The pleasures of home

We've been hanging out at my parents house for two weeks now and thoroughly enjoying ourselves. This is the house I grew up in -- my parents have lived here for 40 years -- and it is always lovely to come for a visit. I love cuddling into their kitchen nook and sitting in all the beautiful spaces in their yard. It is peaceful, relaxing and homey.

The sun hits the grass in their pasture every evening in such a glorious way, changing it all to gold. I love it!

In spite of how much I love being here, two nights ago I finally said (& processed) the words  ... "we don't live in Guatemala anymore."  That opened the floodgates and I've been struggling to keep myself from crying over it since then. I am missing all that is Guatemala so much and most especially my friends there.  I am still struggling to adjust to being back. I made my first trip to Target last week and knew I'd be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of "stuff" available to buy, but I was completely blown away to see that there is now a refrigerated pet food section. After having been living in place with such poverty, it is hard for me to accept what this seems to imply about our priorities and makes me realize I still have a lot of re-adjusting to do.

Here's some of our re-adjustment activities :)

Enjoying the close proximity of the beach and these adorable otters!

A California volcano -- not quite like a Guatemalan one!

Camping at Shaver Lake --

 Spending LOTS and LOTS of time outside

Enjoying the fruits of the season -- apricots (my parent's trees were loaded!) -- and jam making

A delicious coffee date without Luke (thanks to my parents!)

Family Photos

When Luke had his photo shoot with our Mayan friends, Will was kind enough to shoot a few family photos for us as well. These are my favorites:

Saying goodbye to Daddy --

Luke just before Jason left for N. Dakota yesterday afternoon. He's perfectly expressing how I felt about spending five full days without Jason ... and quite possibly making it that much easier for Jason to leave :)

Interestingly enough, in the year since Luke has been born, Jason & I will have been apart over twice as much as any other year in our marriage.  Coincidence? I think not! ;-)

102 = heaven bound!

Jason's grandmother, Elsie, turned 102 years old today and she passed away quietly early this morning to celebrate her birthday in heaven with Jesus. I cannot imagine any better place to be. She was the last grandparent between the two of us and even though we are glad for her to be free of her earthly body, there is still sorrow in her passing. An emptiness that does not go away even while we celebrate her extraordinary life.  Here are a couple pictures of Elsie as a younger woman from the Schlafmann files:

And, from when we saw her during one of our summer visits -- she always loved to play cards.

A walkin' man

Luke took his first real solo steps earlier this month. Although I'm terrified by the impact I know this will have as his activity level increases yet again, it is still one of the sweetest things to see him actually walking :)

Jarvis & Marilyn experience Lake Atitlán

It's hard to believe it's been nearly a month since Jason's parents arrived here in Pana to spend the holidays with us. Although they were here nearly two weeks, it went so fast!  In some ways it feels almost as if they were never here while at the same time that they should be popping in for quick visit at any moment.

January is already on the downhill side which seems unbelievable.  This week, Jason and I are approaching the day he asked me to marry him (7 years ago!) which is a thrilling and humorous memory :)  A note to the ladies ... when your guy proposes, don't respond in disbelief, "you're doing this NOW!!?!??"

Our laptop is still not fixed. Sigh. We are fortunate to have been given an old, rather beat-up laptop to use. It's battery is dead so it's more like a desktop and when turned off, it takes a lot of tries to get it back on (which wouldn't be a problem except that we live in a country where the power is out almost daily), but it works for basic stuff and we are incredibly grateful.  It has allowed me to finally get around to the pictures from Jason's parents visit and reminisce about the fun we had together.

They spent about a week in Panajachel with us and then we all went to Antigua together for about a week and stayed in an AMAZING house that Marilyn had found & rented online. We had such a nice time together and I realized after they left just how much I'd been looking forward to their visit ... having no other visitors on the books for the next five months feels a little daunting.

They arrived on Christmas Eve morning with an entire suitcase + several bags stuffed full of hard-to-get food items, gifts from family and friends, mail and some basic necessities. It was so overwhelmingly wonderful! We had some great family time together: catching up, digging through the bounty and enjoying Luke.

We got started on their Lake Atitlán tour the day after Christmas, with a trip across the lake to Santa Cruz la Laguna and a hike to Tzununá.

While we were enjoying our hike, stopping at resorts along the way for food and beverages, these men were hauling large loads of wood and HUGE bags of coffee beans up and down the same steep trails.  I couldn't help but wonder, if the beans cost 15 cents a pound, how much could these guys be making to haul a bag of it around? A rather sobering thought.

I love these pictures of Jason's mom.  It was a very rough boat ride back and she struggles with motion sickness.  She opted to sit in the back of the boat with the captain and ended drenched by the waves breaking over the edge of the boat, but still choose to smile and have a great ride back.

On another day, we all climbed into the back of a pick-up truck with Jason's co-worker, Emily (& her family) and headed for the village of San Antonio where she showed us the ceramics "factory" and also the work/home of a traditional weaver.

This is what we all looked like -- snapping photos of these guys at work.  I'm sure they really enjoy being a tourist attraction! 

The view out their window wasn't too bad!

A very blurry picture of Luke, but it was so sweet - Maria had picked him up and was bouncing him on the cloth she had just weaved.  She spends her days kneeling on the floor in front of her loom, painstakingly weaving together what become beautiful scarves, table runners and other traditional cloth.  

We also headed back across the lake to the San Pedro to enjoy the best brunch on the lake at El Barrio and a wander through the village.  Jason's dad even got outfitted by a local shop owner in a traditional shirt :)

Before leaving Pana for Antigua, we headed up for a hike through the onion terraces near our house -- and got to see one of my favorite Guatemalan reptiles :)