sorry

Sorry it has been so long since i posted last. We have been so busy, which is a great thing! Lots of visits and I even got to go to a school for special needs children, mom you would love it, they have a room for babies, and they always need extra help. You could go sit in there and hold a baby all day!
So between visits and being sick twice in the last few weeks things have been a little crazy.

one quick story, when i was sick our house helper G was here watching the kids, she comes everyday to watch them while we do school. She is sweet and wanted to help take care of me. I hadn't eaten in a while and she was convinced that i needed something. so she kept asking me, (even waking me up to do so) to eat some rice white. (she was saying it in arabic and the adj. always comes after the noun) so of course i thought she just meant plain white rice. so i finally agreed to eat a little. well she came back about 30 min. later with a bowl FULL of rice. she woke me up to give it to me, with hot tea, minus the sugar and i didn't have my glasses on. I took the bowl and the rice seamed a little wet so in my american mind i'm thinking maybe a little butter. I take a bite to find out that the rice is floating in yogurt!
Now that maybe something that you like (and yes i know yogurt is good for you), but I hate yogurt!. i only eat the ones with all the fruit so that you can't really taste the yogurt.
anyway, what to do, here i sit with this bowl knowing she will be back in a few minutes to make sure i have eaten it. Thankfully about that time annielynne came in to check on me, and she is kind of like a dog, she will eat just about anything. I pawn some of it off on her and then before G came back in a hide some at the bottom of the trash can. (yes i kind of felt 5 years old hiding my food, but didn't want to hurt her feelings and was not going to eat it all or even most) I did manage to get down a couple of bites so i could be honest in saying i ate some. but that mixed with sugarless tea, was not a great combination for me!
sometimes even being sick can even be a cultural experience!

oh yea, Becky, get ready when you do come visit me, one of the favorite dishes here for lunch is some kind of bread covered in yogurt (which makes the bread a little wet, just like you like it) and then some seasoning that gives it kind of a green color. Kirk, of course likes it, but I just eat enough to be polite, and i eat a lot of something else to cover up that. but can't wait for you to try it!!! I'll be sure and tell them how much you like wet bread! ha ha

color time

This pic is from today! All the kids are sitting around coloring, something they love to do when they come over, so I don't think it is something they get to do very often, if ever! Right after I took the picture, three more kids came in, I may need to get a bigger table!
They were very proud of their coloring and they always want to give there pictures to me, but my art wall is running out of space so today I told them they needed to take them home and give them to their moms, but one girls colored two so that i could have one and her mom could have one, how sweet! Fun time and I had made some cookies earlier so they had cookies and milk while they colored!
It is fun when they come over, but eight can be a bit much sometimes. I can't just let them run around and play, our house and yard are not big enough! I have to find specific things for them to do, which is a challenge sometimes! but i guess it is a good problem to have!

annie lynne

Annielynne drinking out of the OJ bottle
teaching her bad habits already!
thought you would love this mom!
but really why not, when we go visit we all eat out of the same dishes with our hands and i have been to lunch once where we were all share the same three water bottles. now i bring my on bottle of water when i go visit!
So thankful that HE is the great physician and we have been very blessed. Addie still hasn't gotten sick, that is a miracle because even at 4 she still puts everything in her mouth and ayden and annielynne and Kirk have only been sick once. Of course I'm the weakest and have had eaten something bad twice. No fun at all!!!

learned something new

I discovered now that it is summer, if i wash clothes in the morning (which is usually when i do it since they have to hand out to dry) i wash in cold water, but if i wait until after two or three, i can wash them in warm water. Our tank is on the roof so by two or so the sun has heated all the water. (not that i need to wash in warm water, just found it funny!)

but we are thankful the city we are in is not nearly as hot as most of the country. It gets hot, but not really that bad and if we have all the windows open we can usually get some kind of breeze! The only time it is really hot is when i'm sitting in a room with 10 or 15 other women and there is no air moving and one or two of the girls are on my lap, and we are all drinking hot tea! Then it is HOT!
but i wouldn't miss those visits for anything!

swing set

we were finally able to get the girls a swing set, very exciting! not only for them but for the neighborhood kids as well.
Not sure how long the swing set will last, today there were eight on it all at the same time, three just on one swing! hope it makes it through, but also just so thankful that the kids are coming in and that we can show them His love.
It is not always easy finding the balance between studying, visiting, kids coming over, and spending time together as a family, but it is never boring around here!