For today...

Outside my window...
It's cloudy.  It rained earlier. And my nextdoor neighbor is still rockin' those Chinese New Year pineapples.

I am thinking...
I'm so glad I just read this blog. We're making decisions about what to do with I#1 and school next year. I thought it was gonna come down to homeschool, but I recently discovered an International School here that starts in August, just like America. We mighta struck gold folks.

I am thankful for... 
Having the time today to scrub down our stroller. The fading I can't help, but those goldfish crumbs?! I got my eye on you!

From the kitchen...
There is a breeze. And there's about to be Creamy Vegetable Pasta when I finish this blogpost. It's how we roll at least once a week.

I am wearing...
My "For You Miami!" volunteer tshirt, circa 2003. It's gray, has a wee bit of Spanish on it, and reminds me of some really really great times. We go back farther than my marriage.

I am creating... 
a blogpost. Duh. Anthony is out of town tonight so after the pasta is over, the kiddos are going down early and I'm'a get started on a carseat-cover-redo. For some strange reason, Immanuelle's carseat cover (which is black) started rubbing off on all her clothes, and while the spare piece of fabric I've thrown into her seat in the meantime is "working" just fine, we're just gonna go ahead and take it up a notch.

I am going...
to America in 20 days. It says so on our countdown calendar. I have to count at least once a day on the actual calender to make sure we're at the right day. The boys get a bit overzealous with removing the days.

I am reading...
Nothing. I'd like to say "Shepherding Your Child's Heart" by Ted Tripp. But let's face it... there's a 98% chance I'll never get past chapter 15....er...whatever chapter I was at last.

I am hoping...
The carseat liners and stroller liners dry overnight despite the 100% humidity. Also that someone will give me $400 (or go-ahead and order) this camera. The "Go-Pro Black" I would probably take up surfing if it happened.

I am hearing...
The washing machine rustling all the carseat straps. It scratches my washer bin a bit, but I'm more thankful for the clean straps than I'm worried about the inside of my washer. Also Bird is sitting at my feet thinking I'm not gonna notice all the books she's pulled off the shelf (especially if she keeps buttering me up by putting her head on my lap every couple of minutes).

Around the house...
All the windows are open, the breeze is phenomenal, and "Tay- Tayo, Tay- Tayo, heeee's a friendly little bus. Speeding up, slowing down, Tayo always (something in a high pitched kiddie voice I've yet to be able to understand)" Pretty sure the voices on that cartoon are from Canada. It allllmost sounds American. But then not really. 

One of my favorite things...
Is the little romper Ellie Bird has on right now. The colors are like a summer sky. I totally made it myself and the stripes are lined up better than I hoped! And since you wanted to know...one of my un-favorite things is that I made the romper without snaps or buttons at the bottom. So diaper changes are a pain with a capital "P."

A few plans for the rest of the week...
Anthony getting home tomorrow!

Here is a picture I am sharing....
Its our Bird. Looks like a post-nap Bird. Her lips are that pink color all the time.

What really mattered about September?

Some "Sunshine" sent to my friend. 7.5 feet square (she has 5 kids to fit on it for a picnic or a snuggle when it's chilly...it had to be big). I finished it in July, but wanted to send it before I posted about it.

 Other than my baby boy turning 3, what happened in the month of September? In me, I mean. What mattered about it?

I mean, lots of things happened. I participated in each and every day, and yet, nothing stands out. We had a child go from 2 to 3 years old, went to Singapore, Legoland opened in our city, and I finally finally sent the quilt I made for my friend, to my friend.

So see? I DID stuff. But what made it all worth it?

Is that an enchilada on my plate? It IS! I haven't come down yet on if the Mexican Restaurant opening or Legoland opening is more significant. They even have Mexican glass glasses! (I sold/gave away my Mexican glass before moving to Asia...I'll just go borrow theirs for a meal every now and then)

Love.

That's what. 

