March 16th we celebrated our 16th anniversary!
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Missions week at ACA
This week the kids were studying about different countries during Mission Week. Gabriel had to research Netherlands and Brandon’s grade did Brazil. We found AND tried these two recipes and they are wonderful. We can’t invite you over for a tea, but we can teach you how to make them…
Have fun, just like we did.
Anise Cookies - Netherland
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp anise seed
Grated lemon rind
1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Beat eggs and sugar together.
3. Sift flour with salt and baking powder. Add to the egg mixture.
Blend in the vanilla, lemon rind and anise seed.
4. Spoon into a greased long (about 12") poundcake tin. Bake about 40 minutes, until light brown.
5. Slice while warm into 1/3" pieces. Place on a large cookie sheet and toast in the oven until golden. Turn over and toast other side.
Makes about 20.
Pao de Queijo (Cheese bread)
A famous bread from the state of Minas Gerais served at most steak houses in southern Brazil. Unusual in that the recipe calls for manioc starch (available in some Latin groceries) rather than wheat flour. Leavening is from steam during baking, similar to the way eclairs are leavened. These rolls do not hold well and are best consumed while warm, directly from the oven. In Brazil these rolls would be made with Queijo de Minas, a mild, white cheese similar to Muenster in texture - but quite different in taste. They are addictive.
16 ounces Manioc starch (polvilho) - 3 1/2 cups
1/2 cup Sunflower seed oil
3/4 cup lowfat milk
3 eggs, large
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1-3/4 cups Mild cheddar, grated
Bring milk and oil to a boil in a small saucepan. Add to the manioc. Mix and allow to cool a little. Incorporate the eggs, one at a time. Add the cheese and blend well.
Divide into pieces the size of a walnut or small plum. Place a little oil on the hands and round dough into balls. Arrange on a baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees Farenheit until done, about 10 to 12 minutes. Serve warm.
The kids ate these almost as fast as popcorn!
Tomorrow we have an international dinner. There are usually about 400 people there. Since there are many different countries represented at this school everyone has to make typical foods of their own country. It is amazing! There are Koreans, Chinese, Paraguayans, South Africans, Americans, Mexicans, etc. Last year they counted 20 different countries represented at the dinner. The teachers make the desserts!
After dinner there is a special prayer for each country and it is even translated in 4 languages!
It makes me wonder what heaven will be like...all these different people and languages...all praising the same FATHER.
Have fun, just like we did.
Anise Cookies - Netherland
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp anise seed
Grated lemon rind
1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Beat eggs and sugar together.
3. Sift flour with salt and baking powder. Add to the egg mixture.
Blend in the vanilla, lemon rind and anise seed.
4. Spoon into a greased long (about 12") poundcake tin. Bake about 40 minutes, until light brown.
5. Slice while warm into 1/3" pieces. Place on a large cookie sheet and toast in the oven until golden. Turn over and toast other side.
Makes about 20.
Pao de Queijo (Cheese bread)
A famous bread from the state of Minas Gerais served at most steak houses in southern Brazil. Unusual in that the recipe calls for manioc starch (available in some Latin groceries) rather than wheat flour. Leavening is from steam during baking, similar to the way eclairs are leavened. These rolls do not hold well and are best consumed while warm, directly from the oven. In Brazil these rolls would be made with Queijo de Minas, a mild, white cheese similar to Muenster in texture - but quite different in taste. They are addictive.
16 ounces Manioc starch (polvilho) - 3 1/2 cups
1/2 cup Sunflower seed oil
3/4 cup lowfat milk
3 eggs, large
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1-3/4 cups Mild cheddar, grated
Bring milk and oil to a boil in a small saucepan. Add to the manioc. Mix and allow to cool a little. Incorporate the eggs, one at a time. Add the cheese and blend well.
Divide into pieces the size of a walnut or small plum. Place a little oil on the hands and round dough into balls. Arrange on a baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees Farenheit until done, about 10 to 12 minutes. Serve warm.
The kids ate these almost as fast as popcorn!
Tomorrow we have an international dinner. There are usually about 400 people there. Since there are many different countries represented at this school everyone has to make typical foods of their own country. It is amazing! There are Koreans, Chinese, Paraguayans, South Africans, Americans, Mexicans, etc. Last year they counted 20 different countries represented at the dinner. The teachers make the desserts!
