TOPAZ HORIZON

Mommies, I had such a fun afternoon with other mamas when Sanicare invited us to a lovely little party to welcome Bianca Gonzalez-Intal as their first ever brand ambassador.

L-R: Shari Macainag, Bianca Gonzalez Intal, Sarah Tirona and me

Sanicare is a line of kitchen, bathroom and personal care paper and cotton products. So that's kitchen towels, toilet paper, facial tissues, and the like. In my home, we've been using Sanicare maybe around 5 or 6 years ago. When we had kids and our grocery receipt now featured items like lots of wet wipes and paper towels, my husband Vince decided we needed to look for quality items that are still affordable. Para hindi masakit every time we pulled out a tissue or wipe! Like, seriously, why are kids such a messy affair???

Bianca, being a first-time mom, is now acutely aware of keeping her home clean and using hygienic products. And even though she probably earns more than an average mom does, that doesn't mean Bianca doesn't care about cost. She made sure she picked Sanicare kasi affordable ang products nito. But even though hindi sila kamahalan, sobrang excellent ang quality.

I can attest to this because I'm very maarte with the stuff I use. Sanicare paper is very soft and smooth, sarap to use, but hindi siya madaling mapunit. The baby stuff are free of harmful ingredients like parabens, alcohol and perfume. The cotton they use is 100% cotton talaga —walang halo na ibang materials. The towels are extra-absorbent and are free from chlorine and other bleaching agents, plus they are made from 100% virgin pulp.

With the lovely (inside and out!) Stephanie Zubiri-Crespi, who hosted the event

You know what makes me love Sanicare even more? Dun sa event, Marketing Director Lea Sio Pacis revealed that the brand started as products her dad invented for her mom. Yes, Lea is the daughter of Sanicare's inventor, and yes, Sanicare is a family business. Lea said her mom has very sensitive skin and being a mommy, syempre, her days were filled with keeping her home and her kids clean. Problem was the products she used those days made her skin sugat-sugat kasi allergic siya. Lea said her dad couldn't let this happen to his dear wife so he made products that were soft, durable, and didn't have harmful chemicals. Sanicare! Grabe, diba? Aanhin mo ang Taj Mahal, supposedly the world's best physical demonstration of a man's love for his wife? This is waaaaaay better!

So anyway, speaking of husbands, it was Vince who discovered Sanicare Interfolded Hand Towels. We use it everywhere! Sa dining table, may naka-park na pack for wiping up spills and wiping down messy mouths and hands. For the kitchen, I use it to cover dishes that I heat sa microwave so that the inside of the oven won't get messy from the splatters.

And since we're on the topic of Sanicare's many uses, Beach Born entrepreneur and fashion and travel blogger Sarah Tirona of The Fashion Eggplant, Rory & Sloane entrepreneur and beauty blogger Shari Macainag of The Misty Mom, and myself were invited by Sanicare to share how we use their products.

Meanwhile, I shared 10 ways I use Sanicare kitchen towels in my kitchen and dining room. I'm not going to list here what I made chika na to the mommies at the event. Para fresh, I'll list a few more of my kitchen hacks!


Aaaaand here are the mommies enjoying the super delicious food at Makati Diamond Residences and the fun games that Bianca and Stephanie made everyone do.
Every mommy went home with a big tray of Sanicare goodies. Hooray! Thanks, Sanicare!

To see what happened at the event, here's a video from one of the mama bloggers who attended my workshops before (hi, Reign!):


So ayan, mga mamas, get Sanicare products na! I'm listing down the complete line below and I added a few comments on some of them. Funny kasi very comprehensive na yung product range, diba, but being kikay us, Sarah, Shari and I asked for cotton pads (square or circular and embossed!) for removing makeup. Sanicare said they'll consider it! Kikay mamas, rejoice! I really love Sanicare. Sobrang sulit, sobrang galing, sobrang recommended ko and ni Bianca Gonzalez Intal pa! Bili na, mga mommies!

