Over the Moon Movie

I was browsing the Netflix List and I saw Over The Moon movie and I asked my son if he already watched it and he said yes. I got curious so while ironing our clothes, I watched this movie. Over The Moon is a 2020 American-Chinese animated film. I think this is the first animated film of Netflix so you can’t compare it to Disney, Dreamworks, Pixar, etc. 

The story is about a girl named Fei Fei, when she was still young her mother always tells her story about the goddess of the moon “Chang’e”. Her mother died and a few years later, her father was engaged. She was upset and decided to build a skyrocket that will reach the moon. This movie is not only for kids because even adults can enjoy this movie. 

What can you learn about Over The Moon movie? 

This movie will make you understand how people deal with losing someone. Grieving impacts everyone and we handle it differently. There is no time limit on mourning because whether we like it or not, the pain remains with us. But it doesn't mean that we stay that way, it is a process of accepting, letting go, and moving on. 

This year, I lost my father and my sister so our family is trying our very best to go back to normal. There are days that we are okay and there are days that we are not. So I can totally relate to the story of Fei Fei because it is really hard to move on. Even though we know that they are in a better place, we can never deny that we will always miss our loved ones. 

Sharing some quotes about grieving and moving on. 

“It has been said - time heals all wounds - I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.” - Rose Kennedy 

“Let it hurt. Let it bleed. Let it heal. And let it go.” - Nikita Gill 

“You may no longer be able to hold the one who has gone, but you hold them in your heart and you continue to love them in a different way - by channeling that love into acts of service for other people.” - Mitch Albom 

“It’s hard to turn the page when you know someone won’t be in the next chapter but the story must go on. -Thomas Wilder” 

"Grief, I've learned, is really just love. It's all the love you want to give but cannot. All of that unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat, and in that hollow part of your chest. Grief is just love with no place to go" Jamie Anderson

Typhoon Ulysses Experience

Until now, I don’t understand why our 2020 is like this, it seems that this year is full of challenges and difficulties. We experienced Taal Volcano Ashfall, and just recently, typhoon Ulysses battered different parts of Luzon. Last Thursday, we had no electricity and water for 16 hours. Even mobile data connections were down. 

I'm thankful that we have a small solar battery charger that we can use to stay connected for several hours. My husband designed and assembled it five years ago. We can use it to connect our modem, small fan, and charge our phones. And because of this, he was able to work and my son and I can watch Netflix while waiting for the electricity. 

I'm thankful for leftover foods and easy to prepare dish because we had something to eat. It is hard to cook if there is no water supply. Good thing that I still have stock of disposable paper plates, spoons, and forks para wala ng hugasin. We already have a water drum so even we don’t have water supply we have something to use but of course, we are saving it because we don’t know when the electricity will resume. My husband also saved some water from the rain so we have something to use for the bathroom.

Six years ago, when typhoon Glenda badly hit our place, it took them 44 hours to restore our electricity. So we thought na matatagalan pa magkaelectricity so nung humina na hangin at ulan and paubos na ang battery namin, we went to my in-laws para makiligo and makicharge ng laptop and powerbank. By the time we arrived, I saw one of my FB friends posted na may electricity na sa amin. Thank God that brownout did not last for so long. 

I pray and hope you too are safe after Typhoon Ulysses. 

When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. Isaiah 43:2 

He calmed the storm to a whisper and stilled the waves. Psalm 107:29 

Easy Philly Cheesesteak Recipe

I hate food waste because I feel that I’m also wasting hard-earned money every time our foods go to the trash bin. As much as possible I try my best to reduce our food waste by planning our meals every week, making a grocery list, cooking foods enough for our family, pantry inventory to see which foods are near expiration date and lastly, eat leftover foods. 

I’m fortunate that my two boys have no problem eating leftover meals. I’m also thankful for leftover foods because if I’m busy, if we ran out of LPG, if we have no water or electricity, or any other emergencies; we have something to eat. There are times that we just eat leftover meals, it is like a buffet of different viands. Hehehe!

Speaking of leftover, we had a breakfast steak leftover so I prepared my own version of Philly Cheesesteak. I haven’t tried an authentic cheesesteak but my husband had a taste of it during his trip to the USA last year and he loved it. Philly Cheesesteak, or cheesesteak sandwich is made from thinly slices pieces of beef, onion, melted cheese, and hoagie roll. A popular fast food in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and other parts of the USA.

I have no idea what kind of beef or cheese they use but for my own version, I only used whatever is available in our kitchen. 

