My New look

My blogs new look that is! Wonderful Zaak helped me to put together these 3 photos I wanted to have at the top of my blog. I keep going to my blog now just to look at how beautiful the banner(?) is! I took all three photos, and in case you are dying to know this is where they are from:
The pink and purple lupin flowers photo was taken near Zaak's grandmothers house in New Brunswick. The lupins bloom there in the summer for miles upon miles - it is breath-taking.
The second photo is of a statue paying homage to mothers, an hour away in the town of Salama, Guatemala.
Third is the beach just before sunset in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

7 Things

Chef Mama Aimee tagged me for a meme and so here I am dutifully doing it :) I actually had lots of fun thinking about what seven things I would put on here, and look forward to reading others...

7 Things you may not know about me:

1. I cycled across Canada and haven't been on a bike since the last day of the trip.

2. I have kept a journal faithfully since the age of 15.

3. My claim to fame is that one of my sisters kissed a boy in high school who now plays for the NHL.

4. My son Blaise has been to 7 countries and not yet seen his 3rd birthday.

5. My husband Zaak and I are blessed/cursed :) with the spiritual gift of "voluntary poverty."

6. Both of my babies were anesthesia free, midwife-assisted water births.

7. I don't know where I will be living in 6 months time.

And the 5 lucky bloggers that I am tagging are...

Zaak of Zaakistan
April of New Beginnings
Kelsie of Kelsiespot
Justin of Am I There Yet?
Dawn of Colours of Dawn

Now you are supposed to write your own list of 7 things and then pass it on to five friends. Make sure and notify the friends you tag by commenting on their blogs. Whew this is feeling complicated!
P.S. I won't be offended if you don't do this meme thing - it may not be your cup of tea so no worries :)

A Book to Ponder

The books that help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty. -Theodore Parker

This past weekend with Zaak away and I decided to immerse myself in a new book. I had forgotten that April had brought me Khaled Hosseini's second book, "A Thousand Splendid Suns". He is the author of "The Kite Runner," and if you haven't heard of it you must be a hermit:) I was instantly drawn into the story and kept forcing myself to put it down and go do other things. I still finished it in less than a week though unfortunately.

The story jolted me out of my missionary Mama life and into another world (Afghanistan) where women receive no justice. Any self-pitiying thoughts I was having about being lonely flew right out the window. It reminded me how completly fortunate I am to have been born a Canadian.

I had a good cry when I finished the book - for the two women in the story and all the misery they endured. The joys in their lives made them endure the many hardships, and I think it is their resilience that moved me most.

So run, don't walk to your nearest library or bookstore and get this book. It will not disappoint.

Sunburn Woes

Our vacation to Mexico was wonderful. Zaak did an awesome overview of it, so check out his blog if you're desperate for details:) I was just catching up on our blogroll and can't believe how many of you out there talk about the weather?!?! It's pretty funny. So here's my tribute to all of you who like to bemoan the cold. Picture one is me and Acadia on the beach, and picture two is a few hours later - oh the burn! We bought some Solarcaine cream and I could have kissed the bottle it felt so good on my fiery legs. I'm feeling fine now and hope to not peel, skin cancer is not something I want to experience in life thanks. (I thought I had put sunscreen on my legs but I must have forgotten! What with making sure to lather up the kids I tend to get the short end of the stick.)
So for all of you who hate the cold, at least you're not sunburned:)

Back in the Saddle:)

Haha, the blog saddle that is - I'm not much for horse back riding:) I've had a bit of a long hiatus from blogging with my sister April here for two weeks and then our internet being on the fritz.

I had such a wonderful time with April! She's such a kindred spirit. We had great fun with the kids, cooking and baking, and going on a couple of trips. The highlight for me was hiking the volcanoe just the two of us (thanks again Zaak for watching the kids so I could go! You're the best:). We laughed almost all the way there at our driver who was circling Antigua at 6 a.m. in search of the Hotel Belen which turned out to be the Hotel Bella. Nice. Then the hike itself was freezing cold and windy until we got to where the lava was flowing and could feel it's heat. There were even people who brought marshmallows to toast! What a great idea.

Now Zaak's sister Salome is here and in just 3 short days we are making the trek to Mexico to meet up with the rest of my in-laws. We plan to break the trip up but it still means 7 hourish days of travelling, so that's a little hard on the kids. I'm praying they are healthy and up for it!

