Forever Families

I am so thrilled today! I mean really, really, really happy! (Can you tell I'm happy?)

We've been praying for some of the children on the Reece's Rainbow website since October. A few of our "favorites" got Forever Families this week! Yeah! Once these children turn 4 (or sometimes a little later) they are sent to mental institutions to live forever. Many do not live longer than one year once they are transferred. Those that do.........well, it's a sad, terrible life.

Aren't they beautiful children???? I'll admit, we were thrilled when we found out they had families, but the boys were "sad" when they learned the little boy had a family coming for him. Levi wanted to go get him so badly!!! They all did, actually. And the 2 little girls............Meggie always prayed for them and would ask if we could go get them. The bottom little girl is Meggie's age. I would have brought any of these children home in a heartbeat! I'm so excited to see they have families. We sponsored the little boy for the Angel Tree fundraiser this year and have a beautiful little ornament with this picture of him on it. We also sponsored the last little girl when she was Child of the Month. Faith loved the little girl above (next to the little boy) and was happy to hear she has a family coming for her.

2 other children got "Forever Families" this week. I can not put their pictures on here but I had been praying for them as well. They are the sweetest little children! A friend I met through the RR Yahoo group saw them when she went to get her daughter from the orphanage. She has some of the most wonderful pictures of them. I am happy that God sent them both a family.

The little girl we are Prayer Warriors for, Anna, still does not have a family. We're praying she will find one soon before she is sent to the institution. That would be so sad! She will be a wonderful daughter for someone.

We'll keep praying that they will all have homes this year. Thank you, God for the families you have called out to adopt these precious children to save them from a life spent in the mental institutions!

Has it been 2 weeks????

Oh my, I didn't realize it's been so long since I've been on here!

Whew! It's flown by!

We had a busy week the week of the inauguration. We ended up going to the city for a couple of days to stock up on frozen chicken breasts for John and a few other things. Ike got some new running shoes too. He wants to run 1,000 miles this year. He's been running 5 miles at a time when he runs, but has missed some days, so I'm not sure how he's doing for his target goal of miles each month. I ordered new shoes too, so I'll be glad to get them! I've worn my old ones out. I went to a running store in the States and had my foot "fitted" to find out the best pair for me. They were wonderful so I ordered another pair of the same. I found them half price online, so that really made me happy! I should order another pair!

We were without internet one day this week and discovered the cell phone service was cut off too. We thought it was something here at this house but it turns out it was everywhere. Apparently it had something to do with the military police shutting it down because of drug lords. nice.............I know you're jealous................ John found out it wasn't just us when he went to the grocery store and saw that none of their credit card machines were working at the registers. They told him what was going on. I'm telling you, who needs entertainment when we have this????

Yesterday our water kept going out. It was something here at the house so after ordering a water truck John was able to find out what was wrong. I think something was leaking.

I have a lot of emails to catch up on and people to contact. :-) It's been really busy, so everything just got put aside. With our trip and the day of innaugural things we watched after studying them, we've had to try to really make up for time this week with school. It was kind of a weird week with our school times, but we had an enjoyable week of topics.

We finished our study on primates (very interesting!). We also studied John Quincy Adams' presidency and things going on at that time. We had fun learning about the Erie Canal and looking up real pics online to see what it looks like today.

We'll be kicking off a simple unit on Abraham Lincoln on Monday in honor of his 200th birthday in 12 days. We'll study more in depth when we get to the Civil War time period later this year, but for now we want to focus on his personal info some.

Ike and I have to start listening to Les Miserables this week. I didn't get the book ordered, so I ordered a 12-1/2 hour audio book online. John said it does sound "miserable" but I think it will be very interesting. We're looking forward to it. It's better than waiting until we can get the book. At least this way we can discuss it indepth and not get behind with his literature study. We like reading classics and it will be interesting after spending so much time on Napoleon the first semester.

Well, this got long, so I'll stop.
Just wanted to say we're still alive.
I'll post more later today.

Meal sharing

I got this really great idea from a magazine about 10 years ago. It sounds fun and very practical. I wish I could do this, but it's not gonna happen here! Maybe next time I'm in the States....

