A one night escape

We got out of the city for one night and rented a little cottage at a beach side resort. A lovely break. Still really hot but with breeze from the ocean and a couple of pools to lounge in you don´t feel the heat.

 Diego is practicing putting the garbage in the garbage can. It´s a new favorite game.

This afternoon we are packing up and getting ready for our overnight flight to Fort Lauderdale.

Christmas

from Wikkipedia:

Christmas Eve is the most important day of Christmas in Colombia. Families and friends get together to pray the last Novena and wait until midnight to open the presents, parties are held until sunrise on Christmas Day, kids stay up late playing with their new presents, and fireworks fill the skies. Families gather around meals, music, and singing. Because Christmas Eve is the most important day, little occurs on December 25. 

 Dinner was served at Rafa´s brother´s apartment, with Diego´s only two cousins. We compromised on the midnight tradition and had dinner at 7:00, presents at 8:00 and were home by 10:30. Good thing too because Diego was done. Playing with ¨los primos¨ may have been the highlight of the vacation. The lights went out part way through the night and we played with flashlights and light bracelets. He is still telling that story

The next day Andres was too slow to get up for Diego´s liking. Diego: ¨Andes, up, up, Andes...¨

 Then, off to the beach. Cold coco and playing in the sand. All in all, a pretty good Christmas. 

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Las Novenas

Last night we were invited to celebrate ¨Las Novenas¨with a friend of Rafa´s at their residential comles. There were a ton of kids. Diego is settling in and has figured out that there are more children here than at home. We spent the earlier part of the afternoon riding the new transit system (which is great!) and at the Museo del Caribe (full of kids). On our way home to rest before the evening Diego was asking for ¨mas ninos?¨ (more kids?)

Here is a little snipit from our friends at Wikipedia explaining the novenas:
December 16 is the first day of the Christmas Novena, a devotion consisting of prayer said on nine successive days, the last one held on Christmas Eve. The Novena is promoted by the Church as a staple of Christmas. It is a call for an understanding of the religious meaning of Christmas, and a way to counter the commercialism of the Christmas season. Individual traditions concerning the Novena may vary, but most families set up a pesebre (manger scene), sing religious Christmas carols called villancicos accompanied by tambourines, bells, and other simple percussion instruments, and read verses from the Bible as well as an interpretation which may change from year to year. Novenas serve as beautiful religious gatherings as well as learning environments for young children since kids have a central and active role in the celebration of the Novenas (they read prayers, sing, and play instruments guided by their family).

 Diego: ¨Clause, ho, ho, ho¨ - very impressed

Diego: ¨mucho ninos¨ (lots of kids) - still, very impressed

At the Beach

A day at the beach

 con el tio Andres

Santiago, Diego, Mama y la nena

mucha playa

Barranquilla

We´re here, we made it. It was a long flight, a very long flight (actually two fairly short flights on two consequative nights without a proper sleep in between. I don´t recommend it but it was half the price). Upon arrival both Diego and I found ourselves sick, or more sick and we spent two days curled up and watching TV. Fever has passed, Diego is feeling much better and I am left with a nasty cough. At least it is 30 degrees and someone else is doing the cooking. It could be worse. Way worse. Pictures to come, when the batteries are all charged.

Winter Fun

Today it is raining. It has been raining all day and we are getting pretty antsy here in the house. Diego is trying on everyone's shoes, Rafa is learning to play the ukulele and I am going to send you these great winter pictures.

And... just so that you can be insanely jealous our next set of pictures will probably include sunny beaches. We just have to get through this one horrible, rainy day without killing each other.

Long Winter Night

It's 5:00, dinner is done and cleaned up, it's pitch black outside and you are faced with the question: What do you do with today's long winter night? Here's what we do with our winter nights.

I do projects. I made this great castle for the kitchen (it fits over the kitchen table) but then Diego promptly bumped his head and Rafa banned it for now. I brought it out briefly to take a picture and, with close supervision, Diego thinks it's pretty great, as you can see.

The boys play guitar.

I've put up some of the Christmas decorations in an attempt to add more light a color to our house.

 

What do you do with your long winter nights? 

Halloween

Wordless Wednesday

Pictures from September and October

 September started with the Kingston Fair..we went three times over the weekend, it's just down the street and perfect for a kid like Diego...

 There were Mighty Machines,

 animals,

a crash up derby, (I expected this to be either boring or scaring for our little man but no such luck. It was all he talked about for days, and he will still sometimes tells me "Mama, carro, boom!". I continue to explain that Mama's car should NEVER go boom! Our neighbor with the race car suggested that perhaps his interest was a good thing and he would get it out of his system before he is 16. Here's hoping.)

 and to finish off a great big slide!

