Watoto

The other night we had the privilege of having Watoto come to our church. If it wasn't for my own kids climbing all over me during the presentation, I would have just sat there and cried, partly with sorrow for these orphans who will never know their parents...but most of all with joy and amazement at how Jesus can change the life of an 8 or 10 year old. To hear little J take the microphone and tell how he had been abandoned five years ago, and then with a huge smile on his face, tell us how Jesus has made him happy and given him a mother who loves him, and completely changed his life... it was pretty amazing.

These kids know how to dance with their entire beings...yet it's so much more than that. I have never seen kids this age worship so passionately and spontaneously. My kids watched with open mouths at some points, and our white feet could hardly keep up with their dancing!

I think everyone's favourite song was "I am not Forgotten". I still get choked up thinking about these children who were abandoned by their earthly parents, but who, at such a young age, are so sure and secure in the knowledge that they have a Heavenly Father who knows their name.

May we all remember that our worship does not depend on our circumstances! God is deserving because He is God.

A Cold Day at the Beach

Chocolate Chips

I have nothing in particular to write about, so I'm going to do another Chocolate Chip post. Little morsels that you may find interesting...

- We had our first company (not counting mom and dad being here after moving us out)! They came over for brunch yesterday. Great people. Fun Sequence games. Very pleasant kids. I can't believe we waited this long to have guests. But we just weren't in a hurry.

- People tell us that we live in one of the coldest areas here. Great. It's super windy because we're close to the water, and it seems the temperature can never quite get above 10C. There are lots of green shoots in my flower beds, but no leaves on the trees yet. I can't wait to see what all is around here when things start blooming. I'm going to have to learn a few things about gardening, which I don't mind doing.

- On Saturday we were exploring a new beach. I was watching the ground as usual, looking for interesting things. I picked up a fairly large object and then realized it was a vertebrae of some sort. We've been looking at images online and the closest one we can find is a deer. Isn't that odd? I've read that orcas will eat deer and even moose, but orcas are pretty rare here (in my understanding). And it was obviously washed up onto the beach by the tide. Strange. I think I will take it into one of the museums here and see if they can tell me what, exactly, it is. And if it is from a deer, how did it get washed up onto the beach?

- I'm taking a knitting refresher course tomorrow night, and I'm very happy that I finally got in (there's a waiting list). It's been so long since I knitted anything complicated that I need to brush up on my skills again.

- We are thoroughly enjoying the new church family we have found. The pastor is from Ireland, and I just love how the Irish don't mince words. (Say what you mean, mean what you say.) Yesterday he preached on Joshua 3:5
Joshua told the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you."

He challenged us to consecrate our time, talents, money, and everything we have to the Lord, so that any time He needs us, we are ready and waiting for the call. And willing to obey without question when we know He's asking us to act.
He also made the point that God doesn't really need us to be a part of what He's doing in the world. Sure, He needs us to be His hands and feet, but He could choose to show Himself to the world without us. So our options are either a) jump in where God is moving and move with Him, or b) miss out on what He's doing and do our own thing.
Of course this was presented much more eloquently than I can convey, but I wanted to share it anyway. I keep being made so aware of how critical of a time we are living in. God is on the move.

- The girls seem to attract "Grandmas" at church. I love it. Of course there's no substitute for the real thing, but when you don't have butter, use margarine :-) A couple of them have offered to watch the girls "anytime!" and that makes me happy. Believe me, I will be taking them up on it. One lady even offered that she and her husband would happily come down (they live close by) and stay for a weekend while Daryl and I go away.

- I'm praying/thinking about what to do about school next year. Homeschooling makes so much sense to me, in so many ways. But I'm starting to feel like I'm running dry. I'm not naturally a teacher or a student, and the creative juices just ain't flowin'.
I'm starting to think about mixing things up a bit and using all the resources I have around me for the time being. (Like maybe taking them elsewhere for different lessons in science, art, history, etc.) I don't know. Any advice?

Once in awhile, Adrienne gets up the nerve to give herself her needle. (Karla, you may not want to watch :-) ) Please watch until the very end - it's the best part.

