Moms are awesome

Yesterday, as we found out that the boys would be staying with us for at least another week, Sara and I decided grocery shopping was top of the list. We stopped home and quickly made some grilled cheese sandwiches, then took the boys to the park while we made a list.

Once we got to the grocery store, B. took off for the carts. "Can I push?" he asked. His brother started to argue, he wanted to push. "You can take turns" I told them. They agreed, and we walked into the store, where B. promptly started zigzagging through the aisles making me wonder why I thought it might be a good idea to a) take an 11 and 14 year old boy grocery shopping and b) let the 11 year old push the cart.

We made it through the grocery store without any serious incidents, just some more zigzagging, some taking of items off of shelves and needing to be reminded to put them back where they were found, and a bit of cart-riding.

After walking home with all of our purchases, Sara and I started cooking. Tacos seemed pretty simple, but put 9 people into the equation, and nothing is simple anymore. Dinner was finally on the table, there was lots of laughter and smiles as we ate, and then the kids and Stephen's parents offered to clean up (well, I think Stephen's parents offered. We asked the kids to help).

Me, Stephen, Sara, and Gonzalo went upstairs to figure out how we were going to work things out- rules, schedules, who takes B to school at 6:30, who picks him up and drops of C. at 11:45, if C could come back alone or who should pick him up, bedtime. . . Once we got things worked out, we called in the boys to let them know what this week will look like.

Finally, we sent the boys off to bed and had some time to collect ourselves. I looked at my watch. It was after 9.

These boys are good. They help cook, they wash the dishes, they are friendly and polite, they do as they're told. And, I'm not doing this alone, or even with just 1 other person. Stephen and Sara and Gonzalo all are taking responsibility. And Stephen's parents are here right now and more than willing to pitch in with cooking and cleaning.

But I'm still tired. It's a big responsibility to have 2 young people you need to be guiding, disciplining, getting to school on time, taking care of the colds they have, cooking for, encouraging, checking homework . . .

And I've only been doing this for 4 days.

I don't know how moms do it. Week after week, month after month, year after year. That awareness that what you're doing is important and you can't afford to mess up. The busyness that having children adds to a schedule.

So, to all the moms reading this post, especially my own, thank you. Thank you for shopping and cooking night after night. Thank you for letting the to-do list slide sometimes so we could talk and color and play in the park. Thank you for setting limits and encouraging and teaching and taking us to the 101 activities that we had. Thank you for being moms.

And to the dads out there- thank you too. For your love and patience and presence in your kids lives.

And to all of those out there who aren't parents- jumping into substitute parenting with pre-teen and teen-age boys just 1 week after taking a new job position with more responsibilities and while living in a house where there are still 100 things on the to-do list (you know, like fixing the cold shower, and over head lights, and enough chairs and plates for everyone in the family) is awesome. I'm loving it. Our house is more alive. Their smiles and jokes make us all happy. Cooking for a crew might be more work than just cooking for me, but sitting down as a family and enjoying a meal together and taking pleasure in other people enjoying what I made is worth it. It is also just a tad bit overwhelming. Or maybe a lot. . .

What I ought to be doing. . .

There are dishes in the sink and a mouse in the cupboard. Our kittens are not yet fulfilling their purpose, but that is not their fault. Our garage door has a gap between it and the floor big enough for a kitten to escape through, so until we get it fixed and while they adjust to their new home, they're locked upstairs. But, that doesn't solve our rodent problem.

I should wash the dishes. And go buy some traps and set them. And figure out what I'm making for dinner tonight and lunch and dinner tomorrow and pick up the ingredients I need while I'm out. We have an 11 and a 14 year old staying with us this weekend, so actually planning and not just opening the cupboards and hoping inspiration strikes is probably a must.

Then I should cook dinner for tonight so I can leave it waiting for everyone when I go out. And start whatever Sunday's lunch is since by the time I get home from church we'll be too hungry to wait for food to cook.

I should probably also reorganize the kitchen for the 3rd time so that the fresh fruits and vegetables aren't out either so the rodents don't get to them. Which means somehow getting them all into our tiny and already full fridge.

I should throw the blankets we were given in the wash and wash all the towels and dust cloths and such, and maybe a load of my clothes too, but with no drier and limited clothes line, that probably won't happen.

I should clean the bathrooms and mop the downstairs.

But, it's Saturday morning. I already made pancakes for breakfast and washed most of the dishes from that, plus all the containers the mice had tried to get into. Then I put them away in a metal mouse proof cupboard.

Now there's a kitten curled up on my lap and I think I'll take a few minutes to enjoy the morning before I start on my list.

Introducing the 2 Newest Members of Torre Fuerte

We bought 2 kittens today! We figured they would keep rodents from being a problem. They're also super cute. :) We haven't named them yet. Any suggestions? The top is a girl, the bottom is a boy.

She's still shy and nervous, but seems like she'll be affectionate.

He's full of energy, mischievous, and playful. As I was typing this, he jumped on top of my laptop and somehow managed to start a slideshow with music in iphoto which I couldn't even stop without force quitting iphoto (and while I was typing that sentence he again jumped on the keys and made the screen go black. . . he's going to be a handful).

Leave name suggestions in the comments!

Home Sweet Home

I've lived at Torre Fuerte for almost a week now, and I'm loving it. There's still little things to do around the house: a room to paint, some trim to finish, curtains to hang, a toilet to replace, a cat to buy. . .

