It’s March and Spring is fast approaching, if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere. Before the southeast of Mexico hits 115 degrees, I’ll quickly share my Winter Favorites list. If you missed my Fall Favorites, you can find them here. The Book World: I made an unwritten goal this year to step out of my comfort…
Happy 8th Glory Day
Dull sublunary lovers' love (Whose soul is sense) cannot admit Absence, because it doth remove Those things which elemented it. But we by a love so much refined, That our selves know not what it is, Inter-assured of the mind, Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss. Our two souls therefore, which are one, …
Let’s Travel! Campeche, Campeche
Is this post cheating? maybe. I'm not doing much writing. Instead, it's an invitation for you to pack those bags and travel to one of the most iconic cities in the southeast of Mexico. Walled and fortressed against pirate attack by the Spanish, Campeche was a hexagonal shaped, compact colonial city founded in the 16th…
News Updates are Boring
But people, sometimes they're the only way to just get the info out there. So, the second week of February we were in Oaxaca. I wrote about that here. The week or so after we got back, I began having bimonthly get-togethers with the sisters. We meet and eat cake and exchange burdens and ask…
Sorry, I Can’t Sing That One
When you’re missionaries or church planters or whatever you want to call people in that sort of ministry, you sometimes (often….) have some fairly small meetings. It’s your family and a few others and so from a tender age, you instruct your children to make sure they belt out the hymns. Actual singing ability is…
Let’s Have Tea
Maybe you could sit with me here awhile. I'll make you tea in my pretty green pot and set out a tray with chocolates and cookies. There will be a bundle of oleanders and cannas in an old pickle jar, because does anyone actually buy vases any more? I'd like to hold your hand. To…
For the Kids and the Grandpas
There is a gift my children have only half received. I feel in some ways like we've all been gypped, but then, that would be denying God's wisdom. The other half will have to be given them by us, telling the old stories that can't help but embed themselves into their impressionable consciouses. They had…
That Feeling of Smallness
Thursday night I was getting ready for bed when David came in from several visits. “Penelope!!” he whispered lest he rouse little miss G from her light slumber. I heard his excitement but could little guess what the next words would be. “Doña I.... was saved last night during meeting.” “What?!” I replied, incredulous and…
The One Room School House
and a few other points of Interest from the Alves Home Gone are the days of my coveted slow farmhouse breakfast. I distractedly shovel some cheerios and blueberries toward the teething baby who throws most of them to the floor while banging her tray for more. My mind is on Spanish adjectives and math facts…
Hi I’m 30, plus Life Update
My desk is a mess. It's covered in cut out foam letters and stencils and scraps. There's a stack of books and an even huger one behind me. File folders and spreadsheets. Leaning against the wall is a newly framed Rand McNally Map of the World, Classic Edition. I'm wondering how this is all going…
penelope alves 