of bubbles, songs, and laughter

The day before we left for Mexico Natale's mom offered to help with any tasks that would help us get ready. I sent the two of them on a Walmart run for bubble and Dawn dish soap (for more bubble capacity). We really didn't know what to expect so knowing how to prepare is tricky but I figured bubbles could come in very handy. After our pancake breakfast the men left to visit a men's shelter. That left the Spanish speaking women cooking and visiting in the "kitchen", the English speaking women visiting in the shade, and me and the kids playing in the yard.

 

I was very thankful for the bubbles....

The little girl in the purple was so happy with her bubbles she was singing to them...rocking them like a baby. I asked her to repeat her song and captured the above video clip. Too cute.

The church bathroom behind Sherry (wearing black). I managed to hold it until we returned to the hotel in the evening. Hot and sweaty playing and dancing helped.

When you are in need of something to play with there is always the ever present wandering dog....this one willing to let the kids sit on his back.

They were working on the street in front of the church. The first time the water truck went by the kids mostly watched
 but by the second pass they made the best of the moving sprinkler.

Alicia always has flowers blooming outside the church.

This little guy with the Tigger sweater was really enjoying his bubbles. At one point he climbed under the table to be in the shade while blowing his bubbles. He put the bubble bottle down and was scooting around chasing his own bubbles. In the process he unknowingly tipped over his bubbles. When I showed him the liquid happiness spilled on the sand he was close to tears. I motioned for him to follow me and, thanks for the extra Dawn detergent got him a quick refill.

of pancakes and fingerprints

Saturday morning, while sharing breakfast at the mission we discovered that both the ministries that we brought together for this trip had as our main focus the same pastor. Pastor Adam and his wife Alicia have a small church in the middle of the barrio. They had not received our message that we were coming so it was a surprise when we showed up Friday evening and unloaded rice, beans, clothing, and a motor scooter to replace Pastor Adam's broken moped.

Saturday morning Alicia does a bible school with the neighborhood children and then feeds them a meal. When we arrive the kids were playing on the plastic playground equipment that we brought down last spring.

Note to self: keep eye out for more playground equipment.

Alicia and her friends served us pancakes for breakfast (our second) and then the men went to pay a visit to the men's shelter while the women and children hung out at the church.

 The teeter-totter situation reminded me a little of the "how many people can you fit in a telephone booth" kind of thing.

We saw the Father's fingerprints on our trip again when we met Julian at breakfast (green and white shirt) who was fluent enough in both English and Spanish to translate for the outreach we were planning in the park. Pastor Adam has and his daughter have minimal English and two in our group had some Spanish but the outreach would have been greatly handicapped without Julian's language skills.

 This might be the best shot of the trip...

 

The church kitchen.

weekend missions

 

 Abba blessed our most recent trip to Mexico in multiple ways. One very exciting treasure was a new place to stay. We typically stay at a motel when we are in Rocky Point. It's nothing fancy but clean and reasonably priced. 

A second ministry that we teemed up had made reservations at a place called Weekend Missions. WM acquired an abandoned hotel three years ago and have been slowly renovating to be able to house mission groups when they come to work in Rocky Point. 

Meet  Conrad...the voluenteer director of the mission, great people person. He runs a hot dog stand/ministry on the street outside the mission in the evenings.

Meet Rocky, the mission guard dog.
  Don't be fooled, he's got a vicious bark and doesn't make friends easily.

Renovations in process but what is done is very nice, and did I mention that it was cheaper than the motel.

Here is the lobby/entrance.

Inside looking out and same window looking inward. 

        Beautiful Mexican hand-painted tile throughout.

 Restaurant-turned-dining room and full access to kitchen.

I love the original black and white tile on the walls in the kitchen.

Court yard and pool area with  salsa garden separate the three wings of guest rooms.

 It worked so well for us to stay here and only 4 blocks from our favorite Mexican ice cream store. What a delightful blessing both for this past weekend and future visits.

grumpy

 We are on our third set of chickens (do chickens come in sets?) The first all came from the chicken stork...I mean store. The second set were hatched in our coop by a broody hen.

Once those babies grew we mixed the two groups together. Then over time I pulled one and then another chicken out when they were so picked on that they they wouldn't leave the coop for food and water. I closed the sliding door that allows the coop to become two separate chicken runs...thus creating the "under chickens".

Grumpy was one of those picked on chickens....I never expected her to hang with us when she became half-plucked with a large growth on her breast....but she has. After initial hatching losses we have only lost 3 birds over the 4+ years of chickening (4 if you count the mean rooster that we did away with intentionally). Our aging birds were giving very little output for all the grain we were inputting....enter the third batch of birds.

After two unsuccessful tries at using an incubator I had a hen volunteer for egg-sitting duty. Unfortunately after all her work we only had one chick (named Chicklet and who later grew into a beautiful rooster). We bought 7 move chicks to keep little Chicklet company.

Once set three started to lay I swapped the two under-chickens and the young birds who shared their under-coop with the big birds (and old rooster) in the larger chicken yard. Now the new layers had a larger yard and access to the inside of the coop and the nesting boxes.

I began watching the new under chickens who are really the old chickens to find who was still laying (we have had very few eggs for 6 months or more). As I discovered a chicken laying I moved her in with the layers-thus prolonging her lifespan.

I know I've seen Grumpy (who earned her name when she was being hen pecked and wouldn't leave the nesting boxes and unlike the other chickens who just fussed when I checked under them for eggs Grumpy would peck at me) sitting in the nesting boxes many times but I really didn't think she was still laying.

The other day I was looking specifically for grumpy.  I usually let the under-chickens wander the dog pen during the day and they have been hunting out their own nesting areas. At one point they found this inventive nest tucked behind the swamp cooler and beside the workbench. For whatever reason Jay didn't think that was a good nest so he blocked it off with a bucket at the front and an old piece of flooring blocking the back. The underchickens had started laying under the swamp cooler which required a hoe to pull the egg out but was working ok. I thought I was down to just one Americana laying from the old chickens.

So the other day I'm looking for Grumpy and I hear this scratching noise behind the swamp cooler. I realize she is squeezing between the flooring and the garage wall to get to the coiled tubing nest. When I moved the bucket  blocking the tube-nest from my sight I found not one or two but twelve eggs that Grumpy, or maybe I should call her Sneaky, had be faithfully laying day after day. Needless to say Grumpy, er Sneaky, is moving in with the layers.