plug back into a conversation...

I know it's been 6 weeks since I've written/posted. I go back to Mexico in a week and a half...

This is what I've done with my time.

-spoke to a 6th grade girls Sunday school time about what I do in Mexico. They had great questions!

-had 3...4...no 5 family parties/get togethers!

-decided there are too many parties this time of year

-ate a lot of sushi

-enjoyed spending time with my brother and his fiancé, and my sister.

-made biscotti for the first time

-went to several Christmas concerts (teared up when the little kids sang "Feliz Navidad" and saw my Aunt dance HULA at Christmas Eve service)

-enjoyed the architecture of the Athenaeum (Catholic Seminary in Cincinnati)

-insulted my sister after she got me a cd for Christmas b/c I didn't realize it was from her... "I would much rather have an older album than their greatest hits album, b/c I already own some of these songs..." opps!!!

-drove north twice, and south 3 times...
***I saw perfect white smoke at a farm hanging in the dark, so still and heavy and not moving. It was brighter than the moon and time was frozen. I saw the sun setting and bleeding pink into everything like a paper towel had soaked up a kool aide spill. Sweet victorian houses with such ice sickles hanging off them that might kill a man. A river completely filled with snow and not moving. The moon, a gigantic milky glass plate low on the horizon. All the trees clean and white with their blanket of snow, and all the bushes encased in ice. Enough to distract me from driving :) I don't mind the long drives, going to Mandy's house was like driving to San Diego.

-saw Over the Rhine play, twice, two completely different set lists...realized I should have taken my ear plugs, and also noticed their line "from Cincinnati to Ensenada" for possibly the first time. (I live two hours south of Ensenada in Mexico)

-contemplated my future, talked, contemplated some more

-didn't go skiing, ice skating, or dancing... maybe next year? I did go climbing!

-ran 5K on Thanksgiving Morning...on a treadmill, INSIDE. since I'm a wimp.

-watched too many movies, slept through Prince Caspian

-got my car cleaned off twice by fabulous service oriented men (one brother, one friend) I was oblivious! "there's ICE on my windshield??? But I needed to leave 5 minutes ago, oh! that's why they had a two house school delay"

-sang Karaoke (for the first time)- "All I want for Christmas is You" and "Someday We'll Know"

-lost my voice

-went Caroling in below 0 weather (didn't talk for 2.5 days prior to see if I could un-laryngitis my voice!) I had been looking forward to it since September. We sang at 3 houses then went and warmed up, then at 3 more houses!

-learned a lot of new songs on the piano, tried to use my musical ability as a way to serve and worship the Lord

-realized the difference between cooking b/c you have to, and cooking for people you love

-tried to pray for and forgive my "enemies"

-got rid of more of my stuff that i don't need

-substitute taught, about 3 weeks worth. here are some excerpts...

***Me, explaining what I do in Mexico to 3rd grader-"I work with foster kids, you guys know what those are?"
***3rd grade girl- "I do! My grandma OWNS some foster kids!!!"

***Disrespectful High School boy- "How old are you?"
***Me-"Old enough to be your momma."
***Disrespectful High School Boy- "My momma don't dress like THAT."

***explained a students Spanish notes to him b/c he was confused. turns out, he hadn't even read them over himself!
***embarrassed a student from Puerto Rico when her classmates started asking her if she had her green card and what not!

finished these books:
Black Swan Green, The Minotaur, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, I am America (and so can you!), An Idiot Girl's Christmas, The Beatrice Letters, Horseradish: Bitter truths you can't avoid, Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Authobiography, Pardon my Spanglish, The Latke who couldn't stop screaming, The lump of coal, Never Let me Go, the Power and the Glory, Belly Laughs, Baby Laughs, Life Laughs, My Dad John McCain, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith, Plan B: Further thoughts on Faith, Sex God, some medical Spanish book

started these books:
God was in this place and I, i did not know, Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul, Theology of the Body, Unsung

felt bad that I didn't read these books:
Eat Pray Love, Contemplative Prayer, Architecture of Happiness, How to read a film, Bird by Bird, Green Mansions, Wanderings, Man in White

listened to: Christopher West's commentary on Theology of the Body, Iron and Wine, Mindy Smith, Jon Foreman, Over the Rhine, Mars Hill sermons, Apex sermons, the RADIO!!!

I look forward to celebrating a New Year tonite, and to celebrating a marriage on Saturday...

a quote from Foer: “So many people enter and leave your life! Hundred of thousands of people! You have to keep the door open so they can come in! But it also means you have to let them go!”

a quote about weddings from Lamott: "Building a wedding is a recipe for muddle—the bridal party, the families, the guests, the minister, the vows, the food. You’re attempting to make something beautiful out of unruly and unpredictable elements- the weather, the nuttier relatives, the rivalries, disorders, and dreams. Out of mostly old neurotic family and friends, you hope to create something harmonious. You do so as an act of faith, hoping that for a brief period of time, the love and commitment of two people will unite everyone; and it will sort of work. Even if the weather or personalities are worrisome, the breezes and water will flow through the structure of your wedding, will sanctify and change it, and it will hold."

"I wish I had a river...

...I could skate away on." -River, sang by various artists.

The other weekend, my brother was here. And we both were in the bathroom. Well, not together you see. We both WANTED to be in the bathroom. But we didn't even talk about it. No, "hey, remember that I need to shower too!" We just waited until the other was finished and entered in silence. And it was then I'd realized we'd matured....You see before, if I (or he) walked past the bathroom and he (or I) was in it, we'd open the door a crack and keep walking. And then the one in the bathroom would shout (attempting to sound angry, but actually happy). This prank happened ALL the time. Now we're older and don't do things like that.

I thought my parents would be the only ones affected by empty nest syndrome, and that was true. I didn't notice that they had an empty nest, especially since I wasn't in it. But now that I'm home for a little while and my brother and sister are gone, it IS very lonely.

The British House of Commons was on C-Span 2 the other night. and while I usually don't watch TV just for kicks, I was drawn to it...I had been required to watch some House/Senate action in high school and this was SOOOOOO much more interesting than the C-Span coverage of the U.S. gov't. They were arguing and "here, here!"-ing and standing up when they agreed, and interrupting each other, and making snide comments about "the opposition." They jabbed each other with well thought out words and phrases. I am not that clever!! It was PROPERLY rude. so entertaining!!

So I continue to get rid of things I don't need anymore. One of those things is a bottle I brought back from Chile. It has ferns etched into the bottom of the bottle. My friend and I had gone out to eat chocolate cake in the arty district (Bellavista) and I was to embarrassed to drink out of my fake Nalgene at this nice restaraunt. So I bought a bottled water, and I was served this squatty bottle that had ferns coming up from the base. I already threw it away, but now I wish I had a photo to show, but I didn't find any on the WWW. The marca was something like "puehelecho". After being relentless and searching in Spanish "companies that distribute water, national copmanies that distribute water with echted ferns in Chile" and all sorts of other stuff, I found it!

http://www.aguamineralpuyehue.cl/

The opening photo is the best of the bottle that I found on the internet. But I don't know how to save photos from flash sites.
In the process of finding this I really enjoyed looking at Coca Cola, Danone, and Nestle's propaganda public relations sites.

Yesterday I visited the school that I had worked at for 2 years. (I hadn't been there in 1.5 years) The kids were SOOOOO tall. They are in a new building and it's BEAUTIFUL. and I was so touched that I had worked with people that work their butts off to give those kids a better future. My favorite quote from my visit was "I'm not in trouble Ms. B, I chose to walk out of the class room." (he was one of my big trouble makers when I worked there) and "How do you know my name?", and "you used to be the art teacher"...no, that wouldn't be me. And the kids who didn't use to speak very much English before, didn't sound like they had any Spanish accents any more. And then one kid, who IS hispanic, and his mom is bilingual said "I don't know that much Spanish" after we'd been speaking in Spanish together for a few moments. That made me sad. I found myself not knowing what to say, but then I remembered that was how his Spanish was 2 years ago. Sometimes not being around people or to not think of them is the best way to not miss them.

In the last 2 weeks, 3 people who were in my childhood have died. Granted, I haven't really interacted with these people in recent years. But it has seemed strange to me. Maybe if there were no winter months we'd have less death? right?

Our city thinks it's big enough for those road signs that advise how many minutes to the next hwy intersection. But I think it's lying to us. They are currently "constructing" and so the legal MPH is 45. The sign says, "ABC Hwy 5 Miles, 5 minutes" wait, how is that possible if we aren't even allowed to go 60 mph???

One thing I've enjoyed back in the states are the fruit snacks. yummy! That's one thing I've never really tried to "import" from San Diego.

I had a dream about my girls the other night. I gave one of them a present with Winnie the Pooh on it, and she said "this isn't winnie the pooh" and told me she didn't want it, and then I woke up.

I played piano for a church's prayer service yesterday night. It didn't go how I would have liked it to go, I was so nervous. But they've asked me back. :)

I finished "Never let me go" by Ishiguro, I highly recommend it for a fiction book. I hope to read Merton's Contemplative Prayer, and Lamott's Plan B. Now maybe I need to stop reading Danone's website and actually do something helpful.

"Snow is falling...

...like forgiveness from the sky." -Darlin' by Over the Rhine

I used to take writing entries sooooo seriously. I think.

Now sometimes I avoid writing b/c it makes my life less stressful. I don't want to try to be entertaining. My resolution, is to write shorter blogs, more often. But I make this resolution ALL THE TIME.

I could write everyday if I just posted my favorite quotes out of books I've read.
But that would be lame. (unless this was my blog's purpose and then it would be Non-lame)

This is how Anne Lamott feels about libraries (and how I feel about libraries)
"We were there to celebrate some of the rare intelligence capabilities that our country can actually be proud of—those of librarians. I see them as healers and magicians. Librarians can tease out of inarticulate individuals enough information about what they are after to lead them on the path of connection. They are trail guides through the forest of shelves and aisles—you turn a person loose who has limited skills, and he’ll be walloped by the branches. But librarians match up readers with the right books…as Barry Lopez once said, “Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive"….If you are mesmerized by televised stupidity, and don’t get to hear or read stories about your world, you can be fooled into thinking that the world isn’t miraculous—and it is."

I haven't done a good job calling people to hang out. It's because other things are hanging over my head. Like cleaning out my closet, and going through all my possessions that are in boxes. It's silly that that incapacitates me to be social. Or maybe it's just a good excuse. Maybe I'm not so much going through "culture shock" but a funny adjustment to routine.