Product line:
Kitchen Hygiene Line
1. Kitchen Towel Regular
2. Kitchen Towel Jumbo
3. Facial Lunch Napkins - I think kaya siya "facial lunch" kasi pwede siyang table napkin and panyo!
4. Mood Dinner Napkins

Personal Hygiene Line
1. Facial Tissue Boxed
2. Facial Tissue Travel Packs
3. Cleansing Wipes - I can't live without these! Here's my review.
4. Cotton

Bathroom Hygiene Line
1. Bathroom Tissue 2-ply
2. Bathroom Tissue 3-ply
3. Interfolded Hand Towels - I love these, too! Like I said, it's the very first Sanicare product we bought. I think it's the most versatile because you can use it sa bathroom, sa dining table, sa kitchen! If you must buy just one Sanicare product, eto na yun!
4. Disposable Toilet Seat Cover
5. Handipack

Baby Care Line
1. Baby Wipes
2. Baby Underpads - This is the newest product and I'm excited to use it because we're toilet-training Piero. I always use an underpad when I let the toilet-training kids sleep without a diaper.
3. Jumbo Cotton Balls
4. Cotton Buds Mini
5. Cotton Buds Large

You can buy Sanicare products at all supermarkets nationwide. For more information on Sanicare, visit their website and like their Facebook page.

*This post is brought to you by Sanicare. Most of the photos are courtesy of Sanicare.

Piero is 3 years and 6 weeks old today. Yes, this is a birthday post 6 weeks delayed! A big part of the reason for the delay is Piero himself. In the last 6 weeks, his development has been huge—he's suddenly talking clearly, he's drawing real drawings (not scribbles), he's agreed to take baths without screaming bloody murder, he finally agreed to get a haircut (so we booked that salon appointment ASAP), he's asking TONS of questions and he won't let you go unless you answer them. It's been a fascinating few weeks, everyone!

We're so grateful that the Terrible Twos are over!!!


Today, I'll share with you a few photos from his little birthday. As usual, we had to have the cake early in the morning. We've given up dressing up the boys for the pictures—dressing up really early in the day just for pictures puts them in a bad mood so we're all in sleepwear with unwashed faces and unbrushed hair here. My mother would've been so disappointed haha She was very particular about keeping up appearances!

If there's one thing motherhood has taught me, however, it's you need to pick your battles. And much as it would be lovely to be like one of those stylish Instagram mommies with their stylish Instagram kids, my kids would rather be sloppily happy. So be it!

Piero's obsessed with Spider-Man now so he wanted a Spider-Man cake. We got one from Goldilocks. And he loved it!

He leaned in close to blow out his birthday candle...

And got cake all over himself!!! Sticky icing everywhere! Cake destroyed! Brothers amused! But I saw Piero start to get upset that his Spider-Man pajama top had frosting so I whisked him away and changed his shirt (thank goodness we have LOTS of Spider-Man shirts!), washed him up, tried to get as much icing off his hair as I could, and then we went back and blew out that candle again!

And had some cake. Hooray!

Disaster averted! Birthday party rescued!

Now for the gifts!


Piero got gifts from his brothers and his Mama and Papa and he was super happy. But he was even happier when we all piled into the car and went to Kidzoona!

We have soooo many photos of the birthday boy and his brothers enjoying Kidzoona! They were so happy! But little boys need to rest their excited little bodies so we all went back home for Piero's favorite - ube ice cream!


Dear Piero, you're such a character. Always bossy, always loud, always filling up the room with your personality, always insisting that you must have your way in a house where everyone is bigger than you. You never let anything make you feel small and you never give up or give in. While you're just like your parents, we have a sneaky suspicion you're going to be so much more than Papa and Mama will ever be simply because you insist on being gigantic in every way.

I pray that you'll always be stubborn and assertive. I'll just need to ask God that He show me and your Papa how to teach you to be a very good and righteous man so that you can use that stubbornness and aggression to fight for the weak, the small, and the downtrodden. I see big things coming your way, little boy. And you will take them on like the giant that you are! I can't wait to see this happen, my dearest Piero! Happy birthday, Mr. P! We LOVE you!

