Under a Cloud

Can you see the snow?

 My camera does not do justice to the snow falling.  Big, beautiful, wet flakes swirl outside the windows.  The ground is not yet warm enough for the flakes to stick and cover the ugly brown, dried grass yet, although from the picture at the lower right, you can tell that the snow is just starting to form on the plants off of the ground where the temperatures are colder. 

B is arriving in Belize any moment now.  He was called down to give a presentation about the company's projections for 2012 and a recap of 2011.  Funny how he is enjoying sun and 70's and we're having snow.

Snow build up on hedge.

Last night before drifting off to sleep as we listened to the rain hit the skylight, I said that sometimes I hear the rain like that and think back to when we were courting and how there was a particular evening we were on the phone and we were both having a storm.  We were under the same cloud even though we were 80 miles apart.  Somehow being under the same cloud, even though it was rain, brought comfort to both of us.  Last night and today I feel rather alone knowing that there is no way he'll be under the same cloud today.  I am glad that he gets to have some sun and warmer weather though.  Yay! 

Snow and cold weather make a good combination for great inside activities.  Last night I finished my Christmas exchange gift previously previewed on my blog.  This morning I started a new project.  When we returned to Indiana, we all needed winter clothes, so I spent a day rotating everyone's closets and grabbing totes from the attic.  Lo and behold, all of the kids grew taller.  KR the most I think.  She had few pants that fit at all and some of the leggings fit everywhere but the length.  I justified my buying new yarn to make legwarmers for her to cover the gap between the tops of her pants and the tops of her feet. 

The yarn is Bernat Mosaic in Psychedelic. 

I'm knitting in the round to avoid seams.

The project is still secret since we are in the holiday season and these very well may end up with a bow and nestled under the tree come Christmas morning. 

I'm aggravated with the photos I've been taking lately.  My camera is not the greatest.  We have new phones on order that should be delivered to my door today and they have wonderful cameras.  Perhaps my next post will have pictures that are in focus.  :0)

Thanks for the Week

Giant stiletto chair

We survived our first week back in the States.  Wow!  What a difference between Belize and Indiana--and not just the weather.  One of the differences is the shopping and what is available.  On our way home from the airport, we noticed a new store was added to the "strip".  Since we have officially entered the Christmas season, we decided to stop in for a peek.  These chairs are sooooo tacky, but that is why we like them.  All we need is a leg lamp!  (from the movie, A Christmas Story) 

B has been burning the candle at both ends and needed a break, so we took the kids to duck pin bowling yesterday.  This was my first time to duck pin bowl.  Miss K and I tied as winners!  This section of the alley reminded me very much of the Jaguar Lanes in Maya Beach. 

Notice the wires that are attached to each of the smaller pins.  The wires are used to reset the pins between frames.

The bowling balls are smaller and lighter.  Maybe that is why I did so well.  

This week B is heading back out to Belize to give a presentation.  Next he'll breeze over to Dallas.  The kids and I will be attending our homeschool group's Christmas program.  It will be nice to catch up with some friends there, but we'll miss seeing B. 

Back Home Again In Indiana

Yesterday I found myself singing the Jackson 5 song, I'm Going Back to Indiana.  This morning I am singing Jim Nabors's rendition of, Back Home Again In Indiana.  Few appreciate Indiana, but it has been my home for all my life and I have an affinity for it.  I look beyond what others see as lacking.  As with all places, I suppose that you either love it or hate it.  You can live in it or you can't. 

My Indiana backyard as seen from my back deck looking Northeast.

From back deck looking North.  

 

Unscheduled

Today marks only five days left in our home away from home, Placencia, Belize.  Much like the puzzle to the left, God placed many pieces together for us in our life puzzle while here.  Can you see that there is a piece still missing in the upper right hand corner?  Walking by faith, we trust that God will reveal the last piece.  During acclimation, we learned to do without many of the conveniences we left behind.  We find ourselves asking what part of that simplicity of our Central American Walden will we take back with us.  Or, what will we continue to do without? 

We learned to go without convenience foods, with the exception of using canned beans instead of soaking my own, I cook everything from scratch.  The kids do not have programs, activities, clubs, bi-monthly homeschooling classes, or lessons without detriment.  Until recently, we did not have a vehicle, but one is not needed on the peninsula except for the rare occasion of heading out for a work issue or the days of site-seeing with our visitors. 

What we considered conveniences or necessary in the States really are not.  We discovered that many, if not all of them are hindrances to what really matters; being available and having meaningful relationships.  Our puzzles have been filled with lives and time with others.  Mom II sat on our porch daily to people watch and she always wanted to know what the people here talk about all day long.  Life. 

