Girl's night out

This week I had the wonderful opportunity to get basically 24 hours away with good friends! We rented a room at the WA Volunteer center (which is just a short way down the road from my house (maybe 3 minutes walk?) and just had a fun escape.

I had been pretty worried about how Julianne would do, as I have never left her for that long (and overnight!) before. She still nurses pretty heavily, especially at night, but my wonderful husband agreed to keep her all night, no matter what. What a guy!

We headed to the WA Center at 5pm and we had arranged ahead of time who would bring what for our meals. After an adventure of trying to get the oven lit, we eventually had a yummy pizza dinner, courtesy of Sarah.

After dinner we hung out and watched "To Save a Life".

In the morning we all had the luxury of sleeping in. We finally got up at almost 9! I honestly can't remember the last time I slept that long.... It was wonderful! After lounging around with hot drinks and books for a while, we finally got around to breakfast (cinnamon rolls and fruit salad). Then we had fun just sitting around and talking. When we finally made up our minds as to what to do, we decided to start watching Downton Abby and do pedicures. Kate had all the supplies, so we all luxurously soaked and scrubbed our feet and painted our toes. When we live in a place with dirt roads so our feet are always dusty or muddy, this was a fun treat!

It was amazing how fast 4 pm rolled around! Suddenly our retreat was over and it was time to get back to families and meal prep and all that normal life entails.

I came home expecting the worst, but amazingly, everyone had done great! Julianne woke up only twice, and just cried for a few minutes during the night. Everyone was happy and had a good time! Whoo hoo!

I can't wait for the next girl's night out!

Christmas Festivities

We have had a busy, yet very fun Christmas celebration this year.

On Christmas Eve we spent most of the day with good friends, eating and hanging out and playing a game. I didn't get any pictures, but apart from Matt and Steve spending an unexpected 2 hours helping someone move a piano, it was a nice, relaxing day.

On Christmas Day, we got up and just had a fun morning opening presents. A few hours in, we took a break for our traditional special breakfast: this year was cinnamon rolls and an egg and ham casserole.

Trying out some of their new dress-up clothes:

Julianne modelling a new outfit (notice K's slippers! She always has to try on shoes!)

Then it was off to our good friend's house for Christmas lunch. We had chicken and ham and all the fixings (along with the traditional British fare of pigs in a blanket, and even a Christmas pudding).


Kate had little presents for everyone there, and the kids were excited about their new books, I got a little recipe card or photo holder and Matt got this awesome pair of crazy socks. =) We stayed all afternoon and some of us watched a movie while others played a game.

It was a cool, rainy day, so that helped make it feel very Christmasy. It was a really nice day, and it was great to spend it with good friends.

Christmas: The Joy of Giving, or the Gimmies?

Every year I struggle with how many presents are piled under our tree on Christmas morning. I mean, it's fun to see the kids walk out into the front room, where piles of shiny, brightly wrapped packages are mounding under the sparkly tree.

But then the feeding frenzy begins. The kids want to race through opening packages as fast as they can. It becomes all about "what is for me?" and "what more do I get", rather than being thankful for loving family who cared enough about them to send them all sorts of fun things.

I'm afraid that my kids are coming to view Christmas as a time to get more!!! and fun!!! stuff in abundance. I'm ashamed to admit, that there have been ocassional times when I myself have felt the greedy, "oh, that's it? that's all I got?" at the end of a Christmas morning.

BUT HOLD ON ONE SECOND! It's CHRISTMAS, for crying out loud! It's not about US, or what we can get and have and hold. It's about Jesus, and what he gave, and how much he loves!

I truely desire to help my children understand this. I mean, we talk about it all the time, and when we've been in the US, we've done boxes for kids, and here we've participated in giving gifts to the Empty Christmas Tree (the school collects gifts to give to BTA or some other PNG group). But I don't think it really sinks in. I mean, deep inside, we're all selfish, and wanting more or better.