This lady wrote how she and about 4 friends had a little cooking/meal sharing group. They met once a month for lunch and to visit. They brought freezer-ready meals for the other ladies to take home to their families. Here's how it worked:

They each picked one or 2 dishes/entrees they would like to make for the group that month. Then, instead of making enough for their family, they just made the same recipe 4 times (or however many friends they needed to cook for) They put them in disposable containers you can store in the freezer and wrote the name and instructions on the outside. When they came to the luncheon, they brought their freezer-ready assembled/uncooked meals and each friend took home one of each dish.

So, you prepare/assemble 4 or 5 of the same meal, but you come home with 4 or 5 different entrees. And it's really easy to make more of the same thing. It's easier than several different meals at the same time.

The article said it was really fun. They had their "girl time" each month and got to catch up with each other and also got to be blessed with several meals for their family they did not have to cook. And they got to try lots of yummy new recipes.

I think this would be a fun thing to do with a few friends.

I used to cook for the month and store a lot of meals in my freezer ahead of time. It saved so much time and I always had something ready. I hope to do that again when I have a freezer. We did not bring ours with us here. I am trying to make sauces and things ahead of time this year though. Keep spaghetti sauce in the freezer, soups, etc. Soups work nicely. You can save them in quart sized bags and then just pull out a bag for a few servings at lunch or whenever you want it. I am also trying to cut up all veggies and brown ground beef, etc. when I bring them home and have them waiting in the freezer.

I like to bake and store it in the freezer also. You can pull out muffins or fresh breads or whatever and throw them in the oven for a few minutes to warm them up and it's like you just baked when guests come over! Make pancakes or waffles on the weekends and have them ready for breakfast during the week. The ideas are endless...........

Getting back into a routine at home

I really like to have a routine to my day. Let's just say that disappeared a few months ago........
Honestly, it got crazy here this fall and it just seemed like we were going through the motions day-by-day and it was all sort of surreal. But, it's better now and I'm more than ready to get back into our groove. :)

I prefer to plan my menus out several weeks in advance, clean the house on a very systematic schedule, etc. Hopefully in another week or two we'll have it all back to normal. (Is there a normal for us now???? ha!)

So, here are a few things on my menu for this week. We have to take a trip to the city to pick up our visas so I don't have as many meals planned out and I'm leaving it a little open-ended and subject to change. But, here's what I do have.......

Today: Beef stew
Tuesday: Chicken pot pie
Wednesday: trip
Thursday: trip
Friday: ??? (not sure because the kids like pizza or burgers on Fridays, but I don't know what we'll eat in the city.)
Saturday: Lasagna
Sunday: Slow cooker chicken dinner

I also need to jump back into our "zones" better. This week is the bedrooms. Time to flip mattresses and all the good stuff you don't do on a weekly basis.
For the kids I like to break their bedroom up into mini-zones and do it weekly. For instance, one day they do their closet, another day organize/straighten dresser drawers, another day toys, another day sweep/mop (vacuum if you have carpet) and then dust on the last day. I also have 2 days a week I like them to change the sheets, but I've been flexible with that lately and let them do just one day or whenever it's needed. (like bird feathers in your bed from the cat's snack???) That way it's not just saying "go clean your room". They can spend a few minutes each day on their project for that day. And of course they "rescue" the room daily before bed (and sometimes another time during the day). (I must confess though--- I like to vacuum every day when we live somewhere with carpet! crazy, huh?) You'd think my house would be ultra-clean and organized. It "can" be, but let's face it..........we homeschool and have 5 kids home 24/7 !!!

I think bedtime and everything really got crazy for us. We travelled so much and had weird things going on. I need to be better about reading to them at bedtime or giving them time to read. If you want to know the truth, I've been falling asleep at night and poor John's been getting everyone to bed. Isn't he the best??? (He even does my laundry while we homeschool so I don't have to go out there where I've seen mice. And since our dryer is broken, that's a big job.) I really like to do laundry, but not out there!!! lol

Another inauguration site

Well, tomorrow is a very important day for our country as we switch leadership and have the inauguration for a new President. It really is a neat process if you think about it. We have done so very smoothly since George Washington. How many countries can say that? Often in other countries there are coups a lot of political problems. The fact that we've had the same set of laws is amazing too. Sure, we've added amendments and tweaked a few things, but overall, we're still running on the same documents the Founding Fathers developed.

