A Relief

Well, good news regarding the water. It wasn't that we were without water...the problem was we had a break in our water line on our property. Our nightwatchman, Michael, noticed it today and told Ben. Ben spent most of the day running for parts to get it repaired. When all was said and done, it is still leaking slightly, but we have a plumber coming in the morning to make the final repair. The glue that Ben had to seal the pipe where he spliced it was old and wouldn't seal. So, he ran to 3 corners to buy some more, but the store there had a tube that was just as old as ours so would have been a waste of money. It was too late for a plumber to come tonight, plus a rainstorm was moving in, and they won't repair anything in the rain anyhow. So, we can get the job finished tomorrow first thing in the morning. As you can see, Emma was Ben's little helper today. Ben is quite the handyman and I'm SO thankful for that. If we had to wait for hired people to come and take care of all of our repairs, we would live in frustration. Life moves so slow here...you might get someone in a few days...or next week. So, Ben has taught himself to do some electrical work and he can do a lot of plumbing too. Plus he is a painter by trade and also worked as a carpenter for a few years. There isn't too much that he can't do...well, he doesn't do car repairs. Labor is so cheap we take the car to the shop. Plus, the mechanic will even make house calls and come pick up your car and take it to the shop. Can't beat that! So, why bother to learn!

Another relief is that Kate is completely better. I'm so glad. I hate it when my kids are sick!

Tonight our power was out for quite a while as a heavy, heavy rainstorm moved in. It was WONDERFUL!! Have I mentioned how much I love rainy season? :D Well, Ben went to bed b/c he was tired, and I did dishes by candlelight. Right as I finished, the power came back on, so I figured I better come in here and do my blog post...even though it is midnight now...or my Mom will be mad at me. (luv ya Mom!) Just kidding...she won't really be mad, but she really looks forward to my daily posts so she can keep up with the kids. I'm sure my mother-in-law is the same way. She probably doesn't get details from Ben about the kids like she does from me. Men are just that way. Short, sweet, and to the point. I like to elaborate...I'm very verbose.

Ok...so now I'm going to shut up as it is super late here now...and I'm tired. Goodnight!

Big Eater

Kate does a pretty good job hunting for food for Rex. Today she hit pay dirt...first coming in with him while he was trying to swallow a moth half his size...and then this... She found him a big grasshopper. He's already got a big chunk of that guy in his mouth by the time we snapped this picture. It must have taken him at least 10 minutes to get the whole thing down. The legs were the hardest part. :D (Ewwww!) He is doing great so far and enjoys living in our window. The kids carry him around quite a bit now, and it doesn't seem to bother him.

Today was catch up day in school with all the kids really. I'm trying to push them to have everything done. Emma did some extra math lessons, Drew went through a few pages of his division lessons, and Kate did yesterdays and todays phonics/handwriting/reading lesson. We are in the home stretch...and I can't wait.

Our water finally quit today. (boooo!) I guess maybe they figured out that our line was getting everything and nobody else had any?? I really don't know, but it is SO frustrating. I can't even begin to describe how frustrating!! I won't get my shower tonight :( and...I thought about doing a load of laundry this morning (while we still had water) and never did end up doing it. I could kick myself! Thankfully the rains are here and within a month or so everyone should have running water all the time.

Well, Ben is calling the family for devotions! I got my post done early tonight!! I'm so proud of myself :)

Bookworm

Drew loves to read and scarfs up pretty much any book he can get his hands on. Recently he has been begging to read some of our story for family devos, so Ben has been letting him read from time to time. I love listening to him...he makes up different voices for the characters just like his Daddy does. It is hilarious listening to him...he can do a mean Brittish accent! haha!

Kate's fever was back up today...101. So, I made her stay in bed. I think she was feeling better yesterday and just overdid it. With her immune system down, she might just be fighting something else off. Who knows. She didn't complain too much when I banned her to the bedroom and made her watch movies.

Tonight is date night...and I'm making fajitas! We are out of Mozzarella, (happens often here...one time we were without it for a few months!) so I decided to do something Mexican. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Countdown

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1...Only 10 more days of school...more or less. Drew will still be doing some math b/c of his delay in division, and Kate will still be doing some spelling, but for the most part in 10 days we will be done. I can't tell you how nice that will be. I can probably get Drew mostly caught up in Math by having him do two lessons, so long as he understands it. If he gets stumped, we will have to slow down. The beauty of homeschooling really. In traditional school, he would have probably been lost at this point.

