Finalmente!

I finally learned the Subjunctive Mood in Spanish!! I've been hearing about this integral and daunting part of Spanish grammar possibly since high school and definitely since early college from my Spanish-learning-friends and now I TOO KNOW HOW TO SPEAK IN SUBJUNCTIVE!

woo hoo ! I feel like our Spanish is finally getting somewhere. I say "our" because Matt and I have been right about the same level throughout our entire spanish-learning-relationship.

We went to Xela (pronounced "shay-la"), Guatemala to study Spanish for a week recently and we studied at the same school, Celas Maya, where we studied for a few weeks three years ago. It was so wonderful revisiting all of our favorite hang outs in Xela from three years before and revisiting all of our wonderful "when we were falling in love in Guatemala" memories.


This is the courtyard of the school where we studied one-on-one with a local for five hours per day.

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We also had the privilege of studying with our new friends: Jordan and Laura, who are currently long-term volunteers at the San Lucas Mission about 30 minutes around the lake from us here at The Opal House. It was fun having friends for a week - we really enjoyed studying and chatting over fair-trade coffees with them!

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This is the Parque Central in Xela. It is quite charming and beautiful with its' neo-classical architecture, it kind of reminds us of a miniature Rome without all the traffic and noise.

Living a Good Story - The Pursuit of Content

forward from A Million Miles in a Thousand Years:What I Learned While Editing my Life by Donald Miller

(author of Blue Like Jazz)

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If you watched a movie about a guy who wanted a Volvo and worked for years to get it, you wouldn't cry at the end when he drove off the lot, testing the windshield wipers. You wouldn't tell your friends you saw a beautiful movie or go home and put a record on to think about the story you'd seen. The truth is, you wouldn't remember that movie a week later, except you'd feel robbed and want your money back. Nobody cries at the end of a movie about a guy who wants a Volvo.

But we spend years actually living those stories, and expect our lives to feel meaningful. The truth is, if what we choose to do with our lives won't make a story meaningful, it won't make a life meaningful either. Here's what I mean by that:

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This was an excellent read and an even better story and idea. seriously this is the kind of content that changes things. His thesis meant so much to me. It was perfect timing in my life. And not only did he talk about the beauty of living a meaningful story, but he shared meaningful stories along the way. I seriously full-on cried for beauty about 8 times while reading this book. And Beauty Tears are what I long for. (We can talk more about how my personality most likely plays into this later).

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As I get older (drum roll please) happiness seems to be more illusive. Maybe it's just that I think about it more or it's because I'm already married which is what occupied many of my pre-marrital thoughts. Maybe it's that I'm feeling culturally, linguistically, relationally lonely here on the farm in Guatemala. Maybe it's that I don't really know what I want to "do" with my life. It could be lots of things, but it's ok, I'm not going to let this search get me down. I just want to be more pro-active about living a good story. I'm a sucker for meaningful moments in life as well as in movies. Yet so often I just wonder through the day, not looking for the beauty, not creating beautiful encounters with those around me.

another excerpt:

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"I had a friend in town for six weeks this year. She was visiting Oregon and doing some work here, and over the six weeks we rented some movies and went to coffee and ate at a few restaurants. We had great conversations. But honestly when I think back on those six weeks, what I really remember are the few times when we made an extra effort to do something memorable. We took my dog Lucy for a hike and introduced her to her first waterfall. We took the kayaks out on the river and strapped them together to have a floating picnic. When we look back on our lives, what we will remember are the crazy things we did, the times we worked harder to make a day stand out."

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I like this, I want to make things "stand out." and i need inspiration as well so I love reading other people's blogs (please write things down, everyone) and hearing other people's stories (please keep sharing).

thank you.

Whole Wheat Quick Bread

This recipe has come to be my scrumptulescent friend:::

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2 Cups whole wheat flour
1 Cup white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 Cup water
1/4 Cup oil
1/4 Cup brown sugar
2 Tbs honey

* Combine ingredients in a bowl. Place desired size of glob on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes.

IN and OUT of doors

I've been baking a lot lately. Perhaps because it has been a long time since i've had the chance (four months without access to a kitchen). But now that we are house sitting at The Opal House I have become a mad woman in the kitchen.

One afternoon I was entertaining a couple neighborhood kids IN DOORS and thought they might enjoy baking something. We made oatmeal raisin cookies, not my favorite but we had no chocolate chips. I was playing the role of teacher, showing the kids how to break the eggs and how to measure the flour and so on.

And after we put the cookies in the oven we went OUT of DOORS to pick some oranges to make some juice. And this is when our roles switched. The kids got really excited walking among the trees and telling me about them. They pointed out a lemmon tree that I had failed to notice. And after asking permission they tore into the lemmons, started peeling them right there and tossing the slices into their mouths. I followed suit and it was refreshing but naturally sour. They helped me distinguish between the lime tree and the orange tree (because the fruit on the orange trees are often green too and the word they use for lemon, Lima, is what the dictionary would say is a lime and the word they use for lime, Limon, is what the dictionary would say is a lemon, so the citrus is all kind of confusing here) and then there was the avocado tree and the mysterious fruit tree whose name I didn't recognize and there was no more fruit on it so I'll have to wait to find out what kind of tree it is.

So, I just thought it was interesting how our roles changed IN and OUT of DOORS. Inside I was the teacher of appliances, ingredients, methods and OUT of Doors they were the reminding me of the beauty of barefoot fruit sampling and finding joy in sour citrus.

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You see, we both need each other. No Man Is an Island.

Introducing::: The Opal House

One of my favorite things in life is finding out about wonderful things other people around the world are doing. Por ejemplo: since arriving here it's been great learning about other development projects and compassionate undertakings. One that we have stumbled upon is: The Opal House.

Opal: a precious stone whose brilliance is accentuated by the fissures throughout. the cracks allow for more light to shine through. this was the heart of Will and Diane Boegel's (from Seattle) mission here in Guatemala, to reach out to those who have experienced brokenness in hopes of the light of God shining into and through them.

The Opal House is a 59 acre organic fruit farm with housing for women and children in need. It has evolved much since Will and Diane followed God's call to Lake Atitlan. They are planning on starting an after-school program in a few weeks because they have seen the need to engage the children in their neighborhood. We have been helping out at their Bible Club on Saturday afternoons for about a month now.

The Bible Club is mostly made up of girls because the guys are mostly out working in the fields.

Did I mention that the property has the most incredible view of the lake?

We had a sleep over a couple of weeks ago and Matt and I had the privelege of spending the night in the very same room as the 17 excited Mayan children.

Here we are eating panqueques the morning after the sleep over.

THE EXCITING NEWS:: Will and Diane have gone back to the states for two weeks and they asked us to house sit for them!! woo hoo! more to come on our adventures running the Bible Clubs and general upkeep of 59 acre farm. =)