a new era

Tomorrow marks the dawning of a new era in my life.

Freedom.

Yes, my baby girl starts kindergarten tomorrow. So after almost 13 years of parenting, I will regularly have my daytimes sans kids (sans: French for "without"..... I know, I'm supposed to be speaking Spanish, but certain French words will never cease to be part of me. How could I possibly push out all Ms. Daque and Mr. Bostock taught me?).

Do a laugh or do I cry?

Most definitely a little of each.

I remember very clearly (which is pretty remarkable in itself - that I remember anything clearly) the first day my oldest started kindergarten. It was definitely a laugh and cry moment. Mostly cry - but because she was a bit of a challenging one (kind of like my current baby girl), there was a certain amount of laughter! The most vivid memory that I have, however, it that of my friend Cindy.

Cindy's daughter was a good friend of Maddy's and Cindy was a good friend of mine. Cindy's daughter is the youngest of her four kids. That day, when it was the first day of my first child's schooling - it was the first day of her last child's schooling.

And she was EXCITED!

She cracked me up - well, she always cracked me up, but especially on that day.

Cindy was dancing around

doing a little playful "rubbing it in my face"

- freedom was hers!

And like me, she loved her baby girl a whole lot. She also loved to be with her kids.

But she certainly knew how good it was to have time to herself.

And that will be mine....

tomorrow!

Tomorrow I will dance around.

Tomorrow I will fine some innocent parent who is dropping off their first child at school and rub it in their face!! (okay, I probably won't, but it sure would be fun if there was someone I knew and I could do that too. Cindy seemed to enjoy it so much....)

Tomorrow is my new era:

FREEDOM

Now all that being said, tomorrow will be a lousy way to celebrate my first day of freedom.

First I have a meeting at the school right after we drop off the kids.... probably will be a good hour and a half or so. Then we have a meeting with our mission organization for 2 1/2 hours.

So my day of freedom?

Not so free.

But there's always

Friday!!

party time

So it was 11:39 p.m. when I turned off the light tonight and said to Eric "I love going to bed, so why do I always do this? - I stay up too late."

He said to me "Because you like tranquility."

A very true statement.

Being an introvert and a night person makes for long, quiet evenings.

I love love love being with my kids but I long for time to myself.

I long for solitude and silence.

Time where I am not constantly getting run over (figuratively and literally).

But I sure do need my sleep.

Maybe, you think, isn't being in bed the ultimate in tranquility?

Well, let this night be a perfect example:

11:41 p.m. Cade comes into our room

First words out of his mouth: "Where is Lucy?"

That is because he knows that Lucy often ends up in bed with us (me) in the middle of the night. He told me at bedtime (and for the last few nights) that he wanted to sleep with me because he was scared. I told him that he needed to fall asleep in his own bed first and could come in if he woke up. He said "But what if Lucy gets there first?" I told him we would work it out if it happened.

Somehow he beat her to it.

But that wasn't the only sleep issue.

It is hard to fall asleep to the Macarayna - extended version.

Yup, another party.

The music was (is) pretty loud but we did have our window open.

Eric finally closed it.

It was amazing what a difference that made.

Because it made none.

Maybe if I hang out on the computer a while longer I'll get so tired that I will fall asleep in spite of party time on Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa.*

*That is the name of our street..... I think in English it means: Party like it's 1999.

The Chronicles of Narnia

"I'm sorry," said Lucy. "You don't mean it was? How could I - I couldn't have left the others and come up to you alone, how could I? Don't look at me like that... oh well, I supposed I could. Yes, and it wouldn't have been alone, I know, not if I was with you. But what would have been the good?"

Aslan said nothing.

"You mean," said Lucy rather faintly, "that it would have turned out all right - somehow? But how? Please, Aslan! Am I not to know?"

"To know what would have happened, child?" said Aslan. "No. Nobody is ever told that."

"Oh dear," said Lucy.

"But anyone can find out what will happen," said Aslan. "If you go back to the others now, and wake them up;and tell them you have seen me again; and that you must all get up at once and follow me - what will happen? There is only one way of finding out."

"Do you mean that is what you want me to do?" gasped Lucy.

"Yes, little one," said Aslan.

"Will the others see you too?" asked Lucy.

"Certainly not at first," said Aslan. "Later on, it depends."

"But they won't believe me!" said Lucy.

"It doesn't matter," said Aslan.

This little gem is out of the second (I repeat, second book... as in the second one that you should read.... after the first one, which is The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe) book, "Prince Caspian". Once again filled with fabulous gems teaching me so much about life, Jesus, His ways and His power.

