...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.
.
.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
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???)
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???)
Friday, September 26, 2008
"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.
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.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
"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.
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.
Friday, September 19, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
"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!
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!
Monday, September 15, 2008
"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. ;)
(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. ;)
Friday, September 12, 2008
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!!!
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!!!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
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!
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!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
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!
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!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
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.” ☺
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.” ☺
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