my brain hurts

had one of those weeks where all of the 2 years of language study felt useless. had a friend over and wished the whole time that kev were there to translate because i felt so incompetent. felt like i hit a wall in class as well and found out that i am going to have to get a new teacher again. sometimes i wonder at the ways God works. that He would have me of all people to learn the most difficult language... and then i gaze up at the poem a friend gave me before we moved...taped above me here at our desk:

"now we adapt to the culture awkwardly; but He will live in it intimately; now i speak in a stammering tongue; but He will speak to the heart. and now abideth cultural adaptation, language study, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

saint pat's party

was preparing to teach w a little about st. patrick for preschool last week and thought it would be fun to throw a little saint patty's party for him. i invited 6 of his little friends over for some games and green goodies. it was awesome. crazy, but awesome.

some leprechauns came to our house and (as weston pointed out to all of the kids) forgot to take there shoes off! the kiddos had to find their colored footprints and follow them to their surprise.

we played musical chairs, hot potato, and did an art project, but i had no time to get the camera out of my pocket. 

weston and i made these place-mats earlier in the week. super fun. we used a heart cookie cutter and made a stamp out of a potato to make the shamrocks. 

really, it's fun just to have a reason to throw a party and eat cake...whether you're 3 or 30:).

and her first word is...

true story. i took adds from kev the other day after her bath and she looked back, reached for him and said clear as crystal...

"da da"! she is wild about her daddy...and let me tell you, he is pretty wild about her too:).

heavy heart

my heart is aching this morning... for the millions experiencing pain, loss, fear in japan today. read this beautiful prayer written by john piper on the Desiring God blog last night:

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/a-prayer-for-japan

have been reading it again and again. crying out to our Faithful God- to show mercy, to restore, to redeem, to heal, to draw many to Himself.

"I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." Psalm 27:13 

biter biscuits

made some biter biscuits for adelynn the other day

turns out they are every bit as messy as the "nature's best" kind you can get in america

and every bit as fun too

sweet friends

these dolls were born on the same day...just a world away from each other. hoping they are friends for a long time.

life has left me with little time to blog as of late. we are (all but adds) back to studying full time. w has class 3 days a week now and is loving it. i am trying to figure out balance with being a mama, wife, teacher, student, etc, etc. any wisdom?? just started a beth moore study with a group of gals on esther. in the first study she named the top 3 toughest (from a survey) things about being a woman. one of them was balance. amen! loving life though and trying to savor these sweet crazy days with these little munchkins...they are growing way too fast!