home sweet home

The kids finally got to see the house today.

I was pretty excited to see their excitement.  I was kind of anticipating it all day.

What a disappointment.  Completely unenthusiastic.  You would have thought that they didn't even like it or that we were moving into a shack.  Oh well.

The good news is that I felt a little bit better about it after I saw it again.   I'm getting there.

101 days, 13 hours, and 53 minutes until it is ours.

party down, thirteen-year-old!

Last Friday (April 11th), Mia had her birthday party.  It was a day off from school (administration day for the teachers) so she figured that was a great day for a party.  And it was - except that I still had to work.  I suggested that she have it on Saturday so I could be there and help but I was mildly shrugged off and kindly informed that as long as I made the cake and caramel corn, my presence was clearly unnecessary, thank-you-very-much.  Humph.  Fine, little-miss-I'm-so-independant-pants.  In her words as a two year old "I do self, mommy.  I do self!".

I did get to join the festivities for the final hour or so, after several games and the viewing of the ever- popular "Frozen".  So I snapped a few shots with my phone.

After gifts it was time for cake.  Unfortunately I forgot that we still haven't purchased any birthday candles.  Nothing like a glade cinnamon holiday (or whatever it is flavoured) leftover from Christmas to be a quick substitute!

Of course, it had to be red velvet with Mia.  And I can't say I am sorry that she chooses it every year.  Other than an over dose of food colouring , it is rather delectable. 

Mia and three of the friends in her class demonstrated some weird dance that they came up with as a response to a demand from their teacher.  It was rather hilarious.

Then all of those wackadoos joined in for a group buggy-swayish dance type thing.  They are so weird.  I was never that weird.  I certainly am not that weird now.  I will never been that weird (okay, okay, I'm about as odd as they come).  But they are.  It is a great, wonderful weird.  Mia has been abundantly blessed with a great group of friends.  They are such great girls - lots of fun, caring, playful, don't take themselves too seriously for their new-teenagers status…. all around a great bunch.

And the aftermath:

So I guess my kids don't need me for birthday parties.  And that is fine and dandy.  Especially because, quite frankly, unless I am doing it to help someone else, I stink at birthday parties.  I'm too lame and lazy.  Well, not entirely - but kind of when it comes to my own family's parties.  I like simple.  And really, nowadays, simple is wonderful.

project Cade…. or projected Cade and other wacky stuff

Well, it is finally sunrise when I head off to work for 8:00 a.m.  Nice to have the days getting longer again.

 After having the coldest December in Manitoba for 80 years, having the temperatures reach those as cold as Mars (literally), we are now having really weird weather.  Today for example, it was crazy blowing snow - horrible wind chill because the wind was so strong.  But now, at 10:00, it is rising in temperature instead of cooling down like it normally does when the sun goes down.  It is beautiful outside.

 The forecast, however, could shut schools down.  If it does what it is predicted, there will be a snow day.  Unfortunately, it will still be a work day for yours truly.

It has been cold (more normal though) for three or four days, then it will warm up to just barely below freezing for a day, and then back down for a few days… only to go back up.  So weird.

Cade was home sick the past two days but went today.  We've had cupcakes waiting (for his birthday which was Monday) and his project sitting at home waiting for his return to school.  Well, today he went.

He had to do a presentation and had planned to jump out of it (he did it on a box).  Then he decided this weekend that it was lame and he wasn't going to do it.  There was no way, in fact, that he was going to do it.  Well apparently he changed his mind!  His teacher captured the footage for us, 'cause she is awesome like that.

She said he did a fabulous job.  We were so glad he did it - love the individuality he has.  You never know what day will bring what desire or mood, but we are thankful that today brought bold uniqueness!

stuff n things

Well by now everyone pretty much knows - we are leaving Ecuador.  There are so many mixed emotions right now it is hard to even know what to say.  So I'll save it for another day.... not easy to put those many many feelings into words.

