How are you doing TOG?

I would love to hear from fellow TOG users. (Tapestry of Grace curriculum)
I am juggling all 4 levels of their program this year. (lower grammar, upper grammar, dialectic and rhetoric) I have 5 children--- K, 2, 5, 6, and 9th grades.

I would love to hear how others are juggling it and what kind of a weekly routine you have going to get all of the work done.This is our 7th week of school this year, but our 2nd week to try a new method. I'm trying what they suggest with the kids reading all of the material on Mondays and Tuesdays and a little on Wednesday. Then we can discuss it and work with it the last few days. It's going ok but for my 5th grader I think it's pushing the reading a bit quickly. I wanted to try what they suggested though to see how it worked for us. I think the others like it.

We've slowed down a bit with some of the info and we're only on week 5 material (year 3). There was so much we wanted to do the first few weeks with it and it was a lot of reading, so we took the first few weeks of school a bit slower to ease into it.

I don't have access to a group here, so my high schooler is kind of on his own without a group to discuss it with. I wish we had a co-op! It would be fun!
But, I would love to hear your ideas or suggestions or what has worked or has not worked for you with TOG.

We're trying to notebook some of the material, also.
That's another question I had----- how are others doing the Accountability questions and all of the other questions for Dialectic and Rhetoric levels. Do you have the kids write them out as they read so they're ready for discussion time? I like that, but wondered if anyone was notebooking also. Do you do both or just one form of writing about it? Discuss it orally then notebook? .....any ideas are welcome here!!!


It takes about 6 weeks to get into a good routine with it. I feel pretty good about how it's going so far, but am always looking for ways to improve.

Special Prayer Request for a Special Baby

I would like to ask you to join me in prayer for a very special baby and her family.

Her name is Elisea and she was born last Monday morning in St. Louis.
(it sounds like uh-lisa)
She is a very special baby and has a special place in my heart for reasons you'll understand in a minute.....

Elisea is being adopted by friends of ours. They did not find out about her until a couple of months ago. She has Down Syndrome and her parents decided before she was born that they would put her up for adoption when she was born. Our friends were chosen to be the parents and they were there when she was born.

If you remember, our daughter Hannah had Down Syndrome. We never had the chance to raise her because she was stillborn. I have prayed for this baby since the day I found out that she needed a home. I was very happy to hear our friends answered that call to adopt her. If we were in the area, we would have actually applied to adopt her ourselves.

When she was born last week, she had to be transferred to the NICU of a children's hospital. Since then, she has had surgery to remove some blockage in her nasal cavity. They also found out yesterday that she has had a stroke and has some brain bleeding due to some other medical complications.

Please pray for her and her family. She is so little and has several critical complications. The medical team is trying to determine the course of action they need to take.

None of this is a surprise to God, but I am sure it must be difficult for the family as they have new discoveries to face each day. They are Christians and he is even a minister actually, but it's still difficult to walk through these crisis situations. They are totally relying on God though and He is giving them many opportunities to share their testimony and witness for Him through this. Please pray for them during this time. She is a beautiful little baby and they are so anxious to bring her home and raise her in a Christian home. Right now, it's uncertain what her future holds as they are still determining her medical condition.

Her name is as beautiful as she is: Elisea
It is from Hebrew and means "God is my salvation and protects my health".
How fitting.......

Dragon Ship Series books

I want to tell you about a really fun book written by a friend of ours, Shawn Sheldon. It is called Stranded and it's the first book in a planned series of 5.
We can't wait to get our copy and read it! I think it will be a fun family read-aloud.

You can preorder the book now on this site: (I can't get it to link correctly for some reason, so you'll have to cut and paste. I'll try to fix that.) You can also read about Shawn on this site.

http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-60604-515-2



You can hear an audio clip of Stranded here:

http://dragonshipseries.com/

info from the site above:
Reading IS an AdventureComing December 16th, 2008 to a bookstore near you!
Click on the book image below to order your pre-release copy today.


Stranded
Book One: The Dragon Ship Series
by Shawn Sheldon
"That night was another restless one. Actually, it was the worst one of my life to that point. I knew I had better get some rest if I was to have any hope of managing the day that was coming for me the following morning. What kind of day you ask? Let’s review. Tomorrow I would need to secretly explore the Blue Goose site gathering intelligence information, lead my brother and sister and four other children in play, and rescue my dog Snowball—a pretty tall order for a twelve year old; I think anyone would have to agree!"

In Stranded, the first book in the all new series The Dragon Ship Series, written by Shawn Sheldon, follow a boy and his brother and sister on their unusual Christmas vacation. Their backyard adventure leads to both frightening and exciting encounters with intelligent dragons, Bigfoot, and ‘pet’ robots. A mystery begins to unravel as they discover that the common link involves an amazing space ship, hazardous waste, and even their own family history. Will they be smart enough and brave enough to meet the challenges they discover?


Stranded is the first book in a planned series of five books. The series will chronicle the adventures of a twelve year-old boy as he, some family members, and his unusual friends are thrust into a battle to ultimately save the planet Earth. The adventure begins on one mind-blowing Christmas vacation. Starting with the book Stranded and spanning the next four books, the adventure will circle the globe, extend into the far reaches of our solar system--and perhaps beyond. It will even dive back in time if necessary. Discover an interesting twist that uniquely relates some popular legends of our time and the past. Young readers will discover just how exciting reading can be with a book series that promises not to disappoint. Get your imaginations out and hang on. It's going to be a wild ride!

