Josu loves going to school. always. he loves it.
except
for
today.
As we walked out the door this morning, he grabbed my hand and said "Josu need Mama".
Now, as much was we work hard to distinguish between needs and wants around here, when Josu says that he "needs Mama",
my heart
just
melts.
So Malachai took over the stroller pushing, and I picked up my weepy boy and told him that he would, indeed, go to school ("with Malachai!"), but that when I picked him up for lunch, I would snuggle with him and read him a book
or two
or
three.
And Josu said "Malachai go school. Josu go casa and Mama read Bible!"
and I just fell to pieces;
but I took him to school. and he went - - crying.
and my heart was
very
very
sad.

the event, documented

several days prior: have Rachel bake a pie; make Selma beg her for some.
the birth-day - - it's been one year!:
in wee morning hours: spend a few minutes daydreaming about the day Selma was born - - remembering the way she came out with just two little pushes ("not even any crazy pushing faces", Joshua told me); amazing at how much we loved her from the very beginning . . .
that afternoon:
go to the toy store to pick out a gift; do other fun things while we're at it
find the thirty minute time slot in the afternoon when every one is home and awake; stick a candle (one, of course!) in the last piece of apple pie, and sing a happy birthday song!
then go to bed. The day after, have Selma play hard with the the sweet-awesome gifts that she scored from all the people wanting to celebrate her.

fusion

when truth number 1 (I must, must, must make a chocolate stout cake tonight!) collides with truth number 2 (Joshua is far, far away, and has taken the car with him):

well, Joshua is home, and life seems a lot more cheery and hopeful (even on a dreary day like today); I can face life with a glimmer in my eye and a spring in my step . . . you know how it goes . . . I mean, look at me:

here I am drinking tea and sitting in front of my laptop while Joshua entertains the rowdy brood (captivating them with the legends of Zelda - - it's totally, totally educational; they have to do like, problem solving and stuff)

so check out this little hat that came as a gift to Josu when he was born. he really didn't get to wear it much (I'm not sure why I didn't force it on him; it's as cute as all get out!), but we did our part making up for it when we took the family out for a walk and down to the pasteleria this morning. It got passed around and we all got a share of the wooly hat goodness.

(click on Malachai's picture to get a close-up of the fantastic smattering of freckles on that cute nose!)(Josu - - a bit miffed that I made him take off his superhero cape for the picture. I'm still cool with my quirky sweet wearing it everywhere he goes, but, hey now son, there is a fine line between quirky-fun and quirky-obnoxious; let's limit the cape's presence in photos, ok?) (even Rachel tried to join in on the fun)

wine country

Malachai was waiting for me out in the hallway to take him back to his post-siesta classes this afternoon when I overheard this chitchat going on with our next door neighbor, Ana:
Malachai: "I'm taking some grapes to share with my class"
Ana: "oh! of course! it's the vendimia!"
me: "wha? . . .
Malachai: "yeah, the vendimia - - the first day of the grape harvesting; did you know, Ana, that the grape harvest this year wasn't as abundant as it was last year?"
Ana: "yes, but the quality of the grapes is better"
Malachai: "it's because we didn't get as much rain as we did in 2007 . . . "
aaaahhhhh. the vendimia. that explains his passionate plea for me to buy his class some grapes when we passed by the market earlier today.
explains it perfectly!

So when I picked him up from class, I asked him if his classmates enjoyed the grapes. "no! we didn't eat them!" he told me
"oh no?" I asked "what did you do with them?"
"we're saving them for later so that we can stomp on them with our bare feet to make wine!"
nice.

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!