Caught up in a book

I don't have time to blog. I don't have time to email. I don't have time to cook or clean. I don't have time to just "waste"...you know this...I have been writing about this way too often.
Well...Brandon was not fully understanding the "complicated" English language in the book his grade is reading and asked me to re-read to him the first four chapters so he could get it right. Tomorrow was a test day on this book and even though they were reading it in and out of class he just wasn't into it.
I was a little bit annoyed because of all things I had to do or wanted to do. I didn't really want to pick up a school book and start reading it. But, over the years, Brandon has proved to be a quality-time person and I knew how much this meant to him. So, I started dramatizing the story outloud...Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis. We read the first four chapters together, talked about it, he wrote down some notes and a day later came home with an "A" at the top of the test paper. He was excited. I was impressed.
BUT...the worst part was, now I couldn't put the book down. I read to chapter 9 that first night and would have gone on, but I knew it was too late. I gave the book back to Brandon and told him to take it away from me since I didn't have time to read it. He took it back to school and for a week left it there or read it there or whatever.
Last night was "family night" and they wanted to watch a movie with us. I was totally not interested in their movie so Brandon brought me the book. I sat down to read it and read, and read and read. I read more than a 100 pages till 11 pm and tossed the book on the floor remembering my early-morning committments at the sound of an alarm. I took the book down to Brandon while reading the next couple of pages. He said, "mom, I can leave it at home with you. We aren't reading it right now anyway." I said, "no, no, no...please take it with you or I will not do what I need to do today."
So, here I am, caught up in a book...this mystery, this novel. It's kind of fun, though, to sneak off and read it even though dishes need to be washed and clothes need to be folded. I haven't had this kind of entertainment for a while, I guess it's okay.

The Prison Ministry

Pictures from the prison that Oscar visits. This is their "chapel". I've never been to this prison, but I think that the Canadian Work Team and some others (Rod, Erik, Dan?) were here.

Reasons I haven't been blogging...

1. A flare-up a school requiring intentional prayer and conversation.
2. Extremely low temperatures making the task of bread-making a priority to warm the house up a bit.
3. An adventurous science project...making a plant and animal cells out of jello and other yummy candies that look like chloroplasts and ribosomes, etc.
4. A women's conference and tea at IBA on a cold, rainy afternoon.
5. An extremely, active 22 month old kid who must explore and discover everything. Why isn't he satisfied with just books anymore?
6. Tuesday's teaching day at Adonai.
7. Baking a quick crazy cake for a friend's birthday and spending time with her while the MEN in our lives were off watching the Paraguay-Venezuela soccer game. (Oscar was at his bible study, the boys and Jose Luis were at Pastor Pedro's house watching the game.)...till 11 pm! Oh, and...Yes...Lugo and Hugo were celebrating as best buddies.
Hopefully, the rest of this week will be a little less challenging.

A Real Good Thing...

I woke up singing this song this morning. I don't know why, other than I heard it several times the other day on our family outing. But, I really like the words of the chorus...

When we don't get what we deserve

That's a real good thing, a real good thing

When we get what we don't deserve

That's a real good thing, a real good thing

By the way...Edson is still not over his cold and the weather is not helping. We jumped from 100ºF to 50ºF overnight!

Where did my time go?

I spent my "blogging" time reading other blogs and facebooks this morning, but I do have time for a short one.
Monday we took a family day off to see Tobatí, a city in the "mountains", an hour and a half away from Asuncion. We were terribly disappointed. The "beautiful" dry, rocky mountains had large brick factories in front of them blocking the view to all the wonders of creation. We had a picnic lunch in the town's plaza and only Edson's screams of delight on the huge, colorful playground made our "scenic" trip worth while. But...it was family time! Good, quality time! Tereré time! And...the best hits of Newsboys came along with us.
No pictures, nope, I didn't want to remember this desert site in my beautiful memories of Paraguay.

A "P.S." to yesterday's story

Oscar and Christian still meet with "Juan's" wife, Lili, from time to time to see how she's doing. She has three boys and the youngest is two months older than Edson - born in September. She is working as a maid while her mom takes care of the boys. A little bit about Lili, she is very religious, but not very committed. There is a group from a different denomination working with her since they have a church just blocks away from her home. She and I talk on the phone often.

Time Waster or Time Filler

Uncle G gave Edson a set of Alphabet Magnets. If you put the letter into the slot, it sings the letter and the sound. Edson thoroughly enjoys it and even does a little dance to the song while its playing. The rest of us big guys get kindda tired of that "musiquita" but at least it keeps him occupied for a couple minutes.
Well, lately, it's been keeping me occupied as well. No, I don't dance to the little song, but since I am in the kitchen usually cooking or cleaning up, it is a good time filler. Sometimes when I am looking for time fillers, I search for food to munch on. NOT GOOD! So, this activity surely does fill THAT gap!
My game is to find how many words I can make out of the alphabet using every letter only once and having the fewest amount of letters leftover. My best score was 6 words with 3 letters left over.
Now, this wonderful time filler certainly becomes a time waster when I HAVE to do something else, and I can't pull away from my word game...trying to use up those last three letters. Sometimes it ends abruptly when I really want a certain letter that Edson thinks he has a right to. Then, I realize that I really should be doing what I should be doing and let the little kid have his way. He is, then, happy to dance to his "musiquita", and I am happy getting back to cooking and cleaning.
Try it! See what YOUR score is.