But the big things are done! The main living spaces are cleaned and painted, all our broken windows have been replaced, internet and phone were installed and activated today, our gas is on (and the copper tubing hopefully won't be stolen again since the repair man built a secure box and the locksmith soldered it shut), a water heater has been installed in the shower, our tampered with lock has been replaced, and as of today everyone has moved in!

Here's some pictures of our much more home-like house. We have a few finishing touches we want to do before we have our house-warming/(late) Chinese New Year party.

My room! I love my hammock chair. I sort of bought it by accident when I went to buy "necessary" items for the house. Because, you know, everyone needs a garbage can in the bathroom and the kitchen, a shower curtain, and a hammock chair. An ambulatory salesman saw me looking at it as he walked by. He told me the price was 180,000 pesos. I offered him 60,000 figuring it was low enough he would realize I wasn't really thinking of buying one. But, he said, you tell me the maximum you'll pay and I'll tell you the minimum I'll accept. I agreed, he told me 120,000, but that he would really reduce the price to 100,000. I told him 80,000. He started to complain about what a low offer that was, then started packing up the chair, I though to leave. Then, he handed it to me. I hoped I really did remember correctly and still have 80,000 pesos in my wallet. I did. 81,000 to be exact. Good thing all my necessary shopping was done for the day. :)

Our bathroom, looking slightly more colorful than before.

Making pancakes for dinner our first night in Torre Fuerte.

Our living room and dining room. It still looks pretty empty.

Though, we got some more furniture donated and that has helped.

See our china cabinet or sideboard, or whatever you call that piece of furniture? On Tuesday night, I was looking at our very empty dining room. "What we need", I said, "is a long, low table or cabinet or something". Gonzalo said, "God will provide." Wednesday, Sara called me while I was at work. "I'm over here cleaning" she told me, "and we dropped of some furniture that was donated that was at the Other Way" When I walked in after work, sitting exactly where I wanted it, was pretty much the piece of furniture I had imagined. God is good, isn't he?

The inclinato

I duck into the playhouse at the jungle, and see the same group of children who were there when we opened. I wonder how it captures the children's attention for so long. Suddenly, I remember where i picked them up and I see the contrast. The playhouse is brightly lit, painted bright colors, there are curtains at the windows, a table with a tablecloth and 4 chairs around it, cupboards full of imaginary food, a sink and a stove. The children here are some of the 10 that we picked up this morning at the inclinato.

*******************

We have a contact at the inclinato, and the 3 of us who have never been there before go looking for her. "Go ahead, she's just down the hall" prompts the lady who is out washing her clothes. We walk through the open area, down a step to an area that's currently flooding, I think from the draining shower that I hear running behind the wall. As we turn the corner and are now in the hallway, we go from the brightly lit day to an almost pitch dark hallway. The second doorway is what we're looking for.

At the back of the room, the head of her bed touches one wall, the foot touches the other. What's left of the room is probably the size of the bed. On one wall there's a refrigerator and next to that a shelf with a an electric burner with a pot of rice on it. On the other side of the room is a cradle. The twins sit naked in the cradle, the newborn lies tiny and precious on the bed. The big sister plays in the hall. This family of 5 lives in this room, smaller than a walk in closet. The bathroom down the hall is communal, as is the one washing machine for the families living on all 4 floors of the building, and the outdoor patio spaces, one where women hand wash clothes, the other where they hang to dry. It's a modern day tenement house.

*******************

I live close enough to walk there now. My neighborhood has so many good things- a bakery, an internet cafe, a corner store, 3 or 4 places to get lunch, a hardware store, and a great cafe all within a block or two. If I need a window to be replaced, a locksmith, paint mixed (or I want to buy a grave stone) I know where to go and can walk there in a few minutes. But there's also a lot of pain here. Walking to the bakery in the morning, I pass a homeless man sleeping on the sidewalk. Just a few blocks east of me, prostitutes stand on street corners 24 hours a day. And then, there are the inclinatos. Tenement houses where rooms are divided by plastic, cardboard, anything to make a division and whole families live in each division.

I'm excited to be living here. I'm not really sure how I will reach out into this neighborhood. But I want to, and living here gives me the opportunity to get to know people, to see needs, to make friends.

We're getting close!

It's been a long couple of weeks. After a morning and some days afternoon at Luz y Vida (no kids yet, so just prep work), I head over to Torre Fuerte to do prep work and paint. The bane of Sara's and my existence over these past few weeks has been the downstairs. It's taken sooooo long to get to the point where we could actually paint it. But, today, the day finally came.

Here's what the living room/dining room looked like this morning (well, actually, that picture is a bit old. The ceiling already had 2 coats of white paint this morning and just some touch up work to do):

Sara, Abby, Edwin, 2 girls from the continuing ed group at Luz y Vida and I spent from 11 to 6 today at Torre Fuerte.

Here's what it looked like when we left. (It was already getting dark out and we took down the overhead lights to paint the ceiling, so the picture isn't the best)

We also got the floors in my room And Doris' room waxed and polished, the beds put together and the furniture brought in. Here's my room. (I forgot to take pictures in Doris' room)

Tomorrow Doris and I move. Sara and Stephen will be there working all day and will hopefully get their room painted and finish the trim and detail work in the living room. In the evening we're going to Septimazo and Abby will spend the night. Saturday if all goes according to plan, our gas and the door should be repaired, and if things go really well, we'll get the glass we need and an appointment with our internet provider.