I am such a hardcore truth person that I sometimes forget about the whole "love" part that must necessarily accompany truth.  Without it, the truth hurts.  It's a meal prepared, but not received because it was done while complaining. Or a boo-boo cleaned up and bandaged but no comfort given because of the "I told you so" that came with the anti-biotic ointment.

Been there? (I won't tell.)

So when I sewed the curtains, I prayed. When we made the cards to be shipped with the quilt I made SURE to emphasize the joy of giving and not the perfection of the picture (sometimes you can tell kids get it from you...especially when his stars just didn't turn out the way he wanted). Loving my children when they are tired and I am tired from all the public transportation and walking that seems part and parcel of the whole Singapore gig. Speaking kindly, letting kindness lead to repentance.


Don't get me wrong. I am not good at this naturally and I fail more than I care to admit, but the thing is... me loving has nothing to do with me. I believe all of the Bible is true. It says quite a few things about love, but one of the biggies- possibly THE biggie- is that "We love because he first loved us."


What a relief!  I don't have to come up with all the ways to love on my own!

"Who do you want to make a card for Zayah?" "Gloria." I may have cried. (see the heart?)

I can love my children because my heavenly father loves me. I can love my husband because I am the bride of Christ and have seen his deep and sold-out commitment to make my salvation a forever thing. Christ has called me friend, incredibly, he proved it by taking the punishment of my sin on himself. That's love. How then, am I to love my friends? Or better yet, how then am I ABLE to love my friends? Because I've been loved as a friend.

Even just a few minutes contemplating that kind of Love is enough to fill me up and get me through my day (add the lunchtime review of it, a mid-afternoon and evening recap too). And lets face it, as a Mom, a few minutes of contemplation is all I get sometimes. But oh, how powerful!

You can't have those curls. Sorry.

I've always been a fan of October. And even though the tropics doesn't bring football games (the kind with helmets) chilly nights, leaves changing and fall festivals to look forward to, I'm hoping to love well this month. Ya know? So even if the events just kinda slip by quickly, that my part in it will be more than a clanging cymbal of a wife and mother and friend.  To love well because I am SO loved.

I finished her pillow sham! Though I'm still holding out she'll be the first baby to not ever get big enough for a big-girl bed.

Training...

If you've ever run a race, you know that it's not the race that's the hard part. The hard part is putting on your big girl pants (or big boy pants, depending) and training the weeks and months before the race.  We're running a half-marathon in November so the subject of training is a hot topic around here.

My neigbhorhood. Approx 7:30am. It'd been raining for a week...which is the only reason I could run after 7am. Otherwise it's waaaay too hot.

 It's hard. Sometimes it's boring. Sometimes you can feel how good it's going to be to cross that finish line and cross like you own it. Sometimes you can feel how good your pillow is supporting your head. My husband claims my feet have superpowers and when his alarm goes off to wake him up early to run, my foot finds his leg and he suddenly can't get out of bed. I plead the 5th.

The big park. It's really neighborhoody feeling. I like it.

You know in your head if you skip your practice run, you'll regret it later.  You know if you push through, running the race and finishing it won't be a problem. 

Misty rain coming. I wonder when that apartment building will be done? Will it have a pool and will I live there? :)

 I'm not sure if the Apostle Paul was an athlete or not.  Was he the track star at Pharisee High?  Could I make a lamer bible joke? His athletic prowess aside, the man knew what he was talking about when he wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 . 

Rain. But it felt good. I was close to home. Just up there on the right beyond the little car.

Oh man, to finish my life's race and be counted as "good and faithful." Problem is, at it's heart, my life has no goodness or faithfulness in it... it's corrupt through deceitful desires. All of it is tainted by sin. The things I'll be able to present to my Father at the end of my life will be the things He Himself has given me. HIS righteousness and holiness. The gifts of HIS Spirit...goodness, gentleness, love, mercy, self-control, faithfulness, joy, peace, patience, kindness- things I want. Things I'll get at the finish line in full...because at the finish line is when I get to enjoy God forever.

