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POSTED: May 5,
2012
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The kiddos are all asleep in bed, Andy’s out watching
a movie with some of his guy friends and it is really quiet around out
house! I know exactly what I’m going
to do with this quiet night. Watch
American Idol. Yep, I recorded it on my trusty VCR earlier this evening, so
I’m going to bust out my VCR tape and watch my favorite show. It makes me reminisce of the 80’s every
time I fast forward though the commercials.
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On another note, I made a fun cake this week for some
friends who are retiring this week.
They’ve lived in the Horn for 20 plus years. Amazing people!
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This is Nathan’s favorite T-shirt. Just about every morning he asks to wear
this t-shirt. He says, “I want to
wear my call Grandma t-shirt.”
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My kiddos LOVE coffee ceremonies. We had some friends over the other day
and we wanted to give them a traditional coffee ceremony. Abby and Nathan helped make the ceremony
extra special. Abby’s roasting the
raw coffee beans over a charcoal fire.
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Nathan making sure he’s near the coffee ceremony so
he can get one of the first cups of coffee
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POSTED: May 5,
2012
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99.5!!! I must
say I was pretty pleased when I took Abby’s temperature tonight! She’s had a rough day battling Scarlet
Fever. It sounds scary, but it’s
really just strep throat with a rash.
I think the rash has made her the most miserable. This evening, just before bed, I was
rubbing anti-itch cream all over her and she said, “Mommy, I really don’t
like this fever, but I do like watching TV all day long.” J I did let her watch TV all day long
(literally). She watched it from the
moment she got up this morning until she went to bed. I guess it was good because she did rest
all day and I think her little body needed it! I’m surprised she didn’t sleep at all
today. At 4AM our entire household
was up because of Abby. She felt
miserable & that woke Nathan up & then Nathan started talking so
loud and that woke the twins up.
Then I wanted Abby to sleep in bed with us because her fever was so
high and her heart was just racing.
Well, Nathan was scared to stay in his room if Abby wasn’t there, so
he wanted to be in our bed too. I
made him a bed on the floor, but that was too scary. He squished into bed with me and Abby and
Andy. I didn’t get much sleep after
that because he was on the edge of the bed and I was so afraid he’d fall
off. Nights like that are rough, but
I know there will come a day when I wish that little man would still come
and cuddle with me and sleep right next to me. So, I’m trying to savor every moment of
it right now. Thankfully, Abby seems
to be on the mend. I’m hoping she
will feel a lot better tomorrow!
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POSTED: May 5,
2012
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Last weekend Andy and I got away for the
weekend. Yes, it was to a meeting,
but it was still fun. It was the
first time I’d been away from the twins overnight. Two of our friends came and stayed with
the kids for the weekend and the kids had a blast! On one of the days that we were away, we
hiked down to a crater lake. It was
beautiful!
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These were a
few of the sites we saw on the way down to the crater lake.
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We took a boat
ride across to an island that had an Orthodox Church on it. This was Andy’s transportation to the
island. An old wooden boat.
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These guys
were carrying brush across the lake
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I always like seeing laundry laid out to dry
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This was a water run grain mill that we saw on our
hike back up the mountain
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I had a
love/hate relationship with this horse. The area was really muddy, so I
enjoyed riding him so I didn’t get my pants so muddy. But, this horse also threw me off of him
as he was stepping into a river. It
wasn’t totally his fault. He stepped
into the river and sunk into the mud which made him fall forward. Well, when he fell forward it threw me
forward and off of him into the river.
Fortunately I had a death grip on his neck and so only my tennis
shoes and the lower parts of my pants got soaking wet in the river. This horse did push on though. At the end of our hike it was raining and
hailing and he pushed on and got me back to the top of the mountain. I felt like a Country girl sitting on
this horse while holding an umbrella trying to stay dry. J
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This part of the mountain was too steep to ride the
horses, so we all got off and hiked up the hill. That’s me in front in the
red shirt.
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Andy and me on our hike
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We had a great weekend away. Like all good parents, we brought back a souvenir
for our kids. Since there were not
any gift shops in the area, we brought back a tadpole for the kids. They LOVE it!! He’s really growing fast. In one week, he’s already grown his two
back little frog legs.
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POSTED: April
21, 2012
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I took the twins to get their first haircut this
week. It was a disaster!! The twins did GREAT, but their haircut turned
out different than we hoped. Good
thing is, they don’t mind their new haircut and it should grow out
soon. This is the haircut we were
going for. I gave this picture to
the hair stylist. I like the long
wispy bangs!
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This is how it turned out. Audrey was first & this wasn’t
exactly what we were
hoping for. Here
bangs are sooooo short.
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Haley was next and her hair style came out just about
exactly the same as Audrey’s.
