Tex-Mex Mommy

Reflections of this year's Homeschool

2011-05-17T15:51:00.000-07:00

the school year is fastly coming to an end! i really enjoyed this year with the kids at home. i know they have had moments when they missed school, but all i needed to do was mention the tests, homework, pressure of feeling up to their level, and they were once again content. school was good for them on a social level, but i defintily see a difference in their progress and stress level being at home.

we had a good year. i am loveing Charlotte Mason! at the beginning of the year i was excited but a bit leary as to the effectiveness of such an open way of learning, but over the time i have seen the benefits of narrations, transcriptions, open nature studies, etc... i am sure that many would have done things differently but i see several benefits to what we did and how we did it. just a couple of the advances I have seen are:

Aaron:
has read more books this year than the last couple of years put together!
has found an interest in science
has improved his handwriting GREATLY!
continues to do well in math. (better than mommy at times)
feels confident that he understands what he reads and can reproduce the information he has learned. (at the beginning of the year they would narrate what they had read and I would write it down as they told me. one day after the exercise with aaron, he looked at the page of writing and said, "Wow! I understood ALL THAT!" he was suprised that he could actually narrate a page of information!

Emily:
has GREATLY improved her confidence in reading! YES YES YES!!!!! this was my #1 priority for her! if she didn't get anything else out of this year, at least she got rid of the idea that she wasn't as good as other readers!
she has enjoyed reading books like Pipi Longstockings and the Littles
has gotten rid of that ridiculous idea that she is dumb!! (thank you Jesus!)
has improved in math skills
loves art and has found new ways to express herself artisticly.
enjoys narrating what she has read or learned

there are several things i would like us to improve/add next year.

i think one of the main and resounding things would be record keeping of:
books read
narrations given
learning activities
if not on paper, at least blog them for future reference.

i would also (and plan on doing it) buy a nature study guide to have a little more structure on what we have learned and when.

next year looks to be alot of the same wonderful learning. as i mentioned above, i plan on buying Anne Comstocks book on nature study. we will be using the teaching textbooks for math, and continue with narration, transcription for english and spelling. i played with the idea of buying a Charlotte Mason book on transcription, but when i looked at it, it seemed to be just what we did this year! we will continue with the Mystery of History which has been soooo interesting. i think learning cronologically is the best way to learn history! so much easier to put things in their place and remeber more or less when it was that things happened. and having the bible events included right along with world events is a big bonus!

i was tempted, VERY TEMPTED to go back to the A Beka route. their glossy, colorful workbook pages and beautifully designed posters becon to my perfeccionist side, but the idea of just doing workbooks and more workbooks everyday and having everything sooo structured kept me from pressing the "add to cart" button. i might look in to their music dvd's since our great music teacher is moving back to the USA. we'll see.

i am thanking God for this great year, and pray that next year will be equally or more successful!!!

Midwife? Really?

2011-05-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

You know, I am not inclined to anything medical... I get light headed at the THOUGHT of blood. My husband has to revive me with rubbing alcohol if I cut myself... and to see my children in pain or bleeding...

So HOW IN THE WORLD would I even think of becoming a midwife?

In December a friend of mine told me about the opportunity to learn to be a doula. SHE told me that a doula was someone who would take vital stats during prenatal visits, then could help with follow-up visits on how to care for the babies. That sounded right up my alley. I love babies, I have a heart for new mommies, so I decided to sign up!

In January we had our Doula training course, and we were blessed to sit at the feet of an experienced midwife and learn all about the birth process. We learned to take blood pressure, temperature, do a urine analysis, check pulse, and even how to do CPR on a new born! The course was sooooo interesting, and I had never seen birth presented in such a natural, non/scary, beautiful way! (My own experiences with birth were borderline traumatic with c-sections and faulty anesthesia.)But during the time with our guest midwife I realised that, and I know this is gonna sound really dumb, God created us with a natural and beautiful gift! Giving birth lost all it's scariness, and I was amazed to see how completely perfect the whole process really is!!!

By the end of the week I was hooked, and was even ready to seek out the closest midwife school and sign up!

OK, I have a tendency to want to run before I even learn to crawl... I know! It's a big defect I have. If I realize that I can do something, I have a tendency to jump in and start doing it. No doubts or second thoughts.

So, since January I have been volunteer/working two days a week at the new Christian based Natural Birth Center called Casa Compasiva. A couple of days after my birthday in March I attended my first birth as a doula, and was the support for the birthing mommy. It was the most amazing thing I have even witnessed!

We are now in May and we just had an INTENSE 3 day seminar on how to use the ultrasound to calculate dates, growth, amniotic fluid, and check placenta size, position and health. It was also amazing!

I haven't been so excited about something like this in a long time. I really feel a strong calling to further my studies and next year enter in the midwife training course. In the meantime my "favorites bar" on the lap-top is now full of natural birth sites, midwife blogs, and birthing videos. I have several books I have been reading, and even Emily is "getting into" my new interest. We recently had an in depth talk about babies and pregnancy, and she wants me to deliver her own babies someday. But first she has decided that she needs to marry a Christian man whose parents were twins so that she can have twins too! :) I told her she needed to pray on that one for awhile!

Please pray for me on this new journey of learning! I thank God for my hubby who has been 100% supportive in everything! I feel so blessed to have found a new way to serve Christ through serving others!

The Doula/midwife/doctor team for Casa Compasiva's first birth

The Lessons I learn : Patience is a virtue

2011-04-07T15:12:00.000-07:00

I am NOT patient. Not very often that is. Today God taught me a lesson, and not in the usual trying way. I see it as a lesson in love...

So, I was grocery shopping in the vegetable section when two dirty, messy, beautiful little girls a bit younger than my Emi walked past me. They were speaking dialect, and walking up and down the fruit aisles. They stopped by the lemons and began to fill two small bags. A couple of the round, green fruit tumbled down the sloping pile and rolled across the floor to my feet. My heart cried out... "buy them SOMETHING!" So I approached the two, noticing the looks on the faces of other clients as they watched this odd interaction. It's not everyday you see a "gringa" and beggar children chatting in the middle of the fruits and vegetables seccion of Chedraui.

I asked them if I could buy them some mangoes, and they smiled shyly and nodded. I picked out 5 of the juiciest mangos. It didn't seem enough, though. "How about chocolate milk?" "Do you like chocolate milk?" They looked at each other and spoke something I couldn't understand. I then realised that they didn't know what chocolate milk was, so I offered them juice instead. The smiles came back to their faces and we walked to the fruit isle. I asked them how many, and one of them said 5. '"For mama and hermanito." When I turned around the other girl had disappeared. "Where is your sister?" The remainig girl nervously said "comida". Soon the sister was back at our side. She had a take out box of chicken wings, a kilo of tortillas, and a liter soda in her arms. I then realised that they had been sent not only to buy lemons, but to purchase their meal for the day. Chicken wings, tortillas and soda.

We checked out quickly, I paid for their original purchases also. I shook their hands and wished them a good day. "God bless you!"I said, and they were off. I held back tears all the way back to my shopping cart that was still waiting for me next to the mangos. It felt good, but soo futile with all the need we see everyday.

This is where the patience came in: I finished my selections, met up with the kids and Jorge who were off in other sections of the store, and headed to the front of the store. We used a different register than the one I had used earlier, and proceeded to check out. After unloading two weeks worth of groceries, and getting them bagged, Jorge handed the checker our bank card BUT the card swiper thingy wouldn't work. Denied, DENIED, DENIED it kept saying. That's bad enough, but with each swipe there was a loud BEEEEEP anouncing our supposed lack of funds to all within earshot.

I am quite suprised with my reaction here. I am NOT well known for my calmness in situations as these. There are usually huffs and puffs and at times unkind words that escape my lips... but this time I calmly walked over to a peanut vendor, bought some sugar coated peanuts (quite yummy by the way) and offered some to the senior citizen in charge of bagging the groceries, and to the checker who were now waiting while Jorge went to the ATM to get money. For what seemed like AGES we stood eating peanuts until my hubby appeared with the dough.

We finally paid for our purchases, thanked the checker and the grocery bagger and headed for the exit. Half way to the door, one of the other baggers stopped me. "Mam," he said. "I saw what you did for those little girls, and I wanted to congratulate you for your human compassion." And he didn't stop there... "I also saw your reaction right now and can tell you have a heart of love." This is where I got REAL TEARY. "Thank you for your example and God bless you!" he said! The only thing I could musster to say was a very squeeky "Gracias"and a big teary smile.

The lesson in patience you ask? If I had reacted as my usual inpacient, bad attitude self, this man who had been watching me would have said, "What good did it do for her to show charity on those two non suspecting girls, and then be horrible to the poor checker girl and grocery bagger." My early good deed would have been canceled out by my latter bad attitude.

I truly believe the Spirit moved me to these actions so that I could realise the importance of being consistent in our attitutdes. God showed me the importance of patience in a beautiful, graceous way! Thank you God for your lessons of love!!!!!

Love Hurts (I Cor. 13:4)

2011-01-27T10:22:00.000-08:00

Love hurts. It really, really does. Not always. Not in every situation, but there are definitly times when showing love causes pain. I know this from experience.

You probably know by now that we have been trying to adopt for quite some time now. We originally began the whole adoption process through the local government agency. It has been 2 years since we began the process, and have basicly been told that we will always be on the waiting list since we already have children. That hurts. But we hope in the Lord that in His time, all things will work for good.

About two weeks ago a dear friend called wanting to know if we would be interested in adopting from a 15 yr. old girl who had been visiting his mom who is a midwife. The young girl became pregnant through an act of violence and her mother had encouraged her to have an abortion. Although she herself had suffered horribly, she was not willing to cause suffering to this new life in her womb. Her mother threw her out. So she was now on her own, left to her own luck.

Our hearts began to swell with love and hope! We sooo desired to adopt, and we also felt so horrible for this young girl who was abandoned!

We told our friend, yes, and began to investigate the legalities involved. Time passed, and we became busy with my mom leaving for the States, my classes for doula training, organizing homeschool...

Last Firday afternoon we received a phone call. The girl was in labor, and they were taking her to the government hospital since she was very nervous. We rushed to the hospital and got a glipse of her right as she was taken into emergency. We stayed downstairs (government hospitals do not let ANYONE in but the pacient) until 12:30am praying for her and waiting for any news. We finally got word that she had had a baby girl and that they were both fine. We went home drained of all emotion.

Saturday morning we got up early and went back to the Hospital. They wouldn't give us information until 10:30am. So we headed to shop for clothing and toilletries for the mom (her clothes were bloody and ruined, there was no family to see for her needs) and supplies for the baby. When we returned at 10:30 there was still no word so we decided to call a friend who was a nurse there. She told me to wait at the main entrance and she would get me in.

All this time I was repeating "love casts out fear... love casts out fear..." My mind swam with complications. We had events planned... things to get ready... But I knew that God must know what He was doing! He would work it all out. We just had to act out of love! I think I knew in my heart that she might change her mind. Being with her baby all night long... It being a girl.... I was not naive, but knew I had to act out of love. I could not abandon her as others had done.

Both the mommy and baby are beautiful. Mommy is soft spoken, very small as 15 year olds tend to be... Baby has a perfect round face, pale skin, and lots of dark hair. She reminds of me of my little Emily when she was born.

We paid the hospital bill and got mommy and baby back to the midwife's home around 4:30 or 5:00pm. There in a dark little room made out of tin with a cement floor, was a metal base for a bed. It was propped up on cement blocks and was topped off with a layer of card board, a mat made out of woven palm, and 2 thin blankets, five dogs barking right outside the door. I talked a bit with the Mommy, gave her small details about our family, how much we wanted another baby, and asked her about her own situation. She had rented a room with a friend from work, but the past few months she was living with an old friend of the family until she could get back on her feet. She wanted to study, become a nurse or a teacher. She wanted to make something of her life. She knew she would never be able to take care of a baby, return to work, AND go to school. She knew that she couldn't give her baby anything. She knew she had to give her up. I felt horrible for her and even thought, "couldn't we adopt both mommy and baby?"

At 6:30pm, after a very tearful and emotional goodbye, we left with baby in arms. We immediatly went to talk with a judge who put our mind at ease and told us the legal steps to take. The next day, Sunday, it was imparitive for us to find the baby's grandmother since the mom was under aged.

We brought Emi and Aaron home and explained that nothing would be final, we could not call her our own, until we signed with a judge. In the meantime we were just showing love to this little baby girl. We took turns praying for her and her mommy, then went off to bed. All exhausted from the events and emotions. I hardly slept that night with the tiny (4 lb.) baby in my arms. Checking her breathing, checking her heart... she just seemed sooo tiny and vulnerable.

Sunday morning Jorge went to church alone, and the kids and I took turns holding and cuddling baby. Maybe we could have done this differently, but we acted out of love.

After services, Jorge went to see the mommy to get directions to find her mother. As her headed down the highway towards the pueblito, he got a phone call from the midwife. The mommy had finally decided. She didn't want to give her baby away. It was the worst moment I had felt in a long time. The kids were terribly dissappointed. We all held each other and cried.

Jorge decided to pick up the mommy and take her to get the baby so that she would be at peace and not spend that time anxiously wondering if we really were going to bring the baby back. I think it was the best thing. She got to see where we live, she got to meet Emily and Aaron, she got to witness the love we had for her and her baby. Aaron and Emi got to see that she was not a horrible person, but a young girl that needed love, and was facing the toughest decision of her life!

We gave her all the paper work, tore up the signed agreement of adoption, packed up the baby supplies for her to take, and kissed little baby one last time.

Jorge and I both felt uneasy all that night. We felt like we could have done so much more for this young girl who was facing a wall of uncertainty. Monday morning we talked and decided that we could do more. We could offer both mom and baby a home, a family, schooling, an opportunity.

We offered her our home and hearts. We gave her our information, phone number, address. We definitly see how God used us in all this. Any other family would have taken the baby and fled. Never looking back, never trying to formalize the adoption legally. The girl would have never seen her baby again. She would have been devestated, and would have had to live with her pain and guilt for the rest of her life. We told our kids that we didn't lose a baby. It was never our own. We DID find a new friend, and hopefully begin a new relationship. God wants us always to extend our hands in love to those who need our help. They agreed it was the right thing to do.

Love hurts, but it is always the right thing to do!

Baby Bumper

2011-01-12T11:37:00.000-08:00

I am making a baby bumper for a dear friend who just gave birth to her second son.

Not only am I making the baby bumper, but also the crib comforter, sheets, and headboard pad. It's quite a challenge for me!

Today as I was finishing the bumper pad, I was thinking of how similar it is to my life. You see, from a distance, it looks like its turning out pretty good! But once you get closer you begin to see all the little flaws and quirks that make it, well, less than perfect. It's material patterns are nice, the combination, the design of the appliques... but when you take a closer look at the bias tape and see how some of the stitches have turned out wonky and there are a few puckers here and there... If I made a list and pointed out all of my flaws, I would probably stuff it in a bag and hide it somewhere far from sight!

It's not like I was TRYING to do a sloppy job. Nor was I intentionally leaving it messy because of laziness. I am doing my best with the knowledge that I have. I am not letting the lack of knowledge hold me back either. I think I have learned more while working on this project that any other time. I have taken out I don't know HOW many stitches and re-positioned the material. The next time I make a baby bumper, it will probably turn out ALOT better.

Isn't that alot like our lives? From a distance it might seem that we are doing pretty darn OK. But if we take a real "nit-picky" view of it, we are sure to find a couple of flaws. I think that if we get caught up in those flaws, we will feel discouraged, worthless, and even depressed. Someone once told me guilt is one of Satan's favorite tools. And I think that constant focus on our flaws can bring on a sense of guilt for our shortcomings.

I am NOT saying that we should just fold our hands and make no effort at all to better ourselves. NOT AT ALL. What I am saying is that we need to do our best at all times, using the knowledge we have, and learning from our mistakes. We don't need to beat ourselves up about the little flaws that make us human. We DO need to examen our hearts to make sure we are always doing our best and giving our best to the Lord.

If Satan is constantly bringing up your flaws, you CAN say, "SHUT UP!" "It is God's grace that saves me!" "I AM doing my best as for the Lord, not for any man, much LESS for you!" **

Sometimes it is healthy to step back and see the BIG PICTURE and free ourselves from the wonky details that Satan tries to distract us with!

**Eph. 2:5 , Col. 3:23-24

Thinking...

2011-01-07T13:38:00.000-08:00

Thinking about quite a few things lately. I should be thinking about getting that homemade pizza dough ready for my 9 yr old's birthday party in a few minutes... but here I am.

Seems God has been speaking to me through quite a few people here lately. He has been talking to me about His power that is within me.

I think He is telling me, "Hello, you CAN do this!!! I made you with the power to help you!"

The "this"for me is quite a few things. From the normal, everyday things like not loosing my temper with my kid-o's, to beginning a new realtionship that I feel He is guiding me towards, all the way to getting involved with a new ministry that really calls my attention.

I'm tired of being that "should'a, would'a, could'a" person that I have been in the past. Always lingering on the things I could have done or should have done, and not every really tapping into the inner power of my spirit to DO what I feel led to do!

Sure, some of the things aren't mind benders to get done, but on the BIG ones, I really have the tendency to find all the reasones not to do them, then live wishing that I would have.

People who avoid responsibility REALLY annoy me. Then it hit me that I have the tendency to do the same. Look for a way OUT.

Yesterday I listened to Brian Mashburn of Southwest C of C in Amarillo and his sermon on resolutions. What really stood out to me (it was a great sermon by the way) was the idea that we ALL have a great inner power that can move us to do great things! It's just that we don't ever really RESOLVE ourselves to do those great things. Remember that verse that says, "Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength..." Well, isn't that speaking of an inner power. And how about the one that says, "Do ALL things as if for the LORD..." We just need to tap into His power.

So I went over to The Hills C of C to see what their New Years sermon was on. You have to buy it. That's another subject I won't go to right now... BUT turns out an old friend of mine was there in October giving a Ladies Seminar so I listened to her first class.

She had the example of clay pots. There are 3 things that make up a clay pot.