If you wanna do 12k (my farthest so far!) before it gets hot, ya gotta roll on out.

Most of the time when I run I let my mind wander. I zone out. Sometimes I zone out praying for someone or asking God to give me wisdom about a situation or issue. Sometimes I think people's exterior paint color choices are hideous. "Ooooo. I like what he did with his balcony reno. He's probably got a great view up there." Sometimes when I have to run past the foreign construction workers I make up contingency plans in case they ever come after me. It varies.

Sunrise a few minutes later helps (this was taken literally 12 minutes after the  one above.  Equator has no slow sunrises or sunsets. It's like a switch. On and off every 12 hours.

But I think for the next bit I'm gonna be meditating on these thoughts; what's it gonna take for me to cross that finish line as a victor one day? To not rest on yesterday's workout. Yesterday's prayer. To cling with regularity to the God who saved me. Sometimes it'll be easy and I'll picture that finish line as doable and attainable...it may even feel close at hand some days. But on the days when there's rain, when the race has to be run in the dark. To trust. To put one foot in front of the other and have faith that my path will be made straight and that one day I WILL cross the finish line. If I keep at it, Jesus will always be faithful to give me everything I need to keep it up. And then at the end, when I get to rest, I'll hear, "Well done!" Then for forever, I'll offer up thanks and praise to Him who helped me finish.

That kiddie pool was worth its weight in gold.
Lord help me to remember the day will come when the race will have been worth it and I obtain the prize of life eternal with You!

"Mama! I'm all done!"

I finished Immanuelle's quilt.

I call it "Ragged Rectangles." I did an adapted version of this quilt. Instructions were provided. But since I don't have a nifty cutting board thing like real quilters do, I chose to cut 9 big rectangles instead of 90 small ones.

I feel particularly motherly about it.  I am looong over the turquoise and pink color scheme, but there are some projects that just require you to push on through to the end because there isn't budget enough or Kaylee enough to start over.  Plus, this is only my 2nd quilt ever so I don't even have the skills to do anything more than what I did with it, no matter the color scheme.

My thoughts wandered from how sweet it'll be to tuck my big girl in under a quilt to thinking how there'll probably be an age where she thinks her handmade (and lets get real, a bit wonky on the sides) quilt is totally lame and wants to replace it with something cooler.

 Like they'll even say things like "lame" and "cool" when she's older... my opinion of her future taste is high but who knows if she'll just simply want to update it to a more sophisticated Pottery Barn look or put stickers {gasp!} or posters {oh no sir!} and a blanket with the faces of the latest one-album-wonder-boy-band on it. It'd probably be a Kpop group though (TCK's can be global enigmas).

In the midst of my sewing-mind-ramblings I'd hear "OH NO! OH NO! I GOT FAST POOP! I GOT FAST POOP!"  Pulling down Hershey-squirted undies will pull you out of thoughtful sewing reverie and replace it with about every tasteless (but let's be honest, hilarious) idiom that has the "S-word" in it.


Some sort of terrible awful, no good, really bad sickness has slid into the 1st and 3rd's bodies. Full body rash, fever, and diarrhea. Each coming a day or so after the other so you think you're in the clear and then you're staring bare-handed into Lightning McQueen undies that have been shat in.

This morning.

Oh my, this morning.

It all happened so fast. One second I was asleep and the next Isaac says, "Oh no Mama! I got fast poop in my underwear and my bed again." while simultaneously smacking the wet dirty underwear square on my unsuspecting hand, "See!?" I've never thought about the importance of hand-placement while sleeping, but I can assure you priorities have now been rearranged as my eyes opened to the *stink in my hand.

So finishing up the quilt has been a challenge for sure. And I've earned more than just my quilting-badge in the process. Taken care of a kid with the runs have you? On a squatty potty? Done that. What my nursing assistant class didn't teach me about "aseptic technique," I figured out anyway.

