Our evening

Saw a rat run behind the trash can while making dinner.

Scream, grab the baby, run out of the room.

Have a discussion with the boys during dinner about "Ratatouille" and why we do NOT want a rat in our kitchen.

Put the boys in bed.

Brant goes to the store to buy a trap. I reasssure Elijah again... and again... and again... "No, there is not a rat in your room. No, you do not hear a squeaking noise under your bed. Go to sleep."

Set trap.

Watch Burn Notice (GREAT distraction to a stressful day).

Turn out lights in kitchen. Notice the rat stuck in the trap. Scream.

So thankful for a good husband. So thankful the rat is now food for the neighborhood dogs.

Up for adoption

Deceivingly adorable little boy. Expert at hiding keys, opening cabinets and strewing Lego's and puzzle pieces all over the house. Can rearrange furniture and destroy nicely organized shelves in less time than it takes you to go to the bathroom or hang up the phone. Has a great set of lungs and a bottomless stomach.

A very happy little boy

This morning while I was picking bugs out of my oatmeal, trying to talk to my dad on the phone and cleaning up from Caleb's accident all over the floor, Ezra took advantage of the craziness and reached across the table and helped himself to the pan of brownies on the table. He was quite pleased with himself and made quite a dent in the pan.....

Going bananas

I'm not sure when it happened, but bananas have become a staple in our house. We go through THREE-FOUR bunches a WEEK... I think that averages to about 50-60 bananas... most of them are consumed by Caleb. We keep them right on the edge of the counter so he can reach them and every morning as soon as he wakes up he goes and eats at least 3; plays and then about an hour later eats breakfast (and another banana or two).

We also make smoothies every Saturday night and have popcorn and watch a movie together as a family.... that consumes another 10 bananas or so. I don't know where the rest go. I can't stand bananas and don't eat a single one. :)

Bananas here are different than the ones in the States... For one thing, they look all crummy and bruised on the outside, but on the inside they are perfect. Not sure how Dole makes the ones in America always look so smooth and nice. You never see them like that here. And here there are TONS of different varieties of bananas... most that we eat are probably half the size of an "American" banana and pretty sweet, but there are tiny ones (like the size of a finger), huge ones, and then big fat ones that people fry into bread cakes, but taste horrible raw. Another funny thing about bananas here is how you can never judge a banana's ripeness by its color... you have to squeeze them - if they give a little, they are ripe. I once helped a tourist at the grocery store pick bananas... poor guy was so confused all the bananas were green, but a lot of them were ripe or over-ripe; they just didn't look it by American standards.

Because of the big holiday weekend we just had the grocery stores and the open air markets have been wiped out. We went FIVE days without a single banana in the house. Poor Caleb has been beside himself. But happy to report we had bananas again this morning. :)

The banana obsession is a bit of a pain as we can't buy 4 bunches of bananas at one time and then be set for the week... we are constantly having to run to the store to get more bananas. The veggie guy brings his cart around the neighborhood and sells veggies and fruits each morning and if I am on top of it, I can usually get it together to meet him to buy bananas then... definitely easier than making a special trip to the grocery store. But he doesn't always have them on hand, and he comes at 6:30 each morning... and it's hard for me to be dressed and ready to meet the world (and my neighbors!) at 6:30 in the morning on the off chance he remembers we are banana fiends and need to have bananas. :)

Wow! Whoever knew I would write so much about a fruit! :)

Speaking of bananas, you can be praying for Brant as he is literally going bananas right now... we have a LOT of supply orders this month and next and new ones keep coming in... he's got a flight every 2 or 3 days from now til the end of October, which makes for a very, very busy man. The consultants are making their semi-annual visits to the tribes and we have our regional conference in October, so lots of plane and heli trips and everyone wants their extra weight filled with supplies. We knew it would be like this (very much a "when it rains, it pours" type of job) but still being in the middle of it is not fun.

Like the Magic School Bus

Sorry I called Elijah a punk the other day. He's really not. :) But sometimes I have hard mommy days. One thing I love about Elijah is how inquisitive he is.... he's always wanting to figure out how things work and asking tons of questions. Some days it drives me crazy, but most days I'm thankful he's got a sharp mind. Lately he's gotten into The Magic School Bus books.... he LOVES them. (In case you're not familiar with them, they're hilarious science books about a teacher who takes her class on field trips... into the human body, into a hurricane, into a bee hive... all on The Magic School Bus.... our library at the MK school has a huge stock of them and it's Elijah's favorite section.)