It's really neat that no matter who you vote for, it still runs smoothly when we have a change of office. And even if we did not vote for the current President, it's still our duty to pray for him for the next 4 years and to pray for God to guide and direct us. I think now more than ever, we really need to pray God will not remove his hand from our nation as we see a big cultural shift in the world today in terms of morals and everything else. It's really sad, yet we know it's the reality of what's to come......... I can only imagine the extra challenges, stresses and possibly dangers our new President will face with a young family and with all of the historic implications his presidency will involve. I personally wouldn't want the job for anything. lol

But, back to the inaugural site I mentioned in the title..........
http://inaugural.senate.gov/history/daysevents/index.cfm

This site is a nice read. It takes you through the day's events for the President-elect and the outgoing President on the day of the inauguration. Very interesting. We read through it today and discussed it so we would know what all was going on tomorrow as we watch it.

We have had a lot of fun with our inaugural study. It's designed for 10 days, with 2 of those being review, but I think we might take a couple of extra days, so we can take our time and not read so much and write about it all each day. The kids seem to be enjoying the info though.

There are a lot of other sites we're pulling info from and they are fabulous. I have printed out every page of every site recommended in the unit study we bought. I have a comb-binder and I am binding them all into a book. It will be a nice little resource to pick up and read through later.

So far we color a picture of each president mentioned for that day, write out the vocabulary words and their definitions, write out the quote for the day and then answer a few questions. The kids have been using scrapbook papers and lined papers with patriotic designs to make interesting pages. We've kept it very simple. I'm not having them write big paragraph-form stories about each President mentioned. We'll get to them later as we continue on with our Presidential study this year. We read all of the info about them and discuss it, but I'm just letting them write out the specific info mentioned in the questions. And it really does take time, so it's plenty!

Tomorrow we'll read about the other half of today's study---- the Secret Service. I think they'll really like learning a little about it. It's just enough info to get them interested in each topic we study, but not so much that it's overwhelming. I'm really glad we stopped to do this for a couple of weeks. It's very timely and makes a big impact that way. The kids are asking questions about how things will be or mentioning facts they hear in the news that relate to what they've learned so far. It's been fun!

(oh----- and Faith was excited to learn about the inaugural balls! There will be a few today and then there will be 10 official balls and 10 "unofficial" balls tomorrow. wow!)

Ike's spiritual birthday

Happy Spiritual Birthday, Isaac!  I am so proud of the young man you have become.  Continue to love and serve Jesus all the days of your life!  You're a great example to your brothers and sisters and I love being your mom (even if you are taller than me).

I guess I'll have to make him some snickerdoodle cookies today.  They're his favorite.  I try to do something special on their spiritual birthdays.  He'll get to use our Celebrate plate today.  (from Pampered Chef).

My 30th spiritual birthday was Sunday.  They pulled out the plate for me, too.  And I made a chocolate cake.  My official 12 weeks ended Friday, so I had cake on Sunday.  It wasn't that great.  It tasted too sweet after that long. 

Mia's favorite bag

This is Mia.  I'm not sure what it is about this bag, but she loves it!!!  She's always smelling it, touching it or taking a nap on it.  And the best part of the bag in her opinion??????  That's easy----- it's big enough to store her treasures in!  She'll put huge lizard tails or anything in it.  I am soooo glad it's John's bag and not mine!  It must have some catnip-like quality.  It's probably woven out of some kind of hair by one of the indigenous groups here.  Maybe it's goat?  Who knows!  No matter what it is, she loves it!

 

The cat makes me nervous

We have the sweetest little calico cat named Mia. She is very petite and gentle. I love cats and normally really take to them. This one makes me nervous. Maybe it's the fact that she's always catching something here (mice, lizards as long as she is, lizard tails, etc.) and bringing them into the house. She really likes to put things in John's bag. It's made out of goat hair or something and it must be like catnip because she is always rubbing all over it and putting things inside.

I figure if I'm not her favorite person, then she won't bring her "gifts" to me. LOL

So, last night we watched a movie with the kids. I guess I should be honest and say they watched it and I fell asleep about 10 minutes into it. Levi had a spot for me next to him on the sofa. He had a pillow and blanket waiting because he said that he knew I liked to sleep during movies. Yes, it's sad but true. I always crash.

