Weekend Wrap Up ~ Nothing Edition

After a long Friday, which I will share about another day this week, we hung out at home Friday night and our teammates, Ross and Angela, came over to hang out with us a little bit.  But by 8pm, I was falling asleep on the couch and they were headed home anyway.  That time of night feels so late here!  I'll be glad when we get back to central time so it won't feel like I'm going to bed at 7pm every night Memphis time!  Of course, Brook is in bed by 7:30 here every night and the rest of us are not far behind.

Saturday, was a day of basically nothing.  I walked Isabella to a Saturday afternoon babysitting job, but other than that, spent the day at home doing basically nothing.  Well, I did a little meal planning and computer things, and actually had a visit from our two newest teammates, Peter and Lauren.  My teammates have been sweet to check in on me after my my cell phone was stolen from me last week.
The girls and I watched a few episodes of the new "Fuller House" on Netflix.

Sunday, the girls did homework and we went to lunch at Crepes and Waffles.  It was day 6 of Avery being gone and our first time to go out to eat.  I did laundry and skyped with a friend, then it was bedtime.  Again, we go to bed early around here for our early wake-up calls!  Not to mention, I've been awake before 5am the past few mornings, so I am ready for my 8pm bedtime!

That's the wrap up of a whole lot of nothing!  And today is leap day!

May we be bold to take leaps of faith in this journey of life.

Thursday Update

As some of you know, Wednesday was filled with little challenges for me.  Examples would be no electricity, water or gas for portions of the day and some rude cultural encounters.  I keep those in perspective in the light of great hurt and pain that others are and have experienced.  I pray I don't get so self-focused on the little things, that I lose perspective of how big God is and of showing compassion to others.

Today, my blog post is more about Isabella's quince party on www.bogotabridges.com.

Happy day..........

What's Up Wednesday ~ February Edition

Yay for the last week of February!!  In honor of that, here is my monthly "What's Up Wednesday" post! On a side note, our gas isn't working this morning...translation, no hot water for showers and our cooktop isn't working.  Pray for a quick fix!

What we're eating this week......

Funny thing, this answer is almost identical to January's answer!  Avery is out of town this week in Memphis, so outside of maybe one meal in a restaurant, we will probably snack our way through meals this week.  So I won't be cooking much!

What I'm reminiscing about........

We had the most memorable experience this month celebrating Isabella's 15th birthday. It was a great night for all!

What I'm loving.........

I am really enjoying my new bible study,  "David, Seeking a Heart Like His", by Beth Moore.  It is great to have such in-depth studies each day and a group of women to share with each week.

What we've been up to.......

In addition to school and its activities, Avery has been busy working on preparations for his talks in Memphis at the missions conference.  I've stayed busy doing my normal housework, MTW work, and planning trips!

What I'm dreading......

I have to figure out our hot water situation this morning....in Spanish :(.  

What I'm working on..........

I am planning a weekend trip to Miami!!

What I'm excited about........

I bought tickets to see Huey Lewis while I am in the USA this summer!

What I'm watching/reading...........

I'm watching The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Isabella and I are searching the internet to find episodes of When Calls the Heart.  I am reading my Beth Moore book.

What I'm listening to..........

Traffic in Bogota and the sounds of living in a big city

What I'm wearing.........

It has been unusally warm in Bogota this year, so I've been wearing lightweight long sleeve shirts most days.  I miss wearing my sweaters and scarves every day!

What I'm doing this weekend..........

Relaxing at home with the girls

What I'm looking forward to next month........

Spring break trip to Cartagena, Colombia

What else is new........

I will be happy to have Avery home and he is bringing us a suitcase of goodies I packed up while I was there at Christmas time.

Off They Go!!

We are all going different directions today.

We woke up at 4:30am Eastern time

Avery left around 5:00am for the airport

Since it is Spirit Week at school, today was Topsy Turvy day where you mix and match outfits

At 6:30am, the girls left for school

(can you see them walking to the van?)

At 7:45am, I will leave in this traffic to go to bible study.

Safe journeys to all your many directions today!

Weekend Wrap Up

Our weekend was pretty low key, which was great by me!  Since Isabella was on her high school retreat until Friday night, we took Brook out of school Friday, which was a treat for her and me! After Clara came for some Spanish conversation with Avery, we took Brook to lunch at one of her favorite places, Crepes and Waffles.  We put money in the massaging chairs and had a massage too!

 She was invitied to a friend's house Friday afternoon.  I thought I would drop her off and then pick her up later.  But you have to go into everything here with an open mind and go with the cultural customs.  I stayed at the hosue with Brook and visited with the mom, whom I have met before and really like.  The only twist is that she doesn't speak a wod of English. A WORD! Needless to say, my mind and body were exhausted after 3 hours of Spanish! This is the first time Brook went to this girls home and only the second time to be invited to a Colombian's home, so she was happy to go. This girl is so sweet and one of Brook's closest friends here. She is Colombian but was also new to the school last fall, so I think they bonded over that and she remind us of one of Brook's best friends in Memphis.

