Quick update.... right after I posted about the horrible electricity we had two good nights of no power outages and good sleep! So thankful!
Of course, it didn’t last and we had a bad night last night... it’s actually kinda funny cause all the ex-pats here in town are so grumpy because everyone is short on sleep and complaining about the horrible electricity. :)
And our internet has been really, really bad lately too.... it’s taken 30 minutes just to get my blog up and running, so we’re not posting any pictures tonight. :)
Main reason why I’m writing is we need some serious prayer. We need to make a decision by THIS Friday (Thursday, American time) regarding which house we will move to after we get kicked out of this house. While we don’t have to be out of this house til end of July, housing options (that include a toilet and an indoor kitchen) are very hard to come by here in town, so we need to commit or let someone else have it, so to speak....
So I’m going to try to spell out our two options and I would love feedback as to your opinion on which we should take! (And prayer that the Lord guides us to the right decision!)
Option A - We’ll call the “beautiful house.” It’s owned by another mission and has been totally decked out with every luxury known to missionary :) -it’s basically a Western house - has duel electricity (110 and 220) HOT water out of EVERY tap, has a nice Western style lay-out with a beautiful kitchen and a great screened in porch overlooking the valley. If we moved into this house, it would be “ours” - really nice as we have so far in our almost 4 years here always lived in someone else’s house, but that also means we would need to buy/borrow/beg some furniture off of people to fill the house. :) (We do have some basic pieces, but not much). The beautiful house is set up a hill, but on a very busy street with NO neighbors (a bad thing - neighbors are the built-in security watch in every neighborhood) so it’s definitely not conducive to making friends with the national people and makes us a bit wary security-wise.
Option B - We’ll call the “ugly house” mainly because I get to make the titles and I think the house is ugly. :) It’s in a decent neighborhood and is a very national style (translated: unusual) lay-out, but it just hasn’t been well taken care of. Our friends live in it (they just moved in, so you don’t think they are lazy in their house repairs) and are going on furlough so they have offered it to us to stay in while they are gone. The major plus to this house is that they wouldn’t charge us rent (FREE!) but the HUGE drawback is we would have to move out January 1, because they get back from furlough January 2, 2012. So we would have to find another place to rent before we plan to go on furlough in April 2012.... moving again just for 3 months does NOT sound like fun. However, who can pass up free rent???? And with the better location??? (And yes, Brant did say that because we’re not paying rent we could spring for some paint and make it not quite so ugly.) :)
Ideas????
Pray!!!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Weird week
I know it's been a while since I've blogged. The demands of three little boys (one who is home schooling, one who is out growing his afternoon naps, and one who is learning the meaning of the word "obey" and NOT liking it one bit) and the demands of the keeping the house in decent order (aka no dead lizards lying around - thank you, Brant!) and keeping food on the table were a bit much this week.... especially since the power company has decided to take a vacation or go on strike or turn the control of the city's electricity over to the school kids.... or whatever they were doing this week while the electricity has been off.
Our electricity here is HORRIBLE. Some months it seems like the people at the electric company have it together and our electricity is fairly consistent. This has not been one of those months and this week has been the worst we have had it in a loooong time..... so it has been a long, hot, unproductive week. To make matters worse, the electricity has gone off every night this week at least once or twice... last night we kinda gave up counting after the fourth or fifth time. The problem with electricity going off at night is that the difference between the light from our outside security lights and the white noise (and cool breeze!) from our fans running and complete and utter darkness and silence is HUGE and it wakes ALL five of us up every time the power goes out at night.... with the little boys screaming in terror most nights. We do have an emergency battery-operated light that automatically comes on when the power goes out, but the power was out so often and for such long stretches this week that several nights this week the battery died before the power came back on.... so Brant resorted to turning on a bright flashlight and leaving it on all night to give the boys a bit of light. (That was my "bright" idea at 3 a.m. one morning!) :)
Anyways, we've all been really tired and grouchy this week. It's been unusually warm here and so we're sweating because of the heat and because of the lack of fans running while the power's out!
