While Daddy's Been Away

Per the usual, it has been eventful while David has been gone. 

This actually happened the Monday before he left, and it was planned.

Termites had eaten the door frames of three of our rooms. We have been waiting 6 months on the door guy and our landlords to solidify things. Finally they came.
Renovations or brand new things in this country have about a 5-7 year shelf life before needing serious repair. That's about where we are.

I was absolutely not pleased with the results of the new doors, but since David is away I decided not to deal with it. During his time away I also had to call the plumber to deal with our kitchen drain (again!). He left our outside pipe a mess and I didn't realize it until the next day. I am leaving that for David too. :).

The most pleasant worker I dealt with was the locksmith. A week ago we were locked out of our house, we thought a kid had dead bolted and we went out the back. But now we realize there was actually a real problem with the lock. Saturday morning and locked out! He came right away and fixed it all within half an hour.

Sophia hadn't been feeling great all weekend and finally spiked a fever with aches and all for almost 2 days, Isabella followed, and one night Tobin woke up, threw up and had stomach issues all night, and I followed him from 3-6 a.m. This was actually a virus from Gabrielle who bore it better and faster than anyone else: fever, diarrhea for 4 days. Obviously this did not make for a good start to anything. Tobin and I were so weak. My helper was the hero. She took the other kids where they needed to be, I stayed in bed a lot. Slowly we started getting better. Tobin was so weak he asked me to carry him back to bed that night. This virus took its toll and we are still recovering. Daily I think I am improving but still weak, not able to eat much and nothing settling quite yet.

God has been so incredibly gracious through this all. We mustered strength for our English class. Sophia got to participate in an all day birthday party, and our helper took Tobin and Gabrielle to her village while Isabella and I taught English on Saturday. Sunday started rough with attitudes but we regrouped with lots of praise music, time in the word, and the ever-promised 'daddy away' tea party. Tobin dressed as Iron Man, the ladies, nice dresses. He called on them to come to tea and we had a great time drinking coffee/tea/hot chocolate, eating junk food and playing some dominoes.

This is the week for the Arts festival at local school which is keeping us busy. Also, I leave for a conference the day BEFORE David gets back, so once again our helper will step up and watch the kids overnight. They will walk to and from school and even catch up on some home school while I am gone.

There you have it. Crazy and yet not.
And.....Gabrielle will do her 100th lesson of Reading tomorrow!

The Best Part of These Guests and Mother's Day Too

The best part of having our recent guests was just getting real about life with them，having them speak into us, and it be completely refreshing. "Mr. Tony" or actually "Poppy Tony" (known to his grandkids this way), and "Honey Karen"  or Ms. Karen meshed with our fam for three days and we got their ear and they got ours.

They have the unique perspective of living alongside people like us for four months and yet having loads of life experience (they have great stories!).  I taught with Ms. Karen in Btown the year before we came overseas. I picked her brain about curricula, they asked us many questions, good questions, and we shared our India travels too!

And they loved on our kids...

wearing Poppy Tony's shoes!

 Maybe he will carry me since mommy won't. 

Always ready for adventure, off to pick up a kid.

G spent time with Honey Karen getting ready for the day. And she got a little make-up herself. 

David tried to take them to see the trigger-point lady, but she always has a long line. But this was a chance to visit another village and meet some new people.

Though we've had a jam-packed semester full of ups and downs and no real rhythm it seems, we were so glad Tony and Karen came to see us. And I told them so. "You guys were like a breath of fresh air!" I was able to step back, relax, host, and share, and it be just what I needed, though I didn't know I needed it! So thankful for them.

And we celebrated Mother's Day. David got me three potted plants to plant in our new yard, two beautiful fragrant blooms, and a lime tree! The kids made us French Toast and we had the S fam over while Tony encouraged us in the word. It was a great day!

 

David left two days later for a ten day trip.
Update on 'while Daddy's been away' coming soon.
Love this man and miss him terribly.

We Had to go Back

We had so much fun in the village transplanting rice that we took the kids back that evening for dinner, after many invites. We let the girls skip their evening ballet, because this was more important, and we had had an exhausting week.

Typical house:

Typical dog on chain barking next to a water buffalo.

Dusk settles in and Gabrielle and our helper's daughter play in dry mud (and wet mud for that matter).

This man was getting his plot ready for the next day's transplanting.

We walked the village and took Tony and Karen to see the newly dedicated temple

We had run into this lady when we arrived and saw her again on our walk. Without David I ventured into my own minority language conversation...and I did it! Of course it was the basic: Where are you going? Going back home now? Have you eaten? come with me...No, we are going back....go slowly...