Coming very soon:

Additional samples from the audio book
Video clips with the actual characters from the first book. Stay tuned!

haircut and glasses

I got my hair cut again last week. It gets shorter each time. Now it's barely at my chin in front. It's normally really angled and longer in the front than in the back. This time she kind of cut it with less of an angle. The front is longer than the back, but the whole side is kind of the same length with a very slight angle. (I wish I wasn't so far from the hair salon. I'd like to cut it every 4 or 5 weeks.)

Oh, speaking of haircuts.... John was laughing the other day. Someone was at our gate. It was the next door neighbor and she had her hair stylist with her. She wanted her to see my hair so she would know what it looked like because she wanted to cut hers like that. Hers if very similar anyway, but she wanted it more angled like mine is/was. John said that's a first for him--- bringing your hair stylist to someone's house to see their hair.

And then John talked me into going for an eye exam. That's a humbling experience. Can you see fuzzy letters and try to figure out what they are and then remember their names in another language? LOL!!! I did ok and only had a slight change in my prescription. It had been too long. 3 or 4 years instead of 2 since my last exam. oops! I had to laugh though because I couldn't remember the name for "H" in spanish. I said it in both spanish and portuguese because I couldn't remember which was which. I think my next language definitely needs to be something very different.

I got new glasses. I'm sure I'll regret them once I have them. I got a rimless pair. Last time that I had a pair with no bottom rim they had to be adjusted often. These probably will too.

I've worn glasses since I was little. Ok, let's restate that---- I've owned glasses since I was little. I don't wear them. I don't like glasses. (hence the change in prescription....) You think I would just get contacts, but nope. I go without. LOL

I was laughing about how my next glasses would be "Sarah Palin" glasses. Well, I couldn't remember what hers looked like, but laughed when I got home. I was not trying to do that at all. It was just a joke a few weeks ago because I read how eye glasses stores couldn't keep them in stock. It turns out, mine are very similar. I thought that was kind of funny.

I get them Friday. I'll have to take a picture with them on. (You don't know how big of a deal that is to say that. I never wear them! haha)
I tried on a bunch of really cute, trendy glasses. The rectangular ones really did look pretty cute, but I liked the way this pair gave a little more coverage for my eye. Some of the other ones were so narrow that when I looked down there was nothing there and I had to almost touch my chest with my chin to have glass to look through when I looked down.

John doesn't think it matters, I mean, when will I wear them anyway, right? :)
I also got prescription sunglasses. I've had those for about 4 years and it makes a huge difference. If I had regular sunglasses my vision wasn't perfect for distance and then to take them on and off and put regular glasses on in between it gave me a headache. I love having prescription sunglasses. My old ones were a regular pair that had a magnetic sunglasses thing that hooked to them. This new pair is totally for "fashion". heehee Let's just say, "Faith will love them!" Hey, I figure if you have to wear glasses, I might as well have fun with it..........

speaking of glasses.....John had the Lasik surgery in Brasil and has perfect vision. But, his one medicine is messing up his vision again. We talked to the eye doctor about it and he said we'll have to wait until after he finishes up the meds to see where his vision is and if they can fix it or if it needs to be fixed. I think John is kind of bummed about the vision changes.

Girls Day

I took the girls to see the movie Tinkerbell and then we walked around the mall. Tinkerbell is Meggie's favorite character. Snow White is a close second, although she's never seen the movie----she just likes the way she looks. She had a Snow White outfit when she was smaller and still has a Tinkerbell outfit that fits. (dress up costumes) She LOVED the movie, of course. It was in Spanish, so I know she'll want to see it again in English. The animation was really cute. It was so bright and cheery and colorful. I liked it.

Faith liked it too. She's into anything "girly". Of course, I had to really do her hair before we went. It looks so cute and stylish when she lets me fix it like her cut is supposed to be worn. Half the time she does it her self, so....... 'nuff said. (Meggie doesn't want you messing with her hair. Can you say "tomboy"?)

I'm telling you, Faith is "in her element" the moment she steps inside that mall. I'm not sure where it comes from, but the "model strut" comes out and she works it. I am not sure where that came from, but it's hilarious to watch her. I think I'm in trouble in a few years....... She goes from shop to shop and oohs and ahhs over the outfits. I'm talking full ensemble here, not just "what a cute shirt". And any shiny shoe with a high heel catches her eyes right away. I'm talking silver, gold, sparkly, rhinestones....... Anything super feminine looking. I miss all my cute clothes like that. You can't wear that where I live. (or when you gain this much weight!) I had to stop wearing heels there because I'm already super tall compared to the women there. I'm only 5'4", so you can imagine......... The men are pretty short, too.

Meggie kind of made the trip not so fun because she kept complaining about having to look at clothes. I told Faith we'd go back without Meggie and have fun. We did check out the perfume samples and all the makeup counters before Meggie got too bored. The ladies even put lipgloss on them and Faith thought that was beyond wonderful. (Yep, she's definitely MY girl!!!)

In Brasil, we lived near malls and we used to go there to walk around. Here we're 5 hours from a mall, so it's not a common thing for us. That might be a good thing! I saw a t-shirt yesterday in the girl's department at Sears that said, "Shopping is my best friend." Hmm, sounds like a good birthday present for someone I know. :)
Sears here is like a really nice up-scale department store. There's a Pier 1 Import section in it, too.