Also grouchy because we got the little boys their immunizations on Monday and they were not happy about that one bit!
But we've had fun.... we had several friends "pop" over on Valentine's Day to deliver cards; we baby-sat some friends' kids; we grilled yummy import sausages from V-day (my gift to Brant - I think the first time we've had sausage in almost two years?) and we've been studying the pioneers and cowboys and Indians in school this week, and the boys love it. To help combat our total exhaustion and achiness that comes from not sleeping at night, Brant and I have been doing this really intense work-out aerobic and strength video this week.... it's become quite the family affair each morning and is a riot to see the little boys try to "exercise" along with us. :)
So here are a few pics from the week....
This was today when Elijah's little friend was over to play and do "history class" with us. The boys were so filthy playing outside that I had them sit down by the washing machine outside and detached the hose to rinse them off before they went inside to make their construction paper tee pees and build log cabins out of Lincoln Logs. :)
Yesterday afternoon a street seller came to our neighborhood selling "whistle cakes." We rarely buy food off the street, but these are fun - little "cakes" of rice, brown sugar, coconut and "pandang" - not sure what the English word is, but it's a green leaf that they use here in cakes.... anyways, the guy stuffs the mixture in a piece of bamboo then rams the bamboo onto a spout over a big pot of boiling water (on the back of his cart!) and the steam cooks the cake. When he's not cooking any cakes, the steam just releases, hence the "whistle" and the name of the cakes. :) And, yes, Caleb is still in his pajamas at 4 in the afternoon.... I told you it has been one of those weeks.
I know this is blurry, but it's the best picture I could get of all 3 of them.... another day when we were so tired we stayed in PJ's all day, the boys had fun wearing Brant's shirts all around the house....
So you can be praying the electricity stays on tonight so we can all get some sleep! :)
Our electricity here is HORRIBLE. Some months it seems like the people at the electric company have it together and our electricity is fairly consistent. This has not been one of those months and this week has been the worst we have had it in a loooong time..... so it has been a long, hot, unproductive week. To make matters worse, the electricity has gone off every night this week at least once or twice... last night we kinda gave up counting after the fourth or fifth time. The problem with electricity going off at night is that the difference between the light from our outside security lights and the white noise (and cool breeze!) from our fans running and complete and utter darkness and silence is HUGE and it wakes ALL five of us up every time the power goes out at night.... with the little boys screaming in terror most nights. We do have an emergency battery-operated light that automatically comes on when the power goes out, but the power was out so often and for such long stretches this week that several nights this week the battery died before the power came back on.... so Brant resorted to turning on a bright flashlight and leaving it on all night to give the boys a bit of light. (That was my "bright" idea at 3 a.m. one morning!) :)
Anyways, we've all been really tired and grouchy this week. It's been unusually warm here and so we're sweating because of the heat and because of the lack of fans running while the power's out!
Also grouchy because we got the little boys their immunizations on Monday and they were not happy about that one bit!
But we've had fun.... we had several friends "pop" over on Valentine's Day to deliver cards; we baby-sat some friends' kids; we grilled yummy import sausages from V-day (my gift to Brant - I think the first time we've had sausage in almost two years?) and we've been studying the pioneers and cowboys and Indians in school this week, and the boys love it. To help combat our total exhaustion and achiness that comes from not sleeping at night, Brant and I have been doing this really intense work-out aerobic and strength video this week.... it's become quite the family affair each morning and is a riot to see the little boys try to "exercise" along with us. :)
So here are a few pics from the week....
