Reason #2

My dad for a large part of his life was involved with racing.  He worked at a machine shop that built racing motors.  Drag racing motors.  Or stock car.  I can't really remember.  We went to the races often in my younger years.   Racing is fun.  Stick shifts are fun.  Motorcycles are fun.  Dirt bikes are AWESOME!!! These things all lead me to reason # 2.

I love driving in Puerto Rico!!!

Driving here is a very fluid, flexible thing.  Roads are good.  If there is no road, one can easily be made.  Oops, I missed my turn.  No problem, I'll just back up!  Pulling out onto a busy highway is a dance between you and the rest of the people.  Give and take.  My turn, your turn.  If you don't make your needs known, they will be ignored!  Need to stop and chat with your neighbor for a few minutes? No problem, I can wait.  If I can't wait, I can always make a new road! There are often cows, horses or people picking mangoes off of the mango trees in the middle of the road.  Patience is a very good thing. Generosity is also good, and I find usually practiced. This of course is not always the case.  During rush hour to and from work or school things can get a bit dicey.  But if someone is too impatient and honks at you from behind, just slap the top of your car to let them know they are free drive over you if they need to.

Our Eli

We know when Eli is sick.  She becomes calm and quiet.  It is a very obvious change from her normal state of constant motion which includes things like somersaults in bed while "snuggling", watching movies upside down and dancing instead of walking somewhere.

This way of living life to the fullest is also reflected in her artistic endeavors.  Ever since she was little, she didn't just paint a picture on paper.  It was a full body experience. 

She hasn't changed much since she's gotten older.  She has however branched out to other "canvases".

If you happen to be visiting when inspiration strikes her, don't be surprised if you become part of the masterpiece!

He's home.

In the past few years, Jon has had to travel three or four times each year to the States. Usually those trips are from five to seven days. We are always fine while he is gone. Fine meaning able to get through the day to day routine of life without needing any help. Benjamin and I together can even handle the super heavy and amazed bags of trash. We eat. We play. We learn. We have fun. We even sleep, mostly crowded together in the same bed, but we sleep. We can do life on our own. We don't need him to do life with us. But without him, there are several things missing daddy's good morning hugs, his silly and slightly insane laughter, kissy slams, wrestling matches, and a sense of wholeness that all of us together creates. We may not need him, but we want him.

He just got back from one of those trips. It was twelve days long. Much too long. By the second day, Logan was marking out all of the days left on the calendar hoping that real life would follow his commands, and daddy would come back tomorrow. The first night he was home again I could feel the difference. It's as if we had all been holding our breath without even knowing it,and we finally were able to let it out. The bed was really crowded that night as one by one the kids snuck in to be together.

A hint of dead iguana!

It has been a crazy couple of weeks. We've had two retreats, a sick doggy that almost died and needed to be nursed back to health, a ballet show to get ready for, a friend and her three year old staying for a week and a husband getting ready to leave for a twelve day trip.

Needless to say, the house looked like someone had picked it up, shaken it all around and then sat it down again. Disaster zone.

I usually don't enjoy housework, weird I know, but today It was kind of nice to not go anywhere and get the house back in shape. Actually, we all cleaned. Eli and Logan cleaned their rooms, Ben cleaned the toilets, I cleaned the back porch....taking a break once to bury a dead and very smelly iguana...washed the dishes, and swept all of the floors.

I know that tomorrow the floors will get dirty again ( the joy of living on the ocean), and the dishes will need washed again, but for now the house is clean. *sigh* we lit candles too, so it smells like vanilla with just a hint of dead iguana!

Kids are awesome!

We just finished a retreat for 9 to 12 year olds.  It was all about emotions and how to handle them in a Godly and self controlled way. (I was thinking of Benjamin when I realized that would be a good theme for this age!)  Angela and Francis, two of our counselors (see picture below), were the teachers. They did a great job of helping the kids understand in creative, fun ways how our emotions can be good or bad depending on our actions, and how the Holy Spirit can help us control them and use them in a good way.

                      

We had a bunch of new kids this weekend (about 10). Every night before we send the kids to their cabins, we stand in a big circle "mano a mano" (holding hands) and pray. On Friday I happened to be standing next to one of the new girls, and she excitedly told me, "I just got here, and I love it already!" It's awesome to hear something like that!  That means that God's love is being poured out on these kids through the counselors and staff.

