Thanks so much for all the encouragement today. Yes, today was a LOT better! I even had time to write a blog about San Pedro. I also found a crockpot cookbook hidden in my bookcase. I sat Edson down with a couple of books and read through some interesting recipes. His health is getting better, but Oscar still has a sore throat and fever.
Well, back to San Pedro...We spent this past weekend in San Pedro. Friday the 15th was Asunción Day and it was also the presidential inauguration for President Lugo. So, since we had time, an extra free day, we went to San Pedro to encourage the people in the new outreach and spend Children’s Day with them (Saturday, August 16th).
The dirt road to San Pedro is history! Only our pictures and memories of that 43,50 mi stretch will live on. It used to take us two hours to get there on those dirt roads and if it rained we would be stuck…either in San Pedro or in the mud. Yes, many times we had to push our car out, once we had to call a tractor: burning tires, doing wheelies, skidding and sliding. Isn’t this every teenage kid’s dream? It’s adventure, yes, but not with little kids in the car, crying or wanting to go to the bathroom, or being jerked awake from the potholes.
But, it’s over. It’s done. Beautiful slick, black pavement covers that 44 mile stretch and we made it in 45 minutes!
Lugo is from San Pedro and went to party there on Saturday. Could that be the reason they hurried to get the road done?
More on San Pedro tomorrow!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Today's a New Day!
Well, it’s early enough to start up writing again. Edson will probably be sleeping for a while longer. If he’s not sleeping it is totally IMPOSSIBLE to write, think, or be inspired. The only thing I AM inspired to do while he is awake is clean up after him. He dumped his milk at breakfast, squirt his juice box juice all over the floor, hit my balanced spoon of soup all over his clothes and the floor, and pulled the tray of drying pans on his head. He hates the cough medicine he is taking and each time it is a major power struggle. Yesterday we had an unusually bad day.
It didn’t help that my plans were messed up for the day with an unexpected funeral. Oscar had been working with this family for years and wanted to spend the day with them. (Remember, the burial is almost always 24 hours after dying.) Tuesdays are my teaching days…I cancelled classes to stay with Edson who is struggling to get over a bad cold. My Tuesday routine was ruined and my programmed mind didn’t want to accept it. So, I started cleaning, picking loquats, and doing this and that to get my mind off of what I really wanted to be doing…and, as Oscar says… “making more work for myself”.
I made loquat cobbler and chipas and, I will confess, did not spend quality time with our little “chiquitito” and by the time the chipas were in the oven…he almost tried to get in too, just seeking for my attention.
Poor little guy, today will be different! Today's a new day. I will set my work, my interests, and my cooking aside to be goofy with an almost 2 year old.
It didn’t help that my plans were messed up for the day with an unexpected funeral. Oscar had been working with this family for years and wanted to spend the day with them. (Remember, the burial is almost always 24 hours after dying.) Tuesdays are my teaching days…I cancelled classes to stay with Edson who is struggling to get over a bad cold. My Tuesday routine was ruined and my programmed mind didn’t want to accept it. So, I started cleaning, picking loquats, and doing this and that to get my mind off of what I really wanted to be doing…and, as Oscar says… “making more work for myself”.
I made loquat cobbler and chipas and, I will confess, did not spend quality time with our little “chiquitito” and by the time the chipas were in the oven…he almost tried to get in too, just seeking for my attention.
Poor little guy, today will be different! Today's a new day. I will set my work, my interests, and my cooking aside to be goofy with an almost 2 year old.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
This is for DAD...
This is on the tree right behind Gaby's (the guest) bedroom. Isn't it beautiful?!?!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Nispero - Loquat
For years I have been wondering about this interesting fruit that I have at home. I knew the spanish name was "nispero", but I never heard of it in English. Well our fruit is ripe, and the birds are happy. I finally looked it up and found out a lot of good stuff.
The following is a cut and paste from Wikipedia.
The loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) is a fruit tree in the subfamily Maloideae of the family Rosaceae, indigenous to southeastern China.
It is an evergreen large shrub or small tree, with a rounded crown, short trunk and woolly new twigs. The tree can grow to 5-10 m tall, but is often smaller, about 3-4 m.
The leaves are alternate, simple, 10-25 cm long, dark green, tough and leathery in texture, with a serrated margin, and densely velvety-hairy below with thick yellow-brown pubescence; the young leaves are also densely pubescent above, but this soon rubs off.
Loquats are unusual among fruit trees in that the flowers appear in the autumn or early winter, and the fruits are ripe in late winter or early spring. In Northern California, loquats bear fruit in May, while in Southern California, loquats bear fruit in April. The flowers are 2 cm diameter, white, with five petals, and produced in stiff panicles of three to ten flowers. The flowers have a sweet, heady aroma that can be smelled from a distance.
Loquat fruits, growing in clusters, are oval, rounded or pear-shaped, 3-5 cm long, with a smooth or downy, yellow or orange, sometimes red-blushed skin. The succulent, tangy flesh is white, yellow or orange and sweet to subacid or acid, depending on the cultivar. Each fruit contains five ovules, of which three to five mature into large brown seeds. The skin, though thin, can be peeled off manually if the fruit is ripe.
This is a cultivar intended for home-growing, where the flowers open gradually, and thus the fruit also ripens gradually, compared to the commercially grown species where the flowers open almost simultaneously, and the whole tree's fruit also ripens together.
The fruits are the sweetest when soft and yellow.
