a family and home living blog

My brother D, one of the more than 33,000 hopefuls that took the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) last April 3, 2011, is one lucky guy. He passed the LET! Wohooo! Everybody in our family was rejoicing upon hearing the news last Friday. This is a dream come true for my brother and we all prayed for it. God is really good.

my brother is now a licensed teacher!

Now, my brother is a full-pledged teacher, and licensed at that. He’s very thankful and optimistic about this positive development in his teaching career. He’s teaching this June at a private school in Divisoria and he’s very excited already. He said he feels more confident now that he’s a LET passer and that he plans to pursue higher studies, possibly an MA degree. He also said that he wants to transfer to a public school in the future. I said he should do it one step at a time. No need to hurry things up. I advised him to earn experience in a private school first before transferring to a public one. This way, he’ll be able to experience both worlds and find out what works best for him.

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My sister J, who shifted from Accountancy, is now a Banking and Finance student. She’s just told me all about it thru text. I’m happy she was able to get a slot early. She said she’s very optimistic about her new course. She’ll be a sophomore come enrollment time in June.

Speaking of enrollment, how do you save up for tuition fees? Do you pay in full or installment? Personally, I think it’s always best to save up money for tuition fees in advance. This has proven to be a wise move for me as I’m the one who handles the family’s finances. I find it easy to do. I just allot a particular amount to “Education” in my budget monitoring sheet. Slowly but surely, the money accumulates and before I know it, I have already generated the amount needed for the tuition fees of my two siblings who are both in college.

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Shifting to a different course is quite hard. It means a lot of things for the shiftee: an entirely new curriculum, a new set of classmates, a new class schedule, change in study habits, physical and psychological adjustments, etc. While shifting to a different course can be prevented, sometimes you are left with no other choice. The trick is to choose the course according to what you want to pursue best and have your documents processed ahead of time so you get a sure slot.

My sister J who’s studying in a state university here in Manila learned yesterday that she had to shift to a different course because she failed to pass the qualifying exams. Apparently, Accountancy (her course) has a quota to live up to its competitive standards. Qualifying exams are then given to the students at the end of each academic year to determine who will make it to the quota.

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My sister J started having fever last night. I had her take a paracetamol to relieve her head ache. She didn’t have body pains so I thought it was just an ordinary fever. Before leaving for work this morning, I told her to rest and get enough sleep so her immune system gets stronger and fight off the infection more easily. I also advised her to drink plenty of water to help regulate her body temperature.

Caring for the sick in the family is one job I love doing, only when I have the time for it. You know the feeling when your parents are away and you’re the oldest adult around which means you’re in charge of caring for the sick family member? It can be worrisome. What if the fever gets worse? What if that family member doesn’t recover soon enough to attend to the more important things in her life? In the case of my sister, I worry about her studies as she’s currently taking summer classes. She even has exam on Friday and I think she hasn’t started reviewing yet.

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My brother D and I are close. That, despite the fact we come from the opposite sexes and have a six-year old gap. We share secrets and get emotional at the mere mention of a delicate topic that usually involves our family. You can say we love each other to pieces and we’ll do everything for each other.

Today is D’s first day at work. I am just as excited about it as he is. If I’m not mistaken, he’s going to sign his two-year work contract today as a computer teacher in a private school somewhere in Divisoria. I’m excited about how he’d adapt to his new workplace, to a new set of co-workers and to an entirely different type of work than what he’s had in the past. I hope he deals with all of them with an open mind, a positive attitude and confidence.

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This Sunday, April 3, my brother D is gonna take the Licensure Exam for Teachers (LET) administered by the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) of the Philippines. He wants to pursue teaching already after taking two different non-teaching jobs in the last two years. He’s very optimistic that he’ll pass the LET. Our family is one in prayers that his fervent wish be granted soon.

Teaching is such a noble profession. I have high regard for teachers, especially Filipino teachers. I also don’t regret enrolling my brother D in an education course. I remember we were left with no choice then. He had come from the province and he was way too late to take entrance exams from the top universities in Manila. I know, I should have known better.

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They say it is at home where minds are shaped, values developed. The family, as the smallest unit of society, has a big role to play in raising responsible citizens. Observing Earth Hour as a family this Saturday (March 26, 2011) is a good example to show your loved ones that you care for the environment, and that you care for their future.

I can still vividly remember how we participated in this worldwide activity last year. I don’t have photos to show as proof, though. And we weren’t even complete as a family because we were still geographically separated then. It was actually my boyfriend who reminded us (me and his family) about the activity. We went powerless for an hour. It was dark all over the house and we only had a few candles lit. I felt extremely happy then because I had not just an open-minded but an environment-loving person for a boyfriend.

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Our living arrangements at home are anything but usual. We maintain two households: one in Manila and the other in Cavite. My three siblings and I reside here in Manila (in a rented apartment) while our parents live in our permanent Cavite home. Given that setup, we just visit each other as time permits. Normally, it is us children who visit our parents in Cavite. But on certain occasions, it is our parents that visit us here in Manila.

My parents have been staying in our Manila apartment since the first week of last month because it was here where we celebrated my brother’s birthday. They’re going home tomorrow. The boyfriend was kind enough to drive them home using his new car. It was in good timing because we (the boyfriend and I) are supposed to attend an event in Cavite, also slated tomorrow.

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Hi there! Welcome to Edelweiss19.com, my latest blog about family and home living. Aptly titled Family Matters, this is my attempt at documenting the many roles I play in our six-member family: as breadwinner, as role model, as the eldest child, as daughter, as sister and as homemaker working to keep our household in working order and conducive to co-existence, growth, harmony and love.

Expect my posts to be everything and anything that fascinates me about family and home living. This is, after all, a family and home living blog.

Thanks for the visit and please come again!