Life Lately January 2020

Here is a random look at our month so far...

On New Year's Day Ben finally lost a front tooth.  It was only his third tooth to lose so far.  Both of my boys have been late losing teeth.

We started back to school on January 6.  I enjoyed our Christmas Break but I was ready to get back into a structured routine.

I began reading this devotional book this month.  I am enjoying it.

A view from a recent Sunday drive to church.  You can see Fuego Volcano erupting in the distance.  

The children's Sunday School class sharing with the congregation what they had learned that day.  

I was excited to find green tomatoes at a local grocery store.  We had fried green tomatoes two nights in a row with our supper.  

Ten days later Ben lost his other front tooth.  We were at a local hotel making reservations for an upcoming team and he pulled it while we were there.  He was so excited.  He looks so cute now without his two front teeth.

On a recent sunny Saturday morning the boys spent some time playing in the backyard with a homemade ramp and a Tonka truck.

  simple fun

We were looking forward to watching the college football championship game.  Early in the season the boys decided they liked LSU and began to cheer for them each week.  It helped that they had a winning season.  We decided to make homemade pizzas for supper that night to eat before the big game. We each got our own dough to shape.  This is how Cruz made his pizza.  I wonder where he got that creativity from?  ha  David was out of town with a team from South Carolina (Clemson fans) and did not get to watch the game with us.

The boys had big plans of staying up to watch the whole game.  Neither of them made it to half time.

After halftime I put them to bed and finished watching the game on my computer.

Cruz had a wild idea to start an art project.  We have a few flag puzzles in our school room that he loves.  He grabbed some paper and paint one afternoon and began painting several of the flags. He spent a few days working on different ones.  He is storing them all in a folder and will probably show them to you if you visit anytime soon.

Here he is one evening during our read aloud time.  We are currently reading through the book Captain Nobody.  I normally do our chapter book reading at night but this particular evening he wanted to read instead.  I gladly let him.

I mentioned that David had been out with a team.  We hosted a group from First Baptist Mt. Pleasant, SC.  This is a partner church who has been sending teams to Guatemala for about eight years now.  We love this church and all of the members we have met over the years.  This group went back to the Chiquimula area to serve.  They spent several days making home visits, leading in worship services, and encouraging the believers there.

 They were a hard working group and a blessing to many.

A group of ladies from First Baptist Hazlehurst, MS (my hometown) hand made some wonderful jump ropes and mailed them to this team to bring down to us.  The group passed out several of them throughout their week and we still have many left to give away.  The kids loved them and we look forward to making more smile in the future.

The team spent a few days in Antigua at the end of their week.  The boys and I had stayed home to do school so we did not get to be with them on the front end.  We were all excited to see them when they got here.  Here are the boys with a gift that was sent to them. 

While in Antigua the team stayed at a local hotel but we hosted Miguel in our home.  He helped David work this team by driving and translating.  He is like family to us and we were especially glad to get to spend some time with him.  For breakfast one morning I served him a typical breakfast from our home area- eggs, grits, biscuits, and bacon. 

Visiting the Antigua cross with the team.  We spent all of Friday touring the town.  We went to the market, the jade shop, did a coffee tour, visited a cathedral, and had lunch at Pollo Campero.  It was a fun day.

Mr. David with the boys at the jade shop.  We love Mr. Dave!!  I have lost count on how many times he has been down.

The boys had karate that afternoon.  Savannah and Liz went with us to class. The boys loved having someone there to watch them.  It was a special treat.

Here are a few photos of them at class that day-

The team came over that night for pizza.  Some watched a movie, some played cards, and some had Nerf wars.  It was a really fun night for everyone.  We laughed and had the best time.  We were sad for them to leave early the next morning.

This past Tuesday afternoon we made a quick trip into Guatemala City to pick up David and Cruz's new passports.  On the way home we stopped by Denny's for a snack.  We love to eat at Denny's in Guatemala City!

The boys enjoyed milkshakes. Ben had strawberry.

Cruz chose Oreo.

We had some beautiful views of the volcanoes on the drive home from the city.  We noticed what looked like ice or snow on the tip top of Acatenango (it has been chilly this week). I snapped a few photos of it.

Later that evening I noticed several others sharing photos on Facebook of it as well.  One photo shared by the Guatemala meteorology page showed the ice on Acatenango and Fuego erupting at the same time.  What a beautiful sight!  The volcano views never get old.

Well, as you can see we have had a good month but it is not over yet.

I look forward to sharing with you the fun way we plan to close this month out.  Happy Saturday everyone!  I'm off to refill my coffee.

David's Birthday 2018

This past Thursday (August 2) we celebrated David's birthday. 

We began the morning with banana pancakes and bacon for breakfast.

David's birthday breakfast

The boys presented him with homemade cards during breakfast.

We had a normal school day and then enjoyed a good lunch at home.  I had gotten up a little extra early that morning to put on a pot of red beans.  We had red beans, rice, and tortillas for lunch.  It is one of David's favorite meals.  For dessert we had lemon pie with chocolate and strawberries.  As you can see a little finger had wiped through the whipped cream before I took my photo.

We had our regular Thursday afternoon Bible study in Muyurco that afternoon.  When we returned down the mountain we drove over to Copan, Honduras for the night.  It was getting late by the time we arrived, checked in to our room, and went out for supper.  We went to Jim's Pizza which is one of our favorite places to eat there.  Afterwards we spent a little time walking around town and looking in a few shops before calling it a night.

We had hoped that the boys would sleep in a little later the next morning but just as always they were up bright and early around 6:00 a.m.  (sigh)  We had an early breakfast and then let them swim a little while in the pool.

Some days there is just not enough coffee to deal with all of this energy.