Because of this big change, we are very busy trying to sell everything.... again.  I've been taking things out of various rooms, cleaning them up, checking their condition, photographing them, etc.  This of course means that then the kids become more attached to them and want to play with them.  Many of these items became a fort last weekend - a fort that was constructed, rearranged, reconstructed, demolished....  But hey, that is half the fun!  Once it is built, a bit part of the joy is gone.

Benches also became the stocks on various occasions.   

The kids asked if this could be their new form of discipline - instead of the usual taking away privileges, nasty chores (I've warned them that I have a few great ones lined up - like scrubbing the BBQ grill... funny how everyone seems to be on their best behavior lately!).  I let them know that since they are asking for it, it was a good tip-off that it might not be the most affective means of punishment.  They seemed a little surprised that I was on to them.  I was a little surprised by how ignorant they must think I am!

The last few weeks of school (we have five and a half left) is always filled with a million fun events... and some not so fun.  Today was Wacky Wednesday, so the kids wacked it out.  Lucy, being the self-conscious fashion maiden that she is didn't want to stray too far.

Cade, on the other hand, got really wacky.   Contrary to the picture, he was very into it and super excited - bouncing off the walls with each new idea.  He has his hat upside down and filled with pine cones (ummm?), he is wearing mismatched pajamas (because he is wearing night clothing during the day), two different shoes on the wrong feet, a soccer sock as a head band and when he got to school he completed the ensemble with one other soccer sock overtop of his pant leg, shin guards on his arms and slippers on his hands.

You never know what is going to float this guys boat!

Lots of projects going on - like Maddy's vikings discovering Iceland model.  Yes, I did help, but mainly with giving instructions and such.  I will not do projects for my kids but I will happily give them ideas  and instruction on how to do them!  She did a fabulous job.

And speaking of construction, deconstruction and all that.....  this is what has been going on outside our kitchen for the last several days.  The last several days that I have been home sick and now hear jackhammers and pounding concrete going on in my head....

They are tearing down the house next door.  The first two days they had two guys out with jackhammers.  Our guess is that they were salvaging various materials.  Then halfway through yesterday and all day today they have been knocking down walls and trying to break up large pieces of concrete with this rather large Cat (in the bottom two pictures you see them scooping up pieces, lifting them up high and then dropping them to break them.... it seems to take several attempts to make any headway).  You can see from the first picture that they got the top floor down (the coral and yellow walls).  We guess that tomorrow they'll be taking down the rest.  And we hope that it might be finished by then. 

Come June 26, the place where I sit right this moment will have the same thing happening to it.  It is a wonderful house.  They are crazy to knock it down.

bad influence

I didn't realize what a bad influence I am on my kids until Eric got back from his trip.  While he was gone I made up several different songs on several different occasions.....  When he got back, they shared all of the songs with him.  Hmmmm.   Perhaps I'm not "mother of the year" (shocking, I know).

I cooked beans that one day - I think I mentioned how they made the house stink so bad.  Well, when I was cooking them I also taught the kids the little ditty "beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot".

Another day we were talking about the school musical that some of Maddy's friends were in (they did Godspell - it was great!).  She told us that one of her friends complained that another one of their friends, Bobby, kept sticking his butt in her face on stage.  I said "How, Bobby doesn't have a butt?" (he is very very skinny.... but an extremely nice and fun guy, so we don't hold it against him).  The kids thought that was pretty funny, so encouraged by their laughter, I started singing "Bobby, the buttless wonder...." to the tune of "Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer".  We heard that song for days afterwards.

