What a day!

Well, today was one of those days. A good day? A bad day? I am not sure!

I needed to have a hard talk with a good friend this morning and so I left the house a little bit sick to my stomach. I hate confrontation but it was an important talk and I was really glad that I had done it afterwards. However, I did some crying and when I left I was still very close to tears.

I had to rush off to ladies bible study; the kids wondered if I should maybe not go because they could tell that I had been crying, but I went anyways. There were only 3 other ladies there and when each of them looked at me at different times as they (or I) arrived and said, "Darcy, what happened?" I broke down and gave them each a good cry. :-) so silly. But so nice to have good girlfriends whose shoulders are open for me to cry on.

So, in the middle of the bible study Anna came to get me that there were some people in our yard talking to them (Joel wasn't home but Morris, our yard worker was there) about shutting off the electricity. Yikes; so I ran (sadly, stepping on some doggy doo on the way) home (I was right next door) and tried to talk the man into not shutting off our electricity. He talked to Joel on the phone and then told me that Joel told him that we had no money so couldn't pay our bill. I told him I KNOW my husband didn't tell you that; and that we had already paid our bill and he could NOT shut of our electricity. I was SOOO not in the mood to deal with this; and when he tried to give me the form saying he was going to shut off our power I wouldn't take it. Finally I was able to talk the guy into not shutting off the power.

So, I went back to the bible study and just enjoyed a nice talk with the ladies and we didn't end up leaving until almost 2pm! So glad that Alissa had made lunch and fed the kids while I was gone.

That afternoon at 3 or so Carolyn came over for speech with the boys and when speech was done we were able to have a great visit. Sigh...thank the Lord for good friends! We could talk without worrying about supper because a lot of us were going to go to the new restaurant our church opened up in town.

During our visit a man who had really, really over charged us for something came by to ask for Christmas and New Years presents. I couldn't believe he did that; when I had no gift for him he asked for mangos (which weren't ripe yet). He told me that he had seen Joel who had given him the gifts he asked for and had sent him to me so I could also give him gifts. I told him I KNOW my husband didn't do that (what was up with people lying to me about Joel today?) and sent him on his way. I was maybe more abrupt than I should have been, but after my dealings with the electricty guy, I was just not in the mood to deal with this guy.

Right before supper time Sally stopped by on her way home from exercising and we were able to have a quick chat. I love Sally's visits; she often stops by on her way home from working out and we visit for awhile before supper time.

We left and met up with a bunch of friends at the Grace Hot Pot and had such a good time. There are no real restaurants here so we haven't really had a meal like this with friends where you don't have to cook before hand or clean up afterwards! It was just fun visiting with everybody. What a nice evening! The kids sat in one area at several tables and the adults sat together. The restaurant was closed except for us; it was very nice.

Anyways, so we got home around 8pm and I realized that I was thinking of what a great day I had; instead of what a rotten day (like it started out). Also, it is a day for the record books; I didn't cook at all today! Kaleb made breakfast, Alissa made lunch and we went out for supper! Yay!

We have been in Zambia for more than a year now; in Africa for more than two years! It always seems amazing right after the birthdays of the kids and I realize how much they have grown since we left.

We had a fun Christmas time this year. We were planning on taking a trip to Malawi to visit friends but the other missionaries also had plans for the holidays and since everybody couldn't be gone at once, we stayed in Kabwe. It was relaxing and nice and there ended up being a huge fuel problem in Malawi so we figured it was probably just as well that we didn't go at that time. On the 26th we went to a little retreat place called Ibis Gardens which is less than an hour away for 2 nights. They have a wonderful pool (Jon learned to swim!) and a place to play volleyball and the kids taught me frisbee (Andrew is a good teacher). We watched movies before bed and played games during the day and ate at the restaurant some meals; some meals just had sandwiches in our rented house. It was very nice. Short; but still nice just to get away.

Joel is going to be going to the US for awhile coming up and he is going to take Alissa with him! I am so excited for her and also for my parents and Jamie who get to spend time with her (because she is a great person!). I am going to miss them a lot; I have no idea what I will do without Alissa's help (she teaches Josh and Jon mostly and also helps me a lot with cooking); and also without her company. It is fun to just hang out with her and laugh and talk about life.

Ok, now that I remembered my address for this blog I will have to see if I can write in it more regularly. And maybe after Joel gets back from the states I will actually have a camera again!

Catching up!

It has been a few months since I have posted on my blog. My friend Amy asked for my blog address so I realized that I should write an update for her!

We are in the wintere here so usually are pretty cold! It isn't as cold as it used to be in Brazil; but is plenty cold for us. We go around all wrapped up in blankets in the mornings and evenings around the house.

School is winding down; it is about time since Tim Heath is arriving next month with our things to start our new school year. My poor kids don't get much of a break. But they are happy. I will just put a few pictures of our crazy family taken over the past few weeks and months. I have a new one to put up after I put it on the computer of a snake Morris killed in our yard (he said 5 so far!).


