Category: Life

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Money Diaries Secrets

2025 Money Wrapped

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Kahit luhaan ako sa mga gastos namin, I am equally excited to look at our last year’s spending because I have now gained clarity. Since nagkaron ng major changes sa aming 2025 expenses, mas alam ko na ngayon yung i-eexpect for 2026. Nung naka-apartment pa kami, kasama na sa monthly rent namin yung utilities, kaya hindi kami sanay na nagbabayad ng tubig at kuryente. Ngayon, based on the monthly averages, alam ko nang kelangan naming mag-allot ng extra $250 every month.

Ang daming adjustments na nangyari last year. Lumaki yung housing costs namin because of the mortgage, tapos ang dami pang nadagdag na bayarin (home insurance, property tax, utilities). Bukod pa dun, nawalan ako ng income nung August. Kaya ang malaking bottomline ng lahat ng ito ay: kailangan ko nang makahanap ng trabaho STAT.

Natuwa akong gawin yung mga graphics this year. Favorite ko yung ‘Money Wrapped’—tingnan nyo mamaya hehe. Just like before, I’ll start with a snapshot of our average monthly spending, then show the numbers after.

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Family Free Posts Pals

Holiday Season 2025

I think the holiday season officially started for us when one of Kenneth’s college friends invited us to go on a holiday train ride.

Our whole universe was in a hot dense state…
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Free Posts Life

Gleniz da Menace: Year in Review 2025

Just like the previous year, I rounded up all my published posts and organized them around the recurring themes of this blog (paid posts are marked with an asterisk) . My utmost gratitude goes to those who find joy and comfort in my writing. I hope it was worth your time. When you love to write, being seen and heard means a lot. But probably the more compelling motive is my internal one. Writing is how I make sense of the world. Thank you for being with me on this voyage of self-expression and discovery.

Writing has so much to give,
so much to teach, so many surprises.

The act of writing,
turns out to be its own reward.

Anne Lamott
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Life Pals Secrets

Thursday Letter #15 | Releasing Expectations

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Happy Stranger Things Vol. 2 day! Also, Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noël !

Ngayon ko na lang ulit ‘to na-feel. Yung super excited ako sa isang TV show. Bukod sa curiosity ko kung anong mangyayari after that epic Will-has-powers!! episode, airing the next volume on Christmas day (and the season finale on New Year’s Eve) gave me an anchor. Here’s why.

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Life Secrets

37th Birthday Bop

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My birthday started with “Meh. Not having the best time.” and ended with “Tangina mamamatay na ko!”

Pretty morning

Matabang na congee

Kinantahan muna ako ni Kenneth ng happy birthday na walang lyrics kasi kakagising nya lang. Antok-antok pa sya. Then I was on Instagram reposting birthday greetings (ang cute ng mga inaanak ko). After a couple of minutes, nag-ready na rin kami kasi ang una sa birthday to-do list ko ay mag-brunch sa Maven, my favourite brunch spot in Calgary (pero wala pa ring makakatalo sa Clementine Cafe in Winnipeg—huhu I miss).

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Family Secrets

Thursday Letter #14 | Holiday Funk

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Good morning/evening!

Ang nasa utak ko ngayon ay Pilipinas. Kasi nai-imagine ko kung gano ka-festive dun ngayon. Yung ramdam na ramdam mo yung holiday cheer, lalo na sa mga malls. Ang sarap umuwi! Ang tagal ko nang dream na makauwi ng holiday season. Kaso hindi pa matuloy-tuloy. Sa ngayon, magpapatugtog na lang ulit ako ng “Di ba’t kay ganda sa atin ng… Paskoooo… Naiiba ang pagdiriwang ditooo…” like every other December, habang medyo teary eyed.

If we have unlimited funds, we would spend every Christmas and New Year in the Philippines.

