Thanksgiving 2012

It seems like just a few short weeks ago that we celebrated Thanksgiving 2011 and here we are again just having celebrated Thanksgiving 2012! Reading over my post about Thanksgiving 2011 was a blessing because it reminded me that even without an oven or friends to celebrate with, it is possible to be deeply grateful for God's blessings.

This year, however, I do have an oven and I made good use of it! In fact, I have found myself baking several times a week since we moved here...I am quite happy with my new stove!

But I digress...I wasn't sure exactly how Thanksgiving 2012 would go and we'd been so busy in the weeks before that I hadn't been able to think much about it. So it was a pleasant turn of events to be invited over to our friends' and fellow missionaries' house to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal together.  Bill and Debbie are the directors of a Mexican mission agency that partners with Pioneers and some other agencies to help Mexicans connect with missions worldwide.

Their coworker Misa also joined us, which was fun because he is a great favorite with the kids!

So we got together to plan the menu and then got to work...I put together some cornbread dressing, a relish tray, rolls, pumpkin and sweet potato pies and stuffed mushrooms. Gracia made some jello. Debbie baked the turkey, green bean casserole, gravy, and three kinds of bar cookies.

The kids were so excited about Thanksgiving, especially with a real turkey (we don't usually get a turkey when outside the U.S.-it's not that turkeys aren't available in Mexico, they are just kind of expensive!) that they were up early and quite anxious for it to be time to eat...I noticed that Jojo had even gotten dressed in 'church' clothes of his own accord for the special event! It was touching to see how much they were enjoying themselves this year.

I also made a Thanksgiving tree again, although I decided to do a bit of a different model than last year. We scouted out some good twigs to make the 'tree' and used scrapbook paper circles to record our thanks. I hung them on the tree with some fishing line. I grabbed a juice pitcher and wrapped it with some pretty paper and tied some matching ribbons around it. The tree made a nice centerpiece on the table, although we had to remove it once all the food was ready and besides, someone was in danger of getting their eye poked out or something...

There were quite a few 'entries' on the tree...it's good to see a physical reminder of everything for which we are thankful. My favorite, however, was this entry by Jojo...well, that one and the mushy one Miguel wrote about being thankful for me...

Jkaile really enjoyed the mashed potatoes and gravy, but was most excited by the dessert table! And what picture wouldn't be complete without the complimentary rabbit ears...

With all that wonderful food, of course we all felt just like Micah did here...ready to crash on the couch for a while to enjoy some American football!

The Smallest Volcano in the World

Did you know that the smallest volcano in the world is located in Puebla?  I didn't either!  Now the smallest active volcano in the world is the Taal Volcano in the Phillippines, but it's huge compared to the Cuexcomate Volcano in Puebla.

The Cuexcomate Volcano in Puebla is only 13 meters high (about 43 feet)  and for the price of 10 pesos (80 cents USD) you can actually go down inside it!  We were surprised to find out that it's right in the city...even though it's inactive, apparently some people worry that if the Popocatepetl volcano were to really explode, then Cuexcomate might explode as well, since it's connected to the same system.

Popocatepetl erupting in April of this year.

Last week we had the chance to help take care of some other MKs (Missionary Kids) whose parents came to Puebla to attend a worldview course offered by Worldview Resource Group (I highly recommend it!).  Miguel had already taken the same course online, so when we heard that these families were coming and didn't have childcare, we offered to help out.

We took them to several different places, such as the ruins in Cholula, a fort where the Battle of the Cinco de Mayo was fought, a train museum and to the Cuexcomate Volcano, of course!

Here is the whole group (minus Miguel) in front of the volcano.

Going down!

There wasn't a whole lot to see at the bottom, except for this spring.  They say the water has a bit of sulfur, but it didn't smell bad and we even saw a fish in there! There was also the end of a tunnel, which apparently connects to an entire tunnel system that exists under the city of Puebla.

They say that ancient peoples used to throw live human sacrifices into this volcano...it was kind of creepy and sad to think about that.  As you can see, it would be impossible to get back out of their without that staircase!

So now you know...the world's smallest volcano is in Puebla!  What a fascinating discovery!

Correspondence

With the team here from our home church in Arkansas this week, it's a great opportunity to send back some mail!  Quite a few of the thank-yous that we want to send can be hand-delivered via the office mail at church once the team returns home, so it's a good chance to save on postage as well.