I have a friend who in her family have decided to base their gift giving around the 3 gifts from the Maggi. So on Christmas they give each other just three gifts. That's it. They are based on the gifts given Jesus by the Wise Men: gold, incense and Myrrh. So the 3 gifts reflect that: gold is something precious and of great value, so one gift is something precious to the reciever.. something they really want or treasure. Incense: something that goes from the person to God, so that gift is something of a spiritual nature (bible study book, music, etc). Myrrh: used to embalm a body, but as a gift they give something for the body (clothes, jewelry, lotion.....).

I really love this idea!!! I would really love to do this in my family. Have a few gifts, with great thought and meaning put into them.

I know my kids would already balk at this idea. Already in their few short years of life they have been conditioned that the better Christmas = one where there are more presents than last year.

But is it too late to change and really get them focusing on what Christmas is all about?

Christmas Fun

Last night we had a family movie night and kid's camp out in our front room. It was fun to just get everyone in their pajamas and watch a fun Christmas movie (Miracle on 34th Street).

The boys were so hyper after the movie... it was almost 10pm before they calmed down and fell asleep! Kaitlyn even gave up on trying to sleep and moved back to her own room.

I definitely want to have one more Christmas movie night this week, but I think one sleepover in the front room is enough for this year. =)

Decorating

This afternoon I had fun finally getting around to decorating Kaitlyn's bedroom. Last year, right before we left for furlough her room got a much-needed repainting. Today, over a year later, I finally managed to get everything else finished. (well, 'everything else' only consisted of 2 things!)

I had got these cute fairy "Wallies" and needed to get them up on her walls. And someone here in Ukarumpa was selling a purple canopy, and purple being Kaitlyn's favorite color, I figured she would enjoy it.

So here is the finished result:

Playacting

I have been blessed by kids who have very active imaginations. I never know from one day to the next who I will find running around my house. Sometimes it depends on what was most recently done. For instance, if Kaitlyn and Nathan were allowed to play "Age of Empires" on the computer, the next day I usually find the boys with all the duplos and every toy car we own, spread out across the floor playing their own version of AoE.
Lately I've been seeing a bit more of The Hobbit around the house. Matt has been reading this to the kids in the evenings, and often at the breakfast table, my kids will have vanished, and in their places Gandalf will be asking for more cheerios, or Bilbo and Gollum will be wrestling on the floor or having a conversation.
There's never a dull moment in this house, that's for sure!

Lately, Julianne has been getting into this as well. Her playactings aren't quite as... advanced, but still, I don't remember my other kids, at younger than two actually pretend playing quite as much as she does. She has two favorite themes: being a mommy, or being a doggie.
She absolutely loves her baby dolls (it's nice to see all the dolls that have been in our house for years and Kaitlyn rarely touched finally getting some air!) Her favorite pastime is giving them susu (nursing them). She wrenches down her shirt and shoves her poor baby's head down it and walks around the house. It's rather hilarious.
Her other favorite thing to do is to pretend to be a dog. Randomly she'll announce, "Mama, doggie" and then immediately get on her hands and knees and bouncingly crawl around the house, tongue hanging out, panting. And then, in case I forgot, every few moments she'll again remind me "Mama, doggie", until I acknowledge that Julianne has in fact disappeared, and in her place is a furless, adorable 'doggie'.

Cookies!

One of my (many) favorite parts about the Christmas season is getting to make all sorts of yummy goodies. Today the kids and I made our family's favorite: sugar cookies.

Justin, Julianne and I cut out and baked the cookies while everyone else was at school. Once they got home, it was time to get to work.

About half the cookies we made will be going to school with Kaitlyn tomorrow for her class Christmas party. The rest we will get to have for ourselves! (I'm sure they won't stick around too long!)

Julianne thoroughly enjoying her cookie

The finished products

Decorating for Christmas

Today after Church we got out all our Christmas decorations and had fun setting everything up. It's a rainy, grey afternoon, a perfect day to be inside getting festive!