Well, back to my story.......
The movie must have ended and I was left alone sleeping downstairs. All of a sudden I woke up to screams and excitement---- and THE word: MOUSE

Mia had bird feathers all over Levi's bed (she must have eaten it there) and she had a mouse on their floor with guts by Isaac's bed. Levi said she was chasing something in his bed yesterday morning. She's been sleeping on his bed all week. She would be in Sam's (since he's her favorite) but it's the top bunk, so I guess she settled for Levi's. Gross! I think they were a little nervous to go to sleep last night. They're not afraid of those things, but it's just kind of unsettling to think the cat might bring a midnight snack into your bed to kill and eat while you sleep. I'm getting "faint" just thinking about it........

oh man............. I didn't even want to go upstairs last night. Now nowhere is safe!

Do you have any personal goals for this year?

I don't really make New Year's Resolutions, but I was thinking about this year and trying to decide if there were any realistic things I would like to try to accomplish. I think it's great to have goals, but sometimes we make ridiculous plans that we know we'll never achieve, so...........

I was thinking about mentors and discipling people. I think I would really like to invest myself in about 2 other ladies this year to help disciple and/or mentor them. I would also like to find 1 or 2 ladies I can look up to as godly role-models and mentors.

I think about our early years of marriage and raising children. (I guess I can say that now since John and I are celebrating our 18th anniversary this year. wow!!! Where did the time go???) There were several ladies at church I really respected and looked up to. They were wonderful examples of godly wives and mothers. One was a homeschool mother (when it wasn't popular) of 5 children and her husband was a minister at our church. She was so kind and wise. I really liked talking to her. Another was also a woman with a strong Christian walk and full of godly advice and counsel. There have been others through the years.

Even though I'm still young (humor me on that one, ok?), I guess I can really fit into the category of being an "older woman" like the Bible talks about when it comes to older women teaching the younger women. It doesn't necessarily have to be physical age. It could be experience in raising children, more years of marriage, a longer and stronger Christian walk, etc. Of course, I still definitely fit into the category of needing someone to look up to also!

So, I guess that would be a goal I would like to aim for this year. Finding some women I can purposefully minister to and with. I would love to be able to pray with them, answer questions, keep them accountable in their walk, prayer life, and Bible study, etc. I would also love to find someone who will do the same for me.

Titus 2:3-5

We'll see how it goes!

Presidential Inauguration Trivia

Since the inauguration is next week, I thought I'd put a little trivia on here.

We're doing the Inauguration 2009 Unit Study by Amanda Bennett for the next 2 weeks.
It complements our study of US History and emphasis on the Presidents this year.


1. When were floats used in the inaugural parade for the first time? (year and president)

2. The oath of office is usually administered by the Chief Justice. Who was the first ex-president to administer the oath of office as Chief Justice?

3. Which President had the first televised inauguration? and when?

4. Who was the first outgoing President to leave the Capitol Grounds aboard a helicopter?

5. Who was the first President to have the oath administered by a woman?

6. Who was the only President not sworn in on a Bible?

7. When was the inaugural ceremony broadcast on the internet for the first time?

8. Who had the shortest inaugural address and how many words was it? Who had the longest?

9. For which President's inaugural parade were African-Americans allowed to participate for the first time?

10. When were women allowed to participate in the inaugural parade for the first time?

11. When was the Vice-President-elect inaugurated out-of-doors on the same platform with the President-elect for the first time?

12. Which President was the last to wear a traditional stovepipe hat to the inauguration and was the first to have both parents attend his inauguration?

Have fun looking for the answers!
here's the website http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/pihtml/pinotable.html

The Story of Daniel Boone

The Story of Daniel Boone by William Cunningham
abridged from The Real Book About Daniel Boone

We're reading this book for fun as a read aloud.
The kids have really enjoyed it so far. It written for kids but gives you a good idea of how hard it really was for the early settlers as they faced the threat of Indians every day. I really like the way it shows Daniel's courage even in the midst of hardship and gives the kids a role model and hero to look up to in his character. The book focuses on Daniel's perseverance and his leadership skills as he helps open up the west for other settlers. In this book, he always tried to remain calm and really think through his words and actions in difficult situations with the various indian tribes he encountered. It's a good example for the kids to follow.

still working on the look

The site is back up for me to try to change my blog up a little. I'll see what I can do after we have school today. I'll leave it this way for now so I don't lose everything again. :0)

Boys of Grit

We have some interesting audio books about historical figures. It is the "Boys of Grit" series. The books are available in print or in audio format from Lamplighter Books. I bought mine from Rainbow Resource. http://www.rainbowresource.com/index.php
I have 3 volumes:
Boys of Grit Who Became Men of Honor
Boys of Grit Who Never Gave Up
Boys of Grit Who Changed the World

Most of the chapters run about 11-16 minutes each. Each chapter in the book is the story of one person.

