Lemons, lemons, lemons

I’ll never forget the day my sister excitedly showed me a new kitchen utensil from Pampered Chef. She was so excited about it and continued to explain to me how it works. It was a lemon stopper. It’s kind of like a cork-screw type contraption that screws into the lemon, you squeeze the juice out and then you stop it up again. That way the lemon could be saved in the refrigerator for several weeks. She explained it all to me with her eyes wide in amazement and then even asked me if I wanted one. I flatly said no and I think that hurt her feelings. She asked, “why not?” I said that during lemon season here, in Paraguay, there are so many lemons that we would actually PAY someone to take them off our trees.
Well, it’s lemon season, now. We just cut down one of our 4 lemon trees. It may have had 1000 or more fruits on it. I DID freeze some for rice and potato salad during the winter months. Mom and grandma taught me to do stuff like that. We squeeze them on food and salads and throw the rest away knowing that there are thousands more outside. We drink them in juice and terere. We make lemon squares, lemon meringue pie, lemon cake, lemon bread, etc. We dip Paraguayan tortillas in pure lemon juice and salt. We drink it straight for colds or add it to a cup of tea. We use them to clean off the barbecue grill. Some spray it into their dark hair thinking it’ll become blond. Some people use them for burns and others even dare to use lemons as deodorant.
Now, almost every time I go out to pick lemons, I think of my sister. I wish I could send some of these beautiful lemons to her…anyone want some fresh lemonade?

Ants!!!!

I can usually deal with most bugs, lizards and mosquitoes, but ANTS drive me crazy. They appear out of no where and can completely devour your fresh baked bread literally in minutes. Tiny red ants that can barely be seen can get into your favorite crackers or cookies and ruin the whole batch. Overnight they can raid your trash can and practically eliminate it (a little bit of exaggeration added). One afternoon we took Edson to his bed and almost laid him on thousands of tiny little ants…prepared to feast on him, I think.
Worse of all…they EAT CLOTHES! This is no exaggeration! Sweaty clothes, under clothes, and baby clothes seem to be the tastiest. Brandon left the empty wrappings of saltine crackers in his sock drawer and woke up one morning to find more ants than socks. Well, anyway, I didn’t wash clothes on Sunday because it’s the Sabbath. I was taught not to work on Sunday. Mom always told us that our pastor’s wife sewed up her finger just because she was sewing on a Sunday morning before church. So, I always wanted to please God and not do unnecessary jobs on Sunday…now I regret it! Those annoying little rascals greedily feasted on Brandon’s nicest T-shirt (which was in the laundry basket to be washed) all day Sunday. Monday it was washed and hung out side to dry and I sadly spotted over two hundred tiny little holes all over his favorite shirt, Napoleon Dynamite’s PE shirt. So, unless I start buying disposable t-shirts, I might have to start washing clothes on Sunday.

March 16

March 16th we celebrated our 16th anniversary!

Missions week at ACA

This week the kids were studying about different countries during Mission Week. Gabriel had to research Netherlands and Brandon’s grade did Brazil. We found AND tried these two recipes and they are wonderful. We can’t invite you over for a tea, but we can teach you how to make them…
Have fun, just like we did.

Anise Cookies - Netherland
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp anise seed
Grated lemon rind

1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Beat eggs and sugar together.
3. Sift flour with salt and baking powder. Add to the egg mixture.
Blend in the vanilla, lemon rind and anise seed.
4. Spoon into a greased long (about 12") poundcake tin. Bake about 40 minutes, until light brown.
5. Slice while warm into 1/3" pieces. Place on a large cookie sheet and toast in the oven until golden. Turn over and toast other side.
Makes about 20.


Pao de Queijo (Cheese bread)

A famous bread from the state of Minas Gerais served at most steak houses in southern Brazil. Unusual in that the recipe calls for manioc starch (available in some Latin groceries) rather than wheat flour. Leavening is from steam during baking, similar to the way eclairs are leavened. These rolls do not hold well and are best consumed while warm, directly from the oven. In Brazil these rolls would be made with Queijo de Minas, a mild, white cheese similar to Muenster in texture - but quite different in taste. They are addictive.

16 ounces Manioc starch (polvilho) - 3 1/2 cups
1/2 cup Sunflower seed oil
3/4 cup lowfat milk
3 eggs, large
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1-3/4 cups Mild cheddar, grated
Bring milk and oil to a boil in a small saucepan. Add to the manioc. Mix and allow to cool a little. Incorporate the eggs, one at a time. Add the cheese and blend well.
Divide into pieces the size of a walnut or small plum. Place a little oil on the hands and round dough into balls. Arrange on a baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees Farenheit until done, about 10 to 12 minutes. Serve warm.

