Holiday update.

I've been wondering lately why it is that I haven't been writing on the blog...Am I too busy?  Is my life just too boring to report?  Am I not taking the time to think through the more significant issues the Lord is teaching me or recognizing His work in every day life?  Maybe it's a bit of all of it.  Sometimes, I feel like this time of life with little kids is a blur and you only have enough energy everyday to take care of your house and your kids and get food on the table.  But, I think it can be different.  A friend encouraged me recently to think about what I might want out of this year- something I hadn't really taken much time to ponder before that.  In some ways it seems overwhelming to mentally add anything else to my daily "to-do" list, but I also know that very little will happen apart from the most necessary things if I don't think about it and put effort into making it happen.  So, I took a few minutes the other day to ask myself what I might want out of this year.  Nothing big or unrealistic- I don't want to arrive to the end of the year and realize I didn't accomplish any of my goals.  But, little things like regular exercise and taking Natty out on dates and having people over and sewing more.  I also realize we will hopefully have another child by the end of the year and so I added that in as a goal since he will take a lot of time and energy.

Natty enjoying the sunset.

The holidays have been busy- mainly because Natty has been off of school since the end of November and my house help has been on vacation for almost that long (I know- poor me!).  Not having someone to help with cooking and cleaning does make a significant change in my daily activities.  I haven't spent nearly as much time playing with the girls as I would have liked because it takes most of the day just to keep up with the most basic household chores.  However, we did decide to take a week away to visit a new beach we haven't been to in Peru.  The drive seemed like it would be shorter than the 9 hours to the Chilean beach, but we ended up in lines at the border crossing for 3 hours, putting total driving time at almost 13 hours.  We passed through some lovely valleys and rice fields and high mountain passes (at almost 16,000ft for extended periods of time!) and then finally through desert before popping out in a tiny beach town with volcanic black sand and hard, crashing waves.  We had a simple, but spacious home about 6 or 7 minutes walking from the beach which we shared with our pastor and his wife and two sons.  What a gift it was to be with them, share cleaning and cooking chores and a bathroom, play together, talk together, eat fish together and relax in the sun.  That time made the trip worthwhile for us, despite messed up or sometimes non-existent sleep schedules, long drives and plenty of house work.  No one said travelling with littles is easy or relaxing, but I'm thankful to have gotten away and given our family the chance to enjoy the beach and warm weather and new places.  I've found that our travelling issues aren't if we should eat at Subway or Chipotle for lunch or which medium budget hotel we should stay in, but how my daughter can manage to use a public toilet without sitting on the rim (or how to pee outside without getting it on her pants!)

or if my baby with the grey face is just sleeping or actually unconscious while we're cruising for 3 hours at high altitude.  I've decided travelling in South America with kids is not for the light-hearted.  But, Natty reported yesterday that her favorite animal to eat is squid- how many 5 year olds can say that?

So, Scotty is back to work full-swing while I continue to hold down the fort with the girls and try to take advantage of peoples' more relaxed schedules by having dinner guests.  The rainy season has official begun and it's a bit chilly and I'm already dreaming again of warmer days.  We await the date for our final adoption interview and work on trusting God as we receive news that our long-awaited house building will probably be put off for another 9 months.  It's good to know each day of our lives has already been worked out by a loving God.