the one in which my perfectly designed gift number two is used by God to refine me

our landlord came by today to pick up this month's rent. I wondered if he would notice the recently added "toasty orange" wall in our living room.
he didn't.
it may have been because of Josu (stationed in my bedroom "until the man leaves") screaming "I need go poo-poo!" over and over and over again.
yeah. I'm thinking that was it.
he just looked compassionately at me and said, "the transition from two to three kids is rough, isn't it?"

smooch. squeeze. sniff.

I sent Joshua off early this morning - - with a smooch and a butt cheek squeeze (you know, the squeeze that communicates "I'm sorry for being such a grouch last night" ?- - I'm pretty sure it did the trick)
he's headed to Hungary for nine days for a church planting conference. I have a list of things to do while he is gone:
1. tame the craziness in the boys room
2. tame the craziness in our room
(that's a short list you say? ha! you haven't seen the craziness! it's in the same family as this craziness - -
which has, since this picture was taken, been put back into order, thank you very much)
besides, whenever Joshua goes away I tend to get this insane notion that I'll be able to get more stuff done than usual, and then he actually leaves and I realize:
1. he helps me a ton with the kids and house, and when he's not around, I don't have more time and energy, I have less time and energy!
and
2. really cool people (like our Christian community, and my friend Ana) know that I will be home without Joshua and so they make a huge effort to get together with me so that I don't get lonely. so I really don't have time to get stuff done; it's awesome. I love it. but I just have to keep the list short, you know?

perfectly designed gifts

Look at him! isn't he cute? God carefully crafted and designed him; and then gave him to us for us to raise him!

and our Josu!
and this wee lassie!
God is good.

Last night, on the News

Bob (as we'll call him): "well, as you know, Spain is the only European country that allows even its 'respectable' newspapers to include adds for prostitution! Isn't that right, Sue?"
Sue (as we'll call her): "that's right Bob!"
Bob: "not only are there pages and pages of these adds in our newspapers, but often, these adds are accompanied by scandalous, explicit photographs!"
Sue (wagging her head appropriately at this outrageous national shame): "that's right, Bob, in fact we are going to show you some of those very images right here, right now . . . "

aaaaaand that's when my good husband changed the channel.
it's good to know, though, that public tv is doing its part to put an end to such inappropriate images in other mediums of public media. tremendously noble. really.

No, there are no pictures for this post. that wouldn't be right now, would it?

do remember that thing about Rachel? well, she did it again, look what she brought me back from a junk shop in England:
Once, when Joshua was trying to snuggle with me, one of the earrings almost poked his eye out; and another time, when we woke up in the morning, there was a little earring shaped hickey on Joshua's shoulder right where I had laid my head on him. And every time I take my sweater off, it gets caught on the little hook on the back of the earring, and I have to roll on the ground for several minutes to try and wrestle it off. well, all of that and I'm still keeping them! I like them that much!

by the way, Rachel, I do wish that you would come back from that little trip you are taking. Two weeks is way too long for you to be gone from us. Sure, it's nice that Selma can sleep in your room (and we don't have to deny ourselves our late night snacks or our mid-morning second breakfasts like we normally have to when her crib is set up in the kitchen) but it's not really worth it to us. and seriously, how often do you clean that bathroom between your bedroom and the boy's bedroom so that it doesn't smell like an elementary school boy's bathroom all the time? like, five times a day?

p.s. mostly, I miss you, but I also miss the 70% Belgian chocolate that you keep stashed in our kitchen cabinet! come home soon!

compliments. kind of. the mystery solved.

ha! you'll never guess what just happened to me!
we were having a bit of an afternoon stroll around the park, when a kindly older gentleman struck up a conversation with Selma; and we chatted it up about redheads
me: "yeah, I have three of them, can you believe it?"
kindly older gentleman: "in the pueblo that I grew up in, there was a whole family of redheads!"
me: "that must have been one good looking family"
. . . and the conversation continued on for a bit like that . . . and then he said it - - "and they don't have freckles!"
so I did my part - - "well, I have freckles, so you never know . . ."
and then he said - - "noooooo . . . you don't have freckles . . . you may have some zits, but you don't have freckles . . ."

well now, that explains it all.
and I'm taking it as a compliment.
on a completely unrelated note, I'm off to wash my face.
a picture of Selma, looking far into her future when people will think that all her freckles are just zits

compliments. kind of.

it is not unusual for us to be stopped by random strangers who dote on our redheads; it happens all the time. we don't mind - - it's fun, really. almost everyone has a story to share about a redhead in their family, or a redhead that they once knew or dated . . . we like the stories!

and not all the time, but often, I'll have someone nod approvingly and say something like "and your redheads have beautiful white skin - - they aren't the freckled kind"
and I - - my children's very freckled mama, smile and nod and say something like "well, my freckles really didn't start coming in till I was about five, and if they do get freckles, we really won't mind too much!"