I had originally planned on making the cards, but Miguel decided to have some printed at Office Depot (yes, there is Office Depot in Mexico!).  As it turned out, however, he didn't print quite enough, so I got to make some anyway! 

Correspondence with supporters and folks back home, as many missionaries know, is both a blessing and a curse...while I love picturing our friends and supporters getting a card from us in the mail, it is also quite a chore to hand-write all those notes!  I would have to say that making the cards falls into the 'blessing' part, at least for me...I was sorry I didn't have to make more! 

I experimented with several different designs, but the ones I liked the best were the ones with collage-style pieces of torn paper.  They turned out really cute! 

One the inside, I stamped the English "Thanks so much" on another torn strip...it's a good way to use up the scraps.  It's a bit more clear on the actual card. 

Here's another similar design in green.  I think it was my favorite.  There are two ways to tear the paper, one does not show the white core.  I usually do not let the white core show, but it looked good here. 

I used two scraps of paper for the inside of this one, but I did notice that it took away more writing space.  Of course, that's fine if you just want to write a short note! 

All righty then, back to work!

Irish Dance

I can't remember now how long that Gracia has been taking Irish Dance classes, but it's been a few months now.  She has really enjoyed these classes and we hope to be able to continue them even while living in Apizaco...it would mean the long drive back to Puebla once a week, but we think it would be worth it.

The dance studio put on a presentation a couple of weeks ago to wrap up the year and Gracia was invited to participate, even though she only took classes for part of the year.  I was a little concerned about that, however, because the first day we went to the first practice recital at the theater where they would perform, she got very shy and upset, refusing to practice with the rest of the students.

We didn't make a big deal out of it, though, and I just let Miguel handle all of the details for the presentation (Gracia tends to get a bit of 'mommy-itis' at moments such as those), but I needn't have worried because she did really great! Even though she only had a couple of small parts (one of them solo!), this was great experience for her as she faced her fears about performing in front of an audience.

Here she is with her friend Lili getting hair and make-up done...

Final touches being made by the director of the dance studio (the mother of Gracia's teacher)...

Gracia with the poster advertising the presentation...what a gorgeous girl!  Those fun curls are a wig, btw...

Her other outfit of the evening...

And finally, posing with a Proud Mama!

Spring Break Team

If you talk to just about an expat missionary and ask them about the highlights of their time overseas, I would venture to say that receiving visitors from their sending churches would probably rank pretty high.  At least that's the way it is for us. Regardless of the controversy surrounding short-term missions teams (of which we are well aware and also have a few strong opinions about! but I'm not going to get into that here...), we do enjoy receiving visitors and teams from back 'home' (I say 'home', because well, it's hard for this international family to pinpoint exactly where that would be, for our purposes here it will mean the U.S.).

It is Spring Break in Arkansas and our home church has sent out teams to Belize, Guatemala, Mexico (that's us!), Memphis and a camp in Tennessee.  I have a niece and nephew who are in northern Mexico with their church from Kansas this week as well, wish it were closer so I could go see them!

Anyway, our team arrived from Arkansas last night, safe and sound, no luggage lost!  Which is good, because they brought a lot of stuff for us!  Having a team come from the states, is a good chance for Grammy to send chocolate and coloring books and our mail. I also finally got my own copy of One Thousand Gifts, thanks, my friend...you know who you are. Can't wait to read it!

It's also a good chance for us to buy things that we can't get here, or at least not as easily or as cheaply. It was interesting to see what we ordered, things like some car parts (the inside door handle on the van broke and it's quite annoying to have to roll down the window, wrench your arm opening it from the outside and then rolling up the window every time!), lots of missions/ministry books, a Wild Brothers video (that we can't wait to watch!), some electronic equipment for a pastor friend, some things Gracia needs for her Irish dance lessons, tennis shoes for Micah, peanut butter (we can get it here, but it's quite expensive!), and a few odds and ends of other things.

What am I most excited about?  Well, when Miguel ordered himself a laptop, he ordered one for me, too!  Woohoo!  It's an older model and refurbished, but I don't mind...Miguel and I are getting tired of vying for the one laptop we had, not to mention that it's also the computer that Micah uses for his home schooling.  So that's pretty cool and very sweet of Miguel to get that for me.

I also asked a friend to buy me some embossing equipment...so now I am all set to emboss something.  Gracia and I will be playing working with that later on today!  I have gradually built up my collection of scrapbooking/card-making supplies, so this addition is pretty exciting!  :)

My friend also sent me some food grade diatomaceous earth.  For an interesting read on diatomaceous earth, either look it up on the internet or click here. I am interested in trying it and seeing the results! Thanks, friend!

