Since I've been home schooling the kids, Selma's Spanish has grown a bit sloppy, and all year long I have found myself urging her to think, read and speak more in Spanish. To be quite honest, I don't love fighting that battle (but I do anyways because: bilingual child, right?)

However,

In this season of the World Cup... when everyone from the shoe shiner to the the executive businessman can be overheard talking about the latest game; when even the cream cheese company finds a way to incorporate a soccer ball into their advertisement; when school children get their classes suspended in order to be able to watch their national team play; when every social event is planned around the next soccer match . . . .

it shouldn't surprise me that this morning I woke up to Selma loudly announcing the play-by-plays of Malachai and Josu's finger soccer match - in perfect spanish. 

How was your 4th?  Ours was extremely average in every way.

We've deemed the 5th of July Interdependence Day, though, and it promises to be very spectacular. We've invited our community group, invited our friends, invited our neighbors. We bought a watermelon and are preparing to taste a whole spectrum of international foods.

(there may even be sparklers; it's going to be a good day)

My friend Marta came over this week (If you don't know Martha, you wish you did!) We had coffee, and she played about a hundred games of Spot-It with Selma. Then we found out that it was her mama's birthday and Selma and I dragged her with us to the flower market so that we could send her with a handful of flowers to take to her mama.

I don't think I'll ever go to the flower market again without my 6 year old girlie; we got the royal treatment from every flower vendor that we crossed paths with, and Selma came home with a bouquet of her own.

This afternoon we head to the north part of the city for the wedding of two dear friends.
So I'm off to iron our fancy clothes. 

This morning, when I read my bible, I tried to apply all those really awesome proverbs* to my heart instead of to my kids' hearts

because I desperately needed it.
(it's been that sort of a week)

Also, I thanked God for my Malachai
who finished reading Charlie y la Fabrica de Chocolates to Josu and Selma,
gave me more smooches than normal,
and whipped up a batch of salad dressing when I called him from the flower market in a panicked frenzy because I had forgotten to make it for our lunch date.

*Proverbs 10:19 When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who restrains his lips is wise.
*Proverbs 15:1 A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger 
*Proverbs 19:11 Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.  

If you were to look out our window on any given Sunday morning, you would likely see my neighbors suited up in their sportiest outfits, riding their bikes towards the city center. . . because every Sunday morning, the city closes down traffic on one of its main streets, and invites its city dwellers to exercise (I love this city!)

Being the church-loving family that we are, we rarely have our Sunday mornings free, but this week we did, so we packed up our wheels and our helmets, called our neighbors and invited them to join us*, and headed out to sweat with the rest of the city. Once my kiddos realized that they could ride on the edge of the street to avoid being run over by aggressive cyclists and skaters, I stopped yelling at them, and we had a pretty good time.

Added bonus: we found a taco stand just around the corner; we'll be going back to that one.

*Ah, but one neighbor's girlie got sick and she had to cancel, and the other neighbor had errands to run, so we went alone. If we ever go again, though, we'll work harder to make sure that a neighbor joins us- because this is the sort of event that no family should do alone - it's really done best in community.

Sometimes, (when my kitchen is clean)
I walk by my kitchen, and I notice how pretty my windowsill is.

You prayed for me, didn't you? you prayed about our schooling situation, right?
I know you prayed for me, because you keep asking me about the school down the street.

and I know you prayed, because our meeting with the principal went so well: better than I could have imagined. We got a tour of the school grounds; we peeked in on kids working diligently at their desks; we saw the amazing pool facility; we spent a solid hour with the principal, dialoguing about what we would need to do to sign our kids up for the next school year.

There was a rough patch in the meeting - after the principal scolded us for the fifth time for doing something as ridiculously irresponsible as homeschooling - when I bristled and tried to explain for the the fifth time that my kids schooling had indeed been legitimate and . . . and Joshua's hand slid over to my knee and firmly, gently squeezed it. (Do you know this love squeeze? the warning love squeeze? the "whoah, settle down and I'll take it from here" love squeeze? It's a life saver for me.) 

And then there were those ten minutes on the sidewalk outside of the school building when I cried the ugly cry, and Joshua held me close and reminded me tenderly that my value is not dependent on what people think about our schooling choices  - that my value is firmly rooted in being created in God's image and being loved by Him - things that no one can take away.  

But, I told you the meeting went well, didn't I?
It did.
It looks like the school - despite its full school roster - is willing to open their doors to the Smith family. We were given a verbal commitment that the school would make space for all three of our kiddos. We will take them in the day before school ends (mid July!), when they will be analyzed for grade placement.

That kind of freaks me out.

Now we're frantically preparing for the placement tests. . . in spanish.

On my best days, though, I'm honestly pretty excited.