quote of the week

the other night w was brushing his teeth and kev was looking for the water bottle we use to help w rinse and spit. as kev was wandering around the house looking for it w yells "it's in here dad...on the counter!" kev returns to the bathroom and i hear w say; "if it was a snake, it would have bit ya!"

the day i turned 31...

kev was violently ill with some kind of food-borne bug. so we postponed celebrating until the day after, which realistically was my birhtday anyway with the time difference and all.

there is a new mall here that we refer to as "little america." it is well equipped with a subway, h&m department store, air-conditioning, real toilets, and (most importantly) starbucks. kevin's gift to me was a day (well 3 1/2 hours) there. all by myself.

as you can see i was ridiculously excited:)

quiet reading for an hour with a frappuccino. dreamy. if you have little's, you've got to read this book by the way. loving it.

mom and dad gave me some birthday money and kev insisted i take a bit extra to get something new for myself, so i did something i haven't really done here... i tried on clothes... and i bought a couple new things. and it felt great.

but after 3 hours i really missed these guys. seriously they are the best birthday gift a girl could get. God has been so merciful and GOOD to me. and really... it just keeps getting better and better -this journey with Him. i have a feeling year 32 is gonna be the best yet!

we had our usual birthday meal at our favorite western joint - bacon burger for kev, nachos for me, hot dog for W, and mangoes and banana for this little peanut.

and, of course, a milkshake to top it off:).

rain, spicy fish, and beautiful girls

so we spent last weekend with one of our dearest friends here. he wanted to take us on a short trip to a town a couple hours from here and also introduce us to his new and very sweet girlfriend.

every city, town, and village is famous for something in this country and this place was no exception. our friend was quick to inform us that this place was famous for rain, spicy fish, and beautiful women. awesome! the trip turned out to be a delight, contrary to my lack of enthusiasm. it was beautiful, w had lots of fun being outside, the fish was really quite yummy, and we had a very meaningful time with our friends.

here are some pics:

a t-shirt says it all

so the weather has warmed up here and everyone has shed their layers of winter garb. the constant scolding over the kids not wearing enough clothes has all but ceased and spring is in the air. one of my favorite forms of entertainment here is the amazing array of t-shirts with really really bad english on them. it pains me to think of these people seeing them in a shop, buying them, and shamelessly wearing them all over town having virtually no idea what they say! here are some of my favs:

"no paint; no gains"
"forever love. never ending lisps"
and last but not least;
"she is my girlfriend" (with an arrow pointing to the right which, in a city of millions of people, there is always someone on your right -leaving all kinds of interesting matches for the guy or girl wearing the shirt.)

easter

holidays are always a bit bittersweet here, being away from family and all. but this was our 3rd easter here and i realized this year that we have put some really special traditions of our own in place.

the annual egg dying

 sitting pretty (not a tradition...just natural for her:)

and then the hunt

w knows nothing of candy-filled eggs. he thinks finding hard-boiled eggs is what it's all about:).

hence the temptation to wander off and look for sticks and bugs and stuff.

easter morning is usually pretty low-key. we worship with friends and then have a big yummy lunch together. this year we did a potluck, kiwi (new zealand) style. everyone just brought something without any sort of plan. i was a bit nervous, but it turned out quite well. loved indulging on things like lemon tart and quiche...someone even shared their reeses peanut butter cups and w experienced peeps (i know mom- you are so proud:)

kev used resurrection eggs to share the easter story with the kiddos and after he was done the house seriously turned into a garden of paper grass...ev.ry.where!

some friends stuck around for a few hours after all the eating and all and we just sat and loathed over how we ate too much and chatted about nothing too important and laughed and you know...i got to feeling... this place really is starting to feel like home.

hope your easter was meaningful and full of joy. He is risen indeed!

lap books

so my new favorite preschool tool is doing lap-books with w. my dear friend and homeschool hero angela introduced me to these and i love them. in my short experience with homeschooling i have realized that my favorite"style" (at least for now) is the unit study approach. we pick a book or an animal and do lots of different things with it. i am not big on having piles of clutter around the house and kev starts to get a bit annoyed when there are more than 12 pictures stuck on the door with magnets and at least 3 of them fall off whenever someone opens the door, so i have found that the lapbook idea is brilliant. i can leave the latest lapbook out for a bit and then file it away and not feel guilty about tossing it. here is our latest:

this is the cover (like w's bees?!)

we talked about the "yukon gold rush" (part of the story) and found gold things in old magazines, learned where michigan is (where the story takes place) and learned several new words (even i learned what "chortled" means:)

 we put our Bible verse and a wheel with the bee's life-cycle on the back

so simple and w loved it. there is an awesome website with lots of great ideas and much better examples at: homeschoolshare.com....if you're interested:)

tofu saag

remember when i mentioned that i wanted to learn to cook with tofu?? well tonight i gave it a try (finally!). it costs about 50 cents to buy enough to feed our family and have plenty left over so this meat lover has been looking for ways to 'dress up' the tofu enough to make it tasty. i think i accomplished it tonight! i love indian food and the spicier the better, so if you are with me on that here is the recipe and some pics:

BEFORE:
(barely palatable)

AFTER:
(i went for seconds:)

the recipe says to serve it with naan and i was really hoping for some of that yummy bread i have mentioned before, but alas, the bread guy has been m.i.a. the last 2 days so i served it over rice instead. thinking this is a good one to try for my gluten-free friends. you can make it with chicken too if you prefer. here it is:

tofu saag

8oz fresh spinach leaves, washed
1 inch piece fresh ginger root, grated
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 fresh chili roughly chopped
1 C water
2 T veg oil
2 bay leaves
1/4 t black peppercorns
1 onion finely chopped
4 tomatoes skinned and finely chopped
2 t curry powder
1 t salt
1 t chili powder
3 T plain yogurt (+ some for on top)
naan bread or rice

1.) Cook the spinach without water in covered pan 5 minutes. Put spinach, ginger, garlic, and curry into the food processor (or blender in my case) and process to a puree.

2.) Heat the oil. Add bay leaves and peppercorns and heat 2 minutes. Add onion and fry 6 min more.

3.) Add chopped tomatoes and simmer for 5 minutes. Add curry powder, chili powder and salt. Stir well and cook for 2 minutes.

4.) Add spinach puree and remaining water and simmer for 5 minutes.

5.) Stir in yogurt 1 Tablespoon at a time.

6.) Add tofu (or chicken thighs). If using tofu cover and cook 15 minutes or so. If chicken 25-30 min or until chicken is tender.

Serve with yogurt on top and over rice or naan.

hope you get a chance to enjoy!