1. An idea in the Potter's Mind of how it should be

2. The clay which is lifeless in itself

3. Hands

This applies to me in this way:

1. God has and has had an idea of how He wants me to be since the beginning of times.

2. I was born and have lived my life as well as I have known

3. My FAITH in God's word will help me tap into HIS POWER to shape me into the person that He has planned me to be. (Thanks Liz Pense)

God's POWER is in me. Growing up in His WORD has given me the FAITH that has molded me into what I am today. BUT He hasn't taken me off the potter's wheel yet. There is so much more I CAN DO, much more HE CAN DO THROUGH ME.

And so all this is still just floating about on the surface of my brain right now, but what I believe will settle into place is one main idea:

I need to RESOLVE to use that INNER POWER to become the person HE AS PLANNED ME TO BECOME. STARTING TODAY.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-05T22:25:00.000-08:00

Christmas this year was:

A visit from Granma...

a healthy intake of sugar...

decorations...

Homemade projects...

presents around the mini tree...

baking...

Christmas lunch with Family and Friends ...

YUM YUM YUM!

Hope you had a Merry Christmas!!!

We have a new friend in the house!!

2011-01-05T21:41:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited! We were VERY blessed in December to find this nice little piano to bring home. I say WE. It was actually my dearest hubby and son who "stumbled"upon it during a bike ride to a neighboring village one afternoon. They stopped to buy some water and noticed some men working leather in a workroom behind the store. He showed interest in their

projects and the store owner invited them to enter. And there, in the corner, stacked with boxes and covered in dust, was our new friend. My hubby asked the man if he ever thought of selling the piano. The man said, "Sure, Why not?" and told him to come back in three days. After bringing it in the house, and our first experimental attempts to play a tune, we shut the lid and sat back to look at our find... Just then a tiny mouse came stumbling out the back of the piano, quite confused and probably deafened by our overly excited concierto!!! Now the mouse is gone, Emi and I learned the corus to the First Noel, Aaron and Papi learned a tune or two, and we all excited to begin REAL lessons hopefully soon!

Alebrijes!!!

2011-01-05T21:12:00.001-08:00

The Fantabulous Mrs. Sandy Brown took mom, the kids and I out to San ___ Tecajic to see some BEAUTIFUL alebrijes! These are much more detailed than the everyday alebrijes you seen in the markets. We got to see the whole process, and the kids even got to paint one using the artists' tools and methods!!! It was quite an amazing day! Here are just a couple of their work:

Alebrije Rooster

Alebrije Rabbit

Alebrije Bear

Each at least a foot to a foot an a half tall.
Beautifully made and decorated.

A lap quilt for me?

2010-11-26T17:48:00.001-08:00

Another (almost) finished project. I have loved these colors and have been holding on to these fabrics for quite some time now. Waiting for the perfect project. I love the combination and everytime someone has asked me "who is that blanket for?" I have said "It's for me! I never make anything for myself anymore!"

Well, I am seriously thinking of giving it to my housekeeper for Christmas. She complimented on the color scheme the other day, so.... I have just enough time to put on the finishing touches before Christmas...

Someday I will sew something for myself....

Taking a break

2010-11-12T19:19:00.000-08:00

If I don't answer your calls and you haven't seen me on facebook, I am most likely hiding out on the terrace with my artbook or quilting patterns and a cup of coffee or tea. I am usually acompanied by a little girl making fairy houses from cereal boxes or experimenting with watercolors herself... Please excuse my absence!

Nature Ride

2010-11-09T14:46:00.000-08:00

I have been meaning to blog about our first nature walk for quite a while now. I have also been fighting with blogger to get the pictures uploaded for quite sometime now!

One of the things Charlotte Mason is very strong about is taking the children for a nature walk everyday to let them learn from the things that surround them. We decided that instead of walking, we would ride our bikes towards adventure.

Our first ride was on a beautiful sunny day.

We jumped on our bikes and headed south east across the Tule bypass and towards the mountains.

The first thing we encountered was the river that had flooded just a few weeks back. We stopped to see how the water had left evidence of how high it had gotten. We also talked about how the river is poluted and how wonderful it would be if the people would take more interest in caring for nature. We day dreamed about what kind of wildlife we would be able to enjoy if only the river were clean.

The next thing we came across was a group of oxen being herded by a young man and his father. They were quite large and ranged in age and size.

We rode for at least half an hour.

The road was easy, with just a bit of an incline to keep us peddling.

Soon we were ready for a shady spot to rest under, yet there were no good trees handy. We were getting quite tired when we began to hear the sound of a motor. It turned out that there were men working in the fields mowing down cornstocks. We stopped our bikes to get a better look at how the mower would chop up the stalks and then shoot the bits out a spout towards a trailer that quickly became loaded. A man was up top making sure to distribute the chips with a pitchfork.

After a few minutes of rest we decided to go ahead and see what was over the next hill.

Just that last hill, then we would turn back.

On our way, we came across these markings on the ground. Just a few meters away we saw another man working out in his field, but this time without a tractor. It was just him and a two wheeled wagon. He was loading what looked to be hay or alfalfa on the wagon. His horse was just to the side of the field taking rest in the shade of some bush overtaken with honeysuckle. The horse's hideout looked refreshing, and we were tempted to find our own low shade, but the thought of unknown inhabitants of the bushes kept us at bay.

Our fears were confirmed when we spotted these two roadkill snakes.

We had yet to make it up that last hill, so we plugged on. The peddling seemed to get more and more difficult, but as we reached top we were overjoyed at our discovery. A little village was just a stone's throw away, and the thought of a "tiendita"with a cold coke gave us renewed energy to press on.

We found a nice spot under a tree next to one of the first adobe houses where we stopped to cool off. Just as we were about to sit down, a little old lady opened her door to reveal a refrigerator full of softdrinks and shelves of packaged cookies! We were quick to ask for a coke and doubledly blessed to find it extremely cold, to the point of being slushy!

We were so glad that our curiosity to see what was over 'that last hill' had brought us such refreshment.

Homeschool

2010-10-12T14:42:00.000-07:00

We are already in our fifth week of homeschool! I can't believe how fast time has flown. We still have our days of frustration, but they are becoming fewer and easier to overcome.

Choosing curriculum this time was especially difficult. There are so many options and ideas out there! After what seemed like a whirlwind of options, I made what I think to be the best decisions for our kids. The only subjects we do separately are Math and Reading. Everything else we learn together. This simplifies so many things, and I really think it has been beneficial for us on a whole.

I have been reading quite a few books on Charlotte Mason and her views on educating children, so we are pretty much using her methods. Things seem to go so much smoother this way!

What we are doing:

Emily's 4th grade Math - ABeka

Aaron's 6th grade Math - Saxon (we chose this so that if we return to OCS in the future he will be on the same page as the other students.)

For Dictation/Transcription we have started with Quotes from Famous People. So far we have learned quotes from Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, and Walt Disney. We have one quote a week that they copy from the white-board in cursive every day. Each day I review their handwriting, spelling, and punctuation from what they wrote in their notebooks. On Fridays I give them a lined note-card and Aaron writes the quote from memory then I dictate the quote to Emily. It is amazing to see how by Friday, they can easily spell unfamiliar words! I haven't decided yet if their notecards will go in some sort of binder or in a box...

We are also concentrating on Narration and Reading this year. One of Charlotte Mason's theories is that children will be more successful at doing written reports if they first learn to narrate orally. It pretty much makes sense if you ask me! If you can't narrate what you have read orally, how are you supposed to write a report on it!

Everyday we are reading The Mystery of History as a combined Bible and History class, and I have them each narrate a part of each lesson. Some days I read the lesson to them, other days Aaron volunteers, and sometimes Emily reads a paragraph or sentence over my shoulder. Along with the reading and narration done at this time, we are making a time line of what we learn each day.

Sometimes we get a bit carried away with these lessons since they are so interesting. Today for example we read about the Sumarian Civilization and we ended up investingating their alphabet and writing our names using their symbols. That lead us to Egyptian symbols, and we could have gone on and on...

Since The Mystery of History begins with Genesis 1:1, in Science so far we have done an investigation of the animals we saw on our trip to the US, and have begun a study of the planets using the online book The Sciences by Edward Holden. http://home.comcast.net/~rlaurio/TheSciences00.html

This book was written in the early 1900's but is super interesting. The first lesson talks about how far the moon is from the earth. They compare the distance by figuring how long it would take to get there if riding on an express train (the fastest mode of transportation at that time). We brought this to modern times by calculating how long it would take us to get there if we drove in our van. After this summer's trip that took 3 days, it really put things in perspective for them!

We are also doing small studies based on Holidays such as Pre-Hispanic History of Mexico and it's Independence during September (Independence day here is Sept. 16), and Famous Explorers during this month of October (Columbus Day). In November we will study the Pilgrim's journey and the first colonies (Thanksgiving).

We have 1 hour of reading time each day where I read to them for 30 minutes (currently reading Farmer Boy from the Little House on the Prarie Series) then one will read orally to me for 15 minutes while the other reads quietly for 15 minutes, then we switch. They read to me from what ever book they pick. Emily's first book was a Junie B. Jones book (which I was NOT thrilled about). When we finally finished it, I introduced her to The Littles. Much better subject matter and grammar!

Aaron read an Encyclopedia Brown book which he wasn't thrilled about because it had recipes in it (I also find reading recipes to be B-O-R-I-N-G) but he plugged on and finished it. He is now reading a book from the Goosebumps series, and there are times when he ASKS for reading time!!!! YAY!!!! THIS IS MAJOR FOR AARON!!!!!

If I there are moments when one finishes before the other, I have pulled un-finished pages out of past workbooks and have them do one as a review.

I have also signed up for membership at Enchanted Learning.com which is full of activites.

On Fridays we have Flashcard Fridays for Math and review some ABeka Phonics cards to help with reading.

I am grading Math only. Keeping a record of each days work. Everything else is evaluated and they decide if they did their very best, or if they could better it in any way. They are pretty honest!

There is a VERY GOOD chance that we will soon have a piano in the house, and I pray that there will be openings for them in the Casa de la Cultura for their Sept-Dec session. In the meantime, they spend plenty of time playing outside, riding bikes, Emi sews, and Aaron is now on a soccer team.

I just know that this is going to be a great year!!!

Homeschool my kid?

2010-09-23T08:57:00.000-07:00

We are officially on our second week of Homeschool for this year and we have already had a mix of the amazing with the frustrating. I am trying to take it all in stride. I am learning to take imperfect moments as opportunities to continue growing and maturing so as to counter-attack anything that will destroy or discourage my goals as a homeschool mom.

Something I hear often from mom's who don't homeschool is, "I could never homeschool my child... he/she is just so stubborn." Believe me, my kids aren't little saints (just don't make that public knowledge!) but I truly believe that dealing with stubborness of a child just makes us grow as a parent. It is an opportunity to practice patience, unconditional love, and intentional discipline. And after all, the child is probably stubborn because 1.) we have let him develope this trait from lack of disciplinary correction or 2.) we ourselves are also stubborn and have given this example to him to follow. Either way, we as the parent have the responsability not only to correct the stubborness of the child, but also change our own stubborness if that be the case.

I am tired of just giving up on things, blaming anything else for my lack of desire to grow. Difficulties should be seen as opportunities to grow, to stretch, to become a better person.

Abraham Lincoln put it this way, "I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end." He also said, "I don't think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday." The apostle Paul sees it as being in constant "Spiritual Renovation" and he considers growth to be continuous just as in a foot race, "pressing on towards the goal".

With these things in mind, I will press on in our homeschooling adventure and seize each and every opportunity to become wiser. (And along the way I hope to have a little fun with my kids!!)

My Family

2010-09-22T11:46:00.000-07:00

This is my beautiful sister and her family, my talented mother, and my handsome husband and kids. My sister "inherited the brains of the family", like the old cliche says. She is a successful Architect and partner in her firm. She has three beautiful girls who are great athletes. Her husband is an honest man who works for the Sheriff's Department, and has a great personality that brings joy to those around him. There is never a dull moment with him around... in the best way! Their youngest daughter and my daughter are very close. At times too close. They will play beautifully for days, then suddently "hate eachother". After a day of being apart, they will end up being the best of friends again.

Kind of reminds me of my sister and I growing up. I always looked up to her and thought she was THE BEST. She was a great athlete, made great grades in school, and could figure out how to do hard things like play a musical instrument or take Algebra or Chemistry classes. I was sent to Geometry since my brain could not grasp the idea of mixing the alphabet with numbers.
I loved her to death, she was my hero... but we also had our moments of fighting like cats and dogs! I guess that's pretty normal for most siblings.

When our kids were littler we weren't as close. I think our different styles of raising our kids, and immaturity (probably mostly on my part) made our visits short and sweet. The moment we felt we were getting on each other's nerves we would seperate to keep things enjoyable.

Now days I have really enjoyed being around her and her family. We have gone on vacations together and I so appreciate that she is willing to use all her vacation time with me and my family! We so enjoy her and her husband. I hope the feeling is mutual.

While we were Stateside this year, my mother, sister and I had "Girl's night out". We went out to supper then shopping afterwards. I think this was the second time we did anything just the three of us, and it was a great evenging. Last night I drempt that the three of us had decided to go on a fancy trip together to Europe or NY. Maybe someday we will!

With all the cousins being girls, Aaron is the odd man out. He is always more than ready to go when it is time to head to Papa Don's house. This is just one of the reasons. For his 11th birthday this year Papa Don bought him a .22 riffle. Aaron spent his time either riding the four wheeler or dune buggy or hunting prairie dogs with Papa Don.

(The whole clan: Serrano's, Clardy's, Eppard, Papa Shorty Ray, and Aunt K. Sandorsky and her bunch, the Rizzo's and Jahn's)

My Mother's garden

2010-09-22T11:02:00.000-07:00

My Mom has a green thumb... and foot and ankle and... Needless to say, she has a way with plants and does some beautiful works of art with them. Her back yard (and front) is always a lush, fresh, inspiring get-away during spring and summer. She often complains of not getting her transcription work done, and I can understand why when she has such an amazing world right out her back door. (The fish pond)

On our summer trips to the states we always arrive at her home first, and I always think I could spend the whole summer vacations just sitting by the pond, or reading a book out in the old shed...

(Mom took the wood off two walls and turned it into a fresh porch)

Or what about a romantic candle-lit dinner under the romantic vine covered lattice.

(Can you see the hanging chandelier?)

Mom has a goal of beginning a landscaping or garden design business. She has recently begun a propagating venture and hopes to have some nice plants ready to sell by next spring. If you are in the West Texas area and need some gardening ideas, she is the perfect person to ask!!!

Sewing with Emi: Quilting

2010-06-10T09:04:00.000-07:00

I have had this quilt on the frame since... I think January. Dad helped me make the frame and supports on his visit in Dec. Emi and I have decided that this first quilt should rightfully go to him since he participated in it's making.

The frame was in the livingroom behind the couch, but it just seemed in the way to have to walk around it to get to the diningroom. Therefore I decided to prop it against the livingroom wall while not in use and set it up when inspired. It stayed there for at least 3 months. Not for lack of inspiration, rather lack of motivation to get it down and set it up.

FINALLY I decided to change it to the breakfast room. I figured it would be out of the way there. Well let me tell you, it takes up about all of the room! But at least it is in a nice sunny place that welcomes me to come and quilt.

These are pics of Emi on her first day of quilting! I can't help to say... Isn't she darling!!??!?!

And this is Emi in the skirt she made after I made a shirt to match.

Guilt Trip

2010-06-09T09:11:00.000-07:00

Our US trip is right around the corner and we are all getting excited and anxious. It seems so difficult to really focus on the activities at hand when I think that in a couple of weeks we willl be on US soil. It may sound cheezy, but as soon as the plane lands in Houston, or as soon as we our wheels cross the boarder, there is a different feel, sound, smell... It's the US of A!!!!

A friend of mine is in the US right now. SHE get's to be on furlough ALL SUMMER! (love ya Jamie, if you read this!!:) She has had some great posts on her blog lately and was recently talking about feeling guilty when some friends lent her and her husband a NICE car and gave them a night out to a FANCY restaurant. She said that guilt plagued her that night in a way that kept her from focusing on enjoying it all! What if some of their supporters were to see them on such a fancy outing!!!

That totally reminds me of the time we were packing to come back to Mexico, and a lady from my mother's church wanted to come over just TO SEE ALL THE STUFF WE HAD BOUGHT! Word got out to her that we dedicate the last two to three days of our trip to packing. At first I felt guilty because of all the stuff we buy. My sister says that Wal.Mart and Target see a boost in their business everytime we go on furlough, and that they should give us complementary stocks in their companies!

We always go out with the clothes on our backs (literally) and come back with the MAX allotment of luggage and carry ons for a family of four. It's like a scene out of THE POISONWOOD BIBLE when the family is leaving for Africa and they layer on clothing because of the luggage limit. Our conversations on the last day before the trip are usually, "No, you cannot sleep in pijamas tonight because we packed them yesterday." or "You have to sleep naked so we can wash what you have on for tomorrow. YES that means undies tooo!!!" and "I know you aren't going to be cold on the trip, but you HAVE to wear your jackets cause they just don't fit in the suitcase!!!" and then there is, "That's why we bought the back pack with wheels, so all the books and homschool stuff goes in the carry ons that don't get weighed! Toughen it up kid, this is for your education!!! Plus it makes you have strong arms!"

It does literally take us 2 days to pack and re-pack! Thinking of this lady coming to see our loot made me also feel defensive and a bit offended that she would want to make a special trip JUST TO GAWK! Out of my feelings of guilt, I quickly tried to explain the heap of purchases by telling her how we don't really buy clothes on the field (yes, for two whole years!), because quality was hard to come by down south. Then I felt angry that she made me feel guilty!

Imagine my suprise when the next time my mom came to visit she brought along a care package from this same lady FULL of things that she had seen in our purchase heap!!! Talk about being humbled! Then I REALLY felt guilty for being offended! This guilt thing is truly tool of the devil.

A couple of finished projects.

2010-05-29T20:56:00.000-07:00

There was a baby shower back in March... I believe.

I started this blanket, back then and I finally finished it last week.

The baby is at least a month old now!

At least I got it to them before his first birthday!