In the same format, we have True Stories of Great Americans for Young Americans.
These Stories are a bit longer. These are 20-40 minutes.

It's kind of nice to sit down and relax and listen to a story about someone. These CDs stress the character of the men and women and what really made them stand out in their time. We also listen to them sometimes while we're busy doing something else-- like washing dishes, art projects, cleaning the house, playing Legos, etc.

I spent my afternoon going through our school materials on the bookshelves downstairs. It was time to clear out a lot of things we used last semester, put things back in the filing cabinet and organize everything well for this semester. I try to keep it up weekly, but at the end of the semester there are things to rearrage. Kind of like rotating your seasonal clothes. :0)

Anyway, while I worked, I listened to the stories of George Matheson, Josiah Wedgewood, Edward Bok, John Kitto and Booker T. Washington. I'll admit--- I only knew who Booker T. Washington was before today. It was very interesting. Josiah Wedgewood is from the famed "Wedgewood China". Did you know he grew up to be the grandpa to Charles Darwin? I thought that was very interesting. Darwin was his daughter's son. I really enjoy listening to the adversity and obstacles the people in these stories overcome and how hard work and perseverance are key to their life stories. Biographies are really interesting to me.

just in case you wanted to know.....
1. George Matheson-- famous preacher; wrote hymn: O Love That Will Not Let Me Go; went completely blind by the time he was 20 but persevered through college and became a very influential/successful pastor

2. Josiah Wedgewood-- from a potter's family; he had a weak leg due to smallpox and could no longer work the potter's wheel so he began designing the pottery; he eventually had the leg amputated; his china/pottery was very popular even with royalty

3. Edward Bok---came to America from the Netherlands when he was 6 and did not speak any English; worked hard from the time he was young and found creative ways to earn money; he grew up to become the editor of Ladies Home Journal magazine; won the Pulitzer Prize; he also coined the word "living room" to replace the word "parlor"

4. John Kitto---fell off of a roof at the age of 12 and went deaf; became a Bible scholar and wrote stories based on his travels; famous for his pictorial Bible and many writings; studied/wrote about the geography, biology and archeology of Bible lands

5. Booker T. Washington---born a slave; famous for the Tuskegee Institute.

half-way there

I managed to get the 3 columns back, but will have to work on the background later.
At least it's readable again.
:0)

OOPS!!!!!!!!!!

I really messed up my blog trying to change the background!!!!
I'll work on it after school today and get the 3 columns back and a background.

I knew I shouldn't have done it right now since I didn't have much time!!!!!

oops!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dia de los Reyes

Today is Kings Day in Mexico. It's the day they celebrate the wisemen visiting Jesus and bringing him gifts. Honestly, I had forgotten all about it! It's a really big deal and is the day the children receive a gift. Most of our neighbors don't get gifts from Santa for Christmas. Instead, the 3 Kings bring them on the 6th.

We were right in the middle of school this morning when our neighbor came over with a bag. She had a little gift for each of us. That's when I remembered what day it was. :)
It was a very festive atmosphere out on the street. All of the children were out playing with new balls, scooters, bicycles, dolls or whatever they received for their gift. I told the kids we were finished with school for the day so they could go out and play with their friends. They did not even ask if we could just study a little longer--- can you believe that?????? LOL!

It's a beautiful, warm day here today. I think they're enjoying playing with friends. All of the Mexican children here will go back to school tomorrow, so it's their last day to play together all day long.

One of the tv stations had a reporter out on the street interviewing the kids asking their ages and what the 3 Kings brought them. They even asked Isaac. Of course, he shut the cameras down really quickly---- he said, "I don't celebrate Kings Day". They just looked at him and moved on. We laughed about that one. It was his chance for fame and he blew it. ha!