I feel like Special Agent Oso in designing my own badges:
"Disinfecting Diarrhea Feet!"badge
"The biggest Muslim Holiday in the World so few clinics are open and your kid gets the *craps and you manage to keep him from getting dehydrated" badge
"No Tile left Unwiped" badge, which goes hand in hand, with the
"Wall-to-Wall tile appreciation"-badge
"You just WISH they were *crapping bricks"-badge
"Quarantined with your kids for 4 whole days inside"-badge
And
"Trail expert" badge (for excellence in the field of finding fast poop tracks after mad dashes to the squatty potty)

With my sash full of badges, I step back and look at all of this as a huge grace. I won't deny the un-fun-ness of my baby needing 2 baths before 9am this morning. The grace is in what the Lord has shown me about my life right now.  I've done what I can and have even been able to catch a couple breaths above the stink and make an effort to do more than just stewing in a big crock of diarrhea, angry until all is right again.  There's been quilting, cookies, homeschool, prayer time, Friday Night Family Movie Night, and a little cooking...they're outward displays of the grace and peace I feel inside even in a *storm like this one.

I'm no super mom. But *stuff happens. And I'm thankful for the grace that weeks like this bring. You bleach it and pray for it to go away and then be thankful so you can see the Lord's good hand in it. Because it is there. Have you seen it in your week?


*I won't condemn you one eensy-weensy little bit if you said the "s-word" out loud or in your mind while reading. Promise.

Parental Pictoral Post-game Post

My parents and my lovely young (though I won't say "little" because she's as tall as me!) 13 year old cousin came to visit for 3 whole weeks. 

It was fun and relaxed and slow and non-stop all at the same time. 

Family is like that.  

The cleanliness of my floors suffered greatly due to unnamed people who forget they're in Asia and must take off their shoes. But no one complains because dirt on white tile floors is negligible when held against finding extremely fast go-karts in our city, and when miniature Walt Disney World Monorail systems are handed out freely, and rainbow-y kitchen rugs are bought and gifted on the spot when certain 2nd-born daughters claim, "they'll go perfectly in my kitchen!" Waterfalls and satay and movies every.single.night. was it how rolled around here for 3 weeks. Enjoy some of the moments!

Our dear Kak Aygee is helping to free our children from rubberbands-off-the-ground-borne diseases that threaten to infect our middle son at any and all public outings.

"They can't fall in!!!" Yeah, right! Like safety standards exist here!

"Don't show your teeth. They think it's a challenge."

Wanna know the cure for pink-eye? Ketchup. And Ikea.

And if that doesn't work, an afro-puff and some chlorine will seal the deal.

"Satay!"

Rice you stab with a stick. Tell me how your night could be better?

Ok, ok. You're right!  Pinterest and glow-sticks in coke bottles polishes an evening off rather dreamy.

I know it's hard to look at our mugs when there's random camping guys' underwear on the rock next to us.

I swear we were really trying to make it a good one!

What American WaterBirds look like when they hatch in Southeast Asia.

 Thanks parents and Laina for shelling out big bucks to come all this way and do things like go grocery shopping and swim.  Our socks are blessed clean off to have the family we do!

Bali Journey

We go to Bali, Indonesia once a year. This year we decided to go jump off a cliff.

Why?

Well. Because our friend Austin Render did it. And if Ranger Render jumps off a cliff, well, we figure we'll do it too. Seemed like it'd be fun.

So we set off this year to Bali excited about our cliff-jumping. We went, we jumped. After it was all-over the stories we told were more about us getting there. 3 kids, an island hop. Walking. Chickens. Temples. Talking and sharing the journey along the way.  I knew it as it was happening. It was the good kinda stuff that I think ends up sinking way deep down in the memory of our family more than a moment of exhilaration.

