This Week: A Pinterest Daybook

Follow Colleen Mitchell's board This Week on Pinterest.

So I was right. This Pinterest planning idea is pure genius! Well, it's working anyway. The post has had a lot of hits, but more importantly, it inspired a great week in our house. I'm looking forward to seeing if it keeps us on track for the week ahead too. Here's where I hope we're headed this week based on the board above:

School Stuff:
I wanted to dig in a bit to how solar energy works with the kids and some of the amazingly cool products featured here but we just didn't quite get there last week. It is science that is pertinent to my kids since when we visit our Cabecar friends in their homes in the reserve, there is no electricity. A few friends have solar panels. I wanted my boys to understand how that works. Who knows maybe one day they'll be the ones coming up with an innovative solution for a need they see in their friends lives. I haven't found a video that I think is perfect to explain the concept yet, but I am digging more this morning and hopefully we can spend some time on this this week.

I'm writing lesson plans for a Survival School unit that will cover many subjects, so you'll start seeing lots of pins for that. I'm trying to take advantage of my boys obsession with those survivor shows and the fact that Daddy is willing to take this and run with it if I write the plans.

My boys thoroughly enjoyed our jaunt through Beowulf with H.E. Marshall, and were quite entertained by this reading of the Old English. We all were amazed at how much it reminded us of the native language our Cabecar friends speak. I want to get the Heaney version eventually, but I think we'll play around with Chaucer this week.

Some good math stuff happening here lately but I want to give it another week. I'll highlight next week.

Creative Stuff:
I have been trying to make some type of creative activity available to the boys most days. They have joined the Rainbow Loom craze so that and modeling clay (I just had to type that in Spanish and translate because I couldn't remember what it was called in English) worked well for daily creative fun.

For an art project, we tried a version of these foil owls but did it our own way. The end results were mixed but everyone really enjoyed the process and I think the boys benefited from a project that was done in stages and did not give them immediate gratification.  So for this week I think we'll try a version of this project that I found at the same blog when I went searching for the foil owl pin link.

Faith Stuff:
This Ordinary Time pin is chock full of good stuff. Like overwhelming kind if full. But I found the gem of the Acts of Faith, Hope and Love in there, and I think we will aim to memorize those during Ordinary Time.

I've been using the pin from Jessica's book list to remind myself what saints to read about from the volumes we have. St Thomas Aquinas' feast is around the corner and he is my Evan's patron, so I'll be searching for some pins to celebrate in a special but simple way.

I'm trying to decide whether to get the boys in on the Scripture memorization project or just let it be a "me" thing. I know that sounds terrible but a mom needs some stuff, even in the spiritual realm that is just for her, right? We'll see what I decide to do this week. Maybe I'll just invite but not insist on participation.

Home Stuff:
There are a few black bean recipes pinned there. I hope to try something new this week. We've been obsessing over butternut squash lately (finding something new in the grocery store is exciting) and our new missionary volunteers at the orphanage are vegetarians, so I think this soup would be great to cook on the day they come to hang out and have community time this week.

I really want to bake bread this week. Ditching an old pin that has been hanging around a while and hoping that one will provide the inspiration I need.

And maybe I'll finally get around the making a curtain for under my bathroom sink.

Me Stuff:
Finding a lot of richness for myself in this pin about mindful living and still going back to it often.

And it looks like we might be passing around a nasty cold for the duration so I'll be digging up some of those natural cold remedy pins this week.

A weekend internet outage kept me from posting about Voice at Velvet Ashes this week but I hope to get that post out tomorrow since it's taking up much needed space in my head.

Kid Stuff:
I didn't do much digging through boards this week as I had a lot pinned to go on, but I realize that I don't have much fresh inspiration there for just fun kid stuff. So I'll look around a bit and see if I can find something to bring a little playfulness to our house this week.

And maybe look for some other conversation starters as I'm not finding these grab my attention very much.

Other Stuff:
Still finding lots of good marriage building material in this pin.

Eucharisteo:
708. Inspiration for mindful living
717. Friends I can count on for prayer
720. An American boy and a Cabecar boy sitting on the kitchen table painting a paper volcano
725. Ordinary Time
729. Feeling relaxed in my skin
730. MAIL!!!!
and a full seven gifts thankful for one variety of visit or visitor or another. Truly the thanks of an extorverted missionary's heart.