Alissa, Kaleb, Rachel Roth, Andrew and Anna
Alissa and Kaleb being silly!



At Mulingushi Dam




Shadow, our rat catcher
Josh and Jon

Anna doing chores...................................Andrew

Too old for Barney

Joshua and Jonathan used to love to watch Barney and Friends back when we were in Brazil. The other day I found it on a channel we have here and I called them to see. I was so excited, and I happily sang along with the fun, catchy tune Barney and the other little dinasour were singing and asked the boys if it wasn't great that I had found Barney on the TV. Well, they both looked at me a bit apologetically and said, "Mom, I think that we are getting a little bit old for Barney." WHAT? Too old for Barney? When Joshua and Jonathan outgrow something I guess it makes me a little sadder than I would normally be because it means that our family has outgrown Barney. No more "I love you...You love me...we're a happy family..."

Happily Jon and Josh have not outgrown snuggles and hugs and goodnight kisses and our nightly "Don't let the bed bugs bite" contest (who says it first wins). We went camping last week with friends and my friend Kristy took some pictures of the boys on a hike. Jeff and Bri took some pictures of the other kids but I can't get those till Friday; so hopefully next week I will write again with some more pictures.

So, here are some very recent pictures of my boys who are too old for Barney.

It is Saturday!

I love that usually I don't have to wake up early on Saturday now that my kids are getting old enough to wake up and get breakfast without me. For awhile Joshua would feel the need to let me know that he was awake, but the last few weeks he hasn't done that. Of course this morning I did have to set my alarm for 5:55 because somebody was coming by for a key, but Joel said that Kaleb was already awake so I just went back to sleep. Kaleb being awake that early means that Shadow was feeling pretty playful this morning and the object of his playfullness was probably Kaleb' feet.

I have to teach Sunday School tomorrow for Anna, Joshua and Jonathan's class. That might seem like a pretty easy thing to do; but I have this thing about teaching Sunday School. I am just not so good at it; and I get really nervous. Anyways, I like to be really prepared because Joel is preaching and he could go on for a long time, so I have to have things to keep the kids busy for an hour, I think.

So, today, besides cleaning out the schoolroom which has so many books sitting all over the floor that we can't walk in there (I had to move this years schoolbooks to the livingroom), and cleaning my bedroom (it was really clean and unpacked last Sunday for the first time since we moved into this house) which tends to get used as the place for kids to do their reading or schoolwork when they need some quiet, and of course cooking and catching up on laundry...oh, and helping Kaleb finish up all the schoolwork he didn't get done last week, I need to prepare for teaching the kids tomorrow. If my books (in the schoolroom) were in bookshelves (which we actually don't have) it would be a bit easier to find something to teach.

Well, it is already 8:05! I suppose the 'sleeping in' part of Saturday is over and the 'catching up with all the jobs that I don't have time for during the week' part has started!

Hmmmm....I wonder if I can talk Joel into cooking? I might have to add that to my list of things to do!

Shadow

A few weeks ago Jasper hurt his toe; the nail seemed to be split and it was really hurting him. We didn't know what to do but Jamie sent me some information from the internet and we saw some things to watch for. Yesterday his foot seemed to be really hurting him and last night we saw that his toe was really warm, so today we called the local Kabwe vet to see if we could get Jasper in to have his toe checked out.

Before noon we put Jasper in the van and drove off to find the office of the Dr. Geoffery, the vet. The vet had to come in especially for us, and we arrived at the gate at the same time. As we were walking into his office a little kitten was following the Dr. like she owned the place. It was not making it any easier to bring Jasper in, and I wondered why there was a stray cat being welcomed into the office.

It turns out that the stray cat was kept at the clinic on purpose to help keep the rat population down. she had cut her leg and had stitches; but she was a very friendly kitten; the kids were petting her and playing with her.

Jasper, on the other hand, was being quite a handful. We haven't taught him to walk on a leash and we were paying for it today. He was interested in the kitty, and interested in the new building, and the vet, and everything. Once we got into the examining room the doctor calmly told us to lift him up and put him on the table. Well, the table was really, really tall. And Jasper is really, really big. It took both Joel and me to lift Jasper up onto the table. I honestly didn't think it could be done! After some shots for antibiotics and some cleaning of the toenail we were good to go home. Well, we were told to take an old bucket, saw a hole in the end and put it over Jasper's head to keep him from licking his wound. Ummm...I don't think so. We feel bad just making him wear his collar in this hot weather. Can you imagine a big, bulky bucket around your neck? I suppose this is what you use when you don't have those funny, clear, lightweight, plastic thingies that vets use in the states to keep dogs from scratching or whatever. We had to get Jasper off the table which was almost as hard as getting him up on it. He is sooo strong; I think he must be as strong as Jamie's late dog, Jackie, who was so strong that Jamie and I together could not put ear stuff in her ears. Well, Jasper doesn't mind his ears being looked at, but he wasn't crazy about having to sit on a table with a stray cat walking around the room near his kids.

