We had another uneventful day here in Mexico. We are very strict about staying indoors and “sheltering” here. On Day 1 of this trip, we registered ourselves with the embassy here and they frequently send out emails and text messages when needed. We are getting a lot more communication from the embassy as of late.

The Embassy did a Facebook live event yesterday, with questions and answers. The bottom line is, in the very very unlikely event that Mexico closes its borders, we, as US citizens can still drive into the United States. That’s in the event air travel is suspended and we can’t find a flight out.

Our friends and family have been very worried about us being able to get home. We hear you, we acknowledge your fears, but we are safer from the virus where we are then back home. Much safer. I know you’re all reading news stories and watching the 24 hour news cycle. Every time a person texts us about a news story about the Mexican/US border, I have probably read the article a few days prior. We aren’t nearly close to even discussing coming home yet. In the event that we do head home before our planned departure date in July, we probably won’t blog about it until we are back safely in the States. Enough about the pandemic drama.

After lunch we drove around town looking for a park. We would not stop if the park had people in it. Low and behold we found an abandoned grassy area for us to ply soccer in. It was nice and peaceful, until we started competing. There was no one around thought and it gave the kids some much needed physical activity.

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After playing soccer, we went home and let the kids watch a few movies on YouTube. They watched “Super Libro”, otherwise know as “Super Book”. They kind of enjoyed it. Bonnie made shrimp fried rice for dinner and then we put the kids to bed. *

Today was another uneventful day. I went downstairs to do some IT work for a couple of the chrome books during the kids schooling. I got. Couple good pictures of them clowning around a bit. I spent the morning working in my office. It’s odd, the courts are closed until April 7, and I can’t file anything until then, but I’m still getting emails from the court examiners telling me I need to file certain documents or risk some cases being dropped from calendar.

For lunch we had leftovers. The kids afterwards read their books and played indoor bowling. They also created their own puppet theatre using their socks as sock puppets. See the photo below.

After our prayer meeting at 2pm, we let the kids watch movies. The boys are really into Hercules lately and the girl is slowly making her way through the Harry Potter films. Bonnie put the kids to bed, it’s been so warm at night the kids aren’t sleeping with sheets, and we keep fans on all night. I won’t miss that when we move back.

Today we stayed inside of course. The Mexican government is increasing shelter in place orders because of this virus. The kids had homeschool, I didn’t really work because I needed to get some plane tickets refunded so I took an Uber to the airport to do that. The airlines phones are constantly busy so that was the easiest way.

The kids have been doing really well entertaining themselves. It’s annoying at times because it’s hard to get their attention. Today the kids stacked up all the old plastic milk bottles and used a soccer ball as a bowling ball in our front room. It was really nice seeing them all get a long during their game.

I made spaghetti for dinner. My mom made really good spaghetti sauce when I was growing up. It was a mixture of certain ingredients and a jar of Paul Newman’s spaghetti sauce. We don’t have Paul Newman’s spaghetti sauce down here, just regular ingredients so I did my best. It didn’t taste like hers but the kids still loved it. She would put bay leaves in the sauce to give it a nice taste, one bay leaf per child so four in her sauce, and four in mine.

After dinner the kids got into the painters tape and child one and three taped their legs together. Child two and four did the same thing. As a parent of four kids, it was wonderful seeing them get along. The problem is they fight almost constantly, and at this age if they didn’t fight, we would let them get away with a little more of their shenanigans. The sky was an odd yellowish color right after a sudden thunder storm. So I had to get photos.

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After dinner we put the kids to bed. I got photos of them in their weird sleep positions.

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My daughter was still awake when the flash went off. I offered to close her window shade but she said she likes watching the trees at night. When I was her age this would have terrified me.

Today Bonnie had the brilliant idea that I make the snack so she didn’t have to stress about doing both that and the lesson plan. This was a game changer and the morning went off without a hitch. I still had some time to work and lately have been relying heavily on my paralegal and new courier who is amazing. By amazing I mean he answers text messages and does not lose original documents. 😀

After lunch, the kids read the books I brought them from the last time I flew to the states. The kids are interested in Gravity Falls and we have the books in Spanish and English. They read both.

