weekending

Weekends have often been tough here.

This weekend is no exception.

I've been pretty down this afternoon and evening as I have watched my kids feel rejected and deal with loneliness, again.

Before we left for the mission field,  our kids (the ones old enough) did a lot of sleep-overs on a regular basis.  Friday or Saturday just naturally meant calling up a friend or two to get together.  We never really thought much about it, just taking it for granted.  No, it didn't always happen, but it certainly did happen a lot.

Here and Costa Rica, not so much.

And it has been hard.

These same kids do have good friends but they seem to either be occupied with other friends on the weekends, or maybe not too interested in moving friendship beyond the boundaries of school.

Time and time again, just like today, I watch one child feel very sad and lonely as she sees two other friends leaving together, knowing they are going to be hanging out this weekend. She initiates a lot - asking friends over - but it often doesn't work out.  Then I watched another child who waited and waited for her friend's promised call, finally called her instead, only to receive a "no" - once again.  It seems that her friends don't like sleep overs.  Perhaps they are nervous about being away from their families for night.  Twice, one friend has come over, planned on spending the night, only to leave early in the evening without any explanation as to why.  She just says that she has to go, and within minutes she is gone.

And my child is left with a rumpled heart.

It would be so nice to have an explanation, at least.  Just a few words to elevate the pain of rejection.

While most people look forward to the weekends, I am beginning to dread them.

I know that it is important, in order to grow and mature, for the kids to have hurt in their lives.  It sure would be nice, however, if it didn't have to happen so often.

Perhaps I feel these things more deeply than they even do.  The loneliness and rejection they feel is mirrored in my own heart.  Feelings like this have been carried through a long journey in my own life - a roller coaster of ups, downs and quick turns.  I know I've grown in it, and am still.  But the road is not an easy one and it pains me to watch the kids go through that familiar journey.

Constantly God is teaching me to find my all in Him.

I pray my kids won't be as slow to learn it.

round two - ding, ding, ding Maddy: the clear winner

I thought Cade couldn't be beat.

They said it couldn't be done.

But then came Maddy.

She went to some seriously extreme measures to weasel her way into not just my bed, but Daddy's blankets as well.

She loves our down comforters and the sweetness of it is that when she climbed into bed and snuggled up with Eric's blanket, she said, with a big smile on her face, "It smells like Daddy!"

Sweet and cute?

Yes.

But don't be fooled - this one is a schemer.

Her plan, to sleep in the master (therefore: best) bed must have started days ago.  

She's a thinker, that one.

She managed to convince some people to back out of chaperoning a band trip so that our friends, the Douce's had to go instead.  Then she manipulated our other friends, Miguel and Desi,  to have their bible study go late so that Miguel couldn't go all the way home so late at night.... therefore requiring to stay at the Douce's house while they weren't there.   He therefore then needing to kick his fiancee, Desi, out (who lives there), so as not to be inappropriate, and causing her to need a place to stay.  Then Maddy twisted Desi's mind into believing that our house, and her room, in particular, was the best place to stay. So Desi called to see if she could spend the night.  Naturally, Maddy then needed a different place to sleep and my big bed was the best option.

That is some seriously detailed planning just for one night of sleeping beside her mother.

Who knew I was so wonderful?

Do you see the complicated lengths these children will go just to be with me?

I must be one amazing mom.

On the other hand, simplicity works as well.

Lucy, for example, has spent part of both of the last two nights in bed with me.

Night number one: bad dream

Night number two: had a little accident

Maybe in light of that, Lucy is the most clever of them all.

So here are the stats:

Mia: 0 for 2

Cade: 1 of 2

Maddy: 1 of 2

Lucy: 2 for 2

Those children might just be seriously underestimating their baby sister!

After keeping the stats I wonder:

Does Mia really love me?.....

ding, ding, ding.... round one goes to Cade

Eric is gone - went to the US for a week.

That means I get a big huge bed all to myself.

Or not.

I was wondering who was going to finagle their way into my room and by what means they would make this attempt.
They like to kick Daddy out of bed and snuggle up with Mama on the best of days, but when they don't have to go to the work of finding a reason why they should share our bed, life seems to get better in their eyes.
(I don't quite get the whole thing anyway - I mean, we're just sleeping - or at least they are.  They sleep and don't even realize who is sleeping beside them.  I sort of sleep and realize that one of them is thrashing around next to me.)

Well, attempt number one was a good one.
It will be a tough act to follow:

Cade, after already being told he needed to sleep in this own bed, "accidently" spilled his entire water bottle full of water on his bed.
I asked him what happened and he said:
"Well, apparently (yes, he said "Well, apparently"..... apparently he listens to how I talk....) the lid on my bottle wasn't on all the way and all the water spilled out."
And apparently he turned his water bottle upside down in the middle of his bed.
The miraculous thing about this accident is that only the sheet got wet....one big pile of water.
The blankets - completely dry.
The pillow - completely dry.
His pajamas - about four drops of water on them.
(That must have been where the "accident" happened.)

I was in the middle of bible study with 6 wonderful women, so I didn't want to take time to change the sheets...... besides, the mattress was probably wet too.
Therefore, to reward his creativity in deception skills, I let him sleep in bed with me.
Parenting at its finest.

forget the spinach, Popeye!

So, almost two weeks ago, Cade came home from school because he was "sick".

He was very energetic and happy for being "sick".

My poor "sick" kid was running around, playing, wanting to eat all kinds of stuff....

He didn't even have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to make him "sick".

(His claim, for several days when also said he was "sick", was that peanut butter and jelly sandwiches gave him diarrhea.  Once we switched back to peanut butter and honey, he wasn't "sick" anymore!)

