Cute little lady...

Audrey has asked for months to have her own dog. When we were in the states, several of the people we visited with had dogs, many of which were little lap dogs. Our good friends, Marvin and Teresa, have a little dog named Sam. Audrey loved him and he slept with the kids each night- which they loved!

One of our friends here has a mama dog that just had pups and he had one left that had no owner yet. He told us we should come and look at her and I said "Thanks, but we already have two dogs."
"Oh, but she's so cute!" he said.

Later, Matt said that he wanted to go look at her...I've been married to him long enough to know that that meant we were getting another dog REAL soon! :)

A few days later, I went to visit our friends and of course got to see her. She was so cute. Iz was with me and of course fell in love with her.

I came home and told Matt he really should go look at her because she was precious...

Well, I think you can guess where this story is heading...



Welcome home Daisy!












It's been almost a year since we had Mac, our cute little poodle who died.

We're praying darling little Daisy has a healthier start than Mac. She sure is being spoiled. Audrey is super attached to her already (although she keeps forgetting her name.) I think it has brought back memories of Mac for her- it sure has for me- and she still misses him greatly.

Matt and I didn't sleep much last night, as Daisy obviously needs a little time to adjust to her new home and wasn't afraid to tell us that last night at 1:30, 3:30 and other various intervals throughout the night...

She's doing great at puppy-pad training- goes right to it. She's super tiny- a miniature pincher mix. She shouldn't get too big, but we'll see. She's white all over, with several small caramel colored spots and one large one on her back. She's playful, underfoot, and clearly ize that her bark thinks doesn't that her bark is bigger than her bite. She sits in the middle of the room and just yelps out this sound she must think is vicious sounding...but is no more than a soft guffaw.

The cat is still int the "Oh no...what did they bring home this time stage and refused to sleep in the same room as he last night! Lucy seems unaware and Reina is playing the mother role. The bigger dogs are outside and we'll keep them out until she gets a little bigger, but we introduced them this morning and it went well. (No pictures, sorry...).

I'm sure more will come of her adventures.

Future Lego Designer

My son, future Lego designer







Created in the mind of the boy,
Made with love with his own two hands,
Handled with care and placed up high.
With wide smile on his face,
demonstrates his talent.

Aspiring writer/illustrator

This week, Isabelle has been writing books and illustrating them as part of her writing assignments. I am amazed and quite un-ashamedly proud of her and think she is simply astonishing!

Here is her first book:


Once there was a snail named Sammy.


And she went to see her friends.



And she said, "Let's have a race!"



And they did. And Sammy won.

THE END

And now for the second title, soon to be best-seller...


One day there was a ballerina.



And she danced all the way to the castle.


And when she went inside she met two ballerinas.


And they were best friends.

Aren't they awesome!

Surrending to suffering

Matt and I are reading, Against the Wind, by KP Yohannon. I am currently reading the chapter entitled, "Willing to suffer for His sake."

This poem by Amy Carmichael has greatly impacted me as I have read and re-read it the past few days.

"From prayer that asks that I may be
Sheltered from the winds that beat on Thee,
From fearing when I should aspire,
From faltering when I should climb higher,
From silken self, O Captain, free
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.

From subtle love of softening things,
from easy choices, weakenings,
(Not thus are spirit fortified,
Not this way went the Crucified,)
From all that dims Thy Calvary,
O Lamb of God, deliver me.

Give me the love that leads the way,
The faith that nothing can dismay,
The hope that no disappointments tire,
The passion that will burn like fire.
Let me not sink to be a clod;
Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God."

Love you Forever...

"I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be."












Lord, the days go by so fast, my heart aches for days gone by, yet looks forward to seeing his future. What have you prepared for my little boy, O Sovereign Lord? As long as I'm living, my baby he'll be. But he's always been yours and always will be. Thank you for the privilege to raise this special young man.

Homeschool update

I realized that I haven't given an update about homeschcool in quite awhile so here we go...

We seem to become more relaxed as time goes on, not in a way that excludes learning or order by any means. But we have learned not to live by a schedule, LOVE books and the wonder and learning they hold, and also that if we work hard for a few hours, we can have a whole lot of fun for the rest of the day.