Ingredients 

Butter or oil Thinly sliced breakfast beef steak 

1 onion (sliced) 

1 bell pepper (sliced) 

Quickmelt cheese 

Mozzarella cheese 

Garlic Bread and Sliced Bread 

Salt and pepper to taste (I omit this because I’m using leftover beef) 

1. In a pan over medium heat, place 1 tablespoon of oil or butter. 

2. Saute onions, leftover beef, and pepper. 

3. Place the beef mixture on top of the bread. 

4. Add cheese and toast in the oven toaster for 5 minutes or until cheese melts. 

Read: Recipes with Mozzarella 

Homemade Crepe Using Pancake Mix

If you’ve been following my blog, you know for sure that I always have a pancake mix in our pantry. I used this mix to prepare different meals like leche flan puto, steamed puto, waffle, and of course pancake. I have tried different brands of pancake mix already and last week, I finally used my Toro Pannekaker. I bought this during our summer vacation in Norway. 

Read: Chocolate Chip Pancake Recipe

Leche Flan Puto Recipe

Puto with Cheese Recipe

Breakfast Waffle   

My son and I enjoyed the thin pancake of Norway and Sweden. We haven’t tried the pancake in Denmark since we always cook our own breakfast at Urban House Copenhagen by Meininger. And because we love the pancake, my mom also cooks this for our breakfast and of course, I did not leave Norway without buying the pancake mix.  These are some pancakes that we ate during our Scandinavia trip; pancake in pancake in Skansen, McDonalds Sweden, pancake in Scandic Kristiansund, and my mom's pancake using Toro Pannekaker.

Sixteen months had passed and I forgot about the instant mix that I bought. Good thing that I saw the Toro Pannekaker mix last week before the expiration date. I immediately cooked pancake na mukhang crepe sa Pilipinas. Hehehe! What I love about this mix, you just need to add water. So I just add 12dl of water to my pancake mix and cook in a hot, greased pan. 

According to my research, the batter can be kept at least 3 days in the refrigerator but I cooked all the batter. It’s been a long time since I cooked crepe at home because I always have a hard time flipping it so I was glad that my crepe turned out fine last weekend. My platter of crepe lasted for 3 days only, we ate it during breakfast and merienda. I prepared different types of crepe using what we have in the kitchen. Nutella crepe, Banana crepe and Mango crepe + powdered sugar, whipped cream, and ice cream. Next time, I will add chocolate syrup. :)

Dr. John is Not Your Ordinary Medical Drama

Last week, I was watching Holidate movie on Netflix while my two boys started watching Dr. John. My husband was not a fan of Korean Drama series and I think the last drama series that he watched was over a decade ago already “Jumong” (tagalized Korean drama). They were still watching when I slept so when I woke up, I asked them about Dr. John. My husband liked it so out of curiosity, I immediately watched the first two episodes. After I finished the 2 episodes, we started to watch together, and guess what, we finished this Korean Drama series within 48 hours.

I have watched a lot of Korean Medical drama in the past but Dr. John is not your ordinary medical drama. Just this year, I watched Dr. Romantic, Dr. Romantic 2, and Chocolate, the majority of the doctors in these series are surgeons so most of the scenes are in the Emergency Room and Operating Room. But Dr. John is an anesthesiologist who is a specialist in pain management. 

Read: My Korean Drama List 

Dr. John or Cha Yo-han is an anesthesiologist who is a genius at his work and he can diagnose an illness in ten seconds. He met Kang Si-Young who is also an anesthesiologist, she became a part-timer in prison where Cha Yo Han stayed for 3 years. They both work together and try their very best to find an answer to their patients’ mysterious pain. 

As I mentioned, this is not an ordinary medical drama because this series talks more about pain, suffering, and death. How pain affects both the patients and their families. The role of the doctor whether he can treat or not the patients. We know that pain and death are inevitable. It is part of our lives and we cannot avoid it. 

Sharing some memorable lines in Dr. John Korean Drama Series. 

"Parents can't suffer in their children's stead. Husbands can't suffer in their wives' stead. Children can't suffer in their parents' stead. No matter how desperately they pray for that. It's not just you. No human being can feel other's pain like their own. All they can ever do is try to understand." 

"You are the only person that ever understood me, my illness, and me as a person. My world that was neither hot nor cold turned warm after I met you"

"You feel pain because you're alive. Without life, there's no pain"

"What I can stop is the patients' pain not the hardships in their lives" 

"Don't look at the symptoms, look at the people who suffer from those symptoms. What doctors treat is not a disease but a person." 

"Recognizing and sharing someone's else pain. That is my last prescription for our pain that stays with us as long as we live" 

These lines are so true because I have my own pain too and when I am suffering from severe psoriasis, nobody can understand the pain that I am experiencing unless you have psoriasis too. The same with my family who suffered too because of cancers, COPD, Parkinsons, asthma, and FMS. We can only see that they are in pain but we cannot do anything to ease it. 