After dinner there is a special prayer for each country and it is even translated in 4 languages!
It makes me wonder what heaven will be like...all these different people and languages...all praising the same FATHER.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Saturday Night
On Saturday we heard a CRASH and even Edson jumped at it. It was time for our Praise and Worship practice. All of a sudden there was no electricity. The sound system guys were confused as to why their plugs weren’t functioning. It was 5 pm in the afternoon. Church was to start at 7:30. Neigborhood people started walking faster toward the main road and someone mentioned that there was an accident right around the corner. We only heard this loud crash, but no screams or the screeching brakes of vehicles.
We started to go in groups to see what had happened and were startled to see the nose of a pick-up embedded into the bottom part of a cement electric post. The rest of the pole was lying across the street with wires snapped in all directions. The 16 year old driver was fine! He wanted to disappear before the police came and found out he had no driver’s permit. The pick-up was LOANED to him.
The amazing thing was that Oscar and David had just passed the reckless driver and were only blocks away. David’s fiancé was walking down the road. If they had stopped to pick her up all three of them would have been UNDER the smashed column. When the column fell, wires snapped. Sparks and even small fires flew all around Maria who started running back to church.
Since we changed our clocks back last week, it started getting dark around 6:30 pm and by 7.00 the whole neighborhood was completely dark. Unfortunately, church was cancelled and we all went home. Fortunately, we got to bed by 9!
Another AMAZING thing…the electric company got a new post up and things working again right after midnight. That’s amazing because in Paraguay usually things aren’t fixed that fast.
We started to go in groups to see what had happened and were startled to see the nose of a pick-up embedded into the bottom part of a cement electric post. The rest of the pole was lying across the street with wires snapped in all directions. The 16 year old driver was fine! He wanted to disappear before the police came and found out he had no driver’s permit. The pick-up was LOANED to him.
The amazing thing was that Oscar and David had just passed the reckless driver and were only blocks away. David’s fiancé was walking down the road. If they had stopped to pick her up all three of them would have been UNDER the smashed column. When the column fell, wires snapped. Sparks and even small fires flew all around Maria who started running back to church.
Since we changed our clocks back last week, it started getting dark around 6:30 pm and by 7.00 the whole neighborhood was completely dark. Unfortunately, church was cancelled and we all went home. Fortunately, we got to bed by 9!
Another AMAZING thing…the electric company got a new post up and things working again right after midnight. That’s amazing because in Paraguay usually things aren’t fixed that fast.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Special treats for our special visitors
Visitors are some of the most important people in our house. When there is a visitor the whole house seems to beam with delight. The kids are happy, usually sharing, finding things to show or give away. They tell stories, show pictures and love to share something “special” like pop, dessert, Doritos, or just anything to make our guests feel wonderfully welcome. Finally, after some awkward moments with company (like being forced to share something you really wanted to save after the kids’ interminable insistence and not wanting to be rude) we finally decided as a family that the “special treats” like M & M’s, peanut butter, Doritos, craisins and chocolates would be served with “Americans” or others who would appreciate where these things came from. They (American treats) won’t be served with just any meal or just any visitor.
On Sunday, Ben and Vivi came over for an unplanned Sunday Lunch. We got home a few minutes before they came and quickly started preparing for this delightful event. We put water on to boil, started making a salad; set the table perfectly…we were having VISITORS and we wanted everything to be beautiful.
The meal was wonderful; quick and easy, but colorful and tasty. As always, there was fun conversation and stories of the kid’s experiences while Vivi was living with us. Nearing the end of the meal, Gaby screamed with an unusual happiness. “Mom, we have AMERICANS over! We can have a special dessert!” Everyone laughed! I felt kind of silly for making a RULE that was voiced at the top of his lungs, but smiled and got out a “special AMERICAN treat” for our visitors…Peanut butter cookies with M & M’s inside! Special treats for our special visitors!
On Sunday, Ben and Vivi came over for an unplanned Sunday Lunch. We got home a few minutes before they came and quickly started preparing for this delightful event. We put water on to boil, started making a salad; set the table perfectly…we were having VISITORS and we wanted everything to be beautiful.