It snowed here, and it was beautiful. Although I'm not enjoying the cold wind. I was trying to put groceries in my car on Sunday, and had to hold my breathe so that the wind could not assail my lungs.

There is a house I've always struggled to see when I'm driving about. So much so, a friend and I tried to...dare I say, "trespass" once to see it. But now it's not just a house anymore. Someone has bought it, and the land and has torn down all the trees that once masked it's majesty. They are building on the property, but are keeping the mansion. Much to my delight.

My parents small group came to our house on Sunday, and I fed them Posole, Tortillas de Maseca, Pico de Gallo (although it didn't have much jalapeño in it), and two kinds of salsa. It was fun! It was the first time I'd cooked in 2 weeks and surprisingly easy to get Chiles de Arbol. I didn't even have to go to the mexican stores. My mom took the right things to work today to eat Ceviche de Tuna, my other favorite food, but then called me to make sure she was eating it right. I may try to make some dinner appointments and cook for other people. Let me know if you wanna come over!

Next Tuesday I will have blogged for 1,900 days. I'm saying it now, because I know I'll have forgotten by then. The important becomes ordinary.

I'm hopping to go out dancing, and go to bed early. To see tons of people, and enjoy the peace and quiet. To eat all these foods I don't eat in Mexico, to be 15 pounds lighter in January. To study Medical Spanish, to take a break from thinking. I AM a living paradox.

ok. One more quote.

from Graham Greene's Power and the Glory
"When you visualized a man or woman carefully, you could always begin to feel pity—that was a quality God’s image carried with it. When you saw the lines at the corners of the eyes, the shape of the mouth, how the hair grew, it was impossible to hate. Hate was just a failure of imagination."

"how to live, not how to cry..."

Tortillas
For all you people out there interested in making tortillas...Don't use a wooden rolling pin. Thin PVC pipe is the way to go. I was helping make tortillas a few weeks ago (using the wooden rolling pin) and mine weren't turning out. I tried the PVC pipe the other lady was using, and WHAM they were beautiful.

I've found that when I mix my thinking in Spanish/English I don't remember the details of what someone said to me. I remember the general idea, but not the quote, which isn't good when you're trying to remember EXACTLY what the person said.

A couple weeks ago it RAINED!!! Only for like 5 minutes, but I stood outside the whole time. I love the way rain smells. and how it was sunshiny while it rained.

She NEEDS help to travel
Well, I'm back "home" for a while. My trip was good. They dropped me off at the airport WITH their son, which was fabulous, b/c he helped me with my suitcases, and was patient while I redistributed stuff to be under the weight limits (I know, I should have done that BEFORE I got to the airport) and then he escorted me to the security line before joining his parents for the car ride back to Mexico. But the funny thing is after two flights and arriving at my destination, the same guys that were in line behind me at San Diego, got to observe my parents holding all my carry on luggage for me while I grabbed my bags off the belt. Maybe they thought I was a special needs passenger or something? hm. :)

Newspapers and Radiation Therapy
We had a great conversation in the car on the way to Cali. David, the helpful one, noticed that his dad hasn't grown back the hair where he got radiation treatment (for cancer). His suggestion, he's 17 and very opinionated, is that girls should go to the doctors and get radiation on their legs so they don't have to shave anymore!!!!! The other thing he shared with me is that girls MY AGE, don't read the newspaper. And that it's weird that I like to read the news. and that YOUNG women shouldn't waste their time reading the news. I couldn't redeem myself. Every woman that I saw with a newspaper that morning had gray hair. He cracks me up. Lydia, age 8, entertained me too, by asking tough questions, and seeing if I could answer them. All those years on the quiz team and watching Jeopardy really paid off!! haha.

Culturally CLUELESS
On the plane ride I met a Persian lady who spoke Farsi who had immigrated to the states. I learned how ignorant culturally I was in just a few sentences. Apparently, not ALL the middle eastern countries have the same culture.
Me- "So have you enjoyed the fact that so many books are being published about the middle east, Kite Runner, Third Cup of Tea, Thousand Splendid Suns? Have you read them and enjoyed the memories?"
Her-"Well, I read them, to learn about their culture."
Me-"You mean, their culture isn't your culture."
Her-"No, no, we're very different. Iran has a better economy than..."
Me- "oh, so you guys are like the United Arab Emirates?"
Her- "No, I'm not an Arab, Iranians are Persians."


Upon arriving at home, I noticed a sweet pair of pants in my closet, that were not mine, and couldn't have been my sister's. Apparently my brother had bought them for a costume (pink and brown plaid, straight wide leg cut) and I wore them the first two days I was back. Thank you for the pants Matt!

Cockroaches or Spiders? hm
My dad insisted that I open my suitcases outside after what had happened with the stow away cockroach when I came home from Costa Rica. But I assured him that we don't have cockroaches where I live. I wonder if I should have taken his advice. I've noticed a lot more spiders than usual in our house, and one thing we DO have in Mexico are spiders ;)

I had a rough week right before I came home. 4 of our kids decided to "run away" (as best you can in 80 degree weather, without bringing water bottles, or extra food, or extra clothes) 3 of them are still with us. They had meetings and one of the girls (the instigator) chose to go back and live with her family. I almost feel like we've missed the chance to redeem her little soul. But I'm sure whatever good we did will impact her someday. But in the couple days before I left, our house was so much more peaceful. Another thing that happened was a water pipe above my room decided to break, leaving me to wet vac at least 10 gallons of water out of my carpet. Somehow all the water in Mexico found ME while I was playing soccer with long legged adolescents (the girls wouldn't play, so we got some guys to play with us. tall guys. young tall guys. BAD IDEA.)

Patient Pomegranate
The pomegranates here are 3 times the size of the pomegranates in our store. They are also 7 times the price. gah! Last week, I decided to take some pomegranate seeds with Payal and I on our little road trip to the Bachelorette party, and I forgot to close the bag. We sat them between us to share. She turned at a corner and there was a sliding/dumping sound. I said, "what was that?" and she said "my phone probably" but it was the pomegranate seeds ALL OVER THE FLOOR of her car. We cleaned that out, but the next day, she found 3 more. She'll probably keep finding them until she gets a new car.

The first week I was home I....

...went on a motorcycle ride with my father. and I had this little epiphany moment about all the things that make my home, my home...I live in the land where there is too much water (unlike Mexico) where we have gates on the roads for when the rivers flood, where John Deer tractors are everywhere, it rains, there are multiple roads to get to one destination, the roads are CURVEY...(I should have written the rest down. I don't remember them)

...sat outside in the hot sun and crunched rotten walnuts under my feet until they were black.

...read both Sex God by Bell and Grace (Eventually) by Lamottt (LIBRARY!!!)

...studied Spanish Medical terminology

...got a TB test (I'm clean), and a BCI check (what? no arrest record? crazy!!)

...played my Mom and Dad in scrabble. I think Mom won. She doesn't like the acceptable 2 letter list. She thinks it's cheating.

...watched my Dad cut a pineapple THEN RINSE THE INSIDE part off with water. But cleanliness is very important to him.

...helped with Doan and Kyle's wedding. part of the benefit was being at Doans house early friday morning and eating her mom's cooking for breakfast. I liked putting linens on tables and things, but I really like the way her mom interacts with you. She hits you! tells you what to do! and then she thanks you for it! hugs you! and feeds you! Their wedding was BEAUTIFUL. I should have gone to the Vietnamese ceremony earlier in the morning, I don't know why I didn't go. We had a TEN COURSE meal at the reception after the American style ceremony. Sea Bass, Lobster, Beef, it went on and on! We also had this milky fruit drink with bits of gelatin dropped in it, cut like jagged french fries. There was a fruit plate with fruit I had never seen before, like Longan Berries and maybe Persimmon? But it was good and we ate it! When was the last time you sat and ate dinner for 4.5 hours? yeah. that's what I thought. Maybe it was good we didn't dance a lot afterwards.

...ate sushi twice (soon to be three times!!)

...watched a Wilco, Billy Bragg special about Woody Gutherie with my dad that I got from the LIBRARY.

...listened to Mahila Jackson sing Christmas songs, and Jack Johnson (LIBRARY!)

...went to the Mexican restaurant where I used to work and chatted with a co-worker.

...saw friends who had moved to Florida (Paul and Barb)

...went new clothes shopping for the first time in a year!!!!

...held TWO babies. One named Amelia, the other Isabella.
(My shoulder/arm/cheek are in the photo)


...talked about things I didn't know at the Art Institute, and embarrassed myself. (That's a Renior! -No, No it isn't.) Saw a statue that used to be tarnished that they have since cleaned up! (Oh, the horror! It was prettier tarnished)

While I could probably have seen more people so far, it's been nice to do it gradually. Last time I came home, I was worn out from all the visiting. I've surprisingly gotten to go do a lot of things that were in my routine before. Visiting those places make it feel like home. The little cafe you used to meet your friend in once a week, driving the route you used to take to work, seeing the back roads that helped you meander to your destination so many times.

I am changed, in some ways. I went to the mall the other night, and I didn't even WANT to window shop. It was too overwhelming. I bought what I needed and I left. I used to love to walk through all the stores.

I've also noticed that the more space you have the more things you have. In Mexico, I almost always had all my things in my room. Here I've got two pairs of shoes by the TV. Another 3 pairs in the front room. Tons of stuff on the kitchen table....I'm spreading out all over!


"Thought I was learning how to take
How to bend not how to break
How to live not how to cry, but really
I've been learning how to die"

Loving Jon Foreman's Winter EP. LOVE IT.

(I think I'm forgetting how to cook while I'm home, or maybe I'm just to lazy.)

if only I had a cute way of signing off...

P.S. I missed the snow here. When I arrived it was like 75 degrees. It is cold now. So the first few days I made sure to lay out and keep my tan. I got quite a few comments on how tan I was. Unfortunately, it's gonna fade soon! But it was well worth the energy to get darker before I left Mexico.

"However far away...

However long I stay...
Whatever words I say...

...I will always love you."

L- was telling us tonite that he planted a watermelon seed thinking that it was going to become a tree. And that we should pay him for planting it for us. Well, it didn't. But it certainly grew into a watermelon. I guess we have good soil. It's huge! We have also grown one other watermelon (small) and a cantaloupe. All of these plants grew seemingly accidentally. The kids plant things all the time for the fun of it. I have yet to see carrots grow even though the girls are always putting the tops of them in the ground.