What has excited me most is how all three of my blessings are learning to see the world with wonder and excitement as they discover it's beauty and in that, discover their Creator.

We start our day around 8:30 with Devotionals with Dad. From his devo, we choose our memory verse for the week, with prizes on Friday for all who know the verse, even mom and dad! We also have daily copywork based on his devotional.

Then we do our daily reading form the book we are reading as well as work on our reading comprehension. Sometimes, we have a science lesson directly after our daily reading, depending on the information we've learned in the chapter. We just finished reading Charlotte's Web. We had several science lessons while reading Charlotte's Web about spiders and their webs. It was very interesting (until I found out we had tarantulas living in our backyard!!!). Most of our grammar, spelling and English lessons come from our daily readings. It is a wonderful way that we have discovered to quickly learn the meaning and correct usage of words.

We are currently studying the United States and so after our reading time, we have our state study and copywork that goes along with it.


Then we have about a 10 minute break and sometimes a small snack. After snack, we start in with Math. The girls are both working on their respective age levels of Math U See. Ethan right now is going through the tests of the previous level as a review, We hit a wall about a month ago where he could not figure out how to move forward, which signaled to me that he has missed something important along the way. I am now trying to figure what it is that he missed. We had used another curriculum up until this point and I can see now that through it, he learned how to do solve for the right answer but he did not learn the reasons why you do what you do to get the right answer nor did he understand how to check your work to make sure you have the right answer. (The following is unashamedly a plug for math U see) We LOVE Math U See! I do not know how it rates academically, if others like it or hate it, nor who recommends it or bashes it.

What I do know is that my kids are learning math, loving it, and understanding it.

They are learning to build it (with the blocks), say it, write it and then in Audrey's case, color it. All of that works together to seal it in their minds and they are just getting it! I love this curriculum and would recommend it to anyone!

That is the biggest and most important things I am learning this year of homeschooling: do what works best for us!!! It may look strange to everyone else, make not look like traditional learning looks like, but if you see your children learning- keep it up.

Each afternoon, I read to Audrey before her nap and Isabelle an Ethan have silent reading while she is sleeping and do their seatwork (which consists of their book reports, finishing up any math or copywork, and also working on their "books" they are writing/illustrating.

The day always begins with their morning chores and devotionals. In the afternoon, they usually play at least one board game with each other- this is one of my favorite things to watch them do- so much is learned from time spent with each other like that.

You may have noticed that I didn't mention anything about a specific curriculum. That is because I took the plunge this year and went curriculum free! We have gone to unit studies for our history and science and it is working wonderfully. I use a website called CurrClick.com where I find almost everything I use. Every week there is a free product to download and I find all of our unit studies there. It is an awesome resource to use for us because we have no public library, book store, or ability to easily receive internet purchased items or curriculum. So, it has become my resource for curriculum and it is great because everything is downloadable and therefore easily stored on my external hard drive, ready and available to print when I need it!

I love Charlotte Mason. If you've never read her philosophy, I would highly encourage you to Google her and or click here check her out. Basically, it is all about getting back to the basics of education: reading, writing and arithmetic. I have chosen to make these three areas my every day focus, as well as learning straight from God's word. I am trusting Him to guide me and provide for the rest. that is what has been the coolest part of traveling along the road of the relaxed homeschooler: watching the learning happen when they least expect it. Allowing the natural discovery information and the natural processing of said information. Seeing budding writers and artists emerging from these little people God chose to create and bless us with. And through it all, seeing all of this learning lead them to discover more about their God, their Jesus, their Counselor, the Holy Spirit.

It is amazingly freeing to chuck the schedule and slavery of a curriculum and allow your life to give way to natural learning opportunities. Along this way, I've met so many who have encouraged me in this path. And heard some awesome stories of those who've traveled this road and now have grown children = products of this philosophy of learning. You'd be amazed how much you can learn through a well written story and how much more you can learn by getting outside of the house/classroom and into Creation. I've 'met' many through the blogging world as well whose sound advice and blogs encourage me beyond words and have proven to be great resources for me on this journey.

Here is a link to one of them: Bring The Rain and here is another: Generation Cedar

Are you committed?

