School Camp

This week's 2-day camp is Jr. High and High school. I spent all day yesterday in the kitchen cooking for 100+ people. It was about 95º outside and probably 115º in the kitchen! The kids had their own group to lead worship and it was excellent. It was the first time that the players AND leaders were all students. They divided up into groups for workshops, games, and preparations for Talent Night. They were allowed to prepare a skit, a coreography, a song or all three. It is such an excellent group to work with. There was so much enthusiasm and cooperation. The kids were soooo happy and enjoying themselves so much.
We had a student since 7th grade that has been a real handfull...now she is a senior. In almost every activity she is "the difficult one". More than once we sat around the "decision table" ready to kick her out, but someone would say..."let's just give her one more chance". Once she called Oscar an very bad name and was suspended. One year she was sent home from camp. The only problem was...her mom was not home and after contacting her, and not having anywhere else to go...she came to MY HOUSE! We talked, and talked, and talked and talked...way up till 3am. But, that was the year she broke down and we started a great friendship. She still is (often) a troublemaker, but I have learned how to get to her heart. Yesterday, I was busy in the kitchen and she came to tell me hi...BUT, she was soaking wet from the pool. She just wanted a reaction. I know she wanted me to get mad, but I just hugged her back...all wet and everything. I am amazed at the change in her attitude and life. I see her walls being broken down as she lets love flow in...and out.
School Camps are LOTS OF WORK, but when we see that little seed planted...even years before...growing into a "beautiful flower" or a "tall, strong tree". Then, it's worth the sweat,...the cost, the prayers, and the tears!

Flowers

I don't know the name of this flower in English. I tried to check it out this morning online, but I couldn't find anything on it. It is called Joya del Jardin (Garden Jewel) in Spanish. There are yellow ones and wine colored ones. This picture is taken at our house. It is one of my favorites since it spreads rays of hope and beauty.
Does anyone know what this flower could be called in English?

Last night's soccer tournament

The 11th graders organized a fund-raising soccer tournament last night. Brandon and Gaby were totally distracted with this exciting event. Oscar and I were not really that excited...Thursday night (our night of rest) was supposed to be relaxing...with book.
So, with storm clouds and lightning on the way, we all piled into the car with great hopes of winning this great high school soccer tournament. We dropped the kids off and felt a few sprinkles. We told them that it would be dangerous to play in the rain on the cement soccer floor and it should be cancelled if it rained more. They looked very un-worried and ran off to get with their teams.
We took Edson on a visit and for an hour he and another two year old played wonderfully together. Both moms enjoyed the break! We then went on to a huge supermarket and stayed until closing hours thinking that the kids still needed time.
Back at school, we found that BOTH Brandon's and Gaby's teams were in the finals and they were playing the LAST, exciting game...the winners had a box (1 kilo) of (already melting) icecream. The game was very intense, very exciting! Both teams played hard. In the last 56 seconds...Gaby's team made a goal, breaking the 2-2 tie.
These huge, sweaty guys ran off the field towards the icecream...scooped it up with their hands and fingers! No one thought to bring spoons or cones for the winners and so they were digging in with their dirty, sweaty hands to slurp up this melted mush.
Oooooooohhh! It was gross and yucky...but...THEY WERE THE WINNERS!

Golden Rain

Lluvia de Oro...Golden Rain. This tree is another one of my favorites! We took the picture in February. Oscar thought the oxen and cart were great! The flowers usually bloom for soooo long. Through wind storms or rain the flowers still look so beautiful. Sometimes the flowers last a month or two. It's brightness and long-lasting beauty cheers me up every time I see it.

No. 300

I have finally reached 300 posts!

Today's post is about our kid's camp. Yesterday we started out our spiritual retreats at school and the 1st-3rd graders had the opportunity to spend a day away from school for some bible lessons on "Peace". They got there a little bit after 7 and had a day full of worship, Bible stories, workshops, a hamburger cookout, games, swimming, and lots of fun.

Today another group will go...the 4th-6th graders. They are planning on spending the night!