This is the third time (or so) that I've biked at night, and I absolutely love it. I was trying to think of a good metaphor for our night sky down here, but everything that came through my head has already been said about the night sky. I'm torn between biking down the roads with street lamps and biking down the roads that don't have light so I can see the stars better.

I thought it was fall here and got out my down comforter and all that jazz, but it's not. I was tricked with just a few days of cold. The kids went swimming yesterday, and it was so hot outside I was sweating. It smells fresh at night, a hot summer night. I breathe it in deep and try to hold that feeling in, so I can take it with me to the land of snow. It will warm my toes after the novelty of cold has warmed off. But I am SOOOO excited to see snow. THIS EXCITED. and babies. my friends babies.

C-- shoplifted the other day. But not really. and the grocery store knows us, we are there spending the same amount of money in one trip as a Mexican family makes in one month. I ran out to the car to get something I'd forgotten, when C-- followed me out there with a baggy of garlic salt in her hand asking me if that was the right thing to buy. I shooed her back into the grocery store, while lecturing her :) The security guard just smiled at us.

I wrapped 23 presents today, and that was just for my immediate Mexican family. I still need to figure out 2 gifts. It was a little overwhelming!

We played soccer on Monday and 55 minutes in, my team finally scored a goal. It was great. My team had a lot of perseverance. We had 14 kids at the field, and they were ALL ours. I guess that's a benefit of having a big family, instant team games. no neighbor kids needed!

One of the little girls, 10, let a teenager cut her bangs without asking if it was all right, and I told her she should always ask permission for hair cuts. Then on Friday I came home with my hair cut and she noticed and said to me, "Did you ask Mom before you did that??"

Two of my kids don't like to brush their teeth before they are actually leaving the house to go somewhere, so it can be gross in the morning if I don't intervene. I ask them EVERY MORNING about brushing their teeth when they get up, and I'm generally good about it for myself as well. On Monday I was cooking breakfast, and had gotten caught up in the yumminess and hadn't brushed my teeth, and right afterwards one of my big offenders asked me to read a book to her (C goes to school in the afternoon) so I started reading it to her, still in my jamas with coffee breath and everything. 3 sentences in she's all "fuuuu-chi" (which is what the kids say when they think something stinks) and "go brush your teeth!" I think she enjoyed having the chance to be the boss.

I'm home Sunday night. Not that I'm counting or anything. Save me some snow!!

Can I have some tortillas??

We called the police.

A couple months ago, one of the kids was outside and saw this pickup (which in Spanish is pickup) parking at our neighbors and loading stuff into his truck.
She thought it was strange, but I don’t think anything was done about it because we don’t know them.
About a month ago the people that live in that house stopped by and told us they had been robbed. They don’t live there all the time, and the police had a suspect in mind, and would we call the police if we saw something suspicious again, and take down license plates and such.
My children became vigilantes, with paper and pen they would sit outside waiting for their chance to execute justice on evildoers. And I trusted them.
A week later my kids come running in the kitchen yelling, they’re robbing that house, someone’s there robbing it.
I said “Did you see what car is there? Did you write down the license plate number?”
They said, “but the robber is there NOW!”
So I gave them my phone to call the police.
Oh boy.
They were prompt, a police truck came by with THE OWNER.
My first thought was, wow, the owner is going to get to confront these people face to face.
But then I felt sheepish, suddenly realizing the trespasser was THE OWNER. And there wasn’t a burglar there.
My blushing cheeks spit out some incoherent Spanish that meant “well, at least you know we are serious about keeping an eye on the property for you”
I think the worst part was when I had to admit letting my children call the police, as the police accused the kids of ¨prank calling” them. YES! An adult thought this all through.
I don’t ever want to see those neighbors again.

My two kids who are learning Spanish b/c they came from a home that spoke an indigenous language say…”contugo” instead of “contigo” and called pancakes, tortillas. Them: Can I have some of those ”tortillas” you’re making??
Me: No, but you can have some “panqueques.”

I bought some peaches last week. 25 since we have 23 people living in our household.
Luis did the favor of counting them for me after a few children had enjoyed their peach.
32! I was like, hm. I didn’t even buy 32 peaches, maybe you should count them again. 22 this time. He said “There were 32 here a minute ago.” And acted like he hadn’t even made a mistake. Then he started telling me about James and the Giant peach. I said, “oh, did you like that book?” and he was all confused and said, “book?” and proudly informed me that “it’s a MOVIE. A really good movie. Have you seen it?”
We really grew up in two different worlds.

Quick Spanish lesson for my readers:
Pickup truck = /pik` up/
Sink= /siŋk’/

That new girl is already gone. Luckily she has a family that wants the best for her, unlike our other children.

I have a phone interview with a company that does interpretation/translation. We'll see. We went back an hour today, so now I'm an hour different than California, until next weekend when the U.S. falls back. Leave it to me to schedule a flight on a time change day. Hopefully everything will go smoothly.

“If living is giving...

... I’m ready, I’m willing” -"I'm willing" by Ben Lee

So I’ve started preparing myself for the possibility of medical translating, I have at least 200 terms that I’d like to learn this week, and then a 62 page Anatomy and Physiology glossary that has terms in Spanish/English as well as little explanations of the words (because I don’t know some of these ENGLISH words…duodenum, cecum etc.) If I can teach myself then I could get certified without taking classes. But I’m going to have to make some free time sacrifices. (I’d rather not translate medically, but it seems like the biggest need, and it’ll be much easier for me to understand medicine than the legal system.)

“it feels like we’ve already waited too long…”

I have 2nd Chronicles left to read and I’ll have finished the whole Bible. I didn’t think I’d finish till December, but this is perfect timing, because this week is the holiday where Jews celebrate finishing their yearly cycle of reading the Torah.

(my girls are singing The Macarena in the next room, that’s so 10 years ago ☺ )

Someone gave Johanne Dolce and Gabana’s “the one” and it smells SOO good. I have another favorite scent to add to my list of Armani Mania and CK Euphoria.

So the other day we played soccer in the street (normal) we also put pretty big rocks out to mark the goals (normal) We forgot to clean up the rocks and they were still there the next day. Surprise! Unfortunately an irate neighbor talked to one of the children about it, but they also talked to the child about all the tires “we” leave in the middle of the road (which we don’t, they get rolled down the hill by people walking)

Permission slips?? Nah. While I was playing soccer with a few of the kids that didn’t have school we saw a swarm of uniformed children going from their school to the beach, It was my 7th graders school, and I had no idea they were going to the beach. Apparently it was gym day.

When they are interested in checking if pants or a skirt will fit, many Mexicans will just put their forearm inside the waistband. My daughters don’t realize this method doesn’t always work. Last night C—took one of my skirts to wear to J—‘s party and I told her that it wouldn’t fit, but it fit her forearm, so she tried to put it on. DISASTER.

I’m sure other mothers get used to this gradually, but I can’t get it through my head to get ready BEFORE my children. I plan on spending a normal amount of time getting pretty, but it’s impossible b/c instead of only worrying about myself I am dispensing advice and helping find that elusive skirt that everyone knows is clean but can’t find, and watching my girls try on different outfits, and being asked to help with hair and nails but then I realize it’s too late and start saying things like, I don’t care, you do what you think looks best, I’m sure that’ll be just find, ask your sister to help you with that, etc.

There is this cactus looking fruit here that we like to eat, that I used to eat in Chile also. My houseparents would always say “be careful, don’t get the prickly parts in your fingers” except that I couldn’t see any prickly parts and was genuinely confused or thought they were joking. Now I’ve learned my lesson. I put a bunch in a bag grocery shopping (and here they say the same thing about the NON-EXISTENT prickly parts) so I touched the top and bottom, but not the sides which is where it looks like they cut the cactus spikes off. I was wrong. The tops and bottoms are where the invisible little spikes are. Ouch.

So this guy said “Hello” to me in the grocery store b/c he wanted to cut (he had 3 things, I had 234857 things) Except I wasn’t expecting him to speak English, since he looked Mexican and we are IN Mexico. So I just stood there racking my brain what “hello” meant in Spanish and why it had any relevance in the grocery line…thread?? Ice??…no clue. We ended up having a nice little conversation that I’m sure confused the cashier. It confuses me just trying to remember it b/c we were making the decision about who would go first in English and the Cashier had no idea whose products were whose, nor who he should be ringing up since he didn’t speak English. It was a scene out of a comedy. At the end of it all, C—my child who always claims EVERYONE as her friend (people we pass on the road, people in advertisements, people in movies) said to me “Did you like meeting my friend?” Instead of arguing with her, or asking when she met him, or how she knows him I just gave up and said. “Yes, he was nice.”

Today one of my children had a worksheet to help him know when to use b or v, since many Spanish speakers mix them up when spelling. At the top of his paper for the instructions, he had written “5 beces cada palabra” which should have said “5 veces cada palabra” How ironic that he didn’t copy the instructions right!!!

It was SUPER hot here 2 weeks ago, too hot to go outside, so hot I wore shorts in a public place!...bad idea!! Then last week, it got crazy cold. But this week has been pleasant. Maybe 70s? I still can jog outside in shorts and a tank. In the mornings it’s cold and foggy, so it’s hard to get out of a bed with a cozy down comforter. I took two of the dogs jogging with me, but I run slow. Luckily they stopped and marked their territory a lot and barked at a few horses.

The new girl is doing well. The first few days she didn’t show any emotion. She cried several times this weekend, but she’s becoming much more outgoing, which is good b/c I had to keep inviting her to eat and hang out and stuff, and I’m not used to holding their hands like that. You can’t be passive in this house. We’re all elbows! Also, her favorite foods are lasagna, pizza, hamburger, etc. foods we don't have very often. I'm not sure she's "Mexican" :)

One of the women I know, who I don’t think is a Christian is going through some hard stuff right now, partially b/c she’s friends with us Christians. Pray for her if you think about it. I don’t to write too many details.

Today we had a bunch of food/candy/stuff donated. It was like Christmas, except more exciting!!!!

Kids always come home talking about a birthday party where they had Cake and Jello. When we make a party, one of the main questions is which kind of jello should we have??? Jello takes ice creams place in special occasions. It took me a while to notice.