About two years ago now, it was suggested to me by a friend to check out a blog by a fellow disciple committed to making disciples who make disciples. I've been hooked ever since. Seth Barnes writes with honesty about a variety of topics, my favorites being those posts about discipleship and orphans.

Click here to read his latest post about those who are merely Christians and those who are true followers of Christ (disciples).

New sister in Christ!

Today I met with Clency for discipleship and she accepted the Lord!!! Praise God!! Those of you that know me well no how much I enjoy working with young girls and she is no exception. Please pray for this young girl as we grow a friendship together and she grows in her relationship with the Lord!

Please pray for Maria Jose and Urania. They told me they were sick today and couldn't come, but later I saw them walking by our house, which is a good twenty-minute walk.

Also, Clency and I agreed to change our day to Sunday afternoons, in order to alleviate confusion (on my part) about which week we are on and also so I can keep my mornings free for homeschooling. I am very thankful for this and am also hoping she will desire to come back with me to church after discipleship. Please pray for this with me.

August 2010 Prayer Letter

The following is the text of our latest prayer letter. If you'd like to receive these by email, please email me or post a comment here on the blog.

PRAISE GOD!! CELEBRATING THREE YEARS OF SERVICE IN COSTA RICA!!
In his book, Revolution in World Missions, K.P. Yohannon writes, “The secret of following God’s will usually is wrapped up in rejecting the good for God’s best. The work is His, not ours. His burden is light. We make it heavy. The work is a privilege, not a chore.” God ‘s will for our lives, His best, is a clear call to make disciples. We’ve experienced much in our three years here in Costa Rica. We look back and can see His hand upon every change, every trial, and every turn we’ve experienced. When God called us from San Jose to this little village called Villarreal where we knew no one, we were greeted by oppressive heat and wandering cows. We’ve had our share of challenges in the eight months since we’ve lived here, but not once have we doubted God’s purpose in bringing us here. God lead us to two godly pastors and we cherish our friendship with them both. The leaders of both churches have responded to the call to make disciples and already some are obediently making disciples of their own. God is changing lives through discipleship! We have been careful to continually seek God’s will during our time here about even seemingly little things and in obviously big things. He has been faithful to lead us and guide us. We’re committed not to compromise for the good the world has to offer, but seek only, invest only, and serve only in God’s best. As we go, God reveals His best to us.

We are excited to share an awesome opportunity God has given us to make disciples here in Villarreal. While we had no idea this was part of God’s plan when we arrived in Villarreal, we are certain this is His best for our family. In addition to meeting with our current disciples, we have partnered with Calvary Chapel and have agreed to work on a team with Potter’s Field Ministries to develop, implement, and run an after-school program that will offer discipleship as its core component, as well as daily tutoring, a healthy meal, English classes and a sports component. We are praising God for the blessing He is pouring out on Villarreal. We have clearly seen his power and might in the lives of the youth in places like Los Guido. We know His plan is one of hope. We have seen children who once had no hope become strong pillars in their community, like oaks of righteousness. The child, who once lived on the street, who now is close to graduating high school, with plans to become a doctor. We have seen, and therefore we believe, these same great things for Villarreal. We find ourselves stepping forward in faith into a ministry that will stretch us. We, in our own strength cannot possibly fill the role, but God, by His power, can and will. Please check out www.pottersfieldglobal.org to find out more about the organization and their work around the world.

Pray for us as we seek to be self-disciplined people whose lives demonstrate consistent obedience to God. Pray for us to be disciplined in time-management, fasting and prayer, studying and learning from God’s Word, in our finances, in maintaining relationships with godly people in our lives from whom we have learned much, in our work ethic, in our attitudes, in strengthening the gifts God has given us, being good stewards of all of our resources, in guarding our hearts, tongues, minds and ears, and in keeping godly friendships. Pray for us as we move forward in God’s best. Pray for the ministry in San Jose, for which we continually give thanks to God. Pray for the lives of the children of Villareal to be changed by God.

Date with my Izzy

Since I went on a date with Audrey the other day, Isabelle has been asking when it is her turn...so today her and I went. We shared a smoothie at the same place Audrey and I went and sat at the same table. I told her the story of Audrey and I sitting at the same table and what Audrey had said to me that day about being so tall and Iz and I shared a few laughs and smiles about her little sister.