Oscar and I have been keeping busy buying food and other things for camp...like 18 lbs of noodles, 8 chickens, 15 lbs of ground beef, 15 lbs of rice, 80 apples, 160 hamburgers plus buns, etc...

Pray for the safety of our students and teachers!

Beautiful Skies

Romans 15:4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Psalm 31:24 Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.
Psalm 71:5 For you have been my hope, O Sovereign LORD, my confidence since my youth.
Romans 12:12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
1 Peter 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
Psalm 33:18 But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love

Pomegranate

Another summer fruit...Pomegranate.
Ours is not the very sweet kind. Personally, I don't like it very much since it is a little bit bitter, but some people do. We have two shrub-trees, both have the same kind of fruit. When it's ripe, it splits open. It is dry and you can pluck the seeds out, stick them in your mouth like tic-tacs and suck the fruity part off the seed.

Chipa Fun

We had a group of teens over on Friday afternoon. They are working on paying off their church camp for Easter week. We had fun making chipa. They mixed, kneaded and formed the chipas all on their own. I DID turn around at one point to see them throwing the dough back and forth to each other as a basketball. They said...it would mix better that way. Grandma Sergia would have fainted! They also cleaned up, washed EVERYTHING, and swept. We also made an extra batch so they could eat it! As soon as it was done, they took it straight out to the neighborhood to sell. They came back minutes later with it ALL sold!

I included our recipe...

Chipas (Cheese Bread)

16 ounces Mandioca starch - 3 1/2 cups

Salt

anise seeds (optional - a very Paraguayan treat)

1/2 cup Sunflower seed oil

3/4 cup milk

3 eggs

1/3 cup Parmesan cheese grated + 1-3/4 cups Mild cheddar, grated

(I use 1/2 lb. fresh farmer's cheese or Queso Paraguay)

Bring milk and oil to a boil in a small saucepan. Add to the mandioca starch, salt and anise. Mix and allow to cool a little. Incorporate the eggs, one at a time, and keep kneading. Add the cheese and blend well. The dough may be very sticky. (If it is, add a little more manioc starch or cornmeal flour.) Place a little oil on the hands and round dough into balls. Divide into pieces the size of a walnut or small plum. Arrange on a baking sheet. Bake at 375ºF until golden brown, about 10 to 12 minutes. Serve warm.

Sasha

These pictures are of our Bull Terrier, Sasha. She is STILL very destructive. She chews on anything and everything that is left outside, shoes, flip flops, toys, pillows for our lawn chairs, our picnic table, bones, fruit, coconuts, etc. etc.

She loves to run and jump- super high. She does those trick when she plays with Oscar. She barks at any new person coming around. She eats our leftovers!

Guava Jam

First off...I have to go pick the guavas. I have two trees out back. One has a pink center and the other is kind of orange-ish. I cut the tops and bottoms off, cut them in half, scoop out the seeds with a melon-baller (which is the perfect size!) and then wash them in order to get all the rest of the tiny seeds out. I boil the guava halves until soft, then put them through the blender. In one pot-ful of guava pulp I add one kilo (2.2lbs) of sugar. It has to boil down for hours! My jam is done when it changes to a thick, dark red sauce. It is VERY messy and when it boils it can shoot out at you...but, it is so good! After it boils down for a while, sometimes I will put it in my slow cooker in order to finish the cooking process on the lowest setting. Then, it doesn't shoot out while it's boiling.

You can buy guava paste in the states, in international stores.

Oh No! It's Guava Time!

Yeah...and I am wasting time...again.
Guavas are ripe and they ripen fast. When I see more than 20 on the ground that means I better hurry up to make my jellies fast or they'll be done. It'll only be a little while longer and we will have to wait a year for this rich-in-vitamin-C fruit.
So, I got online...and punched in...guava recipes. I found this place... http://www.recipezaar.com/ and found 171 recipes for guavas. Then I checked out papaya and found 161 recipes. Then...
Well, then I found out I could organize my own online cookbook with the recipes that I liked or preferred. Then...I had to check out a recipe for...
You know the story...I should have been picking and seeding guavas, or folding the clothes, or sweeping up the pile of dirt from the sand pail, or whatever besides internet!
I did find some excellent guava recipes, though.
How about Guava Cake, Guava Flan, Guava Bars, or Guava Crumble?

