Rachel Writes

Soj has a busy weekend of cute quotes. Two favorites are: (1) "Before my birthday, I will have a wedding. I am marrying Grammie ." Shew-- good thing she's three and that's a cute thing to say. You should be honored Mom! (2) We were headed to the grocery store, walking to catch a jeep (public transport), and I asked Soj to please walk a bit. I was feeling tired. "Don't worry, Mom. We'll catch a jeep for you." She assured me in a very concerned voice. What a sweetie. We went to the Nutcracker ballet this morning (well, half of it) and Sojo loved it. We didn't stay to the end, so no pictures with the ballerinas, but at the top of the post is one of her dressed up and one of some of the ballerinas. Enjoy.

Whitty and Motors Whitaker loves riding the motorcycle. Here he is with our friends BoYan and Ami, waiting for a little ride. He asks to ride the motorcycle everyday, multiple times a day. Prescription : Beach Trip Today, although both kids have runny noses, we're all in pretty good spirits. I am really sad about missing autumn, but what are you gonna do, huh? I think a trip to the beach might be in order for Saturday. There are Good People in the World! Yesterday I had a good faith restoring experience. Our garbage can was missing. Great! I thought. Someone nicked it! Turns out our neighbor collected that so no one else would take it. She returned it that night. Thanks, Auntie! Would You Like Pork Tenderloin or Toast? The kids are still super silly about eating. Toddlers. I made a delicious roast today. And they both asked for toast. Well, at least they have simple tastes. More for me and Micah . (Oh, and they still eat rice and veggies. So, not all is lost.)

Whitaker loves to be up by 6. One month ago this did not bother me. Now it does because, well, I guess I've incurred a sleep debt. Anyways, what a feeling to walk into a room (scowling) and be greeted by a cheerful toddler bouncing on his bed, ready for a diaper change. He's really funny (I think) but I'm not able to appreciate this at 5, 5:30, or these days, 6am. Soj is more reasonable, but since I'm still not functioning fully at 7 when she wakes, it's still not the mornings that I dream of. :-) Ah well. The thing with me lately is that I really am having trouble sleeping-- I need to sleep. I have trouble waking. But I have trouble falling asleep. Falling asleep-- I wish it were that easy. I feel like I'm trying to press into sleep or squeeze into sleep. Anyways, I've tried hot tea and milk at bedtime. No caffeine. No TV or computer. Ingredients missing? (1) Exercise (2) A worry free mind. So, this morning. We're up. At 7:30 I decide we're going ...

I believe it's called Domestic Sciences now, but whatever the name, those things that some people learn naturally about managing daily life in a home somehow seem to be deleted from my memory some days. I wake up, startled by the morning, thinking what in the world are we going to eat today? I stare at the ingredients in my fridge and pantry and just sigh inwardly. I don't want to cook. It happens to me every so often that I just feel tired of preparing food (some of which goes uneaten, to my dismay) and I feel my spirit flag. I can still manage to churn out a basic meal or too, but marketing and cooking are a stretch. I feel a toddler-like rebellion inside. "I DON'T WANNA!!" Well, I'm trying to combat that today. Granted, it's so hot here that cooking, adding more heat to a room, is not comfortable or pleasant. Anyways, I'm going to get off the grumble train now and "just do it." I'll go cook some tortillas... It's the balance of coo...

I trimmed Sojo's hair for the first time yesterday-- just a bit. It went great and I'm so glad I did it! The 5% easier time of putting in pigtails is totally worth it. Whit had a slight fever last night, but seems okay this morning. We enjoyed a very nice October break last week with one overnight stay at the beach. Both kids are turning out to be happy water babies. Whit is a little worrisome in that he is virtually fearless. That coupled with lack of balance makes for lots of swallowed water. We just have to keep a close eye on him! We're back to a regular school week. Micah starts coaching HS girls' basketball. Well, time to shower up and take a walk. Bye, bye!

This was the theme of last week for me. We caught a rat in the house last Sunday, fixed the roof on Monday and Tuesday, and are trying to get our refrigerator fixed. Thankfully, a student's parents lent us a fridge that their church has. What a blessing! The rat chase was especially impressive. Micah was calmer than me. I was saying, "eww!!" the whole time. I was poking it with a curtain rod and Micah slammed a plastic box over it. I will have to post pictures eventually. Ah, yes, and then I broke my pinkie toe last night while picking up toes. Hurray for life!

Timothy Keller describes a barrier to his faith (that he overcame) in his book The Reason for God "...While I had “said my prayers” for years, and while I sometimes had that inspirational, aesthetic sense of wonder at the sight of a sea or mountain, I had never experienced God’s presence personally. This required not so much knowledge of techniques for prayer, but a process in which I came to grips with my own needs, flaws, and problems. It was painful, and was, as is typical, triggered by disappointments and failures. It would take another, different kind of book to go into them. But it needs to be said that faith- journeys are never simply intellectual exercises." I like this. I find this helpful. I have not read all of his book, but I hope to. I'm also hoping this is helpful to someone else.