I could write for a long long time about several different things on this little section alone. There are all kinds of nuggets of goodness in here!!

The one that stands out the most to me at the moment is the last line that was quoted.

"It doesn't matter," said Aslan.

Lucy knew she needed to do something she didn't want to do because, in part, she didn't want to do alone - with out her friends, family. At first she thought she couldn't do it alone, but with one look at Aslan, she knew that she could have.

Sometimes, well, most times, it really stinks having to do the right thing when no one else will do it. Or if everyone else thinks you are crazy. Or to speak the truth when no one will believe it.

But when you know it is right, you know that He is with you and it really doesn't matter about the others. It would be great if they believed. It would be great if they followed too. It would be wonderful if they saw that you weren't crazy but believed the truth for what it is, whether it made sense to them completely or not.

Usually that doesn't happen.

Often we have to go alone.

Maybe, just maybe, later they will see, too.

Lucy said "But what would have been the good?"

That didn't matter either.

We don't need to analyze. We need to obey.

(sounds like something I tell my kids)

It is about faith.

Trusting that God has the best in mind for us even if we don't understand the reason or the possible result.

Just like I want my kids to have faith in my instructions. Because I want what is best for them. I want to protect them. They need to trust me.

I need to trust Him.

It doesn't matter what others will say. It doesn't matter what others will do.

It matters only that I

trust,

follow,

obey.

cardboard boxes

So we bought these appliances, right? Fridge, stove, microwave.

They come in big boxes.

Really great boxes.

So the day we got our appliances, we also got a space club house. The moron part of me never took a picture of the kids making it and playing in it. It really was quite something and they had a ball.

The space club house lasted about a week. Then the novelty wore off.

That's okay.

I wasn't sad (except that then they started going a little more crazy in the house....).

In fact, I was glad, because then I could make things!

So what do you do when you have lots of cardboard, leftover fabric and not a whole lot else? You make bulletin boards!

The first ones, for Cade and Mia, are three layers thick of cardboard and covered with extra brown curtains that were left in our house. The only thing I had to buy was the green rick-rack. They have a blue and green ribbon pocket and painted clothes pins to hold some extra papers. Oh, and of course, are embroidered with my lovely machine - gifted to me by my darling friends and former business partners (Thank Rach and Beck!!!).

The next picture is from Lucy's room - sort of a memo-board chair rail. It goes the length of one wall in her room. And the fabric is leftover from her sheet set - when my mom made a duvet cover from the flat sheet. It also has painted clothes pins (and I bought some ribbon).

I love the challenge of making stuff out of limited resources.

It's a whole lot of fun - have always enjoyed that.

But I still really do miss Michaels!

uvillas

Fruit #10: Uvillas

These little grape sized gems are really quite fabulous. I saw via the internet that they are actually common in parts of North America, under the names of cape gooseberry or ground cherry. Now, I am pretty sure that I would have known if I have had them before, because they really are yummilicious!

They are mildly tart, sweet, thin skinned, firm yet soft and juicy. An absolutely must try.

Now they are really good all on their own but I felt like baking a pie.

So I did.

The only problem is that we snacked on so many of them while making pie crust that I didn't have enough to fill the pie! I made it anyway and it was pretty good.... although I added a little too much sugar for my taste.

Should really have taken a picture of the pie.

Since you don't have to wait until you come to Ecuador to try these, you really ought to go and hunt some of these down.

I don't think you'll be disappointed.

just for my mom

For dinner last night.... grilled mushrooms, red peppers, zucchini and asparagus.

See mom, I do eat my vegetables!

guanabana

Fruit #9: Guanabana

Somehow, when I was going through pictures the other day, I must have deleted my other picture of this lovely large fruit. So we are simply left with the one of it sliced open. It's really too bad because this baby has some beautiful pokey parts. Sigh.... sometimes I'm not real bright.

Guanabana, also known as soursop, is a pretty big fellow.... close to a foot long. It is a near relative to the previously mentioned cherimoya or custard apple. And it tastes pretty much like it too.... rather yummy.... actually, it is a little better, in my opinion. And looks like it, but bigger with spiky things on it (you don't want to snuggle with it). And the inside texture is like it too... sort of creamy, custardy. And the seeds are like it too.

The weird thing is that you can take one bite of it and that bite is flavorful but then the next bite has very little flavor. Odd. But the flavorful bites are definitely tasty.

Guanabana seems to be used mostly for juice (absolutely delish!) and in yogurts, ice creams and such.

It is my new favorite yogurt flavor. Definitely a need to try item!