This was today when Elijah's little friend was over to play and do "history class" with us. The boys were so filthy playing outside that I had them sit down by the washing machine outside and detached the hose to rinse them off before they went inside to make their construction paper tee pees and build log cabins out of Lincoln Logs. :)
Yesterday afternoon a street seller came to our neighborhood selling "whistle cakes." We rarely buy food off the street, but these are fun - little "cakes" of rice, brown sugar, coconut and "pandang" - not sure what the English word is, but it's a green leaf that they use here in cakes.... anyways, the guy stuffs the mixture in a piece of bamboo then rams the bamboo onto a spout over a big pot of boiling water (on the back of his cart!) and the steam cooks the cake. When he's not cooking any cakes, the steam just releases, hence the "whistle" and the name of the cakes. :) And, yes, Caleb is still in his pajamas at 4 in the afternoon.... I told you it has been one of those weeks.
I know this is blurry, but it's the best picture I could get of all 3 of them.... another day when we were so tired we stayed in PJ's all day, the boys had fun wearing Brant's shirts all around the house....
So you can be praying the electricity stays on tonight so we can all get some sleep! :)
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
I love food
I know I complain a lot about all the work putting together a meal involves... I spend LOTS of time in the kitchen. But the other day I was reading a newsletter from a new missionary and she commented on all the hours she had spent figuring out how to use local ingredients (in Africa!) and how she had finally adjusted to cooking everything from scratch and the time that took.... and how she ENJOYED it and how SATISFYING it was to put a nice meal on the table for family every night.
Got me thinking about my attitude and how maybe I shouldn't complain so much.... and made me realize how satisfying it is to pull off a really good meal and how much we all enjoy good food.
Like last night. We had sandwiches... will give you a glimpse into our life when I put the food on the table and Caleb said "Ooooooh, we get to have CHEESE" :) (Cheese is more expensive than gold here... literally). Sandwiches for dinner are a big treat.... and we all really enjoy sandwich night.
So here's what it took to make dinner....
Bread - I made homemade focaccia bread by MYSELF for the first time Monday night. Who knew I could do something so wonderful? :) I was SO proud of myself and it turned out way, way yummy. The recipe was decently easy and turned out way more than I was expecting (and needed) for Monday's dinner; so saved the bread for Tuesday night's impromptu sandwich night. I think I will be making this a lot more often... until my shorts get too tight. :)
Meat - We had ham luncheon meat... which we carried on the airplane back with us from our vacation and have been carefully doling out. Usually if we do sandwiches I cook chicken and cut it up.
Pesto - I had basil which a friend is growing, so I "whipped up" some pesto Tuesday morning while Elijah was finishing his math worksheet. Fun addition to the meal.
Cheese - Came all the way from America with Brant's aunt when she was visiting. (Yes, you can hand carry cheese over. You can also mail it in packages, if you're ever needing something heavy to fill some space. :) Gets a tad bit greasy, but firms up really nicely once you get it in the fridge and is perfectly fine and wonderful.) :)
Lettuce - Is really hard to find here. Brant picked me up a bunch of spinach the other day when he was doing supply buying so I used the spinach as lettuce. I had to clean, soak and cut all the leaves before we could use it... I soak all my fruits and veggies in a solution we buy at the local pharmacy. Kinda has me paranoid about eating stuff without cleaning it first, so I might take it back to America and soak all my produce there too. (Or maybe not!)
Pickles - Another expensive import treat. I just got some dill seed so am planning to try making my own pickles, but we finished off the jar we had last night.... you can only get the big whole pickles so I sliced them all into little pieces.
Tomatoes - Also wash and soak before you can eat them.
Then we busted out a box of Triscuits we got for Christmas. YUM.
And I made a French Onion dip.... YUM. I had originally asked Brant's aunt to bring the packets to make soup/flavor meat, but when I saw the picture of the dip on the front, I knew it wouldn't be used for any soup. :) But of course it's not as easy as just adding the packet to the sour cream... especially since you can't get sour cream here. Everyone here makes their own yogurt and the plain yogurt doubles really well as sour cream. My boys love the taste of plain yogurt and we probably go through 2 liters of yogurt a week. I make it from powdered milk, and just in the last month have gotten a system down so I don't ruin it. (Was only having about 50% success previously, but I had my water too hot and was killing the culture.) It's a riot.... we use the yogurt in the morning with granola (which I make once a week) and in the morning we call it "yogurt." But in the evening when we have tacos or baked potatoes we call it "sour cream." Elijah just caught on a couple weeks ago that the "yogurt" and the "sour cream" are always kept in the same container. :) Anyways, I had to whip up a batch of "sour cream" yesterday morning so we would have enough to make the dip last night.
