30.6.12


Saturday:  this morning I finished sewing up this skirt that has been sitting in a rumpled heap by my sewing machine for the past two weeks (I couldn't find my bobbin, ok?)
Well, it's mostly finished;  it only has one of the two pockets attached, but that didn't seem to be a problem for Selma, so on it went!

We took a walk to a box store down the road where:
Joshua and the box man had an extended friendly conversation while
the kids blew bubbles,
and I made sure they didn't chase the bubbles into the busy, crazy street

Joshua carried those boxes all the way home,
and now we'll spend the afternoon packing them up!
Maybe we'll take a break to bake some cookies too.
maybe.


29.6.12
























We waited outside of Malachai's school for a while this afternoon. . . he has been planning a post-school get together with a friend all week long;  there had been some parental confirmation on both ends . . . but for some strange reason the friend and the parent never showed up.

"I'm sorry" I told him, "remember, that in Mexico, sometimes it just works like that - - people say yes even if they really can't . . . because it's hard to say no"

I think he gets it.
If this had happened to him six months ago he would have been devastated.
but today, although he was disappointed, he wasn't destroyed.
I think he's figuring out the system.
(sweet boy)


26.6.12


Joshua and I took Renae downtown yesterday morning - so that she could see the heart of the city. We took her to the top of the Latin American tower (of course). We take all of our guests there, and we never get tired of it. Seeing our city from up high, going on . . .  
and on 
and on 
takes our breath away every time.

On our way from the tower to the Zocalo (the city square)  we stumbled across a taco place with well priced tacos and drinks,  
and all the avocado salsa and pickled carrots you could ever dream of. I'm already trying to plan a second  trip. Who's coming to visit?  I'll totally take you there! 


25.6.12

This past week:

  • Josu has gone to and come home from his school camping trip
  • We went to a hip-hop concert put on by rappers from a ministry for street youth in one of Mexico City's most densely populated delegations - Malachai risked his safety by throwing himself into a crowd to get a CD tossed from the stage  . . . and came out of the crowd - - CD in hand
  • Joshua put the finishing touches on his book
  • We've have had countless fantastic conversations about the nature of the gospel and community with Renae (missionary intern extraordinaire!)  
  • I went running for the first time since we set foot in Mexico City (thanks Renae!)  
ahhhh . . . it was a good week! 


21.6.12

























Since the beginning of the school year, all three of my kids have been getting points docked off of their report cards for not having adequate personal grooming.  (they get a grade for personal grooming!   ha!)

So it came as no surprise when Selma told me this week that her teacher goes around in the mornings and checks to make sure that everyone has gel in their hair.
Selma never has her unruly tresses slicked back with hair gel.
but now - of course, she's been asking for some.

I don't care for gel myself - -  and I don't really think my kids need hair products!
But sometimes
I wonder if I should just go out
and buy some hair gel
and teach my kids to use it.
because, after all, we live in Mexico!
Isn't that part of what our family does?  Move into a new culture and work hard to embrace it and fit in?

this makes me laugh.
it also makes me cringe.
and then I cringe again because it makes me cringe.

Tell me!  what would you do? gel or no gel?  

19.6.12

 
Our Father's day involved a family breakfast, a rainy afternoon shopping trip to find all the necessary ingredients for banana nutella crepes, back rubs, and a late-night run to the corner hamburger stand that Joshua has been eyeing (both hungrily and fearfully) for the past 11 months.























So, with it being father's day and all, I spent some time reflecting on the papa of our own home, and I kept thinking about this thing he does - - where he goes up to the kid's room at night to tuck them in - to pray with them and give them the last hugs and kisses of the day - - it's pretty routine and ordinary, really.  But somehow, Joshua manages to inject a dose of fantastic into the ordinary:  sometimes it's the conversation that happens when he helps them to talk through how the gospel applies to hurt feelings;  sometimes it's pretending to get stuck in Selma's hug, or letting Josu kiss him two hundred times; sometimes it's bringing in the guitar and converting their prayers of thanksgiving into songs .  .  .

and this, I think, characterizes the papa of our home:
he cares faithfully for our our ordinary, common needs
in wonderful, generous ways.

