Aftermath

Friday tends to be community day at our house. Yesterday we had five people over at various stages staying anywhere from a few to seven hours :) We went through dozens of drinks, pretty much all the leftovers, two bags of microwave popcorn, 4 boxes of frozen mini pizzas and almost a whole pan of brownies. We napped in the hammocks, used the sewing machine, scrap booked, cross-stitched, mentored, brooded, read Poe (among others), played V-rally, talked on the phone, confessed, laughed, admired the kids' school photos, complained, yelled at the dog and all manner of other things.

Today the house looks like a bomb went off, but I don't mind. To me, it's a beautiful kind of mess, because it's community. Let's face it, life is messy. I don't mind when my house reflects that messiness. The mess of working life out together is a masterpiece.

What is not a masterpiece, however, is the bomb that has gone off in my son's room. It seems like no matter how much I vow he will make sure his room is tidy at the end of each day before he goes to bed, each night a little more slips by and by the weekend I am right back where I started. Ugh!This picture isn't even from today!


So I'm off to start the weekly cycle again and see if I can't get this licked!

Holding Hands

When I was a teenager, we would take various school trips (choir, orchestra, CSO (Christian Service Outreach) Senior trip etc.) which involved long bus trips around Ecuador. The girls with boyfriends always seemed to have more fun on these trips because they got to hold hands and fall asleep with their head on their guys' shoulder. Most of the bus trips I went on were spent sitting with a girlfriend.

Today I rode two different buses, and held hands with two different boys.

Both of them need haircuts.

One of them, as he always does, made sure my rings were arranged just right so they didn't cut into his fingers.

One of them held my hand palm to palm across the aisle of the bus.

Both of them grinned at me.

One of them is goatee-ed, bespectacled and pierced.

One of them is still growing permanent teeth.

I love both of them more every day.

It's all the bus-hand-holding this heart has ever pined for.

Waiting for Normal Life to Resume

I always hate our schedule in the spring. In Spain, there are so many holidays after Easter that it seems the kids are off every other week for some reason or other. And while the break may be nice, it wreaks havoc with my efforts to be organized and scheduled. Seems like every week when I try to do my normal routine, there are about a dozen curve balls thrown at me.

Thankfully, this is the last week with days off for the kids, until they finish on June 22 (and then I'll have to find a summer routine!) I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And I'm surprisingly anxious for next Monday to roll around.

I kept Nic home today because he had a pretty hefty asthma attack in the night, and he has PE on Wednesdays. I'm dragging from lack of sleep, so I feel a nap coming on before I have home group tonight. And it's hard to tell if my allergies have kicked into full gear or I'm catching a cold. I am betting on the allergies and think I need to bump the medication up a notch. The generic stuff I brought back from the US is just not cutting it. And how else am I going to enjoy the hammocks on the balcony if I can't breathe?