Unpacking the Christmas decorations

Fixing all the strings of lights

Our 'Charlie Brown' tree

After all that hard work, a much deserved snack of popcorn and hot chocolate! =)

Thanksgiving

We usually end up celebrating Thanksgiving on Saturday here as trying to squeeze in a nice, festive dinner after a long day of school and work, and before the kiddos need to get to bed on a school night just is too crazy/doesn't feel at all special.

So yesterday we celebrated by having three families over for a huge Thanksgiving lunch. Boy, the house was full... there were 11 kids in all! But it was a fun time of hanging out, and eating way too much good food!

I had all these great plans of getting some good pictures, but then all the kids were starving and I just plain forgot to get the camera out until later. But here are a few snapshots of our time:

Hanging out around the table

Our smorgasbord of desserts!

Julianne with her friend Chloe
(J loves to be a "mommy" to Chloe -- 8 months younger-- and make sure her pacifier is in, and tries to help her get around, etc. It's pretty funny to watch!)

Nathan and his good friend Cameron

Kaitlyn, Hannah, Alina and Isaac enjoying dessert!

The joys of potty training

I am currently in the throes of potty training. And desperately looking forward to being done!

It was my goal to have Julianne out of diapers before our next village stay (mid January), so it was on my mind (especially as she was daily telling me when she went). But because of a workshop coming up next week, and how she'll need to be in daycare several mornings, I was planning on putting it off until the workshop was over.

But Julianne had different plans! Last Tuesday she just up and refused to let me put her diaper on her. "No. Potty." She kept saying. So I thought, why not, and let her go sit on her little potty. And she went in it!!! (I had gotten her potty out when we got back from the village and she loved to go sit on it at random moments, but would never actually *do* anything in it). So thus began potty training.

So here I am, a week into it. Things are going fairly good. But I still get discouraged because it's hard to know how long this will take. For instance, yesterday we had a fairly good day. But twice she had accidents. Once, she didn't even bother to tell Matt that she needed to go, and she let out a little puddle on the floor. (thankfully, she just goes a little, and then does the rest on her potty) The other time I had a hard time not laughing! I was in the kitchen washing dishes from hosting my ladies' Bible study when I heard, "Momma, pee pee" (which usually means there's a little puddle somewhere). I ran over to see Julianne run across the room and plop down on her potty. No puddle anywhere. Hooray!!!! But then I realized she was still in her panties, while sitting on her potty.... now totally soaked. Oops.

I just keep hoping that she will be fully trained by a week or two more. After 4 1/2 years strong of trying to get my second born to stop wetting his pants, I can't take another lengthy training period and still keep my sanity (which is just barely clinging on!).

In the meantime, if you were/are in Ukarumpa, you'll see me back at that stage of carrying the little plastic potty everywhere we go!

so much for frisbee...

It's getting on into rainy season here, which means that instead of a decent amount of rain, there are just torrential downpours and more rain than you could want! =)

I've actually been surprised this past week by the lack of rain: every day now for a while the sky turns black and thunder starts booming and I think to myself... here we go, it's going to pour! But then, maybe it drizzles for a second and then clears up.

But not yesterday. Yesterday afternoon, instead of going to aerobics like I often do, I decided to go play frisbee golf with Matt and a few other guys. We let the older kids stay home and watch a movie (they knew where to find us if they needed us... Ukarumpa isn't all that big!) and we took Julianne along. Well, after going from threatening black sky to sun earlier in the day, clouds and rain snuck up on us at the 4th hole (well, that would more accurately be the 4th tree or light pole). And boy did it come! Raindrops the size of quarters. Thankfully we were able to hang out in a friend's house until it slowed down a little and we could make it back home without being drenched in just two minutes. And it poured the rest of the evening, and a good chunk of the night as well.

Welcome to the rainy season (now, to just be careful when I next do laundry as the washing water is going to be liquid mud)!!