                         

I am reminded every time we have this age in camp of the differences between boys and girls. It's hilarious.  Saturday morning I woke up around 7:15 because I could hear the boys from what I thought was their cabin. I decided to go and let the counselors know that it was OK to take them outside to play before breakfast sincethat was still over an hour away. As I left the house though, I saw several sleepy counselors already outside playing with a bunch of wild, energetic boys. I was informed that they had been awake since 6:30.  I went to wake up the girls, and as I entered I saw smiling faces everywhere.  I was told by equally sleepy counselors that the campers had been awake since 6 planning what they were going to wear that day.

On Sunday as we were going into the comedor to eat lunch, some parents arrived to pick up their son.  He was one of the new kids and decided to eat before he left. As he came in I commented to him about this, and he said, "Yeah, the food here is great, a lot better than my mom's at home!" I was glad that his mom had stayed outside to wait for him!

Reason #1

      Things I love about where I live.......

We have lived in Puerto Rico for eleven years now, going on twelve.  It's the longest I have ever lived anywhere in my life.  Wow, that's weird. I just now realized that.   The next longest place I have ever lived was Biloxi, MS where I was born and lived until I was ten.  I loved Mississippi. It was warm, even when it rained. We lived on a Pringle Circle which was just like it sounds, a big circle.  Whenever it rained, the sides of the street would fill up like a warm swimming pool.  So much fun for a kid!!!!   Our back yard was to an empty field full of wild blackberries and big piles of fire ants.  Also fun for a kid.  Have you ever watched them go crazy when you poke them with a stick?  That field ended in a Burger King parking lot.  Also fun for a kid.  French fries close by, ordering at the drive through on you bicycle, running over ketchup packages.....ahhh the memories.

I love thinking back to Mississippi.  It was a great place to grow up.  Now I sit and think what are my kids going to remember and love about the place where they are growing up.  We get a lot of groups coming through camp, and we hear a lot of opinions about the way things are done here in PR.  And while some things are less than ideal, I love this place.  So I thought I would start to share with you why. (These will not be in any particular order, just as they come to me randomly.)

Warmth

It's warm here.  Almost all of the time.  Actually it's cold inside of most buildings, so cold that when you go outside you sigh and relax back into a comfortable warmth.  I love it.  It was like that in Mississippi at night too.  Freezing inside...walk outside....ahhhhhh so cozy and warm.   There are times when it's a bit too warm, but that is sooooooo much more preferable to the other.

Not just the weather is warm though. So are the people.  Smiles, hugs, kisses all very, very normal.  Loud outbursts upon seeing someone they know.  Reactions to movies and songs.  I have to say that whenever we go back to the States I am really taken aback by the first handshake.  "What's this? A hand? Do I kiss it? Oh that's right, it's for shaking!" It takes a few times to get back in the habit!! 

Se habla español.....

So the other day I was talking to Eli about learning Spanish and why she should.  We live in Puerto Rico, honey; people in Puerto Rico speak Spanish.

People always ask me if our kids speak Spanish fluently; and when I tell them not really, they wonder why since they were born in Puerto Rico and have lived there all of there lives. Learning another language has so many different stages:  the everything sounds like goballygook stage, the oh he just said house cool I know that word oh know now I missed the rest of the sentence stage, the I can carry on a one on one conversation with a person speaking slowly stage, the i understand everything being said stage but have a hard time speaking stage, the only speaking in the present tense stage, the i'm tired so I can't even speak English stage, the I'm afraid to make a mistake so I won't say anything stage, and the list could go on and on.....  Ben, Eli and Logan are in one or another of theses stages depending on the day, their attitude, who their with or any number of other things.  

I am convinced that most language learning is a result of being surrounded by speakers of that language. Eli is helping me to prove this idea true. Lately we have had a lot of Spanish speakers over to play, and she has suddenly adopted some new phrases. The part I find the funniest is that she not only picks up the Spanish, she picks up the Puerto Rican attitude...the volume level, the hand motions. So fun to watch and hear. ¡Me encanta!