Mommy Ginger
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Workshops

Sharing you workshops that are handled by Mommy Ginger’s Manila Workshops.

Let Go of Stress

To tell you honestly, I may look like I have got everything under control, but deep inside I am a really stressed person. My husband, on the other hand, is the one who’s always relaxed. He’s the one who has really got everything under control. He always tells me that I’m always stressed out and I need to learn how to relax and take it easy.

Now that I’m a WAHMeo (Work-at-home-mom / CEO of my business), I am even more stressed out. I’m always worrying about Baby Z, my business, etc. I fear that I don’t bring enough money into the household income. I fear the I’m not giving Baby Z ‘enough’. I guess that’s why I’m really sticking by my commitment to breastfeeding. I think that’s the only thing that I can actually gift her with right now — good health. I also make it a point to read to her and sing to her every day. As much as I want to enroll her in Kindermusik or Gymboree classes this early, to be honest with you, I don’t think that I have the funds for that right now.

All my funds are tied up to businesses that I have, which I hope to see grow in the near-EST future. I like this article that, Vince, the husband of my friend, Frances of Mommy Topaz wrote: The Oxygen Mask. It really hit and moved me! As much as I want to buy fancy clothes for Baby Z as often as I want to or as much as I want to go on vacations and eat in fancy restaurants with my family, I am trapped in a scenario where I need to lift my self first and help my hubby with our finances. We are in a situation where we need to think thrice of four times before buying wants. As I told you before, we have concrete plans and we know where we want to go financially, but I’m (take note: not WE) stressed out about the process of getting there. Mahirap pala talagang kumita!

Husbands, if your wives are like me, always stressed out about things and always ‘overwhelmed’ with all of the things happening around her, Manila Workshops has created this workshop with Jayme from Optimommy.com.

Be Happy, Go Stress Free

Be Happy, Go Stress Free

This short workshop will help your wife use intentional self-management techniques to deal with the stress and pressures of motherhood. I think I, myself, need to attend this.

If you are interested in signing up for this event, please go to this link: http://manilaworkshops.com/2013/07/be-happy-go-stress-free.html

Are you like me? Do you feel pressured? What makes you stay up all night? What occupies your thoughts? Let’s talk!

Mommy Ginger

Mommy Ginger

Learn how to be a Virtual Assistant! Sign up for Real Ways to be a WAHM

If you want to work from home, another ‘job’ or ‘career path’ that you can consider is to become a virtual assistant. The concept of being a virtual assistant is so broad that we had to create a separate WAHMderful Life: Real Ways to be a WAHM session for it. I’m sure a lot of you, my readers, would want to know what a Virtual Assistant (VA) is and how do you actually become a home-based Virtual Assistant.

With this, we at Manila Workshops (my little business) and at WAHMderfullife.com, would like you to join us on this fun-filled day of learning and lots of networking with fellow or soon-to-be or even for those who are ‘still deciding’ to be a work-at-home professionals on August 31, 2013, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM at co.lab, Unit 301 3/F #3 Brixton St., Brgy. Kapitolyo Pasig City.

During this workshop, you can expect to learn about branding yourself as a freelancer or a mom-preneur, as well as the realities of the virtual assistance business and how to cope. You will also get to learn about the different real VA opportunities – Social Media and Community Management, and Transcription.

Real Ways to be a WAHM

This workshop is brought to your by Manila Workshops, WAHMderfullife.com and Unilab! Aside from a day filled with awesome insights and learning, you will go home with a Php 500 worth of goodie bag from Unilab!

So hurry and sign up now!

To register, please visit this page: http://manilaworkshops.com/2013/07/wahmderful-life-workshop-real-ways-wahm-aug-31.html

Achieve Financial Freedom: Start Now!

All of us want to stay at home and live life by using just passive income. I remember a friend told me that she had a dream of being a housewife — to wake up early each day to have breakfast with her “amigas” and cross stitch. After lunch, shopping in the mall would follow and in the afternoon, they would have afternoon tea. Ladies, who among us do not want to have this kind of life? I know I want to be a ‘donya’ housewife eventually. But how do we get there? I just realized that we have to start somewhere and we have to start now! We need to achieve financial freedom and FAST!

These first 6 months have really been good for us, in terms of fixing our finances. This was so because we got to listen and follow the advice of Fitz Villafuerte. Fitz Villafuerte is a civil engineer who decided to quit the corporate world in 2003 to pursue entrepreneurship. His blog, entitled, Ready To Be Rich, has already received several recognition including the Best Business and Finance Blog at the Philippine Blog Awards for two years in a row. Moreover, an international finance publication, Wise Bread, has likewise ranked his website as among the Top 100 Personal Finance blogs in the world. Fitz has also been recognized by Moneysense Magazine as among the top 12 most influential people in Personal Finance in the Philippines.

Achieve Financial Freedom: Personal Finance 101 Workshop

Achieve Financial Freedom: Personal Finance 101 Workshop

If you are thinking about achieving financial freedom at the soonest possible time, now is the time to make the right plan. I would like to recommend attending the Ready to Be Rich: Jumpstart your Wealth Workshop. Full disclosure: This is a workshop made possible by Manila Workshops, but the thing is, even if we didn’t organized this, I would still recommend this workshop.