The kids ate these almost as fast as popcorn!

Tomorrow we have an international dinner. There are usually about 400 people there. Since there are many different countries represented at this school everyone has to make typical foods of their own country. It is amazing! There are Koreans, Chinese, Paraguayans, South Africans, Americans, Mexicans, etc. Last year they counted 20 different countries represented at the dinner. The teachers make the desserts!
After dinner there is a special prayer for each country and it is even translated in 4 languages!
It makes me wonder what heaven will be like...all these different people and languages...all praising the same FATHER.

Saturday Night

On Saturday we heard a CRASH and even Edson jumped at it. It was time for our Praise and Worship practice. All of a sudden there was no electricity. The sound system guys were confused as to why their plugs weren’t functioning. It was 5 pm in the afternoon. Church was to start at 7:30. Neigborhood people started walking faster toward the main road and someone mentioned that there was an accident right around the corner. We only heard this loud crash, but no screams or the screeching brakes of vehicles.
We started to go in groups to see what had happened and were startled to see the nose of a pick-up embedded into the bottom part of a cement electric post. The rest of the pole was lying across the street with wires snapped in all directions. The 16 year old driver was fine! He wanted to disappear before the police came and found out he had no driver’s permit. The pick-up was LOANED to him.
The amazing thing was that Oscar and David had just passed the reckless driver and were only blocks away. David’s fiancé was walking down the road. If they had stopped to pick her up all three of them would have been UNDER the smashed column. When the column fell, wires snapped. Sparks and even small fires flew all around Maria who started running back to church.
Since we changed our clocks back last week, it started getting dark around 6:30 pm and by 7.00 the whole neighborhood was completely dark. Unfortunately, church was cancelled and we all went home. Fortunately, we got to bed by 9!
Another AMAZING thing…the electric company got a new post up and things working again right after midnight. That’s amazing because in Paraguay usually things aren’t fixed that fast.

Special treats for our special visitors

Visitors are some of the most important people in our house. When there is a visitor the whole house seems to beam with delight. The kids are happy, usually sharing, finding things to show or give away. They tell stories, show pictures and love to share something “special” like pop, dessert, Doritos, or just anything to make our guests feel wonderfully welcome. Finally, after some awkward moments with company (like being forced to share something you really wanted to save after the kids’ interminable insistence and not wanting to be rude) we finally decided as a family that the “special treats” like M & M’s, peanut butter, Doritos, craisins and chocolates would be served with “Americans” or others who would appreciate where these things came from. They (American treats) won’t be served with just any meal or just any visitor.
On Sunday, Ben and Vivi came over for an unplanned Sunday Lunch. We got home a few minutes before they came and quickly started preparing for this delightful event. We put water on to boil, started making a salad; set the table perfectly…we were having VISITORS and we wanted everything to be beautiful.
The meal was wonderful; quick and easy, but colorful and tasty. As always, there was fun conversation and stories of the kid’s experiences while Vivi was living with us. Nearing the end of the meal, Gaby screamed with an unusual happiness. “Mom, we have AMERICANS over! We can have a special dessert!” Everyone laughed! I felt kind of silly for making a RULE that was voiced at the top of his lungs, but smiled and got out a “special AMERICAN treat” for our visitors…Peanut butter cookies with M & M’s inside! Special treats for our special visitors!

skateboards, math and such...

The kids were loaned a skateboard the other day. Wow! Suddenly everything is so much faster as they skateboard from one room to another. On a tile floor THAT is pretty exciting…especially when a 5 ft. 10 in kid falls flat on his face in the kitchen. What’s worse is that I almost accidentally stepped on it while holding Edson…that would have been a sight! The skateboard is now outlawed in the house!
This past week the kids were preparing for math tests. I was helping Gaby one day and realized that what he was studying (proportions, unit rates, simple geometry) was so much easier than the real life situations that I had to figure out! I have to figure out what flight is cheaper, faster, arriving at reasonable hours, what dates, infant taxes, city codes, e-tickets or regular tickets, and how many bags allowed. While Edson entertains himself or sleeps, I quickly jump online to check out prices for our trip up in July. We want to be at all three camps, plus visit family. Sometimes all this overwhelms me and I would rather just sit down and do unit rates and price rates on paper, make-believe stuff that doesn’t matter much! Math may seem hard to them, but they don’t realize how easy it really is compared to future real world problems they’re bound to face.