Pass the rabbit.

Saturday was fun and busy!  I had a lovely walk after our daily oatmeal routine to walk a friend's dog and then wandered a bit around the neighborhood.  It doesn't take much to get your heart rate up when you can't avoid going up and down some pretty steep or long hills.  I spent the rest of the morning trying to make a Bolivian dish for lunch- potatoes covered in a milky peanut sauce so that we could have a "picnic" at the house where we were dog-sitting.  These friends didn't know we were going to crash, but we knew they wouldn't mind if we utilized their cable TV to watch some Olympics.  So, I packed up our lunch, the baby, the baby stuff (even for a short visit, I feel like we need so much stuff!), jackets, etc...and we drove to the other side of the neighborhood for a little outing.  We had just enough time to have a nice lunch, make some coffee, put the girls to bed in their borrowed beds and turn on the tube.  Olympics!  This is the first time we saw more than a few minutes at a time.  I particularly enjoyed watching the rubbery legs during women's speed walking (we saw Bolivia cross the line!) and the women's high jump.  After a couple hours, we packed up all our stuff again, went home, changed a diaper and packed back in the car to drive to Mallasa, about a mile from Mallasilla.  We arrived at Javier and Jimena's family home where a group was set up at tables under a shade outside.  It was a gorgeous day and we had a lovely view of the surrounding Andes and enjoyable interactions with our friends and their extended families.

The menu of the day was a little bit of this:

Viscacha.

Some of this:

Bunny.

And some of this:

Duck.

What all that looks like fried.

There were some other Bolivian sides that I won't bother trying to describe.  I liked the viscacha best and Natty liked the duck.  These are church friends that are also neighbors and we've been wanting to reconnect with them since we came back.  It was a perfect day for it and I felt grateful that we have relationships with people that enjoy inviting us to their family events.  Natty was a bit shy with the other kids (she still isn't so keen on trying Spanish) and Jubilee was needing a nap- but there were no major meltdowns.  I realized how we need to do some more of that kind of thing to break our kids into Bolivian culture and start getting them used to being a bit more flexible and comfortable with people that are not like them.  I suppose if I look at myself honestly, it's Mom that often has a hard time getting outside of the routine.  Sigh.  We returned home to put the babes to bed and settle in for a nice movie to round out a great day.  I had some ideas for more family fun on Sunday, but I woke up feeling a bit queasy (could it be the bunnies?).  The Lord spared me during church, but by the afternoon and into the evening, the yucks returned and when I went to bed a few minutes before Natty, I was afraid a flu might be coming on.  I actually physically tense up when I think I might have to vomit and it makes me feel even worse.  After reassuring myself that I probably wasn't going to die and it was just a natural process of getting rid of whatever bad is in my system, I relaxed, fell asleep and felt mostly better by Monday.  This week is already flying by, like all the rest, and I am still trying to get into a better habit of putting aside time to really focus my heart on the Lord.  I've had some good, quick moments before the girls wake up in the morning.  But, I still find it hard when we are up several times a night with a fussy baby to get up early.  Natty has been obsessed with listening to and reading her Jesus Storybook Bible lately and I find that it is encouraging to both of us during the day.  Now, her songs and her pretend reading include phrases like, "Jesus died on the cross", "It was God's plan from the beginning",  "God is always with us", "God loves us", etc...  Today she informed me when she was being distracting while Jubilee was trying to nurse, "God made me loud, Mommy."  At least she's more interested in God...

Family time

I've had two lovely family days this week- each looking quite different.  Scotty has been working a lot lately and so decided that he needed to take a day off this week to spend with us.  Thursday, he took Natty to the club to go swimming- something she's been talking about since we arrived.  I was able to take a nice walk around the neighborhood before they left and then spent the rest of the morning making stuffed eggplant.  I got my first dog bite, thankfully from someone's pet and not a stray.  Still, I looked up information on rabies and got kinda scared.  That would not be a fun death.  Scotty told me he was 110% positive I won't die from rabies, so I'm gonna be pretty mad if he's wrong.  At nap time, we finally got to read some more of the great book we're going through together on cultivating godly habits as a family and then had an ice cream "picnic" (Natty's word for eating on the couches) and a trip to the land after.  I spent some time staring at Zion's grave, fluctuating between extreme sadness with a fresh reality check that my son's body is buried down there and incredible gratitude that He's running around in heaven with Jesus.  I wandered around to the back of the little room that is in the back of the property and saw the plum tree that we had been given that we weren't real sure was going to take.  The branches were still dark and dead looking but there were little white blooms and tiny green leaves shooting out of them.  It was such a clear and tangible reminder of how God brings life from death, and beauty, too.  That night, we were able to go out on our first date since coming back!  I was a bit nervous leaving Jubilee with a sitter, as she is a bit unpredictable at night.  At first we were just planning on going out to dinner, but I realized around 6 that we might be able to get to the theater to see a movie we'd been hoping to see if our sitter could come immediately.  We called her and asked her to take a taxi up to the house, I finished getting Jubilee to bed and we frantically got ready.  She came and we rushed out of the house, with the baby still crying off and on in her crib (I wasn't too happy about that).  I had asked Scotty to double check on the theater's website to make sure the movie was still there- I had seen it online the day before- and when he looked, it was gone!  We called and the recording made it sound like it played at 4:30, even though I remember the website saying 6:30.  The La Paz newspaper online listed it as still playing at 6:30.  So, we took a chance, drove quickly, literally ran through the mall-like compound and found that it had, in fact, gone out of the theater.  Boo.  We had chugged down some rich shake before leaving the house since we thought we'd miss dinner, so we window shopped for a bit and then went to a nice Italian restaurant where we had the place to ourselves through half our meal.  It was a lovely night of relaxing and talking with my husband and the girls did great.