(I guess I should post videos of the other girls sometime...it seems they're always of Adie, but I guess it's because she's 3 and it's such a funny stage)

Sunday

The girls practising the crocheting... sorry to say it didn't last long today.

I regret not getting a picture of all the girls together before church this morning. This was after Emilie woke up from a 3 hr nap after we got home! None of us could keep our hands off of her today - she just looked too cute! :-)

So, how do you like the new specs?

I'm not totally sure I'm happy with them...but Daryl and the girls think they're great. :-) (Sidenote: they are not black, they are kind of a swirly brown and taupe-ish-greenish.just FYI)

Easter

I almost felt sacreligious making this tree for Easter...but I grew up decorating Easter eggs, and it never diminished the real meaning for me. Of course, I hope that we celebrate Christ's death, resurrection, and all that it means for us, every day. But I love celebrating Easter. This year has been especially meaningful for us as the girls are getting old enough to really appreciate what Jesus did on the cross.

Anyway, here are some of the eggs we decorated. We used leaves and grass, and if you want more details, you can find them here.
We learned towards the end that the thin, soft leaves worked much better than hard, thick leaves. I'm only posting pictures of the ones that actually turned out! :-)

(mini rose leaves on white egg)

This one is, by far, my favourite. I just love the colours.

(grass on brown egg, purple dye)

(celery leaf on brown egg, purple dye)

(mini rose leaves on brown egg, red dye)

Things I Heard Recently

1) I was showing the girls some pictures we had received by email of a friend's new house. When we saw the picture of the beautiful new kitchen, Anna-Christina said very seriously, "Wow! Quality."

2) Olivia is laying in bed right now. She often finds very small excuses to get up and walk around, visit her sisters in the next room, etc. Tonight she said to me, "Mom, I don't know what this is. But something inside of me is telling me to get up, but I don't know why or what it is that is telling me." Must be confusing...

3) Adrienne is quite obsessed with the periwinkle shells she collected on the beach a few weeks ago. The other day I asked her, "So, what are you going to do now?" and she said, "I'm just going to go stare at my periwinkles". Today she looked at me very lovingly and said, "You're my favourite periwinkle".

4) As for child #4, well, she doesn't say too much. But she did say the short sound "a" for apple today... it's a nice change from screaming! :-)

The Stories of my Life

I have two stories. Which one do you want to hear?
The one where...
- we made a barometer today and studied weather
- I've been excercizing regularly
- we're having a delicious dinner of curried vegetables, basmati rice and naan
- my husband sent me for a long bath in my jucuzzi when I had a sinus headache
- my daughter asked for a nap today
- my bed is made
- the snow is melted
- I'm making a fabulous dessert to take to friends' for dinner tomorrow

...Or would you rather hear the story where...
- we hardly got any "school work" done today (by the book)
- the sauce for my supper is coming from a jar, and the naan was on the day-old sale rack
- my hair is horrid and I don't care, since I never see anyone and can't go anywhere
- my van is still in the shop and we are sick of being stuck at home
- my kids are whiney (probably from being stuck at home)
- there's still boxes of "stuff" in my bedroom, with no place to go
- there are piles of papers and books in my dining room that never seem to go away

and if that's not enough "story" for you, take a look at the pictures below. I just had to shoot them because I was so appalled at the state of my house today. After I took them, I forced myself to madly clean up as much as I could (since the littles are down for naps) before I went anywhere near my computer.
So, I'm feeling much better, thank you very much.
Which story would you rather hear???
I have a feeling I know already...



"The sock mess" (It's gone now, thank goodness)

Post-lunch kitchen... (yes, that's a radio sitting on a loaf of bread to the left)

Post-school dining room floor... (poor Noah has wandered a little too far from his ark)

Adrienne was on her way outside to play and came to me for help with her shoes. I cracked up when I saw her socks, and asked her where she got them. "From the sock mess!" she said...very happily, as if it's always there. :-)

Guess who?:-) She didn't let us put the "mask" on her (it's broken off a viewmaster thingy), until she realized we were all laughing hysterically!

Just where she loves to be...in the kitchen "making".

Mmmmm...sugar on snow at the maple farm. I could have eaten much, much more of it.