What Happened to Spring?!

It turned cold again today, so I'm comforting myself with these pictures from a warmer day last week when we took a walk...I loved these pictures of the Jkaile, Jojo and Gracia...I don't know where Micah was, probably off playing somewhere else...



Snowy Day

It began snowing last night and while it's not much, it was still enough for the kids to have had a blast this morning making snowballs and eating maple syrup snow (which they probably shouldn't be doing, but I'm sure we've eaten worse things!).  Schools have declared a snow day in most areas, so the kids were happy about that (okay, okay, I know, we're homeschooling...sh! don't tell). 

The view out my window was just beautiful...



My Kids

October 30th was Micah's 10th birthday! 

It didn't work out to have a big party for him

this year, but he did have a couple of friends over

to play and one spent the night...here he

is with his new ripstik.

This last Saturday Gracia and about 30 other girls

 got together for a tea party! 

We shopped together for the Perfect Dress

and found one that we both loved. 

The tea party was in honor of Gracia's friend Allison,

 whose family are also missionaries from our church. 

They are here at the Village for a few more weeks

 and Allison's mom wanted her to have some

special memories to take back with her when they leave.

Jojo...always on the go! 

Here he is learning how to ride a ripstik as well.

Since all of the other kids around here

 were dressing up for Fall Festivals, we dug out our

 costumes...Jkaile was thrilled with the knight costume.   

Of course, then he went around whacking

everybody...



Odds and Ends

What have we been up to lately?  Good question!  I'm so far behind on my blog posting and reading...sorry...so here you go...odds and ends about our lives these days...

1)  Homeschooling - I could safely say that homeschooling is one of our biggest challenges these days!  Not a bad challenge, in any way, just that it's a huge change in our family and one that's taken a lot of adjustment for all of us.  We are having fun with it, though, and getting more used to the pace and the schedule.  I've really had to get 'tough' with myself, though, because I'm not good at keeping organized and ahead of the game enough to keep us all on track.  Sigh...at least I'm learning...

2)  Ministry challenges - as we continue to work through ministry decisions, we've had a lot of questions about the direction that God might be leading us.  To a certain degree, we've seen some of those questions answered and it looks like some things are being more defined...unfortunately, it's not really what we expected or how we expected and it's very likely that some major ministry changes are coming our way.  We are going through a pretty rough time right now with some unfair accusations being made against us and we're confronting some issues right now...in the middle of it all, however, we continue to trust God to strengthen and guide us...we're confident that God has our reputation and testimony in his hands.  We'll keep you posted as we go...

3)  Personal Development - if you read my last post all the way through to the end, congratulations!  I know it was long and perhaps 'dry' for some, but I continue to be challenged as I consider whether I work to communicate acceptance in my relationships and especially in my cross-cultural relationships (including my husband)...I am grateful for how God has worked in my own heart to confront my own ethnocentricity (I know, big word) and whether I am willing and able to set aside my preferences and my rights in order to work towards becoming a true cross-cultural servant. 

During this time that we're back in the States, I've also taken the opportunity to attend a ladies' Bible study at our church...it was hard to choose between so many good ones offered, but then a friend invited me to go to a Significant Woman study where we would be 'peer coaches' for each other.  This study has been a refreshing time of fellowship and growth for me and I've enjoyed getting to know my friend better and making new ones along the way.   

4)  Celebrate Recovery (CR) - To quote the Celebrate Recovery page on our church's website..."Celebrate Recovery is a Christ-centered program that helps us deal with life’s “hurts, habits and hang-ups.” The purpose of Celebrate Recovery is to celebrate God’s healing power in our lives through the eight recovery principles found in the Beatitudes and the Christ-centered 12 steps. We open the door to healing by sharing our experiences, strengths and hopes with one another. In addition, we become willing to accept God’s grace in solving our life problems. The result: life-change!!"  For more information about CR click here...both Miguel and I are attending CR at our church here and I'm in what they call a 'step-study', too, a group that works through the 12 steps in a small group setting with weekly meetings.  There are issues that each of us are dealing with and we're excited to see opportunities for growth and healing in our lives.  I'll write more about this later...

