A date!

Our neighbors (who are like family to us!) called last night to say that they would take our kids after church today and we could have a date afternoon. WOW! So we decided to take a hike away from town because we can't usually go very far that way when we have our kids in tow. We walked/hiked for about 3 hours, I think and had a really nice time being together and talking and enjoying the scenery (which is very dry right now). I took a couple of pictures of my handsome man and the surroundings. In the left hand corner of the picture above you can see the tall radio tower in the distance behind Nate. That's where we left our kids with our neighbors a few hours earlier.

Dry land. Those terraced fields are longing for rain.

Mountain Dew from a bottle! So refreshing after a long walk on such a hot, dry day.

We had such a lovely date together.

And THEN...

Here are lots of pictures to catch you up on our house lately. I think I have them in chronolgical order mostly. First, Annie has been helping Pappa make lots of chai these days.
And THEN there's the... ...cutting, cutting, cutting. One night I had accidentally left out the SAFE scissors (the plastic ones that can't cut anything but paper and are not sharp- n.b. grandparents!) and some scrap paper we had been cutting and I woke up at about 2 am to strange sounds from the living room. Sure enough, it was Annie, trimming away little tiny pieces of paper! Somehow I managed to convince her it was still bedtime and she should go back to sleep.
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And THEN: We've had a good week of celebrating Palm Sunday.

Will working on our story board - adding palm branches and t-shirts for Jesus and the donkey to walk on.

And THEN there was Good Friday:

I made hot-crossed-buns that we had warm for breakfast on Friday. I figured it was a good day to do it as we were going to talk about the cross and we could eat leftovers for the next two Easter mornings as well and keep talking about the meaning of the cross.

And THEN it was shorts weather and my Will has outgrown some of his old shorts, so I sewed this alligator pair for him and he was thrilled. Not your typical "new Easter pants" I guess, but perhaps more generally useful.

And THEN we decorated Easter Eggs:

And THEN it was Saturday:

Saturday we spent the day hiking to Flag Hill. Will tried climbing all the trees (there are LOTS) and Nate kept him from getting too hurt in the process.

(also, check out his cool shorts!)

Annie collected pinecones and had a blast watching Will and running around the open space.

The rhododendrons are still blooming, but many are now dressing the ground with their faded pink petals.
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And THEN today, Easter Sunday, we got up while it was still dark and walked for about 45 minutes to an Easter Son-Rise service at a Church in the center of town. 10 Churches held the combined service outside on a lawn. It was really neat to walk and meet other Christians from all the different Churches all heading to the same service before dawn. Some were singing, some talking, and always the greeting of "Happy Easter!" and "He Is Risen!"

When we returned home, we ate the last of our hot-crossed-buns and Nate hid Easter eggs for the kids to find. They LOVED this 'game' and once they had found all 26 eggs, they ate the trail mix that was inside a few of them and begged to do it again. I think that in total we have hidden and found Easter Eggs about 20 times today! They don't mind that the eggs are always empty - they just loved finding them. Thankfully at the end of the day we managed to get Will to hide them for Annie so that we could just sit and sip chai and watch!

Happy Easter! JESUS IS RISEN!!!

Spring tidbits

It's spring in Mussoorie! One thing I seem to forget each year is how spring here is the season of falling leaves. We have many Himalayan oak trees in this area which drop acorns in the fall, but keep most of their leaves all winter long. Once the weather warms up and the new leaves begin to grow on the branches, the older leaves begin to fall off. Our yard is covered with newly fallen leaves and I am enjoying watching bunches of leaves flutter to the ground as the breeze shakes them loose. Here's a picture I tried to take to capture how the old leaves are coming off the branches as the new ones fill out the trees. Other plants did loose their leaves earlier so their new leaves are clothing bare branches beautifully.

This is also the short Rhododendron season. I've been enjoying watching the blossoms come on a tree behind our house. Just a week or two ago they began to bloom and already the petals are covering the ground.

A few days ago we were invited to join some friends on a walk around the road at the top of our mountain. It was a beautiful day and very relaxing to spend the morning that way together.

