Martha's Blog

My sister has been more active in writing. I wanted to direct you to Martha's blog if you want to read about her Paraguay experiences...
I have been "feeling" like the biblical "Martha" who is more worried about cooking and cleaning for my wonderful guests than blogging. I guess I also want to spend my time talking more or doing some quality time with each one of my kids or Oscar as well. Over tired kids need some extra attention or sleep, too.
We are enjoying our time together...be patient...I will blog again!

Pretty Things

We have some BEAUTIFUL flowers outside right now. Nancy has been snapping everything she

can get. I picked some pretty flowers to show you. I LOVE flowers!

Happy Birthday, Fred

We went out to eat for Fred's birthday last week. The restaurant is a Churrasquería...a steak house. The waiters will come to your table with a huge slab of beef, pork, chicken, sausage, chicken hearts (Brandon's favorite), etc. and they will serve you meat at your plate. The salads, bread, and pasta are served as a buffet. We went early...7 pm. When we were leaving, around 9 pm...the restaurant finally was filling up.

The boys' favorite dessert...watermelon!

Family Times

Family pictures...family times! Photos courtesy of Nancy Pauser, Kitchener Canada! (pictured drying dishes...for real!) I hope you enjoy them as much as we are!

We have a house full of boys...and Nancy, of course. She keeps us all laughing, anyway.

The little cousins are having fun together. Every once-in-a-while there is a tug-o-war over a ball, a car or a book. The love the sand pile and dirt and the mosquitos LOVE them!

We're having fun...and as you can see...I have little time to write.

Fun Times!!!

How to Pray for Others

In my personal time with God this morning, I was reading the Life Application Study Bible and I found an interesting prayer that Paul used to pray for the Colossians. He didn't even really know them, but he prayed for them. Read Colossians 1:9-14.
He starts out by requesting that they...
1. understand what God wants them to do
2. gain spiritual wisdom
3. honor and please God
4. produce every kind of good fruit
5. learn to know God better and better
6. be strengthened with God's glorious power
7. have great endurance and patience
8. be filled with joy
9. give thanks always
What a GREAT guide to praying for others. Sometimes we think we just don't know HOW to pray for someone. This prayer for the Colossians was such an encouragement to me. It's so deep and complete. I wrote it down in my prayer journal as a guide for me...to pray for you!
I hope you use it too.

Two Relaxing Days

My kids are raiding the snack box. There are smarties, cheesys, pretzels, cereal, gum, gummy bears, and more. The Doritos are long gone and the cream cheese is hidden. When all the rest is gone, we'll start on the Paraguayan goodies.
We had two relaxing days. Days to catch up on sleep and get to know each other, and cook together. The little cousins are working on sharing and are doing a great job of it. Only every once-in-a-while there is a little bit of disagreement. The older guys are busy with music or other things.
I remember when our small kids went up the the States for the first time and only wanted to eat hot dogs...every day! So, mom just stashed dozens of hot dogs in her refrigerator...and, they never have gotten sick of them. My sister's kids have been eating well...even spinach pie! (Tarta de Acelga/Espinaca).
Today we went to La Quinta. It's been in the 90's so we had a cool swim before siesta.
In a couple of hours...our rushing will begin with church/weekend activities and Monday...TEACHING! (Sometimes , our "day of rest" is a rushing day of activities!)
No more sleeping in, gals! We're on the run! Monday morning at 5:OO sharp we'll be up and preparing for school.

The Canadians are here!

We guessed! We guessed right! The next flight to come from Brazil was at 11:30 pm. We went and waited after calling back and forth to the airport. Everyone was fine and happy to be "home".
Martha was careful to look out for the bins, the kids, the luggage guys helping them so eagerly, etc. We quickly loaded up and were off.
Back home the kids woke up (I mean Brandon woke up.) and started going through the boxes of goodies from Grandma and others. We were tired, but joyful. Family, encouragement, letters to read or write from others, snacks, clothes and gifts. What excitement!
We have been having water problems. Well, no NEW NEWS to some, but anyway, when we heard the water coming back on...some of us rushed to shower.
Just about then, Martha looked frantically from here to there...her suitcase was no where to be found! With all her worry about the kids and the other boxes and suitcases, hers must have been left behind.
2:30 am was too early to call the baggage claim section at the airport, and so we went to bed praying for a miracle. Oscar came home at 10 am WITH THE SUITCASE!
Today we are "catching up" on family news, cousins getting to know cousins, finding a space for everything, etc.
Thankful that the water shut off...we left the dishes for later and raced to our beds for a "siesta"...a good way to adapt to Paraguayan Culture...don't you think?

Visitors???

My Vivistors are LATE! Well, good thing they started off with a Canada problem. They'll get plenty more Paraguay problems, but they probably won't complain as much (hahaha)...as if this kind of stuff NEVER happens in THEIR country. hummmm!
We were expecting them at 5 pm...it has turned into a LATE NIGHT WAIT! Yes, for us and them.
Do you think they are on that 11:10pm flight from Brazil?...or are they coming tomorrow morning?

