I was thinking it would be interesting to chronicle a normal day here in Ukarumpa. But then as I went through my day, I thought, wow... that would be so uninteresting! My life here is just pretty normal. Just in a somewhat different setting than friends and family back in the U.S.

So maybe instead, I'll just write (ramble?) about a few things that have been going on.

Justin and I are still trying to get used to the long school days with K and N gone. When they don't get home till almost 3:30, wow, it makes the days very different. I try to do some activities/school with Justin every morning for a short while. Painting, alphabet or number games, worksheets, reading.


But he still gets to missing his siblings. Yesterday we set up a playdate and Joshua was able to come over for the morning. I need to be intentional about doing that on a regular basis so that Justin can have some good time interacting with kids his age.


Yesterday was a typical laundry day here. I always wash my clothes the night before so that they can have the maximum drying time the following day. But, like many days (most?) recently, we woke to grey rain. It comes and goes, so I watched the sky for hours, debating whether to risk hanging the clothes outside where the rain might not come, or just go ahead and hang them on the few lines in my laundry room. I finally hung them inside, and it was a good thing as it POURED later in the morning. However, the sun did come out again after lunch, and it looked like it might stay around for a while, so the clothes got to go outside for a few hours. They got about 80% dry before I had to bring them back in.

Drying in the laundry room

Later in the day when the sun came out!

Every Friday at the Primary school we can go eat lunch with our kids. This was the first Friday of the school year, and I had planned for us to go eat with K and N. However, it was pouring right before lunch and the roads were just running with streams of water, and the thought of walking across Ukarumpa (like 5 mins) in the mud and rain with Julianne and Justin just wasn't appealing. So we'll try hard to make next Friday's lunch with the kids.

I had to run to the store to pick up something for a friend. I had already done all my weekend shopping on Thursday (here the store is only open M-F, till 4pm... so you have to plan ahead and get stuff for the weekend), so I wasn't planning on buying anything for me. However, I got in there to discover that there were finally tomato products in the store!!!! (for the 2 weeks we've been back there have been none). They had tomato paste, sauce, canned tomatoes, spagetti sauce, etc on the shelves. So I had to get some of those, since so many of my recipes call for stuff like that! So now my pantry is very well stocked!

I love the rare opportunities when I don't have to cook! (I mean, I LOVE cooking, but occasionally, it's nice to NOT need to!) Friday nights during the school year we have "Teen Center". The high schoolers run a "burger night" at the Teen Center (gym/multi-purpose building) where you can get hamburgers, salads, chips (fries for you Americans) and shakes. You don't go for the great food. But it's fun to hang out with friends and not have to cook or wash dishes later.

notice J's wearing K's slippers! She LOVES two things in life: shoes and dolls!

Contentment

Last week my ladies' Bible study group here in Ukarumpa began a new study. We're doing a study that I had never heard of before, but as soon as I heard the title of the book, I knew it was one I definitely needed to do.

This first week has definitely been challenging. The author refers to a diary in which the writer listed her prescription for having a habit of contentment. The list is as follows:

Never allow yourself to complain about anything -- not even the weather!
Never picture yourself in any other circumstances or someplace else.
Never compare your lot with another's.
Never allow yourself to wish this or that had been otherwise.
Never dwell on tomorrow -- remember that [tomorrow] is God's, not ours.

Wow. Reading that list was eye opening! I know I am not the most content person in the world. I worry about stuff. I complain about stuff. But I still have always considered myself a fairly content person. But wow! When I read this list... how many of those do I do on a regular basis? I whine about the cold, rainy weather. When I'm in the village or Ukarumpa, I think about what I'm missing back in the U.S. When I'm in the U.S. I'm missing stuff in PNG. I'm really bad about comparing myself to others.

The author points out that "true contentment is separate from our circumstances. Contentment is a state of the heart, not a state of affairs." I need to be seeking God, and his will, and not focusing on the slow, lonely days in the village, or the mud, or not being with family. I need to learn to have an attitude of contentment. Like Paul, I pray that I will learn "to be content whatever the circumstances."

I'm excited about where this study is going to take me!

(quotes from Linda Dillow's 'Calm My Anxious Heart', p. 13)

Readjusting

I love living in Ukarumpa! There are so many great things about being here. It does take a little getting used to/readjusting to how things are done however. In the states, everything is convienent and easy. Or at least, relatively speaking. Here, the pace of life is a bit slower, but you do have to plan ahead and do a bit more.

Yesterday was a holiday. So after the tremendously long school week of 2 days, we had Friday off. So dear friends of ours planned a "Back to School BBQ". It was great fun visiting and having the kids play, even if it poured off and on the whole time so that we were in the house.

