We made it to Guatemala!!! We're enjoying fellowship and authentic Guatemalan coffee this morning while preparing for a day of traveling mountain roads to our missions destination.
Saturday, January 9, 2016
Friday, January 8, 2016
Dallas Airport
Played quelf in the airport in Dallas, TX for a few hours. Now we're on the plane almost ready for our 3.5 hr flight to Guatemala. :-)
SF Airport
We started the day by meeting at the church at 4am. The icy roads to Sioux Falls were awful and we passed a few vehicles in the ditch but Kent got us safely to the airport in spite of the bad weather
We practiced patience while trying to get checked in at the Sioux Falls airport. The computer kept crashing and we weren't sure we would even make our 7:15am flight.
Eventually, all 18 people in our group boarded the plane............where we sat and waited and waited and waited. First, we waited for the plane in front of us to be de-iced. Then we waited for that plane to move out of our way. Next, we had to be de-iced. After almost two hours in the plane, the pilot informed us that our runway had closed. The snowplows couldn't keep up. Did I mention that it was incredibly hot because they couldn't turn the engines on to run the air through the cabin?!?
We taxied back to the gate, got off the plane, took a bathroom break and circled around to pray.
Within a half an hour, they had us board again. Then they de-iced us again. Our original departure time was 7:15am and we ended up taking off about 10:15am.
I'm happy to report that the first flight was uneventful, except for my singing of the "have patience" song to the back end of the airplane while we were sitting on the runway!
Plane
We're currently a little over an hour behind schedule. The plane is being de-iced now.
The bucket on the truck has a picture of a super hero in a cape and says "D-ice man"!
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Two Loads of Laundry
We spent most of the morning moving rooms/beds around. Since we put an alarm on a bedroom door, it's been less stressful and I decided to make the new room arrangements permanent. Another bonus is that we're going back to a very minimal existence for two of our boys. We're narrowing their world again. By having very little in the room, I can easily check for things that they shouldn't have. I'm not naïve. I know they'll still steal/hoard but at least it won't take me hours to go through their rooms and for the most part, I can just look around quickly.
Anyway, in the midst of moving beds and clothing, I wanted Zeke's laundry done so he would be ready for school tomorrow. A certain someone offered to take it downstairs and put it in the washing machine. I told him it would take two loads.
Fast forward to this afternoon. I took Zeke's first load out of the dryer and put it in a basket. I noticed a white sock had snuck into the load with the jeans and t-shirts. It happens to the best of us. Then I noticed three more. ???
I took a hard look at all the laundry I was grabbing. My eyebrows raised as I realized that he had done exactly what I instructed. He had separated the laundry into two loads. HOWEVER, neither of the loads had been sorted into lights and darks. I guess he just grabbed the top half and shoved it in. I just sighed and moved on to the next load of laundry :-/
Due to possible repercussions, I'm not naming any names in this post. (It was someone over 20 :-)
Anyway, in the midst of moving beds and clothing, I wanted Zeke's laundry done so he would be ready for school tomorrow. A certain someone offered to take it downstairs and put it in the washing machine. I told him it would take two loads.
Fast forward to this afternoon. I took Zeke's first load out of the dryer and put it in a basket. I noticed a white sock had snuck into the load with the jeans and t-shirts. It happens to the best of us. Then I noticed three more. ???
I took a hard look at all the laundry I was grabbing. My eyebrows raised as I realized that he had done exactly what I instructed. He had separated the laundry into two loads. HOWEVER, neither of the loads had been sorted into lights and darks. I guess he just grabbed the top half and shoved it in. I just sighed and moved on to the next load of laundry :-/
Due to possible repercussions, I'm not naming any names in this post. (It was someone over 20 :-)
Saturday, January 2, 2016
Perspective
Here is a thought on perspective:
A while ago, I was driving some of the kids to the Middle school. We didn't have a lot of time and traffic is always awful around the schools in the morning. I just happened to get behind a pickup. The speed limit is 25 and then changes to 15 near the school. The pickup was going 20 and then long before the school sign, slowed to just under 10mph. I was getting really frustrated! I started mumbling.
