Cooool!

On this cold, rainy afternoon. I took a tour around the world! Check out this site by TrekEarth on travelling the world through pictures. I went to Paraguay and Indonesia. It's cool.
I originally came to this site to find out about a flower I posted earlier. It is from the Samu'u or Palo Boracho tree and I wanted to find a picture of it. That's how I got distracted, anyway, the third picture of my recent blog about flowers is Samu'u...
Well, I enjoyed my travels...now, back to work!

Today's Weather - Rainy

Well, its in the 50's! After a BEAUTIFUL, warm summer, we are finally getting fall weather! It's cold and rainy. Brandon woke up today (they have a friendly-soccer tournament this afternoon) and said, "mom, when is it going to stop!" It has been rainy ever since last Saturday and the weather reports say it will continue until Sunday. I dry clothes in the living room under the ceiling fan at night. We fixed up a major roof leak by the stairway...we soaked up the 'lake' with 2 towels one morning.
We needed the rain badly. So far...I'm not complaining. The outside looks green again.

Beauty

Once again...thanks to Nancy. Aren't these just beautiful?

The Four Little Boy Cousins

Memories of our cousins...

Passion Fruit Juice

I found some links to the Passion Fruit. We can usually get the yellow kind. I can't really describe the flavor, but it is another one of my favorites.
I usually make juice out of it. Some people make mousse or other desserts. In Paraguay they always say it is a natural sedative...good for slowing kids down at night...we thought!
We tried that when my sister was here, but it slowed HER down instead! I think it wired her kids up even more! We drank the delicious juice at lunch time and by evening, she was dizzy and had a headache. That's when I remembered what we drank at lunchtime.
Another site on Passion Fruit mentioned this..."2 glasses of juice will naturally calm down the most hyperactive child, and for this reason it is highly valued by Brazilian mothers."
It has a super flavor, but just drink it when you're ready to relax!

Memories

I just found these pictures. I don't even know whose they really are or who even took them.. They seem to have been passed around to many... anyway, they appeared on my desktop.

These WERE my boys 3 years ago.

Gaby is now 183 cm. (6.0)

Brandon is 180 cm. (5.9)

(We just measured 2 days ago.)

The Birthday Party

Yesterday was Stephen's birthday, but we had a "Cousins" birthday party one Sunday afternoon. It was so fun and I believe the boys LOVED it. Martha and I enjoyed preparing for it!

We made a cake, used Winnie the Pooh decorations, bought some party favors, had lots of cookies, candy and lolipops, played games and popped balloons! It was fun! Here are some memories to share.

Random Pictures of Last Month's Activities

The Adonai Praise and Worship team (Gaby is the tall guy on the right.)


Lots of people...lots of clothes to dry!


Last memories of Paraguay at the airport.

Martha helping with dinner preparations.

Nancy - She just brushed her teeth. (I think.)

Steevo -my nickname for my little nephew Stephen.

Jason - after our San Pedro trip.

Edson was drinking a

yogurt.

One more kumquat post

My aunt sent me a recipe for kumquat syrup! This is so good on pancakes. I also dipped cookies in it for a cold, whipped cream, mousse, creamy dessert. It is also good on crackers with cream cheese for an afternoon snack.

Merlot Candied Kumquats

INGREDIENTS:
1 cups tart kumquats
1-1/2 cups Merlot
1/4 cup water
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
10 cloves
3 cinnamon sticks
DIRECTIONS:
Prepare kumquats:
1. With a sharp knife cut kumquats in half, remove seeds and put in a pot of cold water just to cover.
2. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 8 to 10 min.
3. Drain and refresh with cold water.
Prepare syrup:
1. In a med boiler add all ingredients except kumquats and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 10 min. (until it begins to thicken)
2. Add kumquats and simmer an additional 5 min.
3. Pour into clean jars.
Makes 2 pints. Great with ham or chicken.

Kumquats

My Kumquats are ripening nicely. I've been enjoying watching them grow and turn orange so very slowly, it seemed. I linked a site you can look at for nutritional value and recipes. I made some syrup (a recipe from my aunt) that is delicious.

...always a yummy fruit in season!

Tropical Kumquat Cake - Oscar's Birthday Cake

Tropical Kumquat Cake
From: Recipezaar.com
By: Mercy - Aug 26, 2004

Ingredients:
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups chopped kumquats
1 cup chopped nuts
1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple, well drained (I used fresh pineapple.)
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
Directions:
1.In a bowl, beat eggs, sugar and oil.
2.Fold in dry ingredients and mix well.
3.Add kumquats, nuts and pineapple.
4.Pour into greased and floured tube pan.
5.Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes at 350°F.
6.Cool, remove from pan.

I made it twice already...it was THAT good!

Happy Birthday...OSCAR

Today is Mother's Day and Oscar's Birthday...we are having a SUPER-FUN day! It's a holiday...no school. No obligations. Visitors, yes...well, don't we always have them? That is a good sign. It means that people enjoy our company. (The only problem is that each one of them has a notebook and is sitting at the table communicating with others...hahahaha). We had a super Tropical Cake...I will post the recipe and fotos later.
On this first COLD day of fall...we are enjoying the warmth of family.
Happy Birthday...Happy Mother's Day.

A Fun Sunday

Coming home from church on Sundays we usually come across an intersection that has a LONG traffic light wait. Thankfully, in the hot sun and long wait, we are entertained by a man "working" for coins or applauses. Edson is usually thrilled and spends these couple of minutes laughing hysterically. Our juggler has become "a friend" and we gladly put coins in his roughed-up hat. He deserves it! He made us laugh! He juggles balls, rings and sometimes even torches with REAL fire. He is very talented.

With a car-full of tired hot, tired, little boys last Sunday; he became our hero, our entertainment, a few minutes of happiness. He's funny. He does tricks. He's a clown. It's his job and he makes us smile!

A Quick Trip

We took a quick trip to San Pedro with Martha's family and Jason. We were surprised by CLOSED shops and NO food at even a gas station. Well...it WAS Labor Day so people must have been taking it THAT serious. We met up with the boys at my sister-in-law's house and saw a petting zoo! There were chickens, guinea chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, pigs, piglets, cows, bulls, oxen, and sheep...plus, dogs and cats, of course. We headed on to my mother-in-laws for a baking class. She was preparing fresh bread in a TATACUÁ...a fire oven (a brick oven). We visited Pastor Marcial's Mom's house and saw more animals, (all of the above) PLUS, goats and A MONKEY, her house pet found in the woods. After that we had dinner at Pastor Marcial's house and the Weinhardts got to take a horse and buggy ride to Vivi's mom's house where the young kids were all playing volleyball.
We had one more adventure planned for today, but the 25 kilometers on the dirt roads in the rain scared us off. We DID get home earlier than planned and even found a crate of fresh pineapples on the side of the highway for only $3.00. It was a fun Quick Trip and GOOD to see family, again.