Cherimoya

One of my favorite all-time tropical fruits is the Cherimoya. I have also heard it called Pawpaw or custard apple. Every year I remember this fruit as the Easter fruit. When we would have our family-church camps in San Pedro I would always go next door (to my mother-in-law's house) to pick them, hide them, and eat them in a day or two. My friend, Genara, would always save them for me when we would go to visit.
Now we have our own little tree in the back yard. Birds love them, too! That's why we pick them green and let them set out on the countertop for about 2 days and then break them open to eat them. It tastes like a tropical custard. It is filled with black seeds about the size of your little finger nail. You have to suck all the white stuff off the seeds and spit the seeds out. It's soooo good!
It doesn't keep well. I never tried freezing it. You'll have to come try it around Easter time!

Other sites to check out...cherimoya.com. Ours looks similar to the annona squamosa.

I just edited this post...I found some Cherimoya recipes. This is exciting.

Wow! Another Week??

Last week went by soooooo fast. Where did my days go? What did I do to take up all my time?
I'll start backwards...yesterday there was a fund-raising meal at church and in the afternoon a friend and I spent the afternoon talking about the "Five Languages of Love". She told me how she always thought her dad didn't love her because he's a quiet guy who doesn't show alot of affection. He is a gift-giver and she didn't realize that that was the way he was expressing his love to her. We talked for a while longer...we are both "quality time" people.
Friday and Saturday I was at an ACSI leadership conference. It was a very interesting time of learning and fellowship. I felt "free" of the "mommy" distractions of a two year old and enjoyed the discussions and the time away.
Monday, Tuesday and Thursday mornings I have meetings with different people in the mission and in school. Edson gladly goes "visiting" with other friends from church. Lately, he has been enjoying his time with others. (Several months back he would scream if I left him with another family. Now he likes it.)
Last Tuesday Oscar went to San Pedro to butcher a small cow. He brought back three rubbermaid bins of meat that we hurried to package and store in the freezer. Last year when we butchered I didn't buy meat until November! Every day I have to move it a little bit here and there or it will all freeze together and be impossible to take out or thaw in the future.
Thursday nights we read a book with the kids. That's our family activity for the night and they usually love it. We are reading The Life God Blesses by Jim Cymbala and we are all enjoying amazing stories and testimonies included.
Fridays the teens all meet at church for handball and soccer. A small group of guys (my kids included) are working to pay off their Easter Camp with food sales on Friday nights. I started up a prayer meeting with "mothers of teens" that night since our teens are already there playing. This Friday the guys are ALL coming to our house to make CHIPAS. I will teach them how...they will do the work!
So...these are my activities. In just a bit, I'm off to our Monday Morning Missionary Meetings.

New Week Ahead

Well, the birthday's over. The ice cream is gone. The birthday wishes, facebook greetings, cards or gifts have stopped. We all await a new week, a new month, a new year!
It has been extremely hot and humid lately. I thought I'd never say this, but I'm thinking that a little bit of snow would be good right now!...well, just for a day. Then, it would be good to go back to the nice sub-tropical weather of Paraguay.
Some news around town...
The guavas are in season now...a good source of vitamin C. I have been making homemade guava (butter) jelly at least once a week. I store it in the freezer and it lasts almost all year long!
Lemons are ripe and beautiful! We put lemon juice on EVERYTHING, and make lemonade all day long.
Most neighborhood kids are back in school. School supplies are stacked up everywhere.
There are 200+ cases of dengue in Paraguay, but not an epidemic yet.
Family news...Oscar is going to San Pedro tomorrow to butcher a cow, and do some other stuff. Maybe I'll have him take pictures for you all.
Well, gotta go! I have to get some WORK done! I slept in this morning (this is so unusual...oh I mean, I went back to bed AFTER I got the kids and Oscar off to school), then I sat down to fiddle with the computer. My cutie-pie is up sooooo. I gotta go.