Please Pray for our Province!

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/229562/krabi-mudslides-kill-3-villagers

Please click on the link above and pray for our province and everyone affected by the recent flooding.  Thankfully, we were spared from any danger, but it is heart-wrenching to think of people who weren't.

Power Outage - What Fun!

There has been tons of rain here because of a monsoon camping over the south of Thailand.  For the last week, it has rained (almost) non-stop. 

Usually here, if there's even a strong wind, we have a short power outage.  When there are storms, you can almost bet on it.  After we moved in last August, the power went out at least once a week.  It took some getting used to, but here life keeps moving.  The last time, it was a sweaty mess, happening in the middle of a very very hot day.  This time, the cool weather helped to make things a little easier to bear.  Until the sun went down!

Run and Huy enjoyed a "candlelight dinner" as I rushed around the house before nightfall to find candles and matches.  The flashlight was M.I.A. (of course!).  We later found it in the freezer.  Please don't ask me how it got there.  I'm blaming it on gnomes.

I started trying to light candles and found that all our matches and match boxes were so damp from humidity that none of them would start!  Amazing Thailand! Thankfully, our gas stove was just fine for lighting matches, and soon there were lots of little candles all around the house.

Treavor was out at a meeting, so the kids and I made up "campfire" stories to tell each other.  Jesus showed up in one of them, and as Jeshurun depicts him, he told the giants outside our house to go away and leave us alone.  The giants obeyed, and my boys were much braver in the dark after that.

Playing with Clay

Kyla eating her sticky rice

I had these candle sticks with no way to hold them - so we put some in jars/cups with modeling clay at the bottom

Then, we made a tent upstairs, where everyone played (even Kyla - who eventually tore it down!) cars and fighting dinosaurs. 

Meet the Crazy Crew

Treavor

Interests: all things Jesus, cobra killing, guitar, being an awesome husband, being a fantastic Daddy, home repair (not necessarily in that order)

The boys (Jeshurun and Huy)

Interests:

Jeshurun (or Run) 5 years old - bugs, talking, homeschooling, bossing around his brother, wresting, Kung Fu and typically anything that involves being loud and messy.

Huy - 3 years old - imitating his older brother, bugs, serving others, thumb-sucking, learning how to be a middle-child

Kyla - our sweet baby girl

Interests: being adorable, eating everything, yelling, crawling, pulling up, staying glued to Mommy and Daddy

Alina (me, myself and I)

Interests: Jesus, homeschooling, child training, cooking (or pretending to be interested in that!), reading, gardening, different cultures, and sometimes simply trying to stay afloat in life

Writings from a Non-Writer

For the last few months, I toyed around with the idea to start my very own blog. 

Me?  Writing a blog?

Blogs are for people who are infinitely creative and eloquent and opinionated and political and crafty and (insert your own ideas here)...

...or...they can also be for ordinary people like me who have ordinary things, or on occasion, extraordinary things to write about.  Although I don't consider myself in any way extraordinary, every day I am witnessing amazing things around me through my family, my friends, my world and my God.

So, I have decided to take the plunge to start this journey of expression, feeling, posting and reaching out to the world through this page...

...even if only my Mom reads it.  :)