La Vida Loca!

We had a quiet day at home today. It's kind of a rainy, cloudy day, and the kids were content to hang out at home, particularly because Liam and Ryan came over for the day. I make chicken soup and popovers for lunch, and it was a big hit. This is my third try at making popovers, and they are still not coming out right. They don't rise very high, and they're not full of air. Could be the alititude. I'll keep fiddling with the recipe. I've decided to make a recipe book while I'm here of all the things I CAN cook here, so I don't get discouraged with the process. The kids aren't hard to please; their favorite meal is a can of tuna dumped on hot rice. Thank God for rice cookers! I used my crock pot to make the soup today, and it came out really well. Maybe tomorrow I'll make another batch of homemade spaghetti, another crowd pleaser.

Catie and Ryan almost gave me heart failure today. They have strict instructions NOT to play in the guest house (this after I caught them jumping off the top bunk) and NOT to leave our property. Considering that our property is about a half acre or so of little paths amid wild undergrowth, plus the gardens that are somewhat under control, they have a lot of space to play in. I keep an ear out for them while they are outside, and when I hadn't heard them for a few minutes I sent Kevin and Liam to investigate. No Catie and Ryan. OK, I figured they must be at the bottom of the property, on the lower paths in front of the house, so I didn't panic. They weren't there. By this point I was yelling "Catie" loud enough to be hear in Santa Elena, and the girls still didn't appear. I finally caught sight of them through the trees, on the path leading back from Ryan's house. Such a relief. It's not that I think that they might be kidnapped, but there are so many things that could happen outside here that I don't have to think about in Florida. Snakes, tarantulas, falls down a cliff... Childhood here is way more interesting.

Right now the house and everything around it is in a big cloud. I'm going to take the kids for a walk to tire them out. It's really fun and mysterious running through clouds.