When we got home Andy’s response to their haircuts
was, “Well, at least they
have earrings so people will know they are girls.”
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POSTED: April 16, 2012
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“Intentional Parenting.” This is a phrase that keeps running
through my head. I keep thinking I’d
like to write a book about it one of these days, but I’m not sure I’m
really qualified, maybe when my kids are older. I don’t know if I thought this phrase up
on my own or if I read it in a book.
I think about it a lot. I
want to intentionally parent. I
don’t want to just let life go by without making the most of it. If I let life just “happen” then I don’t’
think I make the most of the time I have with my kids. They are young and moldable right now and
I want to be intentional in the things I do with them. I want to “intentionally” spend time with
them. I think we’ve been doing this
for years, but I’m working harder to plan ahead so I can be intentional in
what we do. Here are some ways we
“intentionally parent” on a regular basis:
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We read a Bible
Story together as a family each night.
After that we pray and sing a couple of Worship songs together. We intentionally want to teach our kids
about God.
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Every Monday night
we sit down in front of the TV, eat pita pizzas and watch a kid movie. Andy and I sit right along with them and
watch the entire movie. We make sure
we don’t play on the internet or do anything else that might distract us
from spending this time with the kids.
We intentionally want to have fun with our kids.
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We have regular
bed times and nap/quiet rest in your room times. We intentionally want our kids to get a
good night of sleep and the rest we need.
We also think it is good for both Mommy and kids to get a little bit
of quiet time each day.
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We are not “intentional” in our parenting every
day. Some days get busy and it seems
like the day just flew by and I didn’t spend much time at all with the
kids. Here are a few things that we’ve
done lately to try to be “intentional” in spending time with our kids.
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We invited some friends over and we read the Very
Hungry Caterpillar and we made our own Caterpillars out of construction
paper.
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We took a 3 day weekend and spent some time at a
guesthouse just outside the Capital.
Andy and I rested a lot, but we were intentional to make sure we
spent some time playing with the kids as well. Most of that time was spent on the
trampoline or hiking around a nearby pond.
We also played a lot of Guess Who together as a family. J
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Abby had a 3 day weekend, so we planned ahead and had
everything ready to get the swimming pool out for the weekend. It was a big hit!
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We worked really hard to make Easter weekend
intentional, but I’ll post more about that in my next post. All this to say, we are working hard to
spend quality time that is meaningful with our kids. I hope you try it to. It’s actually quite fun! I want to continue to work hard at
“Intentional Parenting!”
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POSTED: April 16, 2012
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This past weekend was Orthodox Easter, so Abby had a
3 day weekend. We spent the weekend
swimming, swimming and swimming some more.
We also took the kids to their favorite play place for an afternoon
of fun, but I didn’t take my camera with me. I wish I had because we let the twins
ride one of the little rides for the first time and they had a blast. Here are some of our swimming pictures:
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This was the
first time the twins have been able to really play on their own in the
pool.
They LOVED it!!
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POSTED: April
16, 2012
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EASTER!! I
love Easter !
A time to remember what Jesus did for us. That he died on the cross for us and rose
again 3 days later. He did all that
so we can spend eternity with Him in Heaven. What a weekend to remember!
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We did a lot of fun things this Easter. Abby had Friday off school, so that made
the weekend even more fun. We
started Friday of by inviting one of Abby’s friends over and the kids made
Resurrection Gardens. I got the idea
from this website: http://impressyourkids.org/resurrection-easter-ideas-for-kids/
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We got a foil pan, filled it with a little dirt and
then we went around our yard and cut some of the plants and made a fun
garden. We carved out a potato and
used it as the tomb and the part we carved out was the stone that closed
the tomb. We used little rocks to
make a path to the tomb. It was a fun project!
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We “painted” our window and made a stained glass
cross. I thought it turned out
pretty neat. We still have it upon
our window. A friend of mine told me
about this idea, but I think she got if from: http://impressyourkids.org/
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We painted the window with a 2/3 dish soap and 1/3
water solution. We tore up some
different color tissue paper and we ended up with this!
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We had a fun Easter Egg Hunt in the yard. Grandma and Grandpa Snow sent us some fun
American treats for Easter, so the Easter Eggs were FUN
!! The twins LOVED their first
taste of M&M’s! Andy hid the
eggs for the big kids and then Abby and Nathan hid the eggs on a little
section of grass for the twins.
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Audrey (top) and Haley (bottom) loved it !
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I thought this was a cute picture of Abby helping
Audrey
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After the Easter Egg Hunt, the kids all sat down and
enjoyed their Wonderful American Treats!
