Photos and such

Does anybody have a cure for when you're laying in bed and even though you're dead tired you can't sleep? Because your to-do list is getting organized and analyzed in your head and you're trying to figure out a time-table for the next day so that everything fits in somehow. 

I thought maybe getting one thing checked off that to-do list would help. Therefore please excuse any random ramblingness & grammar mistakes. 

The thing is, I've been taking more pics the last few days, weeks as I feel my time slipping away and I want so badly to preserve it. But they're not really about one specific thing,must a lot of fun everydayness. So we'll try to avoid grammar mistakes and stick to a few pictures that I've been wanting to share with y'all. 

Lovely break from an afternoon of sewing (me n Teresa were sewing anyway, not sure what's boys were up too) with "minutas" a snow cone type of deal, sold by a guy on a lovely bike get-up. 

 Alverda Weaver and her brother were here to visit Samuel for a few weeks. Alverda brought jazz along to make home-made Chapstick. So we hauled the microwave out to my classroom and made Chapstick!

Throwback Thursday! Actually, can't remember what day of the week this was, but I wanted to do a photo re-create with Silvia from back in the day when she did her hair like this. Surprisingly, she was all for it! And then she wanted to keep it like that! If she wants to have a fur scarf on her neck all day in 90* weather who am I to tell her no! 

Elmer decided to stop by for sewing classes. Let's just say I'll stick to working with Teresa! 

Who, by the way, has been doing amazing! This week she helped with her first order of purses and really blew me away! We are now finished with all the purse orders that We needed to finish up before the end of the year! A GREAT feeling, to say the least, even tough Teresa was less than thrilled for the pic. 

Miguel also stops by occasionally. His favorite is ripping stuff out with a seam ripper. I have been amazed at how patient he is with it, although I still don't quite trust him with anything too valuable! An added bonus is that this particular piece kept him occupied for almost half an hour. 

After which he got distracted by some visitors who had brought a rip stick. He was determined to learn but even with a lot of help and encouragement he only got about as far as I have ever got. 

Studying outside for something different. Words are definitely easier to learn outside with all the distractions around! 

A new toy has been found in an old wagon that recently got new tires as a gift from Samuel's dad. Amazing how many can fit on it! 

And then someone had the idea to hook it up to the lawn mower!

None of my girls have birthdays in the school year so I decided to have one big birthday party for them all together. I had it planned about 4 days too late to include Silvia, which was really hard on me. I decided to invite Teresa as well since she is the only other girl in school. 

Of course a party means . . . selfies! 

Teresa educating Eduardo with a fabulous book called "The Paper Bag Princess." If you should be so lucky as to see me sometime in the near future, the video of the story is quite fabulous! 

As for this week, the kids are super excited about having Friday off. Well, the teachers might also be just a little bit happy about that! We are planning our annual staff weekend/outing for this weekend. So we will be leaving Friday morning and coming back sometime Saturday evening. We are heading to a town a few kilometers from El Pital, which is the highest mountain in El Salvador, and straddles the border between El Salvador & Honduras. Something in me really wants to climb that mountain before I head back to the states. We'll have to see what I can do about that. 

Well, this post was a little bit successful. My eyes are now quite a bit more grainy and I feel quite a bit more droopy. So until later, good-night. 

Letting go??

I don't feel like I'm ready to talk about what happened this week. But to be fair to those of you who have been following Silvia's journey, praying with me, it's only fair that you be updated. 

Silvia was sent home permanently Tuesday morning. 

It probably sounds very sudden and all, but the truth of the matter is, she was riding the fence for the last week or two. Talking didn't do a whole lot of good. She knew who she was "listening" to, but couldn't seem to break the bonds that had formed from 14 years of letting her human nature control her. I do still believe her conversion was real, she just hadn't quite gotten the "daily renewing" part yet.  

But the fact that she has walked out of my life, without a good-bye, is still just a little bit too much for me. I have trouble believing that she will be able to continue to listen to the still small voice of God in the tornado that is her life. That becoming a Christian, for her, was something that happened at CICS and would therefore stay at CICS. And I wanted to talk to her one last time and let her know that was not the case and that just because she was not a part of my daily life anymore didn't mean I was going to forget about her and stop praying for her. But I didn't get that chance. And that hurts. But I trust God has a bigger plan for Silvia in this and I will keep clinging to that. He is not limited to our ideas of what will or will not work. (Pat answers that sound good but are REALLY hard to believe right now) 

Please keep praying for Silvia and her mom. She has a hard time finding work to support the two of them if she has to try to corral Silvia and work at the same time. She seemed quite discouraged the last time I talked to her. And pray for me too, that I can put Silvia in His hands and leave her there. 