Finally, one other day, the kids and I were walking to school and were talking about hippies.  They were wondering why anyone would want to be a hippy (no, I have no clue as to how or why this conversation came up).  For some reason I started saying "Hi.  My name's Hippy.  My mom's Hippy, my dad's Hippy, even my dog's Hippy.  One day, my momma said, Hippy, why don't you ever do the peace sign?  And I said, I do!  See?" (the original is "Chubby" instead of "Hippy" and "why don't you ever smile" instead of "do the peace sign".  And then you squish your cheeks together and smile...).  Well, later that day, they were saying this little what-ever-it-is ('cause its not really a song I guess) and came up with several other versions.... and laughing hysterically.  I again did my foul thing as a mother when one of them said "Hi, my name is Cheese....."  and I said "Why don't you ever cut the cheese?"... followed by cutting the cheese noises.  Yes, I'm so mature.

 Some versions:

Hippy - giving the peace sign:

Cheese, cutting the cheese:

A close relative of Cheese, is Bean (made up by Cade):

Lucy's "Hi, my name is Starlight...."

She did the whole, my mom's Starlight, my dad's....  and then said "Starlight, why don't you ever kick a soccer ball?"  WHAT?  Mia, Cade and I went into fits of laughter trying to figure out where that came from.  Then Mia suggested "Starlight why don't you ever shine?"  Here they are shining:

And another of Cade's:  "Hi, my name is Disco Ball...."

"Disco Ball, why don't you ever shake your booty?"  "And I said, I do!  See?":

So, after all this, I think its best for Eric not to ever leave again.  They are not safe with me.

In other news....

Is vanity nurture or nature or neither?

For the past few months the vanity of one certain 7-year-old (almost 8! yikes!) has been steadily increasing.  She takes a very long time in the mornings deciding what to wear and can often be found laying out entire outfits to see how they look.  How does this happen?

She also had a very small, pale red dot on her face for a few days and wanted concealer on it every morning.  Of course there often hair issues often as well.  My outfits, hair, etc. fall under her scrutiny almost daily, too.  Considering she believes a hot pink shrug, coral skirt and dirty, worn out Ugg-type boots is the cool thing to wear, I'm not putting a lot of stock in her critiques!

At least getting ready for school every morning isn't dull.  No, definitely not dull.

spanish lessons

Sunset tonight.

We've been having a lot of rainy and cloudy weather.  But that also means that we are having a lot of beautiful sunsets outside our kitchen door.  Basically, I'm happy as a lark as I love the rain, love the cooler weather and love the sunsets.

This evening during dinner the kids and I started translating the song "Call Me Maybe" into Spanish (with our outrageously bad gringo accents.... on purpose).  I decided that this would be a fabulous way for the kids to keep up with their Spanish while we are on furlough - song translation!  Tonight we worked on "We didn't start the fire" by Billy Joel and "Smoke on the Water" - although all we translated was "smoke on the water".

Bet you're jealous that you aren't part of our family.  'Cause we're awesome.

By the way, in case you are worried, we were fooling around with the song translation thing....

Oh, and I cooked beans this afternoon in the pressure cooker and the whole house has reeked for hours.  Just thought you'd be interested.

stubborn

Don't you just hate it when one of your children displays a negative tendency that you have or did have as a child?  It is horrifying.  One of my children often displays my incredibly stubborn tendency that I had as a kid.  Thankfully, for the most part, I'm over it.

The stubbornness is about being right and oh it was a problem for me!  I remember someone completely proving me wrong (like I just did to my child) but I would hold on, no matter what - to the death - saying that I wasn't wrong.  It happened a lot.  I even remember some specific instances (pretty amazing for this woman with a pathetic memory) where I knew that the person I was arguing with was right - they completely demolished my argument - but I "stood my ground", and said I was right and they were wrong.  I was so darn stubborn.

Ridiculous.

Annoying.

And now I'm on the other end.  And I just want to apologize to those people in my life who put up with me.  It wasn't easy.  So not easy.

super fun

I can't honestly say that life has been super fun lately.  Not that that should really be the goal.  I mean, it is good to have fun and you certainly want to make things fun when possible and appropriate, but sometimes real life happens and its okay if we aren't having a ball all the time.

Although I can't say I don't wish I was having more of a ball (hmmmm, that sounds awfully odd).