My second child above, eating a strawberry and chocolate ice cream, reading his favorite book. Living his best life. In the back ground is the children’s reminder of all the chores they have to do in a day. On Friday we add up the chores performed and who ever does 75% of the chores, had a vote as to what we eat and what movie we watch that evening.

the kids ended up bored, so they created a play and demanded that I not video tape it. It was cute and typical of what boys would come up with. All three boys transformed into robots to save their damsel in distress sister from some evil. I kept telling them that this isn’t far off from reality and that I expect them to protect their sister later on in life, even though she may not need it.

We ended up eating salmon and pesto pasta with asparagus. The kids used to love this meal and they barely touched it. It was a very good and productive day.

This morning our oldest turned a faucet on and was audibly mesmerized. She said “wow, the water is running!” Bonnie made breakfast and after we ate that, the kids watched a movie. For lunch we had the kids make their own guacamole. My oldest son ruined a batch of guacamole a weekago by “secretly” adding cinnamon to it. Aside from really wanting to eat guacamole, I think I was more upset by his blatant and terrible lying. He said he didn’t put anything in it, and yet it tasted like someone dropped a Cinnabon into a bunch of avocados. Oh and a ground cinnamon spice container was sitting at his feet. I have been trained to question professional witnesses under oath. I have caught sworn police officers in lies and they have admitted as such under oath in front of juries, yet no matter how much I questioned him with logic, he refused to admit it was him. My dad, when he was upset, would call my name in a deep bellow and it would grab my attention. Sadly, I do the same thing to the same child, because we have the same first name. So when I said his name in the same tone, he said “ok ok yes I did it.” So this morning, we had the kids make their own guacamole.

Child 2 and child 4 treated it as a science experiment. Child 2 put cinnamon in it. Child 4 put way too much salt. They were both inedible. Child 1 and child 3 made really good guacamole. Wife 1 put onions in hers so I ruled that disqualified. 😀

After this, we watched a kids sermon on YouTube and then fought with the kids to get their shoes on for an hour. Once their shoes were on, we had to then fight with them to go to the bathroom before we drove to a department store. Bonnie wanted to buy the kids a keyboard so we drove to a store called “Liverpool”. It’s a kind of Sears type store. It was deserted. I had a large bottle of hand sanitizer that I squirted in our kids hands every 30 feet. After we got our keyboard, we drove home.

The day before, we were playing outside in the downstairs cabin, a game of soccer kind of and I’m not pointing any fingers (Bonnie) but one of us kicked the ball over the wrought iron fencing into the dry creek below. It isn’t like kicking a ball into a neighbors yard and asking to go get it. It’s quite an ordeal. I had to peel back chain link fence and then climb down a culvert that was littered with broken glass and covered in cockroaches and other scurrying insects. Then I hiked a hundred yardS through brush and bushes to get the ball and then climb through all of that to get out. I scratched my back something awful on the way out and the new rule is, we don’t play that game downstairs.

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After bringing the ball back, we had dinner, and then we got the kids ready for bed.

After the kids were in bed, we of course folded all the laundry we did that day, 4 loads. Then we fell asleep watching Willow of all movies. The last photo is our view of the street at night. You can see the corner store and the mountains in the distance.

Today was much better than Day 72. On day 72 we were on our second day without running water. We have been without running water for 3 days. Today a plumber showed up and cleaned the water filter on our roof. The water filter, when taken out was covered in a thick black silt. As soon as the filter was replaced, we got running water again. Further proving to us that we were wise to never drink the tap water here under any circumstances.

We lounged around today and just hung out. I made breakfast, pancakes, bacon and eggs. Our lunch was just snacks from left overs and we ordered “pizza” for dinner. I keep falling into this trap that when I see “salchicha” on a menu, I automatically think I am ordering sausage. What it always means it sliced hot dogs. Today I made the same mistake. Ordering cheese “pizza” and ham and salchicha “pizza”. Bonnie and I believe America makes breakfast and pizza better than any other country based on our experience. And we are 1 million percent right. Behold the abomination below.

The ham tasted like bologna too. With every pizza orders no matter the restaurant, you always get packets or a ziplock of “Chimichirri” sauce. Still no clue what’s in it, I tried it once and will never try it again. Maybe if I drink poison and need to throw it up.

