A New Life In Costa Rica

Summer clean-up

Yep, it's that time of year again. The winds have subsided, well not quite but there are days when we have less than others. Perfect for working in the yards. Each summer we do a clean up of all the weeds, vines and brush that grows during the rainy season in preparation for the next years crop.

Here's one part of the yard before Bill took the weed whacker to it. In previous years we hand picked the weeds and used the machete. Not any more.  We're slow learners and kept thinking if you got something out by the root it wouldn't come back. That may be true in Arizona but not in Costa Rica!

After.

Bill hates vines so he does get on hands and knees to pull those out by the root.

 

The work is taking much less time with the weed eater this year. I've agreed to let him whack away whatever gets in his way to make it easier. My flowers will grow back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sadly, the papaya tree he'd been nurturing accidently got whacked. He was so sad! The root is still in the ground so maybe it'll come back with the rains too. If not, I've got another baby tree in a different part of the yard he can transplant where this one was.

 

 

 

 

Creating new habits

That's what we've been doing, creating new habits and getting rid of old ones that no longer serve.

One of the most beneficial habits we're creating as a family is a regular yoga practice. We did somewhat of a trial last year and saw the benefits. Our yoga instructor took a sabbatical, well, she had a baby and spent a few months bonding before restarting classes just after the new year. We've been going twice a week this month and have every intention of continuing as long as our yoga guru, Anna continues to guide us. It would be nice to develop our own practice at home but there is something about going to class to practice with others that we don't get on our own.  

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In addition to the the regular yoga practice, Bill has joined me in taking morning walks. We walk a up and down a hill near the house. I started off doing five laps. It was a workout but doable. The second week I added a lap. That week I missed a day due to an early appointment at the local clinic. The following day I doubled my workout to make up for the day I missed. Finding this workout again, doable I continued with the double workout the following days. Bill had joined me a couple of times but when we found I'd doubled the workout he decided to do it regularly as well. If I could do it, so could he.

Thinking man that he is, he needed to know how far we were walking. He and Callista went out with a measuring tape to find out. We were walking almost a kilometer. After our walk the following day I realized counting off twelve laps was going to get old quick. Back down the trail we went with the tape measure to find out how far we had to go to make our walk a full kilometer and keep it at 6 laps. It would have been easy to add the flat part of the walk we don't usually count but we chose to go further down the hill which meant more of an incline on the return trip and a better work out.

We're seeing benefits from both our new habits in less than a month! 

Lifes milestones

Before...

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After...

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The third and final child done with braces! WOOO HOOO!

That's a milestone.

 

A wonderful surprise

 Most people are used to seeing signs of Halloween around this time of year.

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Here in Costa Rica, we are not. Halloween is not a traditional holiday here. It's grown in popularity in the nearly six years we've lived here but it will never become a part of the culture. To see displays like this you've got to go to one of the stores that caters to expatriates. We were pleasantly surprised when we walked into Mas-X-Menos in Santa Ana this morning.

Look close and you'll see the price of the pumpkins. The minis are 695 colones about $1.40 and the mid-sized 6,700 colones or about $13.

Saintly flowers in San Ramón

 

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