We had a good time. John had the boys and I had the girls for the afternoon.
Faith wants "girl day" every day. (me too) Oh, and they definitely want another sister. Meggie informed me when they were eating their ice cream cones after shopping that she does NOT want to be the baby anymore. She wants her "new sister" to be 5 or younger so she's not the baby. I'm definitely ready to adopt, so we'll see what God does with that. Hopefully we can do that fairly soon before the kids grow up too much more.

The altitude is a killer

I just went out for a run here. I haven't been doing anything here. I think I only worked out one day. I've been in sort of a funky mood and haven't felt like doing anything. more on that later........

Anyway, I only ran a little over a mile, but it felt like about 5 as far as my heart goes. Can you hear it beating where you are? :)

The altitude is over 7,000 ft. here and you can really feel it when you run. I don't really get to run outside where we live because of all the wild dogs and no roads to run on. It's a perfect spot here where this house is. I decided to keep it short and sweet since I haven't been doing it lately. I can run again and increase a little this week and then by the time I get back, I can run on the treadmill again. (boring, but better than nothing)

It felt so good to get out on the "open road" and just clear my head.

Like I said, I've been in kind of a funky mood lately. I think I'm going crazy with just sitting around. Seriously. It's driving me nuts! It's just the same old thing every day. And being somewhere temporary is just one more thing to make it worse. It's a long story and hard to explain, but it's really made me feel kind of indifferent to everything. I have stayed up late to spend time with John, and then get up late and everything is out of whack and I don't feel like doing anything.

I'll be so glad once we know what's going on and it's all settled down for us.

I'm glad I got to get out and run today though. I think I really needed that. I have to have some kind of physical outlet. I can really feel it when I don't do that.

Laundry is fun again

Ok, maybe that's not the best title for this entry, but it's kind of true.
I have enjoyed doing laundry here. I must admit before I go any farther though---- John has still done a lot of it for me here. While I'm busy with lessons during the day, he is so wonderful and starts a load or 2 for me and then even folds it so I don't have to worry about that later. In our town, John and the boys have done most of it the past 2 months since I saw mice again so that I don't have to be afraid out there.

So, why am I enjoying it???? (besides the fact that my hubby helps? LOL)
The laundry room here is inside of my house and there are no mice!
It has been so nice to walk into that room and do the laundry without being afraid of mice running out in front of me. And the room is clean. It's not outside with 1/2 an inch of dust on everything. (it's so dirty where we live and everything is covered in dust--- even when you clean it every day!)

speaking of which---------- that's been another nice thing about being here. The house has stayed cleaner. It's really hard to keep our house clean where we live because of all the dirt everywhere. I really dread going back to the dirt.

AWANA

The girls got to go to AWANA today with the neighbors. They were really excited about that. Faith is memorizing Juan 3:16 right now. I'm helping her break it down into sections. She can go back again next week.

I wish they could do AWANA all the time. There is nothing like that where we live. The kids really miss it. It's such a great program.

I'm glad they had the chance to go while we are here.

We brought a few of the AWANA books in English with us to Mexico, but it's just not the same to work through them with no "program". :)

Spaghetti Bread recipe

Ok, since I'm putting recipes on here, I thought of one more.
This is for a bread machine. You could do it with a big mixer though and then put it in the oven. (I've even used my bread machine for this until it gets to the baking stage and then have taken it out and put it in a traditional loaf pan.) I love my kitchenaid mixer so most of the time I make bread with that.

This bread makes your house smell wonderful!!!!! It looks like it would be a strong tasting bread when you see the ingredient list, but it's very subtle. It's great with pasta. I like to make it even just to have the house smell so good. How's that for aroma therapy????

Here's the recipe:

Spaghetti Bread

1 cup warm water
2 Tbsp olive or vegetable oil
3 cups bread flour
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 to 2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. EACH dried basil, marjoram, savory, thyme
1/8 tsp. rubbed sage
1/8 tsp. dried rosemary, crushed
1 pkg. (1/4 oz) active dry yeast (I think that's 2-1/4 tsp)

place all ingredients in pan in order suggested by manufacturer

makes a 1-1/2 pound loaf on basic bread setting

check dough after 5 minutes of mixing; this dough should appear dry. if it looks wet, add 1 to 2 Tbsp. flour.

**use of timer feature is not recommended for this recipe

Greek Lasagna recipe

I'm supposed to be "working" right now (record keeping for school) but my house smells so good I can't concentrate on it. I'm making Greek Lasagna for dinner. It's a really yummy change of pace from traditional italian tasting lasagna. I got the recipe from a friend when John was in seminary.

Here's the recipe in case you'd like to try it sometime.

Greek Lasagna
16 oz. tomato sauce
2 tsp. oregano.
1 tsp. parsley
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt and pepper, each
1 cup water
1/4 cup dried onion
2 Tbsp. parmesan cheese
1 lb. ground beef

Brown the ground beef and then add all of the other ingredients for sauce.
Layer it with noodles, mozzerella cheese and cottage cheese.


It's really quick and easy to make.
I used the noodles you don't have to pre-cook today and a little more meat, so I just doubled the sauce to make it pretty liquidy. Those noodles need more liquid.

Where did the week go?

I have not been on here in over a week! oops!
It just flew by so quickly. It seems the day starts and before I know it, it's over.