This is an album I made for my children's Principal and his wife. They are leaving for a year of furlough, and all the kids at school wrote them notes or drew them pictures to be put in the album. I wanted to give them something that would remind them of Oaxaca, and that they could put to a different use if they wanted.
The material is a traditional woven pattern. Something you would find made into a shirt or reboso. I hope they enjoy it!

This last project was for Emily's teacher. I found the lunch bag idea on a blog.
(I wish I could remember which to give them credit!)
I thought it was a fun idea, and used a red & white striped denim. The chicken print material was some that my mom brought down a couple of years ago, and I love!

I believe the sewing bug has bitten! We'll see just how many projects I actually get done!

Emi's first time on the machine!

2010-05-29T14:46:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to teach Emi to sew for some time now... today was the day.

This was the pattern, which I made a bit bigger.

She helped cut out the pattern...

Watch your fingers, girl!!!

Sewing was the scarey part for her.

Even though she was sitting on my lap...

Putting in elastic took 2 tries..

The finished product! The proud semstress!

A quick twirl...

and a curtsey...

All done!

A sewing project with my girl

2010-05-12T08:11:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to do a quilt with my little girl for quite some time now, and that time has finally come! I was thinking of doing a quilt with dolly dresses like the one shown here: http://hollyholderman.typepad.com/dollydresses2and3/ But then, on her last trip to the States, the FanTAbuLouS Mrs. Brown bought me this paper doll print material:

Isn't it totally cute?! I wasn't sure what to do with it, but then looking for clip-art for another project, I found these cute little angels and thought, "Those would be the perfect faces for the dresses!"So, I think what we will do here is somehow transfer the face (without the wings) to some plain muslin, embroidry it and some arms and legs, then applique the clothes on.

This is the idea:

Won't it be cute?! Emi thought so!

And I have NO idea how I got two of the same pictures on here, so if you missed that last one, Here it is again!!!!

I will try to post each block as we get them made!

Emi's new Bike!

2010-05-12T06:23:00.001-07:00

A few months ago Emi went out to ride her bike. We had bought her the bike a few weeks before she broke her arm. Then after she finally got her cast and screws out, the Dr. told her she still couldn't ride until she had full movement of her arm. This was like torture to the poor girl!!!

FINALLY she was able to go for a ride! She had barely begun to enjoy the re-newed freedom of feeling the air on her face and the speed of her legs when it was once again taken away. Just a few weeks after she got the thumbs up to ride, she headed out for a ride around the block.

Before I knew it, Emi came home crying and screaming and I just knew something horrible had happened. When I got out the door I saw her carrying her mangled bike in one arm and its back tire in the other. Tears were streaming down her dusty face, leaving clean tracks on her freckled skin. My heart dropped to my stomach and I just knew she had been hit! But then I realised she wouldn't be carrying her bike if she had been run over. Thank you Lord!

What had happened is that she was barely enjoying her ride, (in our very low transit neighborhood with no sidewalks) when she realised our dog had followed her. She left her bike on the edge of the street while she ran our dog back home. On her way back to her bike she saw a greeen vehicle totally crunch it and drive off. She must have left it on the ground in front of the car. We never saw the green car again, so we think it must have belonged to a worker at one of the houses being constructed.

I believe my dad happened to call that day and I told him what had happened, and a few weeks ago he called to say he wanted to get Emily a new bike! Emi burst out in tears and told him how much she loved him and thanked him. He told me she 'bout melted his heart and made him cry too! She does tend to be a sweety sweet little girl. With the retreat, then being sick, etc... we just now got Emi her new bike. Thank you Papa Don for making my baby happy again!!!

Adoption: Nightmare or Dream come True?

2010-05-10T20:23:00.000-07:00

I haven't talked about our adoption process in quite awhile. It's been such an emotional roller coaster. It has almost been exactly a year since we began. A year since we were told that it was a speedy process and that they had children in adoptive homes within six months.

From what we understand our case went before the adoptions comittee sometime in August 09. We had a positive report from the social worker and her homes study, a positive return on our psycological reviews, but the psycologist herself decided she didn't recomend us becoming adoptive parents because she considered we were just looking for "an experience in adoption". We believe she came to this conclusion after learning we already have two biological children.

We recieved a rejection letter on Dec. 23rd 09, based on the psycologist's personal opinion. This was greatly upsetting as you could imagine. How could we "pass" all the psychological and home study exams, and then be rejected because of one person's opinion of us. An opinion she developed on the very few and limited conversations we had while appearing for our psychological exams. Those conversations were basicly, "Hello, my name is _____________. My husband's name is _______________. We live in ____________. We have 2 children..." Another was basicly "Hello, today you will fill out this exam." or "Hello, today I need you to draw a picture of a family." Now, how she could decide we were just wanting an experience in adoption from that, I will never know. Even our social worker was shocked to hear we were rejected.

We immediatly wrote a letter of appeal (and a bit of frustration) to the adoption comittee and I basicly put the whole thing in the very back of my mind.

Sometime in April we recieved an unexpected letter. It seems our appeal was approved and we are given the opportunity to re-take the psycological exam. We immediatly went in to talk the adoption's lawyer. She said that there were discrepancies in the psychologial exams of a couple of their cases, and she wanted us to meet with her and the head phsycologist who was out of the office that day. We called another day, and he was out again. We dropped in last Thursday and guess what?! He was out again! I guess they are working out of two offices right now since their main office is being remodeled or something.

What our lawyer DID tell us, is that we should attend the Parent's School that the psychologist hold's every month. These are classes for adopting parents. We asked if we should try to catch the psycologist beforehand, but she said no, it would just be better to show up at the class now, since the next group will not begin until July.

I hate to get my hopes up, but the fact that we are going to be taking these classes that are for accepted adopting parents makes me wonder. Since we passed the psycological exam, it makes me think that we may just need to talk to the head psychologist, and maybe not even re-take the exams.

The hard thing is to know how to prepare for what comes next. Do we begin getting the kids thinking more serously about a new sibling, or should we hang on just in case things don't go as we hope.

What about our summer plans? Do we go ahead and plan our trip out this summer?

I know that God is in control, and I prefer to think that all this delay is because the Lord has the indicated child being prepared for the moment we are through with all the red tape. I hope in God that everything turns out to be a dream come true.

"Lucy, you got some splainin' to do!"

2010-05-04T21:44:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went to a wonderful retreat here in Oaxaca. I was blessed to be included in the organizing team, although I feel like I fell short on my participation duties.

Anyhows, one of the last classes of the retreat was on dealing with elephants in our lives which are the strongholds, and learning to let go of them. I hadn't really thought of this before and had quite and epiphany. Marty gave us several phrases to try and pinpoint our "Elephants". The phrase that struck me was: "If only I could avoid ______________ I would be so much happier." Immediatly the name of a lady from church came to my mind. It was almost scarey how fast her name came up! Then the second part of the excersize was to ask yourself, "Why does this affect me so?" "Did something happen in my past to make me feel this way?"

Well, that was when I had like this big flashback, pictures of my life pass through my head. Later I tried to explain what I had experienced, but I feel I fell quite short so let me try to "splain".

I grew up in a very traditional, legalistic church. I was happy in my church, served God in my church, felt my calling in my church, and went on variouos mission trips and finally the mission field through my church. Always thinking (and I hate to admit) teaching that we were the one TRUE church. We had the absolute truth and everyone else was just confused, misled or fooled. TRUE Christians were in my church.

THEN I ran into a glitch. I met one of "those other" missionaries at Mac Donalds, and she introduced me to some other very godly women who were not part of my church, yet who were showing much more of Christ's qualities than any women in my current congregation. Nothing is pure coincidence. I was invited to a retreat for Missionary Women (much like the one I helped with this weekend) and met MORE godly women from a vast array of ministries and churches. Each joyful in their own ministry, yet not one seemed to be judging nor condemning anyone else.

Around the same time I had a conversation with an elder's wife from our church about the moment when Christ's disciples saw other's that weren't "with them" casting out demons in Christ's name. They were offened and wanted to show those others "who really had the truth", but Christ said "Who is not against us, is for us." I also started reading some very godly books that were not written by members of my church. I started listening to Christian music a BIG no-no in my church, and I began to realise that my church had a couple of flaws.

I realised that we weren't put here to preach a certain church, we were put here to preach Christ, and Christ crucified. We are not to decide who is and isn't saved, and we aren't here to quibble about trivial things such as instrumental or acapela, clapping or non-clapping, etc. You get the point.

This brings me to that phrase, "If only I could avoid ______________ I would be so much happier." I realised that this women whose name popped into my mind so quickly is trapped in that legalistic box that was put over my head so many years ago. She represents in present time, those people who robbed me of my freedom in Christ so long ago. I realised that I feel anger towards her because I see her trying to rob that same spiritual freedom from others who are comming to Christ with pure hearts.

I am blessed since my "liberation" has been hand in hand with my dear husband, and together we have been for some time now, trying to break the bonds of legalism in our congregation. We are blessed to see a new generation rising up. A generation that was not converted to a church doctrine, but to a Loving Christ. Not to a church lifestyle, but to a Christian life!

We know that change is difficult and slow, but we rejoice in knowing that we are at least a couple of steps farther away from the bonds of legalism and a couple of steps closer to really savoring freedom in Christ!!!!

Summertime, Summertime!!!

2010-04-22T21:31:00.000-07:00

Summer is right around the corner. Can't wait, since we get to go back to the US this year. I was thinking about summer the other day, and remembering some of the great things we got to do as a kid...

Summer for me and my family was full of fishing trips to the nearest lake. As soon as weekend came near, we would load up the car with fishing tackle and camping items, and head out for adventure! We would spend the day on the shore with our tot sized fishing poles and goey worms. The feeling of expectation while waiting for the bobber to dip was at times excruciating, but oh the excitement of realing in a lively perch!!!! It was like realing in a whale for us little kids! On one such trip we met up with some Aunts and Uncles. All the cousins fished from the shore till dinnertime came and we returned up the steep bluff to camp where the women had potatoe salad and grilled hot dogs ready. After filling our bellies and a quick game of cards, we headed back down to reset our poles. Upon arriving we noticed a rather large garter snake had slithered it’s way to where we had let our poles rest. On instinct we all grabbed our poles and began running back up the path, screaming as we went. But our cousin seemed to be screaming more than all us girls! When we reached the top, we turned to see him run right past us and not far behind was that wretched snake! It was as if the snake were chasing him! Come to find out, the snake had gotten snagged on the fish hook and was not chasing, but rather being drug along the path behind a very frightened boy! When our dads finally figured it out, we all rolled on the ground with laughter. We will never forget the time when the snake chased our cousin around the lake!!!!

My beautiful family!!!

2010-04-13T18:04:00.000-07:00

We just had this picture taken a few days ago. I absolutely love it!!! Aaron is turning into a little man, and Emily still remains my little princess. I love how we are all smiling. You know how sometimes you see these beautiful family pics and wonder, "are they really as happy as they seem?" Well, we really are as happy as we seem here. Sure, we have our offf days, but who doesn't? Mainly Jorge and I are blessed with beautiful children inside and out! Thank you sweet Lord!

Brotherly Sisterly Love

2010-03-24T13:02:00.000-07:00

Kids are so goofy! I think they were actually having a hug - kiss wrestling match. In that last picture it looks like Emi is trying her best to squeeze Aaron's breathe away! Cuties!!!

Let the Fun begin!

2010-03-24T07:10:00.001-07:00

I have recently finished a couple of activities that were taking up a hunk of my time. I am blessed that they turned out so well!

First of all, I offered to make my in-laws 50th Anniversary invitations. It seemed like a good idea when it popped out of my mouth.... I did a bit of research online, and ended up designing them based on a wedding invitation. Actually there were only 50 invitations to make, so it really didn't take much time. I think the most time was spent trying to explain the idea to the people who printed them out. I was proud with the result, and excited to present my creation to my mother-in-law, who non-chalantly said they were "fine"!!! Oh, my acheing EGO!!!! FINE?????!!! }:/

In March of every year we have our annual Ladies' Retreat at church. however, this year there was confusion about the usual 3 day weekend, and we ended up planning a Ladies' Day instead. The theme was "Refreshed in Christ" and although it was an extrememly warm day, we all left feeling refreshed and encouraged. I was so pleased to have more women involved in the planning and actual events of the day. Two of our older sisters (Cristina, standing 3rd from the right & Esperanza standing 2nd from the right) gave classes for the first time in front of the "large" group, and although their nervousness was evident, they were wonderful! Maybe I am just biased becasue I love these two women dearly. Marisol led singing and did a wonderful job, and Laura worked on the decorations and the art/craft section of the day. It was a wonderful day, and I truly felt the Spirit moving within us!

Before all the "excitement". My dear hubby and I were able to escape to our refuge in the mountains of Puebla. Some friends recommended this little village to us last year when we found ourselves without children for the weekend, and we instantly fell in love with its rock streets, teja roofs, and beautiful views.

So, now I find myself with a bit of free time on my hands... A dear new friend brought some beautiful material down for me from the US, so I am just itching to get to that! I also have the quilt stretched out on the quilting frame that needs to be finished. And now with spring in the air, my brain is filling with ideas for Easter dresses and skirts for Emi and I.... and there is the Ladies' Retreat for Missionary Women that I am helping with decorations...

Where oh where do I begin?

Learning self-discipline from a 12 year old

2010-02-08T06:38:00.000-08:00

This past month we were blessed to share our home with one of Aaron's classmates. His parents are missionarires working on translating the Bible to a dialect spoken in a mountain village some 8 hours from Oaxaca. They live only 30 minutes from us, but travel to their village several times a year to check on the translations. Their son recently started attending OCS and so when they needed to make a visit out this Jan. they didn't want their son to miss two weeks of school. We were honored to be asked to keep him, and quickly prepared for his stay.

Now, let me tell you a bit about this young man. He is the 3rd of 6 boys. His family speaks German (his father is German his mother Austrian). He also speaks English and Spanish fluently. He plays a mean guitar, and loves to read. He has the most joyful laugh, and is very social and playful. His only "flaw" (for a lack of better word) is that his body does not react well to artificial flavorings, colors, sugars. They become highly combustable fuel for him and take his already active personality to an even higher activity rate, sometimes cuasing agressiveness. I know this because his parents warned me, and brought a good supply of things he could eat like cookies, cereal, and ham. But we NEVER ONCE saw such behavior. I tried to make sure his diet was all nautral, but ever once in awhile I would forget something and he would remind me...

The whole reason I am writing this is because I was so amazed at how this young 12 year old boy was so disciplined in what he could or could not eat! During the WHOLE two weeks, at EVERY meal, he checked labels, asked what ingredients were in foods, and really took it upon himself to be careful to avoid things that would cause his body harm.

This was like a big o slap in the face for me! This 12 year old has more self discipline in his pinky than I do in my whole body! (Although he can get hooked in a book and end up staying awake WAY past bedtime!)

During the same time of his visit, at weekly Bible study we were studying 2 Peter 1:3-11. What things we need to add to our faith so that we won't been seen as "lazy" in God's eyes. Guess what, Self control or self discipline is one of those things! Talk about God hittin ya in the head with something He wants ya to learn!

I didn't make any New Year's resolutions this year. Just never got a round tu it. But after those two weeks of seeing this 12 year old fervently striving to control and care for his physical need, I was inspired to begin a more controlled and disciplined life.

Drink less coffee (owww)...
Drink more water (ugh)...
Control portions >:/ ...
Eat healthier foods /:< ...
Exercise the bod (groan)...
Control my attitude!

And that's just in the physical needs department. Spiritually its a whole other ballgame!

Funny the way God finds the perfect way to get our attention, eh?

My quilting frame!

2010-01-26T09:49:00.000-08:00

Once again I have managed to post all the pictures side ways!!! I sure have a gift at doing that! ARGH.

Anyhows, these are pictures of my quilting frame in the making. I have been wanting one for a long time now, and when Dad came for Christmas, I asked him to go take a look at a friend's frame to get an idea of how to make one. We made it a couple of days before Christmas, but I didn't get my quilt onto it until Jan.

I wanted to have the measurements and all to post, but managed to loose them. Sorry. But this will at least give you an idea of how it was made.

First Dad cut two of these pieces out of ply-wood. The four inch gap cut out at the top will hold the one x four boards that the quilt will be attached to.

Second we cut out the feet of the frame legs. Two with a rectangular knotch cut out on the opposite side of the angled cuts (top), two with the rectangular knotch cut out on the same side of the angled cut (bottom). When put together they will form a cross (shown in the next photo), and the angled cuts should provide stablility on any uneven floor.

On a one x four board we cut another rectangular knotch that is wide enough to fit across the cross of the feet (far right of the board on table). You will need two of these, one for each frame leg. Then we drilled holes (not shown) through the one x four and the top support at two or three inch intrevals. When held together with a bolt and butterfly nut, you can adjust the hight of the quilting frame. (see the last picture)

(Just threw this picture in of Aaron and Papa Don working together sanding the pieces.)

This one of the frame legs. You can see how the rectangular knotch at the bottom slides over the crossed foot. I wanted it to fit pretty snug since I didn't want to use nails or glue for easy dis-assembly in the future.

Here are the two frame legs with the top supports attached with four bolts and butterfly nuts (two on each support). They hold part of the quilt frame.

The actual quilt frame is made up of four one x fours. Two that are basicly the width of the widest quilt you would make, the other two on the sides really don't need to be more than a yard long. Once you have your boards that are the width of your quilt, wrap them in sturdy cloth and attach with stapple gun. Pin the ends your quilt "sandwhich" to the cloth on the boards with safety pins. Roll each end of the quilt on the boards, turning under, until the center of the quilt is in the middle of the frame. Attach the side boards with hand vices or clamps. Set the front of the frame on top of the frame supports, adjusting the hight with the butterfly nuts and bolts. To support the back of the quilt, you can prop it up onto a table or on chairs (as I have here).

This is a very sturdy frame. I have 2 young ones, and it has been behind the couch in my livingroom for about a month now without any problems! The only danger is having it out all the time begging you to sit and sew!!! I absolutely LOVE IT!!!!

Can't run from Him!

2010-01-26T07:40:00.000-08:00

ARGH!