My babies are better

Megan is feeling much better. She had a really high fever all day Sunday. Yesterday when she woke up she was back to normal like nothing had happened. I was glad. Faith still has a bit of a cold, but it's getting better. She was a little warm on Friday and Saturday, but it was never a high fever. John feels a little better too. He had a really bad headache from sinus pressure and a sore throat so he hung out on the couch Sunday and watched football. (no, really---- he really did have a headache!!! lol) He seemed much better yesterday. It looks like the boys are fine too. Yeah!

Off to a good start with school

I was a little stressed about what to do this semester for school. I don't have all the books we need. I do have the curriculum and all the teacher things, but not the books. When John got sick last summer, I honestly didn't know what was going to happen. I thought we might be in the States on medical leave by now so I didn't order it when I needed to. Then when we did go home for vacation, it was too late to get the materials in time. So, now we need to move in the next month or so from here and I'm kind of waiting to see where we end up before I get it. So........what do I do in the meantime????

I decided we'd continue the study of the US Presidents we started last semester and then I would have Ike do a big study on the US Constitution this semester since that's required in some schools freshman year. I have a lot of books we'll use to piece some things together for the month or so that we need to. We can also use the internet a lot for info on things going on during the time period we're in.

For fun, we started reading a book about Daniel Boone last week. He's a little before the time period we're up to, but the kids are really enjoying the book. It kind of goes with the pioneer/settler theme we'll carry through with this semester. We're up to President Monroe, so now we're really going to hit some westward expansion. Gold rush, Levi jeans ...... all kinds of fun stuff. We'll just kind of piece some units together and hit the key points and people from that period each week. I can look through my teacher materials and get material for some fun lectures if I don't have books on everything. Not the ideal way I would want it, but it will work.

We're finishing up our unit on marsupials and continuing on with our animal study this year.
We also started a nice book about the weather to give them an overview of that. It's pretty interesting so far. If we get really interested in any of this, we can expand the studies. I think I see my homeschool totally turning into "unit study led"..........hmmm............... (at least until we get more books ordered.) We're going to take advantage of all the books and materials we already have and hit some of these unit studies I've put off for a while until we found a better time to do them. We are also doing health this semester.

We did a really intense grammar study last semester, so I want to target writing skills this semester. Ike can pull out the novel he needs to work on and the other guys can do all sorts of things. This week I have them all working on book reports. Levi is doing Frankenstein and Sam is doing Swiss Family Robinson. Meggie is doing a simple picture book--- Story about Ping, and Faith is doing the Courage of Sarah Noble. I got some great book report forms off of a site last week. We're using them for the first few to get them thinking and used to it. This is something new for the girls.

We're still plugging along with our musicians and artists studies. We're enjoying Degas right now. He's so fascinating since he drew everything out on a grid first and then pieced things together to make painting.

I'm so glad I have all those books from all the years of Sonlight curriculum we did! It gives us nice reading material and resources to use as we piece together some units!

Hopefully, we'll really have a nice semester--- even though it's nothing like we had planned originally!

Final stretch--- week 12

Well, I'm into week 12 of my 12-week challenge. It hasn't gone nearly as well as I had envisioned, yet is has gone rather well considering I had 4 weeks of travelling to the States and then Christmas and New Years in there. I only got to work out about 5 or 6 times during the trip and we ate out a lot. In the 11 weeks I've lost a little over 11 pounds and several inches (not sure how many because I forgot to measure the first week.) It's slow and steady loss so that's good.

I am still not eating sugar and have missed a couple of workouts over the Christmas/New Years break. I plan to be pretty strict this last week. I think some flan or dark chocolate sounds good this weekend when my "official" 12 weeks are over, but then I'll jump right back in and keep on doing what I'm doing since it's working well.

Writing down what you eat and being very aware of it really makes a difference. So does having your 14-year-old son as your "challenge police"! :0)

I'm not sure how much weight I'll lose since I'm also toning with weights at the same time. Muscle does weigh more than fat, even though it takes much less space. But trust me, I still have a lot of "space" to lose in some areas. lol

It's been a really good 11 weeks. I think the results would have been much more significant if we didn't travel to the States during the middle of it. It kind of slowed me down, even though I didn't gain while there.

So, we'll see how this week goes....................