Last Week's Camp Activities

I'm Off

I'm off to church camp! I won't be writing the rest of the week. I MIGHT come back on any odd day just to check email, but...it's Easter Break...so, I might not.
The house is clean, the clothes are dried and folded, packed or put away, the refrigerator is empty, etc. The boys already left. This warm, end-of-summer heat calls them to a refreshing pool at the campsite. No school, some homework (not done yet, of course)...it's VACATION. Hey...we must enjoy every second of it!
I am going to make traditional "Easter Chipa" today, take some to a friend and then go on to camp.
See ya!

More about the storm...

Check out this video from Ultima Hora. Scroll down until you see the title "Así comenzó la tormenta" (this is how the storm started) and watch this! This morning we were left with black muck all over everything.

The Strangest Thing

The strangest thing happened today.
I was snuggled up for a nice Saturday afternoon nap. Gaby came in at 3: 30 and told me that he and Brandon were going in to church already. I wanted to keep resting so I barely opened my eyes, but after he left, I noticed that everything was dark out...like night time. I said to Oscar, "what's going on?" Oscar said that there was a storm coming.
Some storm! Everything was BLACK! The wind started picking up. It was 3:30 in the afternoon and it looked pitch-black like night time! I said a prayer...God take care of my kids! (they just left for church)...thinking that we were in a huge tornado-type storm. I wondered if we were experiencing an eclipse that I didn't know about. It was weird and scary. So much for my snuggly siesta!
Just then the wind picked up a little more and things were getting bad. We ran downstairs to find Black Dust everywhere, on the table, floors, outside, etc. My clothes were dry. I ran to get them and the Black rain already had spotted them like polka-dots.
Soon after the rain, things looked clear again.
From news reports I gather that the storm picked up all the ashes and smoke from Friday's forest fires. The town lookes like soot was dumped on it.
I read some online reports. Click if you want to see some pictures.
Ultima Hora (scroll down a little bit to get more of the pictures...the article is in spanish), ABC

So Sad...

This morning we were shocked and saddened by the news of our students' dad's death. He was a professional soccer player and was playing a friendly, neighborhood game. He made a goal and ran around celebrating, and then just collapsed, dead. He was 37. They have four kids...one is a newborn. The two older girls are in Colegio Privado Adonai and the two younger boys are at home.
Oscar was visiting them all day and has been praying that the Lord may comfort this family facing such a tragedy. Just last week we stood on their sidewalk talking to this man when we brought their younger girl home from camp, early, because she was sick.
Pray with us, please!

Teen Camp

This was an amazing teen camp. There were 105 kids (jr. high and high school) plus 10 teachers. The kids slept in tents, played volleyball, swam, played soccer, drank tereré (like the girls in the picture with their thermos and cup with a straw.) They sang, learned Bible verses, prepared activities for talent night, and ate and ate and ate!

This was the first year that the students actually played the instruments and lead Worship. It was very exciting to see their talent.

We had such a great group. There were no discipline problems. Everyone stayed up until about 4 in the morning, but no major problems. Praise God!

It was a great opportunity to "get away" from the normal school day and family life.

One Photo!

Betty...this is for you!

Since this adventurous night...we have been locking Edson in his room, thanks to one commenter's advice!

No jelly pictures. It was already too late to be messing around with with cameras. Plus...I didn't want HIM to think this was all too funny.

Laugh...if you wish

Where do I start?
I was going to post about our camp, but something else came up.
I am usually laughing at the mischievous things my sister's kids and my cousin's kids do. Mine NEVER did such things, no really, this proud mother assures you!
This is NOT an April Fool's joke...Last night we were all so tired and got to bed around 9 pm...a little bit later we heard a noise in the computer room. Oscar went out and sent Edson back in to me. He was completely covered with white cream (some zinc oxide cream for diaper rash, or sores). His face, hands and clothes were completely white...but that's not all...the computer screen, the chair in front of it, the mouse, the floor, the bathroom sink, the closet, his bed, the wall...yes, everything had white stripes of greasy cream...everywhere. While I wiped up the mess ON the things, Oscar wiped up Edson, plus spanked him and sent him to bed.
We kind of laughed back in bed...it was the first time he ever did something like that.
About 10:20 pm, Oscar jumped out of bed...we were both already asleep. He said he felt something or heard something. (I think the Holy Spirit was tugging on his arm.) He left the room to check on Edson.
He came back saying..."Edson is NOT in his room". I jumped out of bed and was just steps behind Oscar as we ran the house looking for him.
Oscar was in the kitchen when I heard him saying "EDSON, what were you doing?" Edson had run to the laundry room to hide. By then I was at the scene of the crime, also. There was a broken egg on the counter, water on the floor and guava jelly everywhere...coating Edson's pijamas, hands and face, the refrigerator, the floor, and stuff inside.
Oscar found Edson on the floor in front of the fridge with the door opened sitting with his hands IN the jelly...eating it and slopping it everywhere. He must have tried to eat the egg thinking it was a hard boiled egg and when he didn't like it, he drank water from our thermos getting egg and water all over his clothes and the floor. Then, since no one was around to supervise, he got into the jelly and had a wonderful, late-night dessert.
We spanked, cleaned up the mess, changed clothes, and sent him on to bed. I was still cracking up at the craziness of everything he did in just 40 minutes, when Oscar came in and said..."I LOCKED him in his room this time!"
I am SO thankful that the Lord woke us up...just in time!
And...NO...my (older) kids NEVER did stuff like this!