 Later on in the month we got a visit with a friend of Rafa's from Barranquilla who is now living in Germany. She and her husband rented a HUGE mobile home and did a little tour of Ontario, finishing up in Barrie for a wedding. They stayed with us for two nights and it was great to see them.

October brought Thanksgiving and a great visit with Isaac and Sue at the farm they were 'farm sitting'. We had a lot of fun running around, visiting the animals, picking tomatoes (for a lovely salsa), and throwing rocks into the water. Mom came in the evening after her craft show and we had a sumptuous dinner prepared by Sue and Isaac. Definitely a thankful thanksgiving.

Pictures and Updates

I will now attempt to update on some of the things that have been happening in the last two months: in short form.

 I am now back at school in a new position. LPS (Learming Program Support). It's an interesting role because I don't have a classroom but float from room to room offering support to students with special needs, and hopefully helping their teachers cope better along the way. On my 'ticket' are all the students with MID (Mild Intellectual Disabilities) and all the kids who are using AT (Assistive Technology, or specialized computer programs to help them with their communication). It's a big job and my brain hurts a lot of the time, but in a good way. I'm also taking my Special Education Part III online which will make me a 'specialist' and also bring a pay raise. It's a lot but I'm managing to float along (if not write in the blog very often).

Rafa is also back at school taking Civil Engineering Technologist. While he wasn't thrilled with the idea of going back to school he is finding the program very useful and feels like he will be very marketable when he is done. We're doing a lot of 'tag team' child care to get homework done, but at least we're not in med school.

Deigo is back at daycare and loves it. It is nice to drop him off and have him run away to play, with only a few small looks back but no tears. What is sometimes less nice is the negotiations needed to get him to leave at the end of the day - but that is also a good sign. The daycare is housed in the school where I am teaching which couldn't be more convenient. He is bringing songs and stories home now, and it is wonderful to sit at the end of the day and 'talk' to him about what he has done. "Coby, push, no" (with a shake of the head) Whether this is he pushing Coby, or the other way around is not clear. My suspicion is that it is some of both. We are definitely approaching two.

After a long silence

We have been silent for a long time, and it is not because nothing has been happening - a lot has been happening, hence the silence. My new motivation? I recently found out that an old friend of Rafa's who is now in Australia is reading the blog. I really didn't know I had such a wide 'fan' base. If you have never left a comment would you today, please. It is an interesting thing, online blogging. I sometimes wonder if it is a phase or if we have created a whole new way of communicating with the world. It is a little like sending out a bottle into a giant sea....

Cottage Trip

Here is the video of our cottage trip:

Preserved

Blueberry jam - check
Strawberry jam - check
Peaches - check.

My son has taken to calling me 'yulia' when he can't get my attention. Sometimes I think he may be a little too smart.

Successes and Failures

We have had a couple of successes and failures here lately.

Inspired by this post over at My Girl Thursday I embarked on a journey to make my own bubble bath. I've been wanting to find a recipe that works for a while and the last bottle that I bought at Shoppers smells like gum mixed with toilet bowl cleaner and it a horrible blood red mixed with rotting grape juice color. I really have to find another option because we do consume a lot of bubble bath around here. So - I found a recipe and gathered my materials.

I shredded the bar of soap and left it to dissolve in water.

It didn't seem to be doing it so I put the mixture on some low heat and that did it. I mixed in the glycerin and put it in the bottles, expect for a little that I saved to put in the bath that night. When we went to mix in the bath that night we found this:

Semi solid gelatinous sludge. We mixed it into the bath anyway and didn't get any bubbles. Then we added the store bought bubbles and didn't get any bubbles. We have created the anti-bubble bath. Not what I was looking for. Failure #1.

The next is a failure and a success. Our dish washer has not been working very well lately, not really washing and leaving a film on all our dishes. My mother was even thinking of washing all of our dishes by hand to get them clean. So - I thought I would try changing soap to see if that helped. With a small package of phosphate rich chemical dish soap we gave it a try and got this. Can you tell which is the all natural soap and which is the phosphate?

The difference in real life is even more dramatic. Chemicals: 1 Julia: 0

And finally - a rousing success. I organized and finished staining the shed this week. I don't have a good "before" picture but suffice it to say that it didn't look this good. So I haved added a couple of years to an old shed before all the wood needs to get pulled off and thrown away. Overall I think my environmental footprint ends up about even. I am still on the lookout for a good, homemade bubble bath if anyone has any ideas.