My elder son is graduating from grade school this year.  I’m excited as he is, but at the same time a little bit anxious because his graduation would simply mean more independence for him.  More independence also means letting go of him little by little as he enters teenager years.  Yes I know, I worry too much.  Most of his classmates’ parents allow their children to already commute going home every day.  I don’t.  My son’s a few inches taller than I am, a handsome and smart-looking young man, and he still rides his school service every day.  I guess I’m being overprotective.  Bottom line is, I just want him to be safe.

Summer vacation is fast approaching AND... when it's that time of the year, we want our kids not to be idle and use this time to enhance their skills and talents, to learn something new, and continue to grow by enrolling them in summer classes.

It will not only keep them busy, but also foster new friendships and continuously develop their multiple intelligence as well.  With this, here it is once again, my compilation list of this year's activities, workshops, classes, and sports clinics where you could enroll your children.

As a practical mom, I make sure we don't waste food at home.  I've posted several articles on the blog on how I do more with less (less effort, less expense, and less waste) on food keeping, reusing, and recycling.

On lessening food waste, we cook only what's enough for the family to finish.  We also do food planning and buy only what's enough for two weeks.  In prolonging food's freshness, we use two food storage solutions, zip bags and cling wrap.  I'm GLAD that a few weeks ago, our family received a stack of these storage solutions, and more, from GLAD.

I used Glad® ClingWrap for our left-over Macaroni Salad, for keeping fruits fresh, and Glad® Zipper Bag for meats.

It was a lovely Saturday afternoon when I drove myself to Cubao X, to witness the soft opening of Kendo Creative and attend Make It Blissful's first #MIBInstaMeet event.  Miraculously, there was no traffic that afternoon which made me think the universe conspired for me to be there.  I'm really happy my schedule allowed me to support my friends Martine de Luna and her sister-in-law Nica Cosio and their husbands, Ton and Kayo with the launch of their newest business venture.

Here I am being true to my blog goals this year.  I remember my blog # goal #2 which is to continue my blog series.  One of the blog series is this, which is my Mommy Practicality Practical Fashion or better put, OOTD blog series.  It will be a weekly digest of what I wore or how I wore it.

Forgive me for now for the quality of the photos (again listed in my blog goals is to take better pictures I know but for now, here's the best I could do), but I'll do better next time.  I think I just need to hire a good friend who will be willing to put up with my OOTD kaartehan and directions.

What will make this OOTD series interesting is that, I'm currently 18 weeks pregnant.  So the OOTD series for the next couple of months will be me and my big growing belly bebe.

Here are my #MommyPracticalityPreggyOOTD / #MommyPracticalityOOTD 's, the hashtag I use for my IG photos, from weeks 13 to 17.

Good day loves! Hello from me and "Baby Tummy" a nickname my kids coined for our baby. Baby is exactly 13 weeks old. I lost 3 kilos during my first trimester, but baby is well and also big for its size. I also started wearing my maternity pants as I cannot fit in my stretch bottoms anymore. My pants were from when I was preggy with Wes five years ago. It pays to invest in good maternity clothes, diba? How are you loves? #MPPreggyDiary #MommyPracticalityOOTD #MPStyle #MommyPracticalityPreggyOOTD

A photo posted by Louise Fandiño-Santos (@mommypracticality) on Dec 16, 2015 at 9:48pm PST

Preparing for a wedding is probably one of the most stressful, detailed, tedious, but most fulfilling thing to do for a soon-to-be-bride.  I was once in that position for several months since the time Mac proposed to me last March.  The stress of preparing doubles when the soon-to-be-bride is the one planning for her wedding and didn't hire a wedding planner or coordinator, to save a few thousands at least.

During my wedding, I was asked who my wedding planner was.  When I answered none, I always get a surprised reaction from friends.  They said our simple yet heartfelt wedding looked polished and well-planned.  Whenever I hear that, I never fail to give myself a pat on my back and daydream to turn wedding planning into another career.  Well, the main reason why I didn't get a wedding planner is first to save money because we have a certain wedding budget.  Second, I love events planning and coordination and I do it quite frequently at work.

As a full-time working mom and a blogger with a techie husband and internet and entertainment-savvy kids, a reliable internet connection is a must in our home.  We’ve been a PLDT Home subscriber for years already and truly it has helped us in our business transactions, work requirements, children’s school research, and simply in enjoying our bonding time at home as a family by watching videos uploaded online or live streaming of some shows.  As if their service to our family isn’t enough, PLDT Home breaks new ground yet again as it brings to the Philippines another game-changing innovation on the TVolution Stick in partnership with global technology giant Microsoft.