I also noticed that Miguel ordered a few things as thoughtful gifts and it really touched my heart.

There is an old man who comes by our house every week gathering cardboard and other recyclables in order to make a living.  This man is disabled and has a lot of trouble walking. Miguel has noticed that it's very hard for him to handle the large sacks he carries around the neighborhood using an old stick as a cane.  We don't know where he lives or how far he has to walk, but he has to compete with many others who gather recyclables as well, many of whom have bicycles.  It's a rough way to make a living, that's for sure.  So Miguel had a friend buy him a used walker to give to this man.  Like I said, that really touched my heart.

Miguel also asked for some used pairs of tennis shoes.  I thought they were all for Micah and some of them are (that boy goes through shoes like crazy!), but it turns out that there is one pair that Miguel ordered for a boy who is attending the American football practices with Micah on Saturday mornings. Turns out that this boy comes to practice in old dress shoes because that's all he has.  Miguel noticed and took this opportunity to get him some shoes that will work for sports.  Okay, my heart is melting here...

But even if the team hadn't brought us anything, it would still be a pleasure to receive them, to hang out with them, to have a chance to speak into their lives and (hopefully) be a part of expanding their world view.  I won't have the chance to hang out with them too much, probably, because of our home schooling schedule, etc. but Miguel will and I know that will be a blessing for the team because he's so awesome!

The plan for this week is a bit different from the Spring Break teams in the past, since they will not be visiting the outreach ministry in the mountains or doing construction.  The plan for this week is for them to have an Encuentro Juvenil, or a Youth Encounter.  They will be hosted by several families from either El Camino or the two daughter churches, preferably those families who have teenagers in their homes.  They will be hanging out together, accompanying their host teen(s) to school or whatever other activities they are involved in, as well as coming together as a group for some different times of worship and teaching.  The main topics will be on community, discipleship, and small groups, I believe.

This Sunday is also El Camino's 16th anniversary celebration, so they will get to be a part of a special service as well.

So I pray that this week will be a special time for each member of the group and that God will use their time here to speak to their hearts.  It is an honor to be a part!

Cooking Class

A couple of weeks ago a friend from church invited me to a cooking class she attends at a local DIF (stands for Desarrollo Integral de la Familia, translation 'Integral Development of the Family').  Local DIFs offer many kinds of classes and services, from cooking to hair-styling to crafts to sports.  Classes are sometimes free, although the cooking classes cost a little to help offset the expenses.  Each class costs 25 pesos, or about 2$ US.

These classes are offered several times a day every day of the week except Sunday, but my friends only go on Wednesday nights.  While the ladies are at the class, the guys usually take all the kids over to the park to ride their bicycles and then everyone eats supper together afterwards.

I decided to go since the ladies are learning to make traditional Christmas dishes and also because it's a good chance to hang out with friends.  I was also curious about the class and figured it would be a great cultural experience!  Since it was somewhat a last-minute invite, I didn't have any ingredients to make anything that day, so I just watched and took pictures.

One of my friends made a carrot cake, but I was more interested in my other friend who made cochinita pibil, a traditional Mexican slow-roasted pork dish.  We love cochinita pibil and I was pretty excited to see it made.

Some of the ingredients for cochinita pibil:  oranges,

lemons, peppercorns, red onions, dried chiles, habanero peppers, 

achiote paste (red annatto seeds mixed with 

vinegar, salt, garlic and spices)

First of all, the cook helped select the right banana leaves to wrap the pork in while it was roasting in the oven.  They put the pork pieces in the oven to bake for about 1/2 an hour before adding the sauce.

Then the dried chiles were de-seeded, soaked in water, warmed and then blended together with some orange juice, the achiote paste and the peppercorns.  Salt, garlic and chicken bullion can be added, too.  Once the sauce was ready, they pulled the pork out of the oven and poured the sauce over the pork and baked for another hour or so.

In the meantime, she prepared the topping to eat with the cochinita pibil...grated carrot, sliced red onions, sliced habanero peppers (yes, it was SPICY!!!) along with lemon and orange juice.  She didn't happen to have another dish handy, so she improvised and used this baking dish.  I thought it looked pretty cool...

When the pork was finally done, we tasted a bit before heading home...the end result was absolutely delicious!  Cochinita pibil is traditionally shredded and then served  inside of corn tortillas and topped with the carrot/onion mixture.

