God is gracious

We're potty training Ezra this week. I'll spare you the pictures; I'm not sure Brant would want them posted all over the Internet anyways. :) It's gone pretty well overall - more successes than accidents and he's dry during nap times and during the night, so I really can't complain 4 days in. What has been hilarious is that we've quickly figured out that Ezra likes total privacy to do his business! So early the first day he pushed his little potty chair from the living room where we had set it up, down the hall, into his bedroom. Now, when I take him, I help him get his pants down, sit him down and then leave! He's very particular. :) It's also hilarious as I'll watch him scoot around his room (we have tile floors) sitting on the potty chair the whole time - he'll scoot himself over to his bookshelf, toy box, whatever. He even scooted over to his dressed this afternoon and pulled all the clothes out... all while sitting!

Ezra with a sucker - his treat after going potty. :) Proof I do give my children sugar... sometimes. ;)

Anyways, Tuesday was NOT a good day potty training and by noon I had changed 4-5 pairs of dirty underwear. Yesterday was much better and when Brant came home for lunch I remarked, "God is gracious today - Ezra hasn't had an accident yet." As soon as I said the words, I immediately regretted them. Is God gracious only when things go my way? Was He not gracious on Tuesday giving me patience to clean up messes? Does God - or my view of God - change depending on my circumstances?

Today has been a rough day. Brant was down at the airport this afternoon getting stuff ready for a flight when he said "all hell broke loose." A plane went down in the mountains. Just like that one of our good friends, a missionary pilot who has been serving here for 20 years, was in the presence of the Lord. Tonight as we cried and prayed for his wife and kids, I tried to picture what their last morning together as a family was like - did they recognize God's grace in the moments they were spending this morning, not knowing they would be their last?

I am not a good missionary. My faith in God is weak. I see God as faithful and gracious this morning, and yet question His plan and timing this afternoon. Yet, if I question the God Who Never Changes, then why am I here - in this hot, horrible place, 1200 miles from the nearest Starbucks and half a world away from my family and friends? Is not the very reason we are here in the first place to proclaim in the darkness that there is a God Who does not change? His love does not fail when a plane engine does. His grace is the same whether my child messes in his underwear or makes it to the toilet. His faithfulness does not waver even when my faith falters.

I am thankful we serve a God like that.

Summer wrap-up

I know summer officially ended in America a couple weeks back, so I'm a tad late. But this post has been several weeks in the making. Half the pictures got deleted after two hours' worth of downloading so I kinda gave up for a while. :) Besides, we live in the land of perpetual summer, so the changing of the seasons is only something we study in school - kinda like the Pyramids or the Great Wall of China. :) But, for what's it's worth... here are some of our favorite memories of Summer 2011....

We moved to a new house at the beginning of June. This is the view from our porch. I love it; it's so peaceful and beautiful and amazing to watch storms sweep through the valley up to our house.


Ezra moved to his big boy bed...


To celebrate the end of Elijah's first year of school, we had a camp-out at a friend's house. Elijah and his little friend who finished kindergarten!!!


The best part of camping is playing with the fire.


The graduated kindergartener and the daddy. :)


The little boys and I came and joined the big boys for dinner around the camp fire. (A tad smokey!)


What's a camp fire without marshmallows? (Sent over from the States just for this!)


One of my best friends and roommates from college, Jen, came to visit for a week in June. SO fun! Of course we had to take her to the beach.


Our annual 4th party with LOTS of yummy food....


And lots of little friends to share it with....


Brant was most excited about the apple pie. :)


Elijah helping crank the 4th ice cream.


Ezra with his ice cream on the 4th.


The summer was not all fun and games... both Brant and I had amoeba in July. :P For two weeks, I took this many pills twice a day. Ugh.


One of the highlights of the summer... peaches. :)


I tried to keep the kids on some sort a routine, so every Tuesday we did a craft. Here's Elijah with his clay creations... he's into space stuff now. :)


We also had "pool day" on Wednesdays and met several other moms and their kids for swimming and a picnic. It was a tad crazy - but way fun - about 15 kids under age 6 and 5 moms trying to make sure no one drowned. :) Hence, no pictures. :)

On the boat on our second beach trip of the summer. Note on Ezra's progress this summer.... on our first trip to the beach this summer he called it a "boap." Now he can say "boat."


