Christmas Spirit

A few days ago Jose and I were at the mall and took a taxi home. The mall was insane with shoppers and getting a taxi felt like an impossible task because so many people were trying to get one. We were on a date and hadn't been shopping so we were pretty relaxed about the whole thing, and finally found one. Jose was making conversation with the driver and mentioned how crazy the mall was. The  driver told us he actually hadn't planned to work that night but a friend needed his help to buy something and he saw the opportunity to make a little extra cash. Then he started complaining about the commercialism of all the people shopping for Christmas and explaining to us how Jesus wasn't born on Christmas anyway. In the end we found out he was a Jehovas witness and doesn't celebrate Christmas or any holiday or birthday (ok, honestly we already knew they don't celebrate anything) I left the cab feeling kind of sad. I mean, he chose that religion and he has chosen not to celebrate any of those things. But the thing that made me sad was how...angry he was about Christmas. I told Jose "I can't imagine a life without celebration" I love celebrating birthdays and holidays. Gifts are my favorite both to give and receive. And even non gifting holidays are so much fun! Holidays mean time with family and friends, yummy food (which is my second love language) and generally a time to relax and enjoy life. I love holidays!

I've had that taxista on my mind a lot though. What he said and how I felt afterwards. I've been thinking about it and I realized that while he was saying what he said because of his religion. I've heard a lot of people say similar things. They celebrate Christmas but they can be rather "bah, humbug" about the whole thing. We get all up in arms and angry at stores for not saying the word "Christmas" I understand the sentiment behind the anger but what if we came at it a different way? What if instead of getting mad and complaining about stores not using the term Christmas, we made a point of showing the employees (who really have no control over company policy) of those stores the meaning of Christmas. Not passive aggressively or pointedly saying "Merry Christmas" but warmly wishing them a Merry Christmas. Being kind and patient with them. Not losing our tempers because whatever we need is out of stock, or not enough registers open, or they let the person with 11 items go through the "10 items or less" register. Even if they don't seem to know what customer service is. Lets not let that be the thing that ruins our days.

 The same thing goes for other shoppers. I joked the other day that there are some fates worse than death and one of them is shopping on the weekends in December. I stood in line for an hour on Saturday because I hadn't planned ahead and I ran out of diapers. I am a person who needs personal space. I don't prefer to have people closer than about a foot  from my body at any given time. It just feels very awkward for me. But God in his infinite wisdom and with his sense of humor. Decided I should live in a place where personal space isn't important to the average person. Especially at grocery stores. If the person behind you has a grocery cart they will make sure it touches your back. If they don't have a cart they will just stand that close to you. I've never been the person standing that close in the behind position so I'm still not sure how they feel comfortable that way but apparently it's just normal. I've found coping mechanisms that help me, like standing in front of my cart in the line so that I can control the distance between me and the people around me. But sometimes I can't do that and if I spend a lot of time crowded like that I get very tense. I have to actively not get upset with the person who keeps accidentally grazing my behind with their hand or ramming my ankles with their cart.

The other area is with family. I have plenty of holiday memories where I felt like X family member "totally ruined Christmas." And I have a tendency to feel a little sad on the holidays that we are over here and so many of the people we love are over there. But that is not what I want my Holiday memories to be like and I don't want my kids to remember me being sad, annoyed or angry on the holidays. So instead of letting other people ruin things. I'm going to modify the adage that "nobody can make you feel bad about yourself without your permission" and say that "nobody can ruin the holidays for you without your permission" I want love and magic and joy on the holidays. I want my kids to grow up thinking that nothing bad can happen on the holidays and even if it does it doesn't have to ruin our fun. I want them to look forward to Christmas music and decorations that make it look like winter even though it's summer here. I want to make up new traditions every year so that you almost can't go a day in December without a tradition for that day. So instead of new years resolutions I have holiday resolutions.
I resolve to not complain about Christmas or any "problems" I encounter related to the holidays. But instead to look for the bright side of things
I resolve to find opportunities to enjoy my family every single day
I resolve to instill in my kids a love for the holidays
I resolve to make up new traditions every year and never let them be stressful but fun.
I resolve not to lose sight of the reason for the holidays. To celebrate the ultimate gift that God gave us. His son Jesus. Without whom we would have no hope.