Lunch at Char Dukan

Annie wanted to sit in this little shelter on the side of the road - she called it her 'ouse'.

Will helped walk a dog and did a very good job! He'll enjoy my family's dogs back in the US this summer... but Annie is scared to death of dogs. :(

I bought a papaya in the bazaar this week and we devoured it in two meals - it was excellent! I told Nate that every time I have bought a papaya in our marriage, it is because SOMETIMES they taste like this one! (we haven't had very good ones before this one)

And a few updates are due:

1. Above is a picture of the crazy quilt that I worked on with a few friends. This is the center of it- it turned out really neat and we're just finishing it up now. We each did a square and it's neat to see a group project like this come together so nicely.

2. The diaper cover I made out of a wool sweater DOES work... and perhaps better than expected, because we have had quite a number of days when Will hasn't wet his diaper at all! :) That's the goal, after all, so even though it took a few days to figure out if the cover would keep moisture in, we are pleased that he's started to not wet his diaper sometimes.

3. I stepped on a sewing needle yesterday on my floor, and more than half an inch of it went into my foot... so my toe is a bit swollen and my foot is pretty sore today. I guess running will have to come to a halt for a bit. Hopefully it will heal quickly and I won't get an infection. :)

4. Just one more thing I wanted to share. One morning this week when I was running early, the sky was so hazy that most of the mountains were completely hidden. I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to see the sun rise, which is something I usually look forward to so much. A few minutes later, I looked up and there was the sun- rising as a perfectly round circle of light - just beautiful. The thought struck me that in fact I could see the sun clearer in the haze than on a clear day when it was too bright to look at. I thought about how this relates to my spiritual life and how sometimes it's in the gloomy/hazy/dismal times of life that I have actually been able to see God clearer than during bright, clear times when all seems right. Maybe that thought will encourage you like it encouraged me.

No, the monkeys are NOT cute!

For any of you who think they are, well, they're just NOT!

At 8 am this morning I had had a good run, made breakfast, sent my honey out the door, and thought to myself that it would be a slow day. Maybe I'd manage to sit with my little boy and help him learn some of his alphabet letters. "I'll just start some laundry first," I told him. Then I realized just how much laundry I needed to do today - since our little princess is super picky about what clothes she puts on these days, and she changes her mind every half-hour and helps herself to a clean set of clothes... but even if she didn't change her mind, she still can't be bothered to use the toilet all the time and very very often wets her pants - or more likely, poops in them. Nasty.

By 10AM I figured I'd already had quite the morning- I counted about 6 loads of laundry I had ahead of me, smashed a nasty centipede on my bedroom floor, and then I got soaking pillows and scrubbing pillowcases (because Annie is still scratching her nose and getting blood all over them at naps and bedtime). Then a panicked Annie cried out to me and come to find out that this time she'd pooped all over the coir matting that covers our floors (terrible mess to try to scrub out of the coconut fibres!). After cleaning her up and the floor, I sent the kids outside. I put the soap outside to dry in the sunshine along with the soap holder because they get so nasty with little kids using them all day long. Our weather has been beautiful, by the way- 70-80 and sunny all day long. It's probably even hotter in the sun.

So the kids played outside until they were fighting so much that I had them come in. Both kinds of monkeys (rhesus and langours) were in the trees and walking on the roof, and I felt nervous as I always do, that they were going to steal my laundry. I tried to scare them away a few times, but they didn't really care. Then, while we were all inside, I looked out the bathroom door and saw a big langour holding our nice bar of soap! HEY! I shouted at him and opened the door to come at him, and so he jumped on the roof - WITH MY BAR OF SOAP!

Needless to say, I was mad! I shouted at him some more and Annie asked me if I needed Pappa - yes indeeed! But he's at work.

I looked out again to check the laundry- and the monkey was back- but no bar of soap, only my soap holder was in his hand this time! GRRRRR! I shouted at him again and this time he hopped up on my roof -WITH MY SOAP HOLDER!

Now I was really mad- and again, Annie asked me if I needed Pappa! :) Too true, but he's at work.

