to market to market...

i will get to posting some pics of the fabulous christmas week with my folks soon. promise. just couldn't resist posting these pics from the market. for some reason every visitor we have had has taken a pic of me at the exact same market buying meat. my chicken lady has got to be loving this publicity! don't i look like i mean business in these? especially the one with my tongue sticking out!

lynn and ted's visit

mike's visit

mom and dad's visit (yes weston rides his bike in the market:)

speaking of chicken... i tried this amazing african chicken stew recipe tonight. yumm! you can find it here: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/african_chicken_peanut_stew/

merry christmas

the sweetness of our christmas with my parents still lingers around here in our home, despite the sting of saying another goodbye. realizing goodbyes do not get easier with time contrary to what some may say. as i have meditated on the incarnation this week, i have been really blessed by the old hymn, "down from His glory." i marvel at the fact that our King left His home (heaven of all places) to take on flesh and dwell among us. to give us hope. to give us life.


Down from His Glory


Down from His glory, ever living story,
My God and Savior came, and Jesus was His name.
Born in a manger to His own a stranger,
A man of sorrows tears and agony

(Chorus)
Oh how I love Him! How I adore Him!
My breath, my sunshine, my all in all!
The great Creator became my Savior,
And all God's fullness dwelleth in Him!

What condescension, bringing us redemption,
That in the dead of night, not one faint hope in sight,
God gracious, tender laid aside His splendor,
Stooping to woo, to win, to save my soul!

Without reluctance, flesh and blood His substance,
He took the form of man, revealed the hidden plan;
O glorious myst'ry sacrifice of Calv'ry!
And now I know He is the great "I AM"!

we had an amazing week together. so precious. so fun. tons more pictures to come. what a gift to have christmas with my pa and ma. love them so much.

she's back...

my favorite neighbor is back (she's been in her home-town the past 6 months), and with her all the goodies she regularly delivers.

i know y'all are probably munching away at all kinds of christmas goodies...peanut brittle, fudge....but have you indulged in spicy chicken feet lately??

cookie monster

made christmas cookies with w yesterday. had to take a brief intermission to feed adds. when i came back he was conked out. all that baking wore him out i guess. all i had to do to get him up though, was mention that i wasn't sure who would get to lick the beaters... it took a couple minutes, but he came to and had an insatiable appetite for cookie dough. and then he did all the hard work of frosting all the cookies.

sleeping beauty

had one of those sweet moments the other day gazing at my little darling as she slept. pondering who she is and who she will become. realized she was covered up in blankets lovingly made by my mama, grandma wiemer, and my great grandmother. thought to myself, "wow, what a legacy of beautiful women she's covered up in!" the boundary lines have fallen for you, my little sweetheart, in pleasant places. you have a beautiful inheritance!

animals everywhere

i find stuff like this all over the house... all the time. polar bears in the frying pan. dinosaurs in random drawers. penguins under my pillow. w is obsessed with animals right now. he hunts for them, he has birthday parties with them and best of all; when he wakes up in the morning, the first thing he says is, "you know what kind of animal i am today?" in the past week he has been a siberian tiger, a bengal tiger, a horse, and my personal favorite- a water rat.

river town

i just finished a great book. a really great book. in fact, for a week i could not put it down. kev is  relieved whenever i finish a good book because he says he finally gets his wife back:). i think the reason i liked it so much is because it is about someone else's journey living cross culturally and i could relate to him so much. if you're interested, check out "river town," by peter hessler. funny, poignant, interesting. here is an excerpt i read the other night:

"i never changed my chinese name, but i sensed the ease with which my chinese identity became distinct from my american self. eventually i came to think of myself as two people, ho wei and peter hessler. ho wei wasn't really a person until my second year in fuling, but as time passed i realized that he was becoming most of my identity: apart from my students, colleagues, and other foreigners, everybody strictly knew me as ho wei, and they knew me strictly in chinese. ho wei was completely different from my american self: he was friendlier, he was eager to talk with anybody, and he took great pleasure in even the most inane conversations. in a simple way he was funny; by saying a few words in the local dialect he could be endlessly entertaining to the people in fuling. also ho wei was stupid which is what i liked most about him. he spoke with an accent, he had lousy grammar; and he laughed at the simple mistakes he made. people were comfortable with someone that stupid, and they found it easy to talk with ho wei, even though they often  had to say things twice or write new words in his notebook. ho wei always carried his notebook in his pocket, using it to study the new words, as well as to jot down notes from conversations. and when ho wei returned home, he left the notebook on the desk of peter hessler, who typed everything into his computer."

crazy. busy. fun. weekend.

this weekend was awesome. we are thoroughly exhausted now, but it was awesome. had lots of fun friends in town and hosted some really special events. saturday we did a treasure hunt at the park for the kiddos. they had to find 8 "coins" all of which were clues to the coming Messiah. here is the map.

kev became "detective klause" and you should have heard the ooo's and ahhh's from the onlookers when he busted out the treasure map.

the kids did great. spent a couple hours wandering around the park. trying to find all 8 bridges and all the hidden treasure.

everywhere we went we had an audience. had to hand it to kev. he kept his wits about him. hat, headlamp, sunglasses and all.

at the end the kids got treasure bags. full of candy, stickers, party horns- you know better than gold.

so thankful for the community weston has here. so thankful for the community we have here.

soccer finale

w had his last day of soccer until spring on saturday. addy and i went along this time to watch.

it was so so cute and funny and entertaining.

they warm up. and then have a water break. they do a drill. and then have a water break. they have a meltdown and then have a water break. they attempt a game and then have a water break. lots of water breaks. i have wondered why kev brings so many snacks along. now i know.

kev is such a good daddy. really he is amazing.

farewell saturday morning soccer. until next season.