I know the story about Jonah and the whale. It was probably one of the first Bible stories I ever learned. Back then they used a flannel graph and put up the paper figures of the story as they were told. I remember Jonah being thrown overboard (even though his figure was in standing position with his hands, one palm forward, the other pointing upward) and then the teacher would place the big fish on top, but since he had a window in his tummy we could still see Jonah's solemn face.

Yes I remember what happened to Jonah. I have told the story myself hundreds of times in Sunday School and to my own kids.

So why, then, did I really think I could run from God?

For about the past year (if not more) I have been running from God. Not physically. I wouldn't get to the end of the block if I were. I have been running from the things God has been telling me to do.

I have tried to find good excuses like Moses did when he was confronted with the burning bush, but I've run out of the good ones. "I don't have the time.." "My kids are still little..." "The church needs to start doing things on their own..." Some were better than others. At least in my mind they were!

The running took me no where but into a dark pit. A pit of frustration, guilt, more guilt, a little more guilt... did I mention guilt?

When I wasn't running, I was going through the motions hoping that God would say, "OK, I heard you. Your last excuse was the best, so just go sit down and rest." Oddly enough, He never told me that. Instead He told me things like, "In word or deed... do all in the name of the Lord." or "..work at it with all your heart as if for the Lord, and not for any man." and "He who knows what is good and does not do it, is in sin." and "He who has begun a good work in you will carry it out to completion..."

"BUT com'on God!!! You know I really, really, don't want to do this, and YOU said that you wouldn't send us more than we can handle...." I hid behind that one for quite awhile.

But guess what! He found me!!! Surprised? Not really, huh.

This Sunday the sermon was as if my dear Preacher hubby had sat me down and talked directly to me. He busted my cover! Thank God he did!! Isaiah 1: 10-17 were the verses that really shook me.

You see, years ago, along with my beloved sister Lily, I began to dream of a food ministry for the impoverished children and families who daily roam the downtown area begging or selling gum. Together Lily and I had dreamed of taking them meals, then moving the meals to the church building (which is very accessable to the downtown area) and finally giving classes (along with the meal) on cutting hair, sewing, cooking, or any other trade that would provide even a small income for those families. We would put the Women's Minisrty to work in preparing meals, and asking the women to teach their trade to the people.

Last year my beloved Lily died of stomach cancer. I think it was a mixture of anger and grief that iniciated my run from God. I mean, how could He put this so heavy on our hearts and then take my mentor and work partner away?!?!?!

Pretty good excuse, wouldn't you think? Well, Isaiah 1:17 blew that one out of the water too.

"LEARN to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow."

It was if He was fed up with my excuses, and was raising His voice at me, "YOU, learn to do right! Don't wait on anyone else to lean on! Get up and do it!!! Start that food ministry and while your at it, put a little more effort into the Women's ministry even though they are all older than you and most of them are widows or divorced! I'm sick of hearing your whinning!"

Let me tell you, I have finally been "spit out" of that dark, stinky, humid, acidic belly of that whale of self pity, and I hope to never go back!

Are you running? If so, a little word of advice.... He's gonna find you, so you might as well give yourself up!

What's your Motive?

2010-01-23T14:58:00.000-08:00

Motive is something very important. Especially if you find yourself being accused of a crime? Then the important question would be "Did you have motive to commit such crime?"

Everyday we are faced with motives, but we usually find ourselves focusing on other's motives and not so much on our own...

"Why did that person look at me like that?"

"Is this a real bargain or are they taking me?"

"Why did my hubby bring me flowers today?"

The other day I was reading James and something really stuck out in a verse I have read a million times before.

5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
James 1:5-8 (New International Version)

What was so interesting in my mind was the idea of the "doubt". Before as I have read this, I thought that the "doubt" was "Does God want me to have wisdom or not?" But this time I heard it this way: "But when he asks, he must believe (that this is something he really wants) and not doubt." Do you see the difference?

The doubt comes more from our motive. If we REALLY want to have that wisdom or not.

"With great wisdom comes great responsibility."

Actually I think the real quote says "With great power", but you get my drift.

If our motive is pure and our motivatioin is spiritual growth, then there will be no doubt in our mind. Kinda like the persistent widow of Luke 18:2-5

2He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. 3And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.'

4"For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' "

The woman's motive was pure and her certainty that she was in the right motivated her to insist on justice. There was no doubt in her mind.

Another good example of motive is the Parable of Two Sons in Matthew 21:28-30 (New American Standard Bible)

Parable of Two Sons
28 ...A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, 'Son, go work today in the (A)vineyard.'

29"And he answered, 'I will not'; but afterward he regretted it and went.

30"The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, 'I will, sir'; but he did not go.

What is interesting here is that the first son, who originally said "no" to his father's request, was motivated by regrett and in the end pleased his father with his decision to obey. I think it was with pure motive, not a regrett of "Oh, well, I better just go ahead and do it.."

He was truly sorry that he had told his father "no" and was moved to change his mind.

His motive was pure. Something the Isrealites left behind as seen in Isaiah Ch.1

"13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your evil assemblies.

14 Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts
my soul hates.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.

15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even if you offer many prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood;"

Their motive was no longer pure, and their motivation was no longer repentance. The Lord turned to them and said, (Hosea 6:6 (New International Version)

6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

What the Lord desires in us is a pure motive, a pure heart.

Psalm 51:17
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Sometimes we get so wound up in daily life, monotonous rutines, and basicly think-less tasks, that we need to reflect and check if our motive is pure. Why are we doing the things we do? Are we just going with the flow of daily rutine, or are we living our lives with pure motive and motivated by the Spirit?

Many days we are just going with the flow.

To maintain a pure motive, I believe it is crucial wake up each morning and remember:

Col. 3:23-24... "23Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving."

Doing this we will eagerly dedicate our day and our activities to the Lord with pure motive.

God's Will or not?

2010-01-18T16:13:00.000-08:00

How do we truly know when something is God's will? I think we all know some very big ideas of what his will is, ex: God wants all to recieve eternal life, God wants us to Love him over all things, God wants us to love others as ourselves... Those are things that we can concretely say are His Will. But I am having a problem with the little things that seem to fall in between the cracks. It seems that there are things that I am just certain are His will, and they just don't turn out the way I had expected. They fall through the cracks. (Maybe through the cracks in my faith?)

I know that the Lord is all sovereign and powerful, but sometimes it seems like people get in the way of His will being fullfilled. People being third persons. Jorge mentioned in his sermon on Sunday that God has plans for each of us, but it depends on US if we fullfill those plans or not. Well, what if we are fullfilling His plans but OTHERS seem to get in the way of His Will.

This may be a dumb example, but... If there were two pies, one cherry and the other apple, and you are there thinking, "Which one would God have me eat?" And you really feel that He wants you to eat apple, but the waitress says, "You can't have apple, you can have cherry." Then to the person next to you, she gives apple when there is no difference between the person next to you and yourself. The waitress just decided you needed cherry.

So, my question is, do you just settle and say, "It wasn't God's will."? Or do you look for a different waitress who will serve you the piece of pie that you were certain was God's will in the first place?

When, if ever, do you accept the cherry pie?

Or do you ask all ten waitresses for apple pie? If none of them give you the apple pie, do you THEN say, "Welp, must not have been God's will."

BUT,If the TENTH waitress gives you apple pie, do you conclude that it WAS INDEED God's Will and praise God that His will was fullfilled?

No, I'm not needing a sugar rush. I am not upset about pies served at the local cafe, (I'd much rather have cake!) I am talking about plans that you put sweat and tears and blood and prayers into, and you are just GUT CERTAIN that they are the Lord's Will, but then someone or something gets in their way.

Do you give up your dream, or do you look for other means of making it come true?

Encouraging your husband, the Preacher

2009-12-30T17:25:00.000-08:00

Just found this article written by The Preacher's Wife. Made me ponder a few things. This post is more for me to look back on than anything. Very insightful!

“How can I be a better encouragement to my husband in his ministry? I know I was never meant to give him the guidance that only God can, but he gets down sometimes. I want to not only uplift his spirit in those down times, but to also spur him on to do his very best as God’s instrument.”

As the wife of a minister, one of our primary roles is to provide refreshment between Octobers when the days can sometimes feel long and thankless. Here are seven practical ways you can give your husband an extra boost just when he needs it most:

E-Prayers It is a given we should pray for our husbands. But, consider what it would mean to him if he were able to read your petitions on his behalf! Send him regular emails chronicling your prayers for him. If he doesn’t have a private e-mail address in his church office, set up a special account for him at a free email hosting site such as If your hubby is as tech savvy as mine, also be willing to teach him how to use it.

Plan a lunch date Because Luke and I have four children, eating out is a Sunday-Lunch-Only event. However, now that all the kids are in school, we often meet during the day at a restaurant with a cheap lunch menu. Not only is it an inexpensive date, but we are able to give one another undivided attention as we catch up on what is going on in each other’s schedule.

Give full attention to his sermon prep. I don’t know about your husband, but mine is encouraged by my undistracted concentration during his sermon preparation. Each week he walks me through what he plans to preach on Sunday to organize his own thoughts and to ask for my input. I am guilty of listening half-heartedly at times. (Luke, I can see you rolling your eyes.) Nothing says, “I respect you”, like eye contact.
Luke. I cannot make eye contact if you are still rolling yours. I promise I’ll do better.

Run interference for him One thing that zaps Luke’s energy is pettiness. Sisterhood, can we agree that most paltry issues originate in the female half of the species? When foolishness is brewing among the women folk, I do my best to quash the problem without Luke having to become involved. He is always relieved if I can prevent him from becoming embroiled in girl drama.

Make home a relaxing place Y’all, Luke is rolling his eyes again. For the record, making a peaceful home has really been an area where I’ve been convicted as of late. Our out-of-control schedule has resulted in bad attitudes and a stressed out family. I am not willing to let this environment continue and I consider it my job to change the mood in my home. Just this past week, I’ve started to get a handle on overflowing drawers and closets and have started some meal planning so we can hopefully have more dinners at the table in the coming weeks. I’ve also refused some activities we would have otherwise loved to attend because I recognize over-scheduling is at the root of all the other chaos.

My friend Joanne Heim (author of Living Simply) is hosting a blog conversation called, “http://thesimplewife.typepad.com” where I am also gleaning tips on streamlining our lives.

Keep his Sundays sacred I have a hard and fast rule not to nag Luke on Sundays. I’ve done it in the past and can testify that a good fight before he is supposed to preach is a true Spirit dampener. I’ve had to pray long and hard about it, but I can honestly say God has enabled me to release Luke to do his thing on Sundays without resenting him for leaving me home with the four kids to get ready by myself.

Whatever it takes, resist giving in to feelings of self-pity on the Lord’s Day. In other words, suck it up. Obviously, I’m not trying to minimize how hard it can be to feel like you are going it alone. However, there are six other days of the week to have that discussion with your husband. Sundays are off limits.

Be spiritually mature.This is a pre-requisite to being able to resist feelings of self-pity and neglect we just spoke of that can sometimes rear their ugly heads. I’m not saying they shouldn’t exist because our hubbies can become so ministry-minded they are no good at home. Obviously, that should never be, and I’m not at all suggesting you should remain silent if your home and relationship are suffering. But, I cannot tell you the number of ministry wives with whom I am acquainted who expect their husbands to be their Jesus. These men become the target of their wives’ own spiritual neediness who consequently guilt-trip him any time a situation and/or meeting forces him to be away from home. Girls, if you want to truly encourage your husband, be filled in your own relationship with the Father so that you overflow on him instead of suck him dry every time he hits the door.

Ultimately, our husbands need to know that we are on their side and support the work to which they are called. Try a few of these seven things and watch his smile brighten!

Again, let me say how very much I appreciate your insight and questions. Each of you inspire me to think more carefully on how I can be a better wife to my own husband and that you seek the same in your relationships.

I hope you will visit me at http://www.thepreachers-wife.blogspot.com/ where there is a huge community of women just like you waiting to call you friend.
Also, please continue to send your questions to: thepreacherswife1@gmail.com

Christmas sewing?

2009-12-30T14:39:00.000-08:00

I did very little sewing this Christmas. I blame it on my dad. :) He arrived on the 18th and left the day after Christmas, so there was quite a bit of running around done on his short trip. I did manage to get some journal covers made for my ladies' class group though.

And here are a few of the beautiful women who recieved them...

I finally finished this little jumper for Emily. I think I started it two years ago originally as a dress! I hand sewed the ginger bread man and candy canes on. It turned out pretty cute!

(how did I mannage to get these two pictures on sideways?!?!?!?)

I also made this little tote for one of Emi's friends who had a birthday this month...

My dearest dad made me a quilting frame that I am totally excited about, but with all the hustle and bustle of the Holidays, I haven't gotten to stretch out my quilt on it yet. Hopefully after New Year's I can start!! I'll have to put up those pictures later.

I believe both of these projects (the journal covers and tote) were from Moda Bake Shop. I love their projects! Happy sewing!

Happy New Year!!

2009-12-29T17:08:00.000-08:00

May God bless us this year with wisdom in decision making, discipline in bettering personal habits, and perseverence to follow through with new plans!

Crisis and Drama

2009-11-13T09:53:00.001-08:00

I have felt so good since I got back from WOTH! Felt like a new, fresh breeathe of air.... Then my little girl (8 in Dec.) fell from the monkey bars at school on Tues. and broke her arm in two places (an inch above the elbow, and at her wrist), had to stay in hospital all night, and got three pins put in! HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE!! But I was so amazed at her calmness and strength! She taught me a few lessons on handling crisis, let me tell you! She is bed ridden for a week until the swelling goes down and they can put a cast on her.

Yestereday I found out that my uncle who was battling ALS passed away. It`s something that we all knew was coming, but I think you just still don`t expect it to be "today". I long to go be with my mom, grandpa, and cousins, but with Emi in the shape she is in, I can´t see that happening.

I just can´t figure things out sometimes, but then again I guess we aren´t supposed to all the time. Just gotta remember that God is in control and satan is STILL under our feet!!!

Cancun - The stiring of my Soul

2009-10-30T08:43:00.000-07:00

Of all the women who attended the WOTH retreat (around 100 in the two sessions) I truly believe that I was one of the ones God had in mind as He worked out the details for the event! I arrived like a glass of fruit water that had been sitting there for awhile and all the fruit settled on the bottom. I truly had no idea beforehand, of all that would happen in my soul in such a short time.The pampering was wonderful, but what happened in this room full of God serving Women was much more impresive! Seeing God´s hands in action is always breathtaking, isn´t it?

It was such a blessing to enter Praise and Worship with such a diversity of women serving Christ. Some who had just arrived on the field, others who almost couldn´t remember how long they had been there! Some in impovershed villages, others in bustling major cities. But all united to praise God for all that He is doing in their ministry! And NO ONE claiming to have the most correct, or worthy ministry or calling.

Lorrie did a beautiful job greeting us at each meeting, leading us in prayer, and opening our minds to truly listen for God`s voice in each session. At the end of our first session together, she invited us to get into a comfortable possition (sitting on the floor, or lying postate) to enter a moment of meditation and communication with God. "Not on this Hotel carpet!" were my first thoughts, "Who knows what has been there!". Then I found myself lying face down on that "Hotel carpet" and truly rendering my soul to my Lord. Something that was a long time comming!

Sandi gave us some wonderful classes. She has been on the mission field herself for many years, and it was sooo nice to hear such wonderful classes from someone who had "been there". Something so necessary!! I especially felt touched by her class on being "fresh brewed" for God, and her last class on Noah´s wife was just as if I had gone to sit at her feet and she was talking directly to me about my need! Talk about being a tool for God!!

I actually went to Patty`s class on "Recovering Loss" for my mom (her mom has Alzhiemers and brother has final stages of ALS). I almost didn´t make it and ended up sitting in the back. Good thing! As we were going over loss and steps to recovery, and signals of depression, I began to realise that I wasn´t there for my mom at all. I was there to learn to recover from my own losses, something I had been bottling up for some 4 years now.

I lost 2 babies to miscarriage. One in 2005 and one in 2007. I realised in this class that I didn´t have a Titus 2 woman to sit with me and help me process my pain. My husband did best he could, but there was no one there to tell me how to mourn my losses. Yes, I had the "good hearted" woman who told me to "Suck it up, you have two little kids out there that need you!" or the one who told me it was ok to be sad, but to get over it soon because if you didn´t and you get depressed then you are falling in sin. I now realise that these comments just pushed me up on a pedestal with "Strong Christian Woman" engraved on its plaque. Up there all alone, feeling that if I showed emotion I would be letting everybody down. To have said that I have had 2 miscarriages is something big for me since I have not mentioned them in all these years. All this time I felt like it was something I shouldn´t bring up. Something taboo.

I spent two of my four afternoons with Patty recognizing my grief, and realising all the hurt and damage that it was causing myself and my ministry and, most of all, on my lovely little family. Very painful, but very liberating! If my eyes look swollen in the pictures, you now know why!

Tracy was our Praise leader, and she did such a marvelous job! It was like a cold sweaty glass of lemonaid on a sweltering hot day! She helped us put into word and song what we were feeling in the deepest depths of our hearts, and all in our English language!!! Apart from leading us in song, Tracy especially touched my heart. She was in my small group, and she was there when I got my haircut, and on our last day when I shared my story, she was there to hold my hand and talk with me of her own losses to misscarriage and shared how she is grieving her loss. You know it was just so amazing to see how God moved everything! How he got me to Patty´s class, how he put me in Tracy`s small group, and in other "coincidential" meetings so that I would feel comfortable in sharing with her, and feel comforted by hearing her share. He amazes me!

I didn´t get a picture of Linda, but she was our small group leader and I have never met a woman with a softer, gentler spirit! She was so understanding and encouraging. She let us all express what was heavy on our hearts even when sometimes it didn´t have much to do with the discussion topic. She never hurried us, and having her pray over each of us was like a warm quilt made of the softest fleece you have ever experimented. Thank God for loving souls!

