A Mom Not a Professional Nor a Perfectionist

Mari has so much time on her hands that she started a new blog for her hobbies http://www.amomnotapro.blogspot.com/. Not a professional, nor a perfectionist but a mom sharing her creative ideas and findings. She really doesn't have a lot of time on her hands but she needs a creative outlet in her life.

March Birthday Madness

Aiden turned 3 today and Ethan turned 6 yesterday. It is hard to believe that some of you last saw Ethan when he was scooting on his bottom and when Aiden was just learning to speak. Well, they are jumping, climbing, speaking in English and Spanish and full of life. Their smiles and kisses bring sunshine to our day! They had a super hero party more pictures are at www.unpoquitohereandthere.blogspot.com

20hrs down to 12hrs

About a month ago Ethan was back to his anxiety: biting, eye blinking and behavior issues. At this point in my heart I felt the urgency to drop my work load so that I can be readily available to give him all the support he needs. After much thought and prayer I have felt the need to change my work hours to 12hrs a week instead of 20hrs. Unfortunately, it has been hard to get my work load done in 12hrs but I think after a couple of weeks of doing this schedule I will be able to.

6th Grade Father and Son Camp out

Ben has a heart for fathers to connect with their sons so one of the things that has sprung from that is his annual Sixth grade Father and Son camp out. He uses the book Raising a Modern Day Knight. He meets with the fathers a couple of times before their camp out and then on the day of he encourages fathers to spend some quality time with their boys patching things up, discussing with their sons what real manhood is, etc.....

Quito Cup

Ben was asked to play in the schools annual soccer tournament the Quito Cup. Not having much experience with this sport he still joined in the fun. I am sure he is going to regret it tomorrow. This is a group of staff and some people from the community.

Quito Teachers Teaching Teachers Conference

I had the honor and challenge of presenting in the auditorium.

Ben and his protoge's in the bubble.

Over 400 teachers from secular and Christian schools gathered in Quito to attend this conference. Ben and I were asked to present in it. Bens seminar was about The Bubble project and mine was on Understanding our Personalities and Dealing with Conflict. It was a great way for our school to colloborate with secular schools and develop relationships with them.

LAF and POKENO

LAF stands for Ladies Afterschool Fellowship. You really do laugh and have a great time. After being here a couple of months I really felt the need for fellowship amongst all of my colleagues. We have such a variety of ladies in ages, marital status and cultural backgrounds that our hope was to provide a venue where we can just sit down talk and have fun. So I approached the directors wife and asked her if she would be my hosting partner and then we recruited a sweet Ecuadorian and we began. First it was our mini ladies retreat and now were just doing gatherings rotating between our homes for games. All of you Ft. Worth ladies I introduced them to POKENO.

Girls Only Chats

One of the things that I enjoyed starting up at our school is our Girls Only Chats. The counseling dept. meets once a month with all of the 6th grade girls who come voluntarily during their recess and lunch time. We talk about different girl topics and do a craft. Their are about 16 girls whose backgrounds vary from Asian, Ecuadorian and US American.
This past weeks chat was on Being Yourself, Knowing Yourself.

I am proud to be an American...

On February 26th I became a US Citizen. So now I am officially a Mexican American.

Thank God this done and over with. Thanks for all your prayers.

In the Jungle the Mighty Jungle.....

We stayed at a monkey refuge. The monkeys ran wild and came right up to us. Sometimes a bit scarey!

Ben braved through with the boys into this cavern that has a lagoon.

Feeding the cute little monkey.

Hiking through Paradise Island another animal refuge where jungle animals run wild as you trod through their paths.

Inside the cave with mud on my face b/c the guide insisted it was medicinal.

For the first time we headed to the Jungle in Tena. There was much adventure to be had and we had as much as this little family could handle.

Our little speed racers

Milestones come and go and pass in a minute but memories we cherish forever.

It seemed a little strange that our boys just learned to ride bikes and we had decided we would not buy them any here b/c Quito streets/sidewalks are not safe to ride bikes on and they are also very uneven with hills. But after a while we thought it would be horrible if they were on training wheels as teenagers.
Here they are at the park showing off their new skills!

curse or blessing

My time and pocket cant keep up with all the ideas that spew out of my head. I know the Lord blessed me with this but sometimes it feels like a curse because I can't keep up. I must realize that I need to keep up not on my feet but on my knees.

The new year holds a lot of these ideas and none of these ideas. Establish the work of our hands sweet Lord.

mari