Aclimatizing

Today the planets aligned or the Gods were smiling or whatever miracle took place that needed to take place and I got 4 hours of work, a trip to the store (with the kids, natch), Y O G A practice and updating the blog done and it is only 3pm. Ellen protested heartily that I would actually do something for MYSELF and not dedicate my every waking hour to her whims, but Pike offered to help and while she said she was miserable the whole time (I was 5 feet away, outside the trailer while they were inside), I’m going to try to do this every other day and then work up to daily. We’ll see how it goes. Tomorrow I might not be able to work at all. So I guess I need to recognize that attachment to practice isn’t necessarily a good thing. Ah well.

Yesterday the boys and I had a long talk about chores (and their lack of doing them). They’ve never had chores before, but with me working and Jamie having a difficult time picking up the slack, something needed to happen. A couple weeks before he and Sissy left, we instituted chores; everyone agreed with the specific chores and the need for them. For two days they did them. The cooperation then came to a grinding halt. The boys have done nothing since Jamie left and I was getting really frustrated and stressed with the workload, AND getting nothing for myself. So, we’ve decided to somewhat tie allowance to chores. They get a set amount whether or not chores are done (10 pesos) and 1 peso a day when all chores are done. If chores are done each day for a week, they get 3 extra, so they can get 20 pesos/week. We’ll see. They were QUITE motivated today. Next to work on is the incredible entitlement they feel to have pan dulce each time we go to the store.

I think we’re starting to fall into a groove and the heat is coming on. March was a very mild month in Mexico but April is starting to show the heat that it should. I sure hope we’re out of Mazatlan by May; we need to be in the midwest by July, so it is looking like Oaxaca will be a very short time if at all.

Yesterday afternoon we had a lovely walk down the beach and spent an enormous amount (70 pesos) on two raspados (see Pike and Ellen in the recent photos) and two ceviche ala sierras. It was one of the ‘fast food’ stands you see all over Mexico and the snow cones were made by shaving ice off a huge covered block. Sure hope it was agua purificada. Will we EVER learn??? I’ve uploaded a tonne of photos to Flickr and am forever grateful to Dad for dumping the contents of my “bad” harddrive so nothing was lost afterall. Nothing like having a computer-savvy Daddy.