I’ll be home in 2 weeks. When do you wanna get together?? Let me know, PLEASE!
I will have my U.S. cell phone. I`m sure you have the current number.

P.S. This is a sweet song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQi-gR_txdk It could be a love song if you take out the last line about Jesus. This is one of the guys we saw in concert.

we'll see.

Sooooooo. We might get a new girl today. We have a meeting with the mom at 1:30. She's 13 and really really likes boys. I think the plan would be to have her short term, we'll see what happens.

Today I sent in an app for a translating/interpreting company for while I'm home. I would prefer to interpret. we'll see.

I'll be home in 2.5 weeks. gotta get my act together.

Our kids schools always ask us to buy the right art supplies the day before art. Even the private school that costs a fee every month. Even though education seems important to the Mexican govt (they provide notebooks, workbooks for every subject, and free education for adults) we still have to pay to clean the school yard, make raffles to raise money, or even stand at the stop lights in each nearby town asking for money from passing motorists.

Even though we go grocery shopping 40 minutes south of here my girls always run into people they know. ALWAYS.

I've figured out why I don't understand C-- sometimes. Not only does she have a speech impediment b/c she can't hear herself talk well, but she also gives arbitrary nicknames to people, and then doesn't explain who it is. For example, there is a girl that helps at our house sometimes, C-- calls her "yellow" because she has blond hair instead of her name. I can't believe it took me 11 months to figure that out. we'll see if I can understand her more from now on.

Food is so healing, I think. The last few breakfasts I've been sitting with the kids and out of no where they begin telling me things I already know, but they don't know that I know. Like "my dad was hitting me and then they brought me here." I'm glad they are getting things off their chest, but I don't know how to respond to it.

I discovered Google Reader the other day for all the blogs I read that are seemingly unconnected. I love having a subscription list for them now. fabulous. There are probably a lot of cool features with it, we'll see if I learn to use them all.

I feel permanently disjointed, when my brain is all in one piece, maybe my entries will be in one piece.

we'll see.

star struck...

(I was interested in writing some emails and doing some job research today...just a temp job while I'm home for Nov/Dec, but the kids keep talking to me, and I can't really hide from them. I am the adult available! my brain is beginning to fry. 13 days the Manzanos were gone! They come home fingers crossed* tonite.)

This weekend was my 16 year old's birthday!


We got to go see Alex Campos in concert. There were a jillion people there, but we got there 4 hours early, and in Mexican time, that was probably more like 5 hours early because it didn't get crazy crowded until 9ish. Alex had a piece in his ear, presumably to hear his own voice singing/the other instruments, but it was RED and super obvious. My daughter who is deaf is embarrassed of her hearing aides, so I pointed it out, that he had a "hearing aide" too. No, she told me. That's so he can hear the piano and guitar.

After the show my girls took photos with a bunch of the touring band members. I tried not to take away from their excitement, but it was midnight, and cold, and I surprisingly wanted to go home!

The next night we saw the opening act again, Gerardo Mejia, perform at a local church. Yes we saw him twice in one weekend, but he was pretty good, and I only took my big girls to the concert. The second time we saw him, Joanne and I took all THIRTEEN kids to church. That was CRAZY. I don't ever want to do that again. We got to talk to Gerardo after he rapped his life away, I talked to him about Kentucky- He'd made a joke about it during his testimony "There are no Latinos in KY", and I LOVED that there was someone in Mexico making a joke that probably only I understood. The girls took pictures with him while I waited in the car.



(did you know how impossible it is to type an entry when every 30 seconds someone asks you "when are we eating dinner?" "who is cooking dinner?" "can we have chips while we wait?" "when are Mom and Dad getting home?" "so and so is making fun of me" "can I come out of my room yet?" "please can I listen to your music" "she wants to get me wet" gah. They are very dramatic about being hungry, and very literal about "well, you said we could LATER")

We have a couple children that think they need your undivided attention ALL the time. Do you know what makes them uncomfortable?? Public concerts. Everybody is focused on the performer! She ended up beginning a conversation with strangers by us, and manipulating the conversation so they'd ask her questions about herself. Then she made it very dramatic..."I wanna leave" "no I wanna stay" trying to get me to ask her what she wanted to do. Then she went and was taking someone's hat from them and hiding it, and putting her cookies in their pocket (one bite taken out of each) for their reaction. And then she made sure I knew all the silly things she was doing. Luckily I only had one child with me like that and not any others. When we are at home they need to continually be "helping" you do whatever you are doing, but really it makes you accomplish things slower.

We get a lot of people stopping by for help, food, clothes, applications for house builds, etc. As much as I love putting people in the right direction, I'm sometimes grouchy about being interrupted from whatever I'm doing to talk to these strangers. There are no "work" hours here. Today a man and his wife came, and actually knocked the door- instead of shouting "good day" from across the dirt road. It was a pleasant surprise as they gave US a gift! Tomatoes. I almost had the urge to invite them in for coffee even though I was on my way out the door.

One of our supporters sent down Starbucks beans and I've had a lot of fun grinding them and drinking TOO MUCH coffee. I don't nearly drink this much coffee when its not a fancy bean. I'm sure it's all in my head.

Today I tried making salsa with one of my "helping" children. I started to do it myself, but then she took over, then I said, "how am I supposed to learn if you're the one doing all the work?" She let me finish it, and it turned out good. Maybe I can make you some salsa while I'm home? (and hopefully tortillas too!)

Yesterday we were up late doing hmk b/c my kids said "our hmks easy, we just have to draw our house." I should have asked more questions, b/c when bedtime came it turned into "we have to draw maps of our house with every piece of furniture in them"

I enjoy watching the older children showing the younger ones how to play. They were jump roping this week, and even reading to each other.

I'm really looking fwd to a rest.

sigh.

by the way. I think ya'll should guess Gerardo's age.

feeling lazy, and tired.

...but the kids are still up, and I just don't feel right about going to bed with them all still up. Although I might do it.

So right now E-- is running around with a plastic purple bowl on her head telling the dog she's going to feed it. His head is like attached to her hip, and he's even RUNNING after her. This is the dog that lays and sleeps ALL. DAY. LONG. It's so funny, to see him being excited, and she's just hilarious too.

I've noticed that the children here don't do math drills. By that I mean a paper with 30 of the same problems on it. Usually their hmk is 2 pages of story problems, but we still spend most of our time counting on our fingers, or writing out the multiples to figure out the question.

Joanne is cooking like a crazy woman! She has helped with dinner, every night (I think) this week. At least it's felt like every night. Today she made cinnamon roles and breadsticks, and helped me decide how much of what to throw in the soup and chop the vegetables. That's half of my sanity for the week. I swear.

So we're going to be headed to an Alex Campos concert where they are expecting like 25,000 people. My town and surrounding communities are only about 10,000 people. It seems that people are coming from 5 hours north of us, and 5 hours south of us. They printed up 15,000 tickets but they were all out at the beginning of the week. Somehow, someone found me and my girls tickets. I'm excited, but also don't like chaos. and it's probably the biggest show I've ever been too. AND this is Mexico and nothing is ever clearly marked like lines or whatever.

I'm so tired, that apparently my children told Ben to pick them up early from school today b/c they had Mass ( @ private Catholic school) But I didn't hear it, or remember it even when I was sitting with everyone at breakfast. So when I saw all these kids at 12:30 I was SOOOO confused. I was all "I should call Ben, he's thinks he's picking you guys up at 1:30." One of them told me his principal brought them home, but really Ben had remembered, unlike me.

and I'm out... like 80's hair styles.

"So this is the new year..."

...I don't feel any different." -Death Cab

Being a single mom in the mornings is tough. Yesterday only 4 of us ate breakfast (oatmeal) partially b/c my kids didn't want to, and partially b/c they were busy looking for parts of their uniforms, hmk, etc. I realized that the Main Mom's love language is feeding the kids, and while I feed the kids, I don't do it quite like she does. So I spent yesterday creating monkey bread yumminess, using more sugar/butter/cinnamon than is legal. or so I thought. dun dun dun. I've never made bread on my own and it ended up tasting fermented. I tried to serve it to the kids, saying how much they would like it but I got comments like "It's too early to be drinking" "Why does this taste like beer?" "This tastes uncooked" "this has a bad flavor" opps. This incident shows me how different our childhoods were, as I didn't know what beer tasted like until much much much much much MUCH later in life. I ate some too, and now I have a stomach ache. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time I've tried to poison children. I seem to recall a couple years ago when I gave my High Schoolers lead filled chile powder suckers that are not approved by the FDA. (one of my girls just asked for the cinnamonsugarbitteralcohol bread for lunch?! I guess at least one of them liked it. Although she is also the one that wanted to add honey to it. She says it has enough sugar when you add honey.)

My friend ended up using the left over oatmeal to make cookies, yay! (but honestly, in all of this I'm curious why a lot of the things we consider "breakfast" actually are probably a bad start to the day... pancakes and SYRUP, cinnamon toast, jelly and toast, cereal, donuts, etc. Breakfast is the only meal that you can have dessert without eating anything nutritional first!!!! yay breakfast for everyone!!!! )

I wanted to have a special meal yesterday, so J--- cooked (not me! :) ) She made Chicken Flautas (fried corn tortillas with chicken inside) and they were tasty. The little kids and I cut up gala apples (one was so impatient, she "dropped" a piece on the floor, and said, "well, I guess I have to eat that one") and had honey so that we could have a taste of the Jewish New Year. ("May it be Your will, O Lord our God, that we may be renewed for a good and a sweet new year.") Last year for Rosh HaShanah I was in Costa Rica eating a fabulous meal with pure adults in the Monteverde Rain Forest (well, just outside of it) and this year, I was in Mexico also eating a fabulous meal with pure children (well, and Ben and Jose) in a place where it rains a few times a year. What a contrast.

The kids have hid the jello from me, for what reason I don't know. We couldn't eat it last night, b/c it wasn't in the cupboard. Also, someone hid two of my children's hmks in the top of their closet. Also not sure who, or why (revenge?) It's so intriguing I don't even NEED to watch those mystery shows.

Last night a former house mom dropped by for the first time since she left a year ago, and that was really nice. I was nervous to meet her b/c when I first got here the girls always told me "well SHE did it this way." and that was hard. but now I've gotten over that.

