3 strikes... but not out!

Strike 1: We tried to go to Church on Sunday for the first time in months (we've been traveling every weekend), but I couldn't remember how to get there. It's outside the city and not near anything else I'm familiar with, I didn't have the address, and Erik was out of town. So I relied on Google Maps and got hopelessly lost, on and off buses and walking through random parts of Seville for two hours. Finally, after giving up and boarding a bus to head home, Stone looked up suddenly and yelled "THE CHURCH!!!" And there it was! We hopped out of the bus and went in, but just sat in the foyer for 5 minutes - we had missed the first two meetings, the Sacrament was over, and the chapel was too full to accommodate us for the sermons. Home again, home again, jiggedy jig. The kids didn't complain even once!

Strike 2: Homemaking. I have been wanting to do a parody of our house in comparison to http://www.designmom.com/. Several people have asked me if I know about her, since like me, she is a Mormon Mom on an international adventure (and I did reference her blog before we moved here - she and her family of 8 lives in France). Her blog is unbelievably gorgeous and charming (she's a professional designer)... and now famous. I love it. So my parody would only be to illustrate how NOT Design Mom I am in Spain, with my checkered vinyl tablecloth and my kids' Art scotch taped to the walls. Then there is another Mormon Mom blogging phenomenon, http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/, which I referenced when my kids were dying for comfort food and I wanted to make mac'n'cheese (which doesn't exist in a box in Spain). I read her detailed, witty instructions, followed them carefully (sort of), and produced what can only be described as wallpaper paste meets Son of Flubber. Later this week I made an old standby recipe I got from my dear friend Kayla years ago, Sweet Potato Lentil soup... and it overcooked in the most curious way - the vegetables caramelized like crazy and then burned so it ended up tasting like a candied campfire log. Not tasty. I really did used to be a good cook! 

Strike 3: Today was a huge workers' strike and demonstration all throughout the country. The kids had school, but only a few teachers and about 1/3 of the students were there - everyone was in the streets protesting. Stone and I wanted to have a snack together, but every single cafe and store in the city was closed, and the streets were overflowing with sign-toting, shouting, horn-blowing demonstrators. We were fascinated and conversing about freedom of speech, when suddenly we heard what sounded like a gunshot. It wasn't a gunshot (what do they use to make those horribly loud, startling blasts?? A ball of smoke shoots into the sky with a deafening "pop")... but I suddenly realized that these demonstrations don't always stay peaceful, that I was woefully ignorant of the situation and had no business moseying around a demonstration in a foreign country with my four-year-old. We headed to the park and watched at a safer distance - I was amazed at the volume of people completely shutting down the huge thoroughfare in the heart of Sevilla, and I thought of protests and revolutions I'd learned about  and kept getting chills as I witnessed this moment in History. This op-ed piece explains a bit, and is in line with the opinions I heard voiced by other parents at the park today.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/14/why-we-striking-against-austerity-europe

My least favorite part of the strike is that all flights and trains were cancelled, stranding Erik in Madrid for 11 hours. He has been out of town, and was supposed to be home at 2:00... now he won't be home until 1:00 am. We miss him!! 

Three strikes... but we're still in the game. This matador right here and his three Flamenco-dancing sisters, and the guy who's finally on his way home from Madrid right now... keep me in the game.