So, Joel asked the vet if we could take the cat home. We need a cat, and Joel thought it was a stray. This is when we found out that it belonged to the vet place; but still the vet seemed happy to find a good home for it. He said it had already been vaccinated, would need to come back on Tuesday with Jasper to get the stitches out (yay; another ride in the van with two animals who are not crazy about each other), and was great at catching rats. Just what the doctor ordered!

We went through a bunch of names and finally decided on Shadow, in honor of Mom's old cat. This Shadow is black and white. I think that she and Jasper will become friends eventually. But at this point, all I care about is that she will kill rats! I am hoping she does anyways!

Tomorrow is Sunday and the kids are all singing in church. Well, Andrew is not singing because he isn't crazy about his voice at the moment. And Anna is only going to pretend to sing since she just came down with a very bad cold the last few days and can barely talk, let alone sing, today. We will see how it goes!

Rats!

We have been missionaries for 18 years now. Over the years I have developed a sort of history with rats. In fact, at this very moment I writing about rats on my blog to avoid going into my kitchen where I am almost sure there is a big rat in hiding, waiting to jump out at me if I open the door.

Ok, back to my history of rats. Growing up I lived in an old farmhouse that had mice. I didn't enjoy hearing mice crawling around in the walls or seeing the occasional mouse scoot across the floor. The worse thing was seeing the cat just sitting, looking at the wall, waiting patiently for that mouse to come out so he can grab it. I didn't enjoy this but I wasn't super scared of it. Still, I would give an appropriate reaction of jumping up on the chair and screaming a bit.

When we went to Indonesia we lived with a local pastor for 3 months or so. They had a beautiful house with open sewers which meant that they lived in a beautiful house with lots of rats. You would be eating supper and see the rats crawling around in the kitchen on the pots and pans. You would have the rats run right by you a you sat at the table. They would come into the bathroom; and even get into your bedroom. I had to learn see this without my normal jump on the chair and scream reaction. Hard to do; but probably good for my self control. Anyways, eventually we moved to our own house and we only had one rat I think; maybe two. One came in our bathroom through a drain pipe; and maybe there was one in the kitchen. But that was it. So, not that bad.

In the Philippines I don't remember ever having rats in our house. It might have been that the rats were allergic to the chicken poop messes that were all over the driveway; or they didn't like the huge spiders or lizards in the house.

In Brazil we lived in both Curitiba and Recife. In Curitiba we did have a rat that came to visit us right when my sister came to visit us. The rat came in a broken back door and actually got very close to Jamie at night while she slept (if the rat poo messes were any clue). The next day Joel was moved out to the couch with the rat and Jamie moved into my room. Poor Jamie had thought that there was a little dog outside trying to get in that broken back door. Nope...it was a rat that actually ate through a peanut butter container she had brought us from the US!!! Very bad rat!

In Recife we didn't have rats in our apartment but we could look out back and see them playing in the garbage heap.

Back in Curitiba again we had another rat problem that lasted for several weeks (happily one of those weeks was when I was in the US). Finally we figured out where he was coming from and they were able to block up the opening and that was the end of the in the house rat problem. We still had lots of rats on the garbage pile (the place we kept the garbage until they removed it daily to the road) by the fence near our house.

Ok, in Malawi we heard about people having lots of rats. I heard scary stories about people having rats climbing up their curtains and running across their livingrooms! ACK! The worse we had was a squirrel in the house at the lake and a dead rat found outside our door in the yard in Lilongwe. I assumed we were just living in a rat free house; but I did know that we hadn't lived in that house in the middle of the rainy season yet and that is when the rats come out and look for a high and dry place to live.

Ok, so now we are in our house in Kabwe. I already shared how we had "a" rat. Sigh. Well, turns out our friends were right; where there is one rat there are plenty more hiding. We can actually hear the rat parties up in the ceiling; they have a soccer ball up there I think that they kick around. Joel closed up one of the holes and we went at least a week without seeing any rats; but the last few days a rat has been hiding out in my kitchen. He then got brave enough to move into the dining room. Then one day I saw him flash out of the livingroom into the diningroom and Jasper did his duty and scared him into the kitchen for me.

Ok, yesterday was my birthday. I had a great day and the ending plan was a movie I wanted to see. I made popcorn and even had a coke for the special occasion. I was sitting in the livingroom watching my movie when a huge rat (think small cat size; not kitten size; but small regular cat size) came running out from under MY CHAIR!!! He started circling the livingroom! He ran from my chair to the couch; behind the TV stand; over by the door but the door was too near my chair and my screaching must have made him scared to go there; so back behind the TV stand; back behind the couch; and then finally out the livingroom door to the diningroom when the kids came running at my screams; and scared him back into the livingroom to do it all again! When the boys heard it was a rat that came running armed with sticks and other tools that might be needed and had a great time chasing it around the livingroom, through the diningroom and into the kitchen (where it has a hole and disappeared). Joshua is my true friend and he closed the kitchen door and put a heavy towel on the bottom to keep the rat from bothering me again. :-)

So, here I am. It is the next morning now. And the kitchen door is still closed; the towel is still there. And I am not going to open that door. I didn't have to cook yesterday because it was my birthday. I might not cook today because I think that I will never again enter my kitchen until the rainy season is over and the rats move to their winter homes outside!