I know that celebrating Christmas will not make me a "better" Christian. I probably won't change the world by enjoying this time of year. But I can be much more effective at sharing my hope to those around me with a smile on my face than with a frown.    

Adventures of a missionary housewife

We have been back in Peru for over a week now so things are getting back to normal. 

Jose and Victor will be spending a lot of time at the church for the next 6 months. They are both finishing up classes and trying to train up people to replace themselves when we leave. 

The days the guys are gone I like to work on projects. 

Today I made Fabric Softener. I don't like paying the price they charge at the store so I've been planning to try it for awhile and I ran out of the store bought stuff today. 

It's super easy and I'm looking forward to seeing how it works. 

Here is the recipe

1/2 baking soda

3 cups WHITE vinegar (don't use anything but white vinegar it seems anything else can stain your clothes)

4 cups of water

essential oils (optional) 

In a large bucket or pitcher pour in baking soda. Slowly add vinegar. You will have to pour in a little at a time and wait for it to stop fizzing before you add more. Once thats all mixed together add water (and a few drops essential oils) and stir. 

Pour in an old fabric softener bottle to store and use just like you would your store bought kind. I did not add the essential oils this time because I wanted to try it without. 

That is probably the easiest thing I have ever done to save money. Bonus: my kids thought the fizzing was the greatest things ever. They kept telling me to do it again. Nothing like entertaining your kids and saving money! Go me. ha

This is my other new hobby. I learned how to crochet so I randomly find cute things I want to make and work on them when the mood strikes me. 

I made this for Timothy because he likes Pirates and monsters. 

Pirates come from veggie tales and monsters come from monsters inc. Unfortunately, they both have very negative connotations and usually look mean or scary so I made a happy pirate monster. I'm pretty pleased with him and myself. 

haha so now you know what I do when I'm alone. I make things. 

Language Studies

About 5 1/2 years ago Jose and I really started talking about our desire to spread the gospel in another country. He felt called to Peru because he knew first hand the need there. I had personal reasons for not really thinking Peru was the right fit. (God eventually changed my heart obviously) Jose said I want to move there in 5 years. I thought "yeah ok, that sounds good" because the way things looked 5 years was really far away and yet I thought we would still be living in Texas preparing to go "someday".

2 years ago the call to Peru became more urgent for both of us. We planned our trip to visit and decide if this was really God or as Jose says "bad chinese food" (causing hallucinations) I started using a computer program we had that was supposed to teach Spanish. I learned the colors I didn't know and maybe a few fruit names. Aside from that it was not the most helpful software. We visited Peru for almost 2 weeks in September (2009) 5 years of marriage to Jose with his spanish speaking family helped some. I was able to understand quite a bit of what was said to me. So I got a little bit cocky. I thought "Spanish will be easy for me to learn". Jose's dad got me the Rosetta Stone program and I started using it some. I admit between the cockiness and the feeling that all I was learning on the program was what to call a man, woman, boy and girl I didn't stick to it well.

6 months ago we moved to Peru. I found out that non stop spanish wherever I go is hard to follow. Also I get a headache when I'm inundated with it. I think from all the translating in my head. I have started trying to do Rosetta stone more often. I do great and usually get 100% on my tests at the end of each lesson. Of course I'm still just learning observations. For instance I can tell you "Ellos Cocinan" (they or the men are cooking) or "Ellas Cocinan" (the women are cooking) Go me! But then I get into a situation where I'm trying to talk to someone they ask me how I'm doing to which I respond "bien" then they ask how my children are doing and again I respond "bien". Most people smile and move on but then there is the occasional person who believes their job is to force me to speak nothing but spanish pronounced correctly and in detail. That person would respond "bien, bien, bien. Nothing but bien!?! DAH!" To which I would love to respond "If you asked me those questions in english my response would have been "good" not "bien" so I don't really see what I'm doing wrong here. That is not exactly a get deep into conversation question to ask. Unless of course I were an oversharer. Then instead of "Bien" I could have responded. "Bueno, Timoteo tiene esta erupción extraña en el trasero y yo creo que es de nuestro detergente para la ropa, pero realmente no puedo entender por qué sería sólo en su parte inferior" (Which means -Well, Timothy has this weird rash on his behind and I think it's from our laundry detergent but I really can't figure out why it would only be on his bottom.) But the problem is it would take me a good hour to figure out exactly how to say that unless I had my translating program on me and then I would say pretty much exactly what I typed above even though it's most likely slightly off or incorrect.
But instead of all that I usually just try to avoid people like that and speak the little spanish I'm comfortable with so far. I know for fact that I attach the wrong genders to items and I pretty much hate the fact that in spanish everything has a gender.