5)  Another Birthday - This last week we celebrated Jojo's sixth birthday!  Jkaile was convinced that it was his 'dirthday', too, so we kind of allowed him to get in on the action...he probably won't get away with that next year, though...we had cake and home-made vanilla ice cream and presents and games with Miguel.  I think Jojo enjoyed his day and was pretty happy with his gifts, in particular the Lego set that made him quite popular with the rest of the boys! 

Jojo at his birthday table...he had a Lego cake that he helped

decorate himself...

Opening presents...

Happy with the Legos!

Enjoying a game of Capture the Flag

The 'other' birthday boy...

Gracia Has Another Birthday - Part I

On Wednesday, May 19th, I took Jojo and Jkaile over to the school to celebrate her birthday together with her classmates.  Her teacher brought cupcakes for us all to enjoy and they had decorated her desk in a special way for Gracia that day.  :)  I'm surprised Jkaile hadn't blown out that candle by then...you can tell he wants to!

Then they played 'find-the-happy-faces' that

her teacher had hidden...I think there were a few

they never did find...

Jojo found a few, too.

Next was an outdoor game on the playground...

And then back inside for Silly Sentences.

They were silly, all right!

Jkaile tried...don't think he quite got them put 

together right, though...

All in all, a fun birthday day...but the real fun
was to come at her party that next Saturday! 

Half-Birthdays

Our family celebrates Half-Birthdays!  I had never heard of Half-Birthdays until Gracia was born and had her first birthday.  You see, Gracia was born just a few days after Miguel's birthday, on May 19th. All that talk about Miguel's birthday coming up and Gracia's birthday coming up made Micah (three years old at the time) rather fussy and anxious for his own birthday to come (nearly 6 months away at that point!).  Our good friend, Tía Sue mentioned that her mother always celebrated their Half-Birthdays and I was intrigued.

Turns out that her mom had figured out the six-month date for each of her kids and then baked them a "half cake" to celebrate (basically, one cake cut in half and stacked) on that day.  I thought that sounded like a lot of work, but Sue said her mom made a lot of desserts anyway.  We worked out the dates and sure enough, Micah's Half-Birthday falls on April 30th, right before our two May birthdays.  And we've celebrated Half-Birthdays ever since (basically, once you start, you have to keep doing it because our kids won't let you forget about it. yeah.).

It may sound complicated to celebrate Half-Birthdays (and yes, the more kids you have (like me) makes it a bit more difficult), but we have strict rules regarding our Half-Birthdays.

1. No friends or parties or big deals, just the half-cake for dessert and maybe a candle or two.  
2. We sing "Happy Half-Birthday To You..."  It takes some practice fitting the extra syllable.   
3. No presents. At all. Period. 
4. The exact date of the Half-Birthday celebration is a bit flexible...if it's not convenient to celebrate said Half-Birthday on the actual date, Mom has the right to move it backwards or forwards a few days.
5. Mom and Dad don't celebrate Half-Birthdays since we kind of wish we weren't having to celebrate Whole Birthdays any more anyway. 

Of course, these are our rules...other families might want to do it a bit differently.  It's funny how excited the kids get about their Half-Birthday, and it's a neat way to celebrate and honor them in a special way. 

This year, we kinda forgot (okay, so we completely forgot about it) Jojo's Half-Birthday on March 29th, so we celebrated Micah's and Jojo's Half-Birthdays together (more convenient for me, just made two small round cakes and cut them both in half).

Here are the boys with their half cakes and 

our first attempt at making frozen yogurt 

in our ice cream maker.  It was good, we

used strawberry yogurt and frozen, chopped

strawberries.  I would cook the strawberries first

next time and add a bit more sugar...

Micah blowing out the last candle.  I'm

rather surprised Jkaile didn't get to it first!

