Small Things

João and I are not, by nature, terribly adventuresome. You won’t see photos of mountain climbing or even lots of sight seeing. We enjoy and nice meal with friends, a good book and doing the things we enjoy. Consequently the cold and the rain make little difference to our enjoyment. And chilly and rainy it has been. There are places we would like to go and things to see in our area, but as long as it’s overcast and rainy, we will just stay put. Last night, for instance,  I was able to finish another water color and I just loved working on the Green Goddess Lilly. I think (but am unsure) that I watercolor is my medium. I just seem to feel at ease and am able to dominate the use of the paint and produce pictures I really like.

Today we awoke to blue skies and a warm sun. Before heading to church, we visited historic Curitiba and the art fair. We bought several things and I really enjoyed looking at everything at th e fair, but I especially enjoyed seeing the colorful old buildings. I just cannot get into drawing buildings, but these made me want to be able to do so.  The church, by the way, is Presbyterian. It’ beauty made me want to worship there. I have decided I am becoming a stick in the mud. I like “old” things. I like liturgy. I like hymns. I like worship with a certain order and formality.

Speaking of worship, I had an interesting experience, as I attended the English speaking church, which meets at First Baptist of Curitiba. I enjoyed singing hymns and reading the Bible in English. I was even treated to hearing an orchestra play. After church, we went to Madalosso, at one time the largest restaurant in the world. What a place, with room for 2500 people. As you can see, by this time it was rainy and had become quite chilly. Inside, however, it was lovely and cozy, as they served us family style. I won’t go into rapture of the fried chicken, pastas (served family style as much as you wanted to eat), risoto, fried polenta, etc., etc. You can just drool imagining it.

We with any good Baptists, Sunday afternoon was devoted to … naps! Our caretaker left us a big bag of pinhão (pine nuts) and I cooked them and we cracked them of our afternoon snack. Like I said, a very FAT chance of me losing weight these days. What a very lovely day, however. I will confess, I missed my own church, but that is good for me, for gradually I will become anxious to return home. Just not yet…

The Last Rose of Summer

We continue to have a marvelous time here in our “little” vacation house. It is so lovely and nice, makes us not want to do anything except just “hang-out” at home and snap a lot of photos. This rose is just one of many of the flowers and plants around here. Since there is so much glass in the house, I just pull up a rocker by the windows and sit and look at the beauty. I have a heard time finishing my books. I find myself just stopping to gaze out the window and just sit and be quiet.

Yesterday we did get out to spend the day with a pastor who studied at the seminary with João. What a fun visit we had together. I loved hearing the old stories.

Today our wonderful neighbors invited us to a barbeque, so we enjoyed great food, as well as good company. Nothing like meat/chicken cooked on on a spit over wood. It is delicious. Our lunch lasted until almost 5, as we sat and visited and drank coffee. I am drinking lots of coffee and tea, as it’s nice just to hold the warm cup.

Tomorrow we have plans to hit an art fair before church, attend First Baptist, and then eat out at the largest restaurant in the world (according to Guinness) here in Curitiba (Madalosso), so I don’t know if I’ll get back with you, but you can be sure we’ll have a great Lord’s Day.

Suzy, Pioneer Homemaker

Today it poured rain here and the temperatures dropped some and so the house was chilly. I decided to light the wood stove. Yeah, right, that was easy for me. I shredded paper, I used a lighter, I burned more paper and then more paper. Did it light? Well let’s just say there was a lot of smoke and no fire. As you can see, it did get lit, but no thanks to my efforts, unless you count the fact that I put the wood in and the smoke drove my husband to help me. He got it going in no time and soon things were quite hot around here. I put on the soup to cook and in no time at all it was done. I had to finish it over on the barbecue because I was afraid it would burn. I heated up some of the wonderful provolone cheese bread in the oven and it was all crusty and hot to go with the soup. What a fun way to cook … well fun after the smoke got cleared out of the room and the stove heated up. I am currently boiling water that we will cool and can use to drink tomorrow. I NEVER imagined that I would use a wood cook stove. It’s actually just a novelty, for it’s a lot of work and not very practical, but I suppose I would eventually get the hang of it.

Today I worked on painting and was very pleased with the tulip I produced, albeit copied from one of my art books. I did it in red rather than the original purple, because I just like red better!  I am currently working on a still life with bottles. The owners of the house must have been heavy drinkers as there are lots of interesting wine and liquor bottles all around the house.