Rats don't flush well

Well, we found the rat in the toilet. I don't know exactly what Joel did with him, but it might have had something to do with killing it and then flushing it. A few days later we noticed a really bad smell from the bathroom (that is the bathroom that I don't use anyways for other reasons; but now that there has been a rat in the toilet I really wouldn't use it) and I am thinking that the rat didn't flush well. Joel said he would take care of the problem and I haven't noticed the smell today. I am not going to ask him what he did to solve the problem. Maybe it went away because I ignored it long enough?

They tell us that there are more rats and I am kidding myself to think that this is the one and only rat in this house. So, we need to get some stuff to kill them. And we need to get a cat. I am thinking we need 3 or 4 cats or whatever it takes to KNOW that there aren't any rats in the house but Joel thinks that one is enough. We'll see.

Getting easier!

I realized that I should say something now that things are getting easier for us here in Kabwe. It is easy to notice when things are going bad; and also easy to ignore it when things are going better.

So, first of all, let me say that my washing machine is hooked up to water! Yay! I am so happy to be able to wash clothes without having to get the boys to haul water for me. I am just about completely caught up with laundry; but I do have a pile of mosquito nets (I hope I can wash them in the machine!) that need washing.

The electricity has also been so much more predictable for the last month. We usually have no electricity for 3 hours on Tuesday evenings and maybe Friday or Saturday evenings too. And then once or twice a week the lights might be out in the mornings as well for 2 or 3 hours. It has been wonderful! We still don't have water when we don't have electricity; but that isn't as hard now since we usually do have electricity and if we don't, we are almost certain that it will be back on in a few hours. We were already used to having no lights for a few nights a week; so this isn't hard for us at all.

We hired a guy to work in the yard 3 times a week. He has come twice so far and he is doing a great job. He just rakes up leaves mostly; there are lots of trees and lots and lots of leaves and I was worried about snakes or spiders. There is no grass to cut or flowers to tend to; but at this point I am just happy to have somebody to clean up the leaves for me!

We also hired a lady to help me in the house 3 times a week. She has been here once and it was soooo hard to have somebody else here (makes me almost sick to my stomach to think of her coming again tomorrow) but boy, we sure did enjoy having the kitchen clean and the floors mopped at the end of the day and I was able to spend the day doing school instead of the cleaning!

Everybody has been healthy except Jasper (hopefully he is better now) who left me a mess on the floor this morning from a really upset tummy.

Right now there are lots of flies which are driving me crazy. Yesterday we saw a rat in the house (yuck) which makes me want to get a cat. I guess it is pretty common here for people to have rats in their houses; but this is the first we have seen in our house. I have a hard enough time to deal with the pet hamsters that the girls are babysitting; let alone a real, live rat.

Oh, and other good news! Our good friends from Lilongwe, James and Lee-Anne with their 3 kids will be in Lusaka on Saturday so we are going there to see them for the day!

So, life is getting easier. While we are in Lusaka we will price a new fridge, freezer (when we get these I can start once a month cooking again) and some bookshelves and dressers/wardrobes. All of these things will help us finish settling in and help keep the house neater and more organized (which I need if I am able to get everything done that I need to each day!). I especially would like to have fewer places for rats to hide!