There are a lot of things up in the air.  There are a lot of people who are wondering what is happening, where God is directing them, what they should do and all that not-so-super-fun stuff.  

The ministry of Education here in Ecuador has told Alliance - the school where the kids go and I work (and many North Americans work as missionaries) - that it will come under their umbrella.  It isn't yet - but it will (unless God does something crazy).  This brings a lot of potential changes.  One of these changes that it is bringing for sure is that many of the North American teachers have to completely change the method by which they are here financially.  The whole thing is pretty complicated and I won't bore you with the details.  Needless to say (or many it does need to be said), many people are leaving.

Several of the changes that are happening also affect my work there, the potential for my working there in the future and the potential for us being able to afford to send out kids there.  That means possible changes for us too.  And waiting to see what God is doing with those changes - how He wants to direct, where He wants us to be, if He wants changes for us or if He wants us to plod along here - is not fun.

I usually think, and it seems true in the situation, that I can handle (with His strength and all) what He brings and where He directs us.  What I can't handle (or rather, don't handle well because I need to seek His help every second for patience) is waiting.  And right now, we are waiting.

I HATE WAITING!!!!

Since I seem to have not grown in this area at all in my 43 years, God is providing more opportunity.

Worry doesn't seem to by my issue.  I know He's got it all under control.  I know He has plans for good and He will direct us.  I know that He will show us His will and purposes .  But it is in His time.... and that is the part I'm not that keen on.  Oh Lord, help me to be patient.

Currently all of this chaos is having an effect on the kids as well.  One of the kids wants to live in North America again.  Done.  I think since we decided that we were taking a longer furlough and spending a semester in Manitoba, this child felt that was as good as moving back.  When we talk about coming back after that time, they get very upset.  They want to be with their cousins (either set/side).  They want to live in a neighborhood where they can go out and play, ride bikes around, feel safe.  And this child wants the comfort of quiet.... not the constantly noisy streets of Quito.  My lovely child has been acting out a lot lately and in talking with them, this is what is bothering them.  This child says that they hates it when we talk about coming back to Ecuador.

But then there is another child.  If we at all entertain the idea of staying longer than a semester in North America, they get tense.  This is home now.  This is where they want to be.  Sure, they love the cousins and friends.  This child loves some of the freedoms and comforts.   They want to be with all of the people they love there.... but home is here.  (and right now, tension is at it's highest - Eric is gone for 10 days and this child is a mess every time he is gone. Every week when he goes away for a night... fears sky rocket.   And gone for 10 days - forget it.  Daddy is the protector - "He was a police officer.  He knows how to take care of us."  The upside is that we have a lot of opportunities to pray together and talk about asking God to help turn our fears into faith.)

The other two?  It depends on the day.  Me?  It depends on the hour (or maybe minute).  Eric?  It depends on the second.  Okay - that last one isn't true.... but he isn't settled either.

So yes, life is not super fun right now.  What it is is super challenging and in that challenge I hope and pray there is a whole lot of growth - patience, trust, surrendering our wills, and all that.

And while we wait, I have a lot of piles going as I pack (because we have to move out of our house regardless but the end of June):  sell, keep regardless, give away (a few different piles there), throw away, keep for teaching Home Ec. (if we are here), keep if we stay/sell if we go.  I know you are jealous of my organized chaos.

But wait - I actually didn't intend to do all of that babbling (can you call it babbling when you are actually writing?  is that merely a verbal term?  am I babbling again?).  I did mean to tell about some super fun things.  Such as celebrating Mia's birthday on four different occasions.  

The first one - her real birthday, I didn't get to enjoy with her.  It was so sad to not be with her on her birthday but alas, she stayed in the jungle, I had to come back to Quito (all that info should be up soon in another entry).  Then there was a little one when she got back from the jungle.  Then we went out for dinner for her birthday.  Then I realized two weeks later that we never even sang to her or gave her a birthday present.  What kind of lame mother am I anyhow?  Don't answer that....  So, we celebrated again.  Very short, sort of sweet (very sweet, in terms of it being Mia).