We have had a really good week with school and John is feeling better. He's not sweating like crazy like he was in our town. It's the meds that do it, but I think the heat there really aggravates it. He's not losing any more weight either.
We go back next weekend, so we'll see what happens from there.

I'll have to put some more pics on of things we're doing in school.
I brought everything with me but it's still not the same. There are a few things at my house that it would be nice to have access to. We haven't really done any main projects yet this year. We want to, but with the transitions with our trip, it was just one more thing to try to do, so we opted to hold off on them. They're fun though, so hopefully soon we'll do something really neat and fun.

The science booklets from Learn 'N Folder have been a huge hit!!! They are so cute and fun to do. We're in bears right now and then go to the cats. (I thought it was in reverse order.) The kids have really enjoyed writing all the facts they are learning in such a fun format.

Ok, I'll stop this one and put a few other entries on here.........

Field Trip to a mini-zoo yesterday

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We had a lot of fun at the mini-zoo yesterday. I put the wrong thing on the pics in the slide show----- it was a daddy and mommy JAGUAR, not leopard! I didn't even catch that I wrote that until I had already posted the slide show to my blog. oops!

The kids loved it. It was fun to see the animals so close to us. We were separated by glass, but it was really neat to see the details right there in front of us. We're finishing up our chapter on the Canine family this week and will start Felines next week, so it was great timing. We're really looking forward to learning about them now.

Can you believe we got to hold the baby jaguar? It was so neat. The kids will remember that forever! I think it was their favorite part of the trip. He was so soft. We thought his fur would be a lot coarser. He is 2 months old and will start eating meat in 2 more weeks. We watched the caretaker give him a bottle and then he brought him out and asked if we would like to pet him and hold him. His tongue made our hands all sticky and milky. He was really licking Sam and "eating" his hair. Meggie was scared because the Daddy was really loud and then the baby was crying while the zookeeper was making up his bottle. It's definitely an intimidating sound!

The lion kept walking up to us and watching us. Then one time it was funny, but scary. It made Levi jump and run all of a sudden. The lion was in the back of his area and we were at the glass looking in at him. All of a sudden he turned his head to look at us and then charged at the glass and ran right into it with his face and paws. His muddy paws smeared the glass as he slid down and his face was mashed up against the glass looking at us as it slid down too. It kind of startled us, but was pretty funny. He ws soooo pretty! I hope there are lions in heaven because I've always wanted to pet one. LOL

The tiger was pacing back and forth in front of our glass and rubbing his body against it some.

There were a bunch of monkeys and all kinds of animals. I only put one pic on here of 3 monkeys, but there were probably about 12 in that particular exhibit and they were jumping around and playing like crazy.

The weather was so nice that after our 10:00 break yesterday, we decided to scrap the rest of the school for the day and do something we can't normally do where we live: FIELDTRIP!!! It was a really fun afternoon.

TOG Pop Quizzes

I just wanted to HIGHLY RECOMMEND the POP Quiz CDs for the Tapestry of Grace curriculum if you are a TOG user and haven't tried them yet!

They are wonderful!!!!!
I must say, the more I use TOG, the more I'm impressed with it. There is so much thought and detail put into it. And it is so versatile. You can use it the way you need it. You have so many choices and options and you can pick and choose what works for you.
We're doing year 3 and are using Unit 1 Pop Quiz cds right now.

In case you're not familiar with them-----
It's made for Dads to keep up with what the kids are learning.
Each week has an overview summary and then a short summary for each level as well. It's about 15 minutes worth of summaries for each week. (you can buy this for one level or all-- your choice. we have it for all)
You plug it in and listen to it and then there are questions for each level to go along with it.
Dad (POP) can use these questions around the dinner table (or whenever) to orally "quiz" the kids and participate in a discussion of their studies.

I think I may even use the summaries for my 9th grader to listen to occassionally to practice taking notes from a "lecture".

Follow up on Independence Day

They had all of their celebrations last night. They showed a lot of fireworks on television from Mexico City and this city. They also had a special program showing the President and a flag ceremony and ringing the bell and shouting things about Mexico from a balcony. It was very interesting.

It seems that every holiday is celebrated on the evening before. Then on the day of the actual holiday it's just like any other day. That has been an adjustment as we've observed their holidays this year.

It was nice to see so many people having parties and carrying food into homes of friends and family. It reminded me of many of my memories from home as we used to always celebrate holidays and special days.

Much needed nap

I didn't last very long today. After we had lunch and finished up school I took a nap for about 2 hours. I feel much better now. I was just really run down and tired. I had a sinus infection and didn't really get to rest this weekend because we were preparing to come here and then travelling. I'm getting better and the rest today did help. I was really tired yesterday and today was cool and rainy, so I decided to do nothing and just take time for myself. Yeah! That's hard to come by with the 5 kids and homeschool!

After my nap we ran to the store and got some hair things for the girls and bought jackets for them and Levi. We have nothing for cold weather anymore. Where we live it's so hot and the kids have grown out of the few cool weather things they had. We found some jackets for a great price, so we got them. I'm trying to wait on buying too much until I know what climate we'll be living in. It's so hot where we are now, but if we move somewhere else, we'll probably need a whole different wardrobe.

We also went to a store that is a lot like a Kohl's. That was fun to walk through. You KNOW Faith was going crazy putting "outfits" together as she saw everything on the racks. It's funny how different it seems when you rarely see "real stores". It makes it fun and you definitely appreciate it!

