Mom Mamma Mama'

We interrupt this blog to announce that yours truly will be turning the big 4-0 in just less than six months. June, 24th in case you like specifics or love to give gifts. That's right somehow my 30's flewby and here I am in disbelief that I am somehow really just about to be 40.  Not unlike many before me, I see this birthday as a big milestone of sorts. I am not dreading forty as some do, but I have come to realize that I have some goals that I would like to achieve before I am "over the hill." As I was sweating during my first workout in to long a mantra of sorts popped into my head and as I walked speedily along three little words replayed again and again in my mind. The more they repeated themselves the more I realized that these 3 words summed up nicely what I hope to attain as a gift to myself this year. Forty, Fit and Fabulous. (Okay so it is 4 words, but and doesn't really count.) Not only will I turn 40 I have set a goal to loose 40lbs by...

Today did not go as planned. All I wanted to do was find a storage bin for Miss K's toys and get some groceries. I had thought we would walk to a nearby outdoor market called The Ramada, but Miss. K was not in the mood for a 20min walk so I decided to take a Micro (aka bus) seeing as none of the ones who were passing were overly full I decided today would be a good day to brave them alone. I asked a lady which one went to a different market that my brother in law always takes us. She said #4 so we waited where she suggested and took #4 along the way I realized we were on a street where we had been a few times that specialized in plastic stuff. So we got off # 4 and shopped for the bin. Turned out they were a lot more expensive than I expected so we caught another Micro that said the name of the market on the window. Unbeknownst to me the bus was going in the other direction which I figured out pretty quickly, but wrongly assumed that it would just make a circle and get their e...

Before moving to Rome, Italy I attended a missionary training program through the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) ReachGlobal. There we were presented with a lot of really valuable training as well as took a lot of time to really get to know ourselves and how we relate to the world, others and God. I wish I could recall all the great information we were given, but alas most has faded with the passing of time. One of the lessons I do recall is that there are 4 stages that everyone experiences when moving cross culturally. We may not all hit each phase at the same time or for the same length of time, but we will all encounter these 4 stages of adjustment; honeymoon, frustration, adjustment, and acceptance. The past few days I knew that I was in the midst of th frustration phase, but even though I knew it I could not shake it. Everything about our new country was annoying to me. The fact that I had just dealt with my second round of stomach issues (i'll spare you the detai...

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 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...

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 ...