*la rutina

[sorry this may be boring.... just documenting lo cotidiano :)]

I feel fairly settled here now that we have a decent daily routine.  At first I was upset that Vera was put in afternoon kindergarten [when they had told me she was in am]- I had dreams of going for long walks with the jogger in the mornings, but it has worked out pretty well.

We have slow easy mornings - Edie gets up usually around 6:30-7:00 and she follows me around as I put the dishes away, get my mate and have a little devotion. She is so cute and chatty in the mornings: clea(n) up? ok!! you's mate? oh yeah! dat hot? oh yeah!!  I usually wake up Vera around 8:00.   A couple weeks ago I was getting so annoyed with her first sentence always being Can I watch something?  So I made the simple rule that she isn't allowed to ask that right away and I'll let her know when she can.  It worked!  So much happier all around.  I do let her watch usually one, sometimes two shows.  Her current favorite is Octonauts, which is actually pretty cute!!  We love the "dance break" :)

The rest of the morning is spent playing with Eloise, playing in their kitchen, coloring, reading [Edie especially likes Vera to read her Pinkalicious], running after each other, etc. We don't do many errands [not much to do and no money to spend anyway :)], and they are often content enough to not even need an outing to a park [ok I just re-read this - they are content most of the time. still our fair share of bickering/screaming/pulling hair/time-outs/spankings, etc. :)].  We walk Vera to school at noon and then come back directly for Edie to take her nap.  I immediately make mate again and try to have some quality alone time. She wakes up and plays a bit and then it's time to get Vera.

We met a little girl who is in first grade next door to Vera's classroom. Her family just moved here also and has Utah, San Diego and Seattle connections as well as a lot of the same interests. Vera and Greta get along really really well which is awesome! We usually walk home with them as they go our same way. Sometimes they play at each other's houses - I'm so glad she has made a good friend - she really misses her friends :(  Vera and Edie have been playing a lot more too which is really wonderful - Vera rarely even asks to watch TV in the afternoon anymore and hasn't played on the computer at all.  We also have another neighbor, Ariana, who comes over a lot. She is ten and kind of likes to be the mother :)  Her little sister (3) comes over too sometimes and they all have fun.  Neighborhood friends are the best! It really reminds me of our friends from our childhood - the Bardwells :)

That's pretty much our routine!  Ben gets home from the office [where he works some for my dad and also pursuing other jobs, working on dissertation revisions etc.] and we either make dinner here or go to my parents or up to the Lake.  We have only gone out to eat twice, for lunch.  Besides the no money thing, there is no Cafe Rio, Barbacoa, Chanon Thai, etc.!

It's kind of lonely, but not necessarily in a bad way.... like I don't really have much conversation with anyone besides my mom, but it's ok with me.  I feel like this time in our lives is maybe for us to just focus on our family. For me to really take good care of my girls, to make this emotionally difficult time a little easier for Ben, to spend quality time with my parents, have a good and simple routine.  I was cleaning the other day and heard the lyrics of some song in the other room: "simple as it should be" - it was a good thing to hear at the time as I was wondering what is the point of moving here.

ANYway.  here's some pictures...

 this is the massive tv my dad bought with the house and ben won't let me remove:

there's a mailbox on our way to school... we've sent out a lot of letters and have not received many in return! yes I am talking to you! and you and you! :)