One of the Magic School Bus books that we recently checked out was about the Rain Forest and the class's study of cocoa plants. I'm not quite sure that we live in a technical "Rain Forest" but with all the exotic critters and plants around, I'm sure it's close. And yesterday it came closer... Elijah was outside playing with the neighborhood kids with these little black seed things and it turns out they were cocoa seeds from our very own cocoa tree in our yard! Who knew?

I had our yard guy cut a pod down from the tree and it looked just like the pods in the book. :)

He cut it open.... did not look at all what I thought it would look like inside....


Nor did it taste like what I thought it would.... the kids (mine and the neighbor kids) were clamoring to "eat" the seeds... Not quite sure why - I tasted one and it was similar to raw nasty tasting pizza dough. You just chewed on it and then spit it out.... the cocoa seed on the inside was purple and didn't have any semblance of taste to a chocolate bar.

Caleb was so funny... he didn't want to try the seeds outside with the other kids. He wanted to come inside, sit at the table, and then try the seeds.... then he loved them.

Now if I can only figure out how to turn the cocoa beans into something edible and yummy. :)

Gotta teach 'em early

Saturday was the Barang Sale at the MK school... basically a chance for missionaries to hold a big garage sale and sell all their junk to each other at exorbitant rates... "because you can't get it here" and "I had to pay to ship it all the way from America" ...so there were ten year old bouncy balls that had seen better days - for $10 a piece - and used children's books selling for twice what you would pay for the same book brand new on Amazon.... (not joking on either count!)

Amidst all the bargains, Elijah found a skateboard... not my idea of a great toy when the nearest ER that can handle a broken arm is 3000 miles away. But he WANTED IT.... so I guess he's gotta learn sometime???

And at $2 it seemed like a steal. But he only had 90 cents in his pocket left over from the hoop, so we did some quick lessons on buying on credit....

"Mom will pay for the rest but you will have to work lots of jobs to make the rest of the money."

"But how come I can take the skateboard if I don't have the money?"

"It's buying on credit. You've gotta learn to do it sometime. People do it in America all the time."

So far Elijah hasn't broken his arm. Still debating whether Elijah did better than Caleb who bought a falling apart McDonald's toy for 30 cents. Who makes a 3 year old pay 30 cents for a broken McDonald's toy?

Who takes up precious suitcase space to cart a McDonald's toy all the way from America to here?

Exhausted

Wow, I had no idea home schooling would be so exhausting.... we just finished our first full week and Rachel and I (my friend here who is home schooling her son for kinder too) went to the spa this afternoon to celebrate with pedicures and hair treatments and to encourage each other. (Remember the term "spa" is used very loosely as this is a 3rd world country!)

Last night Brant asked Elijah what he had learned at school that day... after we had spent the morning studying ancient Egypt with Rachel and her boys and making Egyptian costumes and "eating like Egyptians" for snack time. Elijah replied, "Nothing. I didn't learn anything."

I just started crying and left the room...

Punk kid.

But today I had a better attitude and we had a good day. I think I underestimated how much of an adjustment this whole school at home thing would be for both the boys and me. They are really tired and fussier than normal... and I am just stressed and constantly thinking through lessons in my mind and trying to get stuff running smoother. I don't think it's helped that I've had a nasty cold all week and have felt crummy. I'm starting to get better but Ezra now has it, and if there is one thing worse than being sick, it's having a baby who is sick. Also hasn't helped that we had Back to School Night at the MK school (where I'm teaching one class a day) and a luncheon with the school board this week and I don't have a lot of time for extra stuff like that....

Anyways, overall, I think the schooling is going well. I have enjoyed it; and in some moments Elijah will even admit that he is learning stuff and likes doing school. My class up at the MK school is going well too; I have a big class this year and lots of energy and excitement, which is fun; good mental break from teaching "a is for apple; b is for ball" daily. :)

Our big prayer request at the moment is that we can continue to get into a good routine and the groove of all these extra responsibilities. Our time interacting with our neighbors and the people in our local church has definitely suffered the last couple weeks, so we want to get to a place where we can handle school and reaching out to the people around us.

Brant has a TON of supply orders right now. The consultants come in September to visit all the tribes... which means that all the tribes have supply orders going in; and we're already getting orders for October - our regional conference is in October which means again, everyone will have orders to fill their incoming flights... kinda complicated to explain... the long and short is Brant's really busy. :)

But we're enjoying life, even though we feel like we're just kinda hanging on one day at a time right now. Thankful to be here and for the opportunities the Lord has given us to serve Him here.