A migraine attack rather wrecked my plans for the day.  Getting some work done at home, some errands, a Bible study… I had great plans, most of which went out the window.

But I’m not one for sitting around.  If I can’t go out, I’ll do something in the house.  If I can’t stand up, maybe I can sit and work.  If I can’t sit, I can sit up in bed and read.  If I can’t read, I can listen to something.  If I can’t even listen, I can think over something.  If I’m beyond that, I better hope I can sleep!

Today at the "can’t go out but can still stand up" phase, I made some rice pudding with Nathanael.

My Grandmother Cottrill used to make great rice pudding.  Her’s was baked, but this was stove top.  A great recipe, though.

Arroz con Leche (rice pudding) is a classic Mexican dessert.  This is my own version with organic whole grain rice, but still very Mexican with cinnamon and lime.  Delish.  I ate a warm bowl at the "can’t stand up but can sorta sit up" phase.

So in the absence of much excitement today, the arroz con leche makes it as my picture of the day.

We have a bad habit.  There’s a Krispy Kreme at the airport in Mexico City (one at each terminal, actually).  And yes, we have a habit of getting a doughnut when we go to the airport.  It’s not exactly Tim Hortons, but it’s not bad.

Today we went to drop off Brittany, who has been here taking photos for CAM International (soon to be Camino Global).  Brittany is on the plane right now (as far as we know), heading to Uruguay.  She won’t be arriving until tomorrow morning.

We’ll miss Brittany!  It was fun having her around, and I know she took some great pictures.  Thanks, Brittany!

Anyway, while we were hanging out with her, we went to Krispy Kreme and discovered they have everything… except doughnuts.

Come back in half an hour, we were told.

So we did, and we got some raspberry fills.

Here are Hannah and Nathanael with their brand new long awaited doughnuts.

This is a Chinese food place in the food court at a local mall.  As you can see, it’s called Hong Fat Chinese Express.  Are you inspired to come and try a little Chinese cuisine here in Ixtapaluca?

On Sunday, Shari Hannah and Nathanael were a bit under the weather.  When I got home from our morning service, Nathanael was feeling quite a bit better, Hannah was so-so, and Shari wasn’t feeling well stil.

So, to keep Nathanael entertained, he and I decided to make sushi.  That’s all.  Here’s the video proof.

I’ve successfully restored another album in our gallery.  It was a new one when our gallery got fried, so you might not have seen it before.

It’s a collection of pictures featuring birthday cakes that Shari has made for the kids.  I think we have all of them in there now, except for the cakes from this year (which are still in our Recent shots… album).

So check them out!  Maybe you’ll get a new idea for your next party.

An event is starting around now in Jesús María to celebrate the closing of classes.  It’s a bit of a Holy Week (Semana Santa) theme as well.  There will be participation from my keyboard class, from the guitar class, and the English classes.  There will be a big game with English and music questions.  And who knows what else!

The Amigas del Alma baking class will also be celebrating the close of another series of classes.  I made up the video below for their part of the event.

Should be fun!  I’ll let you know how it went!

This morning I got this email from Sam’s Club.  It says,"Flavours of Canada; Enjoy our variety of products".

I guess everyone is celebrating the Olympics in their own way…

Just a quick video clip that I took back on the 18 of this month.  It was recess time, and the Cotton Candy Man was ready to go.  And being a windy day, it was more fun than usual.

(It was one of our friends, a boy named Olaf, who first got the enterprising idea of using a hula hoop, though that’s not him in the video)

I’ve made this a topic of conversation lately with some of my Mexican friends, so I thought I should share it with a wider audience.

A few weeks ago we were standing around after a worship service on a Sunday morning.  One of the young guys (Alberto) at the church had a little bowl of ice cream of sherbet or something, and he offered some to Nathanael.  Nathanael, of course, was happy to have some.

A few minutes later I was chatting with Alberto and happened to mention that Nathanael had been sick and was just getting over it.

Alberto’s eyes opened wide and this look of horror came over him.

Why?

I don’t know about you (fellow Canadians), but when I was young and got sick and had a sore throat, one of the best things to have was ice cream.  Ah, soothe the cool, burning inflammation with that nice smooth cold creamy stuff.  Great idea!  Anything cold on the throat felt great.

In stark contrast, here in Mexico the common belief is that cold is the worst thing for you.  In fact, it might have made you sick in the first place.

Canadians actually stand between two extremes.  People from the US typically like to fill their glass with ice.  Mexicans, on the other hand, will often have no ice at all.  That cold could make you sick!  Canadians typically avoid either extreme in this case.  But from what I’ve seen, when a Canadian is sick they’re more likely to have something cold.

Poor Alberto thought that he had made the problem worse by giving sick Nathanael ice cream.

Who’s right?  I’ll leave the doctors and scientists to check it out.  Meanwhile, I don’t eat ice cream as much as I used to, since it’s so hard to find any with actual "cream" as a major ingredient!

At Hannah’s school, all the students have the opportunity to take a special class of their choice on Fridays.  For the first semester, Hannah chose beading – making bracelets and things like that.  So each Friday she came home with a new creation.

This semester she chose the sweets-making class.   So we are the beneficiaries of special desserts every Friday.

I thought I’d stop by and show you an example of one of her creations.  Today she came home with these Hannah-made chocolate truffles.  We still have a few left over – stop by and try one (just don’t bring too many friends – our supply is limited)!