Time to wash up...

Grandma (really great-grandma actually) helping set the table.

 We also took Tony and Karen to the pagoda in our city that has a temple inside.

We ran into the lady that usually does our health inspection every year. I reminded her of how I used to faint on her, and she laughed and of course remembered, she used to say it was because I had too many kids. Really it was because I was a big wimp. But I've gotten over it now and am used to the blood draws.

We got GREAT fresh fruit smoothies (mango pineapple, in season now folks!) and the promised Ramen noodles at the top.

The Marlboro on these hats are misspelled, of course. We have an ongoing game to find the worst English on clothing. Daily new and shocking words adorn the most innocent of Grandmas.

 A boy monk. Coming up here always makes me sad,
Sophia confessed she doesn't like it either, though we love the stair hike.


We show every guest this place, it overlooks the city and is telling of the hearts of the people here. Their longings, heartaches, fears, and hopes are brought here.

We are just alike...but by the grace of God...

Transplanting Rice with Old Friends

A couple we have known for over 16 years (in the States) came to China to help some friends of ours in another city for four months. Though nothing has gone quite how they planned, they have not complained and see it all as blessings! Their selflessness and joy was so evident as they came to visit our family for the weekend. 

Tony and Karen shared their experiences of the past few months living in China, and we introduced them to our world, our kids, and our community. 

It happened to be the time of year for transplanting rice and our helper had already asked off for the day that her household would transplant their plots. This was the Friday Tony and Karen would be in town and I thought we could take them to see this important step in rice farming. I promised my helper that we in no way wanted them to 'host' us, we just wanted to watch a little. We did not want to interrupt anything they were doing in any way. This is a busy time. They do it all in one morning. She agreed, said it would be great and to come by nine or else they maybe done. 

Off we went. This was someone else's already transplanted rice. 

Love this girl, our helper. She is amazing, for now I couldn't do life without her (or at least I couldn't homeschool)

We really needed her gear...

They asked us to join them and Tony didn't hesitate..
I, however, asked about leeches. I have heard the stories. One lady responded, would you be scared if there were? umm...I would borrow some water boots. These folks know what they are doing, they don't do this barefoot like we did. Of course we didn't stay in too long.



They gave a ten second tutorial. It's really not that hard.


Karen and I got in the mix. I videoed some of this and I kid you not, the local ladies did this nine times faster than me. Of course they have a lifetime of experience, and I had five minutes, that was my excuse anyway.

This is back breaking (or aching) work. Had I been doing this all morning I would have been in pain for sure.

 David got in on the action. Look at the view!

 We had such a blast doing this with these ladies. I only did one bundle, Tony did quite a bit.

Afterwards we joined the little rest party of fruit and snacks.
They videoed us, the Americans that came to help them transplant rice.
At this point I made David promise them that if the parts we planted didn't come up we would pay them for it...they all laughed, but I was a little worried.


Our helper literally gave Tony her hat when he said he liked it. And she wouldn't take it back.


This was one of the best days we have had in the village.
We love this place and we loved doing this with these folks.
They were brave, adventurous and interested in everything we do around here.

More adventures with Tony and Karen coming up!

Early May: Soccer and Krispy Kreme Among Other Things

Sophia's Intramural games continued and her team did pretty well. Went to penalty kicks one game and lost. Though this is not the same as the school team this has been an encouraging time for Sophia as she leads her class team. 

Also in art, Sophia came home and one Saturday re-taught Isabella and Gabrielle some painting. It turned out really well. 

Friends over, and lots of hilarious antics. They often play 'school' of some sort with rounds of robbers or bad guys coming through, all of whom are promptly taken to the principal (which is not me but another designated kid). 

A big 'arts' festival is coming up at school. Both Tobin and Sophia will participate in a dance with each of their classes. This is his outfit:

We changed our 'Shabbat Meal' up a bit. Now we do it less extensive but every Sunday. I light the candles put on the table cloth, get out the wine glasses (to put soda in), and we talk about our week, blessings, struggles, etc. I try to do something special for dessert or breakfast on the weekends or for this meal. This particular weekend I made mock krispy kreme donuts. I made these ten years ago and probably won't make them again for another ten years. But they were worth it!

So de-lish. Most things deep fried are, right?

No icing:

covered in glaze!

Confession: I had to make a double batch of glaze for one batch of donuts to suit the needs of our family :).

It's probably good this pic is not clear, but here I am vegging with coffee on the weekend.

Sophia's team consorting with the opposition at half-time, they are all friends, which is fun.

This is one of my fave pics of Isabella. Her happy place: in the village eating pineapple.

Next up: a delightful visit from precious people!