I asked Izzy if she had changed her mind about what she wanted to be when she grew up or if she still wanted to be a MegaSuper checker girl or a doctor or a teacher. She said she had decided that being a MeguSuper girl was too hard of work for her because swiping things and checking prices all day is really hard...since Audrey told her that she wanted to be a Train-arian (veteranarian- how do you spell that?) she (Iz) had decided she wanted to be a teacher.

"But I don't know that much Spanish," she said.
"Why do you need Spanish?" I asked her.
"To teach the kids here," she said!

Oh, well of course, why didn't I think of that? Of course she would think we would still be living here...this is her home...

I asked her if she thought God would ask her to go to another country that spoke Spanish and she said she thought He might do that. I asked her if she thought she would be a missionary when she grew up and she said, as matter of fact as I have ever seen her: "I already am, remember?"

Oh, my Isabelle, I love you so much!

The best big brother...

...a little girl could ask for

Fumigation

Because it is rainy season, there is, as you might guess, a build-up of water in low-lying areas and certain areas just become saturated. This leads to the breeding of mosquitoes. There are several different types of mosquitoes in this area, including one type that carries the Dengue virus. We've been extra careful recently with bug spray and keeping the doors closed. Matt and Ronny have been working on building screen doors for both our front and back doors. There have been many cases of the virus in the area and surrounding areas, with one area near here closing school and business in an effort to keep people out because it had spread so rapidly.

Also, the city has been spraying the area to kill existing mosquitoes as well as possibly prevent eggs from hatching.

Today, a team of men came through our neighborhood looking somewhat like something out of the Ghost Buster movie and carrying a large sprayer that looked very much like what Bill Murray's character carried in the movie.

They wore gas masks and were spraying all the areas near the road, trees, bushes, anywhere where there was standing water. If you left your gate opened, they would come into your yard and spray into your home.

So, we gathered the dogs and waited for him to come our way. We walked over to our neighbors as he came and sprayed this thick cloud of mosquito poison into our home...sounds really safe, huh?

Clouds rolled out of the house for minutes after he was gone. Matt grabbed the camera and took a few pictures for you to see. I wish we had one of the guy doing the spraying...it was sure s sight! The cloud has cleared some when he took these, so if you can imagine it about 5 times thicker...you literally could not see through it!

New brothers in Christ

Tonight, Matt started discipleship with Wilmer from Santa Rosa, who we met through the VBS that East Hill team did the first of the month. Wilmer asked if his cousin Kevin, could also be part of the study and he started tonight as well. Wilmer's mom and grandma were both listening during different parts of the lesson.

God moved, God prepared, God opened the hearts of Wilmer and Kevin and both of them accepted Christ with Matt tonight! Praise God!!!

Their eternity has been forever changed and now they are truly beginning New Life in Christ! Please pray for these new brothers in Christ!

Also: an update on Dinora's family: her brother Marlin has completely stopped drinking, since the first day her and I visited with her mom. He now has 22 days sober. He has also started to attend a church in a nearby town. Please continue to pray for this family and their salvation.

Pray also against the enemy's tactics to oppress the disciples God has risen up here. Specifically against spiritual attacks in the form of nightmares or insomnia or feelings of low-self worth. pray that those like Elvita will be strengthened and filled with joy, knowing that Christ lives in them and it is through HIM that they are able to do all things.

Wisdom from the Web

We've been reading Charlotte's Web as our read-aloud and we all love it! I have enjoyed reliving the story that I loved as a girl. (I remember fondly the boxed set I had of Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, and the Trumpet of the Swans).

I love using great works of literature as the basis for our studies and here is a wondeful example of why. In this book, we have learned many new vocabulary words, but what has been especially exciting has been our study on spiders that has stemmed from the information in the book about spiders. As we get to know Charlotte more, we learn about her fascinating body and abilities. Last week, we studied about spiders legs and drew on our notebooks the 7 parts of a spider's leg.

This week, we have been studying their webs and their ability to spin and trap. We found a cool demonstration on the internet about building a web, watched it and studied it. Then we learned about spider facts, types, and body structure and also the differences between insects and spiders. Then we went looking for them outside in the world around us. We found a GIANT spider web strung from one tree to the next in the back field. We also learned that there are tarantulas here, a fact that I was EXTREMELY happy to be oblivious to before Wednesday!

