Sharing Jell-O

The last cup, a Saturday afternoon, one spoon, and two mouths.  True love.  {And check out that concentration!}

CHRISTMAS {Eve and Day}

 

 

So Job.

This morning Job discovered one of my scarfs and thought it would be fun to play with it.  I wrapped it around his head just to be silly, but I had no idea just how cute it would be!  I think this be one of my favorite pictures of him.  It’s just so *Job.*

“Rubber Ducky…

…you’re the one!  You make bath time so much fun!”

For months, I have been putting a little rubber ducky in Job’s bath tub. I think there’s something just darling about a little boy playing in the bathtub with his rubbery ducky. Dreamy even. Picturesque.  He’s never paid attention to it.  Splashing and sliding around were just too much fun!   But this week things have changed!   All of of a sudden my little boy has noticed the little yellow blob floating around.  Job has discovered that the rubber ducky is fun too!  I mean, hitting the water with all your forces WITH a rubber duck in your hand?  What could be better?!   And this momma smiles. 

Grocery Shopping.

One amazing thing about living in Mexico is how ordinary things are just so different.  It turns the mundane into an adventure.

One such thing is grocery shopping. Without a car.  With a baby.  As Job and I set off today to the center of town to do some shopping, I realized that shopping the way we do is normal to me now and not so big of a challenge.   It’s become a peaceful, enjoyable event of our week.  Here’s what grocery shopping looks like for us. 

At the end of the week I menu plan.  It’s nothing complicated, I just write out five meals for the week and list out the ingredients that we don’t have on hand.   {Maybe someday soon I’ll go into more detail about what our meals actually look like and how the menu works.} The ingredients we normally don’t have on hand are the meat and fresh produce.  If you include pantry items, that makes three categories of food that I need to buy and three places to go. 

1. Produce Stand.

The fresh produce I buy once a week at the vegetable stand a couple blocks away.  I can also buy my chicken there, so I do that at the same time.  I like going here close to the house, because we have gotten to know a lot other women that way.  When we first moved to this side of town, they all kinda looked at me funny and would say hey, but not too much more.   Now, thanks to Job, conversation has become so much easier for them and me.  I mean who could look at such a darlin’ boy and NOT say anything?!  Once every few weeks, we go to the weekly open air market. Again, that’s a post in-and-of itself, but when we go, we buy our fresh produce there.

2. Butcher’s.

Red meat and eggs  I usually buy near my in-laws whenever we are there because they have butcher shop close by {something we don’t have in our neighborhood.}  Most of the time Job stays at the house to play and I slip out for a few minutes.  Again I have my list of exactly what I want and I normally go to three places.  The butcher’s.  The place where you can buy smoked meat {like bacon, sausage links, or ham.  And a little hole in the wall place that sells super fresh eggs.  If I haven’t done my produce shopping for the week yet, I stop my the veggie stand there, cause I like to see the ladies there too.

3. Pantry Items.

Then that just leaves us with one more place to go for the week and that’s to buy pantry items.  We walk to the center of town for this one. {Well, I walk, Job rides in his carrier!} I have a simple list of things to purchase weekly, bi-monthly and monthly.  For example, my weekly list includes sugar, flour, toilet paper, past and dried beans. Some bi-monthly items are oil, rice, and oatmeal. That way I’m sure not to run out of something at the last minute. And if, for some reason we don’t make the pantry item run of the week, everything’s just fine and we aren’t rationing the toilet paper.     

There are rarely sales here for such items, but sometimes the product is less expensive than others.  From week to week I have no way of knowing so I just ask.  In the budget I have few pesos set aside for whenever I find something cheaper than normal.  For example, sugar is normally 13 pesos per kilo and today it was 9.5 pesos so I bought a few extra kilos.  I only buy ask about prices of things that I normally buy.  The items on the list are the ones we use and eat. I don’t want to be tempted to buy something that we don’t like or would never use just because it’s a great deal. 

I do however, also set aside a few pesos to buy “special” pantry items that wouldn’t make it to the list of staples I buy each week.  This items are usually a special treat. Today it was jello packets.  Once everything is bought, I put everything into my bags and step outside and find the nearest taxi.  It’s usually a lot to carry, especially with the baby, so we opt to take the ride home. 

{On our way out the door this morning!}

Whenever Job and shop for the pantry items, I try to make it special. We try to go after Job’s morning nap and after he has eaten so that he’s in the best of moods to enjoy it all.  We take our time on our walk to the town center.  Sometimes we stop by the bakery or go to the park before going to the store.   Today we bought muffins at the bakery and came home to eat them with a cup of coffee.

And with that our weekly shopping is pretty much done!  Of course we buy our tortillas fresh every couple of days and Rafa always asks if there is something he can pick up on his way home from work.  There are also special times like when a truck full of potatoes goes by the house, calling for people to buy their produce  and we buy a crate full of them. 

“No longer will you have the sun for light by day, nor for brightness will the moon give you light; but you will have the Lord for an everlasting light, and your God for your glory. Your sun will set no more, neither will your moon wane; for you will have the Lord for an everlasting light, and the days of your mourning will be finished.”

Isaiah 60:19-20

Breakfast Saturday Morning.

A knock on the door mid-morning Saturday.  The eight-year-old lad and his 70-year-old grandmother giggle over some unknown joke as they hurry through the front gate, past the Doberman, and into the house looking for their favorite 7-month-old brown eyed boy. 

The come bearing gifts of sweet bread and vanilla flavored wafers.  I turn on the coffee pot, scramble eggs, and warm up tortillas. Tita sits to rest from their 20 minute walk, and the lad asks for the dishes and sets the table for four.  And has there ever been a group of four so unique?  The third grade man.  The 75 pound, angle on earth grandma.  The white, funny talking young mama.  And of course the beloved babe. 

We sit to eat and thank God for His unfailing provision.  We laugh at the boys, talk of Christmas and school breaks, entertain the babe, but he really entertains us.  We speak of the future, of God’s goodness and our regrets.  Tears fall and hugs are given.  The boy slips out doors, the babe goes down for a nap.  We linger over the last bit of coffee, dunking in the wafers to soften them up.  Dishes are cleared and washed.  Counters are wiped and the floors are swept. 

Soon the babe is up from his catnap looking to play.  We all go out to look at the chicks, gather eggs, and cleanup the chicken pen.  We end up nailing down chicken wire in the areas that the dog had attempted to get his head through.  We discuss plans for the garden come spring and this that and the other. 

It’s nearing noon and appointments and commitments bed for our attention and the morning comes to and end all too soon.  But as long as there are days and weeks, there will be Saturdays and, Lord willing, breakfast for these four.  A unique group?  Yes.  No questions about it. But somehow over the months of Saturdays we have become the best of friends.