Detta är Dagen

This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

-Psalm 118:24


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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The kids

The above picture is for Uncle Erik, with love. :)

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Gardening

This rose bush seems to barely survive each year. And this year, it's giving me beautiful little bunches of yellow roses.
(He's cleaning the moss off the gate, in case you are wondering.)

Annie just loves getting all dirty and then she calls out "BAA" demanding that we give her a bath.
Here we are, watering transplanted irises (using the stored rain water, don't worry!)
I learned about siphons at an early age from my dad. We siphoned kerosene into our fridge in Africa, as I recall. But I whipped out my recollections of how it should work and impressed my husband who had no idea that I was siphon-savvy. Will and I used a bucket and short hose to water plants that were far from the spigot. It was much more fun than just dumping the bucket of water on the plants! :)

Friday, April 24, 2009

Happy 17 months, Annie!

Well, we didn't really celebrate for her today, but we have indeed kept Annie alive for 17 months now. One funny thing I did today for her was dig out her last summer's clothes (yeah, the ones she wore in the US when she was 6 months old) and I dressed her in them yet again. I guess we're getting our money's worth out of things with this little lady - she has definitely grown since last summer, but the tops and bottoms still fit her well... so we'll be using them again on warm days, cuz they're cute clothes and I can't resist-smile.
I haven't taken pictures in awhile- been busy baking and getting my house cleaned. The weather is just perfect. I've also been working a bit on our garden, which feels extensive at the moment, and also hopeless. The air is so dry that you can almost feel the dust settle deep in your lungs when you breath, and that's not great gardening weather- plus there is a water shortage, so I feel guilty when I water my plants. Oh well.
This IS perfect weather for washing windows, washing rugs and quilts and blankets since things dry in just a few hours in the intense mid-day sun. So my windows are sparkly clean now and we can see out of them really well- it makes me feel like I'm a good housekeeper, but I'm not. I admit that I have an amazing woman helping me do all the hard work 5 days a week. And it's not Annie. Annie has been keeping me busy since she's been teething. Her molars are coming in and she is miserable most days and insists that I carry her about the house. She still only has two bottom front teeth and only four top front teeth. Then there's a gap and the molars are starting to shine white in the back of her mouth. I guess I never saw teeth come in like this before- (maybe she's missing some?) - more likely sometimes they just come in different orders.
She's eating and growing, and that's all we ask these days. God has been giving us peace about our kids. Will continues to be seizure-free for nearly 4 months now. Praise the LORD!

The last item of home-front news is potty-training. We pulled out the "potty chair" for Annie and she loves to sit on it, since she understands very well that it is her special chair. She did manage to use it appropriately twice- but probably by accident. She's pretty far from comprehending its use, I think, but at least we're on our way with this. Will is nearly done wetting his bed when he sleeps and this will be a relief! It's been a long 3 1/2 years of diapers with him (yeah, only at night for about 1 1/2 years now). Anyway, we consider this stuff "progress", and "news", but maybe you weren't really interested to know. :-) Sorry- I'll try to think of something more interesting next time!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Precious moments

Here we are making rice together for supper:

These kids LOVE to help.
"YOOK, Mamma!! Come, you get the camera and take a picture! Yook a-dis!" It took me a couple of minutes to finish up what I was doing and get to his room to see that he had built the tallest tower he could imagine and he was bursting with pride. It was the first time that he requested me to take a picture of him and his accomplishment, and I felt special to document the moment.
BIG RACE DAY! - Ok, well, not really, but it was a 'sports day' today and the elementary school invited the little hillside kids to join in one short race. My kids didn't mind being the last two to the finish line - they just had a blast being with all the other kids.

Where's Will?


Thursday, April 16, 2009

Himalayas: Harsh Terrain

The hike to Dodital last weekend was really neat for me. I hope to write more about it later, but I thought that I'd put some pictures here for now. One of the main things I realized was just how harsh the himalayas are. Pictures will never capture the steep cliffs and mountainsides that we foolishly braved without a path or guide, and I am thankful to have only lost my camera lenscap and not my life. Most of the way was a fairly easy hike with a clear and wide-enough path... however, when we tried to head up to a mountain pass, we missed the path because we left while it was still dark, and we ended up "cud-climbing"- precariously hoisting ourselves up the side of the mountain, which was steeper than any ladder I would usually climb. We climbed up thousands of feet- up, up, up... and suddenly we realized that we had no way to get down. I had gotten up by clinging to tufts of grass and digging my shoes into the dirt, but I couldn't get down by doing that. It was the first time that I feared that I would never make it back home- would we make it up and be able to find our way to the path we had missed? we couldn't go down...
Above, a tree had split the rocky mountainside.

This is the best I could capture the steepness- don't know if you can see it.

So I prayed that God would give us a way down. I suddenly realized that MAYBE we could get down by following the 'valley' between two ridges. It had a few rocks in it and seemed to be like a ravine where water might flow in monsoon. However, we had seen these type of ravines end shortly in rock drop-offs and cliffs that we wouldn't be able to get down. I prayed that the one we were on would let us follow it all the way down. Above you can see my two friends coming down to where I had reached along our rocky 'ravine'.
Praise the Lord! He DID give us a way down- we were able to follow our rocks all the way down to where we could see the path and river that we should have followed all along instead. The view of where we should have gone is above.
Instead, we had this view of the mountains. And that was plenty for us as our cud-climbing adventure had worn us out!

Here I am, in front of the lake Dodital... just to show you that I was there-smile. It was a really good trip, but I was thankful to get home and see my wonderful family again (who, of course, managed just fine without me!)

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Into the mountains

I'm heading off into these mountains on Thursday afternoon with two other staff women here- we're going backpacking to a place called Dodital. YAY for getting out and hiking and camping- it's been a very long time since I've done anything like this and I've never done it in the Himalayas, so we'll see how the trip goes.
The roads on our mountains are typically like this- just barly clinging to the edge of the steep rocky mountainside. It will be a 6-7 hour drive (if nothing goes wrong-smile).

And this is what the mountains here look like- they're very steep... so my hike should be exciting and exhausting. If I remember my mountian names correctly (which is not very likely, mind you- so you'll have to check back upon my return to see if I was right), Dodital lies right below Bander Punch - which (I think) are the snow peaks pictured below. I think we'll end up right between the green and white mountains - actually, I hope that in a few days we'll end up back safely in our homes. Needless to say, I will be leaving my dear husband with the children and worrying about them the whole time I'm away, but he says I should go and that he'll be fine, and I'm pretty sure that they will survive without me. Will I survive without them? That's another question! :) We cherish your prayers for this coming weekend!

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Great Weekend

Sewing!
Coloring and making a story board of stories about Jesus.

Easter egg decorating!

Annie doesn't like it when she doesn't get her way...
"Just let me do it myself!! Then I won't cry."
Will had a blast and did a great job.

Here's my big boy all dressed up for Chapel.
(she wants some of his biscuit)