We really enjoyed all the fruit and veggies we are getting at our new house... but after 19 pineapples in one week, I decided it was getting a little out of hand...


So I borrowed a friend's dehydrator and had my husband (who has a home ec teacher for a mom) show me how to use it. :)


It took two DAYS to get all the fruit dry.


This was all we got from 6 pineapples.... (we did eat a FEW pieces along the way, just to test the dryness) :) But still, not much...


But the consensus was it was way yummy, so I might try it again...



So thankful for a fun summer with Brant and our little boys!

Sweet days

We are in the middle of a lot of tension with one of our co-workers. Brant and I were up late last night praying and crying and just restless with the stress we knew the new week would bring. But God was gracious and gentle with us today and we spent a beautiful quiet day at home...

I spent the morning re-tying little boy capes that had become loose and dislodging dried out play dough from those rolly-cutty toys that make “french fries” and “potato chips.” I made granola and dehydrated another batch of pineapple. We studied picto-graphs and the letter “R” and rain forest flowers.

We had clowns for lunch - peanut butter faces on tortillas with big apple slice ears and strawberry noses. How can you be mad at the world while eating a strawberry? It was our first time to have fresh strawberries in almost ten months. The boys were besides themselves with excitement.

The power went out this afternoon and it was hot. hot. hot. So no one took naps and we all piled on my bed, enjoying the last vestiges of the AC’d room and started Elijah’s new reading book “Mr. Popper’s Penguins.” Later when Brant came home from work, he and the boys went outside to help our gardener burn brush (a favorite pastime for my pyro-loving children) and I chopped veggies for dinner while listening to my iPod.

This evening Brant and I just laid out on the rug, totally exhausted by the heat of the day and the stress of the past week and just listened to songs - splitting the iPod headphones between us (more romantic than plugging the iPod into the speakers):) and just laughing at the parodies he likes to listen to.

It was a good day.

I am thankful.

My son the stud

Brant was out of town all day today.

Of course.

The morning went uneventfully enough until after lunch when I went to put Ezra in his bed. The poor kid got about two feet from his bed and me two feet from the door, when a baby rat zoomed into his room, running right between us. I screamed. Ezra screamed - more afraid of me, than the rat, I'm sure.

Then I screamed again.

And again.

Sorry. I don't do rats.

I yelled at Elijah to run get my phone, bug spray, and broom. I yelled at Caleb to get up on his bed. I yelled at Ezra to get up in his bed.

Elijah ran and brought me my phone and I frantically tried to call Brant (took 3 times and a "pick up the phone dang it!" text before he answered!) while spraying the rat with everything I could. By this time it was in Caleb's room (their doors are right next to each other), which calmed Ezra down a bit and Elijah was back with the broom. Elijah ran and got us both tennis shoes and then we both went into attack mode.... well, not quite. I went into "crying on the phone and begging Brant to come home mode" Sorry, I'm kinda a wimp. You do NOT have to be brave to be a missionary, as I can strongly attest to!!!! :)

So Brant's suggestion was to get the rat back into Ezra's room and close the door, getting Ezra out of the room. So I ran and grabbed Ezra and stuck him on Caleb's bed and the two of them hugged each other and were brave. :) I couldn't bare the thought of leaving the rat in Ezra's room (and what if we couldn't find it later!!!) So anyways, I managed to keep it contained in a small space by spraying it and Elijah went into full attack mode - whacking the life out of the thing for all it was worth. He followed the rat around the room, whacking, moving furniture, whacking some more. In the end, he caught it under the broom, and then stepped on the broom... that was the end of the rat.

I called Brant back with the story, and his first response was "Elijah is a stud." His next instruction was to take pictures. :) Then, we were supposed to sweep the thing up into the dust pan and take it to the burn pit where we burn our trash. I opted for closing the door on the dead rat and letting Brant deal with it when he got home. :) But Elijah, as mature and brave as an almost-7-year-old could possibly be, grabbed the dust pan, swept the thing up and then had it outside before I could blink.

I was so proud of him.

Later, he said "Mom, this is the best day ever. It's like I got to go hunting!"

Elijah, with his kill....


Me.... freaked out.... :)


The two brave buddies on Caleb's bed... I was so proud they obeyed and stayed put and were brave. :)



Did I mention I don't do rats???