When we finally made it to the school driveway where we all needed to turn across traffic, the pickup stopped in the road instead of turning in to the parking lot. My mumbling became a lot louder. No. I did not actually swear but I was getting close to wanting to! I looked in the distance and saw a car slowing coming toward us in the opposite lane at the appropriate speed of a whopping 15pmh. The pickup seemed to be waiting for that car before turning! Seriously!!! I was fuming!
The pickup had tons of room and ten cars probably could've driven in during the time we were all waiting in a line in the street. After the car eventually drove by, the pickup finally turned. It was then that we could see that the driver was very young. Riley said it was a boy in his 8th grade class who had just gotten his license.
Suddenly, the perspective of the situation changed completely. Instead of being frustrated with a slow idiot driver, I was proud of the fact that the kid took his time and was learning and behaving in an overly cautious manner. I had empathy and even patience for him and his situation.
I've done a lot of soul searching over the past few months. Mostly involving trying to parent well and keep everyone afloat, both emotionally and financially. In doing so, I let myself be dragged down. I believe we're currently on the upswing, not because circumstances have changed significantly but because my perspective seems to be changing.
At the risk of sounding selfish, I think I'm finally realizing that there are steps I need to take that ensure that I have the emotional and physical energy to help keep everyone else where they need to be. Part of that is realizing that I cannot be everything for everyone. Part is figuring out how to safely have some time for myself. We finally have a very loud door alarm on one of the bedroom doors and I can't even tell you the amount stress that has taken off of me. Maybe more on the reasoning behind that later.
One of the things I miss is writing. It seems to help to get thoughts out of my head and into words. A number of people have told me that they miss reading the blog. I think that was just the encouragement I needed to start up again.
A while ago, I was driving some of the kids to the Middle school. We didn't have a lot of time and traffic is always awful around the schools in the morning. I just happened to get behind a pickup. The speed limit is 25 and then changes to 15 near the school. The pickup was going 20 and then long before the school sign, slowed to just under 10mph. I was getting really frustrated! I started mumbling.
When we finally made it to the school driveway where we all needed to turn across traffic, the pickup stopped in the road instead of turning in to the parking lot. My mumbling became a lot louder. No. I did not actually swear but I was getting close to wanting to! I looked in the distance and saw a car slowing coming toward us in the opposite lane at the appropriate speed of a whopping 15pmh. The pickup seemed to be waiting for that car before turning! Seriously!!! I was fuming!
The pickup had tons of room and ten cars probably could've driven in during the time we were all waiting in a line in the street. After the car eventually drove by, the pickup finally turned. It was then that we could see that the driver was very young. Riley said it was a boy in his 8th grade class who had just gotten his license.
Suddenly, the perspective of the situation changed completely. Instead of being frustrated with a slow idiot driver, I was proud of the fact that the kid took his time and was learning and behaving in an overly cautious manner. I had empathy and even patience for him and his situation.
I've done a lot of soul searching over the past few months. Mostly involving trying to parent well and keep everyone afloat, both emotionally and financially. In doing so, I let myself be dragged down. I believe we're currently on the upswing, not because circumstances have changed significantly but because my perspective seems to be changing.
At the risk of sounding selfish, I think I'm finally realizing that there are steps I need to take that ensure that I have the emotional and physical energy to help keep everyone else where they need to be. Part of that is realizing that I cannot be everything for everyone. Part is figuring out how to safely have some time for myself. We finally have a very loud door alarm on one of the bedroom doors and I can't even tell you the amount stress that has taken off of me. Maybe more on the reasoning behind that later.
One of the things I miss is writing. It seems to help to get thoughts out of my head and into words. A number of people have told me that they miss reading the blog. I think that was just the encouragement I needed to start up again.
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