Movie Night

Every weekend, we watch a movie together as a family. We usually make popcorn, and let the kids have a soda, turn off the lights and all sit together to watch a movie. It's quite a tradition.

Jonathan is really getting into this, and loves his popcorn. If he doesn't have his own bowl he will go from person to person begging popcorn off of them! He fits right in to our family!

Vegetable Garden

This year, for the first time in my life, I am starting my own vegetable garden. I have had flower gardens in the past, but have never grown vegetables. My parents sent me some seeds so I am growing: lettuce, brocolli, cauliflower, peas, radishes, and parsley. Also cat grass. A few days after planting, and the radishes and peas have already sprouted! I am so excited. Looking forward to see what will grow in my little garden.

Radishs have sprouted!

Our new pet, Timothy

We have a new pet turtle, and we named him Timothy.

This is his story.

One night last week, I happened to look out the gate and saw some kids gathered around a large tortoise. I was afraid they might him, so I went over, picked him up and brought him into the gate. The kids started trying to peek into our gate, calling to us, and refused to go away. I wondered if maybe this was their pet, and I had just taken their pet away? So, I went back out with him, they grabbed him and ran off. Katrina and Heather were devistated. They were sure the turtle would be hurt or mistreated.

So, I talked to my guard who told me that the kids had come by hoping to sell the turtle to me! They wanted to make a sale, and I had just taken him! With that cleared up, we settled on a price (7,000 -// or about $6 US). My guard negotiated for me and paid the money to the parents of the children (who had sent them over to sell the turtle!). That is how we got a pet turtle. Timothy lives in our yard. Now I'll have to figure out how to keep him out of my vegetable garden!

Happy 6th Birthday Heather!

Heather had her 6th birthday Sept 13th. We are having her party Sept 25th. We love you, Heather and we are so proud of you!

Yeah for the used clothing market!

The Rochester Christian Church group has arrived safely (David, Joy, Christine, and Carol), but when they first arrived six of their bags weren't with them. So, yesterday, we took them down to the used clothing market for some things just in case their bags took awhile to come in.

While there, I decided to get some clothes for the kids since I was planning on doing that next week anyway. It's our form of school clothes shopping, on a budget. For less than $40, I was able to get both girls some nice strap-on sandels, and for each girl: a dress, a pair of pants, a skirt and 2 shirts. I even found an Ariel purse for Heather, and a ballerina outfit for Katrina and a Princess nightgown. Not bad for about $35!! I am so thankful to have this used clothes market here where we can find decent clothes... you just have to be willing to search through piles of clothes to find what you want, and then negotiate for the best price. It was worth the effort though!
By the way, their bags came in late last night! Praise God!

Jonathan at 17 months old

I thought I'd write a little about Jonathan, who is growing and changing so quickly. It's harder for us to notice since we are with him everyday.

Jonathan is a very happy boy.

Most mornings, Jonathan gets some coffee (watered down) from Daddy. I know, horrible... but it's kind of cute how he is so proud to be drinking COFFEE with Daddy!

He HATES getting dressed, and usually screams the whole time. He also screams and fights to be put in the car seat, but once he's buckled in, he's fine. ???

He has alot of words, and picks up new words all the time. So far, he can say: Dada, Mama, Nose, Eye, No-no, Yeah (yes), bye-bye, Beep-beep, broom-broom (the noise cars make), ball, weeee!, ju (juice), ow!, out. When we pray at dinner, he "prays" along with us, making noises that sound like the prayer and puts his hands together. It's SO cute! If you ask, "Do you want to go on a walk?" He runs over and climbs into his stroller.

Jonathan loves his sisters and has very different relationships with both of them. Katrina is the more active, and he loves for her to push him around on the stroller like a race car, carry him around and swing him around, play ball with him, etc. Their special time is usually in the morning, when they cuddle together.

Heather and him have a more peaceful relationship. He is always giving Heather hugs, usually one after the other (but then he'll start hitting her right after that). They play together quietly, or they will run and chase eachother. Katrina tries to "mother" him by dressing him, feeding him, carry him, etc. Heather only plays with him.

Jonathan gives kisses if you ask for them, and hugs often.

He LOVES water and getting wet. If its quiet in the house, he's usually to be found with the hose on, or pouring a cup on water on himself, or with some faucet running! Bathtime is his favorite time of the day, needless to say. He usually cries when he has to get out.

Jonathan loves food and eating. When I ask, "Are you hungry?" He smiles and runs to his high chair and tries to climb in. We just give him whatever we happen to be eating, just cut up a little bit. He only had "baby food" for about 2 or 3 months and then starting eating table food. He's 22 lbs., which is what Heather weighed about about 3! He's just a healthy, growing boy! He usually eats as much as Heather does at each meal, sometimes more.

Well, hope you feel like you know a little more about Jonathan now!

A long walk

This afternoon I was out on a walk with the girls, pushing Jonathan in the stroller. I often take walks with the kids around the neighborhood. While out, I ran into Mama Teddy and Vincent on their way to the children's program at Moshono Christian Church. I thought, "Hey this is my chance to see how far it is to walk to Moshono Christian Church from our house!" So, we started walking together to the church.... and arrived there AN HOUR AND A HALF LATER! I had no idea how far it was! (Obviously!) The kids were tired, but enjoyed playing with the animals that live on the farm next to the church, and we stayed for most of the children's program. When it was 6pm, it was getting dark and Bill was still in town, so we had to walk back home. It was a long and tiring walk, but I'm glad to say that we have done it, at least once! When we got home, we were locked out, but Bill showed up after a few minutes to let us in. It "only" took us an hour to get home, so thankfully we made it before dark. I was so happy to be home again, to have a glass of water and some food and sit down and rest! I was a long day, but it was nice to get to see everyone at Moshono Christian Church.

Katrina and Heather walking behind Mama Teddy to the church.

'Power Cut

We lost power last night (Tues night) at 8pm, and it didn't come back until 2pm today (Wed.). 14 hours without power isn't really that bad, the worst part of it was that our water tank was empty when it happened, and we didn't have power to pump any water.
Thankfully, the kids were all asleep already. I decided to go to bed early since there was no lights and nothing to do.
When I woke up and found there was still no water or power, I had to get creative. I used some wet wipes to take a sponge bath. I used some bottled drinking water to wet wash clothes for the girls to wash their face. They had bathed before bed.

I didn't want the dishes to just sit there, so decided to use one teakettle-full of drinking water to do dishes. We had 5 L of drinking water. I boiled the water on stove. We have gas stove, so we never have to depend on power to cook.
No water means not cooking any rice or anything else you have to boil, but thankfully I had plenty of left overs to heat up for lunch.
Heather fell and straped up her knees, and I used wet wipes to clean them off.
It's amazing what you can get by with when you have to... now that power's back and I have pumped the water... I think I'll go take a real shower!