Even though I want to treat this like a new year, and reflect, repent and pray, my quiet-ish mornings go by very quickly. It will feel like a new year, when I will actually have the time to celebrate it. I really do think the words you say train your heart and mind, and that is what draws me to prayers others have written. While this is true spiritually, I think we underestimate how it is true when we call a child a "liar" or when we call ourselves "fat" or "lazy." I am a good cook. I can try to be a good cook. My kids will be sure to let you know if my positive self talk changes what comes out of my kitchen :)


btw: while I was making the bread dough yesterday, and L-- was doing his hmk, we listened to Death Cab for Cutie. L-- said "this is old people's music" and then later some bluegrass (well, Nickle Creek's Stumptown) came on my iPod and one of my little girls started doing "cowboy" dancing. It was so cute! My teenagers acted embarrassed when they saw what I was doing...and C-- has a bad habit of using the bathroom in the big house right after she wakes up, instead of using her own, even though no one is in the bathroom in her room???? I don't understand it.

What's a good reason to have kids????

Jose has most of the kids right now, and it's GLORIOUS (singing as I type!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). I still can't leave b/c I've got two teenagers and a 12 year old (although I'm dying to go out for a run- and slightly jealous that they went to go see seals at the beach), but it's so quiet and no one is fighting and no one is saying my name a million BILLION times. One reason I've heard my name so much, is apparently when they have a problem with someone else, instead of solving it/handling it themselves, they immediately come to me. L-- is bugging them, instead of saying "L--, stop bugging me." They say, "Jen, he's bugging me." We're nipping that bud as we speak.

I honestly don't know how single parents do it. I see how much I need Jose here, and even more so, other adults to just be sane with. One of my friends spent the night Fri and Sat (leaving L-- to say, why can't so and so spend the night, if your friend is?, because there are already enough kids here, was my response) and just chatting about the day with someone normal is so healing. Or even another adult to back up the decisions you make, regarding how much food a child should eat, if they did their chores well, etc. Jose keeps making sure I'm "de acuerdo" (in agreement) with decisions he's making, and I really respect that. That's how two adults work together, eh?

This weekend, I've seen Annie Get Your Gun and Ella Enchanted. Annie Get Your Gun is HILARIOUS. I had no idea. I haven't read much of anything, as I can't concentrate when I keep hearing my name :)

This morning, Saul (friend of the family, pronounced Sah-OOL) came over to return Jose's car. I served them breakfast, probably selfishly, b/c I knew I would ask them to put the 10 gallon water garafon on the dispenser, and take out the trash and because their presence at home makes the kids respect me more. I know doing a thing out of true christian charity that you shouldn't expect anything back, but we have a specific household economy. It feels a little manipulative, or like I've fallen in a trap, fulfilling my role in the household to ensure that they do what I want them to do, but I'm surprisingly happy with it. The only thing is, after eating breakfast, Saul offered to do the dishes (wait! not your job, I'm so confused!!!) and I let him. I told him I'd tell all the ladies in the valley what a catch he is, if he needs recommendations. haha. (where did Feminist Jen go??? I think she ran away.)

Why do people have kids? I really don't know the RIGHT answer to this one. So that someone will love you and be affectionate to you? (I love how little kids always want to hold your hand and sit on your lap, etc.) So that you can teach them about all the things you love? dance, reading, music... So that you have a chance to mold a life exactly the way you want it? -(Psychology experiment anyone?) I know people have kids for selfish/unselfish reasons, or maybe even accidently, but what are the right reasons to have kids? Is it just an animalistic, "got mate, check, need to reproduce, check"...?

I'm going back out in the sun. edit: I'm going jogging, b/c Johanne is here baking school snacks.

other edit: Johanne and I had so much fun playing L--, age 10, in Trivial Pursuit, Genius Edition. He got the first question right, gah, stinkin' Atlantic Ocean. and the bet was if he wins, he could invite a friend over. But then he didn't win. shew. It was close.

P.S. (no little kids woke me up early this morning!!! yay!!! I came out of my bedroom on my own time. and I locked myself out of my room yesterday, but with a knife got in quick!!!! but then that begs the question how many other people could get in with a knife???)

"Does anybody remember back when you were very young...

Did you ever think that you would be this blessed?" -Brand New, Guernica

So starting tonite at midnight (you are probably reading this tomorrow unless you’re a night owl) 10 of the family leave for the weeklong preparations of their daughter’s wedding. The mom here made all the bridesmaids dresses and the wedding dress and is eager to do whatever alterations are necessary, and there are probably 23944 other things to do as well. I am left here, ALONE. Except not really. I’ll have 14 others with me. 2 that are self sufficient, so really I’m only in “charge” of 12 children. I have different people helping me out as the week happens. Like Ben is taking all the kids to and from school for me. And Jose is “discipline” man, here. He already lives here and has 4 siblings that live here, so he’s well respected. His sister and one of my daughters is going to make us special meals a couple nights! He had the option to go to the wedding, but declined, and boy am I happy. Another girl plans on baking with the kids for school snacks, and just being around. There is something about the company of another adult that makes me so much more sane. I don’t know exactly what it is.
Other people are helping as well, I’m so thankful!

They won’t get back till Oct 6th so I’ll have my hands full till then. :)

One of my daughters, J, has a great command of the English language. She doesn’t know if she learned Spanish or English first as a child. But she still thinks she failed her English class exam, because she mixed up Ordinal/Cardinal numbers. Not necessarily fair, but it happens. Today we were talking about malls, and she said, oh, those places with a lot of stores and electric stairs. I would have NEVER thought about escalators as electric stairs. But it makes sense. Later, she was talking about Google, and she said “Goo-glay” which I thought was cute.

L, got his toothbrush all dirty leaving it in the car. I told him I wouldn’t buy him a new one, but that he has to clean it with boiling water and put alcohol on it. G, another little boy in the car said, “but if there’s alcohol on it, he can’t use it!” I clarified that it was cleaning alcohol. Hehe. This same little boy tried to shut the van door while his head was outside the van. It was so precious. He also talks the whole ride to school at 7:30 am. He IS me.

You haven’t truly gone running until you’ve done it with 5 children. 2 on bikes, 2 others that aren’t used to running, and one that is better than you!!

Yesterday, just three of us ran, and it was sweet, because we ran into sea fog. The temperature didn’t really drop, but I enjoyed running into something that I couldn’t see (our land is so flat you can see all the way to the sand dune of the beach, 1 mile?) Then on our way back we ran out of the fog into the sunshine. Glorious.

Another sweet thing, is the lightning in the mountains. It doesn’t rain here, but it rains there. You can’t hear the thunder, but the whole sky lights up, sigh. Beautiful. If I had a photo of it, I would show you, but I don’t. One night I just laid on the trampoline and enjoyed it.

I can’t get the tumbleweed out of my head. I thought of another metaphor for it…a small european car…

Almighty God, heavenly Father, who has blessed us with the JOY and CARE of children; Give us LIGHT AND STRENGTH so to train them, that they may love whatsoever things are true and pure and lovely and of good report, following the example of their Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

"the dawn in all it's majesty, is stealing me, away

the dawn in all it’s honesty, is turning me to clay" -David Gray

On Thursday, when I went grocery shopping, the music was the usual, Shakira and something I didn’t recognize, but then someone stopped the cd they were playing over the intercom, and put in Creedence Clearwater Revival and then John Mayer. I sang along the whole time like a big dork.

This weekend, we took the kids camping at a beach about 40 minutes south of here. The water was SOOO cold. But the kids loved it anyway. I got in, and tried surfing twice, but decided the shore was much more comfortable.

In the end, it got so windy we did food preparation inside the back of the Expedition. And we still had lots of sand in our Ceviche! (tomato, cucumber, tuna, onion, lime- hands down my favorite thing that we eat.) While we were camping, these people noticed how many kids we had and offered to cook us a spaghetti dinner. They were road tripping in their RVs and were Canadian and it was so generous of them!!! …Tani made us catfish in red thai curry the day after we got back from the beach. I’m so spoiled, and David cooked some fresh fish he had caught…


I was going to sleep far away from everyone on the beach, to get away from any potential noise (the little kids got up EARLY!!), but then realized that people drive FAST on the beach, and may run me over in the middle of the night if I’m not near a car or other big thing. The moon didn’t rise for a couple hours after the sunset, and the stars were stinkin’ bright, while we enjoyed the dwindling fire and good conversation. I meant to watch the sunrise, but slept right through it.

If you’ve seen Hitchcock’s The Birds, you might have been terrified at the beach. All these birds descended on the water to eat right where we were camping. It was nuts. Pelicans and some smaller type of bird. It was the most birds I have seen in my life.




I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve taken public transportation with my body half hanging out of the bus (in Chile, NOT here in Mexico- we live in the boonies, nor in Costa Rica- I was a taxi girl there.) Sometimes, if you were lucky, it just meant standing in the aisle. Here, I finally saw my first school bus that had school kids on it, and not field workers, or that wasn’t a public transportation bus, and it was YELLOW! Not purple, or blue and white, or green…YELLOW! And, it seemed to me that they’ve taught manners at a young age. There were too many children on the bus, with the boys standing in the aisle, while the girls occupied all the seats. Not only are they teaching manners at a young age, but also low expectations of public transportation! Yay!

Coming home from the beach was a tumbleweed (3 feet high!) that rolled around like two people fighting without any consideration for the things in their path. It was like all those times in elementary gym with the gigantic ball coming at you while you were paralyzed. Except I slowed down and swerved a little bit, and we were ok.

Topes (speed bumps) are another road hazard and sometimes there is just as little notice as an unmarked moving target. Like those little old ladies carrying the grocery bags on the firing range that happen to have a semi automatic in their free hand, these topes are just as tricky! Sometimes they are well marked, with several warning signs, and paint on the asphalt. This paint can vary in color and pattern, unreliable. Sometimes there are no warning signs and all of a sudden you feel every piece of your car jump out of alignment and right back in again. There are no regulations (that I know of) for topes, and often you’ll find that people make their own wherever they want (you to slow down!). Since there are no regulations you can’t always know that 10 mph will get you over without a chiropractor’s appt later. It could be 5 mph or even less. They can be rocks across the road, or a ditch purposefully dug out on either side of the rock hill build across the road (car goes down, up, then down again). Sometimes it’s a little sand hill that they remake every week. The worst place for topes though is by the military base. They did a nice job with them, placing them far apart, and then closer as you get closer to the big one. They also painted yellow in front of each tope to highlight the topes. If you haven’t heard the song “Rompe” by Daddy Yankee, it has this up and down beat, which I realized, is the exact beat you feel going over 30 topes in a row. They definitely must have a lot of topes on his island.