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On Saturday night, we made Resurrection Cookies. Abby and Nathan beating the pecans:
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Nathan mixing the Resurrection Cookies
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Putting the cookies in the oven and then “sealing” it
with tape to make sure the oven door doesn’t open before morning. The next morning we got up, opened the “tomb”
and ate our cookies. They were
supposed to be hollow on the inside, but ours were not really hollow. I wonder if it has something to do with
the high altitude. We enjoyed eating
the cookies thought & talking about the meaning behind the cookies.
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On Sunday morning the kids got up and enjoyed looking
through their Easter Baskets. Thanks
again to Grandma and Grandpa Snow for sending us some fun treats for their
Baskets. The kids get the same bunny
ears and bunny rabbits in their basket every year. But, they seem new to them each
year. They don’t sell Easter stuff
here like they do in the States, so every Easter morning I pull out the
stuffed bunny rabbits and bunny ears and put them in their Easter
baskets. And every year, a couple of
days after Easter, I put it all back up again to use again next year. J
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Haley figured out pretty quickly that if you break
the egg open, there were M&M’s inside
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Audrey and Abby with their Easter Bunny ears
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After that, we headed off to meet with some of our
friends to Worship together. The
kids even had a program of their own.
It was fun! After worship, we
enjoyed a real “American Style” picnic.
Complete with a Honey Baked Ham one of our volunteers brought from
America. Wow, it was
delicious!!! We ate and ate and then
we had one more big Easter Egg Hunt for all the
kids. It was fun afternoon!
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POSTED: April
16, 2012
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A lot of things make life difficult here in
Africa. Some examples are:
·
Cooking
everything from scratch
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Washing all the
dishes you used to make everything from scratch by hand.
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Dust everywhere
– since our houses are not sealed
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Going to 5
different grocery stores to get our groceries.
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We have to
bleach all our vegetables and fruit before we can eat them
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We have to
filter any water before we drink it
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Etc., etc.,
etc.
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But, these two people help make our life here really
nice! Showeyea
helps me with the housework. She
also loves on our kiddos! She is my
right hand man (or right hand woman)!
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Hilu is our guard.
Now don’t let that term scare you.
Everybody who lives in a house has a guard that watches their house
at night and takes care of the yard, pays the bills, etc. during the
day. We have two guards. They work 24 hours shifts. Hilu is one of
our guards. He helps me out a ton at
the hardest part of the day (4-5PM).
It’s that time of day after the twins wake up from their nap, but
before Andy gets home. It’s also the
time of day where I am in the kitchen trying to get dinner ready. Often times, I’ll send the twins out to
stroll around the yard with the Guard.
It is so helpful! On this
particular day, one of the twins was still inside so Abby took her spot in
the stroller.
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POSTED: April
16, 2012
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We celebrated my Birthday on April 1st. Andy and my in-laws got me DsTV (Cable from South Africa) for my Birthday so now I
can watch American Idol ! It also has the Food Network, TLC and the
National Geographic Channels. I’m
loving it !
I let the kids watch American Idol with me on the first night.
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We had a Subway night for my Birthday as well. Sandwich meat is SUPER expensive here. We
paid $16 for this ham and $9.50 for this small amount of cheddar
cheese. But, it was well worth it ! Crazyness, but we would have spent more than that
taking our entire family out to eat.
:0) We
had some chili cheese fritos left over from a
package we got so they complimented our Subway night really well. It was delicious!!
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This plate of food made my day!!
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POSTED: April
16, 2012
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Over Abby’s Spring Break, we took 3 nights out and
spent them at a guesthouse that is just outside the city. We had a wonderful time. The guesthouse that we stayed in had a
walled yard, so it was safe for Abby and Nathan to run around
unsupervised. They had a trampoline
and a play room for the kids. It was
relaxing for both the kids and the adults!!
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We stayed in this guesthouse. We had our own three bedroom
apartment. It was AWESOME!
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We all had fun jumping on the trampoline
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Our little apartment had a bath tub. We don’t have a bath tub at our house, so
all four kids really enjoyed playing in the bath tub.
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Nathan enjoyed the boy dress up clothes they had in
the play room.
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Near the guesthouse was a fun a little restaurant
that overlooked a pond. We enjoyed
hiking around the pond so much that we did it two different days.
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I thought this was a fun picture of Abby. We took it while we were waiting at the
restaurant for lunch.
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One of our vacation days we took a short little road
trip just to see what was up the road.
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We saw this old two story mud house
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We saw this interesting telecommunication
office. How would you feel if this
was the telecommunication office where you lived?
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I love that you can get a coke just about anywhere
you go in this Country
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I took this picture as we were driving by, but this
looked like the Target emblem.
What? A target in the Horn of
Africa?? I wish that’s was really
the case!!
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OLDER POSTS
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