You see Jojo's finger?  I think he was already licking the icing off his cake...

No Public Hiney Inspections, Please!

A really funny thing happened to me yesterday...gave us a good laugh! Our family lives in the middle apartment of the Bible School dormitory for the single students...we aren't actually on staff with the Bible School since we have another ministry, but they needed someone to live here in a supervisory role at the same time we were available so here we are. :) We live in the middle apartment with the girls above and the guys downstairs in the basement. The building is constructed in such a way that the basement has windows at ground level. The screens on the windows allow you to see out from the inside, but you can't really see into the windows from the outside (which caused another embarrassing incident of Jojo taking a leak right outside one of said basement windows, not realizing that his own mother and several other people were in the basement laughing their heads off at the whole situation, but that's another story).

So yesterday, Jojo and Jkaile were out jumping on the trampoline, which is currently placed on the south side of the house so as to take advantage of the afternoon shade. There are at least three basement windows on that side, which is why one of the students downstairs felt compelled to come tell me that I needed to go check on the boys. Since he wouldn't tell me outright what he had seen, I figured it was most likely something bad...and when there are two little boys involved, you just never know!

Sure enough, I peeked around the corner of the porch in time to see Jkaile pull up his underwear and Jojo with a somewhat guilty look on his face. I thanked the student and called the boys to come inside, wondering how to deal with the situation and also feeling a little embarrassed that my children would be doing, well, that. And not only doing that, but doing it out in the yard in plain view of the street (maybe there is a reason why most passers-by stare at our house a lot!) and the basement (although they tend to forget that people can actually see out those windows).

It took a couple of minutes for the boys to get their shoes on (Jkaile was wearing two mismatched girl crocs that took a bit of figuring out) and come inside, which gave me a minute to settle down and then I remembered...Jkaile had been complaining all day of an "owie" bottom. Suddenly, the situation became very clear to me! Jojo, with his strong sense of empathy and caring for his baby brother, was in all likelihood, just checking things out to see if he could help! Sure enough, that's what Jojo confessed to when he came inside...

When I told Miguel about it later, we both had a good laugh at what it must have looked like to the guys downstairs! Maybe we should actually let know the inside scoop, eh? lol So then Miguel says, "I guess we need to tell Jojo not to conduct any (hiney) inspections in public!"

Sometimes It's Better Not to Know

As much as I'd like to catch glimpses of the future sometimes, I think that for the most part, maybe it's better not to know what life will bring you next...when Micah started throwing up one Saturday night about 2 1/2 weeks ago, I'm really glad I didn't know that we were looking at a solid week of vomiting and sickness! Micah got sick on Saturday night, then I started getting it on Monday night, Tuesday was Jojo's turn, Tuesday night Gracia started throwing up, and Wednesday night Jkaile started throwing up. By that time, Jojo was well enough to help Jkaile...which is when I snapped this sweet, sweet picture! Okay, well, yeah, it's a little gross, but isn't it just so sweet how Jojo is helping his little brother?! And okay, yes, what kind of a Mom takes pictures at a time like this, but hey, Jojo had it all under control...what you don't see is me throwing the camera down and joining them there on the floor...

On Friday morning, Miguel and JD both woke up sick and I began throwing up Friday night. What a miserable, miserable week that was! :( But God gives grace...we just canceled all family appointments and events (including a birthday party, a bridal shower, and a baby shower) although Miguel did go to work the representation table at a missions conference even though he wasn't feeling the greatest.

The kids missed most of the week of school, which happened to be testing week, but they were able to make that up this last week. I think the most disappointing thing, though, was not to be able to hang out with some good friends who were in town so their kids could take the testing, too. We did get a good talk in on the phone, but that's not the same as hanging out over a meal and watching our kids enjoy each other. :( Oh well, maybe next time...