As a highlight, while watching a movie before bed, my daughter asked that Bonnie curl her hair. Bonnie was extremely careful but our daughter still freaked out the entire time, petrified that she would get burned. She stormed out of the room one time and we couldn’t stop laughing. We really needed a good laugh. Bonnie ended up finishing but my daughter made me promise not to post her photo on here, and I’ll respect that But if you have my private cell number, just text me I’ll send it to you. She never said anything about texting it.

While the kids were watching the movie “Are We Done Yet”, I went downstairs to hang laundry. We hang it because our dryer is great at making wet clothes, hot and wet. Finally I decided to see what I could do to fix it. My skill sets are pretty broad. I can answer almost any question about probate, Star Wars (particularly Sith history and lore), and sarcasm. Why couldn’t I fix a dryer that was made in a foreign country that has words in a language I do not understand. 😀

And I did just that. I cleaned out the dryer vent on the back of the dryer and am praying that works. Hope you are all doing well during the shelter in place. We are thriving now.

Update: it totally worked. The clothes in the dryer are dry. God bless us all.

Day 72 sucked. Here’s some photos of the downstairs units backyard.

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Just another typical day of homeschooling and working. After school we had lunch and then did our daily prayers for the city and state we are living in.

After that we just lounged around and were lazy with most of the day. It’s really difficult living in a foreign country and being told to stay home. The landlady came over to see why we don’t have any water pressure. Every month we need to clean out the shower heads, the water here is full of minerals. Since we are being told to stay in, our landlady gave us access to the “cabin” that is adjacent to the home we are in. It’s featured on Airbnb and isn’t that remarkable. The home we are staying in is a lot nicer. When we got back from the cabin next door, the kids ran upstairs and were quiet for a long time. I snuck upstairs and caught them, our oldest smuggled a chrome book and was watching some cartoon in her bed. We took off the door knobs the first week we were here, they had a locking mechanism and the kids kept locking their doors. 😀

Our third child lost his first tooth today. That was really exciting for him, he gets so excited and it’s really adorable. Let’s see if the toothy fairy brings him something for it later tonight.

I went to the grocery store after dinner and stocked up on some food we couldn’t get at Costco. After I was really unimpressed with their cuts of meat. I really miss our butcher back home in Alameda. What was impressive is the assortment of syrups they use on pancakes and waffles. They literally use dulce de leche, sweetened caramel, and other syrups besides the typical old fashioned syrup we use in the States. *

Today was day six of homeschooling the kids. When I say “homeschooling” I take zero credit. Bonnie does the homeschooling while I am in my office working. We have chrome books for each of the kids to do some online lessons and to practice their typing skills. Funny, I remember taking typing my sophomore year of high school, now they need to start practicing by third grade.

After school, the kids played with their legos and made messes. At 2pm we walked up to the roof and all prayed for an hour. Our church in Guanajuato he organized for the next 21 days for people to pray constantly for the pandemic, for leadership handling it, for the local church etc…That lasted an hour. I got a great panoramic shot of the area, see below.

After our one hour of prayer, we went downstairs and I somehow fell asleep on the couch. The kids ended up making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for their dinner and we didn’t stop them. It was one of those days.

After dinner we visited the dentist office to check on the kids teeth, they got a clean bill of health and then we went for a nice walk around the area. After the walk, we bathed the kids and put them to bed. *

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Day 68 was the first day of the week that Bonnie started the kids on their homeschooling. Day 68 was very rough, and I’m happy to report we still have four children. *

Day 69 was better than Day 68, but not by too much. The kids were less rowdy and they actually stayed on topic without a lot of horsing around. The problem is they all really like each other and they all make each other laugh constantly. It’s great listening to it when they aren’t being homeschooled.

After “school”, we took the kids on another Costco run. Costco is usually a 90 minute drive, today it took 35 minutes. The people here are really taking this social distancing seriously. We spent too long in Costco and then on the way home stopped at Walmart to buy a couple chrome books.

Walmart in Mexico is… different. The customers would not be featured in the popular “people of Walmart” blog. They all looked and acted normal. Walmart also employs an army of security guards, and I had to go through some serious security before I was able to leave with the chrome books.

When we got home we unpacked, and as a treat for our kids who were very well behaved in Costco, we got them all LEGO sets. They all completed there’s whole we ate leftovers for dinner. *