I peeled the carrot and intended to cut it into small sticks. Non-choking-hazard-sized sticks. I turned around to find a knife to cut the carrot. When I turned back, the carrot was gone!
We've renamed this game Schraggle, or rather, Ty and Chris, our KaRagBe friends renamed it. We played a five-minute game and then Emma just played with the letters. We write her name all the time using crayons, sidewalk chalk, food, etc., so she's pretty excited when she sees her four letters!
"Daddy, can I please put some lip gloss on you?" He hesitated and I told him he couldn't say no to such a polite request. (He knew very well I was on my way to get the camera.) She had the biggest smile on her face as she was getting her daddy all prettied-up. When she told him to smack his lips together, he did, and her day was made. I have to admit, he is a pretty great daddy.
It was one of those nights where we finished supper and realized we had absolutely nothing to do. Nothing needed to be done. We didn't need to go anywhere. No calls to make. No laundry to do. No television to watch. We just had time. We have a lot of time. One of the aspects of life here that we are learning to appreciate is the amount of free time. Part of that is because Horizontina is a fairly small town in the middle of nowhere. Really, if it isn't the middle, it's pretty darn close. The grocery stores close at 7, except for one that's open until 8. The only 24-hour place in town is a gas station, which conveniently sells beer and cigarettes, meaning it's the hangout place on Friday and Saturday nights. (Of course, I've only heard that. . . ) Life is just slow here. There aren't a million different activities to get involved in. There's really nowhere to go after dark, unless it's for a walk. When we moved here, I was a little annoyed with the lack of activity here. I'd pick Kevin up from work and we'd drive by house after house and see lawn chairs galore. People were sitting in semi-circles, talking, laughing and drinking their chimarrao, the traditional green-tea-like drink here. I used to get frustrated that I couldn't make a late-night run to WalMart. I couldn't even make a late-evening run. Come to think of it, I couldn't even make the run. There's not a WalMart in this hemisphere. (OK, maybe that's not true, but there's not one in my state.) Anyway, we've been here for 14 months and I think my heart and mind are changing. I am sooooo grateful for this time here. When we're home, we're home. Granted, I have a maid who does our laundry and cleans our home, but evenso, I have so much free time. Some days it's absolutely maddening and I have to leave, like this week. (Emma and I went on a business trip with Kevin to Porto Alegre.) For the most part, though, I have hour upon hour to spend with this cool little redhead and the lip-gloss-wearing man I call my husband. We were driving home from the city earlier today and realized that our time here is really flying. We talked about some of the things we're going to miss when we have to go back and some of the things we're looking forward to. The issue of time came up and Kevin said it's really up to us how we want to spend our time. We can go back to the States and become very busy if we want. But we're really enjoying our empty time here. Empty is a bad word to describe it though, because it's been so full. It's not always wonderful and full, but I feel like I'm recognizing the goodness in it, and I'm loving it. In fact, I might just have to make myself a cup of green tea and sit on the porch tonight!!
