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.