The meal was wonderful; quick and easy, but colorful and tasty. As always, there was fun conversation and stories of the kid’s experiences while Vivi was living with us. Nearing the end of the meal, Gaby screamed with an unusual happiness. “Mom, we have AMERICANS over! We can have a special dessert!” Everyone laughed! I felt kind of silly for making a RULE that was voiced at the top of his lungs, but smiled and got out a “special AMERICAN treat” for our visitors…Peanut butter cookies with M & M’s inside! Special treats for our special visitors!
Saturday, March 17, 2007
skateboards, math and such...
The kids were loaned a skateboard the other day. Wow! Suddenly everything is so much faster as they skateboard from one room to another. On a tile floor THAT is pretty exciting…especially when a 5 ft. 10 in kid falls flat on his face in the kitchen. What’s worse is that I almost accidentally stepped on it while holding Edson…that would have been a sight! The skateboard is now outlawed in the house!
This past week the kids were preparing for math tests. I was helping Gaby one day and realized that what he was studying (proportions, unit rates, simple geometry) was so much easier than the real life situations that I had to figure out! I have to figure out what flight is cheaper, faster, arriving at reasonable hours, what dates, infant taxes, city codes, e-tickets or regular tickets, and how many bags allowed. While Edson entertains himself or sleeps, I quickly jump online to check out prices for our trip up in July. We want to be at all three camps, plus visit family. Sometimes all this overwhelms me and I would rather just sit down and do unit rates and price rates on paper, make-believe stuff that doesn’t matter much! Math may seem hard to them, but they don’t realize how easy it really is compared to future real world problems they’re bound to face.
This past week the kids were preparing for math tests. I was helping Gaby one day and realized that what he was studying (proportions, unit rates, simple geometry) was so much easier than the real life situations that I had to figure out! I have to figure out what flight is cheaper, faster, arriving at reasonable hours, what dates, infant taxes, city codes, e-tickets or regular tickets, and how many bags allowed. While Edson entertains himself or sleeps, I quickly jump online to check out prices for our trip up in July. We want to be at all three camps, plus visit family. Sometimes all this overwhelms me and I would rather just sit down and do unit rates and price rates on paper, make-believe stuff that doesn’t matter much! Math may seem hard to them, but they don’t realize how easy it really is compared to future real world problems they’re bound to face.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Birthday blessings...
“What you have done is wonderful…all the days planned for me were written in Your book before I was one day old.” Psalm 139.14,16 NCV
14,244.75 days later I am still in awe at where I am and what the Lord has done in my life. Some people asked me if I did something special for my birthday yesterday and I realized that the WHOLE day was full of blessings. I am blessed with a family. I have three boys and a wonderful husband. My kids are my friends…we can laugh at or talk about anything. We can sing together, pray together and even hug each other. We can tell secrets and even write notes to each other. That’s a blessing! Edson is a great baby, he smiles and laughs, sleeps well, loves people and doesn’t even mess his diapers much. That’s a blessing. My husband is the only guy I know who can clean, cook, do gardening, take care of the kids, change and bathe the baby, worry about and fix the car problems, run around town doing paper work for us, for school, and for others; clean the bathroom, work at school, counsel after hours, and even have time to bring me flowers and take me out for my birthday! What a blessing!
More blessings…Vivi and Ben invited us over for a taco dinner, Mariela and Nancy embroidered hand made gifts, Blanca prepared a meal for our whole family, Ellen bought me shoes, Roger called and talked for a 1 ½ hours, Mom, Martha, Dianne, Amy, Aunt Kath and Linda sent me emails, Liz sent a box, a pile of boxes from Tremont came at perfect timing…even one box full of Doritos from Mark, a card/letter from Emilia, phone calls from some friends at church and hugs and kisses from teachers and students at school…what wonderful blessings!
Dear God… What you have done is wonderful! Thanks for planning all these beautiful days of my life and filling them with such amazing blessings, especially those big hugs from you…from family…and friends. Could tomorrow be even better?
Thanks to all of you for being a blessing to me!
P.S. Late at night Oscar and I realized that I didn’t eat any birthday cake or ice cream and no one sang Happy Birthday to me…oh, except Mom and Dad on the answering machine after we got home!
