Life Lately July 2020

We kicked off the month of July doing Vacation Bible School.  Many churches did a virtual VBS this year.  We were very excited to get to participate in one.  The theme was Concrete & Cranes from Lifeway.  It provided a fun, entertaining week for us.  The boys really loved the music so from time to time I have been pulling it up on YouTube to listen to while they do their school work.  I love watching them sing along.   

 

That same week, a new friend that lives nearby invited us to go for a hike.  There are trails close to her house that head up the mountain.  Ben did not want to go so David stayed home with him while Cruz and I headed out for the adventure.  It was amazing!  I loved the fresh air, sunshine, and exercise.  The views were pretty spectacular too.

It was a long way up and a long way back down but so enjoyable!

Cruz especially enjoyed getting to climb trees again.  That was one of his favorite parts of the day.

There were a lot of coffee plants on the trail.

and corn and beans too.

It was a wonderful, much needed outing!

A view on the hike back down the mountain.

I laugh every time I look at this.  You know you are living in a different time when your key holder  no longer holds your keys but your face masks instead. 

The boys read all summer long.  We just recently finished up our summer reading incentive.  In all, Ben read 14 chapter books and Cruz read 12.  I am very proud of them for their hard work.

 

Our shipment of homeschool resources arrived mid-month.  It was a joyous day at our house!

The shipping company had told us it could take up to 25 days to arrive.  We made a chart for our refrigerator and marked off each day as it passed.  We each made a guess of which day we thought it would be delivered.  As you can see it came on day 19 which is what David had predicted. 

Hooray for school books!!! 

I had stressed a good bit about how we were going to get our books brought down this year because of the virus closures.  I am so thankful that this shipping process worked out.  It took a huge load off of me when it arrived.

Now that I had books I got busy getting our school room ready to start back to class.  I was very eager to get going.

Cruz helping cook breakfast one morning.  He is such a big help in the kitchen and he continues to improve his skills.

 Working a puzzle on a recent Saturday afternoon.

All done!

On another recent Saturday we took a morning drive up the mountain just to get out of the house for a little while.  The views were beautiful. 

 Cruz enjoying the ride.

How fun is this restaurant's name.  They were offering pickup and delivery service so we tried them out.   

The boys got a sweet surprise package delivered from some missionary friends of ours who live near Guatemala City.  Since early April we have not been able to cross departments lines so that meant we could not visit each other.  We have missed them and were so blessed by their thoughtfulness.  

We have still been trying to take neighborhood walks when we can.  This was a view one afternoon as we were walking.  I immediately thought of Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands.

David and the boys

Earth Lodge is just a short drive up the mountain from Antigua.  In July they began to reopen with very limited capacity but only to residents of Sacatepequez (which is the department that we live in).  It is a beautiful place.  They have a large open field area that was great for running around and exploring. 

It is also an avocado farm so we enjoyed getting to see the trees full of them.

We hiked their nature trail, played Frisbee, corn hole, and soccer, but our favorite activity of all was just hanging out in the hammocks.  Cruz kept saying many times "this is the most normal I have felt in a LONG time".  It did us all some good to get a change of scenery. 

Drinking coffee, playing cards, and enjoying the views and fresh air.

 

We started back to school two weeks ago.  The boys had gotten a haircut on our last day of school back in May.  Their were ready for another one.  I wanted to go on the first day of school but because of restrictions we could not drive that day.  Instead, we went the following day after school to get them one.  They both love getting a haircut.

Another thing they love is getting ice cream.  There is a Sarita's next door so it is a great combo outing.

This past Sunday night during his address to the country, the President announced his plans to begin reopening the economy.  Many of our restrictions were loosened.   We went to a red light system that means your restrictions will be based on the color of the area where you live.  You will move from red, to orange, yellow, and then green depending on the number of active cases you have.  Our area is still in red but in spite of that we can now begin to move around more than we have since this all began.   We are excited but will continue to take all precautions possible to stay healthy.

He had already removed the interdepartmental travel ban a week earlier.  When he did that it allowed us to take a much needed trip into Guatemala City to stock up on supplies at PriceSmart.  It is our equivalent to a Sam's Club. David and the boys sat in the car while I went in to shop.  While there we also met our friends at McDonald's.  We picked up food in the drive thru and parked next to each other in the parking lot.  We ate in our cars and had the best time getting to visit again face to face.

It is the little things these days that bring us the most joy.  I am not sure if life will ever go back to "normal" but we will take these little snippets of normalcy that we have been able to enjoy this past month and treasure them.