Cami and Jan (in these pictures) and Cindy, Kate, and Courtney(not pictured) were my official pamperers. Cami and I have so much in common! She loves to sew, scrapbook, do anything artsy-crafty, but never could knitt (me neigther!). She gave me the great haircut and just encourgaed me with her bubbly happy spirit! I actually went back later to her "haircutting salon" (her room) just to get a spiritual high!! Jan gave me my great make-up make-over, but an hour later I was in my counseling session with Patty and cried it all off!!! I really enjoyed it while it lasted though! Kate and Cindy gave me my pedicure & foot-massage overlooking the ocean, and just really made me feel welcome and special! Where else can you get a pedicure and then have them pray over you afterwards?!?!?! Courtney gave me the best back and neck massage, but I swear that those 15 minutes were over all tooo soon!!!

At the end of the last day we all stood in a circle around the room and sang the Doxology. It was sooo beautiful!!! It was the song of angels giving praise to our King!

Me before WOTH

Me after WOTH

And that picture doesn´t even show all the stirings of my inner soul!!!

Pampering in Cancun

2009-10-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

When telling about any event in our life it is so much easier to tell about the material details than the spiritual implications, don´t you think? It is so much easier to think of what colors we saw or the wonderful view than to explain the amazing sentiments that were stired up in your soul.
And so, I decided to write about my trip to Cancun in 2 (or more) posts. First about the Hotel and view.... Then about all the stiring of my soul. If you have never heard about Women of the Harvest, I really recommend you going to their web site and checking them out. They are an amazing group of Women who are doing an amazing ministry to women on the field.

When we arrived at the Hotel I was flabergasted. It was one of the nicest Hotels I have ever been in. I really felt like a country bumkin walkin´ in. The floors were marbel and were so shiney it looked like you were walking on the ice of a skating rink right after the machine goes over it to smoothe it out. The architecture was just beautiful with a huge palapa (at least 3 stories highg!) at the entrance and escaltors leading up to the large lobby with little seating areas spread around, seperated by beautiful palms in large terracota pots.

(Part of the Hotel & Restaurant - right edge)

Then we went up to our rooms. OH-MY-WORD! The beds in those rooms were sinful! They were so fluffy and soft that when you laid down it was like your body melted into it like a warm spoon in a tub of butter. There was airconditioning, so the big fluffy covers and those perfect sheets felt so, so nice!! In the evenings when we returned from Praise Time the sheets would be pulled back, and a single, yummy chocolate would be carefully placed on the fold. I am so glad I don´t have one of those beds at home, or I would never get up in the mornings!!!

The food was fenomenal! We had buffet at breakfast, buffet at lunch, and buffet at supper! And let me tell you, I did come back a bit bigger round the waist than when I went! I told my hubby I would take a picture of what I had, but it was so scrumptous that I would always dig in before remembering my photographic task. Everyone else, so it seemed, was feasting on fish and shrimp, but no, not this Texan! I went straight for the beef everytime! You can take the girl out of Texas but can´t take Texas out of the girl! Especially if you are used to eating the thin "tasajo" of Oaxaca. That "arracherra" they had was tentalizing! I think they must have marrinated it for at least a month because it literally melted in your mouth. You almost didn´t even have to chew, it was so soft!!

Of all these wonderful aspects of the trip, I have to say, the view was the most spectacular. Of course! I mean, the other things were wonderful, but the most amazing things on this earth are always works of the creator of all things, our Lord most High! Those colors of blue were just breathtaking! When we arrived, we were wisked away to lunch at the Hotel restaurant that was right on the beach, and I could barely concentrate on my food! The ocean that spread before us was not just one beautiful color, but three! The brighter sky blue close to the beach showed the shallow water, then there was a darker shade of that same blue a ways out where the water began to get deeper, then the most beautiful deep blue out in the open sea. Just amazing! And to frame it, white white sand on the beach and beautiful white clouds in the sky. God is truly the greatest artist whose works I have seen! Thank you Lord!

Mr. Ed is Dead: WARNING gross details to follow

2009-09-07T06:20:00.000-07:00

JUST when I think nothing here in Mexico could possibly shock me anymore, something does. I mean, I have lived here for more that 16 years now! But, alas, once in awhile I am thrown for a loop.

Mr. Ed. You all remember him, right? A horse is a horse, of course, of course..... Well, the horse we came upon the other day was not the kind of horse you would be accustomed to seeing. Nor was it´s means of transportation.

So, here I am, driving out to the park by the airport for our final farewell pic-nic party for our summer intern. Got the pic-nic blanket, got the homemade chocolate cake, got two eager children by my side. Mixed emotions, excitement about a day in the park with the pre-teens, sad about Zach leaving us.

As we drove through traffic my mind was far away (probably on that chocolate cake) and I was just trying to get through traffic to our destination. Then, out of the blue, my 10 year old boy says, "IIEEEUUU! Look at that horse!" And there it was.

I don´t know what had happened to the poor thing, but it was now stuffed in the back of a small nissan-type police truck. It`s head hanging down over the back bumper, it`s body crammed into the pick-up bed. Apart from the idea of a dead horse, there was, yes you guessed it, BLOOD. EV -RY -WHERE! OK, maybe it wasn´t everywhere, for me a paper cut causes bood to go everywhere, but there was blood! Very evident blood. And every time we went over a speed bump, its dangling head dragged on the ground. In my horror, I loudly commanded, "TURN AWAY KIDS, JUST TURN AWAY!!!"

I say "every time" because, yes, we road alongside the demised animal for quite some ways. As hard as I tried to speed up and go around him, the vehicle in front of me would slow down, forcing us to "enjoy" another very close look. The policemen riding in the back with Mr. Ed were laughing and acting as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Or maybe they were laughing at the horrified look on the "gringa" in the next lane.

FINALLY, after what seemed like an eternity, I managed to do a "James-Bond-chase-scene" manuver and get around the horror. We finally arrived at the park, and the kids jumped out excited to play soccer and ride skateboard, seemingly haven forgotten about our horrific encounter. I still shudder to think of the poor, dead Mr. Ed.

All in Order

2009-09-03T09:40:00.000-07:00

We finally have all our documents in order. We have spent the last month trying to get my birthcertificate translated. That might seem odd since I am fluent in both English and Spanish, but not only did it need to be translated, but it also needed an oficial seal. That was the major problem.

We (or actually DH) went to the US consulate, a MX government agency, the county courthouse, waited two weeks to see if protestors would free up the Language Faculty at the University, and finally found an "Oficial Translator" with and "Oficial Seal" at the French Consul. She was very snouty and bragged about being the ONLY Oficial Translator in Oaxaca, but DH found several gramamtical mistakes! We are praying it will be OK.

We have seriously been working on this one document for a month! We are so excited to finally have everything in order! All we have to do now is turn in the documents and have a "physical" with the attending DR. there at the office. Then they will turn our file over to the Adoption Committee for revision. They are the ones who decide whether we are fit to adopt or not.

This brings us to our current difficulty. Protestors have now decided to take over main roads, block major intersections, and close all government agencies. Yes, that means the adoption agency. Even if we were finally able to make it there through the blockades, there is very little hope that the agency would be open.

Ahhh, the joys of living in OAX!

We are praying that things will clear up over the weekend so that we can take our documentation in on Monday. At least we are one step closer to broadening our family!

What would you say?

2009-08-31T08:08:00.000-07:00

What would you tell the Samaritan lady if she came over for coffee one day? What would your response be after hearing her confess her sin using words sucha as "fornication" and "adultery". Or when she recognizes the fact that her way of living was the onsetting factor that her un-wed daughter now has two babies. What would you say to her about her spiritual state? What do you say when she manages to say, over her sobbing, "I know I am at fault in all of this. I let it happen!"

What do you say to her "significant other" when his first sentence is "We came to see what your opinion is even though you are younger and obviously don´t have the experience we have." What would you say to him when it is obvious that he loves her but finds it too complicated to straighten out their lives. Or what do you say when the most obvious "complication" is his disregard for the need to straighten things out. What would you tell this prideful man when he starts to cry as she voices her frustration of living in sin and her desire to either legalise the 10 year relationship or end it.

What else did Jesus say to the Samaritan lady during those 2 days in Sychar. Did He give her a list of steps to take to make amends in her life? Did He talk to her about ultimatums and spiritual death. Did He even talk to her again, or was their talk by the well and His public teaching enough to give her the faith, strength and in-sight she needed to change her life? Did He repremand her "significant other"? Or maybe he was one of those who heard Christ in those two days and came to repentance himself.

Every day we are faced with people living (what we might judge as being "confortable") lives, and we pray fervently that the Spirit will move them to repentance of their sin. That the Lord will cleanse the camp of all sin. But what do you say when the Spirit´s calling finally gets their attention and they come to repentance. What´s next?

We do know that the woman caught in adultry was given 5 simple words of advice. Five words to give her direction and hope. Five words that have profound meaning and can evoke life changing events. "GO AND SIN NO MORE."

Getting Organized!!

2009-08-28T07:19:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day of the first week of school! Yay! I was really worried about getting into the swing of things, but I am amazed at how the Lord has helped us have a breazy entrance into the school year!

To start the year out on the right foot, I have been practicing a new morning rutine. Here it is:

6:45 Rise and Shine
7:00-7:40 Get kids ready and off to school
Coffee & Time with the Lord
Water plants
E-mails & Blog
Unfinished Projects
1:45 Start Making Lunch

After getting the kids off, I really don´t put a time limit on any of the activities since I don´t want to be so strict as to leave out any space for "Divine Intervention". At least 2 days a week will be on a different schedule since I have Young Mother´s Group once a week and Breakfast Date and visitation with hubby once a week also (a definite must!).

These are a couple of projects that I have done.

Not recently, but none the less, I did get them done!

A baby blanket for a young couple´s first baby boy.

(His name is Emanuel, hence the embroidered "E")

Another baby blanket, this time for my sweet new niece Larissa. I put diaper cloth as the backing on this one, and I am thinking of doing it on all future baby blankets since it is soft and absorbent and warm!

I have a dresser full of material scraps, so my goal is to make all kinds of sewing projects out of them before Thanksgiving. Then once I have a good number of items, I plan on putting a table up in front of my in-laws tortilla shop and selling them. 20% of the funds made will go towards minisrty and the rest will go towards buying more material for future projects.

Note cards
Thank you cards
Christmas cards (all using my stamping and scrapbooking odds n ends)
baby blankets
lap blankets
quilted notebook covers
tote bags
Baby items such as booties, hats, burp rags, bibs...

If it works, then I am going to invite the ladies from church to join me in makeing Christmas craft items to sell during the month of December. Then all those funds will go to the Women´s Ministry and/or VBS fund for next year! I really hope God blesses this idea!

Some projects I have in consideration are:

If all goes well, I will "use up" all my current materials that I have been saving (or hoarding) for "later". I feel so guilting having so much "stuff" in my sewing/craft room and not using it. I think of all the great finished projects I could have accomplished by now and it is quite embarrasing!

Back to School

2009-08-22T18:29:00.000-07:00

Summer went bye so quickly! We just have tomorrow, then the kids will be going off to school. Aaron will be going into 5th grade and little Emily will be entering 2nd. I can´t figure out why it is so hard seeing them grow up!? Aaron has days when he seems so grown up, then he has other days when he enjoys playing hours on end with Emi, and he is sweet and little. It makes my stomach turn just to think that soon he will be too cool to hang with his little sis. Then again maybe that day will never come. I think they really have a good relationship. They don´t fight horribly like I remember me and my sister always did. They play well together, and many times Aaron admits sticking up for his sister when they are in a group.

It has been especially hard with the adoption possibility floating around above us, but not yet materializing. We have talked to them about what adoption will mean for our family, and how somethings will change. Aaron I think has been hoping for a "buddy" and I have been a little worried about his reaction if we get a baby. Today when I asked him what he would do if we got a baby he said, " I would carry it around every day and play with it." so I think he won´t be dissappointed.

Having children has been the greatest and hardest thing I have ever done. It is also the most rewarding thing. Especially when you are struggling with a certain actitude and suddently see that your child finally "got it" and is changing and growing!!! Aaron had gotten so much better in so many areas, and his character is becoming more and more "moldable" and noble. I love that!!! Emily is hardly ever a worry for me. She is so easy. Maybe I should be more careful of her, but I really think that the second child learns so much just seeing their older sibling grow and make mistakes and get corrected, that they make less mistakes of their own.

All I know is that I love them both sooooo much!! I love being their mom, even though at times I think they deserve a better one!

Why is it?

2009-08-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

Why is it that when duty calls.....

a good book calls even louder.

inspiration strikes for a new project.

the weather is perfect for gardening.

every unfinished goal comes to mind along with the steps needed to attain them.

the computer decides to have "one of those days" !

My Mini-biography... Sorry its in Spanish!

2009-08-07T11:11:00.000-07:00

As one of the "homework assignments" that the Adoption´s Social Worker gave us, we were to write a mini-biography of our childhood. I love writing assignments and before I knew it, I had a couple of pages going! Some day I would like to expand upon several points of my childhood. Maybe it will be my first novel. But then agian, am I really all that interesting? Here´s a look. And agian, sorry its in Spanish!

Biografía: Latisha Eppard de Serrano

Naci un 5 de Marzo del año 1973 en Guymon, Oklahoma. En realidad mis padres vivían en un pueblito (Keyes) rodeado de granjas donde la gente se dedica a sembrar y cosechar trigo. Mis primeros recuerdos son de la iglesia donde asistía mi familia. Vivamos en una casita enfrente de la iglesia y me acuerdo de buscar huevos de pascua en su jardín durante Pascua, de quedar a comer con los hermanos en los convivios mensuales, y de asistir sus cursos de verano con otros niños. Me acuerdo también de llevar despensa (cosas enlatadas) y depositarlos en el “Robot de Comida”; un robot hecho de tri-play que tenia un abertura en su pecho, y cuando le depositabas una lata, y le bajabas su brazo, sus ojos encendían y hacia ruido de robot. (La última vez que fui, el verano pasado, todavía existe el robot, aunque ya no hace el ruido) También me acuerdo que para pascua mi mama hacia vestidos igualitos para mi hermana mayor y mí. Siempre tenían la falda amplia para que pudiéramos dar vueltas y hacer que se extendían en un gran círculo como las faldas de las bailarinas. Ahora siento que estas cosas me inculcaron un gran sentido de familia y comunidad. Uno de mis recuerdos mas horrorificos es la vez que paso el tornado y toda la comunidad se junto en el sótano de un viejo escuela. Me acuerdo de todas las caras espantadas y es ruido intenso y como el techo temblaba, pero después me acuerdo de un gran sentido de paz y todos platicando. Después, ya de joven pase otro momento igual de horrorifico igual con otro tornado pero entonces estaba sola con una niñita que cuidaba. Entonces tuve que usar el colchón de la cuna como tapa, tapándonos mientras nos metimos un la tina del baño. En esta ocasión mi papa y su amigo vinieron a mi rescate y huimos por medio de granizo, lluvia y relámpagos, al hospital donde trabajaba mi mama y la mama de la niñita (ella tenia 6 meses).

Cuando ya iba entrando en Primero de Primaria mi papa (un soldador) consiguió un trabajo en el estado de Washington y de pronto me encontré en mi primer viaje de aventura, ya que Washington es muy lejos del estado de Oklahoma. Nos tardamos 2 o 3 días en llegar hasta allá. Me acuerdo que viajábamos en un camper y unos amigos de mi papa manejaban un camión con nuestras cosas. Teníamos unos gerbiles como mascota que iban con nosotros, y me acuerdo que escuchábamos los 8 track todo el camino y tomábamos fotos en diferentes lugares de interés.
En Washington vivíamos en una casa antigua (de mucho carácter) que mi tío(hermano mayor de mi papa) había comprado y mudado a un lote en el pueblo. Este pueblo era más grande que el anterior y muy cerca de la costa y de la frontera con Vancouver, Canadá. Íbamos a los jardines de Vancouver varias veces, y vimos también los postes de Tótem de los antiguos indios de esta región. La casa, como lo acaban de mudar, no tenia escalones a la puerta principal así que mi mama coloco el sillón de la sala frente a esa puerta y usábamos la puerta de la cocina para salir y entrar. Me acuerdo que un día escuchábamos alguien tocando. Cuando mi mama fue a la puerta de la cocina, no había nadie. Estaban tocando la puerta de enfrente aunque el piso de la casa fácil llegaba al pecho de cualquier adulto parado afuera! Si me acuerdo bien, era alguien de la iglesia que nos invitábamos asistir y nos daban la bienvenida al pueblo. Después nos involucramos con esta iglesia, y me acuerdo de comer avellanas de un árbol en su jardín cada domingo después de los servicios. También mi familia ayudo construir un nuevo edificio para la iglesia. Fue un tiempo hermoso, ver como todos se juntaron para construir algo que iba a beneficiar a todos. Los adultos trabajando con martillos y madera, y los niños jugando en el laberinto de paredes medio construidos y plásticos colgando para proteger la madera de la lluvia.

Era un lugar hermoso, el estado de Washington, con muchos montañas, mucho bosque, y luego la playa. Mi mama y su amiga solían llevarnos a mi hermana y yo a montar bicicletas por los caminos cerca de la granja de mis tíos. Llevábamos canastas y recogíamos zarzamoras para hacer pays. O mi papa nos llevaba al bosque a pescar en los estanques. Caminábamos por medio de los campos de pastos que llegaban a mi pecho y imaginaba que un león nos asechaba. Si nos echábamos agachados o acostados, parecía que no nos podrían encontrar nunca en estos pastos. Otras veces mi tía nos llevaba al mar y buscábamos almejas para comer o buscábamos en los estanques entre las piedras a ver que pececitos o estrellas de mar se habían quedado al salir la marea. Ya se que íbamos a la escuela, pero me acuerdo mas de estos pequeños aventuras y como aprendíamos cosas nuevas a cerca de este mundo maravilloso que Dios nos ha dado.
Mi tía era de Inglaterra, (llego a los Estados Unidos como niñera) y tenia varias amistades ingleses allí. Creo que también había una comunidad grande de gente Duches. La cosa es que les gustaba escuchar como hablamos y a veces íbamos a tomar te con ellas y nos decían, “Platícanos algo” solo para oír nuestro acento de Oklahoma. Al principio era divertido, oírles a ellas con su acento inglesa, pero después me llegaba a aburrir. Mi mama nos enseñaba ser amable con todos así que nunca me porte grosera y de hecho creo que me he esforzado siempre a agradar a la gente. Mi tía nos hacia sándwiches de pepino y te en tazas elegantes cuando la íbamos a visitar. Que en paz descansa, ella sufría de diabetes y diario se metía en un cuarto de su casa con un gran aparato para hacer diálisis. No tenían hijos, pero mi tío tenia dos hijos que adopto con su primera esposa. Ellos eran mas grandes que nosotras así que ni me acordaba de ellos hasta que mi hermana los menciono un día cuando hablábamos de la adopción. Me encantaba Washington, pero cerraron la planta donde mi papa trabajaba, así que nos tuvimos que mudar de nuevo.