It has been a wonderful week of science study and today we concluded with a Moody science video that focused on the trap door spider as well as a water spider that creates a bubble around its body that allows it to breathe while it moves about looking for its prey.

Ethan's conclusion to the study of spiders is that no one can argue the existence of the Creator when you look at all the spider can do. I'd have to agree with him.

Today I wanted to share a section from chapter 14. Fern's mom has become worried about her because she spends so much time at the farm "talking" with the animals and so she goes to see the family doctor, Dr. Dorian. He assures Mrs. Arable that Fern is in fact fine. Mrs. Arable questions him about the writing in the spider web. The doctor responds his wonder and amazement more at the spider itself than the writing in the web. Here is the following exchange between the two:

Mrs. A: "What's so miraculous about a spider's web? I don't see why you say a web is a miracle- it's just a web."
Dr. D: "Ever try to spin one?"
Mrs A: "No, but I can crochet a doily and knit a sock."
Dr. : "Sure, but somebody taught you, didn't they?"
Mrs A: "My mother taught me."
Dr. D: "Well, who taught the spider? A young spider knows how to spin a web without any instructions from anybody. Don't you regard that as a miracle?"
Mrs. A: "I suppose so. I never looked at it that way before. Still, I don't understand how those word got into the web. I don't understand it, and I don't like what I can't understand."
Dr. D: "None of us do, I'm a doctor. Doctors are supposed to understand everything. But I don't understand everything, and I don't intend to let it worry me."

Night driving....swiss cheese...random cows

No pictures today...just a story...

I have never enjoyed driving in the rain, but I especially loathe driving in the rain at night...my vision is at its worst and even with anti-glare/anti-reflective (and anything else to prevent having problems with the combination of these two things while driving) put on my glasses, I still have terrible issues at night while driving and even more with the addition of rain.

Tonight, as I was driving to my disciple, Marcella's house, it was raining, but only slightly and it was still daylight. It takes about 15 minutes to get to her house in nearby Langosta. The road to her house is worse than horrible. At one point, there was no road to speak of, only a large expanse of holes about the size of my tire with small spaces between them. Think swiss cheese for a road. Nowhere to go but through the holes, slowly and gently. I manage just fine, arrive at the correct Tica hour of 5 minutes late and thoroughly enjoy our time together.

As I am heading home, night has fallen and it is a pleasantly cool evening. (I actually wore a sweatshirt out for the first time since we've lived here!). It as raining slightly as I set off for home.

As stated before, rain and night are not a good combination for driving for me. It begins to rain harder as I maneuver the road and traffic and people walking home after work. I manage to make it through Swiss Cheese Land and through the tourists caminando (walking) in Tamarindo. As I get out of Tamarindo and shift into third gear, I am trying hard to remember all the holes in this main road (there are plenty). The glare from the lights of the vehicle behind me is almost blinding. Oncoming traffic swerves randomly into my lane as they dodge the holes on their side; I hug the ever erroding shoulder of the road on my side.

Up ahead I see a sprinkling of people walking home from their jobs in tourist land. I try not to hit them, although they are walking in the middle of my driving lane and try not to hit the holes in the road and also try to avoid splashing the people as I go through the water on the road. (It is raining harder at this point in my journey).

Wait- what is that ahead? WHOA! Four cows in the road- I guess it is supper time for them too...I swerve slightly into the opposite lane to avoid the three on my side of the road. Oncoming traffic thankfully slows and stops to give me room and to avoid the one in their side of the road.

I pass by, laugh to myself and venture on. Glad to have remembered the huge hole that always gets me at this certain bend in the road just before entering Villareal, I make my way past the small bridge and favorite little pulperia before coming to the cruce (intersection) where I can head left to MegaSuper and on to Santa Rosa or right to Villareal. I go right and head home, wandering to myself the procedure that must happen if one is involved in a "choque" (accident)with a cow. I am sure there is a law about it here in this developing country I've come to love...Must both parties, that would be the car and the...err...vaca (cow) have to remain in the exact positions of the accident until the police arrive as in the case of two automobiles? What if the cow randomly wanders away...?