In 6 weeks, I'll be able to enjoy marked speed bumps for a little bit. :) Let's schedule something.

Let the beauty we love be what we do....

From Bonhoeffer: Right speech comes out of silence, and right silence comes out of speech.

oh, that I would learn that.

and a poem quoted in Traveling Mercies:

Keep walking, though there’s no place to get to.
Don’t try to see through the distances. That’s not for human beings.
Move within, but don’t move the way fear makes you move.
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened
Don’t open the door to the study
And begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
-Rumi


We go to the beach with the kids tonite, I'm still in the process of convincing them they'll have a good time. :/ well, the teenagers that is. The little kids are pumped. I just have to decide if I want to sleep in the sand, or on top of a vehicle. I've never slept on the roof of a car before, so that might be fun!

(oh, I forgot to tell everyone that when I went to my child's parade, I had already determined to avoid her and look like I didn't know her, since she's 13 and all. But she came up to ME and introduced me to her friends and asked me to hang out with them until the parade started!!! It touched my heart so much.)

One of my girls keeps failing a test that I'm not sure she is capable of passing because it's all higher level thinking about women's rights, police, water, electricity, community living. It's really discouraging. We stopped by the adult education office yesterday and got the bad news. She has to pass it if she's going to have a 6th grade certificate! (And I think you have to pass a certain level of school to get a driver's license, which she says she wants.) Here is an example of a question she got wrong, my slight paraphrase.

Which of these statements reflects the following:
A woman should have the same rights as a man.

1. A woman doesn't finish school because her husband tells her to stay home with the kids.
2. A woman agrees and supports her husband in every decision he makes.
3. A woman works in a mechanics shop and earns the same money as the men there.
4. A woman cooks and cleans because those are the only things a woman does.

Sometimes it's hard going out in public with teenagers as a "single" mom, yesterday they were very obviously nudging me towards a man working in the adult school office, and as soon as he walked out of the room saying "he's cute" etc. I can't take them anywhere :)


ok, back to babysitting, more cultural/life observations to come.

"Old days, don't come to find me...

the sun is just about to climb up over there.
" -The Innocence Mission


On Boyfriends:
Teenagers, and humans alike, but teenagers more so do this funny “I don’t want to look like I’m trying to get your attention, but I want your attention.” Or “look at me, but don’t notice that it’s my fault you’re looking at me.” It cracks me up. There was this one specific incident, when teenager A had gotten wet in the ocean with her clothes on, bathing suit underneath. Instead of discreetly going behind the car, ten feet from me, she made a big deal about how she was going to stand behind me, while she fought to get her wet clothes off, so that no one would watch the “embarrassing struggle”. Right.
Anyways…Teenager B was telling us about how she was “going to ask this guy out, because he’s totally cute!” to which the Teenager A said, “I thought it was the guys job to ask the girl? I don’t chase guys. I’m not like YOU, that’s not how you get a boyfriend.” But while Teenager A said this, she had on a lacy tank top, enough make up to make my grandma look 30, (or since I’m having so much fun with metaphors) enough make up to preserve the face of a Pharaoh for 2000 years, and bling bling. Some girls chase boys with words, others with their appearance- two methods, similar result.

On Mexico/cultural celebrations:
So yesterday I aptly avoided attacks of eggs filled full of flour. It was an independence day celebration, replete with parades and parties. They were specific enough to distinguish that the first half was the civic celebration (nat’l anthem, history reading, marching) and the second half was the social celebration (tamales, ice cream, flour eggs, milk cake, fruit). All these kids are running around looking like my grandma (they weren’t wearing Teenager B’s makeup) because white flour in black hair results in gray hair. I learned how to fill eggs with flour/confetti in HS Spanish class! I was so pleased that I already had experience egg filling and decorating.
Mexico often does things that don’t make sense- like provide a head table and chairs for the “dignitaries” attending the event, even though they had to stand the whole time out of respect for the flag, etc. The little kids had flags and balloons, but the big kids had nothing AND didn’t march in step/time. The little “marching band geek” inside of me came out today, and I marched in step/time while I followed the kids around the neighborhood. But what I didn’t understand was that they would march 3 or 4 steps, then stop, make sure everybody was an arm’s length away from their neighbors, then start again. They took an hour and a half to go through the neighborhood. I quit after 20 minutes, went to the park, bought myself a tamal, and relaxed. One of the guys there said, “there are so many Americans here” except I was the only one I saw, and I looked hard! The rest of my family was at the big parade in the center of town, which had more participants, but somehow was over faster. My hometown is about the same size as this town and it’s surrounding area, yet my hometown only has one parade for each big event, where as this town has two that happen at the same time?!?

On healthy eating:
I drove past a fish taco stand, and it reminded me that a few weeks ago a friend and I stopped by to indulge in the friedy fried goodness that is a fish taco. Except that we were disappointed, because they changed their preparation technique. They used to be pure friedness, almost unrecognizable as fish. While I enjoy the TASTE of fish, I CERTAINLY don’t expect it when I’m eating a fish taco. Their new meat is only crispy on the very outside edge, warm, flaky, and fishy on the inside. It almost tasted, gasp, healthier. This may be the first time I’ve been disappointed in food that seemed healthy.

On borrowing:
I borrow another person’s books and dvds quite often down here, and I try to be a good, since they aren’t mine, but somehow, I don’t succeed. For example, I was keeping his dvd on my shelf to protect it, when one of my daughters C—comes in and starts taking all the dvds OFF my shelf. She opens that one, and takes the booklet out, it looks more intriguing than the excersize dvds or the Francis Shaffer How then shall we live?dvds. I immediately ask her to not touch things that aren’t hers without asking first, take the booklet from her, and DON”T put it back in it’s case, but on top of the case. Dur. A couple weeks later, I get the opportunity to watch the dvd, but the booklet is NOWHERE. In my attempt to save it from sure destruction, I somehow guaranteed destruction. I think the mouse took it and hid in between my walls. He is so gracious. I recently tried my best with a book, but somehow it kept getting dog-eared accidentally, especially when I would pick it up carefully, I would bend the front cover, or when I would put it on my shelf, it would fall off and bend the front cover; finally I realized the secret TO SUCCESS! The less time I have his materials, the less worn they get. So this weekend I made it through Traveling Mercies in 3 days, granted I’ve read it before. And it still looks in pristine condition! Yay!

On living together:
I’ve realized that just because you live with someone doesn’t mean you automatically have a relationship with them. You have to work at it, purposefully spend time together, even when I’d rather get some work done, or read quietly. I think I knew this in college but am reminded again. Between everyone’s different school schedules, hmk, and extracurriculars, I’m finding it difficult to have “rest” time AND “hang out” time. Plus, they are teenagers, and when you wanna hang out, they may not be interested, but then when they wanna hang out, you’re busy, or it’s inconvenient.

The girl we had for a few weeks back in June visited us today. It was nice to see she is still doing well even though she was given back to her aunt.

Fall is coming, it smells like campfire smoke more and more often, I’m sleeping with long sleeves on, oh and it rained twice this summer! I know that’s quite the opposite of the past few days in the Midwest…here’s hoping for a rainy winter (for us! Not for you guys. Unless you want it.)

Quotes from Traveling Mercies:
If you have a problem you can solve by throwing money at it, you don’t have a very interesting problem.

I hate being the kind of person who tries to get someone with stage-four metastatic lung cancer to feel sorry for her just because she has a headache.

Music is about as physical as it gets: your essential rhythm is your heartbeat; your essential sound, the breath. We’re walking temples of noise, and when you add tender hearts to this mix, it somehow lets us meet in places we couldn’t get to any other way.

Don't let your old days find you!

"Replace the small disgraces...

of the times and places that I never really left" -Innocence Mission

(if you're skimming, at least read Don't Tell Her and Private Conversation. HAHA.)

Sometimes I just like to listen to my girls talking and playing, it’s sorta eavesdropping, ok, it IS eavesdropping. But today, it was hilarious! The things they talk about and do…
At first they were talking about pregnancy?! then it turned into…

“Do you want to dance cumbia?”
-“yeah”
“No, let’s dance rock and roll!”
puts hip hop music on
“Jennifer is listening!!!”
“it’s christian, don’t worry.”
Then they proceed to change the song every 15 seconds, ending up on the show tune, “I love you tomorrow” from Annie.


FOOD
Our friends have a fig tree, so I had some fresh figs the other day! So yummy! I want a fig tree. I also tried Guava (it’s not just a gelato flavor!) Saturday we had ceviche of tuna (meat), and tuna(fruit) for dessert! I wanted to call it the “tuna tuna” meal. But I didn’t, that would be corny.

SCHOOL
Today and tomorrow are school holiday b/c tomorrow is the independence day of Mexico. We have 2 different parades that our kids are involved in. I’ve been very impressed by one of my children’s school teachers. He’s got “2 grades” in his class, but I’m sure his kids aren’t just in two levels of understanding AND he’s the principal of the school. Last year whenever I was there they were doing group work, and he was doing emails or paperwork. This year, I have visited 3 times already, and all three he’s been instructing. I better stop coming in the middle of the school day! One of those days they were listening to Vivaldi while he explained a math concept.
Our school had outhouses until maybe 5 months ago, but they have SMARTBOARDS. I think I would take a school without a proper restroom to have a smartboard. If you don’t know what a smartboard is, it’s connected to your computer, and you can use your finger to do all the functions a mouse would, change the values in a document, scroll to a different part of a chart, but it’s a GIGANTIC white board. (That you can also write on with dry erase markers when you aren’t using it.) I hadn’t written about the smartboard yet, because I had never seen it be used. I went to a parent meeting about the school budget, and rest assured I didn’t take my eyes off of the numbers and chart.

SPEAKING OF BEING IMPRESSED WITH COOL TOYS
When our newest girl (11) came here, these were her words.
Pointing at the pool
Her-“do people swim in that?”
Me-“yep.”
Her-“Do the kids get to swim in it?”
Me-“only ones with clean rooms!”
Pointing at the trampoline
Her-“Is that a toy?”
Me- “Yep”
Her- “What’s it called?”
Me- “Trampoline”
Her- “What do you do?”
Me- “Jump on it.”
Her- “ohh.”