I'd love to hear about it if you started your own Pinterest board for planning! What's inspiring you for the week ahead? What are counting thanks for, feeling blessed by, friends?

Day 1 of 31 Days of Giving that Gives Back

I'm the kind of girl who would much rather address the proverbial elephant in the living room than skirt around an issue we all know is affecting what we are trying to talk about but we don't want to admit it. So as we begin to talk about how to change our consumer habits for the sake of others' freedom, can we just be real for today and say the hard thing we all know is true?

The best way for any of us to reduce our slavery footprint is for us to intentionally consume less. Whew. There I said it. This is the hardest part for us to tackle honestly. We all have our reasons why it just won't work to change the way we do Christmas...grandparents who will be angry, family who expects our participation, a husband who thinks we've gone a bit off the deep end. 

And I get that. This process is most effective if it is an opportunity to educate and thus affect those around us. If we alienate and anger everyone around us from our perceived soapbox, well, that's not exactly the point. Nor does it feel very much about the true spirit of Christmas.

And if our goal is renounce consumer craziness and reclaim some of Christmas' earliest message that love is born in humble places we have to be brave about making intentional changes, but we have to find ways to do it that are lavish in love and generous in grace. After all, shepherds and kings both showed up bearing their gifts for the Christ Child and they were all welcomed.

But if we are to begin, we have to begin somewhere. Here are my thoughts on how we can begin to address the hardest part of this process of giving freedom instead of consuming this Christmas.

1. Pray. I do believe that at its heart, this is a spiritual matter for all of us. Christmas and what it means. Our consumption habits and where they come from. Our expectations of ourselves and others. The way we respond to others' expectations of us. This all has to do with the state of our souls and the state of our sin and our relationship with the Lord whose coming we celebrate in the great feast of Christmas. 

When we begin to feel a stirring inside us to change, we can become just as manic about needing to get it right RIGHT NOW as we are tempted to be about consumption. We have to remember the goal here is to slow down and be more intentional about what we are doing. Not to raze Christmas to the ground with a moral wrecking ball. 

That balance is only going to come through prayer. Let's start there. Immerse ourselves in the Word and the mysteries of Christ's birth. Ask ourselves what it means to live those mysteries this season. Make room for the Holy Spirit to inspire and inform our consciences. Confess our consumer sins and willful ignorance of the past. Clean out our hearts with the same vigor we clean out the toy shelves and the kitchen cupboard to make room for Christmas' newness. 

Start living a spiritual advent now, before the consumer craziness hijacks your opportunity. Advent in its more secular form can mean a change or development. The birth of something new. Let's start now so we can make it so.

AND let's resist the temptation to turn Advent into its own consumer frenzy in order to get it right. You and I are both already thinking about just the books we can buy and the cute pinteresty things we can do to live Advent and get it right RIGHT NOW. Again. Sigh. See how insidious that urge to consume more is? 

Look, here's the November supply list:

1. a bag of fair trade coffee or tea

2. a Bible you already have

3. a pen you already have (dig it out from the couch cushions if you must and forget about whether it is colored gel ink in Christmas colors with glittery sparkles. Manger. Food trough. Barn cave. Any pen will do.)

4. Some type of paper bound together in one place. A half stack of Post It notes from the junk drawer will do. You DO NOT need a new prayer journal. Use the last twenty pages of one of the ten you already have.

(I say these things because I love you. And I get you. I am talking to myself. If you were not tempted to do any of those things above, props to you. You're one step ahead of me on this journey.)

Now. Here's where you can have a little fun. Make a space to pray and plan for this Christmas. Choose a space in your home, rearrange a bit, make it feel new and welcoming and waiting. Just like Christmas. Use things you already have as intentional visual reminders in the space about what your goal and purpose is here But your supplies from above there at there at the ready. 

And for the next 30 Days, let's go there together. Every day. And together let's seek the heart of Christmas. And ask God how He would have us change our practices. Let's ask His forgiveness for the ways our need to consume has enslaved His children. Let's beg for their freedom and for ours. Let's pray for those who fight this very real battle on the ground. And those who perpetrate this evil. Let's pray for change. And let us give Him permission to begin with us.

