Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Archer's Room

So some people (actually only one person... John's cousin Lori) requested to see pictures of our house. I'm going to do it room by room and I'm starting with Archer's because I just tidied it today.


I'm standing in the doorway and John's clothes and shoes are to the left. We hang most all of our clothes because they would get funky smelling if we put them in a dresser because of the heat and humidity. Aden and Archer are playing on the dog bed that we originally bought for our dog Rhya with plans of keeping her as an inside dog. Once we realized we couldn't keep her perfectly flea and tick free if we allowed her to fraternize with the outside dogs, we kicked her out. Aden has loved that thing for years and now Archer does, too. It's something they can roll around on and flop on since we don't have carpet anywhere.


In this picture above, I'm standing in the corner by the clothes. Archer's crib and mosquito net is on the left. John made a makeshift changing table from a piece of wood that nests on the crib and is padded with a towel. His cloth diapers are falling out of the hanger on the crib. That book shelf is Archer's "dresser" and it is as much a dresser as Archer actually get's "dressed" (which is hardly ever). It has all his clothes, shoes, cloth diapers, some disposables and wipes, along with a bunch of other miscellaneous things that I throw on there if I can't find a home. 


Now I'm standing by the crib and there are our separate clothing racks. I know, I know, I have way more clothes than I need but when I get back to the US, I always forget how much clothes I have here. And probably 95% of my clothes are bought at goodwill because I am cheap thrifty.  Also, having been pregnant and post partum twice now, I have a wide range of what we will call "Kaysie sizes".

We don't have closed closets in any of the rooms so we just end up storing our tubs out in the open.  They have mostly clothes that Aden has grown out of (but Archer will fit soon), some old baby clothes and bottles, cold weather clothes that we need only for the airplane rides to and fro, a sewing machine, and some extra toiletries that we pull out as needed (toiletries are astronomically expensive here so we try to bring in our favorites in our luggages).

Saturday, April 18, 2015

I'm Just a Fool


I love how kids aren't as tainted by negative word connotations and will just say it like it is. They aren't bound by the rules of political correctness (and neither is the rest of Sierra Leone for that matter). This can cause deep embarrassment of many a parent but today it just made me laugh as Aden and I argued over whether he is smart or not. I, obviously, think he's one bright cookie but he continually insisted otherwise.

I'm getting Aden in the habit of doing some homeschooling since that is how he will be schooled. The "curriculum" we are doing is called Before Five In a Row.  It basically revolves around reading the same book, five days in a row along with doing some enrichment activities each day to enhance and expand upon what we are reading. 


This past week we've been reading Caps for Sale. Spoiler alert: it's about a peddler selling some caps. He decides to take a nap and a bunch of monkeys steal all of his caps. He gets increasingly angrier until he unintentionally finds a solution.

One of the enrichment activities we did for this story was discuss and memorize Proverbs 29:11: A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.  So I explained to Aden what a fool and wise man were and how they were different based on how they responded to conflict (catering to the vocabulary of an almost four-year-old). 

Aden and Mommy practicing our writing :)

Later that day, Aden was getting upset with his brother... Probably because they wanted the same toy as they always do. I brought to his mind the verse from Proverbs. Our conversation proceeded like this:

     Aden: but I'm not smart!
     Mommy: of course you are! Why would you say that? You can already read some words by yourself! You're very smart.
      A: no I'm not! (Said with some attitude) Sometimes I'm mean to my brudder.
     M: and that's why we have this verse, to remind us not to get upset at our brother because a fool gets angry with a his brother over a silly thing like toys. But we want to be like the wise man!
.    A: (exasperated) I'm just a fool!!! Okay???

I don't think any of us would ever be willing to admit how we act the fool. Maybe we don't give full vent to our anger, but we are easily frustrated at our kids or let how we feel in the moment dictate how we speak to our spouse, family members or people in the work place. I know I'm more willing to say "I may not be a wise man, but surely I'm not a fool". My pride of being seen as a fool gets in the way of my calling a spade a spade, especially when referring to myself.

Mostly I wanted to share the funny story of Aden calling himself a fool but here's lesson #136 of me thinking I'm teaching Aden a spiritual truth and he is the one who teaches me!

Playing side by side nicely in Aden's room after I took some toys away



Friday, April 17, 2015

1.75 years later...

After taking a long hiatus, I've decided to start doing a little blogging from Sierra Leone again. 

Originally I wanted this blog to be about our adventure of living in Sierra Leone for (ONLY) 2 years (or so I told God that).  And I still want it to be about that (4.5 years later), as well as aspects of our ministry.  But since having two kids, I want it to be a place they can go back on and look at events or stories of their childhood.  I also want it to be a place that I can share these stories with other friends and family who love us in our feeble attempts to love others as Christ loved and to enjoy life abundantly.

So you will probably see LOTS of stories about my kids, funny experiences of cultural misunderstandings or differences, ways in which God is working on my heart, food and cooking, etc. I did a very small amount of that on Facebook which is probably why it satiated my creative outlet while still sharing parts of our lives with people.  However, a lot of times I don't want to share so intimately with everyone who I'm 'friends' with on FB.  I will sometimes put the link on Facebook but if you don't want to miss a post, you can sign up to get them by email. 

So I leave with you this picture of Archer making a mess with one of those farting noises toys.  

'/'

Monday, July 22, 2013

Tricycle Trailer

My parents sent a little tricycle for Aden on a container we got a few months ago.  I decided to save it for his birthday for him to have something fun to open.



It's still a tad big, so he's mostly been enjoying Fred Flinstone-ing it :)



Dad hooking up a trailer with Aden's red wagon.  He's stylish and functional!


Still walking his tricycle-trailer... 

Monday, July 8, 2013

Danny's Future Meal

Our Chilean teammate Danny bought (or perhaps was given?) a Duiker yesterday.  They call them freetombo in the Themne language but whatever you call them... they are DELICIOUS!!!

Definitely one of my more favorite "bush meat." We usually only eat them when we stay in a village but it definitely fulfills that "I want red meat now!" craving.

This one is still in it's youth so Danny will have to fatten him up!



Aden kept calling it a "deer" but that is what it looks like, a little miniature deer with a smooshed nose.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Better Late than Never!


 I'm sure there are very few people who read my blog that haven't seen my pictures on Facebook or in our ministry update... but if any didn't already know... Aden's going to be a big brother!





Thursday, July 4, 2013

4th of July in Sierra Leone

You can move of us out of the USA Lord, but at our roots we will celebrate our Independence Day 'Merica Style! Ironically, there was a girl from England at our little get together.  While she insisted that today represents the day England graciously gave us our independence, she did try to dress in the most American thing she had, white and blue clothes with a Colorado Rockies hat lol! Here are some pictures from our fun day: 

Our great (nay I say best?) friends Sada and Gabe returned to Sierra Leone a few weeks ago with their son Isaiah and their now 3 month old Lucas:

Gabe/Isaiah, John/Aden.  Two top notch Father's doing what they do best!

All three kids confused about this photo op that we tried to create :) 

Let's just say this outfit makes me want to be a better American :)

Aden with his friend Bo.

Not pictured: hamburgers, 4th of July cupcakes, 7-layer bean dip, fruit salad, no-bake cookies, and french fries all of which we overate in the typical American fashion :) as well as a super-competitive boys v girls game of catch phrase.