For an actual recipe and more complete instructions on how to make cochinita pibil, check out this page!  It has a few differences from the process I observed, but is probably more complete and therefore more yummy.  :)  I don't have an oven or I would have tried this recipe at home already!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go to cooking class last week and my friend couldn't go this week, but I am looking forward to learning how to make something interesting next week!

For my Missionary Mama Friends-Giveaway

Just saw this awesome giveaway idea over at Mrs JohninGhana for missionary women...go check it out!

http://johninghana.blogspot.com/2011/11/youve-got-mail-super-special-giveaway.html

If I were to get a package from the U.S. I think I'd ask for Starbucks coffee, whole bean (we do have Starbucks here, but it's a bit pricey), maybe some candles, scrapbook materials (paper, stamps, punches, etc) and definitely some chocolate chips or other candy (like Dove dark chocolate...mmmm!).

Treats From Grammy and Other News

It is always fun to receive packages and stuff from back home when there is a chance to send things with people traveling, so this week when our missions pastor and two other ladies from our home church came for the meetings we had, it was a great opportunity for us to get some care packages.  Most of what we got was our own stuff, two suitcases and one duffelbag's worth of stuff we'd left behind for someone to bring when there was a chance.  I asked a friend to buy me a few things, a couple pairs of new jeans for me, some scrapbook paper, a microscope for Micah's birthday (shhhh!  don't tell!) and some other little things.  Miguel asked for some special theft-deterrent lug nuts for the van tires and a bicycle pump.  My mom was also able to send a few things, including a small suitcase with my sewing machine (that I really didn't expect to get until next year sometime!), a few things we'd left behind at her house and some candy corn!

So even though none of what we got was particularly a surprise, it was still pretty exciting and felt a bit like Christmas!  (Now I am thinking about the group coming from Arkansas next week and thinking I should ask them to bring some peanut butter...LOL!)  One of the things I was most excited to see was the rest of my shoes...I have been living with just four pairs of shoes since August and that was getting old.

The other thing that really made my day was finding the blade attachment and blending cup for my hand blender!  We thought we'd lost it on the road somewhere since we had the rest of it, but those two pieces were nowhere to be found.  Come to find out, Miguel had packed them in one of these suitcases to come later...and then forgot all about it.  So now all the pieces are back together and I am happy.

And God really showed up in a huge way this week during all of our meetings...it was just an amazing time of fellowship and planning, I continue to be so excited and thankful to be a part of what God is doing here.  It was such a blessing to see a diverse group of people come together in humility and of one heart, seeking only God's will for the future of this ministry.  And we continue to be blessed, encouraged and empowered by a leadership whose desire is to serve us by participating together with us in all of these decisions and not just tell us what to do and how to do it.  I just can't tell you how much of a blessing that is!  Our missions pastor even commented on this, mentioning how impressed he has been this week with the quality of leadership that he sees in Tim and Andres...that is a huge confirmation that we are in the right place!

There was a bit of unwanted excitement this week, however, when Jojo got lost in the park!  Losing a child is never a fun thing, but we're so thankful for God's protection of Jojo...it was quite obvious that He was taking care of our son.  Selene, a friend of ours, and her two daughters were taking care of the kids for us on Thursday.  I had gone to pick them up around 1 p.m. but they weren't at home.  Since I knew that they didn't have a car, I figured that they had walked to a park or somewhere in the neighborhood.  I sat and waited for a while, but then the thought occurred to me to try to find a pay phone and give Selene a call on her cell phone.  I drove down the street and asked a shop owner where I could find a phone, and he told me that there was a pay phone that accepted coins right across from his store.  I talked to Selene and she said they were in the park and I understood that I would go down to the main entrance and pick them up.  So I drove the five blocks or so to the park and began looking for them there.  I spotted them a ways off, but it looked like they were leaving the park through another entrance and I wasn't able to catch up with them.

So I got back in the van and drove back up to wait for them at their house.  As I was parking, I noticed Jojo up on the main street waiting to cross and assumed that the whole group was right behind him.  Imagine my surprise when he told me he had come back from the park alone and that he didn't know where Selene and the rest of them were!  I immediately drove back down to the pay phone to call Selene because I figured that she was probably frantic by that time and I was right, she was.  It took them a while to get home, but when they did, Selene was so upset, she just broke down and cried for a long time at the thought of nearly having lost one of my children!  I know that it was a very serious thing to almost have lost Jojo, but I think I was more affected by her emotions...I felt so sorry that she had to go through that experience.  I know exactly what she was going through since we've been there, done that!