Ben took a walk with the kids today to pick some mangoes off of our tree. I think he got about 8 big mangoes. Once they ripen I'll make some mango crisp or something fun with them. They kind of taste like peaches when you cook them that way. As you can see by the picture, the gardens have perked back up and we are certainly enjoying the rains. Even now, the wind is blowing...it is cool out. I love rainy season!

Kate is doing even better again today. Her fever was up very slightly before she went to bed...but hopefully that is the last of it. It seems like things hang on sometimes. I'll keep checking her tomorrow, but she was pretty boogery today, a sure sign that she is feeling better LOL

Back to the grind

Thankfully Kate is feeling well enough to do school. She's still not 100 percent, but I let her sit and watch school in the "sick room" (our guest room...that is where she's been hanging out the last several days.) Drew and I spent a while on math today...he worked for a whole week on his times tables, and now he is getting back into his regular lessons and re-doing his last several pages on division. After explaining it and going over the concept with him, he sat down and did a page of division problems and got them all right. It took him a while, but I explained once he knows the facts, he'll breeze through division too!

During Kate's lesson today, her teacher had a "family time" activity. She discussed camping and a fun meal that her family makes while camping...Hobo dinner. Kate was all excited and came telling me about her teachers great meal idea. I told her to bring her school disk in the kitchen and we watched it together and that is what we had for dinner tonight! It was SO yummy too! I just chopped up potatoes, carrots and onions, and piled them on top of a double layer of aluminum foil, sprinkled some lipton onion soup mix, and put a hamburger patty on top. It was a little time consuming as I made six of those packets, but well worth it. They cooked in the oven for 30 min. and all the veggies were tender, and the meat was done. The kids LOVED them and ate every last bite! Definitely something I'll do again in the future. Here is Kate eating her hobo dinner:

Lazy Sunday

The kids and I stayed home ... Kate is still sick and I figured rather than pass our contagious germs on to everyone we would lay low. We watched a Bible Video and did coloring sheets. Kate is doing much better today. She even got up and got dressed...she has been lazing around in her jammies so I took that as a good sign.

We got rain again today. Not too much, but every little bit is nice. And another day with amazing water pressure. I'm not sure what is going on, and I'm not going to ask either. I will take each day of water as an amazing blessing!

Ben taught my Sunday School class this morning. He then rushed home to drive our church van for Bamenda. Eugene, who normally drives, couldn't get a taxi from Sabga, so wasn't able to make it in time. He said that services went well, and he returned home around 3 p.m.

Our evening was nice as a family. We watched the old Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory...such an odd movie. I made popcorn and lemon bars. Often when I work in the kitchen the kids love to hang out in there with me. Sometimes we listen to music, or books on tape. Tonight Drew was reading for everyone. I love this pic that Ben got of all of them huddled around a book.Well, tomorrow is back to the grind of school. We have 11 lessons left and then we are done...YAY!!! I'm SO excited!! And of course the kids are too. And since there is school tomorrow...I better head to bed! G'night!! Oh.....one more thing, I keep forgetting to tell you all to head over to my digi scrapping blog. I know some of my readers have gone over there and a couple have asked questions that I've recently answered. Today I worked on a tutorial, "How to create your first digital scrapbook page." If you are interested in that, head on over and check it out...you will find a link on the sidebar off to the right. Ok...now really...goodnight! :)

No Excuses

No excuses really as to why I haven't blogged the last few days. Thursday the power was out all night...Friday I did a ton of cleaning and was just plain tired. Plus I have a sickie in the house (kate), so that also keeps me busy.
No picture for Thursday...the first day I forgot so far this year. Not too bad really...
My picture from Friday represents all I was able to accomplish with the water we have had... Oh yeah!!...lots and lots of laundry! I spent most of my time doing clothes and cleaning my bedroom. I scrubbed down the windows and underneath the bed...mopped the floor...dusted and cleaned cobwebs. It took me a while, but it looks so great in there. I'm still not finished actually. I can't even begin to tell you the amount of dust on those windows. You remember that dust bowl picture I took a few weeks ago...well, just think 5 months of that. I don't even bother cleaning windows in the dry season. A total waste of time and precious water!

Today I got this cute picture of Emma She's so pretty. The kids had a lot of fun feeding rex today. He is happy and healthy now and back to his normal self. One of these days we will get a good pic of him with his tongue stretched out while getting a fly. It is pretty cool. Kate spent her day in bed...watching movies. She isn't eating much still, but I can tell she is feeling a little better today than yesterday. We will stay home from church tomorrow...but Drew suggested we have our own sunday school here. I thought that was a great idea...now I need to decide what to teach them! Have a great Sunday tomorrow as well!!