Going shopping more often and by foot affords me time saying hello to my neighbors.  I have conversations with my grocers and since they are the same people and not some rotating person with a name badge, I can take a real interest in their life and they in mine.  They remember that I am the oil man's wife.  They know which house is mine.  They know who my kids are.  I know the names of the waiter and waitress at my two favorite restaurants. 

The kids have been given the gift of boredom.  I do not succeed daily in giving this as the electronic devices do creep back in, but they have learned to secretly like some of it.  We took on the pet project of growing the avocado tree in the beer mug.  Look at the leaves and roots!  (Free to good home!)  My husband brought to me my favorite bouquet of all time.  Its picture is above.  He hand-crafted it from coral and tumblestones found on the caye we visited with new friends last weekend.  Before school one morning 2 of the kids were playing with these plastic bags and watching how the airflow from the oscillating floor fans, the ceiling fans and the air conditioners affected where or how they would float or land.  What child being run from play practice to lunch to school to lessons to youth group has the time to think about any of these things let alone DO them?

I looked up our calendar, that we keep online, to see what we had upcoming upon our arrival.  There were at least 5 items.  When I received an email this week about setting time aside for just one more thing, I cracked. 

Many times at home, all of us scratch our heads and say we want to get together, but can't ever find the time.  We determine that we are over scheduled with many of the things I mentioned above--much of the time even more considering we as a family on average still have half the activities as other families.  I would argue that we are simply scheduled.  What would your day look like if you had no calendar?  No activities lined up.  No band or sport practices.  No games.  No club meetings.  No youth group.  No fill in the blank.  What if you were simply available for whatever came up?  What if you were ready to have a God appointed meeting with the new couple at church and could have the time to take them to dinner?  What if you could call friends at the last minute to play cards?  What if you had the freedom to do anything that just pops up?  What if? 

We can.  My brother-in-law in Ohio put it to my husband like this, "What would you do if there were no "have-to's"?"  We create many of those "have-to's".  I've marked off all but two of those items on my calendar.  The two I kept are times we get to spend with our friends and family when we really get to visit with one another. 

Perhaps we all need to have missing puzzle pieces so that there is always room for the unexpected.  

Xunantunich (Maiden of the Rock)

What?!?!  Two posts in a day?!?!  Yep!
Here are some photos taken of our trip to Xunantunich, near the Guatemala border.  Enjoy!

Pronounced:  Shoe-nan-TOO-nich

El Castillo in the back.  

Ascending El Castillo

Another structure as seen from 1/2-way up Castillo

On top of El Castillo (the hens--I did NOT say chickens!--stayed one level down)

Determination

A couple of weeks ago I proudly announced to the ladies' group from church via Facebook, that I had begun my Christmas craft to exchange at the annual party.  Below is a picture of my progress at the time that I posted. 

 I was excited because I seemed to be plugging along and seemed to be optimizing my time since I was knitting during downtime in school while the kids needed my presence, but not my focused attention at the time.  Yay me!  But as with many things in life, just when we think we are in a good place, or that we've advanced, something else lets us know that we aren't where we thought we were.  I know, I'm speaking in code or another language to some and I do apologize for beasting around the bush (only my mother and sister will appreciate that joke), but I need to be obtuse at the moment. 

After ripping out row after row after row and restarting more than a dozen times, I have reality looking me smack in the face.  Below is all the further I am with my project after 2 weeks.

Considering the small size of the project, 2 weeks is a very long time.  I've learned many things while being in Belize and this knitting project summarizes part of that for me.  I'm not where I thought I was in life.  I've had to reorganize my time like I did with the project.  I can't knit with the kids around or I lose track of what stitch I'm on.  I have to give my full attention to some things where I thought I was succeeding before but it was due to my lack of attention and thinking I was ahead instead of observing the reality. 

How often do many of us find ourselves in this predicament?  We have a rude awakening and have to rip things apart and start over again and again.  Re-evaluate.  Try again. 

I learn over and over again that My Heavenly Father is the only One who will always love me and never foresake me.  My reality checks happen when I stop making Him the center of my day, life, marriage, mothering, (fill in the blank).  I have to have determination to pick myself up and start over again.  When I lack the will or the "want to" the Bible says that I can ask for a willing spirit to sustain me.  My verse this week is Psalm 51:12.  I've had this memorized for years.  It is written on my heart, but still I forget it in my daily life sometimes and then the ugliness of life snowballs and WHAM! I'm not where I thought I was. 

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.