Simple but Extraordinary

I was talking to a friend yesterday (my old roommate) and she said something that I realized summarizes my mission to a T: simple but extraordinary. My life is simple. I wake up at 5h45, tell Daniel to get out of bed 25 times before 6h30, eat 2 pieces of bread with butter and a cup of coffee. I brush my teeth with an 8 year old where we compete to see who can brush LONGER (playing the fastest game only works for pajamas...). I run around trying to find art supplies to take to school, while creating activities in the moment. I decide if it's a painting day depending on the clothes I'm wearing as the children keep painting my backside... ie pretty clothes= crayon day. I take a bus for an hour packed like a sardine and then teach classes for disabled children and children with behavioral problems. I go home, eat beans and rice and fruit salad for lunch. I take a nap, pray the rosary, spend the afternoon with my little munchkins, cook dinner, clean house, wash clothes, go to mass, eat dinner, brush teeth again with my boy, read a book, kiss him goodnight, and am in my bed by 8h35.

Simple but extraordinary. Extraordinary that a 6 year old little girl asked for the second year in a row to not receive birthday presents. Instead all of her little friends brought art supplies for MY STUDENTS. After a year here in Brasil, I still don't know how to give like her. Extraordinary that my new bedroom, where I sleep alone in a bed that I think may break next week, faces the entire fazenda. So when my door is open, the kids come running. They think it's my workshop. I asked them if they did not see my dirty underwear lying on the ground. Somehow it hasn't stopped them from marching in. I turned the bottom bunk into my painting desk. And painting becomes all the better when I have some other little artists near me.

Simple but extraordinary that it has been raining for 9 days straight. That I shower with cold water (Sorry, I haven't learned to stop complaining yet.. maybe in the next month). And that I am happier than I have ever known in my life. Everything is going so quickly. My going away mass is july 15. I found a samba singer to play music for us. I have over 100 invites. I have my plane ticket home

PHOENIX ARIZONA
AUGUST 4, 2012
5:48pm
Come one, come all and greet me at the airport

I have this new life awaiting me. I have more hope and excitement and joy to see what He is calling me to next. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world in my simple, but extraordinary life. Thank you to each one of you who is part of it.

And I leave you with a CONGRATULATIONS to one of my very best friends and cousin, Gillean, on her engagement yesterday. I can't wait to be home to help you plan a miraculous day! Love you

With love,

 the kids in my room on our makeshift desk... my very first canvas painting to call on the living room wall

 we finally covered the ugly couch with new yellow fabric!

The Perfect Rainbow

I realized I have been really negative lately on my blog. Yes, things have been quite overwhelming--so much to be done and so little time. But that´s life isn´t it? I struggle like all moms to get the kid ready for school, get myself ready for work, clean house, wash clothes, do homework, cook dinner, and have a moment to play or read with him. I struggle to get to prayer times and to have a moment to myself to contemplate the love of my Lord. I never find time to do art or little things my soul desires, yet I am utterly happy. I think about that coming day far too often, only because I want everything to be perfect. I want to show my friends how thankful I am for them. I want to cuddle and play with my kids, always thinking of three months from now when that won´t be possible anymore. I think about what surprises are coming my way and what man I am going to fall in love with (what girl doesn´t). I think about my future job and what I want in a job and life and museums and pretty clothes and shoes and the metro. I stress and complain, but I dont know why because I am happy. Happy may not be the best word. Peaceful, knowing, sure. 

I´ve noticed that I´ve stopped taking pictures. I don´t know why. I guess life is quite ordinary right now. Painting, decorating, teaching art, mothering Daniel. I must try to remember that these days won´t last forever. That I should really keep track of those tiny things. Anyway, it´s a weekend of rest. My lasts with each of my Brazilian mothers. A special time. Trying to soak it in. And work on my resume! 

Pray for me. I pray for you. I´m sure these last months will bare the most fruits!

Love, E

 a bridal shower for a friend´s daughter. stove cake

 did you see my new haircut?

 me and pati

 tiny details

 homemade stilts made by the kids

 they are so funny

 so the other day i was washing dandan's clothes. he said erica, come look! i walked out. there was a rainbow with a navy blue backdrop and green glistening trees. already a beautiful sight. and then. a dove flew from the left of the rainbow to the right. the white body swiftly moving across the empty sky. my jaw dropped

 it was a beautiful moment for dandan, anita who was sitting in the hammock as usual, and me

 here´s our orange house!! painted by yours truly. please dont ask me to do that again!

 rafa and dandan

 we still need a second coat

 and to decide what color we want the windows

 some paintings by daniel that i put into my new SINGLE room

Brasilian visit to the dentist

Tuesday my tooth started aching. I had never experienced a toothache of such sorts. It went from 0 - 100 in a matter of hours. My jaw, my, neck, my back, my head, my entire body joined in the pain. I thought I was going to vomit. I couldn´t believe it. I imagined that I must have gotten the worst cavity of my life. I blamed it on the fact that I haven´t had an electric toothbrush for almost a year and half nor seen a dentist in over a year and a half (since being a little kid, I saw a dentist every.six.months.of.my.life). I blamed it on the terrible toothpaste we get and on myself for not flossing daily. I took 1g of ibprofen, but it didn´t lessen the pain. The night was long. I got up in the morning and asked Joselita to take Tete to school because I just HAD to go visit my dentist friend.

I couldn´t stop thinking of all my friends who don´t have many teeth left. I wondered if they pulled them out because they had this pain from so many cavitities and no way to see a dentist. I understood them. It really was unbareable. How am I so lucky to be able to go to the dentist just like *that*. I called my friend, she squeezed me in. Oh I was so afraid. So afraid to face these neglected teeth.

I walked in her fancy office (I mean gorgeous, gorgeous) and she looked. She found nothing. Erica, there is nothing. Pow, she knocked my tooth. I yelped. She said, ohhhhhhh. You´ve been grinding and gripping your teeth. Are you stressed? Me, stressed? of course! We laughed. She said that my teeth are touching eachother in a place they are not and so my top teeth inflamed. She asked if I had pain in my neck and back. Of course. She filed down my tooth just a tiny tiny bit. 10 minutes later I was out the door.

Today it is already alleviating the pain. Of course there is still some, but it´ll go down. Oh it makes me laugh. Thank goodness I didn´t end up with a huge piece of silver in the back of my mouth.

As for other things, I switched rooms. I, Erica, have my own bedroom for the last two months. Next week a girl named Lady (yes her real name) is coming from Equador. She will be taking my place in the house. What a strange experience. The rain has finally come, only a few months late. Cristiano and I painted teh entire house last weekend. I spent Friday sanding and cleaning the walls (all day) and then Saturday for 9 hours we painted. Orange. I will take pictures tonight. We still have the second coat to do and the windows and doors. I will not be helping with that. Painting a house once in my life is enough for me.

Question: Daniel talks in a baby voice to me. Only to me, does it to no one else. He calls me ecka, like Jose called me. When I ask him why, he says because of Jose. He wines and cries for me and totally acts out. He doesn´t do it for the nun. What do you think he is looking for from me? Some tell me that when he was a baby he cried a lot and no one liked him much so they gave the cuddles to his brother. Sometimes I think maybe he´s looking to be a baby again? But I just don´t know. Ideas?

2 months and 1 week and I´m out of here. Pray for me. It´s going so fast!
Love,
Erica