Well, I recovered, prayed so hard that God would send the monkeys away and protect us and our laundry. Pretty soon, the monkeys headed elsewhere. They didn't take any of my laundry and I had come to accept the fact that my soap and soap holder were gone for good. Then I stepped outside to bring in the dry clothes, and suddenly, the soap holder dropped from above just in front of me! NO WAY! (If the monkeys take stuff, they usually leave it in impossible places and we never find the things again). I looked up and thought that maybe God had dropped it from heaven just then. I saw up in the trees a little baby monkey just above where it had come from- ah ha! Well, it's still a God-thing. Every monkey-encounter leaves me feeling protected by my Father in Heaven. I don't like the monkeys and they are certainly not cute and stealing my soap was not funny. A verse that Will has learned recently came to mind several times this morning:
Psalm 32:7
"You [God] are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance."

list 1

It's been a long 3 years- now just 8 months to go. I've restrained myself from writing this list for too many months/years, so I apologize for being negative, but this is real for me these days (and I suspect that it will be an important list someday when I am gone from here and am remembering how perfectly marvelous this place was).

Things I will NOT miss when we leave from here:

1. monkeys stealing my laundry off the laundry lines and making my little boy sob in anger as he watches them steal it


2. the fear of the monkeys whenever we go for a walk, play outside, dare to eat outside... i hate the monkeys.


3. feeling excluded in such a small community because i am a stay-at-home mom


4. endless computer/internet problems


5. having spent all last night walking in the Bazaar, trying not to forget to buy anything, dragging it all back home, only to find that I didn't even think to buy ribbon, which I have to have for my little boy's birthday party tomorrow. OH to have a car and a store nearby where I could go with my kids to pick up last-minute things when I forget.


6. feeling like a failure every time someone asks me if I speak Hindi... that was just one of the many things I didn't manage to do during the past 3 years here!


7. having to have a lady helping me clean my house 5 days a week (i know it sounds great, but she doesn't do a great job and i'm tired of having her in 'my' space all the time.)


8. borrowing a hand-crank sewing machine that barely works, although I AM thankful for the use of a machine at all... it's just frustrating


9. my teeny tiny ovens (although I am very thankful that I even HAVE an oven! -in fact, 2 ovens!)


10. having to wipe black mold off the walls every week


11. dreading figuring out something to cook for dinner almost every night because the options that we enjoy are so few and so much work


12. butter shortages, milk shortages, "no cocoa powder until Monday, Ma'am", no molasses, weird-flavored vanilla 'essence', no good cheese, no beef, and rarely lettuce. I just won't miss these things!


13. skype frustrations and any other downloading of almost anything, which take eeeeeooooonnssss to complete (oh yeah, I already said internet problems, didn't I?!)


14. getting sick from food/water so often and having to deal with the health centre/hospital and all their run-around-info

Well, I'm running out of things to complain about for now, so it's probably a good time to quit. The wonderful thing about this sort of list is that as I hunt for lousy things, I remember scads of things I WILL miss. That list will come soon, I promise! :) I DO have it pretty good, I'm just so weary of some of this stuff. Of course, every place has some good, some bad...

Most of the time I really like living here and I am so thankful for all the ways that God has provided for us.

For my Pappa: My 'Little' Backyard's Flora

Above is a picture of the moss that covers the rocky ground in our little yard. Annie thinks it's nicest to walk on this softmoss-sharprock stuff barefoot, but I prefer shoes.

Above, some dying flowers- these are the first ones to bloom as monsoon is just beginning, and evidently, they're among the first to go as it draws to a close. We've had way too many dry days this monsoon and are praying for more rain as what falls here in the mountains affects the entire nation for the rest of this year.

Ferns, ferns everywhere! They grow on anything and everything!

I don't know the proper name for this purple flower, but it reminds people of a peacock- can you see it?

These bright orange-red flowers were hiding under so much green that I only just spotted them a couple of days ago. They're just beautiful!

And above is the plant that tells us when the monsoon is over. The green 'berry' part turns bright red to tell us all that the rains have passed.

I know my pappa would enjoy monsoon season here- especially watching all the birds and plants. When I wander around my yard or out on the trails with my camera, I think often about my Pappa and how he'd enjoy it here if he could come for a visit.