Summer time...

If I tell you I haven't written because I haven't had even a split moment of time to catch you all up on our busy lives, I am lying. I have moments...in fact, it seems that this month I have had quite a bit of extra time to do things that in the past had gone undone. But the truth is, while I have time, rarely is it quite. To write, I need quite. I need birds singing before the excruciatingly hot day arrives. I need breeze blowing the sound of passing cars in the distance, I need the rising and falling of my little boy's chest as he inhales and exhales his morning breaths and I need Claudio to be busy doing something of his own.
Each day I long for this silence, each day it seems harder to come by. But when it comes, I cherish every minute of it. I sit and drink my tea, read the blogs I follow, write in the blogs I keep and more than anything, I enjoy me.
Part of why the blog has fallen by the wayside this year is Santa's gift to me has been keeping me busy. (I must have been a very good girl this year!) This year, Santa brought me a serger sewing machine. For those of you in the dark, sergers are used to finish ends and sew stretchy fabric like Lycra and Modal. I absolutely love love love it! Every free chance I get, I am drawing up patterns, cutting fabric, and creating new designs.
Another little something that kept us all occupied this last month, is, as it turns out, Juan had parasites and so did I. We ended up treating the entire family, just in case, cat and dog included, but the only two that seemed to have had them were Juani and I. This has gotten me to thinking. According to most medical journals, parasites are extremely common and a large percent of people in the world live their whole life with them, never knowing why they have insomnia, why they are moody, why they grind their teeth, amongst other symptoms, and why they feel lethargic.
Well, I pay close attention to detail. A few months back, Juan began to change. He became aggressive, he was hitting me, he would scream and turn red. He began waking in the night. Everyone I talked to just said, "Oh, must be the terrible twos." I tried to accept that this was just a phase, but I felt intuitively that it was something more. After searching the net, talking to his pediatrician, chatting with friends, I just decided that it couldn't hurt to treat the whole family for parasites. (There are parts of Brazil that do it as an annual cleanse, even when there are no symptoms, just in case) Sure enough, not two days into the treatment, my sweet boy returned to me. He was gentle and sweet, he was eating again and taking longer naps. I too noticed a difference in myself. For months I felt like I was drowning in a glass of water. The slightest thing was enough to bring me to tears. I felt like I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. After two days of the 21 day treatment, I felt calm and collected again. I was problem solving without loosing my head or stressing out over the small things.
Sooo, now we are all back to normal. Juani is eating, he is happy and sweet again, I am working and enjoying life without feeling overwhelmed. (even though I have a lot on my plate) and Claudio is counting down the days until he is free from the chains of being an employee.

The school is going great! We have had a rather slow month, but English classes have grown in size and I have added a few workshops that are fun, crochet, photography, etc. We are preparing for a big marketing investment for this year, targeting private language schools in Australia, the US and England mostly.

I guess I should also bring you up to speed on other fun things like, Juani loves going to school (playschool) He goes everyday for 3 hours. He LOVES it! They play in the water and learn to do all sorts of fun creative things. In the morning I say, "Ok, it's time to get ready for school" and he grabs his backpack and waits for me at the front door anxiously waiting for me to gather everything up.

He loved Christmas this year. He didn't quite understand how to open the gifts but every time he walked into the dining room and saw the tree he would say, "wow!"


We also bought a child's seat for Claudio's bike so now we can all ride bikes together. (helmets are on the way!) which is soooo fun! We have only ridden to the parks close by but he loves it!!!


He is an aquarius, that is for sure. Though he acts like a little fish. We can't seem to get him out of the water, be it the pool, the hose, the river, or the bathtub, he would be content to grow gills.


And here he is, already trying his hand in skateboarding, (he looks like his daddy but he takes after his mama!)