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!!

another haircut

I need a life.  Well, I need a life like a used to have here.  More time to blog, more boredom to bring forth my absurdly witty sense of humor, more time to make this worth reading.  Sorry.  I currently have too much of a life to get a real, lamer life.

There are a whole bunch of entries that I want to get to - lots of great things that we have been doing and all that.  They will have to wait.  Since they will take significantly more energy to write - because I'll need to be a little more intelligent and deep - I'll go with regular life, self-entertaining stuff.  Like today - just a good ol' regular Sunday in the Ackermann household.

Before church it was Spanish project time.  Odd time to work on a project, I know.... but it was self-spurred by Cade.  Good thing too, because it is due on Tuesday (and his dad would have been on him to do it later anyway....).  Mia and Lucy wanted in on the painting fun, so they helped him out.  Hopefully no deductions will result.

You may have noticed, as I didn't, that none of them are wearing appropriate painting clothes.  Yes, I took their pictures, watched them work, made comments, gave compliments and did all sorts of things great mothers do.... except for notice they were wearing nice clothes while using paint.  I won't tell you how many fatalities there were.  Lets just say it is good that we are heading to North America (read: land of inexpensive replacement clothing) in two and a half months.

After church it was on to Casa G. and today was (I suppose it still is) Jackson's birthday.  Love that guy.  It took several people to light all 18 candles.  And then half of them needed to be relit after Lucy blew out the match... and a bunch of candles which were in her "blowing path".

After lunch but before birthday festivities, went to the park with everyone to watch an evangelistic flash mob that one of the boys was involved in, and then took in some soccer that another of the boys was playing.  

And after Casa G., because my darling son actually made the request (instead of us forcing the issue), I gave Cade a haircut.  The before (not usually looking so nerdy with it sort of parted and brushed to the side... not sure what happened there):

Cade let Mia have at his hair before I buzzed it.  I had to remind her several times not to cut it too close otherwise we were going to have another "boy in the striped pajamas" situation.  If he could have seen the look of sadistic pleasure on her face, he may not have let her do any cutting.

The after - as in after Mia was through with him.  She may need a little more training if there are any grand thoughts of "professional stylist" for her future.

And the real after.  Crazy what a difference hair makes!

While it seems awfully disgusting to allow him to play with his hair after it was cut off, I did anyway.  I'm cool like that.

But seriously - why does hair seem so gross when it is chunks that are cut off and on the floor but it was glorious two seconds before it was snipped and hit the ground.  Hmmmm.  Deep thoughts.....

Cade and Mia's idea of a fauxhawk.... (don't worry, I didn't let them glue it on his head.  I may be cool, but I ain't stupid).

Soon everyone will be doing it.

lego creations

I've had these photos posted for about five months already and haven't actually sat down and finished the entry.  These are a few of Cade's lego creations, and the photos he took of them, mostly from over the summer.  He is quite proud of his creations and these aren't the half of them.  He's come up with many many original vehicles, buildings, machines, etc. - he is quite an amazing little engineer!  For now we'll just stick with these, but believe me, there are plenty more photos all ready taken!