J-boy's 4!

**Sorry this wasn't posted on May 28...pretend it was.

Today, Jboy turns 4. He's been counting down for the last 10 days, letting us know each morning how many days until his birthday.  Today, he keeps asking everyone to tell him happy birthday and to pray for him before meals because it's his birthday.  He came downstairs this morning to find an over the door basketball hoop from Daddy and Mommy and a play tool bench from Nana and Papaw.  Daddy had also found Jboy a small Maasai knife (which I'm not sure what he will do with?!?!).  He requested biscuits for breakfast and chicken fried chicken w/ gravy and rice for dinner.  Yesterday, we had house church with our team and celebrated with cake after lunch for J. Tonight, we will have pecan pie for dessert (again, his request).

handsome boy with beautiful blue eyes

I decided it would be fun to ask J some questions on this, his fourth birthday, and record his answers to look back at later.

How old are you? four
What's your favorite color? blue and green
What's your favorite food? pizza
What do you want to be when you grow up? Spiderman or super hero
What makes you really happy? eating pizza
When are you really sad? when someone hits me
What's your favorite movie/TV show? BOZ
What's your favorite thing in school? My kindergarten workbook
What do you like to play? I like to play with E and M. I like to play with blocks. I like to play the game Aggravation. I love playing Clifford on the computer.
What's your favorite card game? UNO, actually Skipbo

Some of J's stats/tricks/special skills:

• He's really athletically talented and enjoys playing soccer (football), baseball, and basketball.
• He's reading three letter words (and sometimes longer) with no problems.
• He has a mathematical mind and does well with addition and subtraction.
• J weighs 39.7 pounds and is 42 7/8 inches tall.  He's wearing size 4 in shirts and trousers and size 10/11 in shoes.

We love you so much J boy.  You are sensitive and compassionate.  You love kisses and hugs and cuddles.  We are so thankful you're part of our family.  You are a great brother and add lots of laughs to our lives.

she's two!

Our littlest is two. This is a first for us.  When the older ones have turned two, our littlest has been a newborn.  This time, our newborn is still in the womb and will be for a few more months (hopefully!).  So for now, and for the first time, our baby is two.

I thought I'd update you on her current tricks and skills!

• She's talking about anything and everything. She often repeats things and at times surprises us with a saying all her own. She's using four-five word sentences on a regular basis and also knows how to greet and respond in Swahili.  This morning, she had fallen in her room and I went and got her and brought her back to bed with me. Kevin came upstairs to check on her since he heard her fall.  Kev talked to her for a bit and then said, "Come here and and I'll put you in her bed. " Little bit responded with, "No, I'm laying here talking to Mommy."
• She's averaging two wet diapers a week.  She sleeps in a diaper but it's usually dry and she'll wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom if she needs to.  For the first time since E was born, we're going to be diaper free for a bit.
• She's sleeping in a bed with E and does really good.  Sometimes, naps take a bit longer for the girls to fall asleep but other than that she's doing great.
• She's running very fast and likes for you to watch her. She's also jumping and likes for you to watch her do this as well.  She likes to dance and to "move it, move it."

• Some of her favorite things are her baby, playing with her tea set, watching our chickens, coloring, singing (her own made up songs but I can usually understand Jesus), reading books, and helping Mommy or Daddy with anything.
• She's started joining the big kids in school and has been doing activities to learn her colors.  Each week, she usually learns at least part of their Bible verse and sometimes, all of it.
• Her current stats are: 25.8 pounds and 33 7/8" tall. She's wearing size 2T in clothes and size 7 in shoes.  She's grown almost 2" since December and her shoe size jumped from 5 to 7, kind of skipping size 6.  We're thinking she might be tall?!?!  She's long and lanky like her sister (and her parents)!
• For her birthday, we had our teammates over for cupcakes (strawberry with green and purple icing, her pick) and ice cream.

So there's our update on little, big M.  We're so thankful for her sweet, compassionate spirit.  She's a great playmate for E and J and provides plenty of laughs for us all.

living in simplicity...by my laziness

fair warning...this post talked about blood...don't keep reading if this will freak you out in any way...we will not be held responsible for any "gross" feelings


so I cut my finger earlier today trying to open the foil seal of a can of instant coffee...  not a bad cut but enough to get my 5year old to think it was a lot of blood.  

so i first finished making my coffee, then before the blood dripped off my hand I went to the sink and washed it off.  I then wrapped up my finger in a cloth to keep the blood off my coffee cup.

the bleeding stopped with in a couple of minutes, however later in the day I kept bumping it and it would open up.  after the third or fourth time of the bleeding starting up again, Danielle suggested that I get a band-aid.  what....

my first thought was no way...that would be a waste...I'd have to go find one and then when ever we run out of the we will have to find where on narok they might sell them.  That is just too much work!

these thoughts we followed quickly by a rationalization of saying that I am just "living in simplicity"

some of what i didn't know that I didn't know...

Cross cultural living is a lot of fun..... and a lot of work.  one of the things that we get to do is to find out some of the things that we didn't know.  Even this thought goes against our cultural mindset.  in America we are basically what we know.  if you know how to change a tire, then if called upon you could be a "tire changer", if you are really good at math then often you will be seen as smart.  The basic mentality of our home culture is that if you know then you have power, so even admitting that we don't know something is bad.  which leads us to...

Who assigns "good/bad", "right/wrong", "OK/not OK"?  there is a range of normal in every culture...with most people falling within this range (and occasionally some choosing to intentionally be out of the norm).  It is very likely that the range of normal is so naturally ingrained that you don't notice when people are acting within that range, but you know when someone is operating outside of normal (even if you can't put into words "what normal is").

So I am admitting to 1) not knowing something and 2) that something is how to operate within our host culture's range of normal.  If you are still reading this blog then you are family, close friends, or bored.  so instead of continuing this boring set of revelations I'll just give some examples.

(some of the) Things that I don't know:

about food-
-playing with your food is ok ( when using it to eat other foods)
-you can and should eat every part of the chicken (including bones and organs)
-you can and should eat the kidneys of the goat raw and while it is still warm
-the soup made from the head of the goat is most flavorful
-whoever invented long-rice (spaghetti noodles) isn't from around here
-tables are for white people
-every day you should have enormous amounts of ugali (corn meal and water in cake form)
-you can not buy food more than 1-2 days in advance
-all good food tastes "sweet" even if there is nothing sweet about it.
-if you eat pork you are gross
-if you eat fish, then you must also eat snake and lizards (gross)
-any time is tea time

about cooking:
-recipes are for the white people
-measuring anything is for the white people
-cooking anything beyond the 6 dishes that everyone knows how to cook is a waste


about babies:
- it doesn't matter how much the baby is sweating it is cold and you need to put on more clothes
- feed the baby all of the time...


about kids:
-they go to school (age 3 and up), unless the is a greater family need
-they stay in school until 8th grade
-they continue school if they are smart, or you can afford for them to keep going




that is enough for now...maybe more later