Life in Kabwe

It is hard to believe that we have been in Kabwe for almost a month! Time sure is flying by!
We are "enjoying" the summer heat, full force. I think that last year during the hotest part of the year we were at the lake. It was extremely hot but we had the benifit of being able to visit the beach each day if we wanted to. This year we have the extreme heat, but no lake so it might just seem hotter than last year.
Kaleb played the guitar in church this morning! He had fun and the piano player noticed that he has his own way of doing one of the songs, Shout to the Lord. I knew that this was Kaleb's Brazilian roots coming out...that is where we learned that song and I have never heard it played better than it was played in Brazil!
The household chores are taking their toll; we just can't get them all done. This house is much smaller than our other house, but is just harder to keep clean. You can sit in the livingroom and do nothing (we were sick for a few weeks so I know this for sure) and still be covered in dirt by the afternoon (it is so dirty; we have no grass in the yard so the dirt just finds its way into the house; it seems like it could bring a cool breeze with it). After the boys haul 8 big buckets of water from a bathroom (well, it is kind of a bathroom; there is running water; no toilet or shower...) to the outside room where the washing machine is to do just one medium sized load of washing, they don't have a lot of energy to do other chores. We also can easily do 2 loads of laundry a day after we finally catch up with our laundry (after not having a washing machine for 3 weeks I still have piles of towels, sheets, quilts and clothes that need to be washed) which is just a lot of work until we get the water hooked up in there.
We have been sick but now are all better! A few coughs and sniffles are still hanging on, but we are all well enough to go to church and do school.
Jasper is one of the most scary dogs in the neighborhood! He has a big bark and looks pretty fierce so we don't really worry about security here. Some teen boys were seemingly getting ready to use a slingshot on him one day but Joel saw them and chased them away. The problem here is that when people are really scared of your dog they might just throw some poisened meat into the yard to kill him. Sadly, our missionary friends' dog (Jasper's brother) was killed just that way a few months ago. Because of that we actually have Jasper sleep inside since we got here.
I started attending a Tuesday morning ladies bible study again. It is a small group and that is nice. It is also just a short walk from my house so I am away from home less than I was for our bible study in Lilongwe.
Joel has been doing a lot of traveling and he will leave again soon for another trip. I thought it would be harder having him gone but having my two almost grown sons around really helps. They made sure that the doors were locked up at night and that we always had drinking water (they would haul it from Babu and Bibi's)...two very important things! We don't have a car when Joel is gone, but we are close to friends and I know that if I need anything from the store I can get a ride from somebody.
I would put some pictures of our new house but I don't have any. It is probably just as well. ;-) When we were wanting to go to SeaWorld way back when Anna was 2 (almost 9 years ago!) we went to a timeshare thing to get cheaper tickets (not worth it) and one thing I remember the guy saying is how important location is. Well, this house might have its problems, but the location is great, so that makes up for a lot, I guess. When Joel is away I know that Lyle and Jetta are right across the street (in the Roth house until they return from their furlough; Lyle and Jetta are moving into their new house right next to us in a few weeks). Then just a few doors down are Babu and Bibi and just next to them was Dan and Tina (who left just the other day for 3 months in the US). It is nice having so many good friends so close. When I was sick Bibi and Tina sent food. When Jon fell down and scraped his knee he got a lesson on how to care for it and a bandage from Bibi. Joel loves to sit down and talk politics with Babu and until the Moyer kids left my children were in heaven being close enough to play together every day. Seth and Joshua were great frog catchers (they cought bucket loads and would take them to Bibi's to eat the bugs in her yard), Jon, Seth and Josh like to clean all the tadpoles out of her fishpond as well. Kaleb, Andrew, Alissa, Anna and Nadine love to play capture the flag. Nadine and Anna have become great friends and love to do lots of things that I don't even understand (probably the same types of things I did with my sister and cousin when I was 10!). Alissa, Andrew, Kaleb and Natalie like to play card games and board games and running games. They are all lonely already even though their friends left only 3 days ago.
Wow, for a blog post this has gotten long. I don't get a chance to post much anymore so hopefully this will catch you up on what has been going on here in Kabwe!

Zambia

Goodbye Lilongwe!

Saying goodbye at our last homeschoolers meeting in Lilongwe

Well, we have arrived in Zambia. It was a long trip (13 hours) but it was happily uneventful. The kids did great, Jasper did great...we had no throwing up after the first few hours.

We are in the process of getting settled in our new house here in Kabwe. We are trying to figure out when the power cuts are so I know when to cook and when we will have water. Right now the two main things that will make me happy are to have my washing machine hooked up and to get the big water tank hooked up that will allow us to have water even when the power is out! Well, if the big snake Joel saw outside stays outside, those things are all I need to make me happy.

Thanks everybody for praying for this move and please keep on praying! It is a big adjustment for our entire family.

Field trips

One of the fun things that our homeschooling group has done for the past six months is to attend field trips. We have gone on 4 field trips I think and my friend Lee-Anne gave me some pictures from the last two.

Kids visiting a nearby farm.






Kids very interested in learning about putting print on t-shirts (or pretty much anything else!).

A wonderful group...we will miss them all!

The last week

Today was the first day of our last week here in Lilongwe. I had Bible Study this morning. The first time I attended that bible study was just a few days after we arrived in Malawi; we were staying at Lee-Anne's house and she took me with her.

Later on in the afternoon we went to our last soccer class. There were only 7 kids there today but I think that they had lots of fun. They had a little soccer game and it was a tie score, which is a great way to end, if you ask me (and especially when Anna is on one team and J and J on the other).

Tomorrow we will have a cleaning/packing day all day long since our dentist appointment was moved to Thursday morning. Then Wednesday night the kids will go to their last youth group meeting. Thursday afternoon we have our last homeschooling group meeting. There are eye appointments for Friday morning and on Saturday I will go to my last bible study at Anita's house (our pastor's wife). Then Sunday (last church service and Kaleb's last time to play guitar during the worship service) and Monday (last volleyball for Kaleb) and then Tuesday we leave.

Time is passing! It is hard to believe that next week at this time we will be in Kabwe (if the trip goes smoothly).

soccer

Jon in action


Soccer class

Joshua trying to take the ball away from Anna








Every Tuesday we have Soccer Day...the best day of the year!

No Fair!

You know, when you are a missionary you get really used to saying goodbye. It doesn't get easier really; but you do get more used to it. I have tried to have a sort of hard shell around my heart sometimes so I don't keep leaving pieces of it laying around in the places we leave.