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Free Posts Throwback

My 19 Year-Old Playlist

Many years ago, after getting my first iPhone, pinamana ko yung iPod Touch ko kay Illysa (my cousin) because I figured hindi ko naman kailangan both at the same time. But now that she’s no longer using it, I retrieved it for nostalgia purposes (buti na lang hindi nya naiwala or tinapon). Nung binigay ko yun sa kanya back in 2016, ang tanging hiling ko lang ay wag syang magbura ng photos. Thankfully, she didn’t delete them all and I was happy to see some of those old photos again.

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Happy Things Hobbies Life Secrets

Happy Things #29

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Feeling Pro

First time kong makagamit ng stand mixer nung nag-bake ako sa bahay ng friend namin (Hello Aryan and Hudas!) Ang saya pala talaga nyang gamitin! As in konting seconds lang combined na lahat ng ingredients. Walang kapagod-pagod. Sobrang bano ko. Noon, ang tingin ko sa stand mixer ay pang-pro levelzz lang. Napapanood ko lang yun sa mga experienced bakers. Pero nung nakita ko sya sa bahay ng friend namin, at ginamit ko sya pang-bake ng revel bars, napaka-smooth and convenient pala talaga!

Nung una nga na-intimidate pa kong gamitin. Plano ko na talaga na i-mix lang yung dough using a spatula. Pero sa sobrang thick nung mixture, sumuko na ko. Sinubukan ko na yung stand mixer kahit hindi naman ako marunong mag-operate ng ganun. Pero siguro sa dinami-rami ng napanood kong baking videos sa buhay ko, na-figure out ko sya agad. Na-amaze din ako sa sarili ko kasi alam ko kung pano i-tilt yung head, kung pano i-detach yung mixing bowl sa base, kung pano yung pag-push and turn to remove the beater—all in one try. I was practically a natural at it. Meant to be talaga kami! Haha! Kaya naman sa isip-isip ko, “Gusto ko nitoooo!” And that’s what I got for my birthday!!

Hindi ko pa naman birthday pero in-advance ko na hehe. At buti na lang merong 12 months to pay, 0% interest sa Amazon (may kamahalan din baga). Sa sobrang excitement ko, chinat ko si Aryan para i-share ang good news. And her response made me cryyy…

I Love My Friends

This is my second happy thing. Literal na naiyak talaga ko sa reply ni Aryan:

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Insights Pals Secrets

Best Friends

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I was listening to a podcast and one of the hosts talked about having a best friend and how they had a falling out, and I naturally thought of my best friends and how we had a falling out. Back in grade school, I still think fondly of all the ‘best friend things’ we did. Listening to boy bands and girl pop stars (we loved Christina Aguilera), sharing our boy band crushes (mine is Ben of A1), gushing about our real-life crushes, gossiping about girls we didn’t like, skipping my piano lessons and hanging out at their house for hours (yung pambayad ko sa piano teacher ginawa kong pang-meryenda namin), and all that cutesy naiveté that childhood brings.

I find it incredibly cool that back then, living in a small province, we’d just tell our parents we were going to our friend’s house and then just walk there on our own. No cellphones, no way for them to track us, no texting our friend to say we’re coming over—we’d just show up on their doorsteps completely unannounced, and all that was just normal. What we had was pure, unadulterated quality time with our friends, and there were no cellphones to distract us. If there’s a landline phone, its main purpose was to prank call our crushes (hindi kami nagte-telebabad ng best friends ko kasi kung gusto naming magusap, pupunta kami mismo sa bahay ng isa’t isa para mag-chikahan). Those were the days indeed.

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Free Posts Life

November Recap

November 28, 2025

Nabilisan ako sa buwan na ‘to. November felt like two things:

  1. Malapit na ang US barkada trip namin (our flight was November 7th)

and

  1. Tapos na ang US barkada trip namin (we flew back November 18th)

Pero since kasama namin si Benson pabalik ng Calgary, tapos lumabas pa kami nung 19th and 22nd, parang na-extend pa rin yung trip somehow. November 28 na ngayon, and I’m still writing about this recent trip of ours. Kakatapos ko nga lang manood ng isang LA vlog nung minsan. Needless to say, hindi pa rin ako nakaka-move on. Tapos next week, December na! Parang lumipad lang talaga yung November.

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