Then I cut up a papaya... I had never had papaya before moving here and it is definitely our favorite fruit. I think Ezra might starve in America without papaya. :)
So.... a lot went into the meal last night. But it was such a fun meal. And we really enjoyed it and though it was a ton of work, it is really satisfying knowing I could whip up my own ................ whatever I need for the night's meal.
*****
But........ I am really thankful that we are continually seeing more signs of progress in this back corner of the world and part of that means more and more restaurants and places to eat out when I am in no mood to cook. :)
Got me thinking about my attitude and how maybe I shouldn't complain so much.... and made me realize how satisfying it is to pull off a really good meal and how much we all enjoy good food.
Like last night. We had sandwiches... will give you a glimpse into our life when I put the food on the table and Caleb said "Ooooooh, we get to have CHEESE" :) (Cheese is more expensive than gold here... literally). Sandwiches for dinner are a big treat.... and we all really enjoy sandwich night.
So here's what it took to make dinner....
Bread - I made homemade focaccia bread by MYSELF for the first time Monday night. Who knew I could do something so wonderful? :) I was SO proud of myself and it turned out way, way yummy. The recipe was decently easy and turned out way more than I was expecting (and needed) for Monday's dinner; so saved the bread for Tuesday night's impromptu sandwich night. I think I will be making this a lot more often... until my shorts get too tight. :)
Meat - We had ham luncheon meat... which we carried on the airplane back with us from our vacation and have been carefully doling out. Usually if we do sandwiches I cook chicken and cut it up.
Pesto - I had basil which a friend is growing, so I "whipped up" some pesto Tuesday morning while Elijah was finishing his math worksheet. Fun addition to the meal.
Cheese - Came all the way from America with Brant's aunt when she was visiting. (Yes, you can hand carry cheese over. You can also mail it in packages, if you're ever needing something heavy to fill some space. :) Gets a tad bit greasy, but firms up really nicely once you get it in the fridge and is perfectly fine and wonderful.) :)
Lettuce - Is really hard to find here. Brant picked me up a bunch of spinach the other day when he was doing supply buying so I used the spinach as lettuce. I had to clean, soak and cut all the leaves before we could use it... I soak all my fruits and veggies in a solution we buy at the local pharmacy. Kinda has me paranoid about eating stuff without cleaning it first, so I might take it back to America and soak all my produce there too. (Or maybe not!)
Pickles - Another expensive import treat. I just got some dill seed so am planning to try making my own pickles, but we finished off the jar we had last night.... you can only get the big whole pickles so I sliced them all into little pieces.
Tomatoes - Also wash and soak before you can eat them.
Then we busted out a box of Triscuits we got for Christmas. YUM.
And I made a French Onion dip.... YUM. I had originally asked Brant's aunt to bring the packets to make soup/flavor meat, but when I saw the picture of the dip on the front, I knew it wouldn't be used for any soup. :) But of course it's not as easy as just adding the packet to the sour cream... especially since you can't get sour cream here. Everyone here makes their own yogurt and the plain yogurt doubles really well as sour cream. My boys love the taste of plain yogurt and we probably go through 2 liters of yogurt a week. I make it from powdered milk, and just in the last month have gotten a system down so I don't ruin it. (Was only having about 50% success previously, but I had my water too hot and was killing the culture.) It's a riot.... we use the yogurt in the morning with granola (which I make once a week) and in the morning we call it "yogurt." But in the evening when we have tacos or baked potatoes we call it "sour cream." Elijah just caught on a couple weeks ago that the "yogurt" and the "sour cream" are always kept in the same container. :) Anyways, I had to whip up a batch of "sour cream" yesterday morning so we would have enough to make the dip last night.