All posts will be linked in the introductory post for the series 
so you can follow along easily if you like

Providing Meaningful Work: A Plan

I wrote here that providing meaningful work for women was one way I had long been thinking about fighting the exploitation and vulnerability of women. I have kicked around these ideas for a few months now and I have finally been able to clarify them into a plan with five aspects. Today I will lay out a bit of an outline of those aspects and then we can begin talking about the things I haven't yet figured out and the needs we have to meet to be able to accomplish this. I explained that I have chosen Blessed Zelie as the patron and so in our projects list, it will be called the Zelie Martin Initiative.

• Aspect 1: Educational Courses

                  It never takes long for people wherever we are living as missionaries to find out that I can teach English and come asking about classes. Sometimes, I get stuck on whether this is a good use of my time or not. But here in Costa Rica, I have discovered, if adults can pass exams in various subjects at various levels, their wages go up. So providing an English class for women is a very worthwhile endeavor. I have already begun talking to the school principal about the possibility of using a class room there. Later, I would like to be able to offer other kinds of classes, like some education in personal finances, health, and maybe literacy if there is a need.

• Aspect 2: Micro-business loans

               There is definitely no shortage of ideas or motivation to work here, especially among the women. And many women have skills well worth offering. Most often the problem is that they lack the necessary investment to get started. The first loan we would like to grant is for a friend who has been studying and building little by little for two years to have her own small beauty salon in front of her home. She has finished her studies and her husband has purchased the wood little by little and built the initial structure. Now she needs the funds to furnish it out with a salon chair, sink, mirror, and professional supplies. In terms of business investment, the amount needed is small, a few thousand dollars, but to her family, it is years worth of savings. Helping her get this project of the ground would grant stability to her family. We have other projects waiting after hers, a woman who would like to teach cake making classes, thus providing meaningful work for her and skill training for other women, a woman who would like to create a small shop in her home to help her daughters pay for college so they do not have to go to work in the city. The list is ongoing. Providing an opportunity for families to create business and income with their own skills or encouraging the acquisition of work skills lessens their vulnerability and the necessity to seek work that places them or their children in danger of being exploited.

• Aspect 3: Women's Artisan Cooperative

            The ability of women to produce beauty with their hands in universally appreciated. It is the same here. The second aspect of the plan is organize a women's cooperative. I would like to first focus on making natural stone versions of the missionary rosary and projects we can make from repurposed t-shirts. You can see some ideas I've started collecting on my Pinterest board. Once we get going on the communal projects, I would then like to invite the participating women to bring in other items they can make to sell or to teach a craft to the other women of the group. The marketing strategy would be to set up a web page to sell the items as well to set up a table monthly in a local farmer's market. We would meet on a Saturday and have Bible study in the morning, then work, break and share lunch together, and finish up in the afternoons. The women could then take various projects home to finish up if needed. However, I want to majority of the work to be accomplished in the communal work setting as I think this aspect is very important. Fellowship, sharing the word of God, breaking bread together and working together all contribute to a structure that lessens the idea feeling of loneliness and desperation among women, thus lessening their vulnerability to the dangerous forces that feed the trafficking machine.

• Aspect 4: Indigenous Women's Cooperative

             The specifics of this aspect of the project are the least clear at this point. It is not possible for many indigenous women to walk from the mountains to participate in the cooperative mentioned above, not to mention the fact that language and culture differences would make it difficult even if they should be able to attend. Of course, they will be invited always. But I would like to also offer an alternative form of participation to the women who must work at home because of distance. Many of the indigenous women are skilled at the craft of beading. I would like to purchase some canvas field bags and market bags and let them have license to decorate them as they like with beads. These can then be included in our marketing.

• Aspect 5: A Partnership

              I will be meeting soon with Maria at Salvando Corazones to flesh out how the St. Bryce Foundation can partner in the work they are doing to fight the injustice of human trafficking and provide the first safe house for victims in Costa Rica. But we would like to dedicate this program, the Zelie Martin Initiative, as a partner for their work. Meaning whatever we raise in funding for this program, we will share equally with them for their work and education programs that will provide a future full of hope for the residents of their safe house. So, if we have a sewing machine on our wish list, and a sponsor donates the item or the funds, we will not move on to the next need until we have donated an equal item or funds to Salvando Corazones.