Ahora nos fuimos a vivir en un lugar de Nuevo México. Un lugar desierto y arrido. Allí vivía mi tía, hermana de mi mama con sus hijos y esposo. Mi prima, Stacie tenía un año menos que mi, y mi primo Codie tenia medio año mas que mi, así que nos juntábamos mucho para jugar. Mi primo era muy “niño” y siempre andaba metiéndose en líos, Travesuras. Mi prima y yo nos encantábamos jugar a las muñecas. Las paseábamos, los llevábamos a días de campo (en el patio) y una vez olvide la mía en el garaje y no pude dormir en toda la noche pensando que estaba solita en un lugar obscura… Aparte de las muñecas, me encantaba leer y jugar con gatitos y cantar. Mi hermana y yo después jugábamos horas y horas los Barbies y hacíamos muebles y mi mama nos enseño a coserles ropa. En este pueblo también nos involucramos con la iglesia y me acuerdo con mucho cariño que mis papas se encargaban de dar clase a los niños durante el sermón. Me encantaba ver a mi papa leer los cuentos o dirigirles las canciones. Este era el lugar donde mas crecí espiritualmente, y fui bautizada en este iglesia por mi papa. También conocí las revistas Nacional Geográfica en este pueblo.

En este pueblo también tuve mis tiempos mas difíciles en la escuela, por los cambios de sistema escolar de un estado al otro, también tuve problemas en el salón con la maestra. También pase los años difíciles de la adolescencia allí. Lo que mas me gustaba era cantar en el coro de la escuela y tomar clases de ballet allí y Salí en una producción publica. Allí también empecé a cuidar a niños para ganar dinero. Mis primero niños para cuidar eran hijos adoptivos de los mejores amigos de mis papa, de hecho el señor era socio de negocio con mi papa. El dinero que ganaba al cuidar niños lo gastaba en muñecas, o idas a la piscina pública en el verano. En este pueblo también mis papas nos pusieron en equipos de futbol y softbol aunque a mi no me nacía jugar. Mi hermana era muy atlética y su equipo fue hasta jugar en los juegos del estado. Mi familia iba cada año a los días de campo de la día de independencia y me acuerdo de ver mis papas correr en las carreras de bolsas de harina. También íbamos mucho, casi cada fin de semana, a pescar con mi papa. Su deporte favorito. Me gustaba mucho y a veces nos campábamos en tiendas de campar.

En los veranos y en Navidad íbamos a visitar a mis abuelitos (papas de mi mama) en Texas. Íbamos los dos familias y siempre juntarnos era algo muy especial para mi. Los niños jugábamos en el estanque de los caballos pues hacia mucho calor, y mi mama, mi tía y mi abuelita hacían manualidades. Tejer, coser, o pintar, pues siempre tenían algún proyecto. Cuando mi abuelita andaba en la cocina, muchas veces me decía que la trajera el himnario de la iglesia y cantábamos juntas mientras que ella cocinaba biscuits o pays. Mi abuelito tenia su frente la casa. Era un granero originalmente pero allí mi abuelito hacia muebles o trabajaba en sus coches. Hoy día el olor a acerin me trae recuerdos de el y como me regalaba pedacitos de madera para clavar y ingeniar mueblas para mis muñecas.

Mis abuelitos se dedicaban a manejar tráiler, y todos sus nietos tuvieron la aventura de acompañarles en uno o dos de sus viajes. A mi me toco viajar a otro sitio de Canadá con ellos y en otra ocasión ir a Los Ángeles. Me gusto más el viaje a Canadá.

Nuevamente, nos mudamos. Creo que ya iba yo en sexto. Ahora nos fuimos a Texas, no muy lejos de donde naci. De hecho regresábamos mucho, quizás cada verano. Me acuerdo que a veces me quedaba el verano con los amigos de mis papas Ella, y Le Roy (los que nos ayudaron cambiar de casa la primera vez). Ellos tenían una granja y vivían en el campo. A unas millas de ellos viva mi mejor amigo de la niñez, y pasaba los días entre las dos familias, montando caballo, o cuatrimotor, llenado a caminar en los campos o a nadar en la piscina de mi amiga. Aun cuando nos fuimos a vivir lejos, mi amiga Lelania y yo nos escribíamos cartas, hasta hoy en día. Ellos cosechaban su trigo al final del verano y me gustaba mucho cocinar pays y pollo y llevarlos con Ella a los campos a darles de comer a los hombres. A veces me metía en el tráiler donde iba el trigo ya en grano, y se sentía como la arena de las playas de Washington bajo mis pies. Hermoso recuerdos. También a los 15 (yo creo que era antes pero mi mama me dice que no) convencí a mis papas dejarme viajar solita en tren desde Albuquerque, Nuevo México hasta Seattle, Washington para ir a ver a mis tíos. Fue un viaje de 3 días por toda la costa Oeste de los Estados unidos. Lo hice, y fue el viaje de más aventura que había hecho. Creo que fue la experiencia que me hizo enamorar de viajar y conocer.

Durante toda mi niñez me encantaba leer. Leía mucho, libros de aventura, de viajes, de misterios, y ya de mas grande, de romance. Durante la prepa mas y mas me metían ganas de viajar y descubrir nuevos horizontes. Tanto era mi deseo que hable con el director de los jóvenes en mi iglesia. Le explique que quería conocer otros lugares y quería enseñar la Biblia a más gentes. El hablo con los ancianos y me sorprendieron con la oportunidad de asistir un viaje misionera a Jamaica. Fui con un grupo de ocho el primer año. Una de ellas mi mejor amiga de la prepa, Darci. Fue una experiencia inolvidable ver la gente en las montañas salir a oír de la biblia y colorear las hojas de pintar que habíamos llevado para los niños. Los niños nos veían como extraños con nuestra piel tan blanca y una me rotaba la piel fuertemente. “¿Que haces?“ le pregunte. “Quiero ver si se quita lo blanco y sale lo negro de abajo.” En la segunda visita a Jamaica, el año siguiente, mientras que jugaba con un bebe, su mama me dijo, “¡Llévatelo para que crezca en América!” Me rompió el corazón. Era gente muy pobre, muy diferente que la gente en los pueblos turísticos. No tenían nada. Fue algo muy impactante para mí.
Terminando la prepa mi amiga Darci y yo ya habían hecho planes de asistir a la misma Universidad y ser compañeras de cuarto, pero algo no me sentía quieta con esta decisión. Sentía que tenía que hacer otras cosas primero. En estos tiempo asistimos un reunión juvenil y conocí un grupo de jóvenes que iban a ser internados de misioneros! Me pareció magnifico e inmediatamente empecé a buscar informes y juntar requisitos para asistir al programa de AIM : Aventuras en Misiones. Me despedí de mi amiga y de mis papas prometiéndoles que después de la programa (2 años) me regresaba para asistir a la Universidad. Un año después de mi decisión de entrar en Misiones, me encontré en Toluca, México con un equipo de tres muchachas y dos muchachos.

Esto fue hace ya 17 años. Ya he escrito todo un libro aquí, así que hablar de esto seria otro! Solamente diré que estos 17 años han sido llenos de gente maravillosa, una cultura extensa, y paisajes increíbles que me hicieron enamorarme de México y su gente. Ayer, 29 de Julio, mi esposo y yo cumplimos 13 años de casados. Todavía hay mucho que quiero hacer en la vida. Quiero obviamente, tener mas hijos, quiero viajar mas, quiero manejar de Oaxaca a Texas y luego lo ancho de los Estados Unidos con mi esposo y mis hijos, quiero ser fotógrafa, escritora, y maestra de kínder. Quiero estudiar psicología, quiero abrir mi propio negocio de manualidades/librería/café, quiero dedicar tiempo a pintar, y quiero llegar a ser abuelita en su mecedora tejiendo botitas para mis nietos, junto a mi esposo ya abuelito meciendo en su mecedora leyendo o viendo el futbol. Quiero vivir la vida a su plenitud, y quiero que mis hijos exploran, conocen, viajen, y se enamoran con la vida como yo.
¡Gracias por darme la oportunidad de compartir un poco de mi vida contigo!

The Rugs

2009-07-31T15:45:00.000-07:00

This is their scanned business card.

Their Mexico side phone is: 01-52-951-166-6172

Their USA phone number is: 1-626-389-0625

eltonodelacochinilla@gmail.com

http://www.eltonodelacochinilla.com/

The skiens of wool are then put in large caldrons with the dyes

Here is the loom. There are so many pictures it was hard to just pick one.

The finished rugs are so beautiful it makes you want to buy one of each!

Prices range from anywhere between $20 USD to thousands of USD.

Lots of beautiful colors and designs.

Below is a scanned business card for the "Cochinilla Farm" where this family buys their Cochinilla dye.

http://www.aztecacolor.com/
manuel@aztecacolor.com

Colors To Dye For

2009-07-31T15:06:00.001-07:00

Some of the natural dyes are made from things such as pecan shells, a certain moss, and a parasite called "cochinilla" that grows on cactus.

Pecan shells make a light brown or beige.

This plant makes a light violet color.

The moss making a mustardy brown color.

the "cochinilla" bug on the cactus

makes a dark red dye.

Spinning and Dying

2009-07-31T14:36:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pictures of the process of spinning and dying the wool used in weaving.

This may not look hard to do, but it is! With one hand she spins the wheel and with the other she feeds the wool onto the needle.

Teamwork between cousins. KK spins while Emi feeds the wool onto the needle.

Here is the natural color of the wool before dying.

Dyes come from natural plants and minerals.

The combination of certain plants change the variations of colors. Aren´t they all beautiful?!?!

(how did I manage to get two of the same pictures on? But even more importantly, how can I get this last one off??!!! ARGH!!)

Teotitlan del Valle: Traditional Rug Weaving

2009-07-31T12:59:00.000-07:00

While my sister and her family were here visiting we did all the sight seeing. These pictures are from the pueblito Teotitlan del Valle where they make traditional rugs. This lady gave us a great demonstration on how the wool is combed, spun, died, then woven into beautiful and elaborate rugs.

Here she is sitting infront of her spinning wheel and died skiens. The dyes she uses are all natural and are made from plants in the baskets on the floor infront of her.
Here she is combing the wool

Emi takes a try at it.

The wool when fully combed.

Here she is spìnning the wool into yarn.

thoughts on adoption

2009-05-23T06:46:00.000-07:00

I found this on an adoption blog and thought it was very insightful.

The blog is called Voddie Baucham Ministry

DON’T BE SCARED TO SERVE

My biggest concern with this adoption anxiety is that it seems to suggest that we should limit the offer our home, our hearts and our help to children whom we know will give us minimal difficulty. “I’ll take the one who will comply, but you can keep the one who may struggle with rebellion or identity in an institution, or with non-Christians who are better equipped to minister to them.” I know this is not what we mean. However, this is often the end result of our adoption anxiety. In the end, there are only a few guarantees when it comes to adoption:

1.I can guarantee you that adoption will cost you something: If you choose to adopt a child it will cost you time and treasure.

2.I can guarantee you that adopted children will have struggles: Every adopted child will struggle in some way with his or her place in your family and in God’s plan.

3.I can guarantee you that adoption will teach you more about salvation than just about anything you could do: I will never look at passages like Ephesians 1:5 the same way again.

4.I can guarantee you that adoption will change a child’s life: We will not know this side of heaven how adoption has impacted both Elijah, Asher and Judah. However, we know their lives have been set on an entirely different trajectory than they would have been had God not seen fit to send them home with us.

5.I can guarantee you that adoption is an indispensable pro-life act: I do not believe that every Christian is called to adopt children. However, I do believe that it is critical for us to give young women alternatives when we plead with them to give their babies life.

VB

Little Angels

2009-05-21T18:56:00.000-07:00

This week my 1st grader´s teacher has been sick. We are praying it isn´t swine flu and are leaning more towards the possibility that it is Dengue fever. Anyhows, her illness has left her class of 1st and 2nd graders without a teacher. The first day she called to see if I could sub. I said yes, mostly because she called at a quarter to 7 am and I couldn´t think straight much less make a clear decision! Not really!

The subbing for one day has turned into 4. We pray she will get better over the weekend! She is such a great teacher and really has everything so organized! The first day was a bit difficult, but I told my DH today that I have actually been having fun! I always wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, so maybe this is God´s way of letting me have a try! (That´s alot of !!! Maybe I need to cut back on the coffee!!)

Anyhows, it has been fun, and I have a whole renewed respect for those teachers out there like Miss S. You know, the ones that really love to teach and put all their heart into it. Yes, they do still exist, I promise! My daughter happens to be in one of their classes. Thank you Miss S. The kids miss you and hope you get well soon!

Things to do during Adoption Process to keep Patience

2009-05-16T20:56:00.000-07:00

Beat the kids out of bed every morning
Spend more time reading and playing games with kids
Spend more "one-on-one" time with kids
Learn to play the piano or guitar
Create and follow a daily schedule (Homekeeping and Play)
Finishing organizing and de-cluttering house
Fine-tune gardening and sewing skills
Organize family vacations for June
Organize VBS for July
Lose ten pounds (isn´t that on everyones list?)

Thursdays Come, Thursdays Go....

2009-05-14T17:06:00.000-07:00

and I am still trying to get in the habit of blogging! I am so bad! I actually have a bit of quite exciting news, DH and I have decided to adopt! We have talked about it on and off since we got married, and now we have finally taken the first step to actually doing it!

Day before yesterday my hubby decided to call a friend that he knew used to work in the DIF (Government child protection agency here in Mexico) and ask him if he knew how to get started, where to go, etc... His friend said, "Yea, let me give you ----´s cell phone number, she is head of the Adoptions´ Department." Totally unexpected!

So my hubby called ----- and she said,"Yea, I have half an hour free tomorrow if you would like to come in and talk." WOW! I immediatly got nervous.

So, yesterday we went down to the offices and met her. She was super friendly, and very positive. She said she would e-mail us the forms and a list of requisits. We should start out with a letter to the adoptions committee, and obtain a letter of no former arrests (not sure if that is waht it is in english). Anyhows, so we are waiting ANXIOUSLY to get started. We know that the Lord is totally in control, and I really feel at peace with finally making the decision. I know that anything that happens will be for our good.

The kids have mentioned having a brother or sister, so we have mentioned adoption in the past. It is not a new idea for them, and they are also excited. I told them, though, that we probably won´t know anything until after they go back to school for the next school year. I just don´t want them to be anxious, just aware.

I am totally excited though!!

Three Thursdays Down

2009-03-13T21:27:00.000-07:00

Hmmm. Somehow I haven´t been acheiving all that I had hoped with setting Thursdays as my blogging days. I have reasons... I think they are good reasons... Probably not.

Thursday Feb. 26th - running around getting things ready for Kids´camp and weekend get-a-way with hubby. (I will post pictures soon)

Thursday March 5th - spent day in a big huff since it was my birthday and everyone, EVERYONE forgot. I used all that negative energy to finish painting the dining room. It looks quite nice.

Thursday March 12th - aaron has been sick at home all week, so Wed. I decided that if I was going to be home I should try to be productive in something, so I tackled the HUGE project of painting and re-organizing the office/sewing/craft room. (Hope to put the final touches on tomorrow morning).

So, those are my reasons. Good or lame ? You be the judge.

Getting Back in Focus

2009-02-19T10:36:00.000-08:00

Have you ever felt overwhelmed with all you have to do and all that others expect you to do? Feeling helpless and kinda like you are failing at everything even though you are doing your best to succeed? Felt like it´s already sunset and you don´t remember the sunrise? I have. Actually quite a bit lately.

I have even felt maybe a little self pity. "Poor me, no one else wants to do all the things I have to do, but they sure do expect me to get it all done!" (I have a problem with saying "NO")

Well, I think God has been speaking to me. Or maybe hollering at me. It seems like everything I pick up here lately has something to do with being stressed out, worrying, being stuck in a rut, and taking on duties that aren´t yours to take on.

I have been reading a book for a ladies´ retreat I am planning, on Martha and Mary "Having a Mary heart in a Martha world." The first few chapters really have stuck out in my mind, but mostly where the author talks about our need to pray. I have a major confession. My prayer life has been "unable to connect" here lately. I do believe that is the major problem with all the other dark feelings I mentioned earlier.

If you don´t tap into the source, then you will never get the full power. I know that, I have known that for years, but somehow I forgot it? Maybe more like been distracted from the fact.

Other than the book, I have been listening to Rick Atchley´s sermon series on "Lightening up". Once again mentioning how we are often distracted and impaired by the unimportant things and forget about or put the important things on the back burner. Guilty.

So, this morning I went out to the terrace, got out some paper and a pen, and wrote down everything I was stressing about, put it into time frames (how much time I spent on each one during the week) then compared it to my time with God. Big slap in the face. I then confessed to the Lord my weakness, and SCHEDULED in a time for God every day. Now, I know that might sound cheap. "How can you just schedule God in like he were a planned visit or an errand?" Well, I think sometimes we give those errands better service than we do God!

Once I could see my schedule on paper, it helped me realise that I do have time in there for a healthy prayer and study life. It can be done!

I feel like the sun won´t go down on another day that I haven´t had communion and conversation with my Lord. It´s a good feeling. I highly recommend it!

Thursday! Where´d you go?!

2009-02-12T21:54:00.001-08:00

I took this picture on the last leg of our flight home in July. I think it is right outside of Lubbock. Seeing the patterns of crops growing in the fields just feels like USA to me. It´s always a welcoming sight. Someday I am going to make a quilt or painting inspired from this view.