John got some rest too, which he really needed. I think in a few days we'll all be over our colds and feeling great. Tonight we're hanging out watching Pollyanna, so it's a pretty relaxing evening.

Slavery in North America lapbook

There is an EXCELLENT lapbook from Hands of a Child being offered as the FREE product of the week at the CurrClick website! It is Slavery in North America.

I downloaded it and checked it out and I think it will be a super addition to our Civil War unit study later in the year when we get to that point. The information and booklets look wonderful!

I just wanted to mention it in case any of you did not receive that notice from CurrClick, but could use this material this year.

Extreme Makeover

Meggie informed me that I needed an extreme makeover.
She really wanted to play in my makeup with Faith and I was their guinnea pig.
She told me I would look beautiful and all the boys were going to fall in love with me. She took it very seriously. It was pretty funny. She kept asking if I was comfortable and if I wanted a drink of my tea. Meggie did my hair (very beautifully, according to her).

Faith got in on the makeup! She only said, "OOPS!" a few times, so it was a pretty good night. And I was still recognizable when they were done. She went in and found me some nice clothes to put on, but I was too tired to change.

We're going to have a girls' day this week and go shopping one afternoon after school to look at clothes and buy more barrettes and hair things. They're really excited about it. We can't really do that where we live.

Independence Day tomorrow

I'm not sure what to expect here for Independence Day.
It seems pretty festive around town. The neighbors seem to be having a lot of parties too.

In our town, the churches changed their celebrations to yesterday morning instead of in the evening. One of the pastors said that last year it got pretty bad. The town gets kind of interesting----- most of the people are drunk and they keep shooting guns off straight into the air. Those bullets come back down and hit people.
There's a parade and bands and a new "queen" is chosen for the year. Even in our little town the queen and her court are all dressed up in beautiful gowns and they all look like they are entering the Miss Universe pageant. Apparently it's a big deal. We know the family whose daughter is last year's queen. She came to the city with other queens from other towns and had some big event with the current Miss Mexico.

We've mainly heard guns so far-- and a lot of music and people laughing and talking at parties throughout the neighborhood. I'm so tired, I'll probably sleep through it though. :-) I think the parties are mainly the night before here. I'll have to ask around and get all the details.

It's very interesting to see how other cultures celebrate their holidays.
Costa Rica had a big deal for their Independence Day too. (remember John putting out the fire on the lantern at the parade by stepping on it? and the lantern had an anti-american slogan on it (LOL) and us going to watch the band competitions and after 4 hours realizing we only saw about half of it) Brasil didn't really do much. We were so surprised that first year we were there. We had just celebrated our own Independence Day in the States before we got there and then in the town where we had language school it was nothing except a few tanks driving past the church that morning. Very interesting... It's kind of cool for the kids though to experience other cultures and see how things are done.

Did I mention the bread?

I mentioned that our new grocery store in our town has a bakery.
Well, they make the little mini french breads that we ate all the time in Brasil.
We were so excited to see them!

As soon as the kids saw them they said, "Oh!!!!! It's just like Brasil! We should get some ham and cheese to go in them and then make hot chocolate. Just like they always made us when we were out with mission teams and ate at people's houses." We ate them at our house all the time too, but they especially remember meals around the table in Brasilian homes while we laughed and drank hot chocolate and coffee.

(One night we were with a team and did not get done until 11 p.m. Our family spent the night with one of the Brasilian families. We got back to their house around 11:30 p.m. and she "started making dinner"!!! We were so exhausted, but had to stay up and eat at 1 a.m. --- and then get up early to start again in the morning. It was the typical meal they served us after church--- ham, cheese, bread, cookies, cake and coffee and hot chocolate.)

Let's just say we had those breads several days last week with our meals!
They are so yummy. We were probably better off before our town got them! LOL

And they're only 7 cents each, so they're hard to resist! HA!

What a crazy weekend!

Our weekend got a little nuts.
We had to pack up for our 3 - 4 week stay in the city.
Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE(!!!!) packing for trips and taking them?
Ok, I should redefine that. I really love to travel, but we have travelled non-stop and it's crazy when you have to fit a family of 7 into 2 or 3 suitcases and still can't fit it into your car. It really stresses me out.
We not only had to bring some clothes, but we had to bring every single thing we'll use for homeschool over the next month and a few kitchen things to cook with and other things. Including the dogs and cat.
We had to ship 2 boxes of homeschool things and a suitcase up by bus and then we picked it up at the bus station when we got here. Kind of crazy.

I was not in a happy, carefree mood over the weekend. LOL
It's such a big ordeal to do that over and over. You would think I'd have it down to a science. :-)

But, we're here now. The craziness on that end will pay off and make it easier here.

When we got in yesterday it felt like we were back in Sao Paulo. It was kind of a comforting feeling. It wasn't the city, but it was the climate-----
It's cool here. Right now the highs are in the 70s. The mornings and evenings are really chilly in the houses. It felt like "home". That's mainly what the kids know.

We went into the store to get some groceries and the people who live here were bundled up in turtle necks and sweaters and jackets. It definitely reminded me of Sao Paulo.

We're really tired today because it was so busy this weekend and we didn't really stop for a few days. John's worn out, but he'll be fine with a little rest.

Tomorrow is Independence Day here, so we're not going anywhere. We should get to rest more.