Just so you can get the idea that it’s not all work on and no play, you can see the hammock we both use to do our reading.  I guess you have figured out that although one week of our vacation has already been spent, we are not anywhere near finished having fun.

Roasting Pine Nuts

As I mentioned yesterday, I love araucárias, the Paraná Pines. Last year I saw lots of bags of “pine nuts”, pinhão, for sale, but didn’t really “get” it. Turns out they are from the Pines and they are a somewhat similar to Chestnuts. You cook them (in the pressure cooker) and they have a meaty interior. It might not be everyone’s piece of cake, but me, I am IN LOVE.

Today as we were walking around the property with our neighbor, he began collecting the pine nuts and asked us to help. So we did, although I had no idea what was going on. Not only am I a city kid, but I am not from Brazil. My comfort is that João didn’t know anything about them either. They are distinctive to the mountainous, cooler regions of Brazil. So we collected them and Eliane cooked them in the pressure cooker. The next step was eating them. Yummy. I cannot describe them, for if you have never had a roasted chestnut, you have no idea what they are like.  Too bad for you, for I am sure we will be eating them in heaven.

So now I have a new addiction, that fortunately I will not be able to “feed” in Rio. João says we can throw away some clothes here and fill our car with them to take home. I gather, however, they are only good when they are fresh.

As you can see, where we are staying is really lovely. Look at all the Spanish moss. Isn’t that a sight? This trail is along the creek that runs from our neighbors' house down to ours as well. I feel like I am living in a national park or something.  It is so naturally beautiful here.

We took a run into Curitiba today and visited a winery in the Italian neighborhood of “Saint  Happiness” (Santa Felicidade). We bought some non-alcoholic “hot wine” with cinnamon and cloves  (Quentão) that is to die for. Man, my goal was to lose weight on vacation. I can see those plans going down the drain. Here in a bit, maybe we’ll light the fireplace, heat some of the “Quentão” and enjoy a chunk of cheese. Oh to the good life!

On the Road Again

I know I have abandoned you, but I have been busy and now I am out of town. I was getting ready for our long awaited vacation. I think things have settled down and we really feel like we are on vacation. I don’t really have internet, but sporadically I have been able to access it, so once in a while I can write something on my blog.

When we left town last Friday, I was excited to get to be with Marilene after almost a year of not seeing her. We had two wonderful days together to try and catch up a bit. Fortunately we will also have a little time on the way home. It was good to break up our trip, since it was about 5 hours to her house and about 7 hours for the rest of the trip. We had great weather and road conditions for travel, which was a pleasant surprise.

Although we knew we would be staying at a nice house, we really didn’t expect the paradise we encountered. Our minister of music’s sister arranged the house, as they live right next door. They cleaned and organized the house and even left us with a cake and tea and coffee for our breakfast. 

After living in a high rise in a metropolis, you have no idea how wonderful it is for me to see GREEN, hear birds and just take in the beautiful world God has made.   We are definitely not suffering.  There is a great hammock in our living room and we try to take turns enjoying it and our books.

If you know me, you know I have a little black cloud that follows me around. There has been  a drought here, but on Monday we awoke to rain. It is supposed to rain all week. That’s fine with me. This morning, however, there was sun when I got up and I was able to get out and walk the property for a while, as well as read the Bible by the lake and do some sketching.

It is not as chilly as I expected, so I even shed my jacket and laid on the wall by the lake and just soaked in the nature. If you remember from last year, I just LOVE the Paraná pines (Araucárias) and we have a whole forest of them around us. I am no botanist, but I was  most surprised to see gourds in a tree. I don’t know if they are a fruit of the tree, or is they are parasites, but I had never seen that before. That is the gourd that is used to make the “cuia” that is used to drink “chimarrão” (João’s famous green tea). So I appeal to my scientifically minded friends to tell me. (The photo is to the right). 

At night we sleep to the sound of the frogs (and this morning I even had one to say good morning to me as it hopped around the living room). We hear all the roosters and chickens as well. I have a thing for these free range creatures and keep stopping to watch them. Guess it shows that I am a city girl. I think the coloring of the rooster is just gorgeous and am hoping to draw or paint him. He won’t, however, sit still to pose for me. When he got this close as I was meditating this morning, I had to snap a photo.

As I was up early, I caught the dew, not on the roses but on the lemon tree. I have enough lemons to make some juice. Doesn’t that sound grand?

