On the Up and Up

With our new 'kinesthetic' teaching philosophy, Joel is doing really well in kindergarten. Here he listens to a story while climbing on the windowsill that overlooks our driveway/sideyard and watching the dog and lizards. Anna is, of course, right behind him. Wouldn't want to miss anything fun or important!

Monsoon

Okay, so when someone says 'monsoon' I think of East Asia, but there has to be better words than 'heavy rain' or 'thunderstorm' for what we experience. It is not only the fact that half the ocean dumps on our house an hour at a time, it is so loud we can barely talk to each other because of the noise on the tin roof overhead. We are very thankful each and every time the roof protects us from the rain! It is the end of the rainy season here and 3-4 times per week we get huge storms that wash topsoil right off our compound and into the drainage ditch and street outside our front gate. I've seen legos and shoes float by as well...

Yes, those are our ripening mangoes getting washed by the skies...

The center of this particular storm must have passed directly over us because the lightning and thunder were extreme! Once it made us jump and I'm sure one of our neighbors' house was struck by lightning (not uncommon here). We quickly unplugged everything we could. We found out the next day that it had blown out our first current stabilizer, so we have invested in lightning protection for the future. Now there's another thing I never planned on buying... There was also a ton of wind and the rain looked like it was going sideways at times. Now I'm learning the meaning of 'batten down the hatches'!

Hang in there Hoppy!

You can see why rainwater storage is efficient.

It's on our list of renovations to make eventually.

While I am not the fan of thunderstorms, they do make good reminders of the might and power of our Creator. It's no wonder traditional cultures here often have a monotheistic folklore of a powerful god. He has amazing power. Even more amazing through 'monsoon' storms is imagining Jesus standing up and saying 'QUIET!' ...

...followed by stillness.

Christmas

Hilarity

As any parent will tell you, getting good pictures of everyone together can seem an impossible task. I have been known to take a few shots and resort to cutting and pasting smiley faces. True confessions. So it was time for the annual Christmas picture...

...and I fell victim to one of the classic blunders. Dress up three kids in cute jammies right before bed and expect them to sit and smile. Ha! This was like trying to stand up wet noodles. Seriously. Everything they did and said was SOO funny!

I think James might start crying from laughing so hard! I was tempted to use this because of Joel's sweet face...

Not quite the Christmas picture I was looking for, but you'll see the one I did get in a couple weeks. In the meantime enjoy this blooper reel (with obedient princess Anna patiently waiting with a grin on her face and both hands on one knee, pains in her cheeks from holding this smile and waiting for her noodle brothers to get it.) Not sure what look Joel was going for here... =)

An aside...

Check out my article at Coffeegirl Confessions today. It's written to women in overseas ministry, but you can read it too. If you read last week's post on groceries, deliveries and home foods, you'll surely recognize some of it. Warning: Do not read on an empty stomach, it's about food. Just saying...

A Bed for Anna

It's been an interesting venture to design our own furniture for local carpenters with paper, pencil and tape measure (the metric side of course!). In a land with very few 'power tools' I designed a bed fit for a princess that was 'shooting for the moon' if you will. Three feet off the ground, yet short enough to have a mosquito net still hit the floor... Note to self: Next time you design furniture in Congo, DO NOT start the design process online at pottery barn kids...

With all due respect, the carpenter who did this is the best of the best here, and the lathe work does look really nice.

Head- and side-board getting coat after coat of white paint... And after 4 days of painting and drying on the front porch - installation day!

Hey, it can double as a jungle gym! Not.

Though I did design it to have play space underneath for those days when she wants to have a slumber party or curl up with a book. It'll be a while...

And a little later, we had a great night's sleep in her first real BIG BED! Some of you do not realize how momentous this is... We have waited, visited, cajoled and prayed for this bed to be finished for over three months, so it is cause for joy! Here is the princess tucked under the mosquito net and lovin' it! (notice the awesome prayer quilt made lovingly by a group of women in ministry at home - Hi ladies!)

Still Here

Just a quick note to let you faithful readers know that we are still here. And well. No, we haven't fallen off the ends of the earth, we just had a million little things around the house to deal with. Colds, minor theft, holiday prep and dog fights to name a few... This pile of tiny annoying things that seems to coincide with some of the most difficult times to be away from home - now.

There are always two sides to the coin, and it is not all doom and gloom here. The most spectacular news is that the bed we designed for Anna and ordered to be built mid-August was finally delivered Friday!! And Kent has lovingly been painting coat after coat of white paint on it for me and today it gets built and she gets to stretch out for once. So pictures of that happy moment are coming soon!

Delivery Day

We try to buy from local farmers whenever we can, but after 3 straight months of eating rice we were dying for a slice of bread! Something as simple as a favorite staple food can be the taste of home. We have African friends who have moved from a 'sweet potato' staple area to a 'plantain' staple area and craved their 'home foods'.

So we've discovered that wheat is Kent's home food (not shocking since his great-grandfather was a wheat farmer). I will never forget the day early in our marriage when I found his delight in freshly-baked bread still warm from the oven. The problem is that no one can grow wheat here because of the climate. In case you were wondering this is officially in the sweet-potato region, and their cousins: potatoes are my home food (there must have been a potato farmer in the family). You can bake 'em, fry 'em, boil mash or steam - I will be a happy lady. I'm so thankful good potatoes are grown here locally!

And today is a very exciting day because we are getting our second sack of wheat berries delivered from Uganda. Each month we get a few sacks of goodies purchased in Uganda on our behalf. These are things that can't be found locally, or that aren't even imported by merchants, and I thought you might like to know some of the things we look forward to on delivery day:

100 lb. wheat berries (after sorting out chaff, freezing the weevils, and grinding - we bake!!)

2 containers 'American Garden' Iodized Salt (don't take yours for granted!)

3 lb. raisins

1 lb. broccoli

6 semi-sweet chocolate bars (chopped finely for 'chocolate chips' or eaten straight)

2 containers cinnamon (local spices are: chili, nutmeg, salt - they flavor foods other ways)

2 containers sage (for Kent's Thanksgiving stuffing)

4 lbs. popcorn

10 apples (for my Thanksgiving sweet potatoes)

1 lb. butter (for the holiday, usually we get by with the 1/2 lb. we can make from fresh milk)


It's definitely different shopping for a month or two at a time, and buying everything in bulk. Because of all the foreigners coming through here we buy other staples here in bulk too:

5 liters olive oil

50 lb. sugar

50 lb. rice

100 lb. flour

16 lb. oats

No it's not Mr. Olsen's General Store on Little House on the Prairie, but we shop like it is. With the boys eating more than I do already, our grocery lists are only going up from here! What staple is your home food?

FLA - The Sequel P.S.

I almost forgot the best part!

Yesterday Anna called wrinkles : sprinkles!
I like that better anyway

And she called bunk beds : bonk beds
Maybe Joel would agree since he has the bottom bunk...