Randomess

I meant to title this 'random-ness' but mistyped 'randomess', and our life is messy, so I'm keeping it. Life in the raw and real with all the messy parts is life ready for redemption.

The kids have just finished their homeschool assignments for today and are making quick work of a craft project involving lots of cutting and pasting bits of paper. These bits seem to have magnetic attraction to our carpet and few of them obey the glue and stay on the page. The laughter and fellowship between Joel and Anna curled up over bits of paper on the carpet makes me at least temporarily blinded to the mess. It also makes me want to stop time or videotape everything.

I have joined the 'mama' choir at our local church, and each time I meet with them to sing, pray and praise God I am astounded by their courage, strength and perseverance. It was very humbling this morning to sing the equivalent of a prayer: 'Jesus take me by the hand' while holding hands with Congolese sisters who have been widowed in their 20s with three kids to support, or who have 7 kids to feed and school each day and still manage to care for 3 others. I feel honored just to know them. I think they've given up on trying to say 'Kimberly' and dubbed me 'Mama Anna' which is fine by me. I like it better than 'Madame Kent' anyway.

After 9 months of life without sugar and flour, Kent has finally PERFECTED the best pancakes in the world. He's trained the boys well how to flip the pancakes and the boys are in charge every Friday morning to give Mom a break. It's fun. I'm serious though, these pancakes are better than any I have eaten for years, flour or no flour!

Other random facts:
We haven't had running water come in from the city for about 10 days, and it is not likely to come for several more. The city water pipes are being replaced on our street. Experimenting with buckets of cloudy rainwater for just about everything...

Our kids don't remember much about living in France as babies, but two things stuck with us: a love for trains and the call to eat "A table!" I can call that out from anywhere in the house and they will come running from across the compound. Such a useful little phrase...

Lightning destroyed one of our battery chargers 2 weeks ago, so we've been low on power for the first time in a few months. You know those little glass fuses? Well, it wasn't black. It wasn't cracked. It was exploded. Tiny. glass. pieces. A replacement is on back order from another country for the foreseeable future...

We are blessed immensely that a lovely mission-minded young lady will come and help out in our homeschool for 2 months! So exciting!

I've been doing this for years and I'm still not great at wearing head scarves. Tying them in various ways is no trouble, but keeping them on so they don't slip? Notsomuch. Sunday, my friend Sylvie was helping me out. She's new to foreigner's slippery hair. She said, 'Your hair is just not habitue [accustomed] yet to the scarf.' The thought that my hair will just decide to be sticky one day on its own makes me smile.