Speaking of flying, I have a feeling this year is going to fly right by us! So far we have a major event planned every month from here through July. I know that that will make each month go bye quicker. Why is it that when we were little we felt like the time just dragged bye, then as we grow, it seems like we just don´t have enough!

I am almost not making it for my first Thursday post. Why Thursday? Because it is currently the only day I don´t have some kind of activity planned. Thursdays are going to be MY days. At least until something urgent comes up.

And speaking of time flying, my "babies" will be going to Spiritual Emphasis Camp in just two weeks! I don´t know what to think about it. It´s required at their school, and I have heard loads of great things about it, but I just get a tummy ache thinking about my little kid-Os being so far away from me for so long!(3days). Actually we have decided to follow them there, then take a little romantic get away in a town some four hours from the camp... so maybe it won´t be too bad after all....

Well, this was pretty random, but it is midnight. What did ya expect?!

Color

2009-02-11T15:03:00.000-08:00

My blog has no color much less movement.

I am challenging myself to post every Thursday.

A picture and a post.

We´ll see....

Fist week of school / First quilt top

2008-09-10T22:04:00.000-07:00

During the kids´ first week of school I did this: I should have cropped the picture before putting it on. Oh, well. This is my first attempt at a "real" quilt. I have done bunches of little quilted projects, pieced lap quilts, table cloth. But this is my first big project. I am planning on hand quilting this on a frame that I learned how to make by a dear family friend while we were in the States this summer. I hope it turns out nicely!

Home Sweet Home

2008-09-05T14:53:00.000-07:00

I don´t think I have put any pictures here of our little town, or Oaxaca. So, here goes a couple.

Sta. Maria el Tule, this is the little town we live in. Famous for its Tule tree (shown at right). It is supposedly the widest tree in the world.

View from our terrace.
Another view from our terrace.

This is Mitla about 35 minutes east of our house.

Mitla again.

This place makes me think of maybe how the disciples felt leaving the empty tomb.

Expectation, fear, joy!

Monte Alban. About an hour Northwest of us.

Santo Domingo Ex-Convent (now History of Mexico Musuem) downtown Oaxaca.

Piedra Grande near Llano Grande in the Mountains 1 and 1/2 hour to the north east of us.

Puerto Escondido 6 very windy hours south of us. In 2010 there will be a new highway that will get us there in 3 hours! Yeah!

So, as you can see, we are blessed by God´s beauty all around Oaxaca. It is beautiful. These are just a few reasons I call it Home Sweet Home.

Home Projects

2008-09-03T08:35:00.000-07:00

We have lived in our "new house" for 2 years now without a bit of decoration going on, so I have decided that the time has come. On our trip to the States this summer I spent one day at JoAnn´s Fabric looking at combinations for some window treatments, throw pillows, and coffe table table-cloth. This is what I came up with.

I really should be a little more disciplined in my sewing. I do everything on "pulso" (by pulse) as they say here, never using pins or rulers. I imagine if I did use those things, my projects would turn out REALLY nice. Now, if only I had some paint on those walls!!!

March´s Finished Projects

2008-05-26T10:10:00.000-07:00

Lady´s Retreat Preparations

33 tote bags

Class folders and lots of goodies

oat-meal muffins with chocolate chips

Tamales de frijol

(I hate this picture of me! but its the only evidence I have that I actually helped.)

The Retreat went great. We had 30 women attend and "adopted" a young lady who was at the cabins alone. It was a great time to build bonds between the women, and although I was the one to organize and teach at it, I think I learned sooooo much!!!

2008 going great!

2008-02-22T10:54:00.000-08:00

Well, it is now almost the end of February! Things have been going so well. We have been having trials at church with different begrudgent members, but the Lord is soooo good!!! I can truly say we have rejoiced in these trials since we have been forced to look upon His guidance and wisdom, and we have no fear in "dealing" with these brethren. It has been faith strengthening.

As for my personal life, I feel refreshed, new and encouraged. I have been looking at the Mujer Virtuosa (can´t think of it in english) from Proverbs 31:10-31, and daily I feel like I might actually be catching up with her (baby steps, but still progress)!! The only area that I feel like I am still way out in left field on is homeschool.

But I am beginning to think that maybe I will never feel right on track with it, and maybe that is OK. The kids are learning, they are making "major" bonds as siblings, and I think that is soooo important. We have been toying with the idea of putting them in a American Christian School that has recently moved to our side of Oaxaca. Tempting since the teachers are all missionaries, the kids are all missionary kids. But its like someone once told me "You don´t have to go all homeschool or all school/school." We have the freedom to do one year at home and one year in a school. So I guess we will keep playing it by ear. I think the most important is to focus on the kiddos and see if they are being edified both in knowledge and spirit. If not, then take the means to change whatever needs to be changed.

Anyhows, I am currently busy busy planning our first Ladies Retreat! (YEAH)! Planning and preparing lessons, seeing about reservations, and organising who to delegate what responsabilities. I am wanting to sew a tote for each of the women also as a gift and reminder of the retreat. So far I have six done. I need 30. YIKES!

Also in March we will be having our second "young minister" stay with us. She is a young lady from Toluca, planning to get married in Dec. She graduated from Harding University and will be coming down to stay with us for a month and minister to the young ladies at church. Her mother will be joining us March 20th or so, and both of them will be co-teaching at the retreat with me! I am really excited aobut this!

So, 2008 is going great!

Oh, and I have also lost 5lbs!

2007 - 2008

2008-01-02T09:48:00.000-08:00

Another new year has come upon us, and as usual we tend to think of all the goals, attainable or not, that we would like to accomplish in this year. I hate finding my old list of New Year´s Resolutions and seeing that I didn´t acchieve even half of them. It´s quite frustrating. But more importantly I enjoy looking back on the year just past and seeing all the "spontaneous" achievements. Such as....

Finished sewing projects
events hosted in our home
getting past hard "stages" with the kiddos
hearing the Spirit teach you something new in a verse read and re-read so many times afore.
seeing Aaron read a chapter book in Spanish
hear Aaron reading a simple book in English
seeing Emily print different words taken from bookcovers or magazine covers
seeing Emily learn to write her full name
hearing Emily sound out her dad´s nick name and writing it down
seeing Emily doing simple addition when this time last year she made up names for the numbers 1-10
seeing how quickly Aaron picks up on math
actually sitting through church services without having to scold someone
not only putting up a chore chart, but actually following it daily!!! (YEAH!)
getting out and making new friends
finishing off a year and a half of meeting with the women in prayer
taking personal trips with the children (Emily and I went to a small village for a weekend, Aaron and Jorge went to Toluca for a weekend)

Actually, it seems that most of the things on my list are more of the kids´ accomplishments than my own, but hey, I am the mom helping them get to where they are, right?

There were hard times this year too that we were able to get through. I suffered major burn out at church during the summer and just completely shut down for a couple of months, but I am once again back on the horse and ready to get going. We also lost another baby in Nov. That I think is still on the surface and will take some time to completely digest. It seems like it was easier physically than last time, but harder emotionally this time since the kids are older and more aware of what is going on now.

And now we are here in 2008. There are so many things that just here in the past month have popped up and caused change both in our mindset with the church and our mindset with our family. This year promises to be exciting and full of activity. I just pray that the evil one will be hald at bay and we might see God´s glory shine in His church through the different opportunities that are being presented.

I pray that we might grow in unity and in faith as a family. I pray that my children will increase in their own faith in God and not just adopt a form of thinking that we put on them.

I pray for my own personal goals that I might focus on becomming a better person for Christ and not on the usuall vainly thought out goals of years past.

I pray for my huband and his personal goals, that he might grow in leadership, and that the Lord might protect him from the darts of discouragement that the evil one seems to suprise him with in moments otherwise peaceful.

I pray that the church might open their eyes and hearts to seeing and interacting with others as Christ did, and not be blinded with their own selfrighteousness and judgements.

I pray that this year we might all be just one more step closer to understanding God´s grace for us and for all.

Big changes

2007-08-10T16:21:00.000-07:00

Yikes! It´s been awhile since my last entry. Alot has been going on, or happened since May. Goodness. Where to start. I guess that would be puppies. Our Cocker Spaniel had five little puppies in May. Very cute, but I have decided that animals having offspring; although very amazing and educating, is also very gross and ..... gross. The whole eating the placenta to cleaning up poo`s for the first month is too gross. But the puppies were really cute. We gave them all away since they were a weird breed. (Cocker/Lab) Except for one who looks alot like the mom with the curly ears and reddish color, but looks like its gonna be big like the dad. Great.

Anyhows..... Oh, we also started a small veggie garden with the Kirbo family. Fun fun. We have been doing quite a bit with them. They even watched our kiddos over night on our Anniversary which was way cool of them!! Jorge took me to a Hotel up on the Cerro de Fortin. We arrived for lunch, watched the rain from the balcony, had dinner, watched cable TV (love all the Home makeover shows!) had supper, enjoyed the room & complementary fruit basket, talked about goals and dreams, woke up and had breakfast, then went on our merry way. Refreshed and like newly weds again. Very nice. Just wish I had packed the camara because the view was beautiful. A Huge Mexican flag was flying over the Mountain, there were rain clouds showering way out south of the city which you could see the lines of the showers, and then the view of Santo Domingo and the zocalo.... very pretty.

What else? Fourth of July of course. We enjoyed a day of burgers and hot dogs on the grill. We had the Kirbo`s and the Shrock`s and Marisol and her family over and the kids played in the yard. I actually made a USA tablecloth and two matching windsocks for the ocasion and the kiddos colored American flags and stars to hang.

THEN Mary Ellen and Steph. started talking about the Missionary Ladies retreat they were going to in a couple of days. They had invited me, but since we were already planning a family vacation, I couldn´t imagine paying for "such luxury" for myself. But all of a suddent Mary Ellen was on the phone to the organizer to see if there were any spaces left, then something about a scholarship, then the next thing I knew I was packing a bag to go along too! Talk about quick planning. It was sooo uplifting though. Made me re-think many things, repent for alot of things, analize alot of things, change alot of things in my noggin`. ( I suddently heard my Papa saying "Must-a been sumthin` t` be able t` do that!") Anyhows, I came back renewed and with a whole other mindset. Actually there have been quite a few things happen beforehand leading me up to this point, but the retreat was definitly a major moment in my "enlightenment".

So, my major discovery has been..... I can Biblicly be a SAHM and nothing else!!! Ok, that might not sound like anything very amazing to you, but it is quite so to me. I have always dreamed of being a mommy, teaching fun things to my little kids, keeping house, sewing, cooking..... Then I decided I needed to be a missionary, and I am... but the whole missionary/preachers wife/ mom thing has been a hard thing to figure out. I mean, I think I really have spent the last precious years trying to do it all and not feel guilty about not doing it all perfect. Guilt is a BIG thing here. The women at church always make you feel guilty about not doing enough, about not doing it right, about ....everything I think they know they can´t or don´t want to do. So I have decided that I won´t let guilt run my life and make me commit to things that I don´t have to do.

It is amazing how God moves things. I read this great book called "Created to be His Help Meet." by Debbie Pearl. Really good, and a must read for any newly wed woman. or woman in any stage of marraige or any young woman thinking of getting married. It´s just good. Then I read and met the author of "Diving off the Pedestal" by Lila Quesada. She talks about how people think that since you are in ministry you must automaticly have it all together and be put up on a Spiritual pedestal.

The retreat, the books, a few blogs I have been reading and articles from Christian Women Online, and alot of frustration and crying out to the Lord have all really set me free. I don´t have to run around like a hen with her head cut off, trying to please everyone and do everything that everyone else thinks I need to be doing. I DON`T!! Of course that doesn´t mean that I´m not going to do anything.... that would be the opposite extreme. But I have definitly decided to dedicate my personal relationship with God, my husband, my children, and then, to the church if I have time and energy. I don´t feel like I have to organize the women´s ministry, children´s ministry or any ministry that the Lord has not directly called me to do. I will still teach Sunday school class, and participate in church activities, but on a lesser scale, and Jorge cheers me on this. I just regret feeling in the past that the kids and home had to be put on the back burner for so long. (I mentioned repenting at the retreat... well, there you have it).

So, what now? We enjoyed a great four days at the beach where I didn´t bring up any church issues or talk about making any plans or goals... I have signed up at the English Homeschool library in Mitla (a village 30 minutes away) soley for the excuse of getting out with the kids! I have taken off a couple of days to just have fun with the kids. (Trips to downtown Oaxaca) I am sewing again and picked up my embroidery! I am enjoying house work! And I feel alot more relaxed about Sunday services!!! I think I am going to enjoy life a little more!

P:S: I don´t want you to think I have been miserable for the last five years, but I have felt stressed out many a day :)

Wow, this little update has turned into a major revealing!!!

CANNED BISCUITS!!!

2007-05-19T17:09:00.000-07:00

Canned biscuits you say? What´s so great about canned biscuits? When you live in the south of Mexico and yearn for anything American, canned biscuits can be a very exciting find, indeed! When I came upon them I actually did a happy dance around my husband on the refrigerated dairy isle. Much like the Chocolate Chip Happy Dance I began back at the beginning of this year. When we first found chocolate chips, I immediatly bought the last four bags on the shelf and hoarded them in the freezer. Then we began to realize that they were beginning to be regular items. Since then we have found Jiff peanut butter (so glad since SAM´S stopped selling Peter Pan) and Pecan Sandies. YUM.

Because of the chocolate chip experience, I only bought two cans of bisquits. The first batch literally dissappeared in one sitting. And those are some BIG biscuits! DH said they aren´t as good as my Grannie´s. True. But they are still flavored with that great taste of Americana (aka: preservatives and artificial flavoring)!

Emily is learning to read in English.

2007-05-19T17:05:00.001-07:00

Emily, "NNN- UUU- NU - T" "NUT!!!"

T-M Mommy, "Good Girl! Do you know what a nut is?"

Grinning Emily, "Yeah, its a loco!"

HHHMMM.......

Barefoot Homeschool

2007-05-19T16:33:00.000-07:00

Dress code: No shoes required.

GOOFINESS OPCIONAL

Addicted

2007-04-26T16:49:00.000-07:00

I think I am now officially a blog-aholic. I could spend hours "lurking" in on other bloggers, reading about their lives, thoughts, and opinions about everything from the latest politics, to homeschooling methods, to funny things their kids say. I find myself waking in the morning eager to read what´s new with Antique Mommy or over at Sunydazy Days or how life is at Life in a Shoe. They inspire me. They inspire me to be down to earth, to perservere in Christ, to be more productive, and see the lighter side of life.

The other day I decided to leave a few comments. Seems the friendly thing to do after peeking in on their lives for the last months. I was very excited to see that Sunydazy actually came and left a comment on my blog! Yeah! Actually my first comment! It gave me the urge to print it out and frame it! Maybe not, but I was happy all the same.

And so, I am a blog-aholic. This afternoon my DH came home with tickets to the baseball game. Knowing that I was feeling a little under the weather, he left the house with not just one little excited boy, but with a little excited girl too. So, I was going to be alone.... At least until 10 o´clock... Since 5 o´clock... At least 5 hours... alone.... Wow, the possibilities! I could finish at least two of my sewing projects... scrapbook at least the pictures from Emily´s 4th birthday (she is five now)... I could use those new paints that my sister gave me for Christmas... or start embroidering my curtains for our guest room... I could sit down to watch "you´ve got mail" and crochet Aaron´s afgan.... or re-organize my clothes in our new closets.... The possibilities are endless!!!!

And here I am, driking a nice rich cup of coffee and connecting to blog world.

Hello. My name is Tex Mex Mommy, and I am a blog-aholic.

First step in recovery....
Click on the x box in the upper right hand corner.....

click

Distractions #2

2007-04-17T10:57:00.000-07:00

You know, I was just thinking about what I wrote, and I think we get a little distracted in our spiritual lifes also, don´t you? We are recently talking with a couple who have been in the church for years, but suddently feel they need to seperate and start a new congregation in their home. They aren´t from our congregation, but we have been friends for some time.

Suddenly they were "distracted" by "rethinking" all they do. They were frustrated with their congregation, with their traditions, rutines, struggle for control.... and so they decided that maybe they needed to rethink things. What things? How to show Christ´s love to others? How to bring others to know the peace we have in Christ? How to strengthen our own relationships within our families? How to live daily based on Christ´s teachings? How to perservere towards our eternal goal? No, none of these.... They are rethinking the real important things. Music in worship, women leading prayer, what day to have the Lord´s supper....

Talk about frustrating, it seems that their frustrations have distracted them from what they need to be doing, and they have instead focused on what they want to be doing. Does that make sense?

We have tried to encourage them and talk with them, telling them to not let their frustrations with this particular congregation lead them to deny sound doctrine. There is nothing wrong with the doctrine of the apostles, or Christ. The problem is in the humans who tend to loose focus. The doctrine is not wrong, our focus so many times is.

I think it was Paul who said we are not to be distracted by genealogies, false doctrines, myths, meaningless talk... all they cause is contriversy and discussions. We need to be out there doing good works, God´s work. I mean really, do you think God is gonna be more pleased with the brother who has abundance of knowledge, but hasn´t left his Christian library, or with the brethren who simply knows one thing, Christ´s love, and has been totally occupied in just that durring his entire life? I know that salvation doesn´t come from works alone, but aren´t our works proof of our faith? If one spends so much time rethinking, and researching, and investigating.... maybe his faith isn´t all what he thinks it is?

Faith comes from hearing, but I also think it comes from getting out there and seeing how God moves us to doing His work, and from seeing how God works in the lives of those who seek the simplicity of His true gospel meaning. What about you?

