Life in a fishbowl...

A hint of dead iguana!

It has been a crazy couple of weeks. We've had two retreats, a sick doggy that almost died and needed to be nursed back to health, a ballet show to get ready for, a friend and her three year old staying for a week and a husband getting ready to leave for a twelve day trip. Needless to say, the house looked like someone had picked it up, shaken it all around and then sat it down again. Disaster zone. I usually don't enjoy housework, weird I know, but today It was kind of nice to not go anywhere and get the house back in shape. Actually, we all cleaned. Eli and Logan cleaned their rooms, Ben cleaned the toilets, I cleaned the back porch....taking a break once to bury a dead and very smelly iguana...washed the dishes, and swept all of the floors. I know that tomorrow the floors will get dirty again ( the joy of living on the ocean), and the dishes will need washed again, but for now the house is clean. *sigh* we lit candles too, so it smells like vanilla with just a hint of dead iguana!

Reason #1

      Things I love about where I live.......

We have lived in Puerto Rico for eleven years now, going on twelve.  It's the longest I have ever lived anywhere in my life.  Wow, that's weird. I just now realized that.   The next longest place I have ever lived was Biloxi, MS where I was born and lived until I was ten.  I loved Mississippi. It was warm, even when it rained. We lived on a Pringle Circle which was just like it sounds, a big circle.  Whenever it rained, the sides of the street would fill up like a warm swimming pool.  So much fun for a kid!!!!   Our back yard was to an empty field full of wild blackberries and big piles of fire ants.  Also fun for a kid.  Have you ever watched them go crazy when you poke them with a stick?  That field ended in a Burger King parking lot.  Also fun for a kid.  French fries close by, ordering at the drive through on you bicycle, running over ketchup packages.....ahhh the memories.

I love thinking back to Mississippi.  It was a great place to grow up.  Now I sit and think what are my kids going to remember and love about the place where they are growing up.  We get a lot of groups coming through camp, and we hear a lot of opinions about the way things are done here in PR.  And while some things are less than ideal, I love this place.  So I thought I would start to share with you why. (These will not be in any particular order, just as they come to me randomly.)

Warmth

It's warm here.  Almost all of the time.  Actually it's cold inside of most buildings, so cold that when you go outside you sigh and relax back into a comfortable warmth.  I love it.  It was like that in Mississippi at night too.  Freezing inside...walk outside....ahhhhhh so cozy and warm.   There are times when it's a bit too warm, but that is sooooooo much more preferable to the other. 

Not just the weather is warm though. So are the people.  Smiles, hugs, kisses all very, very normal.  Loud outbursts upon seeing someone they know.  Reactions to movies and songs.  I have to say that whenever we go back to the States I am really taken aback by the first handshake.  "What's this? A hand? Do I kiss it? Oh that's right, it's for shaking!" It takes a few times to get back in the habit!!  

Se habla español.....

So the other day I was talking to Eli about learning Spanish and why she should.  We live in Puerto Rico, honey; people in Puerto Rico speak Spanish.

People always ask me if our kids speak Spanish fluently; and when I tell them not really, they wonder why since they were born in Puerto Rico and have lived there all of there lives. Learning another language has so many different stages:  the everything sounds like goballygook stage, the oh he just said house cool I know that word oh know now I missed the rest of the sentence stage, the I can carry on a one on one conversation with a person speaking slowly stage, the i understand everything being said stage but have a hard time speaking stage, the only speaking in the present tense stage, the i'm tired so I can't even speak English stage, the I'm afraid to make a mistake so I won't say anything stage, and the list could go on and on.....  Ben, Eli and Logan are in one or another of theses stages depending on the day, their attitude, who their with or any number of other things.   

I am convinced that most language learning is a result of being surrounded by speakers of that language. Eli is helping me to prove this idea true. Lately we have had a lot of Spanish speakers over to play, and she has suddenly adopted some new phrases. The part I find the funniest is that she not only picks up the Spanish, she picks up the Puerto Rican attitude...the volume level, the hand motions. So fun to watch and hear. ¡Me encanta!

More kid quotes......

Logan- I need water. My lungs are drying.

Eli- I'm so thirsy, I could drink out of an elephant's trunk.

Ben- Why does it have to be my canines?

Eli- (said from the car the day we drove for twelve hours) When I look that way I can see 3 things: the mountains, my nose and the signs.

Ben- (probably said that same day) There's nothing to do but use my imagination.

Eli- Red hair.....now there's something you don't see everyday.

Logan- Mom, you don't want to see what I'm doing.......

Noche de Tacos

Jon and I have realized over the years that we are really bad at a couple of things.  Perhaps you can guess the first one when you look at how often I post things on this blog.  Long distance communication is not something that comes naturally to us unfortunately.  We are and have been working on that  with varying degrees of success.