WORKING, HERE (culture)
If you work in the fields here, you only have to show up when you want. A bus from the ranch comes to your neighborhood and you get on it, and it takes you to work. They also drop you off in the afternoon. If you don’t feel like working, or are sick, just don’t go to the bus stop, no harm done.
We have a loud speaker on the hill that I’ve told you about phone call announcements, or raucous music, well, I’ve noticed it also giving work announcements detailing how much per day, what kind of crop, and where you should wait if you want to work there.

PRIVATE CONVERSATION. HAHA.
I was talking to another adult, asking them a question about a discipline situation, and one of the children interrupted me asking ME about what I was asking.
V-, 10? (I can’t keep their ages straight), said to the interrupter “It’s none of your business! Why are you asking? It’s their private conversation”
The child walked away feeling bad about what they had just done when V- says to me.
“Soooooo, what are you talking about?”
hahaha.

Hawks and Horses
I’ve ran to the beach and back twice now. Yay! I don’t have any straight answers on how far it is. Some say 2.5 miles, some 3, some 4. I want to measure it next time we drive to the beach. When I lived in the states I felt a little guilty about going tanning, and would often only go as a reward if I’d exercised that day, but here I have to put on sun screen before I exercise and I still get darker. I think about my high school gym teachers every time I jog or ride a bike, like I’m proving them wrong or something. That needs to STOP. The cool thing about exercising outside is the connection with the wonder and the beauty of nature. I saw a hawk stay in one spot in the air the other day. It almost seemed like it was hovering, except it didn’t have to use its wings. From up on the hill, I saw 3 horses chasing each other across the field, the dust billowing up from under their hooves. I felt like I was in a movie or something. I take my girls running to the beach. One is steady, she gets ahead of me and always has to loop back around to me. The other one sprints and then walks, sprints and then walks.

Don’t Tell Her
This is a actual conversation from the lunch table the other day.
Son-“Dad where does jello come from.”
Dad -“well, it’s in horses hooves.”
Son-“oh”
Dad-“when a horse is old they take it’s hooves and use them to make gelatin”
Me-“they also take horses to the glue factory when they are too old to race”
Dad-“or to they use them to make dog food.”
Daughter-“but they don’t KILL them, right?”
Room goes silent, new topic begins

There were horses at the circus. They did unnatural things like stand on two feet and twirl. Gag. Part of the reason we ended up at the circus was because my friends ran into a lion tamer, and some other performers at the beach.
I think the conversation went like this…
Confident male speaks
“I work with the lions in the circus, what’s your name, are those your friends?”
In the end, 2 of my friends got chosen to be part of an audience participation part. They were supposed to run and jump onto a horse, and then stand up on it while it ran around the ring. They were harnessed in, and neither were successful ☺ I don’t remember going to the circus when I was younger, but we seemed pretty close to the action, which was ok when it was acrobatic work, but maybe not as ok when it was the lions. Eek.
It smelled very gross, but they had someone run around the ring and spray air freshener twice during the 2 hours we were there.
There was one blond/non-mexican looking lady in the circus. I think she was their hired minority, their exotic beauty, their black sheep, their...yeah I'm done.
Being invited to come to the last night of the circus reminded me that people don’t show up to things b/c they think they have to, but because they want to. If you invite someone to church/a party/play chess/a book discussion group, they will come b/c they WANT to. I don’t know why I needed to be reminded of that.

Tonite I will be filling egg shells with flour for the parades tomorrow. Should be fun!


Books I've finished recently: Whose Bible is it? by Pelikan, Life Together by Bonhoeffer, Davita's Harp by Potok, Numbers, and I'm rereading Traveling Mercies by Lamott


I was going to post half of this today, and half tomorrow, but maybe YOU should just read half today, and half tomorrow yourself. ;)

Oh be the music in my head, the air around my bed, oh be my rest...

The salsa that we use the most here is Chile de Amor (Chile of Love) and it’s imported from the states! Free trade indeed.

Lately I’ve noticed a lot of products in our house come from Cincinnati, from manufacturers like Proctor and Gamble, or Kroger. We have playing cards that are printed/distributed in Cincy, and who knows what else, but it makes me smile inside that the east coast has made it over here to the west coast, and eventually Mexico. Another thing that reminded me of home unexpectedly was a running mag with an advert for the marathon at Wright-Patt. (aside: I knew they had races at Wright-Patt, I knew there were sweet airplane flyovers sometime in fall. I did not connect the dots.)

TWO EGG STORIES!
One is comedic, and one is tragic…
Tragic first: M-, 19, needs to learn some life skills, so I took her to the store with 6 dollars (60 pesos) so that she could pick out items to cook for a meal. She had decided to cook her six “sisters” and I scrambled eggs with hot dogs and potatoes cut up inside them, to be served with tortillas. Yummy! Even though she didn’t have enough money to buy the potatoes, I thought she bought enough for us to eat well. 10 eggs, 35 tortillas, 5 hot dogs, and one bottle of oil with which to cook it. When we got home, she cooked, and I didn’t oversee. I had already done what I had thought was the hard part- making her shop for herself. Our trip to the store included her asking me “do I have enough money for this? Do I pay?”, not asking the meat man anything, instead just asking me “do they have hot dogs?” while my reply was “I don’t know, look in the glass case! Or ask that guy, he works here!” and other really thought provoking things. I made her do math in her head (addition/subtraction) 6 separate times, oh my! So…We sat down to eat, and there was a pitiful amount of food on the table, well, 3x more fruit salad than the main course. There was no way it would feed 7 people! She saw the look on my face and quickly explained, “one of the eggs was bad.” The countertop still had 5 eggs, and 3 hot dogs. Uncooked. Unchopped up. Unserved. She had planned to save it to cook for a different meal?!? After her “do I HAVE to cook all of it?” and the look on my face
she did cook the rest of the food we had purchased, and our bellies were happy.

Saturday she is making chicken flautas, we already bought the chicken. She wanted to make something else so she took charge at the store today, (and while it’s admirable that she talked to the meat man herself this time!), she ended up with a bag of choice cut meat at $11.40, when she only had $10 and hadn’t bought any other ingredients, nor was it enough meat for all of us. She hadn’t asked how much it was per Kilo, nor looked at the price after he stuck the sticker on the bag. So that was embarrassing for her.
The odd part for me about all of this, is that I don’t remember my mother making me chose food on a budget, plan a meal, or try to teach me the value of money. I wish this was one of those things that children learned instinctively.

Comic: YOU HAVE TO READ THIS ONE. We had boiled eggs at breakfast on Tuesday. One of the girls, 8, decided to save a boiled egg as a snack for school. She told me, and I said it was ok. 10 minutes later she comes running to me, freaking out about how someone smashed her egg. Turns out, she had put it in the pocket of her corduroy skirt. Not a regular sized pocket, a coin sized pocket that shouldn’t hold things larger than quarters, but somehow, fit this hard-boiled egg. We had to turn her pocket inside out to get the egg out. I had thought it was going to be easy to pull it out, 2 or 3 pieces. Boy was I wrong. It crumbled out of that pocket like a fine feta cheese. Then she was upset that she had to change her skirt, but we weren’t going to let her start smelling like rotten egg half way through the day. I laughed so much, I hurt her already fragile ego.

Won scrabble once, and lost scrabble once this week. Not bad odds. Please play scrabble with me when I come visit home!!!

Winnie the Pooh is better...

Tuesday night I was tired of being a mom. So I was that mom. The mom-that-believes anything-the-children-say mom. I was convinced that our schools need to stop giving the children homework, because it would make my life SOOO much easier. Then it happened!! Many of the kids on Tuesday afternoon mysteriously didn’t have homework, especially the two that can have challenging work, not just color the picture…I was elated, and went and did other things, then at 6 o’clock two girls tear into my room. One saying “I already told Jen, I already told her.” The other saying, “well, I’m gonna tell her too, because I don’t think you did.” It turns out that they conspired together to say they didn’t have homework so that they could go swimming right after school. Luckily, one of them had a conscience, and decided to come tell the truth. Unfortunately, the one saying “I already told Jen” has a history of lying, and was going to continue lying, as she hadn’t told me anything. This is R—‘s second time in Children’s services care, the first time she told them she had lied about her home life, so they sent her back to her family. I hope she hasn’t lied again. :/ Although, I think I learned a lesson too ☺

One thing about having kids, is they listen to what you say and take it to the extreme.
The innocent, “yeah, I like Piglet” turns into a shameless parade of “I drew this Piglet just for you!!!” and then you have 865 drawings of Piglet in your room. Gah.

One year ago today was my first full day in Costa Rica, then I came home for 6 weeks, and came to Mexico!

wake me up, before you go...

We have a three year old that’s been with us for 2 years and some months. When he plays at my house he says, “mira look it” often. Those three words are always together for him, because he doesn’t know if he should speak Spanish or English. (they mean the same thing) I think it’s precious. He also has “learned” that if you squint one eye while pointing to something, the people around you will know exactly what you are pointing at. (but boy is he wrong…I just stand there stammering, cup?, dog?, water?, spider?, car?) He also can say “Buzz Lightyear” with incredible precision, if he could apply this precision to using the potty, we wouldn’t need those Buzz Lightyear pull-ups. ;)

Our most used garden tool is our rake. Not because I have a lot of time for gardening, but because our laundry sometimes ends up in the field next to my house.

The other night I woke up at 11:30 to loud dance party type singing. I got out of bed, put my glasses on and walked up stairs, fuming that my girls would be so inconsiderate on a school night. Only to hear ants crawling across the floor and light breathing. It was a dream, they were all in their beds. I couldn’t believe it! I went back to bed.

sweet dreams!

Q and A

So todays is a question and answer forum, based upon questions curious readers have asked me….

1. How do you do laundry?
Well, it’s a process. Pronounced Canadian like PRO-cess, with a true “o” and not an “ah” sound. Step One: Take other clothes off the line, Step Two: take clothes out of washer and put them on the line you just cleared off, Step Three: put your clothes in, Step Four: turn on the garden hose and manually fill machine, Step Five: think about how much water you waste every time you wash clothes, Step Six: check on the washer until it’s in rinse cycle, Step Seven: turn the hose on again to rinse clothes, Step Eight: Put your clothes on the line, Step Nine: Dust the now-dried sand off your clothes before you take them off the line and put them in your closet.

