Capturing Life

There was a part of me that wanted to have a blog long before I did.  The thing that kept me from doing it was the thought of keeping it up.  You see, I'm really much more of a doesn't-this-sound-fun kind of girl than an actually-follow-through-with-the-plan kind of girl.  But then we embarked on this little adventure that makes blogging at least helpful if not almost necessary for keeping in touch with people so here I sit with my blog that (not surprisingly to me but much to my mother's dismay) rarely gets updated.  Nothing like a little structure when you're stuck in a rut!  I love to fill out a form so I've created one that I can easily update.  Here's my first attempt to keep a little more current:

This week...
     The kids finished school!  Hannah had a gymnastics program and a sweet little play based on Charlotte's Web and Eli graduated from Kindergarten!!!  I think I'm more excited about the year ending than they are.  They will still go to school this summer but it's really more like summer camp.  Everyone will finish at noon everyday with no homework and no after-school activities - yay!!!  Other big news: Mark turned 39!!!

Fern and Charlotte

The graduate!

What we're seeing...

Mark's parents and older brother + family came in town so we are at Punta Leona, about an hour and a half outside of San José, for the weekend.

What we're learning...

     I love to do read-alouds with the kids.  About 2 months ago we read this book:

Written from the perspective of a hermit crab (Pagoo), it DETAILS (and I mean with LOTS of little details) his life cycle by narrating all of his thoughts and experiences.   I really thought it was over my kids' heads when we first started (advanced vocabulary, some pretty abstract ideas and did I mention LOTS of DETAILS) but they were super interested so I kept reading.  Fast forward to today - Eli finds a hermit crab on the beach and as he's watching it drops its shell (which happens several times in the book as Pagoo grows larger and needs more space).  I thought that was super cool but Eli took it one step further (I love the way his mind works!).  A few minutes later he came to me with another hermit crab still in the shell.  "Mama, watch this!" he says.  He gently pulled the hermit crab out of its shell and then set both down on the ground together.  He patiently persisted in blocking the crab in and then putting the shell close by again.  Eventually his attempts paid off and we watched with fascination as the crab backed back into the shell and claimed it as his home once again.  "Did you see that Mama?!?!  Just like Pagoo!"                              

The first crab that dropped its own shell

What we're reading now...

     A few back issues of World Magazine that my in-laws brought.

What we're thankful for...
     The process of getting Reide's paperwork to leave the country has been smoother than we thought -just one more step!

What we're praying for...
     1. A house in Cusco
     2. That God would quicken our minds as we soak in as much Spanish as we can during these last few weeks.
     3. Hank has croup and a fever now - pray that he will get better and that Reide won't get it.

What we're saying...
     The other night as we're walking back to our room from the pool and Hank and I were lagging behind the group he said, "I just can't walk as fast as them - my nose is tired."

One more picture/video/website to share...