Awhile ago I got an email from Kurt where you answer a bunch of questions about yourself. One of them was "What four things are you looking forward to this year?"
Mine were:
1. The trip to Mexico
2. Acadia sleeping through the night
3. Moving back to Canada and becoming a home owner and
4. Welcoming two new members to my extended family, a brother in law and a neice or nephew. So lots to look forward to!

What's the new year got in store for you?

Snowed Under...

...by laundry! And I thought I wanted four kids!?!? I can't even keep up with the laundry of 2 kids plus Zaak and myself! I wonder if it would be easier with a dryer...probably. Also once the kids are out of diapers I won't have cloth diapers to hassle with washing. It seems lately that the sunniest, windy days are always on the weekend and so I can't NOT do laundry then when it maight rain all the next week! If it rains a couple of days in a row the clothes do not dry forever! So in case you're wondering, I should be doing some laundry right now! Here I go to do it (sound of feet dragging)...

More November Happenings

Zaak and his chums posing with Aydee and her parents at her grad party

The Xmas tree at the Central Square - I love how it almost looks like it's snowing in the photo! It's only rain, sadly

Zaak soaking up some sun on the weekend amidst the laundry on the line:)

November Happenings

With Zaak home more now working (usually on the compy) I get less of a chance to blog. So here are some shots from this past month:

The kids bundled up and trying to stay warm in the house

Zaak and Blaise enjoying the fire at storytime

Acadia happliy chewing on her spoon after her breakfast

Our second (failed) attempt at a family photo with the new baby goat included:)

Cutie Patootie Acadia doing some nude shots when the weather warmed up

Convicted Shopper Part 2

I've been doing a lot of thinking and reading since my last post. Friends, it does not look good. But since I have to eat and clothe myself, I am trying to find ways to do so in the most earth and people friendly way possible. Sound corny, naive and overly-optimistic? That's me:) In a nutshell.

I was looking for info on sweatshops and tried looking for some anti-sweatshop groups on Facebook. I was shocked to tears when I found a PRO-Sweatshop group!!??!! I understand being uninformed and even apathetic, but to be downright purposefully ignorant...I was horrified. Here is the description of their group:
"to provide basements for people to work to make us clothing, don't ban somthing that gives us cheap shit"
Now I am trying to keep in mind that this group seems to be made up of mostly highschool boys, but still! FOR SHAME!

I can't pretend to be well read or knowledgable about sweatshops and fair-trade and all of this that I am delving into, but I do have some thoughts on the issues. A big argument that I read a lot is that sweatshops give poor people jobs who otherwise would be on the streets. Sure, BUT (HUGE, GIGANTIC "but" here) when these rich companies (such as Nestle, Gap, and Wal-mart) can easily afford to give their 3rd World Country employees fair wages in a clean, safe working environment and choose NOT to, that is where I cast blame.

There are some good websites out there with helpful info. Co-op America has a lot of good info, I like their list of 10 Things to Never Buy Again This sight also has information on several companies and how good or (usually) bad they are.

So I've come to a few decisions after mulling this all around this past month. They are:
1.) Continue to buy stuff at Thrift Stores. The companies that made the clothing/shoes are no longer benefitting from my purchase when I buy them second hand. (Unless I buy something with the brand splayed across my chest/bum - which I won't:)
2.) Boycott all the big brand names and companies that I possibly can. I think that sadly most of the big brand names out their have gotten that way because profit is what counts, not people or the environment.
3.) Support the smaller, green-friendly, sweatshop free companies that are out there. If anyone has suggestions of brands/products/companies you know that are good, please let me know. For starters I know that American Apparel is sweatshop free and Ten Thousand Villages has all fair-trade products.

Okay I really need to wrap up this rant and go to bed. It's way past this Mama's bedtime.
I will leave you with this tidbit I read on the Co-Op America site:
"Styrofoam is forever"

Feliz Noche a todos:)

Convicted Shopper

No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible. --George Burns

I receive a daily email from Charityfocus. It shares a quote, and then a small paragraph about something good someone is doing in the world. One of the recent ones I read was about a book and website called Better World Shopper by Ellis Jones. The basic idea of it is this: as consumers we have the power to choose the kind of world we want to live in, by how we spend our money. The author looked at 5 criteria for the companies he reviewed and the ones that connect the most with me are human rights, the environment, and social justice.

