Flowers!

Cubby and I tagged along with our favorite group of exploring Americans (so far we've hit the Abastos produce market - which was fantastic) to check out the Guadalajara Flower Market.

It too was fantastic.

We came home with 6 long-stem calla lilies and 6 gorgeous sunflowers.

All 12 flowers cost...around US$5.

I may become a fresh flower fanatic yet!

Good Things

There are so many good things about our life in Guadalajara. I could never capture it all. And what I consider a "good thing" often depends on the day, the hour, the moment.

So, for this moment...

A pretty awesome zoológico and parks in general. Seriously. And with great weather year-round, we need to go more often.

The sweetest, cutest, most delicious little bananas. I'm not sure what they're actually called (Apple Bananas?), but man they are good. (Esme just told me they are called "Dominicos." So there you go.)

Perfect and very abundant avocados (aguacates - there is nothing like a fresh, Mexican aguacate!), homemade multi-grano yogurt (filled with flax seeds, sunflower seeds and other grains), and fresh squeezed mandarin orange juice. All of these were bought from a little store that is a 5 minute walk from our house.

GUAVAS!! I seriously am in love with guavas and how they are always available. (Above is a picture of some getting ready for their 15 minute bath in filtered water and iodine sanitizer.) Any time I want to eat something sweet, like candy or ice cream, when I see these it's like my brain switches course and only wants guavas. Cubby and Deevie love them too, but not as much as me. I love to eat them like the Mexicans do - with lime, salt and chile.

Making bagged-lunches for the girls every day. (This is a total "moment" thing, because often I find this to be a big pain in the butt since it's all tied up in the morning stress to get out of the house. As I sit here blogging while Cubby naps and the warm Guadalajara breeze blows through the window? Making lunch is AWESOME.) Overall, I know it's such a blessing to be able to do this. Or I should say to be forced to do this - because sure, I certainly could have made lunches for the girls every day in the States if I didn't have the easy option of school lunch. In Virginia the girls bought school lunch, and celebrated pizza Friday, potato-faces Tuesday, and chocolate milk. All good ol' American treats :). Here, I take the time to make sandwiches, cut up vegetables (like red pepper hearts for Valentines Day - believe me, that was a one-time event), and always include fresh fruit. I am in a total bagged lunch rut though. New ideas are always welcome - as long as they take 7.5 minutes of prep.

Being with Cub all day (and his constant need to draw "tick tocks"), and yet also having the option to go out if I want to (thanks to housekeepers/nannies we can still afford to hire even on one salary), is still something I pinch myself about. No, it's not all bon-bons (just ask N how passive-agressive I am when he gets home from work!!), but the FS has certainly been a quality of life improvement for our family. And Cubby, my day-time partner, is amazing. He is such a funny and fun little boy, who is so full of personality and Cubbiness. Today, while I was at my Spanish class, nanny Esme taught him to say "Bien" when asked "¿Cómo estas?" It is the cutest little "Bien" you can imagine. So the whole Spanish thing is a blessing too. The kids may not remember any Spanish if we don't use it after GDL, but the exposure still expands their language world, and that is pretty cool. Just the other day Birdie had an excited realization. "Hey!" she said, "the word "library" probably has something to do with "libro"!" I myself realized this at the age of 37, when my 7 year-old daughter pointed it out...just the other day.