On the other hand there are the people who get excited when I speak spanish to them. That is a little embarrassing really. I feel kind of like a dog doing a trick with them. They are all "oh look she's doing a trick isn't that cute?" When what I really want is to not draw attention to myself anymore than I already do. 

After all I look like this... 

 

                                                         

                                                                           Notice the pasty white-ness



In a sea of this

 

So it's really not hard for me to stand out. 

In the middle

A few days ago my five year old Logan, was scared out of his wits by a dog. He was so scared that he attached himself to Jose's leg for the rest of the day. Anytime he heard a dog barking he would start crying (it makes no difference to him that any dog would have to get in through our front gate ~which requires a key or someone buzzing him in~ climb 2 flights of stairs and use a key which has to be turned twice in the lock to open the door to get to him) He was so scared that last night he woke up 3 times because he thought the dog was in the house and he finally ended up sleeping in between Jose and I so he could feel protected (and frankly, as parents we only have so much energy to explain to our children why they shouldn't be afraid in the middle of the night) He was scared enough to completely change his opinion of dogs from a single interaction even though the dog did not touch him.

This same child woke up Sunday morning got himself and his brother a drink and a snack, came back to my room and asked when we would be leaving for church. When I went to set out his clothes for the morning he put them on himself (without being told) While I was fixing my hair he came into the bathroom and asked where the brush was. I showed him and he said "I can fix my hair today. I'm big enough" He certainly is big enough, he comes up to the middle of my chest.

In less than 3 months he will be 6. I never saw 5-6 as a huge transition; nothing like 1-2 or 3-4 those are huge transitions. No, I always pictured a kind of gradual uphill from 5-11 or so; then when puberty hits all bets are off. Now I'm seeing these little hurdles that my 5 year old is trying to jump on his own combined with the throwbacks to babyhood. For instance the "hugger," blue dinosaur who follows us wherever we go. He's been in and out of favor so many times I'm glad he's just a toy or I would worry for his feelings. But then Logan says something like "when we go back to the states we should (fill in the blank)" and I think How many 5 year olds refer to the U.S. as "the states"?

He's not quite a big boy yet, but he's definitely not a little boy either. I guess he's a middle boy.

Stream of Consciousness...

I should not be blogging. I should be finishing laundry, packing bags, getting rid of stuff, cleaning...You get the picture. Unfortunately when I look at my house right now I see piles of stuff everywhere. It's like one of those shows where you see a bunch of small piles but then the camera zooms in and they are actually alive and taking over the entire space. OK, not really...I mean, they aren't alive. (or are they? they sure seem to reproduce) Add to that 2 wonderful little boys that like to "reorganize" and I feel like I'm losing my mind.

Yesterday I burned a pan of rice. and when I say burned I mean epic burning. The pan and lid and even my little bamboo utensil thingy are burned. The rice was turned into something resembling a tire. My whole house was filled with smoke it was bad. The reason all this could happen without my notice was I thought I turned the burner off but I actually turned it on high then drove down the street to take Jose to work. I was gone maybe MAYBE 20 minutes. yikes! I have learned to take the pan off the burner if I'm going to leave the house. And I'm still being reminded because my house smells like burned rice. Anyone know how to get rid of that smell? Oh well at least I'm moving out in 3 days. I think I will take a break from cooking for a little while. (and Fortune Village & Sushi Hana sing the hallelujah chorus-they love us...is it bad that we are recognized at 2 restaurants in our area?)

I had 2 friends come over today to pick up a couple things. They both left with full cars. I am forcing people to take my stuff. (Me"you want this blender." Them "no, that's OK" Me "No, seriously you WANT this blender") <----insert evil laughter...Ahem. Anyone want to come over? I have lots of stuff left =D