Aden's Room

Here's the big boy's room. And yes Aden has fully figured how to get up on that top bunk. 

That little plastic dresser holds all of Aden's clothes. The top bunk is open for anyone who wants to come visit us ☺

Aden's desk... In the black tote is filled with Aden and Archer's toys. John suggested we just throw all but four toys a piece away (or donate). We did donate a bunch of toys to a local and new orphanage (a bunch of new Ebola orphanages are popping up) but almost everything else goes in the tub. Then, once a week, the boys may rotate 4-5 toys. I just couldn't stand the daily mess where every toy and it's 100 other pieces covered the entire floor. The tub is also locked heehee. In the bigger Tupperware on the desk is all the art supplies. The two on top of that are play doh and our newly inherited army men set (thank you Owen!)

In the bags are a train set and some plastic animals. 

Here's Aden's bookshelf. I would like to add the Tupperware items from on the top of the desk there but Archer likes to pull those boxes out and dump everything out. He also likes to climb and stand on top of the Elmo desk so I recently moved that next door for a short stay. Archer may be even more of a climber than Aden was so I'm on high alert!!

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).

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

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.  

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