Does anyone know how to put a copyright on pictures? I want to put our name or some trademark to let people know the picture is mine on all the photos I post on the blog. Who knows how to do this?

PLEASE help :)

Thanks in advance!!! :)

Date with my girl, Audrey

Today, as we were studying, Audrey says to me, "Mommy, when we are done with this, I want to go on date just with you!"

Well, what do you say to that but "Well, ok!" :)

So, we finished up, took our nature walk, and I left instructions with Matt for Isabelle and Ethan on what they needed to do to finish up their work and off we went.

On the short drive into Tamarindo, I asked Audrey what she would like to do on our date. She said she would like to have juice and some ice cream from MegaSuper, the local chain grocery store we have here (think Hometown IGA).

I asked her if we could do something else, also and she said "Sure Mom, wherever you wanna go!"

So, we headed to the TCBY in town (yeah...there is actually a TCBY here) so she could get her chocolate ice cream with Oreo topping and then we walked over to the smoothie shop and I got my favorite mandarina, maracuya and mango smoothie. As we sat at the table closet to the street, on their little covered patio, with the high back, stool-like chairs, she said, "WOW! I've never sat in chairs like these! I'm bigger than everyone!" (the patio is about 8 feet or so higher than the sidewalk, so as people pass she towers above them as she leans over the railing, giving passersby her best smile). Then she says, "Well, I'm not bigger than God, no one is. Not even Dave (a good friend of ours) and he's pretty big! God is biggest of all!"

As we sat, it began to rain. She said she should have brought her sweater because she was cold. (It was hardly cold, but the rain on her arms had given her a chill). So, she decided it was time to head to MegaSuper for her "juice." As we got to leave, it began to pour, so we quickly got into the car and headed to MegaSuper.

When we got there, she wanted to pull the little basket (they have these cool little baskets on wheels here that are quite useful) and she also wanted to scan every item we picked up on the little price scanner machine they have in the store. She remembered that she wanted to look for this certain type of chip at the store that Isabelle had bought from the pupleria the other day in Santa Rosa. Well, she couldn't find them, but found her favorite cheese balls instead and her "juice" which actually ended up being 7Up.

She wanted me to park in a certain spot so that if it rained we while we were in the store we wouldn't get wet when we came out. that spot was taken as well as the one I usually park in so we parked in another one across from the building. Wouldn't you know, it poured while we were in there and we of course had not brought the umbrella in with us!

We got in the car and she said, "Well, now my hair's wet! That's good because I love it when my hair us wet!'

She is one-of-a-kind and I love her! I thank God for her.

I forgot to mention in the post about her falling asleep yesterday that she thinks it was the first or second time she had played the game Blokus. It is a pretty intense game and she did great at it. I ending up beating her, but only by 2 points! I actually thought she was going to win she had been doing so well! She is super smart, that girl!

FEPC family news

Watch this short clip of our good friend, Jim Milstead, from our FEPC family in Frankfort. This made us laugh (and made me cry a bit thinking of our time together with them last March). For those of you who have been to Guanacaste during dry season, you'll get the dirt in your shoes joke...

Enjoy!

Audrey wanted to play a game with me after supper tonight, so her and I were playing Blokus in our bedroom while Ethan and Isabelle were reading silently in the living room. When Audrey and I came out after finishing our game, we found this sleeping beauty...






This morning, she said that she just couldn't keep her eyes open. She wanted to finish one more chapter but her eyes kept closing. So she set her book down beside her and tried to open her eyes really wide so she wouldn't fall asleep, but eventually she did! :) So sweet...

She must have one tough teacher...

Today, we worked really hard in the morning, trying to get into our new routine of morning-only school days (because Matt and I are preparing for new ministry starting soon that will be in the afternoons!!!) and I guess Audrey apparently felt the extra-hard work atmosphere...I came back from putting something away in the school room and she had konked out on the sofa, pencil still in her hand. She reached up to scrath herself and her pencil fell out of her hand (I took it off of her- no worries!). So sweet!

We got so much done in just a couple hours today- and it was great both for them and for me! I LOVE homeschooling!!!