One of the hardest goodbyes in our recent history was saying goodbye in Brazil. We didn't know that we weren't returning when we left on our furlough but it was still so hard to leave our dear, dear friends there. When we knew we weren't going back and Joel and I returned to get our things and say goodbye my friends and I decided that there would be no tears this time. I just polished of my old "heart shell" and was able to say goodbye without crying...until the car pulled out of sight of the seminary...I just broke down and couldn't stop the sobs from shaking me.

Another really painful goodbye for our family was saying goodbye to my family when we left the US to come to Malawi last year. It is always hard to say goodbye to my family...whether we are leaving the US, or they have visited us and we are dropping them off at the airport. But this time was of course especially hard because not only were we leaving all of our old time family people like Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Jamie, but a very special new person in our lives...little Michael who entered our family and our hearts during our last furlough. It has been a year and we know that Michael is already a whole year older, but we all get excited when new photos are sent or we hear news of what Michael is doing or saying now. And to be honest, after spending a year and a half living with my sister my kids are having a hard time adjusting to life without their fun Aunt Jamie. Alissa is kicking herself that she didn't discover her love of math until after we left and now she is missing out on some fun math discussions with her aunt that she is never going to have with her poor math challenged mom. And we are really sad that we missed all the fun summer things with Grandma and Grandpa...like garden planting and the big corn freezing day!

Well, all that to say, it just isn't fair that after only one year here in Malawi we have to say goodbye again already. Who would have ever guessed that we could have made such great friends in such a short time. It has never happened to us before so quickly! Now we have just 3 more weeks before we leave Lilongwe to move to Zambia and it is getting hard to think about. Tonight Joshua and Jonathan were pretty quiet when they realized that they only have 2 more soccer classes before we leave. While they love playing soccer, it is mostly the fun of being with their friends that they enjoy most on Tuesdays (their favorite day of the year, they tell me). I am going to miss Tuesdays too! First my bible study with some great ladies who have been so friendly to me over the past year and then soccer class where the moms of the kids enjoy our talking and walking time as much as the kids enjoy their soccer I think! I am going to miss that fellowship a lot!

As we count down to the date of our departure I know that I will make sure the hard shell around my heart is firmly in place again. I hate goodbyes!

Dirty feet!

We have been using our phone to use the internet but for some reason it has been so unpredictable as far as price (once it cost more than a dollar just to open up the juno page...my phone ran out of units before I could see if I had any mail or not) lately. It was awful when we had people here who wanted to check their mail...I would have a $10 card put into my phone and they would use it to check mail once, call to check their flights and then the next day when wanting to check their mail the phone would run out of time already! So, yesterday Joel hooked up the old system that we used for getting onto the internet. It is a prepaid card and we can use it for a month now without worrying. We might only get it during the evening hours during the week (we'll see how it works) since it was cheaper; at least yesterday and today (the weekend) it has been on all the time. We have found that hooking it up to the new laptop has increased the speed so much; we thought the connection was slow (ok, the connection IS slow...but not as slow as we thought) but it is just our computer that was slow. So, things are better than they were! All that to say, did you notice that this is my 2nd blog today! Since I am connected all the time easily and the pages load faster, it is a lot easier to post than it has been!

Ok, what I wanted to say was, just a minute ago I noticed Joshua and Jonathan playing with their favorite toy (the collection of pop bottle tops that the kids have been keeping since we lived in Brazil). They have them all spread out in the school room (which is now a packing room since we are moving to Zambia in about 3 weeks) making armies or something. Anyways, I noticed Joshua's dirty feet. I am also doing laundry today and I happened to just notice all of Joshua's socks that he leaves laying around...the socks that he wore to church were laying in the hall right outside the schoolroom.

Isn't it funny how life moves on, people grow up and change and we sometimes don't even notice it? Well, I wanted to acknowledge that Joshua is growing up. It wasn't that long ago that Joshua didn't like people seeing his little feet. This started long ago...I don't know why; in Brazil he would want to wear socks with his sandles. He would take his socks off right at the swimming pool in Michigan and put them on the second he got out of the pool. We had to force him to sleep without his socks, telling him that his feet really need to air out at night. His feet always looked like feet that had been in water too long. But always pretty clean. :-)

Well, one of the things that we didn't pack much of when we came here was socks for the boys. I know that I bought socks for them before we came; but somehow I put them in our storage stuff instead of our packing stuff. So, Joshua and Jonathan had about 2 pair of socks between them. That didn't matter to Jonathan because he hates socks and only wears them during soccer class on Tuesdays. I had to buy each of the boys a pair of socks for soccer to keep up for just that day to make sure they had clean socks for that day since they had so few socks. This was hard on Joshua because, as I said, he loves wearing his socks. There were many days that this was a big struggle and at times I remember wondering if he would ever just get over this strange dislike of people seeing his feet. (I mean, he would walk from his shower to his bedroom to get his clothes in front of us without any shyness, as long as he had his socks on!)