In this workshop, you will get to answer the questions:
1. Who is the best financial adviser for me?
2. What are the three things I need to become rich?
3. What are the ten financial stages of life, and where am I now?
4. What is the most effective way to eliminate credit card debts?
5. How much do I exactly need for my emergency fund?
6. How much life insurance coverage do I really need?
7. How do I create multiple sources of income?
8. How do I know the amount of risk I can afford when investing?
9. How do I build, diversify and manage my own investment portfolio?
10. How much money do I exactly need to retire?

The ones that I highlighted are really the things I want to know more about and what I normally hear from family and friends. How about you? What are the things that you would like to know more about? Feel free to comment below.

In this workshop, you will be able to do hands-on and interactive activities, such as creating expense and income statements, preparing a zero-based budget system, debt management strategies, practical investment portfolio management and many others. This will be one of the best personal finance 101 workshops that you will ever attend because of all the practical tips that you will get.

The workshop will be on Saturday, August 17, 2013 from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. The venue will be at Studio SnR, 3rd Floor, Millenium Place, Meralco Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City.

REGISTER NOW AT: http://manilaworkshops.com/2013/07/ready-to-be-rich-jumpstart-your-wealth.html

Mid Year Goal Checking: Family Finances

I am inspired. Half of the year has gone by and I we are somehow on the right track of where we want to be financially. I checked our family finances and we are right on track. If we want to achieve our goal by the end of the year though, we need to keep pushing and seizing every opportunity.

I have this excel template where I keep track of all my activities as a Mompreneur. One tab shows the earnings that I have from workshops. The next tab shows the earnings from blogging and the last tab shows my earnings from the other activities that I do. Each tab has a specific financial goal for this year. Every so often, I transfer funds to specific investments that we have. I learned this from attending Fitz Villafuerte’s Investing for Beginners class.

In the class, he taught us how to identify specific investment goals and check for the most apt investment vehicle to use for each.

I’m excited to share with you the next workshop that he will be conducting. It is entitled Family Finances.

Ready to Be Rich: Family Finances Workshop

Ready to Be Rich: Family Finances Workshop

If you want to get hold of your family’s finances, you might be interested to attend this workshop set on Saturday, July 20, 2013 from 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM at Studio SnR, 3rd Floor, Millenium Place, Meralco Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City.

This will be a good way to review your finances for this year and get motivated to act on it! The workshop included hands-on activities that will help you start planning already.

For more information, please visit http://manilaworkshops.com/2013/06/family-finances.html

Hope this helps,

Mommy Ginger

Mommy Ginger

How We Spent Dad’s Day

Instead of the usual celebration of eating out with Ej and Baby Zeeka (with his family or my family), the three of us spent the whole day together learning more about parenting. We attended the Joy of Learning Workshop, a parenting workshop organized by Fisher Price. Obviously, for most part of the workshop, Baby Z was either nursing, staring at the older kids or she was…

Zeeka at the Joy of Learning Talk

Zeeka at the Joy of Learning Talk

As for mommy and daddy, we were both participating and listening intently to each and every word Carrie Lupoli aka the “Chief Mom” was saying about parenting.

My key net take-aways from the workshop were:

1. Each of us need to set a direction when parenting. Yes, even in parenting, you should be able to practice goal setting. And how do you go about doing this? You start by defining character skills that you want your child to have. Cognitive skills are normally what we set like reading, understanding cause and effect, etc. These are important, but we should not forget that we also need to develop their character skills.

Character Skills versus Cognitive skills

Character Skills versus Cognitive skills

2. Playtime is important since this is the time when a child really gets to learn. The first five years are the most important years in a child’s development since these are the years where children develop the fastest.

3. There are age appropriate toys for babies and toddlers. The toys appropriate for each age are:

Birth to 9 Months:
– Toys that engage senses: Mobiles / Rattles / Chew toys / Board Boards / Cloth Books
– Cause and Effect: Pop up toys / Busy Boxes

9 to 18 Months
– Toys that imitate real life: Plastic toys / Play food / Animal farms
– Problem Solving Toys: Things that fit together / Push and Pull Toys / Balls

18 – 36 Months
– Materials that help them use their hands to create: dough / Crayons and Doodle boards / Finger paints
– Toys to help them use their imagination: Dress up clothes / Action or Animal figures / Dolls / Stuffed Animals

4. Even if you’re a working mom or dad, it is important to spend quality time with your child. Set aside an hour or so just reading, playing and talking with them.
2013-06-16 09.15.02

What goes in the box?: What skills do you want your child to have?

5. Document your baby’s milestones. Carrie Lupoli says “Parents who often do not know about nor document such milestones very much place their children at risk for life long challenges that could have been significantly improved if recognized earlier,”

So those are my key net take-away from this seminar. We were also fortunate enough to have this picture taken with Ms. Carrie Lupoli.

Mommy Ginger, Daddy EJ, Baby Zeeka and Ms. Carrie Lupoli

Mommy Ginger, Daddy EJ, Baby Zeeka and Ms. Carrie Lupoli

Did you get to attend this parenting workshop? Please do share what you’ve learned? If you didn’t get to attend, do you agree with the things that were taught (based on what my learnings are)?

Love lots,

Mommy Ginger

Mommy Ginger