Pizza, cup cakes and a gift (cash - the best gift to give when you are purging, moving and going to North America in two months!).

There also have been a few fun things going on at school.  Like a hat parade!!

The elementary kids were supposed to make a hat that illustrated a word.  There were different categories like longest word, shortest word, happiest, most ridiculous, etc.  Cade was going to do the longest word but he lazied-out (at least that is what it seemed like his reasoning was).  Mia is a sixth grader (need I say more - no sixth graders would, you know.... and if fact they didn't).  Lucy did do a hat.  "Heart" was her word.  Word selection - not a shocker.  Word category - don't remember (not a shocker either).  But she did it all on her own and was as cute as a button (ever wonder where in the world that expression came from?).

She wasn't enjoying me taking pictures of her.  It did provide entertainment for some of Mia's friends however, as they tried to get Lucy to look at me.  No prizes for Lu but that is okay....

It still was super fun.

just another saturday - heads bitten off and cats thrown in the lake

Before the violence, feast your eyes on these.

Mmmmm.
Yes, deliciousness.  I baked 120 or so cupcakes for our Student Council to give out to teachers and staff for Friday's Appreciation Day.  I don't mean to brag - but I do kinda mean to brag.  They were scrumptious.  Chocolate cupcakes with either mocha buttercream and toffee bits or salted caramel buttercream with chocolate shavings.  I could bathed in the salted caramel.  Well - I wouldn't have actually wanted to bath in it... merely an expression to show how very much I wanted to keep eating it. Hard to believe Heaven will be better than that.

On to our Saturday.  This was the first Saturday in a very long time with nothing on the agenda for me. Bliss.  But I still felt that I needed to be productive.  Darn those feelings.  What I really wanted was to be creative - for just a little while at least.  Then Eric reminded me that I had talked about writing/coloring on the walls.  What joy!  See, since our house is being bashed down in two and a half months, I figured we could use the walls as our canvases.  We told the kids they could "have at it" in their rooms and draw, write and color to their hearts content.  And we told me that too.
So I did.
I actually wanted to do this a long time ago anyway but just never did it.  Since we have a projector, we also have a large naked wall, which bothers (bothered) me greatly.  So I figured I'd paint a big huge frame on the wall that surrounds where the projector projects.  The original idea was to do it really nice, but since we are just here for a little bit I thought I'd do a elementary coloring version and I love it.  It is about 4 x 6 feet.

After I got that out of my system, I actually did set to work to sort and pack.  We're pulling out stuff to sell so that we don't have to pack it all up and store it while we are gone for 7 months.
Have I mentioned that?  That we are taking a 7 month furlough?  We are.  And we are super excited!!!!!  Summer in California and first semester in Steinbach, Manitoba.  Yahoo!  Anyway, having the big dilemma about what to sell, pack or what-have-you.

I've also been trying to motivate the kids to do the same but they haven't been very keen on it.  Maddy took me up on it though and went at her room and stuff will full force.

The other kids stuck with playing and having friends over.  Lucy decided a puppet show was just the thing.  Here's how it went:

Act 1

Once there was a man who had a cat.  The cat was getting older and older and it's teeth were getting duller and duller.  So the man decided to throw the cat in the lake.

Then the man found a dog.  The dog was very big and it bit the man's head off.

Act 2

There were two dogs.

The man (he got a new head at the head shop) wanted the two dogs, so he got them.

(or something like that...)  Oh, and the cat came back (the very next day....).

Cade decided they should also make a video of the whole production.

Later when friends came over, the whole puppet show idea caught on, so we were treated to another event.  I'd tell you the story line but it was much more complex with more characters.  Besides I had to leave after a fraction of the first act because an earlier puppeteer was needing some discipline.

That was all I got to see, but from the look on Mia's face it was going to be a doozy!!