Well, somewhere in the past six months that has ended for him. I didn't even realize it. He still wears his tennis shoes when we go out (vs. Jon who wears his sandles or slip on shoes) and wears socks with them. But as soon as he gets home he tears off those shoes and socks (and leaves them in the hallway in front of the schoolroom) and goes barefoot. He plays outside all the time with no shoes...in fact, I think he only puts his shoes on when we are actually leaving home for church or soccer or something. And now he has dirty little feet, just like a normal seven year old boy. :-) That makes me so happy!

A scary movie

I have never enjoyed scary movies. In fact, in Brazil when Joel and I would go to see a movie with friends I would get laughed at quite a bit for keeping my eyes covered most of the time. While this helps with all but the music (which is almost worse that what is on the screen) it does have a downside. The problem came when, in the back of my mind, I remembered watching a movie that seemed really funny with maybe a few tense parts. But such a funny movie couldn't be that scary...hmmm...why didn't I remember more about this movie? Anyways, I started to think it was a good movie for the older kids to watch with me. I decided to watch it again last night while Joel was out walking before I would show it to the kids. Well, it was really scary! Very scary and I could barely enjoy the funny parts! I finally just started fast forwarding through the scary parts (can't do that when Joel is watching a movie with me) with the intention of stopping and watching the funny parts and then seeing what happened by the end of the movie. Well, the next thing I knew the whole movie was done and I hadn't stopped fast forwarding at all! I hadn't enjoyed very many funny parts but I now was quite scared and Joel was out walking! And, worse of all, I had to go outside to feed Jasper and the movie had quite a few strange scary dog scenes.

Sigh. While I know that I won't let the kids see this movie I can't always decide on a movie based on how scary it is to me. I wouldn't even consider letting the kids see the Lord of the Rings movies because I watched a few moments once in Brazil and it scared me a lot! There were big bird things flying around and people running away and screaming...that was enough for me! However, once Joel decided that the kids would enjoy the movies and they watched them I found out that they didn't find them scary at all! It probably helped that they had read the books already. Once we got to Malawi they wanted (forced) me to watch the movies with them and I found that I really did enjoy them! (It helps to have a sympathetic child whispering what is going to happen before it does even though that annoys Kaleb to no end.)

Well, now that it is morning and the sun is shining through the windows it seems quite silly that I was scared last night!

school

We are nearing the end of our 4th week of school. It has been a different year for me as I am not combining children together but teaching 4 grades. I remember what a big deal it was for me when I started teaching 2 grades...it just seemed like I couldn't get everything done in a day. Now I am wondering...What was I thinking then? Our last years I have combined kids because we were either packing up from life in Brazil, traveling around the US visiting churches or getting settled in Malawi. Then I realized that this method wasn't doing anybody any good so I had to make a new plan and, like I mentioned, we are in week 4 of that new plan.

Kaleb is in 9th grade and he actually does a lot of his work alone. Because of my own bad planning he is doing two science classes this year, Biology and Physical Science and I read that with him each day. He is studying The History of God's Kindgom and he does his history and Bible reading by himself and then on Friday has a big discussion day with Joel about it. They both love it and Joel has been very impressed with the books that were included in this Sonlight Core.

Andrew and Alissa are in 7th grade and are studying World History. We are actually (because I can't do anything the easy way this year) trying to get two years done in one year (World History I and World History II) so we have a lot of reading; but so far we are really loving it. They are doing General Science which will lead them into doing Physical Science next year so they won't have to do two in one year like Kaleb is doing.

Anna is in 5th grade and is studying American History. She is really surprising me as I see that she is a lot like her older sister (who is so self motivated and gets the job done!) when it comes to schoolwork. Anna likes to have a list at the beginning of the day and not only will she get her own work done, she will help me with Jonathan and Joshua's memory verse and Bible reading if I am running behind!

Joshua and Jonathan are in 2nd grade this year and they are studying World History. Again we are really enjoying the books and it is fun to see how their books bring up subjects that we cover more fully in Andrew and Alissa's year. They are using math-u-see for math and I really enjoy it; it is new for us. They are both coming along so well in reading.

We try to start our day by 7:15 when we all meet together and say our verses. The younger 5 children are learning a chapter each that they will be ready to tell us by week 6 of school and Kaleb is learning lots of individual verses that go along with his Bible lessons. Then we sing a song that will wake us up if everybody isn't wide awake and then I meet with the kids individually to tell them what to do that morning. When everybody is busy with math or workbooks or writing I start with Jonathan and Joshua in math, handwritting and reading. It seems to be a good method so far even though so often by the end of the day I feel like I should have fit more in!

Well, speaking of school, it is 7:05 and I have to make sure Kaleb and Andrew are awake and ready to go!

Hubert

We have been busy at school for the past 2 ½ weeks. I am teaching 4 grades this year so our days are very full, trying to fit everything in. We wake up early and sometimes school lasts until time to get supper ready. It is a lot of work but so rewarding and fun!