I think she was afraid that I would be upset with her, but I reassured her that I was not...I told her of the many other times we've 'lost' Jojo.  The reality is that if any one of our kids is to get lost, it would be Jojo; it has always been that way.  And I recounted to her the ways that God had worked...I had come to pick them up at just the right time, God showed me the pay phone (I don't usually use pay phones!) and if I had not come back from the park when I did, Jojo would not have known how to find their house...as he made his way back from the park, he didn't know where to go, but when he saw me drive by on the way back from the park, he followed me.  And God protected Jojo from getting snatched by someone along the way.

So on top of fervently praising God for watching out for Jojo, we're now teaching all the kids our address and phone number in case that ever happens again!  I also realized we need to reteach Survival Skills 101 (as in when you realize you have gotten separated from your group stay where you are until someone comes back for you or go find a policeman).  Jojo told me that he thought that they had forgotten about him...as if that could ever happen, so he just took matters into his own hands!  I have told him many times since, that we will never forget about him, ever...we might accidentally leave him somewhere, but we will always go back for him...

In other news, on Thursday night Miguel and Micah went up to the mountains in the northern part of the state to go to a camp for Totonac young people.  What a great opportunity for Miguel to serve, to make contacts with others working with this people group, and to have some fun time with Micah!  In the meantime, the rest of us have crashed here at home...it's been a long week with a lot of action, it's just nice to sit around and not have too much to do.  They will be back on Monday, if all goes as planned.

I am quite proud of myself since I've done a lot of driving while Miguel has been gone...I took Tim and Andres out to a mall for supper on Thursday night and then yesterday I was able to take them to the bus station.  I am able to find my way around now in various parts of the city with the help of our handy Guia Roji (literally, the Red Guide, a brand of road and city maps) and that feels good.  Driving here is always an adventure, but so far so good...

So that's the news from this week...I am off to go indulge in some more coffee and a good book...

Hot Summer Days

When it's so hot outside, you just gotta find ways to beat the heat! 

Gracia opted for grabbing a turn on the 

Gameboy in the air conditioning...

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...



Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

We are up to our eyeballs in homeschooling here...we're still getting used to our schedule and routines, but we're getting there.  I ordered the Letter of the Week curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler to do with Jojo and Jkaile together.  While I'm not doing the entire curriculum with them, I'm using a lot of the print-outs and ideas.  One idea that I loved was to use the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and make your own palm tree to put the letters on each week.  I found the book at the library last week and I think that we'll just have to invest in one of our own because Jkaile absolutely loves this book.  I don't think he'll be wanting to take it back! 

So here is my 'designer' version of the Chicka Tree...it

turned out a lot better than I'd imagined!  Scrapbooking paper

just makes everything better...each of the pieces are individually

backed with magnets so they can be rearranged.

Isn't that a happy grin?!

It would probably be a good idea to line the rest of the letters

with cardstock or cardboard, though, since it

appears they will be handled a lot!



An Afternoon on the Lake

It's good to have a friend with a boat and

a lake nearby...

Great to feel the wind in our hair...

...even if it makes us look funny...

Raft riding...

...what a blast!

Miguel enjoyed a turn at the wheel...

When I posted some of these pictures on Facebook, a friend asked about pictures of me from this day...yeah. right.  Pictures of me in my bathing suit?  Don't think so...

Pancakes

Pancakes...one of our favorite meals!  Jkaile loves to help in the kitchen and as soon as he sees me standing at the counter with a mixing bowl, he comes running...literally!  I recently started letting him help me with the pancakes...I pour the batter and flip and then he gets to take them off the griddle and put them on the plate.  At first I was afraid he'd burn himself, but so far he's been careful.  Micah enjoys helping, too, although he's already learned how to pour and flip.  

Banana pancakes (which explains why they are lumpy, lol)

Some days I wish I had four arms!  

This morning we made pancakes with faces.

Jkaile liked the sad faces the best...

Future chefs at work....

Pigs in a Blanket

This is how I get help to make supper!  

A glorious mess...

We had to get a bit creative to find 

enough rolling pins...

Gracia girl...

Since Micah is old enough to be able handle the oven,

I hardly had to do a thing.

Yummy!

...especially with ketchup.