pssst. wanna buy a watch Milk?

Scene:
Motel Parking Lot

Actors:
Adult Woman
Young Adult Woman
Man in Trench coat selling fine Swiss watches, I mean, Milk.





Today is grocery day. Last week on grocery day, we had a BIG stroke of luck. I didn’t have my camera with me, but a story so outside the imagination naturally entreats you to believe it.
We were on the lookout for the Lala man. He sells dairy products. We’ve special ordered through a grocery store to stock products they don't have, and have phoned the GS repeatedly to ask if they were in yet, once we phoned every day for a week, only to have them NEVER follow through. The result of their inattention was that we decided to take things into our own hands. As we drove to the grocery store 35 minutes away, our eyes played “Where’s Waldo?”, except the refrigerated semi-truck wasn’t red and white striped. When I made the happy discovery we pulled into a local motels parking lot! My allegedly miss-spent youth reading those "Where's Waldo" books proved well spent.
We didn’t have to knock on any motel room doors, they were already in their trucks- like they were about to make some deliveries. You see, they drive two hours south to us. They spend the day delivering to area grocery stores, stay the night in town, spend the next day delivering and then drive back. Wash, Rinse, Repeat!
Paying them in the parking lot, I felt like we were waiting to get caught by some area grocery store owner who might say, “Lala man, you’re stealing our profits! Stop it!” Granted, buying directly from them makes a lot of items cheaper. Milk is 40 cents cheaper a gallon, and milk for 25 people adds up quick!
My favorite part about all of it was they walked the milk, sour cream, and yogurt to the car. Or maybe my favorite part was when they offered to make home deliveries whenever we called them. Or maybe them charitably giving us more change back than we were owed because “we’re doing a good thing.” Or maybe my favorite part was having ALL the products we wanted, and in the SIZES we wanted at our fingertips!! (It’s embarrassing and pitiful to buy 8 small sour creams, even more so a waste of plastic, when you could purchase 2 large sour creams. Better to bring home 8 than none at all or 24 people ask you repeatedly “where is the sour cream? Why don’t we have sour cream?”.)

Life goals:
1. Scuba Dive
2. Read every Chaim Potok novel
3. Buy Milk in a motel parking lot
4. See the Cristo Redentor in Rio de Janiero, Brazil

I feel like a more whole person as a result of this...
and I’d say Milk is probably the only thing I’ll ever buy in a motel parking lot.

Coffee!

One morning, C—asked me for coffee. She’s not a usual coffee drinker, but she seen all of us do it, right? Wrong, maybe.
She heated up a glass of water in the microwave, walked over to the canister with grounds in it, and started to spoon the grounds into her cup! Frantically preventing her, I stopped her and said, No! She said, “but you said, Yes?” insinuating that I was a meanie for changing my mind unjustly. “You can have coffee, just not this way.” I assured her while pouring her a cup from the coffee pot, taking her hot water for my own to make tea with. Then showed her how the grounds go in the coffee maker, not in the cup. In a year and a half I have NEVER seen instant coffee in our house, only beans/grounds. But maybe it’s so Mexican, that that’s the only way SHE knows. (Honestly, when I go to the grocery store, the instant coffee products FAR outweigh the good stuff.)

Today, Johanne and Steve leave with Abigail to go to their sons M.A. graduation in Texas, and then to Johanne mom's for her 80th birthday party! They'll be gone ten days, with more of the kids leaving Sunday with Tani. I'll be manning down the fort, but I believe the new house mom will be helping me, as well as Hannah! (who I adore for making this sacrifice!) I think we'll make it, especially if C-- can make the coffee for me :) I know that will be big time saver. hehe.

The Shower of Doom!!!

I had a funny moment with C--. She started her shower upstairs, but there was no water, which happens. She left, and forgot to turn the shower knobs back to off. After she was in the other house for a while, showering over there, I heard a noise. It sounded like someone showering! I ran upstairs and shut the shower off because apparently it had begun working. When she came back in the house, I mimed everything that had happened. I didn’t get to the part where I’d shut the shower back off, because she had already ran upstairs horrified as fast as a gazelle, but clumsily like a rhino, shouting “oh. perdon” the whole way. I can only imagine she got a couple bruises in the process.

quiet.

so, I’ve realized that in the last week or so, I haven’t had a moment of quiet. Every moment no child was near me I’ve had my iPod on. Today, a sermon to which I was listening, ended, and I decided not to find something else to listen to, and it was shocking hearing all my thoughts. Granted I’ve only listened to “good” things, but even good things that bring you away from yourself aren’t good. I did listen to Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, that was an accomplishment!

Today I was reading part of Ruth to the girls. Boaz’s name in Spanish is Booz. M—said, oh, like Bus in English! It was precious.

J—was taking a nap on the couch today when two little girls rung the doorbell and asked about taking some costumes out of my dress up clothes box. I said it was ok, but that they had to be super quiet b/c J—was sleeping. They shut the door SOOOOO carefully, which is tricky b/c my door always slams. They tip-toed in, but in stark contrast L-- walked over to J—and poked J—‘s head with her finger. I just don’t get it.

Mother's day Monday?

I need to write. I took Sunday off b/c one of my weekend entries, while dramatic, was all about what one of my girls shockingly did to upset me. I deleted it, but later, I do hope to tell the story, but not in such a mean way. Yesterday was Mother’s day here. And as seems to be tradition, people come to your house singing “Las Mañanitas” at all hours of the night. Johanne, was woken up three times. One of the ladies of her church had paid her son to play it on his guitar at 3am. My girls knew I wanted to sleep, so they left me alone ☺ I now have a basil plant, which I hope not to kill.