Brook and Mariale (short for Maria Alejandra)

Saturday consisted of a mix of watching things on the computer and catching up on other work things here.  I did make my favorite dessert here (thanks to my bag of imported pretzels, dream whip and strawberry jello!) for our dinner guests. We have new teammates who moved here to begin an RUF campus ministry at a University here and they came for dinner.

Strawberry Pretzel "Salad"

At one point Saturday, there was a group of about 10 helicopters flying towards our building.

It looked like Bogota was under attack, but it must have been some political escort or police manuever.

Sunday was church and there was a baby shower afterwards for one of the ladies in our chuch who is expecting. 

The afternoon and evening was homework and watching a shows on hulu and netflix.

This week is Spirit Week at school, so hopefully the girls will have a fun and low-key week at school!

Friday Favorites ~ Week 8

Here are a few foods that have been my favorite this week:

Choclo arepas con queso (with cheese)

This type of arepas are my favorite here!

Once a month, I organize a MTW team women's lunch at a different restaurant.  This week, we ordered this unique presentation of onion rings, which were delcious!

I caught Brook standing on the balcony in what looked like deep thought after taking a shower standing there in her robe! 

I hosted our weekly bible study at our home this week.  We had 13 ladies here, including me and 5 kids.  It was a full apartment for sure! We are studying Beth Moore's book "David, Seeking a Heart Like His".

I served some natural Colombian juices - Lulo, Mora, and a mixture of orange, strawberry and banana.

Excuse the poor lighting!

We had a full apartment of ladies and a full spread of food!

We had our weekly tutoring schedule this week and Brook came with us to help.  Isabella went on the high school retreat with the school, so it was Brook's first time to come to tutoring.

And this was not one of our favorite things, but the girls had a normal school day Monday as they don't celebrate President's Day here!  Off to school at 6:30! 

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Show and Tell Tuesday ~ Pinterest Edition

I remember one day while taking a walk with my neighbor when I lived in Memphis and her suggesting to me that I get a Pinterest account.  Then I had a few other people tell me about it as well, so I researched it and I am so thankful I did.  Honestly, I really use it as my online cookbook more than anything else, but that has been so worth it.

I have 30 boards, mostly recipes. Today, I will show some highlights.

From my travel board, I have mostly travel ideas when visiting New York City, my favorite, and Los Angeles, because Brook wants to go there for her 14th birthday.

I also have a homeschool board with some ideas and funny "Hey Girl" homeschooling statements from Ryan Gosling, such as this one:

I have lots of yummy dips and other items on my appetizers page, and my go to recipies can be found here: chicken board, Mexican board, soups board and my pasta board.

I do have some other boards as well with other categories.  One I use here in Bogota is called Baking in Bogota, which has shortcuts to making things from scratch that I can't find here.

I have another dessert board too, but this sweets board is my first go to when making a dessert.

For the holidays, here are links to my boards:  Christmas, Fall, Valentine's Day, and other holidays.

Pinterest is a great way to get ideas not only for recipes, but for fashion, party ideas, organizing, games, laundry solutions, etc.  It is a much more effecient way than having so many bookmarks when I would find something I like online.

So go start on Pinterest and happy pinning!!

Weekend Wrap Up ~ Valentine's Day Edition

Happy post Valentine's Day!  

In no paticular order (because I was too lazy too re-arrange photos), here are some photos from our Valentine's Day & our decorations.

Isabella

Brook has a cool reflection of the mountains in her sunglasses in this photo!

Coolest girls in Bogota!

Me & Brook :)

Isabella and I :)

These flowers were leftover from Isabella's party last weekend.

This is a banner I made of old Valentine cards.

They are from family members that I received as a child.

I loved re-purposing them here in Bogota!

Our table setting for breakfast

I used scrapbook paper for placemats.

We had heart shaped waffles and some with strawberries in them.

I bought this pillow before Christmas on a clearance rack to have for the Valentine season.

The girls received roses at school Friday from friends and teachers.

Nothing says Valentines like doilies and heart shaped cookie cutters!

Bathroom hand towels

Artwork by Brook

Kitchen counters

Artwork by Brook hanging on our refrigerator

( I don't have any by Isabella here).

Valentine candy ~ red hots and sweetarts

The girls received a small Valentine bag from us with soft, butter socks, candy, and kleenex.

Our breakfast menu was waffles, bacon and cantelope.

Our lunch menu was chicken rotel, (plain noodles), salad, garlic bread and for dessert we had chocolate covered strawberries and strawberry bars.

Avery and I went out for the first time in a long time on Valentines to see a movie.  We saw the new Nicholas Sparks movie, The Choice, or in espanol it is called El Nombre de Amor.  Most movies have very different titles here!  Anyway, the movie was in English (with Spanish subtitles) and we bought 2 tickets, 2 drinks, popcorn, and a hot dog for $14 USD!  Best bargain in town!

Hope you all have a good day!