Life Lately March 2026

 Here is a look at some family activities during the month of March.

 

We started the month getting supplies ready for a mission team.  We were hosting a team from Easthaven Baptist in Brookhaven, MS.  This is the city we have always stayed in during our Stateside Assignments.  We have hosted them many times and always look forward to having them here with us.

 

 

Our mission team

You can read about our week with them here- Easthaven Misson Team. 

 

 

They flew out on a Friday afternoon, and we flew out the following morning heading to Virginia to attend an IMB Americas Homeschool Conference.   We had an incredible week there with other homeschool families who serve in the Americas.  

 

 

our family March 2026 

 

 

Due to our mission team and trip to Virginia, the boys missed two weeks of youth group.  They were eager to return.  That night the boys' Bible study group made pancakes and served them for the evening meal. Our boys enjoyed getting to help.

 

youth group friends 

 

 

We took this photo on Palm Sunday morning. 

 

 

Ben took his friend, Josue, to the climbing gym with him.  This is Ben's favorite activity! 

 

 

For Cruz's cooking class during March, the recipes he made were batter fried fish, cheese grits, and a herb marinated flank steak.  

  

All of the recipes were good, but we especially loved the cheese grits.  It was more work than my usual way to make grits but was delicious.  I have since made the recipe again and is one I'll use in the future.

 

 

I made a banana pudding.  I brought pudding mix and Nilla wafers back with me from the States in December.  I brought enough to make three desserts.  It is something we all love. 

 

While at the homeschool conference, I was given a recipe for homemade cinnamon rolls.  The dough is only self rising flour and heavy whipping cream.  It seemed too easy to be true, but I tried it recently on a Saturday morning.  

 

 

 Turns out they were delicious!  The dough was so soft and perfect. 

 

  I will be making these again often.

  

 

We are on Spring Break this week.  On Monday we made a drive into Guatemala City and visited our favorite mall, Miraflores.   Here are me and the boys enjoying some of the Easter decorations.

 

 

I took Cruz to do some shopping.  David and Ben passed the time with coffee and donuts. 

 

We love just walking around this mall. 

 

 

We went bowling. 

 

me and my boys 

 

 

It was a fun family outing!

 

On Tuesday, the 31st, Ben and I were invited to an Easter party with several of his friends.  They dyed eggs and played "minute to win it" style games for Easter themed prizes.  I think the moms enjoyed the fellowship just as much as the kids. 

 

 

Ben with two of his best friends. 

 

We are now gearing up for the main Holy Week activities taking place in our town this week.  Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Antigua, Guatemala is on a level of its own. Throughout this week there is expected to be several hundred thousand people pass through our town. It is by far the busiest and most celebrated week of the year.  It don’t know what your part of the world will look like for Easter week, but ours will be hopping.

  

 

Happy Easter everyone!   

IMB Americas Homeschool Conference 2026

Our IMB homeschool conferences are top notch! We generally have one every two years. We always have a different educational theme. This year’s theme was Booktopia and focused on reading. I just can’t praise it enough. This year’s conference was a favorite of all. I think it was mostly due to my season of homeschool and the ages of my boys. My main focus was support for finishing high school and prepping them to launch and enter the college years. I left feeling very equipped to do both of these well. 

 

The parent’s days consisted of morning worship and devotions followed by training sessions. We also had daily workshops where you could choose interest based classes. These covered a wide variety of topics related to homeschool. I chose all the high school and college options. They were fantastic! 

 

We had a curriculum fair with several vendors on site to share with us. There was also a college fair for the high school students and their parents. We got to hear from representatives from several schools and some not in attendance sent information and swag to give away.

 

The students had classes of their own. The 2nd- 8th graders all took the IOWA assessment test in the mornings. They had interest based classes in the afternoons. There was a reading fair one evening for the K-8th. Before the conference they had to choose a book that was set in another part of the world and do a presentation on it. That evening they each had a table and everyone walked around and listened to them share about their book. We had so many high school students that we had to do their presentations over two evenings. They had to choose an author and give a 3-5 minute oral presentation about it to the whole group. It was great public speaking practice! We had an evening graduation ceremony to celebrate the juniors and seniors who would be graduating before the next conference. This was followed by cupcakes and fellowship. On the last night we had a talent show where the TCK’s got to highlight their talents. It was very good! 

 

We closed out the conference saying goodbye and thank you to Melody, our education consultant, who will be retiring in late summer. She is going to be greatly missed! We ended with a popcorn buffet that was a lot of fun. 

 

In between we spent countless hours and mealtimes connecting and encouraging each other. I think I love this conference so much because it pours into an area of my life that I spend a great deal of time doing. I’m thankful that the IMB values us as educators of our children and goes above and beyond to provide resources like this conference to help us do it well. 

 

I took very few photos so thankfully Cruz shared a few of his with me. 

 

off to the conference

We left our house around 8:30 am and due to airport delays, we did not arrive at our destination until 3:30 am the next morning. It was a long travel day!

 

 

I always love to see the fountain on the property. 

 

 

Our conference name- Booktopia.  Months before the conference all students get to submit their ideas for a conference name based on the theme.  This year's theme was reading. A list is compiled and then everyone votes for their favorite.  The person who submitted the winning name is always recognized during the conference.

 

 

Cruz and some friends walking to class. 