Then I cut up a papaya... I had never had papaya before moving here and it is definitely our favorite fruit. I think Ezra might starve in America without papaya. :)
So.... a lot went into the meal last night. But it was such a fun meal. And we really enjoyed it and though it was a ton of work, it is really satisfying knowing I could whip up my own ................ whatever I need for the night's meal.
*****
But........ I am really thankful that we are continually seeing more signs of progress in this back corner of the world and part of that means more and more restaurants and places to eat out when I am in no mood to cook. :)
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Saga of a two year old's birthday
So Saturday our little white-skinned, red-headed man turned two. My baby!!! We had a great day planned - zucchini bread and smoothies for breakfast (Ezra's favorite); opening presents; lunch at the pool.... then we had invited over one of the interior families who was out in town for dinner and birthday cake. They just have one little boy Ezra's age and they think it's great that he and Ezra are "friends." I didn't want to break her new mommy heart and tell her that Ezra doesn't even realize her little boy exists yet. :) So we invited them for a "party."
Well, the day kinda went as planned. We had to wait til after nine til all the boys were all awake so we could turn on the blender so it was a late breakfast. Ezra tore through his presents in about five seconds, which was funny because it took him hours on Christmas. :) And he was SO possessive of everything. He didn't want to let Elijah or Caleb hold anything.... and we heard his first "mine!" Yep, he's definitely two.
The pool was fun. Ezra went down the water slide for the first time (with Dad); Caleb went out in the middle of the pool with just his water wings for the first time (he doesn't like the sensation of just floating, so he usually stays on the steps) and Elijah learned to sit on the bottom of the pool and dive for toys.... it was so much fun to see them progressing in their water abilities and just a reminder that they are growing up so fast!
Anyways, after the pool, we had planned to put the boys down for a nap... like normal. Only Ezra wouldn't sleep. We couldn't figure out what was wrong with him - tried EVERYTHING - but he just screamed and screamed for hours. Top it off - Brant had a big mess up on a huge meat order for his flights this week, so he was gone all afternoon and by 5 pm we were all a disaster. We called off dinner with our friends; we FINALLY got Ezra to stop screaming and Brant came home and gave me a 15 minute break to rest and regroup... not my idea of a fun afternoon. So dinner was way late. Ezra ended up helping me make the pizzas, which was a lot of fun. Notice his puffy little eyes.
We got the pizzas in the oven and he just crashed. We put him in bed; woke him up at 6:30 to have pizza and birthday cake and put him back in bed at 7. Not at all how we had planned the evening!
I had tried to make little car cakes with molds I have, but they didn't work. So I ended up with a huge pile of cake crumbs.... but Ezra is real into excavators and diggers, so there you have it....
We love our Ezra so much. The older boys call him "Ez" or "Ezzie" (Brant hates that). He is so babyish still - he just learned to walk about 3 months ago, so he still has that new walker toddle which is cute, but he can "zoom" when he sticks his arms out and run after his brothers. :) He loves music and "dances" whenever he hears music. His vocab is expanding by the day... For a long time he couldn't figure out what to call Caleb, but now he calls him "Kay" and Elijah he calls "Jah." His vocab includes excavator "edededer" (It really does sound like - he's got right intonation on the syllables) :) and words like "Rai" (he is terrified of rain) and "ake ou" (thank you) What is really funny (kinda, but not really) is how aggressive he is. Ezra can DEFINITELY hold his own with the two older boys; Caleb is terrified of him. :) He hits and swings toys around and screams.... oh, we are going to have our work cut out for us with this one! And we thought keeping him from getting skin cancer on the equator was going to be our big struggle with him!
Happy birthday, Ez! We love you!
PS The top picture is of the breakfast smoothies - Ezra can't handle the trauma of finishing his smoothie and being told "no more." :) And we figured out he's getting his molars - it's been a long, sleepless couple of days and nights.
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