The loquat is comparable with its distant relative, the apple, in many aspects, with a high sugar, acid and pectin content. It is eaten as a fresh fruit and mixes well with other fruits in fresh fruit salads or fruit cups. Firm, slightly immature fruits are best for making pies or tarts. The fruits are also commonly used to make jam, jelly, and chutney, and are delicious poached in light syrup. A type of loquat syrup is used in Chinese medicine for soothing the throat like a cough drop. Combined with other ingredients and known as pipa gao (枇杷膏; pinyin: pípágāo; literally "loquat paste"), it acts as a demulcent and an expectorant, as well as to soothe the digestive and respiratory systems. Loquats can also be used to make wine.
Like most related plants, the seeds (pips) and young leaves of the plant are slightly poisonous, containing small amounts of cyanogenetic glycocides which release cyanide when digested, though the low concentration and bitter flavour normally prevents enough being eaten to cause harm.
The loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) is a fruit tree in the subfamily Maloideae of the family Rosaceae, indigenous to southeastern China.It is an evergreen large shrub or small tree, with a rounded crown, short trunk and woolly new twigs. The tree can grow to 5-10 m tall, but is often smaller, about 3-4 m.
The leaves are alternate, simple, 10-25 cm long, dark green, tough and leathery in texture, with a serrated margin, and densely velvety-hairy below with thick yellow-brown pubescence; the young leaves are also densely pubescent above, but this soon rubs off.
Loquats are unusual among fruit trees in that the flowers appear in the autumn or early winter, and the fruits are ripe in late winter or early spring. In Northern California, loquats bear fruit in May, while in Southern California, loquats bear fruit in April. The flowers are 2 cm diameter, white, with five petals, and produced in stiff panicles of three to ten flowers. The flowers have a sweet, heady aroma that can be smelled from a distance.
Loquat fruits, growing in clusters, are oval, rounded or pear-shaped, 3-5 cm long, with a smooth or downy, yellow or orange, sometimes red-blushed skin. The succulent, tangy flesh is white, yellow or orange and sweet to subacid or acid, depending on the cultivar. Each fruit contains five ovules, of which three to five mature into large brown seeds. The skin, though thin, can be peeled off manually if the fruit is ripe.
This is a cultivar intended for home-growing, where the flowers open gradually, and thus the fruit also ripens gradually, compared to the commercially grown species where the flowers open almost simultaneously, and the whole tree's fruit also ripens together.
The fruits are the sweetest when soft and yellow.
The loquat is comparable with its distant relative, the apple, in many aspects, with a high sugar, acid and pectin content. It is eaten as a fresh fruit and mixes well with other fruits in fresh fruit salads or fruit cups. Firm, slightly immature fruits are best for making pies or tarts. The fruits are also commonly used to make jam, jelly, and chutney, and are delicious poached in light syrup. A type of loquat syrup is used in Chinese medicine for soothing the throat like a cough drop. Combined with other ingredients and known as pipa gao (枇杷膏; pinyin: pípágāo; literally "loquat paste"), it acts as a demulcent and an expectorant, as well as to soothe the digestive and respiratory systems. Loquats can also be used to make wine.
Like most related plants, the seeds (pips) and young leaves of the plant are slightly poisonous, containing small amounts of cyanogenetic glycocides which release cyanide when digested, though the low concentration and bitter flavour normally prevents enough being eaten to cause harm.
I think I am going to go and make jelly right now!!!
Monday, August 11, 2008
Pray for Carolina
Today I met Carolina in the supermarket. I have been thinking about her all day long and have been praying for her. We met unexpectedly. Our meeting/greeting was short, but full of emotion, love and tears.
I was picking out choice bread for my older boys when out of the corner of my eye I saw a lady coming up to Edson and talking to him. I turned around just as she covered her face with her hands and started crying. I reached out to hug her and she sobbed out her story. Her son died at two years of age. He would have been 4 now. The whole while Edson was mumbling back to her and telling her something in his baby talk. She kept apologizing. She said, "I looked at your son and just remembered my own...I'm so sorry I'm making such a scene".
For about 5 minutes we stood there hugging and crying in the supermarket isle while I prayed for her and for healing. Nothing else seemed to matter. We didn't even notice if anyone was watching. I prayed for a blessing on her life and her other child. She so lovingly stroked Edson's cheek and kept saying, "he's so beautiful".
All the way home I said prayers of thanks for Edson, Brandon and Gaby. They have life. They are breathing. They are with me! Yes, Lord, they are so beautiful! Thank you for my kids!
I prayed for Carolina all day and ask you to say a prayer for her also. May God continue to touch her and heal that deep wound.
I was picking out choice bread for my older boys when out of the corner of my eye I saw a lady coming up to Edson and talking to him. I turned around just as she covered her face with her hands and started crying. I reached out to hug her and she sobbed out her story. Her son died at two years of age. He would have been 4 now. The whole while Edson was mumbling back to her and telling her something in his baby talk. She kept apologizing. She said, "I looked at your son and just remembered my own...I'm so sorry I'm making such a scene".
For about 5 minutes we stood there hugging and crying in the supermarket isle while I prayed for her and for healing. Nothing else seemed to matter. We didn't even notice if anyone was watching. I prayed for a blessing on her life and her other child. She so lovingly stroked Edson's cheek and kept saying, "he's so beautiful".
All the way home I said prayers of thanks for Edson, Brandon and Gaby. They have life. They are breathing. They are with me! Yes, Lord, they are so beautiful! Thank you for my kids!
I prayed for Carolina all day and ask you to say a prayer for her also. May God continue to touch her and heal that deep wound.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Friday, August 8, 2008
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