 

 

The Reading Fair was fantastic!  This was for the K- 8th graders.  It was fun to walk around and hear each of them share about their books.  I also enjoyed seeing all of their creative displays.  

 

Ben chose God's Smuggler as his book and this was his display.

 

ready to share about his book 

 

 

Cruz chose John Grisham as his author to share about.  He chose him because of his ties to Mississippi and Ole Miss. He had a PowerPoint presentation to go along with what he shared. There were at least one hundred people in the audience.  That was intimidating but in spite of it everyone did an awesome job.  

 

 

Walks down to the lake is always everyone's favorite.  It is very pretty and peaceful.  The students spent time there fishing most every afternoon. 

 

Cruz was proud to catch a few fish. 

 

 

 

Ben left for breakfast one morning and came running back in to tell me to look out the window. He then got my phone and took a few pictures. I love that he saw this sunrise and thought of me.  

 

sunrise over the lake 

 

 

Cruz's group in class with their team flag.  

 

These four had a fantastic week together! They’ve all been friends for many years and value times like this when they can be together in person.

 

 

 

Ben with his friend group of middle school boys.  They also had a blast together!

 

Since returning home, we are all in a lull and are missing being together with everyone.  It was a great bonding time not only for the boys but also for me with the other moms. We cannot wait until our next conference so we can all be together again!!! 

Life Lately October 2023

We began the month celebrating Kid's Day.  It is an annual holiday similar to Mother's Day and Father's Day but is all about the kids.  It falls on October 1.  This year it was on a Sunday.  After church we met friends for lunch at Finca Azotea.  We enjoyed a great meal and then the kids spent the afternoon playing and riding bikes.  

 

enjoying a little friend time on Kid's Day

 

sweet friends

 

silly boys!

 

Our country was practically shut down for around three weeks due to protests and blockades stemming from the recent presidential elections.   Protests and blockades happen regularly around here, but they generally only last a day or two.  This one was different in many ways.  Thankfully, things have calmed down and are back to normal.

 

 

We flew to Virginia to attend a homeschool conference with other IMB families serving in the Americas.

 

 

The boys doing math in the airport while we waited to board our flight.  They are both doing a live online class for math this year so we had to keep up their work even though we were traveling. 

boarded for our flight to the U.S.A.

That is always a great feeling! 

 

The sunset view as we landed in Atlanta.

 

Like most all missionaries, our first meal was Chick-fil-A.  We enjoyed it in the Atlanta airport.

 

Ben loved seeing this car in the airport.

 

We enjoyed watching SEC football while waiting to board our flight to Richmond. 

 

The conference took place at the IMB's International Learning Center.  It is one of our favorite places to be!  Just entering the property gives you a sense of peace and calm.

 

We had the best time of the year to be there.  The leaves were changing.  The weather was nice and cool but not cold.  It was just perfect! Fall is my favorite time of the year and we miss the changing of seasons when we are in Guatemala.  Many of our missionaries serve in very hot climates so getting to experience fall weather was an extra treat for them also.

 

 

 

So beautiful!

 

The conference consisted of a wide variety of activities to enjoy.  The parents had daily classes to attend.  Some of our topics included having challenging crucial conversations with your kids, TCK trends, mom challenges, growing up globally, online learning tips, record keeping for high school, artificial intelligence and the homeschool classroom, internet safety and outside influences, preparing for college, and much more.  Our classes were fantastic and we all learned a wealth of valuable information. 

The kids were in their own classes during the day.  The volunteer team planned many fun educational activities for them to do.  The team also proctored the IOWA test that the kids took.  

Other activities throughout the week included an elementary and middle school science fair, high school oral presentations, a game night, a graduation service to recognize the juniors and seniors, a talent show, a curriculum fair, a parent panel, a college fair, and a surprise birthday party for our wonderful TCK educational consultant.

The homeschool conferences are always one of my favorite things to attend.  This one fell at a much needed time for me.  I left feeling refreshed and ready to continue doing the task.  It is not an easy one and now I feel a little more equipped to keep going.

 

 

Ben's science fair project.

 

Cruz's science fair project.

 

The moms had a great time together but it was especially life-giving to the kids.  They all had the best time hanging out and spending time with each other.  MK's have such a strong bond and really understand each other well.  I am always thankful for times when they can all get together.  It sure makes our two feel a little more normal.   Here is Cruz with some of his middle school peers on our last night together.

 

The sunrise view as we landed in Atlanta on our trip home.

 

Breakfast at Chick-fil-A in the Atlanta airport.

 

arriving back in Guatemala City

 

volcano view in the distance

 

 

The next day David attended the Bible Institute graduation service for Rafael and Luz.  They lead the church in Nearar.

 

Luz

 

Rafa

 

We are very proud of them!

 

 

We celebrated seventeen years of service with the IMB on October 24. 

 

In late October we attended a production of Beauty and the Beast in San Cristobal (near Guatemala City).  It was a fantastic play!!

 

The boys knew several students who were in it.   Here they are with their friend David who played Cogsworth.  

 

The last day of the month was cool and rainy.  We built a fire, roasted hot dogs for supper, and continued our tradition of watching Charlie Brown on Halloween night.  We also enjoyed some pumpkin pie.

 

hot dogs cooking over the fire

 It was a fun night!

 

 

And now we enter Thanksgiving season. This year has flown by fast!