Tribute to Yakob

Have I written about THE BIRD? Maybe not... but since we moved in last year I've wanted to do a blog post on him. It's now or never...

His name is Yakob. (Like Jacob, but not in English). He belongs to our landlord. Tidbit of trivia... all birds like him on our island are called Yakob... it's not some cute, clever name our landlord thought up. On the next island over all the birds like him have a different name - but they are all named the same on that island... and so forth.

Yakob was the big excitement when we moved into our house - one year ago this week, actually. His cage borders on our garage/covered porch and I can see the cage out the kitchen window. The boys love to go see him and talk to him. One of Ezra's first words was "Yakob" - I kid you not. Over the months the excitement of the exotic bird has waned some but the boys still go visit him daily. I won't show you his whole cage on the off-chance some PETA member sees this blog and tracks us down here and sues us by association, but needless to say, it's not a lot bigger than what is pictured above. I kinda feel sorry for Yakob and would feel a lot more sorry for him if he wasn't so annoying!

Yakob talks and talks and talks.... Not in English, of course, but since we understand the local language, we happen to understand Yakob. :) He can say "There are guests" when people show up; "Yakob's hungry" (that's a favorite of his); and several other catchy little phrases. Over the months he has developed a "cry" that sounds exactly like Ezra's and whenever Ezra starts to cry, Yakob "cries" too. The neighbors thinks it's hilarious. I just think that whenever I am trying to deal with a crying toddler I don't need a bird rubbing it in.

But Yakob's favorite thing to say is "Good night" - but he says it all day long. I'm convinced it's a joke on his part and he says it just to annoy people. The conversations usually go like this...

Yakob: "Good night"
Our neighbor (out sweeping the porch): "Good day, Yakob; you're supposed to say 'Good day.'"
Yakob: "Good night"
Neighbor: "It's not night, Yakob, it's day time. Say 'Good day.'"
Yakob: "Good night"
Neighbor (getting a bit frustrated): "Good DAY, Yakob, good DAY. Stupid bird."
Yakob: "Good night"

Some nights Yakob gets to screeching and we can't even hold a conversation at the dinner table because he is so loud. Brant can't stand that and is thankful that we will very soon be leaving Yakob behind forever.

Tonight is our last night in this house. I have loved this house and its tons of windows that let in breezes and sunlight. I love the neighborhood and the quiet path and the big dirt yard that is perfect for little boys to play in. I love that there are few mosquitoes here. I love the friends we have made here and how the boys have loved playing with their little national friends as easily as they play with their MK friends. I have loved feeling like we can help people and encourage them and be a part of their lives.

I love the memories that we have made in this house... Elijah learned to ride a bike in our yard here. Ezra learned to walk here. We had a fantastic play room with huge floor pillows that were great for Brant and the boys to wrestle on. We set up our Christmas tree in our front room and Elijah helped hammer nails into the window frames to hang Christmas lights. We ate with our neighbors and helped with the road construction project and handed out medicine and snacks to the neighbor kids.

I hate this aspect of our lives - of constantly moving and never having a place to call "home." It makes me sad to think that all the great memories will fade and this house will become another in a long list of "places we have lived."

I really do not want to move to our house on the hill. It's a beautiful Western style house with a real shower that has hot water and gorgeous views of the valley below it. But a house on a hill with no neighbors is lonely. And a Western-designed house gets really hot and stuffy on the Equator. But we have seen the Lord's hand in this decision and know that He is leading us to that house. We are thankful He has provided it. And we are thankful that He will be with us as we move tomorrow... and we're kinda thankful that Yakob won't.

It's my job to support their dreams...

Today at lunch we were talking about what the boys want to be when they grow up. It's a constant topic of conversation at our house, usually heavily influenced by the latest book, movie or experience the boys have taken in. So today's conversation went something like this....

Me: "Caleb, I thought you wanted to be a cooker (a chef) when you grew up."

Caleb: "No, I changed it now."

Me: "So, what do you want to do now?"

Caleb: "I want to be a Phillistine so I can have a sword and a shield and so I CAN FIGHT GOLIATH!!!!"

Brant (trying not to cry he is laughing so hard): "Caleb, remember that the Philistines were on Goliath's side; they didn't want to fight him."

Calbe: "Oh." Pause.... "Wait, I just remembered Goliath already died, didn't he?"

Enough to break a mother's heart

Ezra got to go on his first trip to the barber's with dad... He was SO excited....



I cried.

On birthday pie and surprise parties

Brant is a pie guy. As in, he hates cake. We did not have a Groom's Cake at our wedding as it would just have been the bride eating it. :) It's one of the greatest sources of contention in our marriage, but after almost ten years, I'm accepting the fact that he will just never love cake as much as I do...

So every year I do a pie for his birthday... which was easy in the States with my nifty apple-peeler-corer (and with bags of frozen fruit at the grocery store!) Here it's a bit more of a hassle... and I am not a pie fan at all, so I hate all the work for something I won't eat... sorry to be selfish, Babe. :)

So this year to celebrate Brant's birthday, I decided to try a Key Lime Pie.... I found a really easy recipe on The Pioneer Woman's website and since limes grow like weeds here (but not lemons, how weird is that?) I figured why not?

The boys helped make the pie... it was great fun and would have been really easy to whip together if I didn't have so much "help" :):)

Elijah squeezed limes.... LOTS and LOTS of limes.... (no, I don't have a juicer, and YES it would be helpful.)


