hush, puppy

So while my hubby and father in Law are both out of town this month, I am staying with the in laws. Its nice to not be alone, and we definitely have a full household: My kids and me, my brother and sister in law, my mother in law Maria and Charlie’s cousin Cecilia. Maria has the task of running her husband's business while he is away, which is turning out to be a way more involving job than we originally thought. It means that she is gone most of the day, sometimes till nine or ten at night. It’s a lot of stress for her, and a little bit of unexpected stress for me, since someone still needs to be here to run the household. Making dinner for more people every night has been fine and I’ve been glad to do it, but answering the door and phone all the time, no fun at all. I’m really glad that the maid, Mirium is here during the day, otherwise I think I wouldn’t be able to do any of it. My kids are small enough that they make it difficult to finish tasks. My brother and sister in law are luckily old enough to take care of themselves and even watch my kids some times, so that lessens the load too. Mostly I’m just glad to be useful. And it’s fun to be giving everyone here a little taste of American cuisine. They have all been to the states before of course, but whenever there they just cook Bolivian food. Kentucky Fried Chicken is about as American as they go. I’m not the greatest cook, but I do know how to follow a recipe, so I’ve tried making new things from Allrecipes.com every night. I have made hush puppies, and sloppy joes, and fresh broccoli salad, and lots of deserts like peanut butter bars and no bake cookies. Honestly, Michelle and Jason won’t really eat most of it, but they don’t usually eat dinner anyway, so Maria assures me they aren’t going hungry. At least now they can’t get mad at all the American kids who won’t try the Bolivian food, cuz they’ll know it goes both ways. Of course It’s strange though what kids will think is weird, I didn’t think my ham and potato soup looked that scary. Boy I can’t wait for Charlie to come home though! Their internet in China is intermittent and their daylight is the exact opposite of ours, so communication has been hard. Only two more weeks!