14,244.75 days later I am still in awe at where I am and what the Lord has done in my life. Some people asked me if I did something special for my birthday yesterday and I realized that the WHOLE day was full of blessings. I am blessed with a family. I have three boys and a wonderful husband. My kids are my friends…we can laugh at or talk about anything. We can sing together, pray together and even hug each other. We can tell secrets and even write notes to each other. That’s a blessing! Edson is a great baby, he smiles and laughs, sleeps well, loves people and doesn’t even mess his diapers much. That’s a blessing. My husband is the only guy I know who can clean, cook, do gardening, take care of the kids, change and bathe the baby, worry about and fix the car problems, run around town doing paper work for us, for school, and for others; clean the bathroom, work at school, counsel after hours, and even have time to bring me flowers and take me out for my birthday! What a blessing!
More blessings…Vivi and Ben invited us over for a taco dinner, Mariela and Nancy embroidered hand made gifts, Blanca prepared a meal for our whole family, Ellen bought me shoes, Roger called and talked for a 1 ½ hours, Mom, Martha, Dianne, Amy, Aunt Kath and Linda sent me emails, Liz sent a box, a pile of boxes from Tremont came at perfect timing…even one box full of Doritos from Mark, a card/letter from Emilia, phone calls from some friends at church and hugs and kisses from teachers and students at school…what wonderful blessings!
Dear God… What you have done is wonderful! Thanks for planning all these beautiful days of my life and filling them with such amazing blessings, especially those big hugs from you…from family…and friends. Could tomorrow be even better?
Thanks to all of you for being a blessing to me!
P.S. Late at night Oscar and I realized that I didn’t eat any birthday cake or ice cream and no one sang Happy Birthday to me…oh, except Mom and Dad on the answering machine after we got home!
Monday, February 26, 2007
Brandon and Gabriel
Gaby joined the Praise and Worship team at school playing the guitar. They practice an hour after school on Mondays. At his first day of practice he said it was a disaster. Hopefully during Chapel the Lord will take the lead and beautiful melodies will flow out of this Jr. High group. At least their hearts are willing! Brandon studied drums for a year, so he took his drum sticks undecided about what to do (join Praise and Worship or just wait outside for Gaby)…he decided to sit out and watch (or dream about) soccer practice. He also knows how to play guitar a little bit. He has been working with the sound system at church. And now, he’s kind of dreaming about playing the bass guitar. He’s at that age where he doesn’t quite know what he’s best at or what he looks best doing.
Both Brandon and Gabriel have been more enthused about school and raising their grades after a lecture on repeating the grade, but in a Spanish school. Three weeks into this semester have proven to be challenging, but I think they’re going to make it. Oscar will be taking a conversational English class at their school on Mondays and Wednesdays.
One great hurdle they jumped over is reading. They now enjoy reading English books. They aren’t into big novels, yet, but at least they have books in their hands and not game boys.
For English class, Brandon wrote a short, mystery story the other day. He got done with three pages, took the rough draft to school, brought it home and started rewriting it. I asked him why he was changing everything and he said that his teacher didn’t want anything bloody or gory. Thanks Mrs. Ortiz! This time it is a mystery about a gorilla lost from the zoo.
Brandon is studying 1 Corinthians 13…the Love Chapter. It does us all so much good to hear those verses being repeated over and over again. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs…WOW!
Both Brandon and Gabriel have been more enthused about school and raising their grades after a lecture on repeating the grade, but in a Spanish school. Three weeks into this semester have proven to be challenging, but I think they’re going to make it. Oscar will be taking a conversational English class at their school on Mondays and Wednesdays.
One great hurdle they jumped over is reading. They now enjoy reading English books. They aren’t into big novels, yet, but at least they have books in their hands and not game boys.
For English class, Brandon wrote a short, mystery story the other day. He got done with three pages, took the rough draft to school, brought it home and started rewriting it. I asked him why he was changing everything and he said that his teacher didn’t want anything bloody or gory. Thanks Mrs. Ortiz! This time it is a mystery about a gorilla lost from the zoo.
Brandon is studying 1 Corinthians 13…the Love Chapter. It does us all so much good to hear those verses being repeated over and over again. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs…WOW!
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