Going to the city

Our family will be leaving on Sunday for the city about 5 hours from here. We're going to stay there for about a month to give John some time away from here to heal. He is just really wiped out from the meds. He finished up a story set in spanish this week, but other than that he hasn't been able to get out to the villages or meet with our language helpers or anything. He's mainly been staying around here and working from home. And honestly, after about 40 minutes, he's wiped out. The meds he's on are really strong. I'll be so glad when he's weaned off of them. It will take a few months though.

He is feeling better from the relapse he had last week, so that's good. There are no more symptoms with that. He's just really tired and gets weak quickly. That will get better with time.

So, our boss wants us to come in to the modern city where his doctor is so that we'll have a nice place to let him rest and heal a little more before we have to make any major decisions. I'm glad that's available. (although I'd be lying if I said that it will be fun packing our school material and everything else we need for a month)

Hopefully after the next month we'll know more about what the future holds and what our options are. We're not sure what kind of changes we'll have to make.
The main priority right now though is to just get John strong and healthy again.

Our town is forever changed

I posted a few blogs about our new store.
We've been wondering how it would affect the community and economy here.
It will be nice in so many ways, but it will be devastating in others.

We've been to the store almost every day. (some days just for fresh, hot, mini french breads for meals) It is very busy. The bakery area can't keep up with the demands so far. I'm sure they'll adjust their shipments and their baking schedules according to their sales eventually.

All of their prices are cheaper than other stores in town and their sodas are 1/2 the price. That is a big deal because there isn't a lot available here in little shops, but almost everyone who opens one sells soda, chips and little snack cake type of things. So, the soda sales will probably really drop for them. I've always wondered how most of these people even get by. They must sell just enough to buy tortillas to eat and maybe pay for electricity. I wonder if some even make that much.

2 days ago we took the girls out after school to buy new shoes. The streets were so empty compared to usual. And every grocery store we drove by was virtually empty. Some literally empty! There are about 4 or 5 grocery stores here. They're fairly small and most of them don't sell everything. You can only get produce and meat at one of them. The others have small assortments of everything else. The main place to get produce is at the open market. The majority of the merchants there are indigenous people in from the moutain villages. This will have far-reaching results.

Yesterday we went out to check the mail and run a few errands. The new grocery store did not have any eggs. (They can't even keep that in stock because it's so busy!) We went to the original little store we always shopped at. We planned to get fish their for John and our eggs. There was NO ONE in the store. I felt a little sad for them. It was so clean and the shelves were stocked perfectly. They had it decorated for Independence Day here and they even had new pricing signs to make it look neater than it did before. I noticed a few prices are lower too.

This week we are studying about the Industrial Revolution and the good and bad consequences that came with it. The kids and I were able to compare it to this. It completely changed the world. Small farms and making and growing what you need sort of disappeared. People couldn't afford to "not" work in the factories. Yet, they couldn't really afford to work in the factories anymore either. Women and children were used more than men because they were cheaper to hire. The long-term benefits were incredible, but it really had major disadvantages in so many different aspects of the culture and living conditions. The kids were able to relate that to here with this new store, so that was kind of neat to have a real life experience where they could see the impact a major change has on a culture similar to the "before the Industrial Revolution culture". So many here still work at their homes and do just enough to live.

It was a very interesting week to end up studying this topic. Very timely.

It will be intersting to see how this will play out here long-term. I think many will go back to their stores downtown, but if they are getting a huge savings at the bigger store, well, maybe not.

Amazing run

I cut my foot last weekend and wasn't able to put much pressure on it all week. By Friday it was starting to feel better. I didn't really get to work out until yesterday. I thought I would just do a short workout video and then walk a mile on the treadmill. I did a fun 35 minute step workout by the FIRM with a set of light 4 pound weights then started my walk. My foot felt good and before I knew it, my "walk" turned into a 4 mile run! It was so wonderful!!! What a stress reliever.

I just closed my eyes, cranked up the music and imagined I was out on a long road and could just run and run. It turned out to be an amazing "worship experience". I love contemporary Christian music and I had some great stuff on my MP3 player. I listened to some of my Brasilian christian music, too. I really love they way they worship in Brasil. I miss that. I miss Brasil often. And the language.......it's so beautiful. It was so nice to hear that again.

Anyway, I'm sure I was an interesting sight as I was running on the treadmill with my eyes closed and tears running down my face at times. I prayed and really thought about a lot of stuff. My heart was broken over so many things.

I prayed for our country and prayed we would turn back to God and put Him first in all things. I prayed for bold Christian witnesses who aren't afraid to call sin "sin" and to be lights in their communities to draw people to God. I prayed for churches which would reach out to their communities and show them that christianity is a great thing and to be the hands and feet of Jesus ministering to hurting people.

Most of all I prayed for myself. (yes, I'm pretty selfish!)
I thought about all of the things we have faced (and even current situations). I prayed with brokenness that God would use me. That He would somehow take my experiences and use them to bring glory to Him and draw people to Him. Not so that "I" would get the glory and praise but that God would.

I have no idea how He can and will use me. I do know that I want to be willing and open to whatever it is. It is such a humbling thing to think of.
Who am I that God could use me???

We have faced some incredible experiences and God has been so faithful to us. I have learned so much about myself and about God as we have faced them. I want to somehow be able to help others and witness for God through them.

I don't even have the words right now to describe the emotions and prayers of yesterday, but it was a truly amazing "run". I think I could have gone a few more miles but I would have paid for it today!!!