I also like the soundtrack of this series, I researched the English version of the song "Star" by Minseo and I found a copy here.

Star 

We can’t see each other, like a closed up dream 

You remain in a dark shadow 

You’re filled with scars and even if I can’t reach 

Like destiny, I can’t avoid you 

Even when you’re hurting over sad days 

I’m right by your side 

Even in all the faint moments 

I always believe in you 

I believe in you 

Feels like I’m looking at a withered flower, only pain grows 

Like an icy heart, you’re so cold 

Like the fading star, the thick darkness comes 

But I can’t erase your star anymore 

Even when you’re hurting over sad days 

I’m right by your side 

Even in all the faint moments 

I always believe in you

I’m by your side 

I’m by your side 

Can you see my heart? 

Can you hear my heart? I can only see you 

When things get so hard and you get tired 

I will comfort your heart 

Just like the day we first met, I still believe you 

Are you listening? 

Are you listening? 

Are you listening? 

This was the first drama of Ji Sung that I have watched and I instantly fell in love with his acting so I decided to check his past Korean Drama series. Currently, I’m watching Kill Me Heal Me. 1 out of 20 Ji Sung Korean Drama List.

Read: Travel the World by Watching These Korean Dramas 

Lessons from Angel’s Last Mission: Love Korean Drama Series

It took me a long time to find a good Korean Drama Series after watching "It's Okay Not to Be Okay". I started a lot of series but I stopped after watching 1 or 2 episodes. I always see “Angel’s last Mission: Love” but I was hesitant to watch it because I’m not fond of ballet so in my mind, I will fall asleep if I will watch this series. 

But there is no harm in trying it so I gave it a chance and I ended up loving this Korean Drama series because I like the leading man (L), the original soundtrack, and the flow of the story. It is a blend of comedy, drama, and romance. Though there are some questions in my head about the deity, their punishment to angels, and other things. But of course, I have to remind myself that this is just a series.

Angel Last Mission: Love is all about a talented ballerina who became blind during her performance because of an accident. And because of that, her character changed and she became abusive to her household staff, secretary, and butler. Kim Dan is a carefree angel who always gets into trouble, one of his missions is to help the ballerina to find her true love in order to go back to heaven but he ended up falling to Yeon Seo. 

Somehow, I could relate to the life of Yeon Se because she lost her parents and her loyal secretary. Losing someone we love is not easy and I even mentioned before that I felt that my heart shattered into thousand pieces when I lost my grandmother and sister-in-law last year and just this year, I lost my father and sister. 

I don’t know what are the reasons why it is happening but one thing I know that our life on earth is temporary. Losing someone we love is a wake-up call, we will realize that life is indeed short so we should be ready. We don’t know when it is our time. 

“The reality about death, it has an amazing power of altering what a man desires because death profoundly affects his outlook” Oswald Chambers 

“Death is never the end. Death is a transition. The best is yet to come.”

We cannot deny that sometimes we questioned God because of the sufferings that we are experiencing. We get mad because our prayers are not answered. But at the end of the day, we know that God is God, He alone is our refuge and our rescuer. Let us not lose faith during our sufferings. 

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. Pain, it is a megaphone to rouse a deaf world” C.S. Lewis

“Many times, God has to break our leg to make us learn dependence upon Him” 

I want to end this post by sharing the lyrics of the Original Sound Track of Angel’s Last Mission. I found the English translation of the "Oh My Angel" song here. I also immediately searched the OST on YouTube and Spotify. RIP replay button. 

Oh My Angel 

It's alright

It's alright 

Lost everything that really meant to me   

It's alright 

It's alright 

Somebody's next to me   

Even when I cried when I was alone, 

You have always been with me   

You are my angel 

Oh... You are my angel 

Always... You're here 

Oh... You are my angel 

You are by my side 

Always... Always stay here forever...   

It's alright 

It's alright 

Although darkness envelops my body   

It's alright 

It's alright 

Because You and I are together   

Even when I cried when I was alone, 

You have always been with me   

You are my angel 

Oh... You are my angel 

Always... You're here 

Oh... You are my angel 

You are by my side 

Always... Always stay here forever...   

Love that cannot be done 

Don't be afraid... 

Just leave it to me...   

Even if the world says no to you, 

I will fly with you anywhere... 

We will rewrite our fate together...   

You are my angel 

Oh... You are my angel 

Always... You're here 

Oh... You are my angel 

You are by my side 

Always... Always stay here forever...

Read: My Korean Drama Series List

Travel the World by Watching these Korean Drama Series