Caleb was in charge of the crust... which meant he broke up cookies and put them in the chopper attachment to my blender...


It's a small attachment so only could handle a few cookies at a time; this particular recipe called for a really thick crust to off-set the really rich filling. By the end of the process, Caleb was able to fill the container, shut it, get it on the blender correctly, grind the cookies and then take the whole thing apart and empty the cookies into the baggie. He was SO proud of himself! I was sad to see how much he's grown up. :(


And Ezra's contribution was to cheer us on....



The only hitch in the whole process was that Brant came home early from a flight and we had to scramble to hide the pie! :) But it turned out SO yummy. At first the boys were upset there would be no cake (and icing!) at the party (I was too!) but by the time they finished their first bites, they all said they wanted "Lime Pie" for their birthdays too!

With the pie finished, we set about to finish getting ready for Brant's "party" - which involved wrapping the one little present I had managed to pick up for him. The boys were CRUSHED - as in, were crying - that there were not more presents. (Granted he did get some paper "presents" in envelopes from America, but those totally don't count in little boy eyes!) But buying presents here is SO hard... what I did get a friend had picked up for me on vacation off island.

Anyways, they got over it and decided to do an elaborate "treasure hunt" for the one present.... it basically was all 3 of them leading Brant around the house and showing where they had hidden "clues" (which were pictures they had drawn for Brant) until all the clues were found - then they showed him where they had hidden the present....




After the "treasure hunt" the boys wanted to have a "surprise party." They have a Corduroy book where Corduroy's friends throw him a surprise party and we must have read that story 3 times a day the week before Brant's birthday. The only trouble was they have never been to a surprise party before and totally didn't get the concept.... they wanted to hide all over the house and then have Brant come find them and yell "surprise!" when he found them!

Anyways, we finally got around to dinner! Brant grilled some imported sausages I had bought from a fundraiser and then we got PIE! It was way yum and I will definitely do it again... maybe even for my own birthday. :)



Happy Birthday, Babe! I love you!

Death by 4 year old

Being a missionary does not mean I like bugs and critters. It doesn't even mean I can deal with bugs... it means I have a nice husband who can deal with them for me. :) But alas, God created something even worse than bugs... geckos. We call them "chechuks" here and they are worse than rats - crawling all over my kitchen counters, our beds, the boys' toys, you name it, and leaving their droppings everywhere. So today when I found a HUGE (that's me screaming, and yes, slightly exaggerating) gecko on kitchen floor, I about panicked when I realized Brant was out of town for the day.

Enter Caleb. Caleb has no fear of bugs or critters or anything that moves that is smaller than he is. :) Chechuks are his friend. He was thrilled with his new pet and quickly took it outside to play. :)

"Playing" involved "giving it a drink" (laying it upside down in a puddle) "teaching it to swim" (pushing it through the puddles like he would a matchbox car) and "trying to get it to eat" (shoving an ant in its face).

All the while Elijah is running after Caleb yelling "THAT'S NOT YOUR CHECHUK, CALEB! IT'S GOD'S! HE MADE IT SO YOU CAN'T KILL IT!" Ahhhh... my sweet firstborn. PETA would be proud.

Finally Caleb put the gecko in a bucket to "rest." Something tells me it won't be going anywhere soon.

Let that be a lesson to any gecko in my kitchen.

Things I've learned as a mother to 3 boys

1. I am my child's savior.... not being blasphemous at all. But when the balloon pops, the popsicle melts, the Lego man's head washes down the shower drain (long story!) it is my job to fix it and wipe away tears (and fish the head out of the drain!). I love the satisfaction of being able to fix what's right in my little boys' small worlds. I love that they come to me to fasten their capes, tie their shoes, and push them on the swing.

2. Little boy finger nails grow SO fast. It seems like all I do is cut little boy nails. Could second that with their hair... it seems like they need a hair cut every other week!

3. I am easily hurt by others' comments about my children. I am very defensive of my children and don't like it one bit when someone makes a comment that my boys are not quite up to par in some area... this includes how other children treat my kiddos... there has been more than one 5 year old I have wanted to punch when he snubs my precious baby (but I have refrained!!!).

4. I love to hear my children laugh.

5. I am a mother to little boys... hence they catch bugs, pick up lizards and have huge collections of rocks, sticks, leaves all over the house. I hate bugs, detest lizards, and have no use for rocks, sticks or leaves. :)

6. Some children's books drive me crazy. Some make me cry. Some I could read (like my boys!) over and over and over again.

7. Some children's movies drive me crazy. Some make me cry. Some I could watch over and over again. :)

8. I never knew that potty training included teaching them how to wipe, and that before they mastered the concept it was my job to do it.

9. I am not as patient of a person as I thought I was before I had children.

10. I love to teach my boys new things and watch them discover the world. I love teaching them how big God is; how to read; how to roll pill bugs into little balls and how to make "shy lady" leaves close up when you touch them.

11. I consider a rocking chair an essential piece of household furniture.

12. I love getting handfuls of "flowers" that clumsy little fingers have picked, mashed into their pockets and then produced with a big smile and a "Look, Mom, I picked this for you! Put it in water FAST before it dies."

13. In the boys' eyes, I am an expert in everything - except rockets, monster trucks, and guns. Then they ask Dad.