I think you can see that we are having a great time. Hope you are enjoying life as much as we are these days. Life is VERY good for us.

Getting Older

Yesterday morning when I got up I gave thanks to God that in 1955 that João was born. I thought about calling his parents to thank them. I am so grateful that João was born and came into my life. So although, technically it was his day of celebration, it was also mine.

It was joyful to be able to say to him how happy I am that he is part of my life. I love so many things about him. I love his joy and sense of humor. I love his commitment to sharing the good news of Jesus and shepherding his flock. I admire his intelligence and ability to learn new things. I appreciate this thoughtfulness, tenderness and gratefulness.  I like him and I love him.

So happily we gathered the family together for a birthday dinner. We all enjoyed a nice fondue dinner, with a frozen lemon cheesecake for dessert. A fun time was had by all. And don’t we form a handsome group? I am so glad  we have birthdays as excuses to get together and eat and talk and laugh and look at old photos and remember and say THANK-YOU. Be sure to tell someone you love how they are important to you!

MUCH better!

Sorry I was grumpy the other day! I thought about erasing my entries, but then the damage is done, as you already read them. After much prayer, I feel much better about EVERYTHING. I so hate feeling “controlled” by circumstance and not by the Holy Spirit.

My house is clean and my clothes are all ironed. Today I worked on packing suitcases for vacation. I have one full of clothes and two others full of books and art supplies. Another one is full of bedding and towels, blankets and the like. In addition I have several miscellaneous bags of “stuff”, as I have to take dishes, pans, lots of things to keep of warm, etc. This year I’ll not pack food, as we’ll have our car and be close to a grocery store. We’ve talked to the friends who arranged the home (they live next door!) and so we know we have a nice fireplace and wood to keep up warm (or at least try). We are hoping there won’t be a serious cold snap, just chilly enough to be fun. We are taking two ceramic space heaters and that should help a lot. We ordered 9 new books from Amazon that arrived last month and I have hardly been able to keep my hands off of them, but they are packed for our reading delight. Today I downloaded 2 audio books to listen to in the car on my mp3 player, as well as 5 old movies. I am slowly working my way through the AFI’s list of the best 100 films, so I’ll be seeing things like Ben Hur (I was too young to see it when it came out), All About Eve, Fantasia, The Thief of Bagdad, etc. Doesn’t that sound like fun? We won’t have internet (argh… a month without internet!!!!!), but I think we will survive. I am making lists of things to get done before leaving, as it is only a week away (yipee!!!!!!!!!!).

Last night I went back to art class and am desperately trying to figure out how I can manage two more classes before vacation… I loved it. I didn’t realize I had missed the company of everyone so much. She started a new phase for us in which we are working toward developing our own style, instead of merely copying what we see. I am so ready for that! It was so much fun. We studied a Cezanne and then had to sketch, as quickly as possible the still life using only a skeleton outline and then fill in with colors the form. I did it quickly, with no attention to detail. I thought it looked really free form, but my teacher says it is still realistic. Oh my, this is going to be harder than I thought, although she did say it was a good first step. Don’t laugh at it. It is what we call a “study” not a finished work. So the next time, I’ll try to do it more abstractly. That’s why I want two more lessons before vacation. I plan on having serious fun painting and drawing. I am taking stacks of paper, supplies and books with exercises on abstract art. I think a month will not be near enough time to do all this fun stuff. Til then, I had best get back to work!

One Almost Dead Cat

I am seriously tempted to wring Mia’s neck. I had just finished this post, when she waltzed across my keyboard and erased the entire thing. How? I have no idea. Where did the draft go? I also don’t know. But here I go again. Like I had nothing better to do today!!!

The title was “It Takes Longer to Live Here”. When I arrived in Brazil 26 years ago, one of the older missionaries (probably younger than I am now *sigh*) warned me that it takes longer to live in Brazil, meaning that the simple things of life are not so simple here. That’s true today, even with so many improvements and “updates”.

I was thinking about this morning as I “piddled” in the kitchen for several hours. First off, I did my Monday laundry, waiting some 30-40 minutes for the machine to fill, meaning it took over one hour for it to finish. When it did finish I had to hang it up. Don’t you love the ingenious system of pulleys that give us room to walk under the clothes? By the way,the object on the right, with the chimney, is my hot water heater. It heats on demand only. I am excited that this week, I should be picking up my used clothes dryer. I hope I can stand the electricity bills for using it!