So who are the bad guys out there? Where to start...first the good news how about:)
I was pleasantly surprised to see some of the products and services I use and like got an "A" on the scale (Silk Soy Milk, Burts Bees, American Airlines, Apple Computers, IKEA, and American Apparel). But I was also dismayed at all the products/services I've used that got "C" through "F" grades including: Continental Airlines, Gerber Baby Products, Nestle, Kraft, Nabisco, Dove, Lubriderm, Post Cereals, Twix, Skittles, M&M's, Hershey's, Toblerone (Gasp! NOT Toblerone!?!?) The Gap Clothing (no big surprise there) Covergirl and Revlon Cosmetics, Visa, Adidas, Nike, and the least surprisingly of all...Wal-Mart. There are several categories as you can see and the list goes on but I'll stop with the ones that struck me.

Now the one big grocery store we have here in Guatemala is Paiz, which is being taken over by Wal-Mart. Everytime I go now I see the Wal-Mart logo popping up on different products. BUT I can't boycott this store when it's the only place I can get whole-wheat spaghetti noodles, mushrooms, a selection of dry cereal and ( just recently) Earl Grey tea.

BUT once we live in Canada again I will happily avoid Wal-Mart and shop at Farmers Markets and Health Food Stores as much as financially possible. I really believe each individual has the power to promote change, so I will quietly do my part. And I will happily share my reasons with anyone who asks me why I choose to avoid certain products and services. Now I just have to figure out how I am going to survive without some Toblerone chocolate at Christmas...

I ♥ Rhubarb

I finally reaped the fruits of my labor today. I picked one of the rhubarb stalks that I had grown from SEED. This rhubarb plant survived three uprootings by Blaise (helpfully weeding he thought) when it was just a few inches tall, then another uprooting when a pipe was dug up underneath it (thank you Zaak for saving it!).

This little frog was in the leaf of the stalk - cute hey.

I made a lovely strawberry rhubarb crisp for dessert tonight with the rhubarb and some strawberries Zaak picked up at the market early this morning. It smelled and tasted delicious. I closed my eyes and took a whiff of the rhubarb just after cutting it and it transported me to my childhood. Memories of running barefoot with all my wild cousins, a cup of sugar and stalk of rhubarb for a treat.

Potty Training Progress...

...Or lack thereof!
Here's a shot of Blaise yesterday - notice the location of the large wet spot on his pants. I went into the whole "if you use the potty you won't have to wear diapers anymore" spiel and reminded Blaise that he has Diego underwear for when he starts using the potty all the time. Blaise was very keen to see his underwear so I took them out of the closet and spread them out nicely for him on his table. I left the room and when I saw Blaise next he had a pair of the underwear on his head and was riding his horse:) What a kid. He's developed a sense of humor before he has given up diapers. That's my boy:)

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year, maybe the best yet! It was our third Guatemalan Thanksgiving and like the last one it was turkey-less. Our first one we had the Peter's cook get us a turkey locally and it was a sad and skinny bird. We were not impressed. See my October blog for 2005 if you want to see a photo of the anorexic turkey:)
So this year I did sweet potatoes (camotes en espanol) and a pumpkin cheesecake pie. I wasn't thrilled with the pie but got some compliments on it and Blaise liked it so that's what counts. Ruth made a wonderful salad with a homemade fresh basil dressing, then we had chicken with stuffing, mashed potaotes, and of course cranberry sauce. Really with all the fixings you hardly notice it's not turkey that you're eating:)
After the meal Blaise and his chums Sam and Kathe ran around the Peter's beautiful backyard and splashed a bit in the pila. We snapped a few photos too as the day was a beautiful one. Hope everyone else's Thanksgivings made them thankful too!

Chicken Story

This chicken was hanging around our house the other night. It ended up roosting on the pila which would have been fine excpet that it pooped in it. Arg. I had just scrubbed out the pila. The following day the chicken returned so Zaak and Blaise went out and chased it home. It hasn't come back again, but if it did we were thinking we should cook it up for supper:)

Two Sweet Rosebuds

A Clothes Horse/Bargain Hunters Heaven

These are all my finds today from two Ropa Americana's I hit while I was in town. A "Ropa Americana" (literally American Clothing) is basically a second hand clothing store. There are several of them in our little town of Tactic and they are great fun to peruse. I've always been a second hand store fan but places like Value Village in Canada have lost a bit of their allure since they've jacked their prices.