We had so much fun with our children that day. We had never been where we were going, we sort of spoke the language so figured we could get there with some direction asking. It was a smallish island and roads are limited. Couldn't be hard. So as we found our way we explored and walked (and carried) at a preschooler's pace. We met some people along the way. And the day turned out pretty perfect.

Cookies count as early morning breakfast when on vacation.

If the guy that says your boat was going to leave at 8:00 says it'll now leave at 9:30, you just sit and wait. Don't leave because he won't be able to find you 15 minutes later when he comes back and says he found a boat that will take you at 8:30. Take pictures of your boys while you wait.

Get the friendly Australian girls to take a family photo. They're rare (family photos, not friendly Australians) so don't worry about that Victoria's Secret tank top.  Just go with it...along with the throngs of people at the beach that morning there to bathe in the water on what turns out to be, apparently, a Hindu holy day.

Your sweet baby boy throwing up from the crazy rough seas? You just gotta ride it out, apologize, give sympathy, and be grateful you took the 30 minute boat ride and not the cheaper, 90 minute ferry. Sweet Zayah...we'll bring dramamine next time...we love having you on our adventures. You weathered that boat ride better than I would have son...you make a green face look not so terrible with your gorgeous brown cheeks.

Immanuelle appreciates the friendly Australian. Good to have arrived...Friendly Australian #1 (Amber) was just behind Isaiah in the sea-sickness line and was thankful for solid ground!

Parted ways with the Australians (they took a scooter). This little island was quaint and slow-paced and friendly.

It took an hour and a half or so to walk just over a mile to the "bridge."

But with baby chicks, stops were necessary!

...be still my heart!

These guys make the journey so much more fun!
See that bit of land over Anthony's shoulder? The cliff we were headed to was in that general direction.
We were in no hurry.

Potty breaks must be considered when on a journey. I wish someone could have shown me this photo of my husband when we had gotten married. I was hoping then that something like this was what lay ahead for us... just didn't realize it'd be THIS fun.

...all that walking and pretty much zero complaints from the kiddos.

The bridge! If your son's flip flop breaks, no worries.  Just on the other side we talked some locals into driving us on their motorcycles to the jumping point. :)

The Blue Lagoon was the name of the jumping point. A bit obvious, but really, what ELSE would you call it?

Isaac knew little fear being so close to the edge. After jumping Isaac was talking big about how he would jump off one day too.  One of my goals before next year is helping him get his head underwater and holding his breath!

Not sure when our camera was absconded with...but we have clues as to who done it. Those toes are so cute aren't they?
His fingers were probably cute too as he smudged the lens without us knowing til later.

...didn't know about the smudge til we had both jumped. 13meters (40 something feet or 4 story building take your pick. It was high)

...and the waves were rough. Guy in Charge wasn't allowing girls to jump because the waves were pretty intense. I laughed about how bad my butt hurt from smacking the water, but didn't go on about it in front of Guy in Charge...didn't want him to regret me talking him into letting me jump. That jump cost me a couple weeks of aching as I climbed the stairs in my house. You can bet your bippy it was worth it though.

Friendly Australian #1 & #2 showed up to the cliff just after our jumps. Isaiah is a bit of a charmer and they, in their stereo typically Australian manners, offered us a ride back. Friendly Australian #2 (Becky) took 2 trips to haul our American rears to the bridge.  We chatted with some locals...which basically means we answered their questions about where we were from, why we spoke Bahasa, and why our children were different colors. We walked the rest of the way. It would have only taken 5 minutes via Australian scooter, but even with having to switch carrying the boys as they shared shoes (it wasn't Isaiah's day, he also fell and skinned his upper lip) we still had so much fun. And Isaiah slept on the boat ride back! The waves were no match for the tiredness from walking.

So glad we didn't focus just on getting there and jumping! We do that a lot, don't we?  Thankfully we got it right that day! We would have missed so much in the journey that day if we hadn't!