The Gap Theory of Blogging

Well, I'm seeing a bit of a pattern in my blogging over the past 5 years: I go "gangbusters", blogging every day or at least several times a week and then fizzle and have a big gap of a month or two with little-to-nothing posted. All I can say is, at least I'm consistent!!!

So, with no fanfare or lame attempts at trying to fill in the gap -- which would be impossible at this point: I live my life too quickly to try to catch up 3 or 4 months of blogging while trying to stay current -- I'm picking up where I am now, and we'll just pretend that the past few months didn't really happen...

...after all, they're just a blur anyway!

Highlights...

March

Our furlough in the States: Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona and Home. All summed up in 3 photos...

Our Family: Cold in Seattle

Saying Goodbye to Sarah in Oregon

Back in Mexico
(Read more about that federale here.)

April

Semana santa -- Holy Week -- the boys spent the week baking and selling breads, rolls and muffins.

They earned enough during the weekend to pay for their mission trip which is planned for mid-July. We'll talk more about that later!

May

Kids' Day!!!

Youth Retreat in Los Mochis

Lunch with friends.

Clam Season!!!

Finally getting around to gardening. WaHOOO!!!

Now I just pray that my internet keeps working!!! Man-o-man, have we been struggling for the past 3 months!!! Suffice to say that Telcel is NOT my favorite internet company, but since we have a one-year contract with them, I'll try to not grumble too much. I'm getting pretty comfortable calling the customer service center, though! I managed to be "firm but polite" last time I called, and we haven't been disconnected since. Hurrah!

I'll be back soon, Lord willing!

Always Apologizing

It seems that a vast number of my posts contain the phrase, "I haven't written in a while". Sigh.

I think that I'm dealing with two major challenges. 1.) I'm "doing" a lot. As I said to Doug recently, I'm too busy living life to write about it. I take tons of pictures of all our outreaches, church events, crazy things the kids do and all the strange animals which venture across our property. While I'm doing dishes or prepping lunch I plan out my posts and think about which photos I would use for which layout. When I finally have a few minutes free to blog, I settle my self into my sort-of-comfy chair. Then I encounter challenge 2.) My internet is stinkin' slow. On a good day with no wind I connect at a whopping 50.9kbps. oooOOOooo I click on my login page...wait for it to load...enter my password...wait for it to load...my page opens...I wait for it to load...and I wait...and I wait. By the time my blog and my photo host are open and ready to go -- it's time to run to the next event.

But here I am now -- in the land of unlimited high-speed access. Although I am battling keeping possession of the laptop, since I have a few others vying for their online time, I have a few moments of peace to upload photos and write this rather drab, apologetic post.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow I will post. And it will be significantly more interesting than today's post. I hope. Couldn't be much worse. :^)

Mom's Tweaking Again

If I say that I'm a "tweaker", does that tell you what decade I went to highschool?

Seriously, though, a lot of times I just can't seem to leave well-enough alone. My daughter, Sarah, says I'm a bit perfectionistic. I say, "A bit? Ya think?"

I've just been hopping around so many absolutely beautiful blogs lately, mine has begun to seem...well...dated. And a little frumpy. And maybe hokey.

And then that little voice in the back of my mind says, "Be content with such things as you have..."

Sigh. So, I'm trying to not compare all these beautiful, sleek and sophisticated blogs I'm visiting to my wanna-be site. I did, however click over to favorite everything-you-need-to-know-about-tweaking-your-blog site and discovered how to put tabs on my blog .

Click on image to visit the site!

I think I like. Do you like?

I may not have the sleekest blog on the block. That's OK.

Lord, help me to be satisfied with what I do have!

Baking Soda Biscuits...hmmmm

I make biscuits frequently -- probably twice or three times a week. When I get up too late to do a yeast bread or don't have the two dozen eggs necessary to do an "eggy breakfast" for my plebes, we have biscuits.

I should be a pro.

Uh-huh.

So, this morning I didn't get up till 7 -- lazy bum, I know. What's for breakfast? Hmm. We had a couple of kids sleep over, and I thought it'd be a nice treat for them to have biscuits with peanut butter and jam. Sounds yummy, eh?

I didn't check to make sure I had baking powder before I mixed all the other ingredients up.

Well, I'd been wanting to try an experiment using only baking soda in place of baking powder. Baking powder here is a little spendy, and I can't find any that doesn't contain aluminum sulfate. Today would be my Day of Experimental Biscuits. I figured I'd add a little vinegar to the mix so that the baking soda would poof. They did poof nicely. Actually they were quite pretty.

The first bite told me that they had turned out passable.

Halfway through the second bite, I changed my mind.

I won't say that the experiment was a total flop. The ducks are very happy. I guess they don't mind the incredibly acrid, bitter, salty taste these beautiful works of art leave in your mouth for about an hour.

My oldest son said they weren't that bad. He's sixteen. If he can get his teeth into it and swallow, he's happy.

One of the twins wanted to gift some to the milkman when he came by. I nearly tackled him as he tried to walk out of the kitchen with them.

They really were that bad. I Googled "How to Make Baking Powder". Here's the CORRECT way to do it:

1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
Mix well and use
Makes 1 tablespoon of baking powder.

Now I know. ;^)

Pumpkin Invasion

I'm multi-tasking again...as usual. With internet slightly faster than Morse Code, I try to have several things going on at once, so that I don't get too frustrated with the fact that this really neat blog I want to read still hasn't finished loading.

Right now I have four sites loading, I'm baking a pumpkin pie, simmering chili, unloading photos from my camera and writing a blog post. Not bad for a Thursday afternoon!

So, the timer on my pie beeped. I looked over to see who was in the kitchen so they could slap the thing to silence it and noticed that I have a lot of pumpkin on my counter. Pumpkin in various stages. I had to take a photo. Yes, I'm a camera addict.
In the far back, on the left over there, is the last of my super-cheap-what-a-deal pumpkins waiting its turn in the oven. On the right is the next-to-last pumpkin, which just came out of the oven as the last two pumpkin pies went in. Right in front, sitting on my trusty-rusty deep freeze, are the first of the pies to come out. They are the reason my stomach is rumbling right now...just a sec. I'll take a picture...

Isn't it purty?!

So, while I sit on my duff and wait for timers to beep and pages to load, my faithful slave, er, I mean daughter is busily doing my job...

The chili is now ready to serve and the first cooked pumpkin looks like this...


So...I'm thankful.

Thought I'd forgotten, didn't you?! I'm only mostly out of touch. I do manage to remember things like Daylight Savings Time, Thanksgiving and Fourth of July. Thank you, Facebook!

Thank you, Lord, for another beautiful day.

Thank you, Lord, for my family.

Thank you, Lord, for my amazing husband who, amazingly enough, has put up with me for nearly 19 years and still loves me dearly!

Thank you, Lord, that all of my children have put You first in their lives and that I'll be seeing them forever in heaven -- even if they move to Europe in this life. For instance. Not that any of them would ever do that. Right? Sarah?

Thank you, Lord, for all our friends and adopted family here in Mexico. For Chuy, who stopped in for a glass of water and ended up hanging out all morning and staying for lunch (which is pretty normal for us!) and is now learning all about the Thanksgiving tradition of "pay de calabaza de holowin" (that would be "pumpkin pie").

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good...para siempre es su misericordia...His mercy endures forever!!!!