The last month . . . .

" . . . to bring my heart to every day, and run the risk of fearlessly loving without running away."

This is a line from a song that grabbed me by the throat this week. (Jason Gray, Without Running Away, for those of you that were wondering.) the challenge to actually bring my heart to every day, rather than just wake up and go through the motions is a constant struggle for me. Especially when we get to this part of the year where one is tempted to just throw up the hands and say, "forget it!" It doesn't matter anyway, there's only one month of school left." When the deadlines are looming and it feels like it will be impossible to finish every thing up. 

Yes, somehow, unbelievably we have landed at this place. Technically it's less than a month. 29 days to be exact, until I will be heading to the Monseñor Romero Airport, and saying good-bye to El Salvador for a good little while. I won't say "for forever" because I will definitely be visiting again. But leaving this time will be a little bit different, ok, a lot different, because I don't have a return ticket. I won't focus on it any more than that for now because it practically gives me the heebie-jeebies to think about it. I would rather focus on squeezing the pleasure out of each moment that I have left. Even the moments that I feel like whopping my kids over the head. 

It seems they have caught the "end-of-year-it-don't-matter" bug. Eduardo has become a pro at shrugging his shoulders and saying, "I don't know." So we will continue to try to interest him. The other day, he got quite animated over which soccer team I like, Real Madrid or Barcelona, super big deal! So I do know there are things that interest him. Just how to help him see that the things that don't interest him as much as football (soccer, whatever) or practicing his trick riding skills are still important? Silvia continues to ride the line, seeing how far she can go before she gets in serious trouble. Not a fun situation to be in! And to know how to counsel her when she deliberately chooses to do wrong, knowing that she is choosing to obey Satan and it doesn't seem to matter to her. Paola, continues to work along steadily, math and learning words don't seem to be too overwhelming for her, until she gets caught in a giggle fit, which I still have to figure out how it is triggered although sometimes I'm not sure I want to know how her brain works! Beatriz also continues to plug along withou too many problems, she's been asking some hard questions lately. Like, "How long do your sleeves have to be to be a Chrisitan . . . Etc" Whoah! What!?!  I told her I would take one Wednesday morning girls devotion to explain what is required of Christians and what the Bible says about how we should dress. A little bit intimidating since what they have always been told is that cape dresses and veils are Christian. But I do not believe that is the case, but neither did I want to teach them that they can do whatever they want, "as long as their heart is right." I pray God can use whatever I said whether I went about it all wrong and use it to further strengthen their relationship with Him. 

Their questions and the conversations we can get caught up in, never cease to amaze me! How we got from discussing the differences between plants and animals to whether or not vampires are real is still a mystery to me, but what is school for if not to get answers to your questions? So to me it didn't really matter whether or not we finished the science lesson for the day, since they were asking questions about things that truly perplexed them. The other question that blew me for a loop was when Elmer told/asked me whether or not it was actually the little horses that made rainbows appear in the sky. Somehow, they seem to have a hard time dividing the real from the imaginary, especially when they've seen it on TV. 

Along with the busyness that come with wrapping up school and trying to pack up the last three years of your life, well, I haven't actually started that, but the thought is enough to make me want to run far away, we are starting to practice for our year-end drama. (Naaman, the leper) I also am still having sewing classes with Teresa two afternoons a week so that kinda takes up a good chunk of my time. She has finished two dresses, so this next week I'm hoping she will be able to get started helping me on an order of purses that I have to finish before the end of the year. 

Sometimes I have to wander about the ideas I get, and why I think they have to be done. But I think I'll be glad that I stuck through with this last-minute project that I started. It hit me the other day that is is the tenth anniversary of the school being started. And nothing was really being done about it. I have always loved the idea of re-creating photos from long ago, but my brothers always refuse to cooperate for me, so I thought maybe the kids would be a little bit more accomodating. So I rustled up some old pictures, some real beauties from back even in 2005, the first year we had school here. Let's just say, things have definitely changed. Not the least being the kids themselves. 

Here are a few samples of what I've done so far. Hopefully more to come soon!

Mauricio & Clifton-present and 2011. Even 4 years can make quite the difference. 

Carlos & José, present and 2010, where will they be in 5 more years? We can only pray!!

one of the biggest "differences" I've done so far. 2007-2015  Elmer, Louis, Elmer Santos, Alfredo and Mauricio with some friends from Belize.  I didn't quite see it as necessary to try to bring the friends fro Belize just for a photo shoot! I've got so many more fun photos I want to do, we'll have to see how time holds out. 

In the last week we also took class pics and celebrated Children's Day. But those pics might have to wait for another post. Until then, remember to live life with your whole heart even if it feels like it will kill you.