Today, Scotty had an all-day meeting starting early, so I invited over a friend and her two girls for lunch.  Natty has really become such a sweet, helpful little girl that is pleasant to be around (mostly) and I really enjoyed her company and the way she didn't complain that I spent most of the morning in the kitchen.  Helps when you let her lick the cookie beaters.  We enjoyed a few hours with our friends, watched the Muppet Movie and then played around until bed time.  Jubilee was her usual happy self and I absolutely adored watching the two of them interact.  Natty loves to sing and dance for her and make her laugh and Jubilee just glues her eyes to Natty whenever she's in site.  I think they'll be good friends.  The day was relaxing and fun and I felt such appreciation to the Lord for my sweet little girls.  I also love that Natty is at an age where spiritual things can be understood and find that there are so many moments throughout the day to teach her and tell her about our great and loving God and our need for Him.  I also realize as I talk, how much I need to hear those truths and be changed as well.  She loves her Jesus Storybook Bible, which I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't already have it, and is starting to remember the stories quite well.  "One ticket to not Ninevah, please!" was her refrain today.

I finally got to attend women's Bible study on Friday night and enjoyed seeing some ladies for the first time since we've been back.  I tend to be one of the first ones to leave those events as they used to run quite late, but they've started the meeting earlier and I was happy to feel the energy to engage in some good conversations after we had finished and still make it home by bed time.  Yay!!  It's been a nice week.

Ballet blues

Most of you are probably aware of some of your biggest faults as humans/mothers/wives, etc...  I have found since having a baby that I am not as flexible as I'd like to be when it comes to throwing my schedule off and throwing my day out of whack.  I'm pretty sure I mentioned in my last blog how much I like control...or at least, predictability.  That sounds nicer, right?  Anyway- we decided to do a little test run of a ballet class for Natty today.  I was under the impression when the secretary asked us to come in today for the teacher to look at Natty's form and flexibility (really?  for tiny kids?) that it was going to be a quick thing.  We had set up an Olympics date at a friend's house since we haven't seen any of the games yet for shortly after this check.  Well, she actually wanted Natty to participate in the full, one-hour class.  Now, this wouldn't be such a big deal normally, but having a baby that eats/sleeps in this time frame shakes things up a bit.  And, I felt a little uncomfortable with the way that the secretary at the ballet school threw some ballet slippers at us, told me I couldn't go in the class room (this is very scary for a 3 year old to do for the first time) and shoved Natty in to a big group of Spanish speaking girls in pink tutus without even introducing her or the teacher or anything.  She just had to jump in and try to make heads or tails of what was going on.  I have to hand it to her- she did amazing.  I ran upstairs to watch from this tiny room packed with Mommies who already had the good seats (all 3 of them), trying to crane my neck to see my little gringuita attempting to understand what was going on and how to coordinate her body in ways that she's never been asked to before.  There was nothing to introduce her to the art of ballet or dance or how to hold her body or anything.  Just try to keep up!  Maybe I'm asking for too much, but it all seemed to happen so fast.  I couldn't hear what was going on, but there were a dozen times when the teacher had to come over and position Natty because she wasn't catching what she was supposed to be doing.  Or, she would blankly look at the other girls who were trying to explain things to her.  She just doesn't understand Spanish anymore.  Then, Scotty showed up with Jubilee to watch and we took turns holding her while the other watched Natty.  The other thing that was causing me minor (ok, major) stress was the young mommy who was there with her 2 year old daughter.  They, of course, thought Jubilee was adorable and the mommy kept telling the little girl to grab her hands.  Does anybody think about how much babies put their hands into their mouths and how many illnesses are going around right now?  Seriously- everyone goes for the hands and the face.  And, there's no asking- there's just grabbing.  J did great until about the time the class was ending.  She had missed her nap and it was past her normal snacking hour and we ran into some friends and Natty had to take a flexibility test where her legs were pushed open wider than they've gone before (isn't that bad for tendons?) and shoes her size were trying to be found and on and on and all I could think about was how much my baby needed to eat!  Even at the moment I knew I needed to relax and just let this one go today, but I couldn't do it!  Then, we got home later than normal after watching some Olympics and I scraped together something to eat and had to abandon the meal part-way through because Jubilee became quite tired since bedtime had already passed.  I felt exhausted after all that and I kept asking myself if I could have somehow avoided the stressed feelings or if that's just my personality.  Or is there some sin mixed up in there somewhere?  What is it that makes things like that so difficult for me?  Part of what brings on the stress is that when things get a little out of control, all my emotional energies are going into trying to deal with the crisis and there is nothing left for people.  If interacting with people outside my family are part of that crisis moment, I feel as though I am giving them the shaft which upsets my delicate introverted sensibilities and I feel bad about that for the rest of the night.  Oh, my...  Again, the blog is where a lot of processing happens, so forgive my rambles.

However, Natty sure did look cute in her borrowed bright green ballet slippers skipping around the floor with all the dark-haired girls.  She seemed to have fun, despite the language barrier, and she will hopefully continue if she can learn to communicate (a condition given to us by the school).  If she decides to give it up, we might just put her into pre-K a few days a week.  :)

Also, we got all the stuff turned in for Jubilee's visa and only had to pay 5 days of tardy fees!  Hooray for Scotty and all his hard work!