Well, Tuesdays are my busy day. The big kids all get their schoolwork given to them in the morning and Joshua and Jonathan have most of the day off. I leave for bible study around 9:30 and don’t get home until almost noon. Then our afternoons are spent at soccer class. Yesterday when I got home at lunchtime I found the whole house in an uproar! Ernest (our gardener) had found a wounded baby bird and kindly (argh) gave it to the children to care for. By the time I got home the kids had a nest all made up for the bird in an old plastic ice cream container and were giving it mushed up fruit and water out of a little eye dropper that they found in one of our science experiment kits.

Now, we do have some experience with injured baby birds. Unfortunately, we have never had one that has actually lasted the first night. I didn’t have very high hopes for “Hubert”. Hubert, by the way, is the name Andrew had picked out for Jamie to name Michael but she told him that she would feel awful taking away his favorite name, so she let him keep it for his own future children. (Wasn’t that nice of her?) So, now we have an injured baby bird with a special name. The kids were starting to feel invested in this bird. He was scared of them at first but by the time I got home from bible study he would sit on their hands and eat fruit off their fingers.

There was much discussion about how to keep Hubert warm last night. The ideas that the children came up with might have burned down the entire house, so we decided to just risk having him in his box in the girls’ closet with the door closed. I guess that the night was filled with children getting up and checking Hubert to make sure he was ok. Anna and Alissa were awake by 5:00am with him, feeding him and giving him water.

Well, for the past two days school has been a little bit halfhearted on the side of the kids. They are so busy feeding Hubert, taking him for walks near the other birds (so he can hear them chirping) and letting him walk around in the sun. It was funny to see him when they took him over to one certain part of the yard near a tree. He would start to chirp like crazy and we would hear chirping just like his; almost like he was talking to another bird! This afternoon the kids put him down by that tree and left him alone. They started noticing that bigger birds would fly over to him and feed him! They realized that there were two birds who would do this. They would fly over to Jasper’s food bowl, get some bits of food or water, and then fly back over and feed Hubert! We (ok, I’ll admit that by this time I was as invested as the kids!) all stood at the window watching for about 30 minutes. Then Hubert’s mom started leading him to the gate and before we knew it she had led him right under our gate and out into the road! We couldn’t control the dogs in the street so Kaleb ran and rescued Hubert and placed him closer to Jasper’s food area. After about 10 minutes or so his mom and dad found him again and led him over to a bush next to our yard wall. He hopped over there and has been there ever since. We aren’t exactly sure what to do now. I think their nest is outside our gate, but he can’t fly. We were torn whether we should bring Hubert inside for the night to keep him safe from Jasper (who keeps his distance when we are around but we aren’t sure what he will do tonight) or if we should just leave him with his folks. I think we will end up leaving him with his parents to take care of him. As attached as we are to Hubert, it seems like his best chances of having a life as a wild bird is to be with other birds and not getting used to having people care for him.

I have to say, I am very happy that we saw that his mom found him and fed him so we could hand his care back to her. The children were talking about building him a cage and keeping him as a pet forever!

nearing a year!

We are in the middle of our 2nd week of school for this year. These are busy, busy days for me and I am trying to find a balance of doing everything to keep my head above water, or just doing what I can and still enjoy life outside of homeschooling and not worrying about what I can't fit in.

Some things that have been happening here in the last few weeks.

We have had lots of visitors from the US, Zambia, South Africa and the Philippines! It was a great time. At the same time I was organizing my books for school so my livingroom looked quite messy for awhile with stacks of books everywhere. One of the visitors became my hero when he and Kaleb fixed my washing machine and even more importantly, my popcorn popper! Yeah! I gave him my rice cooker to mess around with but they were unable to bring it back to life. But, happily, our guest from the Philippines taught me how to make rice without having it stick to the bottom of the pan or burn, so we should be all set.

Andrew and Alissa joined the youth group! They have started 7th grade so it was time for them to go with Kaleb. They both loved it and are looking forward to going again this week. Joel thought it was pretty hard to drop his daughter off at youth group and is wondering already how he will ever handle dropping her off at college!

Kids are still keeping me humble. As soon as I think I have it all figured out they show up in church with their jeans on backwards (Jonathan...and even worse is that I didn't figure it out until we got home!) or involve me in a huge drama over whether it is reasonable for me to expect him to find a pencil for math instead of using a pen (Kaleb; and we finally decided that obedience is the key here; and it doesn't matter if he thinks I am reasonable or not).

Mostly, though, the kids made me very proud as they handled all of the company (which meant that we were moving around every night; sometimes in one room, sometimes in another; and a few nights with all 8 of us in Kaleb and Andrew's room) and helped me with keeping the house clean and meals made. They are great kids!

It is hard to believe that we have been here almost a year already. It seems like a lot longer. At a bible study yesterday somebody said that they have been here since February and they still felt new. I was thinking about it and realized that I no longer "feel new" here! I know people and have friends and know who people are talking about when they discuss things. So, maybe this really has become home!