As the clothes finished, I worked on lunch. I washed the beans and put them on to cook for about an hour. Let’s hear it for my new stainless steel pressure cooker. Isn’t it beautiful? Yes, I do polish it after every use, which is almost on a daily basis.  Once it got on, I cleaned the whole grain red rice and put it on to cook for about an hour. Then I cleaned and chopped the fresh green beans, cleaned the fish and put it to marinade in freshly squeezed lemon juice. While those were going, I could grind my coffee, make my espresso (see the Italian espresso maker on the stove?) and blend my homemade yogurt (made on Saturday) with blueberries and bananas. Then I could sit down for a while until it was time to bake the fish. I know my body thanks me for the healthy food, but I do miss opening a package of frozen veggies or a can of beans…

Tomorrow I will need to market, so I’ll go the fruit/vegetable place for fresh produce, the bakery for bread and a small market for staples. I could go to the big supermarket for everything, but their prices are high, quality low and checkout lines long and slow (like at least 30 minutes).

Am I complaining that it takes longer to do things here? Of course I am. Sorry about that. I have made my choices and I could take short cuts, I know that. Everything we do has a price to be paid. But sometimes I find it tiresome to spend so much time just to do the basics. Enough, enough. I must go iron about a foot of wrinkled clothes. Fun, fun, fun! Gotta love being Suzie Homemaker. In all seriousness, isn’t it wonderful that I get to serve my family in this way? I am privileged!

Still Missed

There are three days of the year when I miss Emily and William. March 9, August 19 and today. You never met them. I was the only one who knew them, but I did love them, even for such a very short time. They were my children. I never got to hold them, and didn’t know their sex, but I had chosen those names for them, so I think of them as Emily and William.  As I wrote some years ago, the burden of their loss has long been lifted from my shoulders, but on the days when they died I always remember. And today. Mother’s day. I miss a hug and a kiss and even miss opening a present. I miss them. I always have and I always will. Sometimes I look at 15 year olds and I imagine how they might have been.

At times,  on Mother’s Day,  I feel like Hannah when her husband asked: “Aren’t I better than 10 sons?”. Silly question. Who would even be crazy enough to trade one for another? Apples and oranges! But that is the kind of feeble attempt that so many people make. I accept people’s good will with their good intents. I don’t ask for sympathy, though, just an acceptance of the fact that my children are missed by me. That I miss being loved in that kind of way. Lots of women do. We go on with our lives. We are happy and content. But trust me, Mother’s Day is never totally easy for us.

As Romans tells us, I rejoice with those who rejoice. I am joyful to have a WONDERFUL mother. I am happy for all the Mother’s who celebrate with their family. I even held a newborn today and had a “happy dance” with the Mother, as she celebrates her very first mother’s day! My heart overflows for her happiness.

I guess, however, we all have a harder time weeping with those who weep and we want to offer lots of consolation and make it all fine. I understand that. I know I have lots of spiritual children. I know I have been blessed in a million ways. I love my life. I AM happy. I don’t need to be made to feel better. I just need people to understand that I am not angry. I am not bitter. I am not regretful. I am not even hurt. I just have this sadness for having missed out on being a Mother. I need the freedom to say that. If you want to weep with me, you can, but please don’t take away my right to mourn my loss. Today, once again, I trust my children to the hands of my Heavenly Father. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

"Red sun at night, sailor’s delight” or so goes the old saying. Tomorrow promises to be gorgeous, but today was a wonderful day as well. I love this time of year when it is sunny and neither too hot nor cold.

I am happy to report that the family life conference ended well last night and Pr. Irland returned home this morning. I had a lot to do getting the house ready to receive my 9 students, and making lunch, especially since it was a very late night last night. I confess, I was tired this morning, and wasn’t sure I could get everything done. João was at church at a wonderful worship service commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Military Police of Rio. I had forgotten how much I depend on his help to get things done.

Nevertheless, everything was ready on time and surprisingly the kids enjoyed the food, right down to the cole slaw and baked beans. They even ate pickles. I think it was a very special treat, as they aren’t allowed soft drinks, sweets, or chocolates except on special occasions. I love young people, so I really enjoyed their company and getting to know them as “people” not just students.