David had made plans to meet with a local pastor that morning.  I had taken our school work with us to do while he was gone.  One thing I love about homeschool is that we can keep it up even when we travel.

When the boys finished their lessons we walked down to the central park to let them skate.  We had packed their skates because we knew the open park area would be a great place to use them.

the boys at the central park in Copan, Honduras

We had lunch at Welchez Cafe and also coffee and dessert.  

strawberry cheesecake and carrot cake

Later that afternoon, while playing, Cruz lost another tooth.  It was a top front tooth.  It had already been a little loose.  Ben was spinning around swinging his fists and somehow connected with Cruz's mouth knocking his tooth out.  That was his fifth tooth to lose and makes three out of five that have been knocked out.  Those boys never cease to keep me a little on the stressed out side.

In spite of that we had a great little get-away.   It was a fun time for everyone and a relaxing way to celebrate David's birthday.  Thanks for all the wishes he received.  He felt very loved and prayed for all day long.

Sweet Times

One of the most exciting things that has happened around here lately is Cruz losing his first tooth.  He will turn eight in a few weeks.  It was about time.  This was technically his second tooth to lose if you count the one he knocked out at two years old.  I guess you could say that this was his first tooth to lose naturally.

It had been loose for a while but he would not do anything to help it come out.  Then one night he got up to go to the bathroom and said it just fell out in his hand.  He could not believe how easy and painless it was.   He asked for Q7 and a Hot Wheel as his gift.  I ended up giving him Q10 (which is a little over a dollar) and a Hot Wheel.   He was so proud of it that he slipped into my bedroom the next morning while I cooked breakfast and made my bed as a thank you.  That boy can melt my heart at times!

In school news one of the curriculums we use for reading is Sing Spell Read and Write Level 2. (We also do Sonlight for reading).  We did Sing Spell Read and Write for kindergarten and first grade.  I have enjoyed this program very much for phonics and reading.  I especially have enjoyed the level 2 reading.  Our readers are taking us on a trip around the United States.  We began covering the Southern border and are now making our way up the Eastern border.  It is also teaching him U.S. geography as well.  It has given us a lot of good conversations about the places we would like to visit someday.  We are both enjoying it and learning a lot about the States.  On our recent study of North Carolina one of the suggestions was to make a sweet potato pie.  When we finished the school week he got to help me bake it.  Both of my boys love to help me in the kitchen.

Cruz mashing the sweet potatoes for our pie.  Excuse the shirtless photo.  It is miserably hot where we live and Cruz never wants to wear a shirt.

our finished sweet potato pie

time to eat!

I think I am finally finished getting their dinosaur themed bedroom decorated.  We only lacked having a shelf built and it was ready for pick up last week.  I love how this focal wall turned out.  They are really loving their new bedroom.

We have had consistent Bible studies on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.  Each of these are going well. 

Here is David preaching on a recent Sunday morning in Nearar.  He is currently going through the book of Ruth.  I took three pictures of him and all three were blurry.  He cannot be still when teaching.

This service was the day before Ben's birthday.  He took sweet bread to pass out to everyone after the service ended.

I have done two studies with the children in Muyurco so far.  It is mostly a group of boys and it is fun.  I definitely have my hands full though.  In our school Spanish curriculum the boys are learning a Bible verse, Bible song, and Bible truth each month in Spanish.  My plan is to teach those same ones in the village each month.  I am doing the one from the previous month because the boys know it well and they can help me teach it to the kids.  Cruz is especially enjoying getting to help me teach/ lead this part of our study each week.

Cruz with some of the boys in Muyurco last Thursday afternoon. 

The coffee plants were in full bloom there last Thursday.  We enjoyed the sweet smell of them as we sat around outside having our Bible study.  The plants bloom beautiful white flowers right before they start to produce the coffee beans.  It is one of my favorite sights here.

This past Sunday we began a separate Bible study for the kids in Nearar during the preaching time.  Luz and I will be teaching it together.  The first week went well.  I plan to teach the same verse and song there each month as in Muyurco along with a weekly Bible story.  Pray for these two children's Bible study times and for the precious children that I get to teach each week.

This past Saturday was my first free Saturday in a while.  I spent it catching up on some baking.  My boys love my homemade cinnamon rolls.  I did not make them a single time while in the States.  It was too easy to buy them there.  Since we have returned to Guatemala they have asked me over and over again to make them some.  I finally had time to do that this past weekend.  I made twelve pans.  I also baked two loaves of chocolate chip banana bread.  My freezer is now stocked and we will have plenty to eat on over the next several weeks.  In addition to that I made David and I a coconut custard pie.  It is one of our favorites.   I also made a batch of frozen chocolate covered bananas.  They are popular here and the locals call them chocobananos.  They are a very refreshing treat on these hot afternoons.

Ben helping me mix my pie ingredients. 

Another new addition to our home are those two wall shelves in the background of the above photo that we had built for our dining room wall.  I am still trying to decide what I want to display on them but I love how they turned out.  Needless to say we are becoming good friends with a local carpenter.  We have also had to have him make another bookshelf for our school room since returning from the States.  

 This is definitely true in our home thanks to homeschool.

my bread and pie

fresh out of the oven

I use the Pioneer Woman's recipe to make my cinnamon rolls.

It is exam week at Cruz's music school.  Today was his day to perform.  Each student has to choose a song to learn and play.  He did a great job and we were very proud of him.   

Cruz with his piano teacher

We are having a short school week because we will be taking a few days off to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  This Friday (the 27th) will be our 22nd anniversary.  

Time flies when you're having fun!

Our anniversary is one of my favorite days of the year.  I am excited about the memories that we will be making as we celebrate another year together.