So, with a broken heart, I am seeking God's guidance and asking Him to reveal what it is that I can do to be His servant through all of this. I know there are exciting ministry possibilities through all of the trials and difficulties God has walked us through.

But, what we have faced is absolutely nothing compared to so many. There are hurting people all around us. I can't even imagine facing what some face each day. I just pray God will use me to reach the hurting. To make a difference in this world for Him.


by the way--------- I'm still LOVING the Elizabeth George Bible study on 1 Timothy I've been doing. Good stuff!!!

Time travel

Can you tell I'm procrastinating today??? I have some paperwork to do, but I keep coming back to the computer. It's a cool, rainy day here. We went to church this morning and now the kids are playing with a neighbor boy. They're all in the back playing ping-pong right now.

We were studying some geography terms with Faith and Megan on Friday morning. We discussed latitude and longitude and the equator and prime meridian and what all of that meant. How we get north, south, east and west, etc. That lead to a discussion of the time zones. The boys got in on this conversation with us and we had the globe down and were demonstrating things.

Well, the boys realized that "time travel" is a real possibility...........
If you are in Alaska you can cross over into Russia and it becomes "tomorrow". Then you could go back to Alaska and into the past from Russia. They really got excited about the idea of 2 birthdays a year and celebrating Christmas twice!

Now they all want to go to Alaska!
I'm sure we wouldn't even notice a difference in temperature or climate from here! LOL!!!!

They're working on a short 3-paragraph report for me about a famous physicist, too. We're using the method they just learned through IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) for getting info from sources and turning it into a paper. The main idea of this paper will be to practice the process! (how to narrow down a topic into just a few categories and writing a paragraph about each of those or a few paragraphs about one topic) We'll use this process over and over throughout the year and it will get much more complex as we go. They each chose a different physicist, so we should learn a few interesting facts.

scenic pics of town

Here are a few pictures taken from the roof of a house in town.
It's very pretty in the rainy season with the mountains in the background because they're green. If you were here you would see that everything is pretty dirty and it's all concrete and mud or dirt. Very different than suburbia.

Since we're in the mountains, some of the streets are very steep. You might not be able to tell from this picture with the boys standing on the hill, but it is super steep. It was really hard to walk down that road. We probably could have sat down on a cardboard box and just pretended we were sledding. I don't think we would have stopped though. I'm glad we didn't drive on that road. It makes me nervous. We parked at the top and walked down. It would be a great hill to walk or run every day though. You'd get in shape very quickly!

Our yard-- pics

We have one of the only front yards in town. You don't see a yard very often. It's mainly houses right up to the street. We don't have a back yard, but do have a covered patio area with our washer and dryer and ping pong table out there. (and mice----- so you know I don't spend time out there!)

I thought you'd appreciate a pic of our "big yard".
We tried to get grass for several months. They finally brought it a couple of weeks ago.

By the way, it was suggested by a doctor that we grow a garden for John. I think after seeing this pic you'll know why we laughed.... of course, this is the same doctor that said we should start washing our veggies and fruit and drinking bottled water. hmmmm, that's sort of a given. You'd be crazy NOT to do that here! I'll keep my funny little comments to myself on that medical advice.............

But we really do have a "big yard" here and it is very comforting to look out and see grass and a place where the kids can go and not play only in the street. The pets love it too.

Relapse

John had a bit of a relapse this week. He was doing so great! The doctor was impressed by how quickly he was responding to the meds.

Well, he got very sick on Wednesday and he's still trying to recover from it.
I won't go into the details, but between eating that food at the chinese restaurant and other things he's eaten the past 2 weeks, I think it tore him up inside again. (did I explain that situation? how they made him sushi and really spicy side dishes to try when he went to pick up our food? it was a very awkward cultural moment and he couldn't really get out of it. long story)

So, it's good in a way because we see how severe it is and realize he can not add any of this back in until he's completely healed inside. But, it's frustrating because he was doing so well and the doctor gave permission to start weaning back on one of his meds this week. We'll have to really watch it more closely for a few weeks. He'll be fine as soon as the meds help him heal again with nothing to trigger it flaring up like he had the past 2 weeks. He's determined to be super strict now because he saw how easy it was to get sick again. (yeah!)

But, it kind of also makes us realize that we really need to keep praying about our current situation. We may need to make a major change soon. We just don't know what to do. We're praying for clarity and a peace about it.

Store info

Our store is a scaled down version of this particular chain in other cities. They mainly have groceries and then very small sections of everything else except for clothing. They did not put clothing in here. They have a really nice selection though and it's actually cheaper than all other stores in town. That will definitely hurt the markets and store owners of smaller shops for a while. But I think people are so used to shopping that way that they will continue to frequent their favorite stores where they have relationships developed with the workers.

You know we bought junk the first day---- frozen fries, corndogs(yuck), ice cream...... We had to celebrate, right? They did not have my Heinz ketchup, but I did find Miracle Whip. That was a big surprise. It's hard to find. The kids loved a cereal aisle with more than 2 choices and a candy aisle with American candy bars. (We do not need ANY of this by the way, but I'm just making observations!)

It was really nice to go somewhere with parking(!!!) and to use a shopping cart not made for Megan and get all of my groceries in one trip at one place. Wow, it was like the good 'ol days............... You know, your perspective REALLY changes on the mission field. I felt like a modern woman again. LOL

We've been eating a ton of Grouper fish, shrimp and frozen chicken breasts grilled on my new grill because of John's dietary restrictions. We'll still have to get the fish at the other store in town and probably the shrimp too. The frozen chicken breasts have been coming from another city. They don't sell them here. At least the chicken they do sell is clean and refrigerated at this store.