But the morning before we went was crazy! I still am adjusting to how long it takes to prepare meals, etc here. I got up at 7am and walked down to the market to buy our fruits and veggies for the next few days (only available every M, W and F morning). When I got home, I started making some yogurt from scratch. Then, because we were going to a BBQ and having hamburgers, I got my bread dough started. (none of this just buying a bag of buns at the store here). I was supposed to bring a dessert and a side dish, so I got my cookies and my mac and cheese (again, none of that boxed stuff) going. Then some friends stopped by mid-morning to get some books I was giving away and I got 2 loads of laundry washed and then hung up outside. Suddenly, it was already 11:30, a whole half hour after our get-together started and I was racing madly to finish shaping the hamburger patties and get Julianne's diaper changed so we could go over.

Where on earth does the time go??? I just need to re-adjust to meal planning and daily life here! I'm getting better, and it comes back pretty quickly. I just have to remember to start dinner about 4pm if I want it to be done by 6. And to give myself a good 15 minutes per load to get the clothes hung on the line. And not to stress if unexpected visitors drop by and my plans go out the window.

But hey, because yesterday was a holiday, I now have a "second Saturday" to relax a little. (and the bbq was great fun, and I even got to go play Bunco with a group of friends (and no Julianne) last night! =) ) Now, to just not forget to get my chicken kabobs made and marinating before it gets too late in the day!

Back to School

Well, here we are, back in Ukarumpa for just 5 days and the 2010-11 school year began today. Kaitlyn is now a 3rd grader and Nathan is in 1st! How did they get so big, so fast?


I wasn't sure how Nathan would handle going to school from 8:30-3:10 every day. He was homeschooled for most of Kindergarten and we rarely went more than 3-4 hours of school a day. So this was a long day for him. But he came home super excited and told us that he LOVED 1st grade! Hooray! =)

Nathan at his desk

Kaitlyn is thrilled that two of her best friends, Noah and Alex are her seatmates.

The 3rd grade classroom

The Ukarumpa International school is great. Kaitlyn has classmates and friends from all over: the U.S., Australia, Japan, Korea, PNG.

In Nathan's class there are kids from the U.S., Australia, Canada, PNG.

I'm going to enjoy my 6 weeks or so of being in Ukarumpa and sending the kids to school before we head to the village and I have to start homeschooling again.

It's that time again.....

When you say "7, almost 8 months" it sounds like a while. But wow! Here we are, down to the last 48 hours, and it felt like it wasn't all that much time at all. Definitely not enough to completely spend as much time with everyone that we'd want to. And now it's time to say even more goodbyes. I mean, I feel like I've been saying goodbye to people the whole time we've been home: family we knew we wouldn't see again, friends we were privileged to get to spend some time with, dear church families. And it's awful to see dear friends and have to leave them with the "maybe in 4-ish years we'll be together again." How heart-rending is that. I know the goodbyes have taken a toll on my kids. They hate them. If they have seemed dis-interested or even slightly rude when we've been saying goodbye to you, it's just because they've calloused themselves against having their hearts broken by saying goodbye yet again. But we are in the business of Goodbyes. Every year, even if we are still in PNG, good friends leave for their furloughs and are gone for a year. Or if we're really lucky, we'll leave for a 7 month furlough, and just as we get back, dear friends depart, so it ends up being almost 2 years in between seeing friends, who are basically family. Even better/harder is the leaving and saying good bye to family for 4-ish years. That's a long time. We'll probably miss out on future cousins being born, likely the last surviving grandparent's death. Hopefully nothing will happen to our parents in the next 4 years, but it's always a possibility. How do you say goodbye when you don't know for sure that you'll ever see someone again here on earth?

We're constantly asked: "Are you excited about going back to PNG?" Well, the answer for me is always "Yes and No". I mean, we love it there. It definitely becomes more and more our home the longer we spend there. We have dear friends who have become our family. We have our home in Ukarumpa which we all look forward to getting back to. But it is hard to be so far from family, especially for holidays and various other special occasions. I'll miss having a clothes dryer. There's nothing like doing laundry at any time of the day or night and having it be dry an hour later!!! Not a day or two of line drying! There's no mud here... or at least not much that you have to trek thru every day to go anywhere. And when you go to the grocery store, you can always find anything you ever needed. It will never be out of the main ingredient for 6 months at a time! And if I'm sick, or tired, or had a crazy day, I can't just pop out and grab a pizza. =( So yeah, I will really miss stuff like that. But I love the community and slower pace of life in Ukarumpa. I love my dear friends, and having our own place. So yeah, I am excited to go back.

Now, if I could just go to sleep and wake up over there, and skip the 20 hours of flying time!

Beach fun

Today we braved the cold 60* weather and headed to the beach. It was supposed to hit a whopping 69*, the hottest it has been/will be for our whole 2 weeks back here in California. Nevermind that everywhere else in the US is actually having hot summer weather. We are stuck in winter. But we managed to make it to the beach, finally.