The Break the To Do List Shrunk.

This Christmas break was the most relaxing one I can remember for a long time. We were able to read, sleep late, hang out, and enjoy each other. The kids really enjoyed playing together and we had just enough to do that we didn't have a lot of the squabbles that we sometimes do. The kids and Ian went hiking one day with some friends, and we had a few low key playtimes as well. We did some special baking and worked hard on finishing our Christmas projects before Christmas came around. We also accomplished a lot of things that had been on our to-do list. I was so proud that I remembered to take pictures of them. They weren't big or important items, but it is nice to have them out of the way.

I care for the furniture and household goods that SIM supplies to those coming to serve for less than two years. This spring, I brought a few items home that were fairly sturdy but had seen better days thinking I would refinish them before our vacation this summer. A refinishing job, which I have done before, is all well and good in the US, but here, without Home Depot, I discovered rather quickly that I was at a loss. I needed Ian's tools, which are never located in our garage, and inside purchasing knowledge that I didn't have. I knew he was too busy to work on my very un-urgent project, so the dresser and side tables have sat in our laundry room, in our hall, and on our back porch for the last six months. Over break, Ian finally got tired of having old furniture around and took it upon himself to sand and paint the dresser I had started in May. It looked great! I was so thankful for his expertise! And we were both glad to get the dresser off the porch.

Another project Ian worked on this break was putting up a rope swing for the kids in the front yard. They have had hours of fun on it already! It was a great idea!
We also bought a second hand desk for the girls' room. Previously, they only had a table to work on. Without the storage space of a desk, their table and surrounding floor were a a constant disaster area. Now they have a place for everything and two months later, the room is still clean! YAHOO!!! As an added bonus, the table was returned to its original purpose holding laundry. No more folding clothes on top of the freezer for me!
In further efforts to organize "the messy girls' room" as Tom calls it, we moved a set of plastic drawers into their bathroom. Again, this has made a HUGE difference in their ability to keep things neat. Formerly these drawers were in their closet holding doll clothes, but the doll clothes have found another home and Kay's dresses were starting to get too long to keep it underneath much longer anyway. Now we don't have daily piles of hair ribbons, elastics and barrettes on the floor!

Last year we had a gardener that was very enthusiastic about lettuce. While the four beds seemed a bit TOO enthusiastic to us, we did enjoy the fresh lettuce. Unfortunately, due to scheduling difficulties, we no longer have a gardener, so this year we were on our own. Ian built a garden in our front yard and we planted tomatoes and lettuce, and even some red peppers in a pot. To keep the lizards and birds from eating the seeds and tiny seedlings, we covered the bed with screen until the seedlings were big enough to survive on their own. Here is a view soon after we planted. Now Ian has thinned the rows and transplanted some of the crowded babies to other areas. The plants look great! Hopefully it won't get too hot for them before they are able to produce. We did start late... but even if the heat rises, we have a plan...

AHHHHH. Nothing like checking off some items from the to-do list!

Tree Trimming A & B

beautiful.




This vacation we have gotten to lots of little projects on our to-do list. One of those was tree trimming. This first kind is not the seasonal trim the Christmas tree kind of trimming, but the borrow a friends extension chain saw kind of trimming! Ian did the major work. Holding an extension chain saw up in the air for a good part of the morning is no easy task! But is was a fun new power toy! He cut down a lot of dead branches and then thinned out some branches from the big trees in the back yard. It was a family affair for the entire morning. I got in with the clippers and trimmed little sucker branches off trees as well as a lot of over grown plants. Kay and Tom enjoyed helping by moving branches to the wood pile. Why are kids so attracted to dead branches? Heidi helped some too with plant trimming and moving brush. What an object lesson! We were able to talk and think about how branches dry up and die when they are not connected to the tree just like we dry up when not connected to our Savior and his life. It is satifying to have that project done! Hopefully the gardens in our compound will benefit! I know our family enjoyed the morning together talking and working to make our compound look nice.

The other, more traditional December type of tree trimming happened this year as well! Dad's job is assembling the tree and hanging the lights up, then he claims the "supervisory" role. Mom's job is to hand out the ornaments, making sure they all have hooks and supplementing the upper branches at the end with a few extra ornaments. The kids all love hanging their special ornaments up on the tree and hearing the stories of where different family ornaments have come from over the years. I always enjoy the wide variety of ornaments we have: wood, metal, glass, yarn, clay, walnuts-almost anything you can imagine. This year we even had an ornament made out of a toilet paper tube (Go Tom!)! The shapes are even more varied than the materials: a violin, multiple air planes, a mailbox, and a church, a train, several dolls, a lobster, and lots of snowflakes, just to name a few! This process always reminds me how love, time and memories make even the most humble purple, clay angel beautiful! Here are the kids proud of our tree!As the kids get older I am enjoying the preperation for Christmas more each year. They love the traditions so much and I seem to find new wrinkles of meaning as I listen to them explain to each other why we do certain things.

Office Christmas Party

This year we tried something different for our office Christmas party and had a family party. Bonnie did a great job of organizing everything; we had a variety of African and Western style dishes to eat and lots of fun games. Here is Kay and her classmate competing in the three legged race. They did a good job! Here our guest house hostess is helping some of the littlest ones figure out the three legged race. In addition to the three legged race, there was an obstacle course, a water balloon toss, and a blindfolded pudding-feeding contest among other things. I still hope to download the pudding pictures, there was some classic messes there! Stay tuned... Everyone was engaged in cheering the competitors on. Although the kids did the majority of the competing, we got some of us "big kids" involved too. Here we have our acting director and construction supervisor in the wheelbarrow race. They barely won as our computer intern and a family visitor were right on their heels! Some of the ladies even participated in the water balloon toss! It was fun to interact as families with those we work with every day. Unfortunately two of our employees were sick and couldn't come, another had a wedding he had to attend, and Ian was on a flight and couldn't come either. Despite the missing faces, we had fun enjoying eachother.