Speaking of meat......... we saw the meat being delivered on Saturday. It came on a real truck, boxed up and very sterile looking. I guess that will be a big change from the meat brought in the back of a dirty pickup truck with nothing covering it and laying in dirt! I have not been buying meat here since John got sick. I'm trying to keep him as healthy as I can. This store will make it easier to find food now.

I even found cottage cheese and sugar-free yogurt!

Ok, I know you do not want to hear my shopping list, so I'll stop. There were so many thing at this store that we can't find anywhere else here, but I'll spare you the list.
I just wanted to let you know that it was really nice to have a big store with clean food and choices again! Life just got sweet. haha

Isn't it funny how going without something so ordinary to most of us really makes it "special" when you have it again?

The store is open! slideshow

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Here are some pics of the progress of our store. It started in April and just finished this week.

I have to tell you how pathetic we are........... we've been every day so far! LOL

Thursday we took the day off of school for this "special event". (Yes, I told you we were pretty pathetic.) When we got there it was sooooooooo packed! It was like trying to shop the day after Thanksgiving and trying to get the "hot item" of the year. There were people everywhere!!! It was great though.

They have a really nice bakery section but I couldn't get near it. It was 4 aisles of baked good displayed from the floor to a height higher than I am tall. You get a big silver tray and tongs and go around and pick what you want. Then you get in line to have it priced and bagged for you to take to the checkout. Well, there were about 50 people in line and the aisles were full of people still choosing! I went back on Friday so I could look around better and half of the baked items were already gone. By Saturday there were all gone! They are baking a few things there, but I think it's mainly the breads. They must be getting the goodies shipped in on trucks. I think they're going to have to increase their delivery times a bit. Apparently it was a HUGE hit!

I decided we would not go back until a week or so had passed because it was so crowded that first day. But there were a few things I couldn't get to because of the crowds, so I gave in and went back on Friday. It was busy but not insane like the day before. So we were able to actually look around more leisurely and see what they had. To make the story even more sad (haha), John "took me on a date" Saturday. Guess where we went???? (had I known this is what my marriage would become.......... just joking) We walked to the post office (woo hoo) and then stopped at the store on the way home. We planned to get the kids some bakery items. uh, they were GONE! funny! I told John I needed to go there and learn their delivery patterns so I would know when they would NOT have bakery items and do my shopping on THAT day! We walked home then. How romantic, right? Hey, with 5 kids at home and nothing to do here that was a pretty exciting date!

It's so funny because when we go to the little markets and places in town, people don't start conversations with us that much. They stare at us, but we're different looking so they aren't as friendly. Well, let me tell you---- they're on "our turf now" (heehee) and they're really friendly to us at the grocery store! I think some people are almost giddy. They smile and start conversations with us or will make little comments/small talk. It's cute. They still stare, but we're used to that. I told John this might be our best place to meet people who are willing to talk to us. :-)And it's sooooooooo easy to find my family if we get separated. I just look for the very light skin and non-black hair and wa-lah--- there they are.

I've had fun watching what the people buy. I think it's like sensory overload with all of the choices. They just stand and look at everything and it takes a long time to make a decision. I guess you have to be here to appreciate it, but it's definitely interesting to watch from our point of view.

I'll make another post with more info on the store.

THURSDAY is the big day!!!

Have I mentioned lately that we're getting a "real store" here? I shoudn't say "real store", I guess. I mean, all of those people selling things and those little tiny shops are "stores".........

After we moved in here we heard we were getting a Chedraui. It's kind of like a Wal-Mart or Carrefour. It's an arab chain. They are really nice stores. Big with a lot of variety.

Well, they started clearing land to put one here and then began building a couple of months ago. We heard it would be ready by Christmas. Guess what?!?!?! We drove by on Saturday and they had a huge banner announcing the GRAND OPENING this week-----Sept. 4th.

Wow! What a surprise!
I may not have to go to the meat market any more! woohoo!

I'm so bad. I sat through the last 15 minutes of church yesterday and made a list of all the things they "may" have there that you normally can't find here. (I really did listen and take notes up to that point. You'd understand if you were here.) You know, important stuff like makeup, Heinz Ketchup, clean meat, cereal, cottage cheese................ all the things we usually have to bring back from the city in big coolers. Maybe they'll even have ice cream. It was a big list! :-)

They're calling it a Super Che on the sign. I hope it's the same as the Chedrauis we've been to in other cities because they were great!

It will probably be really bad for the small shop owners here and those that go around selling things on the streets.

The kids are really excited about it and want to make it a day off of school. (How sad is that? That should tell you something about our life here!) You know I don't want to be doing school that day either. I'm going shopping! (HA!) So, maybe I can get them to double up on work this week and do Thursday's work ahead of time. If so, I'll give them the day. After all, this is a life-changing event here!!! (It's Sam's spiritual birthday that day also, so we better have a little party. We'll probably need a few things from the store....................)

I will definitely let you know how it turns out. I hope we're not disappointed. Anything will be wonderful at this point, so I don't think we will be.

Is it sad to now say that there's "date night" potential? I mean, is it right to consider going to the grocery story to walk around a date????? Sigh................... what has my life become????

You know pics are coming....................