We are also not so good at cultivating community. 

The weird thing is that we both like people, we like to talk, we like to hang out, we like to have people at our house. For some reason though it rarely happens on its own. There are some people who just show up or call and say "come pick me up, I want to come over."  I won't mention any names....Stephanie "I'm comin to your house this weekend" Almonte!  Personally, I love it when they do that.  And if they left it up to me  or Jon it might not happen since we are severely lacking in the let's do something today category.

Recognizing these flaws has made us try to be intentional about creating community here at camp.  I live ten feet from Julio and Beth's door.  I have hung out with Beth for a period of more than 10 minutes with her maybe once in the past month.  That's no good.  Realizing that part of the problem is just life and busyness,  we decided to start "taco night".  Everyone has to eat right?  We all eat around the same time, right?  So why not do it together once a week.  Tonight was the first "taco night" we have had since before summer (due to camp busyness and our trip to the states). Here's a peek at what it looked like:

Imagine my kitchen with it's beautifully tiled floor and fully functional electrical abilities...ahhh imagination....now imagine three tables set up together, Logan is helping to put cheese into the bowls, Eli wants a yogurt cause "they're really good mom", Beth (who later will stand for 45 minutes by the refrigerator making up weird magnet phrases in spanish..un momento bien duro..with Stephanie, oh yeah, she and Fred came late and finished off all of the food) is cutting up a to-ma-toe, the elders Mr. Lawrence and my dad are in a deep conversation about something very serious and entertaining, oops....Logan just spilled a bunch of cheese onto the table. "Don't worry mom, I got it," said while swiping it all onto the floor. Sunny, the golden retriever, is trying to scratch down the back screen door because Grandma is here and needs to pet her immediately.  Sit down everyone so we can pray.......Ben, put the book down and come here to eat.  Mr. Dave comes back with a big bowl of ice for drinks which Grandma eats later for desert because Mrs. Barbara is not here and she usually brings that.  It was decided that Jim, the new guy from Michigan, will be the desert bringer now.  Hear that, Jim?  Hey old timers....sit down so we can start.  So they sit down together and show Ben the almost 11 year old how to be obnoxious (like 11 year old boys need help with that) by hitting the bottom of your cup with your fork.  Logan, don't take a bite; we're going to pray. 

Thank you Lord that even though we are not very good at this community thing it happens anyway. It's fun. It's good. It's important.  Buen provecho!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Quotes from our trip 1

Eli (after smelling a skunk)- They have skunks in America?!!

I'm five now!

 

Two adults, three kids and a car.....

 (Someone below is growing up WAY to fast!)

Well, we have started our journey across the US to visit some churches, friends and family on the west coast.  We decided to take some days together as a fam and see some cool stuff on the way out.  It's been great so far.  Logan isn't quite understanding the traveling thing though.  He wanted to go to a park today that we left behind in Minnesota. We have been doing a combo of staying with Grandma and Granpa in WI, on  church floors in Mankato, MN, and in hotels.  Always an adventure.  We are currently in Keystone, SD.

   
(the monkey found a tree in Grandma's yard...)

 

 
(looking at "the three heads" as Logan calls Mount Rushmore)

Coming and going.....

It's summer now so that means people, people people everywhere.  This week we said goodbye to Madelyn my niece.  She stayed with Grandma and Grandpa for about six weeks this summer.   There was much fun to be had by all. Overnighters, snorkeling, nighttime trampoline jumps, and campfires are just a small part of the fun. 

So we said goodbye to Madelyn and hello to Kaylah....

 

Kaylah is another one of our nieces, and she will be here all summer as the leader of the Dores.  The Dores are the people who make camp run during the summer.  They do a lot of different things including run the kiosko, wash dishes, set up for games and run the water slide.  Here's Kaylah now to tell you a little bit about herself and let you know of her prayer requests for this summer.

Hey Everyone! I'm Kaylah and I just finished my sophomore year at Multomah Bible College. This is my fifth time in Puerto Rico and I am so excited to be apart of this awesome ministry for another summer. Please pray that I will have the energy and strength to keep up with the 12 Puerto Rican and American helpers that will be here. Also, please pray that I will have wisdom to meet the emotional and physical needs of the workers. Thank you so much for your support and prayers!

Throughout the summer, you will be hearing/reading from some of the summer helpers about life at camp.  So keep coming back and checking us out.  Let us know if you have any questions or comments for us, we'll be glad to answer them. 

 

He now has God in his heart!!

Monday night while I was snuggling with Logan before he went to sleep, he asked me how he could have God in his heart.  For the last month or so, he has been saying things like, "Mommy, I want to see God." and  "But, mommy, I want to be with God."

So after a very interesting conversation, Logan asked God to forgive him and to come be in his heart.