Well, in spite of the interruption to my very busy schedule, I tried to continue on with my regular activities (only stopping for a few hours to have him annihilate me in Wii Mario Kart over and over and over).

One of those such activities is exercise.

I'm trying.....

I do a brief workout video that requires hand weights.

I don't have hand weights.

Hand weights are expensive here.

But I do have:

 Not much, not heavy, but at least its something, right?

Well Cade thought that was about the funniest thing ever - that I was using cans of corn while I was working out. 

(It was only about the funniest thing ever because thee funniest thing ever was certain noises my body made, that I couldn't control, while doing jumping jacks.... I blame it entirely on giving birth to four children!)  

Oh, and the next funniest thing, after the corn, was my sticking my booty in his face while I was doing squats!  Hey - small room, he was on the couch, where else was I supposed to do it?

So he had a great time, at my expense, while I worked out.

At times I was laughing so hard I could hardly lift those pathetically light cans of corn!

Well, the whole time, while I'm working out, he is telling me that he is hungry.

He's soooo hungry - just like most "sick" kids are.

What was he hungry for?

Yup, corn.

I finished working out and he ate my dumbbell.

The entire thing.

anticipation answered

Remember this?

I bet you've been all-a-quiver, 

waiting with baited breath,

(What in the world does that mean anyway, and where does the expression come from??  Anyone?)

close to perishing from unclaimed enthusiasm, 

for the oh-so-dramatic reveal of what this picture represented.

Well, my beloved, wait no longer....

Before:

After:

Yah, yah, so it's anti-climatic.

The picture was just of a old peanut butter jar with paint that I was mixing to get my dream color.

Whoopdeedo.

Well, I'm excited about it whether you are or not!

I painted that nasty old cheap bookcase white on the outside and a light greyish blue on the inside.

And I love it.

If I weren't already married,

I'd marry it.

we're going to... party, fiesta, together, forever

In three weeks, there is going to be a wedding.

Desi and Miguel.

Miguel spent several years in Casa G. and was the first "graduate".  He is currently in Seminary, here in Quito and is engaged to Desire.

Desi is from Holland.  She came here to do some short term work, met Miguel and they started dating.  Desi is a full time Youth World missionary working mainly with girls in the sex trafficked area. 

On April 30th,they are getting married!

And we are pretty darn excited about it.

Being that they have to keep the  numbers to their wedding small, a few of us decided to throw a "Pre-Wedding Reception" for them, so that they could celebrate with friends whom they really wanted to invite to the actual wedding, but couldn't.

Originally, we wanted the party on the roof.

Cool atmosphere, great to decorate, lots of space and all that good stuff.

But it rained.

So inside it was.

That didn't stop anyone from having a good time.

(and I was feeling pretty lousy, so it made getting the whole deal ready a lot easier... I had to throw a lot of the decorating ideas out the window, so the whole thing was pretty simple.)

The verse on their wedding invitation was from Zephaniah 3:17, so I wrote it on the board.

This is sort of what she wants for the wedding decorations, so we repeated it for this party too:

books, rustic, orange, yellow....  

 Since Mia was at home sick all last week (yes, all week long), she helped me make some stir sticks out of bamboo sticks, orange and yellow scrapbook paper, and stamps.

 While we were going to have two fire pits going on the roof with s'mores, we settled on one under the small covered area by our driveway.  This kept the kids pretty busy!

 Birds and butterflies are also part of her desired decor, so we made some of those in yellow and orange as well.

 And now for party time.

 The kids outside with lots of sugar!

 And no Ecuadorian party would survive without dancing.

 Salsa, of course.

 These guys didn't mind having their pictures taken dancing together, until we told them we were going to put the pictures on facebook....

 The party started pretty early for a party in Ecuador, but being that we were having kids over, we didn't want it to get too late.  Miraculously, once all the families left and we put our kids to bed, they actually all fell asleep!  Pretty amazing because it was loud!

Eric and I were the only one's remaining in the 30-and-over crowd after about 9:00.

We were pretty proud that everyone else wanted to stay and par-tay.

That's cuz we're so groovy and hip.

 The last of the crowd of about 50 people... Desi, Miguel and some of the Casa G guys.

We ate, danced, talked, and had a time of prayer for them.

They were blessed with many gifts, including about 15 rolls of toilet paper.

Yes, toilet paper.

You see, a Dutch tradition is for everyone to the same gift.  So we thought we would incorporate that here, for Desi.  Someone suggested toilet paper, so toilet paper it was!

Dumb and silly?  Yes

Useful?  Absolutely

Got to start the happy couple off right.

100 yummy buns

And I'm not talking about 50 cute little babies.

I'm talking about cinnamon buns.

Oh, how I love cinnamon buns.

Unfortunately these buns aren't for me. They are for a fundraiser. One of the boy's (Casa G.) moms needs to raise money for something or other (again, slowness in Spanish a hinderance). So the boys are making fruit salad - a whole whack of it (that is an Ecuadorian term of measurement, you know), and two of us ladies volunteered to make cinnamon buns. Then the boys will sell it at their church after the service this Sunday.

Mmmmm.

The house smells so good.

And yes, we are keeping a dozen for ourselves.

Did you know that if you eat too much yeast dough, particularly in a high altitude environment where dough rises higher than at sea level, and it sits in your stomach - a nice, lovely and cozy warm place, your stomach can distend so much from the rising of the dough that you can look like you are in the 18th week of your fourth pregnancy, and it can be even more uncomfortable than that time in your life?

I'm naturally not talking about myself and my particular situation.

It is just a hypothetical "did you know" situation to show you how smart I am.

Yes, I really am that smart.