Transition time

This week is holding lots of changes for us, thankfully, mostly good ones. Elena has now perfected the art of pulling up. She hasn't quite figured out what to do from there. Most of the time, she just wiggles her rear-end a lot, as if building up momentum for take off. Today she let go and stood alone for a second before hastily sitting down again (well, OK, more of a 'plop' than a 'sit'). Ay, ay, ay. I'm happy for her, of course, but not sure that I am ready for three footloose and fully mobile little ones!

Carlos and I each had a class end this week and a new one is starting. 3 credit hours in 7 days goes by so fast. I had a really great group of students in the last class, and will miss seeing them. I hope the personality of the new class is good. It is a Spanish I, and a bigger class than the previous one. New textbook, so there is definitely more prep time involved, even though the concepts themselves are very basic. Since the class meets for 6 hours each one day, I need to find a lot of ways to mix things up. As one of my aunts says, "The mind can only take in what the behind can endure".

We found out yesterday that our trip to Mexico this summer will most likely be canceled because of all the violence from the drug wars. The universities don't want to put students in a risky situation. Instead, we will probably go to Puerto Rico. I'm excited, because I've never been there, and also because I was already freaking out about avoiding corn in Mexico. In Puerto Rico, we'll have plaintains, yucca, and lots of other options. We also have a lot of relatives there (MIL is from Puerto Rico). Of course, since we do everything ourselves rather than through a travel agency, it means a lot of research and work. Also, the class is focused on the pre-conquest Mesoamerican cultures. There is some stuff in Puerto Rico, but not all the sites like the pyramids that we would see in Mexico. We may need to tweak the course materials and scope a little bit.

Today is the beginning of our second week of Lenten readings, and we are shifting from death to sin and goodness. Kind of cool, since I had already started a post on sin and freedom based on Romans 6. I am continuing to pray for all those on my list. Honestly, giving up chocolate and my favorite message boards has been very helpful, not just because of more time, but because every time that I want to go post on IHMMB or eat chocolate, I use it as a reminder to pray. I didn't think that I ate that much chocolate during a day, but I have to say it crosses my mind pretty often...