Mother's Day: Part 1, 2 and 3

In Nicaragua, Mother's Day (May 30) is a big deal. School is canceled and everything is closed. There are celebrations at school at home, and at church :) Ours started Thursday with the kids school presentation. The kids only had half day of classes so that the rest of the day could be devoted to mothers day activities. The first graders sang an adorable song, the second graders danced, third grade recited a poem and so it continued. After the presentation, Charity and I split up so that we could visit all the classrooms occupied by our kids and to taste the treats they had prepared.

Mothers Day number two was Saturday. We started out by all going swimming at the pool (not necessarily a mother's day activity, but a holiday fun treat). Oh wait, I forgot that first we enjoyed lunch at McDonalds! Which really in all honesty is quite a treat for us. Although I had not gone there in years before coming down here, now that I am, I fully embrace the opportunity to have an occasional American meal :) But after lunch we had  a blast at the pool and about 75% fell asleep the car ride home.

But the day was not over then. . . Saturday night we had a great Mother's Day dinner with about 30 women from the El Crucero area, put on by the church we have here in El Crucero. There were little door prizes such as a gift for the mom with the most children (those they had given birth to themselves)- that was 11 kids! The one with the most grand kids (22) The longest time married (38 years) etc. But what was also special, was that it was the first time I had been honored as a 'Mom' (not just called it by my babies) and even given a gift for being the only mom who had not given birth :) So we had a fun evening, and although we took a picture of Charity, Marjorie, Ana and I, I still don't have a copy, but i will share it with you when I get it.

Here is at least a glimpse of the table setting :)

Mother's Day number three was today :) We went to church in Managua (the amazing English church I love being a part of) and were given little chinese style fans (with the tag-line of, we're your biggest fans! from the kids). I wasn't sure whether or not I should stand when our pastor asked all the moms to in order to be recognized, but Joely prodded me- 'levantate' 'stand up!'
Awe shucks :)

Then this afternoon we had a great Mother's Day meal, with 39 of us!

This is round one of a couple in order to get everyone sat down and fed at the table :)

Eating this delicous food:

The celebration ended with a change to the recent birthdays that have been happening in the house. I had just gotten all the ages down too, and now they all go growing a year older :) Yorbanny is now 10, Emy is now 9, Luviana is now 8, and Samari is now 6! Yikes But because there were so many of us, they each got their own little cake to blow out their candles.



So there you have it. The weekend of Mothers as celebrated by the occupants of El Crucero, Nicaragua. Although, if we are going to be technical. . . Mother's Day still hasn't even come yet! Tomorrow is the official holiday, but right now my only real plans are to take Ofelia to the dentist (a place she rightfully hates). . . not necessarily an ideal way to spend a day you are supposed to be being celebrated. But at least I have the rest of the day to spend around the house with all my kiddos, who have given me such an honor to be considered MOM.

Ya viene la lluvia!

The rain is here. God has ended the dry season and filled our town with the much needed water it has been lacking. So we now have running water! (hopefully without fail until the end of next dry season).

The first rain the other day was like a celebration. We filled all the buckets and pots we had, and when that was all full, we decided the best way to conserve the water, and not waste it was to simply shower outside in it! (At this point the running water was still not back on) So all the kids put on shorts and t-shirts, brought their shampoo and soap, and showered outside. They had a blast, they got clean, and we didn't use any extra water, I would call that an ultimate success.

Unfortunately though, with most cameras not being water proof, there is no picture proof of this. So you will just have to trust me, and judge based on the pictures I do have :)

Outside our front door, see the little lake that is forming, and the rain isn't even falling hard yet!

Catching water in the buckets and pans :)

Carry out and Eat in Girls night

Tonight was great. Us girls got together for a special pre-mothers day (Nicaraguan Mother's day is May 30) dinner of take out T.G.I.F. And it was d e l i c i o u s. It being the only Fridays in the country and one of the only places in the country to get an authentic American style hamburger, we really spoiled ourselves. But even better than the food (topped off with a mocha chocolate cake fugde brownie pie with ice cream thing) was the friendship that surrounded it. It truly is amazing how God brings people together throughout life. People who in another life lived in different states scattered across the country with no reason to ever meet, and here we find ourselves in a little town half way between Managua and Diriamba sharing in every sacred emotion that a friendship will bring; excitement, sadness, anger, frustration, laughter, and tears.

So tonight that is what I am thankful for (even more than the chocolate and ice cream) is the opportunity to appreciate God putting people in our lives for a season and the lessons and love you can learn from them.

"Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt



NCA Nejapa

Saturday we all loaded up in two vehicles, (although we can fit all 24 of us in the one van, it just makes the ride a little more comfortable split up) and went just down the hill to an activity at NCA Nejapa. They were having their festival with food, and games. The kids of course had a blast (and maybe some of the 'grown ups' too!)

The brinca brinca (jump jump)

 The rock wall!

 And the much loved Gladiator fighting :)

Ending with our very own air guitar concert :)

Debonney's Birthday!

Although Debonney's birthday was last week, I'm only getting documentation of the event up now, so:

HAPPY 13th BIRTHDAY DEBONNEY!

And as always, I'm pretty sure the rest loved celebrating too!

Tips to conserving water

1. Label all cups so that everone has their own and doesn't require washing after every use.

2. Soak dishes in one tub of water and rinse them off into another.

3. Use dirty dish water from rinse tub to flush toilets

4. Only flush toilets when you have said dirty dish water

5. Use one toilet for number one and the other for number two so that only one requires as frequent flushing

6. Allot a half a bucket of water per person for bucket bathing

[To make bucket bathing more enjoyable use one of the following options: 

1. boil a small portion of the water to add before bathing

2. leave your bucket outside in the sun so it heats up

3. wait a day longer than normal to shower, the extra grime will make it that much more refreshing]

7. Stand in another bucket while rinsing so that dirty water can also be used for toilet flushing

8. Don't do laundry

9. Take a trip to the pool or the beach where they have those rinse off showers, there's no rule about not bringing soap and shampoo!

10. Have friends that will let you come over and use their water to shower.

La Playa

All of US :)

The BEACH! What a better way to spend Saturday of a four day weekend, than at the beach :) Us, the Jacksons, and some other dear friends loaded up and spent the day at Pochomil. The kids all had a blast both in the water and in the sand (I think after leaving, we still had enough sand on us to make our own beach).

And while I have been in the ocean before, this was my very first time actually swimming/going under/getting my hair wet in the ocean, so I was pretty excited. (Other than the fact that I was completely shocked by how salty the water actually was!)



We were able to stay and grill hot dogs for dinner, and watch the sunset- GORGEOUS.