2. How does C---- try to get out of doing laundry?
She says, “Those aren’t my clothes”
Which is the truth I find out when I ask the other person, and they say, “yes those are my clothes but she borrowed it, so she should wash it.”
Really, I deserve whatever fights I have with my children about laundry since 1. I always refused to do it as a child, and 2. I always refused to get rid of clothes when I had too many.

3. How do you manage your extensive, beautiful, lawn?
Well, interestingly enough, since we’ve only been growing grass for a few months, today was the first time it was cut. It was also the first time I saw/heard/smelled/experienced a lawn mower in Mexico. Our backyard now looks like a golf course, spots of grass, and spots of sand traps.

4. How did Steve Y’s heart surgery go, and why didn’t you update us about it?
It slipped my mind. It went well, they readmitted him into the hospital at least once afterwards because of a fast heartbeat, but that’s a somewhat normal complication of the procedure. They have another follow up appt today about low blood pressure, but may be home after that.

5. How many times have you been to the beach in the last 6 days?
Four.

6. How many times have you been swimming in the last 6 days?
Six.

7. Does your bathroom smell like the ocean, and how can I have the same scent?
Yes, just place a salty, wet, seaweed filled bathing suit on your towel drying rack until dry. Repeat.

8. How many times did you eat clams in the last 6 days?
see answer to number 5. We had them cooked, mixed with noodles in a linguini sauce, cooked, as well as in a ceviche, that is, raw with chopped up tomato, onion, cilantro, and lime juice.

9. How grateful were the children?
“Aw, clams, AGAIN. I’m not hungry.”- L

9. What was it like to eat clams 4 times?
I loved every minute of it, since I’d helped harvest them. Things just taste better when you had some part in it’s preparation. And I appreciated a reason to be in the ocean that was different than “swimming and enjoying it!”

10. Do you know anyone famous in literature?
Well, we bought our house and land here in Mexico from a relative of someone whose is true character of a current best selling Non-Fiction book.

11. Do children bathe outside in Mexico?
At least 2. I was dropping off Jazmin, one of the ladies that cooks and cleans for us, when her 2 boys dashed inside the house, hoping I didn’t see them. Apparentlly they were embarrassed. Everybody in the car laughed.

12. What are alternatives to regular lice treatment?
Hair dye, vinagre, then blowdrying your roots/scalp every other day or so until the lifecycle has cycled. It really works. I think I’m like 6 weeks clean at this point.

13. How do you interact with cows tied to stakes in the middle of the field?
I taunt them and tell them to eat me instead of the grass. My daughter J—says, “They won’t eat you, they don’t like junk food.” ☺

"Every now and again sometimes...

...I get lost on the wind of a dream
The air gets clean and the seas get wide
and I can do anything" -Anything by Mae

A lot of things have gone undocumented in the last 2 weeks. I guess I have to be ok with that.

I’ve been meaning to post some of my favorite quotes. Maybe another day.

When you have to put “Enjoy My Day” on your to do list, something might be wrong.

So a couple weeks ago we had a bonfire on the beach. It was the first time I’ve been on the beach late at night down here. I usually try to be in bed. It was lovely though. The next day we went back out there, and the ashes from our fire were still there, a reminder of the activity the day before. It made me realize every object has someone’s memories attached to it, and I began to glance around and try to see what objects would call to mind images, songs, and conversations for others. As a result of the fire I have been motivated to learn the chords on piano (and possibly guitar, ack!) of some of my favorite songs so that I can contribute musically to group activities. We’ll see.

Yesterday we got 15 pounds of Mangos for 5 dollars. That was amazing.

We found a black widow in our house. I, of course, didn’t know it was a black widow, until several people reacted very violently to the idea that I was carrying Mr. Eats-People-For-A-Living around in a plastic container and showing it to people. Innocent mistake!

This week I have seen 4 dead mice and one dead Chicken. We are unaware of the cause of death for the chicken...no blood, no guts, no coconuts… and 2 of the mice (although I suspect rat poison.) I DO know the other two mice were whacked by brooms. I’m not sure if we are imitating the movies, or if the movies are imitating real life. But there certainly is a correlation.

I found clothes that I had lost this week. Except that, I didn’t know any of the things were missing. It might be because we’re drying our laundry on the line to use our money more wisely, and then things float away. (You can imagine the electricity and gas for 25 people’s laundry) I’ve been doing laundry more often than I used to. I think I’m enjoying hanging it on the line, or maybe just the excuse to be alone, or maybe the sunshine. And it dries so stinking fast! But as soon as I have enough for one load, I’m on it. Plus, I love the novelty of having 6 or 7 clotheslines (some short for Mexican women, some tall for whoever).

Last week Joanne and Steve went to Tijuana/Ensenada with some of the kids to do 3 doctors appts. 1 for Steve, 2 for my daughter C— so I had 9 of the kids for 36 hours. Another Joanne came to help me both days, and Jazmin (one of the ladies that cooks/cleans for us) cooked lunch. I was fully prepared to cook a really complicated dinner, but the kids just wanted nachos and cheese. We also made our own popcorn, on the stove! What a learning experience. I learned how to effectively take out the trash, as well as the right way to toss it into the trailer so that none of it leaks out onto your head.

Two days ago, Jacob and I took some of his siblings, my kids, and other kids to the beach. We had a blast, and I finally braved the ocean water b/c there were DOLPHINS hanging out. I didn’t quite make it out to them, but put in a good effort. The kids rode bikes to and from the beach, and I tried to help one of them that was having difficulty, but then it ate my skirt. 4 times. Luckily I had my bathing suit on. I rode it standing up, instead of sitting down on the seat. I’ll post a picture later ☺ (of the dolphins, not of me awkwardly riding a bike). At one point we ran down the beach chasing the dolphins, and Marina was “videotaping” them, but she got so excited in her pursuit that she filmed the ground, camera bobbing as she ran, with her loud shouting narrating what we could see. "Look, it's right there, right there, a dolphin, near the shore, no 4 dolphins, look, they're jumping, right there, do you see it?"

"The pain it won't even cross my mind
There's wonder in everything"

(that water was stinking COLD. I asked if I could have gotten hypothermia. But was told I wouldn't die.)

anyways. that's it for today.

School starts in a week! and imagination takes us to London...

I babysat a 2.75 year old the other day that says “oh man” often, and it’s adorably precious. He wouldn’t take a nap, and I called his mom and she said to try a video, so I put in a Francis Shaffer lecture that I had never seen before, but unfortunately there were images that were not baby appropriate, and he didn’t fall asleep either. We tried another movie, Chaim Potok’s “The Chosen” (read the book it’s better than the movie) but that didn’t put him to sleep either.

We have 3 new girls. 2 (sisters) came last week, and one came yesterday. It was hard to talk to her b/c her eyes were welled up with tears even though she was smiling. Could you imagine something horrible happening to you, and one indirect consequence is that you’re taken away from the only source of love and comfort you’ve known all your life, your 8 brothers and sisters. They are protecting her by putting her here, but I can’t imagine that she feels that protection.

My girls are upstairs singing and playing the guitar together right now. I’m glad to hear them hanging out like that, it doesn’t happen often.

C—-‘s family that tried to adopt her visited this past week. She was ecstatic the whole time they were here, hanging out and loving it. It was a high high, and then a low low. She cried Friday night, trying to hide herself in a closet so as not to bother everyone, and she might have been embarrassed that she’s crying. My girls just turned up the music and tried to sleep. Then she cried off and on all Saturday. It was tough.

School starts next week, which means getting up a lot earlier, more stress in the morning, etc. It feels like summer break was short, but my two “homeschoolers” have been working on their stuff all summer, so maybe that’s why it felt short.

Our streets were graded last week. It is AMAZING the difference on some of the roads. I didn’t get a chance to take a picture though.

One of the men in our town has a jeep, the old rusty kind without a top, and his kids have a toy jeep. As I was outside the other day, he passed me and I noticed a rope attached to the top of his jeep. This rope also was wrapped around his little boys truck. 3 were in the real thing, and 2 in the toy one. SOOOO cute, albeit a little dangerous.

M might have a job! She sold handcrafts (bracelets, bags, etc.) at the market last Friday with a friend of ours. It sounds like she’ll be doing it every Friday. I think this might be the type of job she could do really well at. When she asked to go, she told me she needed to “learn how to work” and I said, “yes, you do.” But I didn’t act excited for her, b/c the moment an adult is excited about something, it’s uncool for a teenager. I chose to make it sound like a privilege. “Did you study enough this week, do your chores, is your room clean? Well then I guess it’s ok with me.” Although I would never want to say she can’t go work, I gotta make her work for it. Har har.

I’ve been waiting for the perfect hot day to swim, jump in the ocean, etc. all summer long. Well, it’s starting to get cool again, and I didn’t do much swimming b/c it was always windy. Now I’ve found out that it’s windy all summer long here. Opps!

We have this problem in our laundry room, that if someone wants to put their things in the dryer, but it already has clothes in it, they dump them out and put the clothes wherever there is room. Well, we’ve started to use clotheslines instead to save money on electricity and gas, and I thought this might also mean less mess in the laundry room. Not so much. I asked C---- to wash her clothes, even though there were some clothes on the 5 clotheslines we have. The next morning I notice all her clothes are on the line, but J---‘s clothes aren’t. I went into the laundry room, and here are his clothes piled on the machine. Apparently, she wasn’t satisfied with using the 2 empty lines, and had decided to take his off the line even though they weren’t dry yet. ☺ what a bad habit!

L--- , 9 yrs old, was left in charge of stirring a rather large pot of pea soup the other night. He was standing on a chair of course, since he’s short. I walked into the kitchen and here he is talking in a funny accent about how we are in London b/c they have a lot of pea soup in London. He has the best imagination ever.

Having the therapist here that specialized in trama of children was FABULOUS. I learned so much that I didn’t know. If only she could have stayed doing therapy with them. But we’ll just be the best parents we can.

Steve Y has heart bypass surgery on the 18th.

Teenagers are so funny. I noticed the other night, that one of them was doing things so other people would notice them, but in such a way that it looked like they weren’t trying to be noticed. Does that make sense? Being seen while acting like they don’t want to be seen.

Well, I put up more photos, adding some to an old album, and making a new one! Enjoy.

Mexico 8

Mexico 9