It took us another week to get over that flu as we dealt with the hangers-on of fatigue, upset tummies, and diarrhea. Ugh! This week, though, we are mostly back to normal, although tired from being a bit busier than usual...I've been trying to dig out from under the enormous pile of winter/too small clothes that has taken on epic proportions in the younger kids' room (quite embarrassing for guests to catch a glimpse of on their way to the bathroom and my kids can NOT seem to keep the door shut!). Not to mention the dust bunnies, or as a friend puts it "dust llamas" accumulating everywhere at incredible rates..Miguel swept out quite a pile from under and around the bed in our room this morning! With the dry and dusty condition of this desert region, things deteriorate about 10 times faster than back home!

So okay, back to work sorting out clothes...which to put away for next year, which to get rid of (we're considering putting on a garage sale!), which to keep...decisions, decisions, decisions. Not my favorite thing to do when I would prefer to veg...

Jojo's New Haircut

We have typically liked our boys to have long hair...some boys just look good with longish styles of hair! Although Jojo's hair was a bit skimpy when he was a baby, it's grown out more and more every year.

Jojo at around one and half...

Christmas 2009

So imagine my surprise when Miguel brought Jojo back from his hair cut a couple of days ago looking like this! I mean, it's like "Who are you and what did you do with my Jojo?!" lol I have to admit, however, he does look a lot more grown up!

JD's Birthday

I realized the other day that I completely forgot to post about JD's 17th birthday, which was January 27th...it fell in the middle of a very strange couple of weeks of sickness and busyness, thus the forgetfulness on my part! I wish we could have planned something bigger, but at the end, it was JD's choice to only have a family celebration...maybe next year. I made vanilla ice cream in our new ice cream freezer and baked pound cake; all very yummy!

Sorry the picture is a bit dark, none of them turned out too well and this one was the best. Interestingly, Jkaile ended up being quicker on the draw than JD when it was time to blow out the candles! He just loves to blow out "fire"! We all had a good laugh at that. At any rate, I think JD enjoyed his birthday celebration and was pleased with all his presents. :)


To give a bit of background...JD (short for José David) is Miguel's youngest brother. Miguel has another brother and one sister, but the older siblings were all in their early 20s when JD was born. JD spent a year living with us in 2005-2006 while we were in Venezuela, where he caught up with his schooling (I taught him at home during that time) and learned English .

Jojo had a special place in JD's heart!

Two brothers...

JD came to live with us again this last summer. Our hope is that he can stay with us until he graduates from the MK school here in two years. His dream is to attend college in the U.S. and probably study something to do with computers, graphic design, and/or engineering.

Family picture, 2006.

One of my favorite pictures of the boys...

The boys with their cousins Daniel and Luis
at a park in Venezuela

New Shoes!

To be completely honest with you, money's been tight this semester, which tends to create stress...and yet God is good to provide. Not always how or when we think He should or will, but we have yet to go hungry and we've been able to pay our bills. This last week, we were tremendously blessed by a local Mexican church here in the city who graciously bought all of the kids in our family brand new shoes! at the mall! And not only for our family, but they bought new shoes for the children of several missionary families! A true blessing and encouragement to all of us!

At the shoe store...

Jkaile...

Trying on the shoes...

After buying us the shoes, we were treated to
supper...

Our family chose gorditas...not from
Doña Tota, but still delicious!

And after supper, ice cream bars from Dairy Queen!
A real treat for the kids!

All the kids with their new shoes...

Christmas with the Friendly Beasts

In spite of not having a music teacher this year at our MK school, the elementary teachers were able to put together a short Christmas program featuring "The Friendly Beasts" (at least I think that's what it was called...). Everyone worked very hard and we all enjoyed their presentation. It just hardly seems like Christmas without a school Christmas program, so I am glad they made the effort!

Jkaile checking out Baby Jesus before the show...

I helped with the refreshments and ended up
wearing the exact same shade of green as Anita and
Deanna AND the napkins! Too funny!

The entire Kindergarten class were sheep...

Micah (in the orange) was one of the Kings...his belt
is made out of my curtain tie-backs! lol

Gracia was a brown horse...

Micah and a friend after the program...