others, it gives them a chance to shine and you never know just how much that could mean to them when they are feeling low and hopeless.

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:6-8

Papa in Samar

As what I shared previously, my Papa went to Samar on March 8, just before the lockdown in Metro Manila started.

Mama and the rest of our family members were supposed to fly to Samar on March 30 for our much-awaited summer vacation, but since all flights had been cancelled, we’re still here in Manila and Papa is all alone in Samar.

He’s bored, but he’s fine. Thank God.

When he arrived there, he was placed on home quarantine for 14 days. After that, all senior citizens were advised to stay at home for their safety against Corona Virus.

In short, he’s been stuck at home since March 8. And he’s not used to it.

When he’s in the province, he spends most of his time in our small farm next town.

But he’s not allowed to go out this time. How terrible it might have been for him.

Thank God we have some relatives there who can run some errands for him like buying his food, medicines, and other necessities.

We just make sure to call him everyday to make him feel that he’s not alone.

My Not-So-Productive Time

As much as I’d like to be productive whole day, I also spend (and waste) time watching movies and documentaries on Netflix.

Yes, I love reading and working.

But let’s admit it… It gets tiring and even boring at times, di ba? 🙂 

Especially now that we’re on home quarantine, we can’t go anywhere but stay home.

Okay, enough of my excuses. 🙂

Let me just share with you what I have seen on Netflix so far:

Business Movies

1. Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates
2. Trump: An American Dream
3. Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker
4. Broken
5. Restaurants on the Edge
6. Jiro Dreams of Sushi
7. The Big Short
8. The China Hustle

Random Movies

1. Crash Landing on You
2. Something in the Rain
3. A Love to Last
4. Uncorked
5. 93 Days
6. Heal
7. Feel Rich
8. Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru
9. Suits

The first three under random movies have many episodes, but I only chose the episodes and parts that are interesting to me.

I think it’s just too much to watch the entire series unless I really have nothing else to do while on home quarantine.

I also realized that not all of these movies are going to help me grow personally, professionally, and spiritually.

That’s why I do my best now to wisely choose the movies that I’d like to watch on Netflix.

I make sure that I learn something (somehow) out of it.

I take notes.

In fact, I write a lot and I have plenty of notebooks dedicated for business and personal development aside from my other spiritual life journal.

Conclusion

There you have it!

That’s what’s keeping me busy these days.

There are days that I’m super productive, and there are also days that I don’t feel doing anything.

At the end of the day, I am grateful that I am at home with my family, we have food on the table, we have roof over our head, and we are safe and healthy.

We thank God for His grace and blessings and we give back all the glory to Him.

We pray that this Covid-19 will soon be gone, so that the lockdown will be lifted, and we can all go back to our normal routines.

We pray for everyone who’s been afflicted with corona virus, we pray for our frontliners, we pray for our government officials, and we pray for the whole world.

In God’s time, everything is going to be alright.