July 29, 2014 Holy Thursday #throwbacktuesday

Last week I took a break from exploring, the hanami hunting tired me out! Also, we had a heat wave last week with every day being in the 90 degrees with almost 100 percent humidity! Too hot for this menopausal woman! One evening we had one of the loudest craziest lightening storms I've seen yet! I did find it neat to stand on our balcony and watch the rain pour down and the very close lightening amidst all the tall buildings!

Back in the day when we had all of our children at home and were pastoring in Panama we were so busy with church events that the children and I instituted holy Thursday. (That's a perk about homeschooling, you can work school around your own schedule.) Holy Thursday was set aside as family day, no school and no church event could be regularly scheduled on that day, though the occasional revival was excepted of course!  On holy Thursday we would do something fun, whether going to a park, or a mall or a beach.  The good thing about Panama is that bus fare was only 25 cents and there were plenty of malls with cheap arcades!  Also, clothing there is so inexpensive that it was a great place to raise teenage daughters where with just a few dollars they could get some new clothing or shoes. So on Thursdays, we'd get up and head out the door to somewhere! Some days we'd go to a mall to go blading and take pictures with the local wildlife!
                                                                             
                                                                     

There's a wheel in the heel of those shoes and my kids were FAST !

Or, we'd go hiking up Cerro Ancon to see the monkeys, toucans and other wildlife. Of course there was also the great view of Panama City from the top!

Every couple of months we'd head to the ocean! If we wanted to do some body surfing we'd head to the Pacific side that had waves, or if we wanted something more relaxing we'd go to the Caribbean and enjoy the tranquil water and do some snorkeling!

Our favorite was Isla Grande, we had to take a water taxi to the island!

                                                                 
                                                                      Finding Nemo.

Playa Langosta

                                                                            Isla Grande

                                                                        Isla Grande

On the way there we might stop along the way and explore the old Spanish fort in Portobelo!

Rumor has it that Sir Francis Drake is buried in those waters.

                                                 Yup, they're sitting on a 500 year old cannon.

(I love my daughter Katie's photobomb pose!)

Anyway, all that to say that even now that we are empty nesters I still try to adhere to holy Thursday, though I'm less strict about it and it can easily become what ever day of the week that opens up. And sometimes, I'm too tired to explore and just stay home and relax now like I did this last week! Lol! 

There is always some work to do but having been a missionary in 3 different countries I've learned that taking a day off during the week to do something fun does wonders for a person's outlook on the rest of the week and work! 

ON TO FOOD!!!!

I found this new flavor of Doritos this week, do you all have these where you're at?  It's pepper and salt flavored. I'm not sure what exactly Andes salt is...

                                                            The chip is a dark black.

Gary did the taste test for me and said that he liked it! (Truth be told, I had brushed my teeth and was headed to bed and he wanted to eat the chips so I told him he'd have to do the taste test for me! lol! )  The pepper had a bit of a kick to it but the simple combination of just pepper and salt was good!