What we're doin' these days

Here are some snippits of what we are doing these days. Speaking of snippits, I snipped Sophia's here real good the other day. She had been begging for a hair cut, David kept saying no. It is the time of year where you beg for the rainy season, it is hot. So he gave the go ahead, we cut about 4 inches off. Looks so cute. I would NEVER do this if her hair were straight. Curly hair is so forgiving.

We are eating:

David made these nutritious popsicles: fresh strawberries, 100% OJ, some milk, some stevia (natural sweetener), they were delicious.

We are drinking:

Kefir water. Or water Kefir. We have been drinking this for a few months now. What in the world is water kefir? It is like a nutritious soda that is fermented. Sounds a little like wine, I know, but it is not. It is great for you, a probiotic that has many health benefits! Go here to read more. My favorite brew of this so far is ginger/lime kefir and grape (using a little 100% grape juice). My stomach was debilitating me for days at a time each month. So much so that I started charting it. Since drinking kefir I have had no problems. Now, we are not sure if it made David sick, he also loved it but took a little break to see how his stomach would do. He just restarted this week and so far no problems! The girls like it sometimes, I should stick it in our green smoothies, that we still drink almost daily. We did try milk kefir but did not love it. We are sticking with water kefir. I got my grains from some friends who live in another city here. So thankful!

Bella helps stir the sugar in the water (it feeds off of sugar and eats most of it, so the actual end-product drink is not that sweet)

We are listening to:

Josh Garrels. The man is a.maz.ing.


We are watching:
Still love our N.C.I.S. and David bought us 'The Cosby Show' for Christmas. We laugh out loud at this a LOT. love it.

We are learning:
To calm down. Chill out. Enjoy. Beg for mercy and wisdom. Trust God.

We are planning:
On going to the States this summer for a short time. Very excited for family to meet Tobin!

We are teaching:
Tobin how to eat food, Bella to make her bed, and Sophia to tie a bow (or her shoelaces, but she doesn't have those), (those were the life skills for the week, not yet mastered)

We are reading:
David: Bonhoeffer Biography, and some parenting books, among his other steady stream of a gazillion things :)
Me: The Enemy Within (almost done!), book 6 already of Anne of Green Gables (LOVE the whole series, again)
girls: Swiss family Robinson again. Sophia is reading many different books, including her Early Reader's Bible, and together: The Gospel Story Bible, The Dangerous Journey (Children's Pilgrim's Progress)

We are discovering:
So many uses of coconut oil. A few years ago when we went Vegan for almost half a year we started using coconut oil some. I shelved it and then discovered some great advice on various uses and health benefits of it again. Mostly, my skin loves it! We have found this on taobao and hope to order some soon!

Struggling with:
Whether to take Sophia out of Chinese School for a little bit. We've had some attitude challenges the last month or so. We know it is not the school that does it, it is just the more time she spends away from us and our training into an environment that is almost the opposite sometimes, we feel that tug at her heart. We love that she loves school and has friends. We have thought of good options for those kind of outlets apart from school. Not to mention there are 55 students per 2 teachers usually, it is not a great situation. The biggest thing is that even in the last week limiting her to three days a week and now having a little break (they are on a holiday for tomb sweeping festival), already there is a marked difference in her attitude and behavior. So...do we keep her home more for better training, or press on? Not so sure yet.

Rejoicing in: God's gift of children. Really. The best times right now are sitting on the girls' beds at night, doing 'questions' and reading, and just talking. We have some great talks then and they are just 4 and 2. Of course this often turns into many ways to stay up later too, but these times are precious and we are enjoying it!

Cute Cuddles

Sometimes we let the girls go 'get' Tobin up when we start hearing him. They really just climb in bed with him. It stops his fussy noise right away. He loves his sisters.


But of course he is still an avid thumb-sucker.

The same morning, Sophia started calling for us: 'come look!!!' 'he is cuddling with me, really!'




He really did just lay his head on her shoulder for a few minutes. He rarely does this, as he is always on the go. Such cute cuddles.

The 'Bear Story'

My Aunt Beth lives in a beautiful little spot of earth on the side of a small mountain in the south eastern U.S. We love visiting her and taking rides through the mountains, etc. One of things our girls remember about her house is her dog Zoey, whom they claim to love. Bella has a right to the claim, Sophia, not so much. She does remember being scared of the dog, but probably not as much as she really was. She still says she likes Zoey and we often talk about her.

Beth recently wrote an email and told a story of being woken up by a bear on her porch (two times!). Whoa!

I, in dramatic fashion, retold the story to Bella and Sophia over breakfast one morning. They LOVED it! They thought it was so cool, the tension, the way Beth turned the light on and tapped on the window. How, in the middle of the night she brought in bird feeders and other things he may be after. I explained how bears are always hungry in spring (which they remember from the 'Little House' book). And how the bear came back! We did pray for Beth, and Zoey, and their protection, of course. They were glad God had protected them.

They asked if we had ever seen bears. I had to tell my story of my Grandma Pinnie taking the grandkids to New Mexico one summer to a camp. I, again, with great drama and emphasis, told how we hiked up a mountain, left our food at a cabin and went exploring. I told them how the counselors warned us what to do in case we saw a bear (make really loud noises, and walk slowly away). When we came back to our food, our huge Oatmeal cookies had paw prints in them (dramatic emphasis), and there we saw them, I thought they were huge dogs. A momma bear and two cubs! The absolute worst situation to be in when happening upon some bears, because a momma is going to fight for her babies. So we all screamed and sang at the top of our lungs, and quickly lined up and walked away. This was the same story where I peed in my pants on the way back down the mountain because I didn't like going to the bathroom outside.