All the clothing you see in my photo was purchased for the grand total of...drumroll please...Q103.50 (or $14.09 for those of you who don't use Guatemalan currency:) My haul included a pair of Levi boot cut jeans, an Abercrombie & Fitch shirt, a pair of Puma shorts, and a Carters sleeper for Acadia. The other finds were all things I liked but weren't any big brand names. I don't feel guilty about any of the brands I buy because the companies don't benefit at this point from my purchase. I do always check lables to see where the clothes were made and places like Mexico (Levi's) and Malaysia (A & F) make me wonder...

The owners of the Ropa Americana's buy bundles of a thousand items of clothing and pay Q1000. It's hit and miss a lot of the time, with some of the clothing being in rough condition or just downright tacky. But that doesn't stop me from looking, and often finding some great stuff! It's my kind of treasure hunt:)

Pretty in...

Green! What a relief to see Acadia in something besides pink! Why are the majority of clothes for baby girls pink anyway? I love these little green overalls with small purple and blue flowers that I found at a Ropa Americana. What is a Ropa Americana you ask? Stay tuned to find out more...:)

I Love a Man with Dishpan Hands

Friday Afternoon we fired our housekeeper Lidia. We suspected her of stealing but she denied it when we confronted her. Although we never caught her in the act I believe she stole some of Acadia's disposable diapers. The culture here seems to be that people don't confess to any wrong they've done, and if they do get caught they claim they only "borrowed" the stolen item or money. I felt really awful about it all weekend, what if she was innocent and I had wrongfully accused her? I've always struggled with indecisiveness and after we let her go I was doubting myself. So after talking with Zaak, shedding a few tears, and praying, I came to the conclusion that I need to trust myself and live with my decision. Sunday morning I woke up at peace about it.
Strangely enough I am feeling good about doing the housework now. Zaak and I are quite able to take care of the house ourselves, it just means divvying up more responsibilities. Like tonight after supper Zaak played with the kids while I tidied up the kitchen. Lidia was a great worker, but she would do funny/annoying things like rearrange all the food in the pantry, wash the shower curtain and leave it hanging outside to dry, wash Zaak's work clothes and shoes un-asked so he wouldn't have them the next day, give Blaise snacks and drinks without asking, clean Blaise's sippy cups so vigorously that all the spill preventor things broke, and so on. We like that we can find something where we left it now, as long as it's out of Blaise's reach:)

Mariposa Bonita

Acadia joined me for my walk the other day and since she was in the stroller I stuck the camera in it too. I really like taking photos when I go out but feel like a walking target with the camera around my neck, so if I can take it with me less conspicuously I'm happy.
There are always lots of butterflies at this one sunny spot on my walk, and this one is my favorite. I've always loved butterflies, and if I ever got a tatoo it would be of a butterfly. This one is amazing! Wild black and white design on the outside with a splash of red, then it opens up to reveal velvety black and brilliant blue! Incredible. I tried to search for what kind of butterfly it is, but no luck. I need a guide to Central American Butterflies I suppose, since I couldn't find it on the net.

Pretzels and Reality

We made soft pretzels the other day. Blaise loves getting involved in whatever I'm baking or cooking, and I generally enjoy having hin "help" me:) These pretzels turned out WAY too fat, I guess I needed to roll them much thinner. Next time. And here's an unrelated shot of Acadia because she's just so adorable. She's started cooing and singing a lot now when she's happy.

Blaise has been sick for over a week with a bad cough and cold. He's on some antibiotics now since it was getting worse instead of better. So with a baby and a sick little boy to care for I'm feeling a bit frazzled. I love being a Mom and wouldn't trade it for anything. When I'm away from Blaise and Acadia for more than 2 hours I miss them terribly. But sometimes I do get a bit jealous thinking of my friends and family who are not yet parents. The freedom! The huge amount time you have to yourself! These days when I get some free time I just want to sleep! It's 1:30 in the afternoon and I still haven't changed out of my pajamas! So I know, I know, I just need to enjoy this time when my kids are babies and all that, and I am. I just get weary sometimes. Plus the grass is always greener on the other side, and there are lots of lonely people out there who would love to have an amazing couple of kids like mine. So that cheers me up:) Zaak is a great partner and father plus he makes me laugh too when I'm down so I appreciate him. Life just can't be gumdrops and rose petals all the time I suppose - darn hey:)