I've had some really great runs. I've been adding extra cardio in and keeping my weights lower for the lifting. Today's run was really good. It was just a little over 3.5 miles, but it was on the incline and the pace was semi-fast. I'm a little sore though from yesterday's "easy" workout. I just did some free weights for back, chest, quads, hamstrings and inner thighs. It wasn't hard, but I could really feel the hams and inner thigh muscles today from the side lunges and dead lifts. The day before, I did a 5K run and shoulders, biceps and triceps. The 5K was not far to run, but it was a pretty quick pace and a "tough" run in that sense.

I hope to see really good results by the end of 6 months!!!
I'm more concerned about inches than pounds, but I definitely don't mind seeing the "number" go down each week!

Sick Babies

My family has been sick this week. They've all had colds with sore throats and runny noses. They've been taking turns so far. Faith still isn't feeling too well and John said he was getting it last night also. Megan woke up this morning with a high fever. Looks like I'll be playing nurse today. :)

I hope they get better soon. It's miserable to have a cold and fever.

Roasted Garlic Chicken recipe

This chicken is delicious! You marinate it overnight in a garlic and lemon juice marinade. It comes out very tender, moist and flavorful. My family really likes this recipe. We're having it tomorrow.

Roasted Garlic Chicken
1/2 cup roasted garlic cloves (I use fresh, not roasted. I use less than 1/2 a cup, too.)
2 cups water
1 Tbsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 lemon
2 bay leaves
1 (3-4 pound) whole roasting chicken

1. Prepare the brine by combining garlic, water, salt, pepper and olive oil in a blender. (I sometimes just mix it in a bowl together.) Squeeze the juice from the lemon into the brine, blend. Stir in the bay leaves.

2. Place chicken in a large, resealable plastic bag, or in a large non-reactive bowl. Pour the brine all over the chicken in the bag, or in the bowl. Add the lemon peel if you want to. Squeeze out extra air from bag and seal. If in a bowl, cover it with plastic. Refrigerate overnight- 12-14 hours.

3. Preheat oven to 375*F. Remove the chicken from the brine (marinade). Sprinkle salt and pepper all over the chicken. Place the chicken on a rack, in a roasting pan, breast side up. Roast for about an hour, until the juices run clear from the thigh when pierced wtih a fork. (Breast meat should have an internal temperature of 165*F, thigh meat should have an internal temperature of 175*F.)

Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before carving and serving.

*** The recipe says it's a subtle garlic flavor due to the roasted garlic. I usually use fresh garlic and don't roast it and it is still not overpowering. So, feel free to roast your garlic if you want to, but it will still turn out good if you don't.

New Year's Eve in the Village

John and Isaac were able to go to one of the villages last night to have an evangelistic event through a local church. The people we are working with in our town to help translate Bible stories are from this village, so they were able to arrange it. I stayed here with the other kids. Our vehicle was loaded down with equipment and 4 people, so we did not fit.

They were supposed to go around 3 p.m., start the Jesus film movie (in their indigenous language) around 6 or as soon as it got dark and then do a paint talk Gospel presentation afterwards. (That's pretty cool--- you use flourescent paints and a black light and paint a really neat diagram/picture as you talk.) The guy told him they would come home afterwards around 8 or 8:30.

Well, midnight passed, 1 a.m. passed, 2 a.m. passed...... still no John and Isaac home! I was a little concerned because I knew the mountain road is so bad and violence has really increased here lately. A lot of people were killed here in our state last month and then even last week right outside of our town. It's all drug-related. The military presence is really increased and the check points seem a little more vigorous. There is no cell phone signal out there so we couldn't call each other.

I figured they probably pressured him into staying. When he finally did get home (after 2:30 a.m.), he joked that he was kidnapped. I was also really concerned about them insisting he eat with them. They did, of course. Pozole. That makes me nervous!!!!! We've worked so hard to get him well and I pray it doesn't happen again.

I'm glad I didn't go with the other kids. It would have been very long for them--- especially with no bathrooms and no running water! After the movie, they had a worship service and didn't even eat until after that was over at about 12:30 a.m. I think the guy had it planned to go out there and spend New Year's Eve. lol Poor John, he just wanted to come home. Ike wanted to be here with his friends and John assured him they'd just be gone a few hours. John needed his help so he went.

They had about 100 people watch the movie with them and others walked around and watched parts of it. They seemed to really like it since it was something different. That is totally NOT our strategy in this area, but we feel the urgency to share the Gospel with them since we have to make a change in our ministry/living arrangements in the next month or so. This opportunity came up, so John ran with it.

Here are some pics.