Every morning that whole week the girls asked to hear 'Aunt Beth's bear story...and yours too mama!'

Every. Morning.

And after one rendering....'tell it again mama!'

And then later, when Bella started thinking about details, she would ask, 'and Aunt Beth comforted you when you peed in your pants?' 'no honey, it was Grandma Pinnie'. And 'how big were your cookies?' and 'why didn't you like to go the bathroom outside?' (in this country kids always use the bathroom outside). This story entertained us for a whole week! We do hope and pray that the bear does not go back to Aunt Beth's house. And we are thankful for Zoey, and her sense about things!

Gator Tobin Eats

Milestones every day. A month ago or more we really tried to get Tobin to start picking up his food. Nothing doing. (we know it was probably a late start anyway, oh well). But now it is not a problem. Of course we still spoon feed him a lot, but it is getting more 'solid' every day. Big boy.




The gator outfit really brings out is eyes.



This is not Tobin. This girl loves to have her picture taken!


Tobin also loves to open our shoe closet and take out shoes!





He is into everything these days. And we are so into him! Edible sweetness.

Spring craft, Pinterest thoughts, and kid pics of course

Here is our little spring flower garden that Sophia and I made. I found this on a blog. The one there looks much better: Here is the link. But we had fun doing it. I pinned this and came back to it and did it. Which brings me to Pinterest. How long has it been around? I have no idea. I have only heard of it for a few months, only via blogs I follow. Everyone was 'pinning' things, and had 'boards', and I had no idea what they were talking about and I didn't care.

Then, on our little trip south, we visited a home that was beautifully decorated with great ideas in every room. They had moved in about a year ago and were able to do it all themselves as it was brand new. I told the husband what an amazing job his wife had done (she was not there), and he said: Pinterest. Really? David really had no idea what he was talking about, and I said, 'oh yeah, I have heard of that.' The other people in the room talked like it was old hat.

We returned home, and as I often do after visiting people who live in this country and are really good at making their home beautiful, I had renewed vigor to do so in mine as well. David is always prepared for this. I usually start out with gusto and then deflate when I realize many things: that I am not that person, I am tired, we try to simplify more and more and home beautifying projects sometimes go against this (they don't have to, but buying a ton of baskets, which I did, doesn't cry 'simple'). I then have to rethink, beautify some things, settle on others, and thank God for a husband who understands the 'nesting' need, and supports most projects I set my mind too. Though he would say I ask his opinion too much! Ha.

Then I saw a kitchen table on a blog that I wanted to capture, because when we can afford it we will buy a new table. I thought 'oh, this is what pinterest is all about', it clicked for me. So I set up an account.

Utter craziness. My first day on, I made some boards, found some people who I knew I would mesh with, and wasted about two hours.

I told David: 'it is incredible. But problematic. You either envy too much, dream too big, and then get sucked into an inevitable haze of a wasted life of 'what ifs, and when this...'.

But wait. I love it too. I really do. It is GREAT for capturing ideas and organizing information or projects, it has been very helpful. But pacing is needed.

David is so funny. When facebook was all the rave, he called it 'virtual voyerism' and it is. When I showed him this (and he does think it is cool), he said: 'it is like looking at a catalog for hours, which you would never do'. He is right. And I do not spend hours on it (except those first two nights, oops). I will use it to serve certain purposes and give myself a 'pinterest time' or something,

Meanwhile, I do have a few 'around the house' projects I am working on as we prep to start 'real' homeschooling in the fall. I will document those here hopefully. And we have chosen our curricula, which I also hope to post. And for these things, Pinterest has already helped me organize and find useful ideas on how to make it all work.

Enough about Pinterest, I know it is SO old news.





And what is a post without these cuties? Sophia's outfit is from Aunt Beth. When we got it quite a long time ago, I thought: 'she will never fit into that'. Oh and they do grow up. We tell them to stop doing that, but they don't listen. So cute. And speaking of Aunt Beth, deserving a whole post of its own is her bear story and the fun affect it had on our girls.

The buying and selling of goods

Anytime we are at the market, or buying fruit and things from vendors off of the street, they must weigh the goods, and tell us how much it is. They pull out their trusty scale, a weight on one end of a small pole, and a string on the other end that holds the tray to put the goods on. This is a daily occurrence. So when Sophia started doing this in her playroom the other day, I had a good laugh at her cleverness. This is her world.


I had her reenact her putting together the scale. She was a great little market vendor.


though she may have overcharged a bit because I am a foreigner :)

Here is a good example, except no tray is needed because she is selling chickens, just hang those by their feet, alive and well.

Flower headdress with Ayi and New news

No I am not pregnant.

But we are having a family change, and anyone who has a 'helper' knows that they really do affect your family. We have loved having Ayi with us, she has helped us tremendously, but she told us a few weeks ago that she would be leaving.

We waited a bit to tell the girls. And when we did Sophia said she would pray and ask God to give us an Ayi that believes in Him. And He did. The new girl coming to help us is someone we have known almost since we moved here, she is a sweet, precious girl, and our kids already know her and love her. We are so thankful for how everything has worked out.

Our old Ayi, though, promises to come visit, and wants to take Tobin with her! She has had a good time being creative with the girls and one day made them these headdresses while in the garden.





meanwhile another friend that moved away returned and brought the girls these dresses from her home country. The girls would not take them off.


I have not taken a picture of Sophia yet! OOPS.