I’ve got some things I’d like to write about, but it’s been one of those crazy mornings. Not only are 2 of my girls studying for 1 exam each tonite, but we need to make lunch, rather unexpectedly, and making tortillas for 25 people is a large undertaking.

Pray that they do well tonite on their exams!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m gonna send out a “support” email this week, hopefully. Johanne put together a little newsletter that I’d like to get out.

(oh, today was all the kids first day back. BUT one of my kids got sent home b/c apparently they had a doctor come to the school and send home any kids who could be “contagious”. They sent her with a pretty letter explaining and a form indicating various conditions. The only box checked was cough, but that was enough to have her walk HOME BY HERSELF, without notifying us. She is allowed to walk home, but with her sisters, not alone. Their school is sooo different than the ones I’ve taught in. If she weren’t honest, maybe she wouldn’t have come home right away.)

I didn't get to talk to my Mom for Mother's day, but I certainly tried. I think it was good though b/c one of my kids asked to call her mother, which I didn't think was a good idea, and so I said no. She said, "Did you talk to your mother today?" and I could honestly answer her, "No."

in which the question marks tell the story.

I had a misunderstanding with the ladies that work for us. We keep some of our food products locked in a little storage shed that we call the “bodega.” This is generally the first place donations go before they go to other needy families, missionary families, or into our kitchen. Recently we decided to try buying bulk (works great for our family) and had gotten like 100 lbs. of flour. As it wouldn’t really fit in our kitchen, at least not at the expense of other food products, we put it out in the bodega.
Since I have a key to the Bodega, the lady cooking for us asked me to bring her flour. I asked her how much she wanted, and she said “half.” I wasn’t sure though, and thought I’d clarify. Half?? And she said “like half of the white thing” or “la mitad de lo blanco.” The bag of flour is white. Panic seized me. What was I going to tell her? That she is being unreasonable asking for 50 lbs of flour? That we can’t afford it? That I don’t have time to bring her an entire half of bag?** That we just bought that flour two days earlier and it’s meant to last us for a while? What is she cooking that she needs 50 lbs of flour? Does this mean we can only have homemade tortillas twice this week? I also was worried b/c I’d offered to help her, in my continued quest to learn to cook like a Mexican.
Thinking I had gotten in over my head I started backing away from her, so as to not catch HER type of crazy, saying “uh, no te entiendo.” The gringa way out, except that she knows me pretty well so she waited and I, as always, was tempted to talk more. “We use half just for OUR family? Are you sure? Do really want it up till half???” bearing my teeth in a half smile as if to say, “change your mind now lady” and then biting my lower lip in my insecurity. Bending over, she pulled out of the cupboard the giganto white plastic bowl she ALWAYS uses to make tortilla dough in.
"Oh, so not half the bag, half of this container." I sheepishly said, assessing whether my non-native Spanish was to blame.
I don’t know how many pounds of flour it holds, but after we had a good laugh and I told her every single confused thought I'd had, I found it weighs less than her 2 year old son, and is about 12 scoops of a regular size soup bowl.

**whole half was so much more tempting to write.

This may have been a lot more hilarious experiencing it than reading it, but I assure you, dear reader, we've mentioned it almost every day we've seen each other since. And we were laughing so hard we were crying, so if you're not crying there is something wrong with you.

We'll even do homework we're so bored...

School was supposed to be canceled only until Thursday. Now it’s canceled until Monday ☺ This easily puts the kids at 5 weeks without school in the last 8 weeks. 2.5 weeks for pig flu, 2 weeks for Easter, and a few federal holidays/teacher meetings sprinkled in for good measure. Kids really need a schedule. And so do Moms.

We’ve tried to make things fun for the kids. They went on a little camping vacation to a water park and the mountains for 4 days, we’ve played soccer, baseball, cards, house, restaurant, kitchen. We’ve put them to work cooking and cleaning more than usual. But they are INCREDIBLY bored.

How do you know, you ask? Supernatural Mom-sense??
No. They tell me, “I’m bored.” A lot. And then look at me like I have a vaccination for boredom. Said cure would probably include unlimited shopping at the "globos" (used toys, cds, used clothes, used anything-you-can-think-of, and fresh junk food) as well as non stop movie marathons. Neither of which am I willing to provide.

I've even told them that I consider the word "bored" to be a swear. So they say it when they know I'm listening especially ;)

But the kicker Tuesday was the kids were showing me the homework they had to do from last week, legit. We worked on it, fully knowing they weren’t going back for some more time. Then the girls brought me MORE homework, and said they had forgot to tell me their teacher assigned this page, and they have to read this book and so on and so forth. Hehe. They’ve been without school so long, they’re making up their own homework. That is true desperation.

Two of the girls that I do school at home with have exams Monday night, one is taking Math, the other Civics. The civics stuff is stinking hard, I’m even having trouble helping her study for it (and more so b/c all the kids that go to public school have been home having fun!). The one taking math asked me today, “when are you going to let me stop doing math papers?” and I said, “when you pass this exam.” She didn’t know what a solar calculator was, but was given one by the gov’t to complete her math book. It didn’t have a battery in it, and the back was open (it does have a spot for back up battery if you want) and she said to me, “I can’t use this. We need to buy batteries. Why do they give me stuff that doesn’t serve its purpose?” So I said, what’s 2 times 4, She told me the answer, and I pressed the buttons. Turning the face of the calc to her face, she said, wow. She was so amazed that it worked! What a fun moment! She was really confused until I explained it was a solar calculator. She’s heard of solar power, and some families we know have it, so it made perfect sense. Steve has plans to make the new house he’s working on all solar power powered, but I think it’s gonna be a big job.

P.S. I'll be home exactly a month from today. Let's do something! ooh! and job leads, if you have any. AND they are talking to a prospective woman to take my place. we'll see!!!