The Mom Life

I realized today I have so many good memories of the past few months, but some deserve the respect of not being plastered on Facebook for all to see, ya know?  Some things are just good memories I don't want to forget.  So, I'll write about a few things I was reminded of while scrolling through the photo album on Seth's phone tonight.  Here is a shopping trip we took a few weeks ago to a market not far from where we live.  This is how we buy all essentials, from pasta, rice (they scoop these from a big bag like the ones in the photo in front of Lola), toilet paper, butter, eggs, cookies, crackers, tomato paste, etc.  We buy our meat now from a lady down the street, and bread from various stores in walking distance from our house.  We bring big bags like the one you see us using below and fill them up with what we get (no shopping buggies here.)  Do we have normal grocery stores?  Yes, there are a few larger grocery stores that have everything for comfortable, easy shoppin

*warning: This post is extremely honest.  Please love me :-) I don't know when it started, but I became angry mom at some point in this motherhood journey.  Walking too slowly to put you dishes away, "Hurry up, kid!"  Not getting multiplication, "Come on, think!"  Its time to go to school and you aren't ready, "Put your shoes on in the car, and you can just go to school with bad breath.  We gotta go!"  All those examples I just thought of point to another sin problem, perhaps the root of "angry mom," and  that is impatience. It would be easy to blame it on our stressful life.  The stress of coming home after working with students on their English all day, to have to spend hours with my 3 kids doing homework in spanish.   The stress of practically raising several teen boys who don't have active parents in their lives to tell them, "You don't need to go to that party," and "Are you fleeing from temptation?"

Three weeks of no school sounds like a wonderful idea.  No lesson planning, no homework, no dress code, sleeping in...so many great things.  Unfortunately though, we didn't budget for a winter break vacation or anything special, so the kids and I had a lot of free time on our hands.  We had guests from the states staying with us during this time also, and anytime we have guests, we have boys stopping by ALL.THE.TIME.  Don't get me wrong, some of these kids are some of the greatest blessings in my life as I get to see Christ in them as new believers. But after awhile, I just needed a day out.  A day where I didn't have to hear the ring of the doorbell, or wonder what we'd feed the army of people in our house, or wash a million dishes by hand. If you do some research, there's a few cool things to do around Cochabamba.  You can visit the Cristo (larger than the one in Rio, folks!), but we've done that plenty of times.  You can climb Mt. Tunari.  We made plans for

*Written in May...posted very late! While I'm not feeling so well tonight (I think Lola and I caught a virus at school), I thought I'd try a little writing/updating.  Seth's playing the Wii with the equivalent of our Bolivian son, and the kids are in bed after our traditional Friday night family movie.  I better get some writing in before this Tylenol p.m. kicks in!  About a month and a half ago, a friend at church approached Seth and I about the possibility of teaching at his small Christian school.  We actually had looked into sending our kids there for this year last November, but realized with tuition, transportation, and supplies, we couldn't do it.  But if I taught there, our expenses would be covered.  So, we decided I should go for it. Homeschooling has been fun, but my social and active kiddos needed the outlet that school provides and their spanish will be incredible a year or two from now.  (They have an English class several times a week, but every

*Written June 12th. I'm late in posting this. I haven't written in such a long time, there are so many things I could write about, but tonight, the day after my birthday, I'm choosing to write about birthdays.  I forgot what my birthday was like last year, but a friend of mine helped me remember.  Our family was still staying at the guesthouse living out of suitcases, and we had a team from the states there that we were working with. We were having internet problems at the house that day and ran out of water, a common problem in a guest house when there are lots of people taking showers every day.  The day wasn't very eventful, and sadly I don't even remember if I got a cake! This year I had work (English teacher at a small Christian school) on my birthday.  It wasn't just any day at school though, it was the day of the English Fair.  So, my day there was really fun, but a lot of work and somewhat stressful.  I was trying to make sure everyone showed up an

"Thank you for everything, seriously. I am grateful to you for what you do. It is a great act of grace on your part. God bless you, friend."  That is the message of thanks one of our guys wrote a friend of mine this week for buying his school supplies.  The message of it goes for all our supporters though, because they are the reason we're able to help Edson with school supplies. Edson, a son in the faith to Seth Because of you we're able to provide love and a sense of family to kids that don't have that at home. They are able to see a healthy and happy marriage founded on Christ.  They receive hugs and hear the words, "I love you," when no one else in their life tells them this. We dream of moving to the Chiquicollo community, beginning a youth and children's outreach, and planting a house church. We dream of making a bigger impact, not just in their lives but in the lives of the people around them as well. A rainy day in Chiquicollo

Its been a year of firsts for our family, and Christmas in Bolivia is our most recent.  We decided to celebrate a little bit early with our normal traditions, so that we could extend it to our "weekend kids" without taking away from their time with family.  I am so glad we did...it was so much fun showing them what our Christmas is like and showering them with love and gifts (thanks to so many kind friends, family, and strangers!). We wanted to do a lot for these guys because 1. We love them. and 2. They don't do anything special for Christmas (as in no presents, traditions, etc.).  But, our budget is already tight, so we knew we couldn't do it ourselves.  So, the past few months, as friends asked, we started getting glimpses of what we could do.  A friend sent a ton of great little stocking stuffer type things (toothbrushes, toothpastes, shampoos, tissues, deodorant, lotion, playing cards, etc.) and I was really excited to have that.  They were collected by the

We spend a lot of time thinking about our stuff.  Paying off our stuff, repairing our stuff, watching our kids break our stuff, updating our stuff.  Stuff takes a lot of our time and energy, thoughts and finances.  We get proud of our stuff, and want to show it off on Facebook.  Its an important part of life.   When our family moved to Bolivia, we started all over with stuff, only coming here with what we could fit in 10 suitcases and 5 carry ons.  So, pretty much clothes, a few blankets, and kitchen ware.  Like any good American, we started buying more stuff.  A blender, TV, stereo, beds, couches, a rug, table and chairs, fridge, and microwave, and so on.  I was excited about all the "new stuff" ten months ago, but now with three kids (one I half-jokingly call "the destroyer") and teens in our home all the time, our stuff is no longer like new.  Some of it has been thrown away after being broken beyond repair. Lola actually broke a chair to our dining room table