It was their “final” exam, as they told stories from Jesus’ life and led in discussions. I was so pleased to see their progress since the beginning of the semester. As they commented on how they had learned to really “look” into God’s word and begin to interpret it on their own, I was overjoyed to see this class was not in vain and their lives had been touched. João even stuck around to hear their stories and commented that this group will definitely be contributing positively to the Kingdom of God. The guys really gravitated to João and seem to hang onto everything he had to say. I gave the girls a copy of my new book and the guys a copy of João’s book. It was a wonderful afternoon!

The living room needs another cleaning and the sink has lots of dirty dishes. The washing machine is full of dirty sheets and tableclothes and I have another dentist appointment to fill a cavity, so my week is ending with a big bang of WORK! I hope tomorrow, our day off, will be a little relaxing and I can get back to my routine of exercise and healthy eating (I don’t think sloppy joes and baked beans and chocolate cake qualifies on that score). See ya around…

Just a hello

Thought I’d just check in a say a little hello and let you know all is okay. We are staying busy with the family life conference that is going well at church. The attendance is pretty good and everyone seems to really enjoy Pr. Irland’s sermons.

Around our house it’s been interesting as we have been without electricity off and on since Sunday. We had a generator truck out front, but it was not always reliable. That’s when it’s not fun living on the 16th floor. The electricity finally got back to normal today, for which I am grateful. I’m not sure which is worse – climbing up the stairs which is tiring and going down them that just kills my legs. We also had a pipes burst down the street and there was no water for a while, although our building brought in water trucks to supply us.

Before the conference got started, I was able to finish my 3rd painting of the tulips, this time in acrylics, with an effort made to do a less realistic work, more of an impressionistic style. So now you know it’s not out of “focus”, but a “looser” style of painting. It was actually fun and went quickly. Surprisingly, however, it made me nervous to try something different. Once I took the plunge, I found it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I want to do one or two more interpretations of the tulips, but I am not sure what I want to do. A pastel in negative colors? A super, super realistic colored pencil? Won’t it be fun when I finish them all and frame them all together?

Labor Day

Yes, yes, I know in the US and Canada it is Mayday (and I wouldn’t mind dancing around a maypole and giving away mayday baskets, but I don’t think that is done anymore),  but it is a real holiday here in Brazil. Yes, yes, I know we had two holidays last week, but today is labor day here. Consequently, we are off work. I am not sure if we are celebrating that we work, or that we don’t have to work, but actually makes little difference to me since this is our day off anyway.

Still, I decided to enjoy the day, despite what appears to be a cold or allergies (who knows, as I always have something like this in May). This morning I made a brunch, as I seemed to be the only one who didn’t sleep seriously late (if you don’t consider 8:00 late) and had some time. I didn’t do anything fancy, but the family enjoyed the fried eggs and waffles (with ricotta cheese, chocolate spread, strawberry jam, and ham paté). I enjoyed the chlorophyll juice (made from wheat grass, cucumbers, spinach, squash and apples) and homemade raspberry yoghurt (can you believe I found fresh raspberries here???) .

By the time we got up from the table and got going on cleaning up it was afternoon. So I decided to work on a Degas drawing I started the other day. Only I changed directions and instead of doing a graphite drawing, decided to take it to charcoal and pastel. I was pleased with the results, especially because the paper didn’t really have enough “tooth” to grip the pastel properly. Nevertheless, the result was pretty nice. I love pastels, but they are so messy that I usually just don’t drag them out. I went for a monochromatic black/white effect. It went pretty quickly and I had fun actually drawing again. The hard thing for me in art is deciding what I really like the best. Drawing? Watercolors? Acrylics? Pastels? Deciding that is one of my goals for this year, but I don’t seem any closer to deciding.

Yesterday I had a great class with the missionaries in training. I have really connected with this group and will miss them, as last week is my last class. I intend to have them over for a cross-cultural lunch next week. Baked beans, sloppy joes, potato salad and cole slaw with chocolate cake. Can’t get much more classically american than that. Can’t wait for them to try the baked beans. (In case you don’t get that, ask any foreigner what they think of putting brown sugar into beans).  I’ll let you know their reactions.

Sunday we start our “Family-life” conference. The pastor who will be preaching (Dr. Irland Azevedo) is staying with us. I am excited about that, as he is an absolute “icon” in Baptist circles, but I have never had much contact with him. What a privilege! I know, then, you’ll understand if I abandon you for a few days. Happy Labor day!