Mom Mamma Mama'

This week has been rough. I didn't realize how much I was depending on the birthday party planning and shopping to get me through our days here until the party was over. This week the reality of normalcy and life apart from my Love set in. This week was hard. I woke on Monday morning determined to get Kiley and I better focused on God as I knew life had been literally all over the map I sensed the need to regain our center. I reached out to God, to family and friends for help and ideas on how to bring more Christ centered activities into our life here where I can't depend on Play School and Cubbies to help me. It's funny, I grew up going to church and lived in a Christian home with parents who did a great job of raising us with God at the center, I have run Children's Ministry programs and I love God but for some reason I was just feeling like I couldn't engage Miss. K in her personal walk with Jesus. I guess it just goes to show the importance of the Body of C...

There has been a lot of discussion in my group of friends about the need for space. Space for self, space for family, space for God, space for X,Y, and Z. I know we are not alone in our struggle for space. And I was reminded today of a great visual lesson that I saw at a Young Life Leader training ages ago, maybe you have seen this annalogy before but I think today it bears repeating. The presenter had a large glass container and filled the containers with large stones until they reached the lip of the jar and asked us if it was full. Of course we nodded along. But she then pulled out a bag of smaller pebbles and poured them into the space surrounding the rocks. amazingly they fit.  Once again we were asked if the jar was full. Not wanting to be tricked again we hesitantly said, yeah it's full. But, then out came a bag of sand which was added to the glass container. Okay, now there was clearly no more room in the jar for anything else, or so we thought until she poured a pitcher ...

I feel it only right to give you an update on the War on Ants. Thanks to so many great responses I seem to be winning the war at the moment. Based upon your suggestions I went out and bought some cinnamon. I got sticks and powder, because you were not super specific on how to distribute the cinnamon. I sprinkled my home with cinnamon in the corners, on the counter I put some cinnamon sticks and some powder in a spoon rest, and on top of my fridge I put more. The bathroom and the sink area also got a dose of cinnamon, and at the moment it seems to be doing a pretty decent job of keeping the pesky little buggers at bay!  So, while I see an occasional hold out the situation is on the mend!  Thank you blog readers for all your suggestions and for making my home smell like a coffee shop at Christmas.

I think of myself as pretty non-confrontational. I even attended a Quaker university, but I am in a war with the pesky little tiny miniscule ants that seem to come out of nowhere. They are not like the ants we had in our bathroom in California, they are nothing like the ants that you find on your garden path. These ants are magic. One min you look and your apartment is an ant free peaceful place, next second they are everywhere. These small as a ground of coffee but white not black little buggers. (wait, just a sec they are back) Okay, I am seriously in need of a new plan of attack. I have done everything that I can think of short of set the place on fire. I have smashed them to smithereens, taken out the trash at least once a day, sometimes 2-3 times a day. I keep all my food in Ziplock bags in a drawer or in the fridge. I have wiped the counter with bug repellent, don't worry that did nothing I wiped it down again before food prep. (of which there is really very little), I have...

I have had many jobs, and I have worked at home, in the office, at schools, in stores, coffee shops and more. I have recently jumped into a new role as an English as a Second Language Teacher with VIP Kids. I have taught English and I have taught kids before, but teaching with VIP Kids is a whole new ballgame. I will be the first to admit that being an American living in Bolivia and teaching in kids in China to speak English while I am attempting to learn Spanish is humorous.  It is not a life I ever imagined, but I thrive when I am challenged and when I get to try new things. VIP Kid gives me the opportunity to use my new TESOL certificate while transitioning to our new life here in Bolivia. It gives me the freedom to work when I am able, and still be a full time stay at home mom. In case you are interested in VIP Kid here is how it works. Once you are hired (which is a rather long and convoluted process) things are fairly simple.  You open up the half hour time slots yo...

This coming Saturday will mark 4 weeks here in Bolivia. Time has a way of going super fast and super slow at the same time here. It feels like we have been here forever, and yet like it is all brand new. However, I think it is safe to say we are finding a routine that works. I have started teaching with VIP Kids in the mornings and while I had heard tales of it taking a month or more to get bookings, I opened up my time slots on Sunday and by Monday morning I had 12 bookings, and by Tuesday I had 17 bookings within the next 2 weeks!  So, my morning starts bright an early with 1-3 English lessons. Before class I make some coffee, and try to read my morning devotional before I login to teach kiddos in China. My hope is Miss K will sleep through the lessons, but if she is awake the plan is that she will play quietly or watch her tablet until I am done teaching. Once classes are done we hang out here at home, and Miss K has a little breakfast while I do laundry or other chores, swe...

I wish I could sign on and tell you that Miss. K loved her school. I wish I could say that, because I was so impressed with the school, in fact I wrote an entire blog about how amazing the school is. (that blog got lost in the Blogger App, but if I can get it back I will still publish it because I still feel like it is an excellent school) But the fact is I cannot tell you that Miss. K loved her school. While she walked in bravely the first trial day, day two was filled with fear and trembling. She sobbed with fear all morning long, feeling lost, trapped, abandoned and scared. By the time I got to the gate after hearing her cries she was inconsolable. It took me a good 40 min to get her calmed down. At first I wrote this off as normal separation anxiety made worse because of the language barrier, but after 2 hours of tears back at home before bed I determined that this was indeed a much deeper fear.  A fear that she was indeed being abandoned. The former Child Care Supervisor in me...

Assuming most of my readers are in America I also assume that most of you probably read that title in English. But, it's not necessarily written in English. It could be in Spanish or Italian. Because we all share a similar alphabet and the same numbers. Right now as I blog in the park my daughter is being introduced to a whole new way of interpreting the world around her. She may see A, B, C or 1, 2, or 3 but they no longer will mean the same as they did at her old school. And that's just the beginning. As an adult picking up a 2nd or 3rd language is challenging and ss a kid it is easier, that's what they say. But no matter when you add a new language you are expanding your understanding of the world and how you interpret it. I know that Miss. K is being challenged, I know it's hard to not be able to say what you want to say and frustrating to not be understood. I get that it's a struggle to not be able to sound sharp witted and intelligent but I also know that ...