I almost got hit by a taxi today. I was very careful, crossing the street, but the taxi sped up to overtake the asthmatic jeepney chugging uphill and the taxi driver didn't see me till the last second but thankfully I saw him and stopped. Because I have a really bad temper, I raised my fist to smash his hood but I saw that he had passengers—a woman and small kids—who all looked frightened. So instead of getting mad, I stood in front of his car and wagged my head and finger at him like he was a naughty boy. Then we both went off to wherever we needed to go.

See, this is my life these days. There are so many things happening in my industry, in our country, in the world, and I want to raise my fists, march on the streets, write scathing articles, scream! But I don't. Two reasons: (1) As a working mama of three small children and with no household help, I'm too busy and too tired; and (2) As a working mama of three small children, I've been warned that being critical of the government and being basically disagreeable may hurt my career. While this second reason doesn't matter to me (if you refuse to work with me because of who I am and what I believe in, then why would I want to work with you?), it has tempered my fury and so I sit quietly.

I've been sitting here quietly while thousands of my fellow Filipinos are murdered (see the latest on the drug war's "bloodiest night" here), while mommy bloggers are insulted (Cat Antonio rages against this here), while all bloggers are sneered at (Earth Rullan breaks it down here), and while the most convenient means of transportation for me and my children was taken away from me and many other working people (you can read about that here).

But for me, I keep my head down and do my mommy work. These days, all that matters is peace and quiet.

These days, I also keep thinking of this Mel Gibson-helmed movie called The Patriot. It's about Benjamin Martin, an American war hero who retired to be a farmer because he just wanted peace and quiet with his family. When conflict with the British government threatens this peace, he refuses to fight and he gave this reason: "I'm a parent. I haven't got the luxury of principles."

Ironic, right? Parents, the moral compass of their children, not having the luxury of principles. And it's true. I see it on my Facebook feed. The ones who are most vocal, the ones who march on the streets—they're not parents. They're the single people, the childless couples, the ones who don't have a lot to lose, except maybe their lives, which isn't much apparently in these times when you fight for people's rights and then you get threatened with murder.

And that's why parents can't have principles. If we lose our jobs or our lives because we dared to fight for what is right and decent (as what happened to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, which reportedly suffered an ad boycott and then had to be sold because they were critical of the administration), then what happens to our children?

I'm not defending my inaction. To be honest, I don't even know what action to take. I have protested many times on Facebook but that honestly feels like impotent rage. I have discussed what upsets me with many people that don't share my anger and I initially thought that was more effective except that they haven't changed their minds at all. So I guess dialogue doesn't work either. So these days, I've calmed down, I've gone on living. I've kept the peace.

In The Patriot, Benjamin Martin is told, "You have done nothing for which you should be ashamed." And Benjamin replies, "I have done nothing. And for that I am ashamed."

Despite all his precautions, Benjamin's family still suffered unimaginable consequences. When there's a war, after all, no one is spared. Even those who survive it.

Now here's the thing: My motto has always been: "The brave may not live forever, but cowards never live at all." My one defining trait has always been courage, but now that I have kids, I want to survive. It frightens me that to survive, my principles are the first casualty. What frightens me even more is the gnawing worry: Will doing nothing actually save my family? In the deepest part of my soul, I know the answer is no because they will grow up knowing their mama kept her head down when she should've been rising up, and they will feel ashamed.

Well, there is one brave act I do with my head down. I pray. Prayer is an act of courage because you choose to believe when there is no hope left. Some people will scoff that that's the most inactive activity to do in times like these. Maybe. But I've been vocal, I've fought back, I've discussed respectfully, I've shared real news and informative articles, I've done what I can and those didn't feel very effective in the face of looming evil and economic despair. In my life, however, I've seen that prayer works and that God moves quietly and mightily. I've never prayed for our country before, never really prayed for my career before, but now I do. It's the only thing I know I can do, the only thing I believe will work.

And you, even if we don't share the same politics, I'm sure we share the same love for our country, our fellow Filipinos, and our children. If you also share my faith in God, let's pray that His will of perfect love and true peace reign over our nation. Maybe that's one principle—our belief in faith, love and peace—that we can have together and work with together.