Discovery

Well, I can´t take the credit for it.  It is not my discovery, but it is a fun one anyway.  On Wednesday night, we put the older kids to bed and as they drifted into peaceful slumber, we slipped on our shoes, bundled baby up and took a little excursion to a stranger´s house.  She is the friend of a friend, and though I know very little about her story, I know that we share more than just the one friend in common.  She married an "American" and left her homeland behind.  This we share with the friend that brought us together as well, so we met in her house.  We don't share a country of origin, but we share the same language.  Four of us gathered in her little living room and made acquaintances while we waited.  Two from Mexico, two from Guatemala.  We sat in her beautiful living room reflection of her life, a marriage of two cultures.  

About 20 minutes into our wait someone said:  "here he is", and on cue the four of us grabbed coats and shoes and stepped out into the cold of the night to greet our new friend of sorts:  Don Margarito.

Don Margarito has a box truck that he drives around the state.  He carries his truck full of Central American and Mexican products and delivers around the farms where such nationals work.  He caters mostly to working men, so most of his product is canned and some trinket snacks of the school recess type.  But more than the material content of his truck, his deliveries are of the emotional kind.  Who would have thought that so much of home could be felt in a conglomerate of boxes inside a truck?  Because there, in the midst of those boxes of cans, bags of chips, jars of salsa, and all that stuff, for a little bit of time I was a child in the little store around the corner of my parent´s house, and I was a girl in the little kitchen of the janitor of our school buying snacks at recess, and I was walking the central market as my mom bought the produce for the week...

After our brief encounter, I walked away with the most expensive chips I have ever desired to buy, a bag of "tostadas", two avocados, and a bag of coffee bread.  Just a little taste of home.  

 

 

And just as I have done too many times to count at my parents house, Thursday afternoon, right around 3:00 I sat down with a cup of coffee and traveled back in time...  all thanks to a friend, her friend and Don Margarito.

Child´s play

I am so happy that we are becoming weaned of the TV and more play is happening all around the house:

 

Maple Syrup

Until I came to this area, I had never tried maple syrup.  I used to believe that maple syrup was that thick, dark stuff sold in the "log cabin" bottle and I never really liked it.  Like peanut butter, maple syrup is one of the things that became a part of my life only 8 years ago.  My pancakes were enjoyed with honey, my lunch sandwiches were made with re-fried black beans.  So I absolutely fell in love with the "real thing" once I tried it, and I am so sold!  Never have my pancakes seen honey again!

So you will understand my excitement when I realized that I actually know people who own a sugar bush (ahem, is that what you call it?) and that I could get to see how this is done.  By the way, I have to say one of my favorite things of my school days was doing field trips... do you know how thrilled I am that I get to choose and be a part of my children's field trips?  Granted, so far I am usually the most excited:  "Girls, guess what?  We will go see how maple syrup is made?"

Adriana:  "What?  Maple syrup?  What's that?"

Me:  "The stuff we put in our pancakes!"

Adriana: "Ohhh"

Elena:  "Will there be wasps or bees?"

Me:  "No, maple syrup comes from trees!"

Elena:  "Are we going to be there a long time?"

Me:  "Well, I don't know, but they also have a barn with baby lambs."

Both:  "I want to hold a baby lamb!  Can we touch them?  Can we feed them?"

Yeah, so I hope I plan a few trips in there with stuff they enjoy, such as the baby lambs more often!  At any rate, here a few pics:

It begins here... in these beautiful woods.

They gather the sap from the tree as the weather warms up and the trees start "waking up" for the Spring.

As the sap flows from the roots to the branches to awaken the tree, it gets collected in these buckets.

It boils at insane temperatures!

And voilá!

Need I say more?

Moments

These are the moments that make up our days and are writing our story:

Sweet little babe

 Nap time!

 Making some chocolate and sugar goodies.

 Does it get any better than this?

 or this?

 watching and learning.

I love my life

Sure, I have to admit that not every day runs smoothly and that many more days than not my tasks are left incomplete.  This is the longest season that the kitchen gets cleaned every single day and that´s just because I AM NOT the one cleaning it!  We have been so incredibly blessed by being allowed to live in this home!  We are not only welcome with our crazy mess, but we are loved, we are made feel welcome at all times, and there is so much grace for our (ahem...) not so graceful moments.  But I do love my life and these are just a few of the many reasons:

Check out that tongue sticking out!

New pj´s make for a fun photo session!  Thanks Ma´ama & Grandpa!

Green eggs for dinner on St. Pattrick´s Day.

Cute kids having dinner in their new pajamas.

Loving big brother.

Tummy time!

Loving big sister.

Just fun!

Coloring with so much dedication!

Chubby toddler hands learning to color too!

Can anyone tell me what there is not to love about this?  I may not enjoy every-single-moment, granted.  When all of them need attention at the same time, for example.  When they are trying to talk and I´m trying to soothe a screaming, crying baby, and I can´t hear them, and they get frustrated because I´m not giving them the appropriate answer but they can´t really understand that I can´t hear them... 

But when I get past that and just allow myself to enjoy the chubby hands to hug me as his little bottom finds a spot to sit on my lap (which in his mind is any part of my body, really), or when her little arms and hands shake in excitement and she coo´s, and she can´t control her little body full of energy when she sees me come to pick her up, or when  she kisses me ever so gently with her wet kisses, or the other one solicitously runs to get my water bottle because she heard me cough... those moments are precious, and fleeting, and I have to remind myself to just revel on them while they last.  Yup, I love my crazy, messy life!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I'm not Irish yet I have celebrated St. Patrick's Day every year since 1990.  I attended St. Patrick's School in Guatemala, so every March 17 we'd take a break from our studies and celebrated!  What did we celebrate?  No clue!  We only knew that it was St. Patrick's Day, our school's namesake and anything that got us a day off while in school was good in our book.  So we spent the day involved in festivities that were anything but celebratory of the authenticity of the day.  I can't speak for the rest of my classmates but I can say that I had no idea who St. Patrick had been, nor did I care to find out.

Marrying a partly Irish guy brought a little light into my world where it pertains to St. Patrick, and though I still don't know a lot about his life, I believe there is much to celebrate and I want to make sure my children have more than a reason for a fun day to be thankful for the life of such an individual.  Probably many of you know more than I do, so please feel free to enlighten me with your knowledge while I build on the little bit of info I have to make it a nice day around here.

For starters:

From Gallupville to Madrid

The moving truck

At around 3 p.m. We did fill this truck up... Can you believe it??

The Mackey's house -- our temporary home.

Kids' bedroom -- from the door.  The girls share the big bed.

Benny has his perfect little corner space.

One of the girls' favorite things:  A closet they can reach (Adriana is kneeling in the picture)

One of MY favorite things:  cubby holes in the walls make for great toy box storage!

Our bedroom (still being unpacked)

One of Giselle's hang out spots in the Living room.

Another hang out spot for out little munchkin at the breakfast bar.

Just because she's cute.

Lovely girls!

And this lovely on her fist day of CFA!