You, Joshua, are an extraordinary father; thank you! 

16.6.12


  Joshua and I went downtown this week to take the next steps in the rental process (which mostly involved us presenting and discussing the list of repairs that need to be done before we move in).

While we were there, licenciado Wolley - the quirky apartment manager that deserves a blog post all to himself - mentioned that the apartment on the floor right above where we are looking is now also for rent - and did we want to take a look at apartment #8?

Of course we did . . . so yesterday we took a little family trip to check it all out;  apartment #8 is obviously in better condition than apartment #5- - there is no linoleum plastered over the kitchen tile, the floors are shinier and the walls are whiter.

Now my head is spinning:  sure, apartment 8 is in better shape,  but a little part of me wonders if #5 would be a better choice since the renovations will have to be more drastic?  (goodness! I suffer intensely, don't you think?)


Really though, 99% of me already knows that we will chose apartment #8 because it has a bathtub - something that #5 does not have;
and well . . . the kiddos were thrilled about the bathtub.
I hear a whisper in my heart
that tells me
that a good way to show my family love right now,
is to choose the apartment with the darn bathtub.


9.6.12

hello friends!
you know that we've been on a house hunt, right?

So, two months ago, we pulled out our metro map and began to pinpoint stops that were strategic - stops that were easily accessible and could efficiently take Joshua all the places he needs to go on a weekly basis (because he's a city-traveling fiend, I tell you!)
. . . . And so we began to visit those metro stops - one by one; we would walk a ten minute radius of that metro stop - looking at the street life, the restaurants, the schools, the church buildings, the parks, the social meeting points, and the quantity of dog poop on the sidewalks (just kidding . . . kind-of).   We would walk with cell phones in hand - - calling the telephone numbers on for rent banners that hung in the windows of vacant apartments.

dang.  house hunting is serious business.

(seriously, though, why can't people just put the number of rooms and the price of the rent on those banners too?  it would have saved us from calling about 20 apartments that were way above our price range, and 20 more that were only one bedroom)

Well, on one of our walks, I saw it:
a red tiled building
with beautiful old windows,
on a street lined with big trees and coffee shops;
it was just right.
There were no banners hanging anywhere,
but there were empty windows (ah, yes . . . there were empty windows!)
So I waved my arms and gesticulated at the doorman on the bottom floor long enough to convince him to come out and ask me what I wanted.
We were ideal renters, I told him - didn't he know of anyone in the building who might want to rent out their empty apartment to a lovely little family? (we didn't have the kids with us, so it was easier to look calm and ideal)  He thought there might be, so we left our information,
and waited;
and were never called back.

But two weeks later, we were walking through the neighborhood again (because really, I had fallen in love with the neighborhood)
and
goodness gracious!
there were two huge for-rent banners hanging from that red-tiled building!
We called.
Apparently, the entire building had been purchased; there was an apartment up for rent.
three bedrooms.
within our budget.

We asked if we could see it, and the manager was hesitant - he said that it needed a lot of work done on it before he could show anyone.  I told him we weren't easily scared off; I begged to see it. (although, I tried to sound less like I was begging and more like I was a professional, strong woman making a request)

In the end we did get to see it, and it does need a lot of work . . . but I'm smitten.

it's not ours yet; we still need a few more details to fall into place before we actually commit.
but I'm hoping
hoping
hoping
(and praying!)
that it's the right place for us.

here:  take a peek;  isn't it perfect?
the kitchen,
a bedroom
and the view from the rooftop




8.6.12

The thing about leaving leaving a blog unattended for too long, is that it's like a messy kitchen:
it's just hard to know where exactly to start.

{sigh}