Distractions & Frustrations

2007-04-17T10:10:00.000-07:00

When I decided to start this blog I had many goals, ideas, inspirations (or is that aspirations). That pretty much stays the same, but the many distractions of life have turned my focus elsewhere. Sometimes my idea of the "Simple Christian Life" isn´t so simple. And so, I find myself organizing evangelistic breakfasts, children´s Christian Scouts meetings, visitation, doing a bit of everything except focusing on my homeschool and personal goals, etc... and in the meantime the blog world keeps on turning without me.
Distractions and frustrations. Here are my current top ten:

10. who keeps putting that broken toy back up on the counter? (I swear I have thrown it away at least 4 times)
9. who keeps splashing water up onto the bathroom mirror?
8. why do kids have the urgency to tell you something when you are right in the middle of a serious conversation?
7. why don´t people commit to their commitments?
6. why does the neighbor´s dog have to come poo on our front step when their is so much open space in our neighborhood?
5. why can´t the brother who made our windows bring our screens that he has been working on for at least a year? (its mosquitos opem season around here)
4. why does the electricity have to fail everytime it rains?
3. why does our local thief have to come and steal all of the copper plumbing from the church building?
2. why can´t the brethren realise that we need to invest in raising the wall around the church building?
1. why are there always a million things you want to do instead of what you need to do?

The common answer to most of these questions is: "because you live in Mexico". I know that, I knew that when I married a Mexican and commited to living in Mexico. And the other 4 are what I guess happens in every normal family. I guess we just have to accept it, and move on.

What I am seeing though, is that so many things evolve around self discipline. I am constantly reminded of what Peter says in his second letter. We need to put all diligence into....faith, virtue, knowledge,... and then the big one... self discipline, etc... Really without it, the others would be pretty much imposible to attain: pacience, godlyness, brotherly love, and love. The thing that hit me most in this is that if we don`t have these things in our life, we are worthless to Christ! I don´t know about you, but its not fun to think I might be worthless!

And so, what do I do? Like Paul, I gotta perserve, forget about the past... reach out to my goal... I can´t focus on the fact that only 4 kids showed up when we were expecting at least 10. I can´t let my focus be on the 5 visitors that didn´t make the evangelistic breakfast, I gotta focus on the 4 that showed up unexpectedly (thank heavens cause that would have been a lot of left over chilaquiles!!!). I can´t focus on all the negatives that go on daily in life here, I gotta focus on the positive, and maybe have a back up plan.

I also think it has alot to do with attitude. Who am I doing this for? If I focus on the people, I will inevitably become frustrated. But if I focus on what Paul says in Colossians3:23, doing all as if for the Lord and no as for anyone else on this earth... then that changes everything, doesn´t it? I can´t imagine how frustrated Jesus was. Living with, serving, healing, teaching, and his disciples still wondered who would sit on his right, or couldn´t drive out demons, or still had human attitudes. He once said, " You are with me only because I feed you." Imagine his frustration knowing that he was going to die on the cross for those very frustrating souls. I think I would have gotten out my lightnin bolts. I guess that´s why He´s God and not me.

Anyhows, I gotta go. Got a few distractions to take care of before I get down to the nitty gritty. Guess that´s part of the "Simple Christian Life."

Next Homeschool year......

2007-03-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

I just knew that today I would be the first one up. But no, once again Emily has beat me. As I was sitting up to get out of bed, I heard the TV in the livingroom turn on to Plaza Sesamo (Sesame Street). Drats! I just can´t get her beat!

I have been online alot lately. Maybe a little too much, but I have been evaluating my whole homeschooling endeavour and am looking for new ideas and options. Aaron (7) always grummbles about lessons, and Emily (5) took about half of this year to really get "into" the swing of things. I don`t want school to be a burden or boring. Here lately we have just been doing the required pages and I have been lack in the teaching. Partly due to other activities and partly due to lack of interest in general.

What I have come up with is deciding to combine Math, English and Spanish curriculum with Unit Studies and Scrapbooking. Of course this is today. Tomorrow I might have decided something completely different. I think that the Unit Studies will help spark interest in the subjects, and we all know that if we are interested in something, we are more apt to remember facts about it. Plus adding more fun activities like outdoors, on hands investigation sound like things my kiddos would really enjoy. Aaron the other day asked about the Solar System, so we got online and looked up the planets, astronauts and space gear. He wrote down some facts, and we printed out some coloring pages. I thought the whole thing was quite educating, but he was just having fun. (Don´t you dare tell him otherwise!)

At church we are organinzing a new Children`s Ministry where we will have charity outings, craft days, days in the park, etc... Activities every other week where our children will be forming friendships within the church, and providing activities that will help them serve others. I think it will be another great learning experience...

I just read an article on scrapbooking combined with Unit Studies. That has me really excited. I think the kids would be really interested in forming their scrapbooks based on the subject at hand. Plus the whole idea of having it as a record of what we have studied, something to show the spectical grandparents, is way up on my list!

Anyhow, investingating all this makes me want to drop everything I am doing right now and get started!

Maybe I will........

Sta. Maria Guienagati

2007-03-26T12:49:00.000-07:00

The river where we bathed

The one room church building

Emily enjoying huevos a la mexicana, black beans, and hand made tortillas

Childrens´Bible Hour

The river baptism.

These are a few pictures of Emily and my trip to Sta. Maria, Guienagati. It was just incredible. We were invited rather last minute to the Women´s Seminar, and I really didn´t think the other women would be interested in going, or would find any excuse to not go, but Oh me of little faith... Before I knew it there were five women ready to get things on the move to go. We worked like crazy that week getting things in order. We had to get a gift to give to the hosting congregation and the other women who would be attending. We met every day that week working on the gifts, we even involved several men on cutting, glueing, and running last me¡inute errands. We made 42 wall hangings with a weekly schedule of women´s chores. Each day with a Bible verse, and miniature clothing, Bibles, dishes, etc.... I got the biggest hot glue blister in all history (maybe not) but it was entirely worth it.

We left Oaxaca at 4:30pm on Friday. The bus driver rudely left one of our young ladies who arrived just as we were getting ready to pull away. The passengers yelled offences at him until we were well out of city limits. I still can´t get her face out of my mind, her look of disbelief as we pulled away leaving her behind. After hours of constant curves and two movies, we arrived in Tehuantepec at 9:00pm. We rushed to the Preacher´s house there to find a group of about 20 waiting for our arrival. We said a quick prayer, then everyone piled into pick-ups, volkswagens, and a minivan ready to go up the mountain. Actually we arrived rather quickly. Or is that because I fell asleep and woke up when we arrived? We pulled up to the church in Sta. Maria Guienagati at around 1 or 2 in the morning. The brethren quickly showed us to where we would stay, some slept on the floors, some in hammocks, and some how, Emily and I got a place on a bed.

Saturday, the big day of the event, we awoke and stumbled out of the bedroom to be ushered into the kitchen where the women were preparing hand made tortillas over the tipical wood heated comal. They gave us warm, coffee and homemade bread, and the hand made tortillas with salsa and cheese. When Emily and I finished, we realised that the other guests were waiting to be served outside under a structure supporting a palm leaf roof. Down the hill a bit was the river, and we constatly we reminded of its presence through the sound of its rushing water.

The first class began at 10:00am sharp. Sister Elsa Banda gave a wonderful class on serving God in the way that He has called us. There are no gifts too little to be usefull in His ministry. This was Elsa and her husband Arturo`s last activity on their trip to Oaxaca. Originally from Ciudad Juarez, they spent a month and a half in Oaxaca serving the coastal communities with classes, VBS, and other activities. They each have a heart of gold, and a great love for the Lord and his people.

After the class, the women were ushered by the men to sit again at the table under the palm roof where we were all served a delicious lunch of Amarillo de pollo. The men did the cooking, the serving, and the washing of dishes. Very impresive.... HINT HINT! With our stomachs full, and time on our hands, we decided to take a walk, then get a bath in before the afternoon class.

We walked back towards the mountain village accompanied by two of the local sisters. Emily and Karlita (Marisol´s daughter) walked up front hand in hand singing church songs. We stopped at a small store and bought a coke, and called home to tell our family that we had arrived fine. Amparo took us to her home and gave us each a kilo of ground coffee which her family plants and harvests. We then walked down to the river where the women were washing clothes and bathing while the children also bathed and played. One of the sisters offered to take us to a place perfect for a bath, so we sent Mari back to the house for a change of clothes for each of us and our towels. Us city women got in the water with our clothing on, and began to suds up all exposed areas of skin. Since the water was cold we shivered and laughed as we gasped for air. Amparo and the other local sister laughingly yet seriously told us, "You have to take off your clothes, thats why you are cold!" In the distance I could see at least a dozen women and children attending their river duties, and within "eye-shot" downstream there were some men washing their truck, so we decided that was a definite NOT. The only one to strip down was little Emi who splashed and played and enjoyed the innocence that we all once had.

After drying in the sun and changing behind the bushes, we walked back towards the church building. We stopped on the way to admire a strange fruit growing on a tree. An old lady with her long skirt, long gray braids, and worn apron came out of her adobe house to offer us two guanabanas that had just fallen from the tree. They were sweet and fresh and tasted marvelous under the heat of the afternoon sun. Back at the church grounds Emily played with her new friends, and before we knew it, it was time for the afternoon class. Before entering, we passed out the handmade gifts and were touched to see how the women each began to smile as they read the words on each hanging. Several asked for another for the aunt, the sister, the friend who couldn´t come, but we were shocked and pleased to see that there were exactly enough for those present.

Sunday services were very touching. Brother Toño from Tehuantepec had a very encouraging sermon, but the most touching was when the brother who preformed the Lord´s Supper broke out in tears as he prayed for the Bread of Life. Marisol and I saw that the tiny cups were insufficient for the brethren present, so we humbly shared a cup between the two of us. At the end of the service one of the visitors went forward and confessed her desire to be baptised. She said, "Since I have arrived I have been watching all the sisters and brothers, and have seen that here there is the true love of Christ." We all then walked down to the river and she was baptised, renewed, and re-born in the presence of some fifty brethren who immediatly broke out into song. What a sweet and blesed way to end such a touching time on the mountain!!!

After one last bath in the river we rushed to sister Elsa and brother Arturo´s minivan as they would drop us off in Oaxaca on their way home. As the van quickly drove down the mountain rode, we passed the brethren from Pto. Escondido in their pick-up truck, and Arturo honked and we all waved and shouted blessings from our windows. We passed the brethren from Salina Cruz in their pick-up and honked and waved and shouted blessings. We passed the brethren from Tehuantepec and honked and waved and shouted blessings.... Sister Elsa chatted all the way to Oaxaca where we gave them a bed and a shower before sending them off the next day towards the north...

I think our Lord for such a beautiful experience and for letting us know the brothers and sisters in Sta Maria Guienagati.

It´s a Beautiful day!

2007-03-19T14:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday. Work day. argh. I really didn´t want to get up and hurry to the church building, but it turned out to be a great day. About nine brothers and sisters showed up. We cleaned up the front gardens and trimmed the ficus trees up to within reaching higth since we had no ladder. By the time 1:00 came around we were all pooped and ready to clean up. We sat around and ate a torta and chatted. It is so good to spend time with the brethren.

That afternoon we had promised to take the kids to the Llano park to ride bikes with Marisol´s daughter Karlita. We had just enough time to drive back out to the Tule, unload the work tools, and load up the bikes.

Marisol was late in arriving, but we were thuroughly entertained watching other children on the "rental cars". Someone makes a killing renting out those battery operated tike size cars. Two children in particular caught our eyes. A little girl around 4 years old, obviously from a small mountain village due to her attire. She wore a traditional outfit of a long dark skirt, a reboso (scarf) tightly wound around her waist, and a colorful silk blouse hand decorated with ribbons and embroidery. She had her hair in pony tails that were falling out, and her face was a toasted dark brown with rosy red cheeks. Her mother who was selling candies and gum, looked on from the park´s fountain while the two mischievous children rode around wildly on the electric truck. The two giggled and squealed as they chattered dialect back and forth to each other. The little girl , supposedly driving, would throw her hands up in the air and giggle as the truck swerved back and forth barley missing other children in their perspective "grown up" vehicles. When her older brother had enough of letting her "drive" he would run along and jump in the driver`s seat forcing her over to one side. It was something straight out of an "India Maria" movie. I sat there wishing I had taken along my camara, laughing so hard I almost fell off the bench where we sat. Once or twice they would swerve over our way and I would jerk Emi out of their path. Such innocence, purity, and friendship the two children showed. I can imagine that the children back in Jesus´time had that same innocence and purity. Children nowdays are loosing that all too soon. Lord, help us to keep the putiry and innocence of our children!

That night we were so tired, sunburned, and sore, but as I plopped into bed all I could do was praise our Lord for such a beautiful day!

I wrote this months ago on a different blog before we moved into our new house.

2007-03-19T13:47:00.000-07:00

Our Garden, our Home, our "Pueblito"

When we woke up this morning the sky was bright blue, but now I see the rain clouds rolling in over the Sierra Norte mountains. It is obvious that rainy season has officially begun here in south Mexico. I love this time of year when the brown, brittle plants, scorched from the dry season, begin to sprout new buds and green leaves. In our garden I have planted hollyhock, cana, watermelon, canteloupe, tomatoe, and okra seeds. So far the canteloupe are the size of my fist, and the hollyhocks are a few inches high. The canas are growing very quickly, and I have already eaten my first tomato straight from the vine. My okra has been a big disappointment, but mom told me I had needed to soak them overnight beforehand. Ooops, no wonder. This is my first "real" garden, and I am excited to see how it goes. We have also planted from seed a pomegranite tree and avocado tree. The passion fruit vines that the brick layers planted from seeds are growing quickly and I need to transplant them next to the fence so they will spread. The buganvilias are growing strong and are full of blooms, and I think the banana trees are really going to take off with the new rainy season.

Last week we worked on a brick patio and walkway outside the diningroom at the South of the house. I think it turned out quite nice. The neighbor told us she decided to "steal" our design and is quickly making her own brick path to her house just in time for mud season. I can´t wait to plant grass on either side of the path, and in the backyard. Something we haven´t yet been able to do because of all the construction rubish. We hope to get rid of the last part of it next week. God willing we will be in our house by early June. Each time we go to see it and check on the workers, we stand in awe of the great blessings the Lord has given us. It will soon be a place of family activity, a haven to us all, and a laboratory in which we will learn and grow.

I am especially excited about our homeschool loft. It is above our mainbedroom, and has access to the terrace. There I will have all homeschool materials effectively organized along with craft and sewing items. I also hope to arrange a reading center in a corner and Jorge plans to put the computer and his desk there also. I think this will be the main hub of our daily activities, and think the terrace will give a nice alternative to hold homeschool on nice, "hate to be indoors" days. God is too good to us!

I really think Sta. Maria del Tule is going to be a healthy place for the kids to grow. It is "world famious" for its Tule (Sabino or Ahuehuete) tree, but still has a small pueblo feel to it. As soon as we get organized and moved in, I would like to offer free English classes to the children in their small library down town which is only about five blocks from our house. There are always tourists visiting the Tule tree from all parts of the world, and I think it will be interesting for the children to meet them and learn a little about thier part of the world. There are learning experiences around every corner of Oaxaca, and we hope to use them to teach the children about the vastness of God´s creation. Last month we were camping in the Sierra Norte mountains when out of a forest path came a tourist guide and two tourists. They stopped at the creek where we were chasing fish, and we had a nice chat. The soon to be married couple met in Germany although she was Irish and he was Croatian. It was neat to hear their story and know a little more about European life from their perspective.

So, this is a little about our life here in south Mexico. God has blessed us with lots of interesting, learning experiences, and we pray for wisdom in taking hold of them.

Thanksgiving at School

2006-11-27T10:35:00.000-08:00

I definitly believe that God works things out for the best. Being away from home could be really hard for the kids, especially given the circumstances (dad not here with us). But knowing my kids and knowing how they love to make new friends, I decided to see this as an opportunity for them to meet new children and learn a little more about USA culture.

The day after we arrived in little Anton, Texas, I decided to go down to the school and take a look around. It is right down the street from my mom's house. When the kids went in they were a little nervous, as was I, but everyone was really nice, and we already knew a few people from mom's church that work there. As I checked in to getting them enrolled, they went to see there classrooms. When they got back, they asked if they were going to stay. That was a Thursday. I told them it would be better to start on Monday. They agreed, but everyday after that Emi would ask if that was the day they would go to school.

So far they have had lots of fun. Since they arrived right before Thanksgiving, they have been been able to do all kind of activities based on the Holiday. They have made Turkey hats, Pilgrim hats, made Thankful Journals, read about the first Thanksgiving, and even had a mini Thanksgiving dinner. This has been great for them since I have tried to pass on the Thanksgiving tradition in Mexico, but its hard when you are the only one who knows what it is.

I couldn't help but take this picture in front of ALCO's. The turkey was too cute. This is KK (my niece) and Emi in her turkey hat.

This is Emily in her Turkey hat. The Turkey legs hang down the side of her face. She must have worn this hat for three days all over town.

Here are my little Pilgrims and Turkey together.

I wonder if the original Pilgrims were so cute?!

October in Oaxaca

2006-11-15T14:52:00.000-08:00

Zucchini Pumpkins

These are the pumpkins from our first garden. I was so excited to pick them. They aren't like the orange ones you would see in the states. They actually look more like big zucchinis. I picked a few when they were still little and made zucchini cake out of them which was quite tastey. These I just let grow to see how big they would get. The ladies from church told me that they cook them in a large pot overnight with brown sugar (panela) to make a dessert. Or they can be done similarly but made into a sweet drink. I just thought it was fun to see them grow. I will save their seeds for next year.

JACK-O-LANTERNS

We didn't buy the big orange pumpkins to carve this year. At 6 dollars each, we decided it was a bit 'spensive. Especially since last year they got moldy and rotted within just a couple of days. We did buy one pumpkin, but I will clean it, boil it for pies, and save the seeds to plant next year. These pumpkins are hard to find. I think they are imported. What we did this year is make paper mache jack-o-lanterns. The kids layered the soggy newspaper on balloons, then after drying all night, they painted them orange. I cut out the eyes and mouths. They turned out really cute.

Then the kids dressed up in Aaron's old soccer uniforms and played police. The kids here are not playing cops and robbers, but Federal Preventive Police and APPO. Kinda sad, but goes to show how kids pick up on everything. Everytime the news comes on, they holler at us since they know we are always checking to see what is happening. Halloween and the Day of the Dead have kinda been put on the back burner this year in Oaxaca. Because of the political crisis, people don't have the money or the desire to go out and buy things for their traditional offerings or go asking for candy. The clash of the APPO and PFP this week didn't help either.