Heartbreak

It's never easy to lose someone you love. Or to know dear friends are grieving the loss of someone they love. On Friday I found out that the younger brother/brother in law of some of our closest friends was killed in a tragic car accident. My heart just breaks for them and all they and their family are going thru right now.

It's hard enough to deal with a tragedy when you're home. It's a whole other thing from over here. My friends had to make snap decisions: do we go home? Do just some of us go? What about the kids? For how long? Then once those ones were decided, it's a matter of instantly finding around-the-world tickets (and affording them!).

I'm so thankful that we haven't had to deal with this issue. Yet. I know it's just a matter of time (months? years?) before we will have our own snap decisions to make. Maybe because of the loss of someone close back home. Or maybe a medical emergency (severe broken bone or sickness, etc) that will require one of us to accompany one of our kids to Australia for medical help. Then it will be a matter of quickly (maybe a few hours? Maybe just a few minutes?) deciding who goes, who stays, who watches the kids left behind?

So now my friends are on their way home (or maybe there by now), and there's not much I can do besides pray for them and their family. And help watch their kids, who are still here in PNG for a couple weeks without Mom and Dad. (and who are Nathan and Justin's ages).

Curtains (and other stuff!)

Our shipment from the U.S. arrived while we were in the village. Bummer! But once we got back to Ukarumpa and things settled down enough, Matt went and brought our boxes home. So last week it was like having an early Christmas! (For me at least... I don't know if the rest of the family cared all that much!)

I had shipped new curtains for our bedroom and main room, and I was super excited about those! There were lots of other little things I brought back which were just fun, or useful for me in organizing my house.

One of my favorite new things is the hanging basket. I have very little counter space in my kitchen, and now I can free up more, by getting lots of my produce up and out of the way!


I finally got my curtains all up, and here are the finished results:

My bedroom!

It may be slightly hard to appreciate the finished result, without seeing the previous! But before, there were old, faded turquoise curtains, and ugly, big wooden knobs on the cupboard/closet doors. Now I think it's just so, so pretty! =)

The front room:

Now, this has absolutely nothing to do with curtains, or items from our shipment. I just thought it was so pretty, with the ground all carpeted with the purple flowers that fell from the tree! =)

In the Kitchen

Yesterday I made homemade salsa for the first time! Ok, to be more specific, the cooked variety (think Pace or something). I’ve made the fresh stuff all the time, and it’s great, but I was just wanting the “real” stuff, and no offence to my Aussie friends, but the Australian brands just don’t cut it!

Thanks to the loan of a friends veggie dicer, the work of chopping went really quickly and it didn’t take long to get all the tomatoes, onions and peppers chopped and simmering.

On today’s kitchen menu: making hamburger buns and tortillas (and if I have spare time, tortilla chips!)

Snapshots from the last week (or so)

It's been a busy week. There has been a lot going on. It's sort of surreal to think that a week ago, we were still in the village.


Last Monday was Justin's 4th birthday. We had a little family celebration (balloons, a couple presents, birthday brownies). Then this past Sunday we had a little party with some friends. It was a simple affair, and nice because his special birthday treat request: chocolate chip cookies!

Justin's birthday in the village

His party on Sunday with Josh, Joshua and Tyler

This past Saturday was Carnival. The kids had been looking forward to it for months, and it was great that we could be back in time for it. Think mini fair or harvest party. Every year, on the last weekend in October the Jr High/High schoolers (and their parents and teachers!) put on a great carnival. There are pony rides, face painting, a teenage boy powered homemade ferris wheel, and great food. Matt and I love to go for the food and hanging out with friends! When there are no eating out opportunities here, getting to buy donuts, pizza, bbq sandwiches, ice cream, etc is a real treat!

Nathan at the dunk tank: he almost dunked him!

Kaitlyn with one of her best friends, Yui (from Japan)

The kids have also been really enjoying being back with their friends. Kaitlyn barely gets in the door after school before she's bombarded by friend's phoning and wanting to play.

Yui, Kaitlyn and Abigail at their tea party