Well, I have been away awhile trying to focus my free time on my beautiful little one and on trying to tend to my home, run errands, etc. all those things which seem to consume entire days for weeks and weeks until a person finally has a moment to take a breath and wonder where the time went?
All has been well, though. I am still loving teaching. My summer schedule and classes were amazing- some of the most focused, studious, hard-working students I have ever had and very long but fulfilling days teaching from 9-3:00 every day.
Usually, I've been able to plan before and after classes and had almost the whole summer planned out ahead of time so that's been awesome. Then, I can go home and really be home. Plus, Fridays off are a huge bonus. I spend Fridays doing housework so I can actually enjoy Saturday and Sunday. I have taken advantage of many summer festivities- swimming at the lake, going to parks, soccer games, country music concerts, camping- it has been wonderful!
I am so grateful for all the time at home this career at this point in my life has afforded me. Whenever I get overwhelmed or feel like I'm working a lot, I just think back to those 8-5 days working for a boss who loathed me and feel grateful all over again.
Dani started walking around 11 months and has taken off since. Now, she loves to zapatear (sp?) or as my mom calls it "do the happy dance" which is basically a one year old's version of running in place. It is awesome. I am so impressed at all she has learned. Now we can say, "do you need your diaper changed?" or "Do you want to take a bathie?" and she will go get her diaper or go to the bathtub. She has been jabbering for months now, but we haven't gotten many words out of her, at least not many we can understand... last night she finally figured out how to say "mama"- maybe she will actually call me that at some point.
Juan Carlos is working for VRC Construction, the company he started with his cousin, still. He has big dreams but it is slow going getting a company off the ground and there are lots of challenges between people who do not want to pay them enough or who throw in a lot of last minute details without compensation to materials not being ordered on time for them to work when they need to to people taking up whole days with estimates and then deciding at the last minute not to have the work done. It's all a learning process, albeit a sometimes frustrating one but little by little we're compiling our list of "what not to do again" and I believe in him. He's the kind of person who will work until his dreams become reality.
Now that I have given you our "mid-August Christmas Card" update, I'll leave it at that for now, but stay tuned. I have missed my blog and being able to share things on my mind, so I plan to make time for this little hobby a little more often again...