So, there is the rough outline of the idea. I am ready to put in the work to get it going and keep it going. But I need a lot of help thinking through particulars and acquiring the necessary skills and supplies. That's where you can help. So, let's all keep praying, asking Blessed Zelie's intercession, and then perhaps we will be able to work through the details and create something meaningful and beautiful for the women and families of Costa Rica and for God.

Home Sweet Home

Hola! Bienvenidos a nuestra casa misionera! For you gringos, that's "Hi! Welcome to our missionary home!"
Would you like to come in for a little tour and see what our house looks like here in Grano de Oro?

Well, okay, come on in through the side gate. You'll find yourself in the breeze way that connects our open-air kitchen to the rest of our house. We use it for a casual every day eating area.

See that picture hanging on the back wall? it's a puzzle I brought with us. We built it to celebrate Mardi Gras even though we were far from my beloved NOLA. It's Rex turning down Canal Street!

If you turn to your right from here, you can come in and see our kitchen! It is separate from the house and enclosed in lattice work.

Small Sink

Larger Cement Sink, Woodburning Stove, and Pot Storage

Cabinet/Pantry Space, Counter Space, Oven

Fridge, Laundry Area

(I use that wall as additional pantry storage.)

Well, that's about it for the kitchen. Shall we head over into the main area of the house? The bathroom? Sure, it's right inside the door.

Oh, make sure the you don't throw toilet paper in the potty. The plumbing here is not made for that. That's what that trash can is for. All done? Okay. Let's head over here.

I think this room was destined to be an indoor kitchen at some point, but was never completed. It makes great storage and display for all our school stuff, shoes and other items for coming and going.

Let's go see what Quinn is up to. I think he's in his room.

Yep. There he is. His is the only room downstairs. It's a nice little spot and gives him the chance to display some things that make it feel a little more homey.

I saw an idea on Pinterest using embroidery hoops and fabric to decorate a wall. I thought it would be cute to do with t-shirts. And wooden hoops were inexpensive, light and easy to pack. I'm pretty satisfied with the result.

This is the, um, dining room....where I am folding today's laundry. Some things about a mother's life never change. This nice table does make a nice folding spot and a great space for spreading out for school work or board games or puzzle building. Let's keep walking out that door in the corner. It's really nice out on the patio.

That chair is one of my favorite spots in the whole house. I sit there early in the mornings with my coffee, bible and prayer journal and watch our little town wake up. Tea and knitting in the afternoon. The Kindle and a blanket in the evenings. Yep. I like this spot a lot. And the kids have found it to be a nice play room too.  

Would you like to come upstairs? Okay, follow me.

Here's our little "sala" or living room at the top of the stairs. I've always wanted to live in a log cabin home. I love that the upstairs of this house feels just like a log cabin. Take a peek in that door over there. That's the boys' room.

I love their sweet room. Right now the little boys are using mattresses on the floor to sleep, but we plan to get another double bed for this room.  Their football jerseys and team pictures make such the room cozy and personal, and they were easy to pack too.

More football paraphernalia. And thanks to Drew Brees double duty as inspiration and cover up for the random Rasta man painted on the wall there. Well, only one room left on our tour. Our bedroom is right over here on the other side of the sala.

Isn't it sweet and homey? I spent the months before we left pinning pretty vintage quilts and granny afghans laid out in old barn style homes to my home inspiration board and kind of laughing at myself. I mean, really, where did I think I was moving to?  I packed a few things to try to make our new home feel like "us" but quilts and afghans were a bit much. I resolved to use the things we were given and only buy the things that were not made available to us when we arrived. Imagine my delight in the Lord on the night we arrived when I found this quilt and afghan tucked in the stack of blankets I was handed.  

God loves us so well, doesn't He? Right down to all the little details.

Add in the amazing views out of our windows....

A little vintage pretty that I brought from home...

A place to store clothes ( yes, that is our shared dresser and closet)

Some lovely art to look at on the walls and a little corner for the computer and we have all we need to feel comfortable, happy, and at home in our house here.  I hope you've enjoyed your little tour. As you can see, we have plenty of space, so come visit us any time!