Adeline Art

Click here to view this photo book larger

Fun New Toy

Pricesmart is our Sam's Club or Costco. In fact, it carries some of the same items and most of everything in the store is imported. It's a store that is supposed to save you money......yeah right! I went in to Pricesmart today for wipes and cheese. I came out with much more including this tent set. The kids are having so much fun! You can tell by the expressions on their faces. There is one more piece, the tent. I think I'll save that for another time when they get bored with the house.

Darton is officially signing! He went full force at exactly 15mths. The most commonly used ones are eat, please, drink, and help.

A few posts ago I wrote about the 90% humidity here. Here's two more humidity facts:

1. When you take your contact out of your eye at 4am and put it on your bed instead of in the trash, you can still put it back into your eye 3 HOURS LATER (after a dash of contact solution).

2. Play-doh does not dry out. Instead you have to have a fan blowing directly on your children when playing with Play-doh so that it doesn't stick to to their hands or the table making it impossible to use.

Banana-Oatmeal Cookies

If you're looking for a moist cookie that doesn't contain sweetener, butter, eggs, or wheat here it is!

Banana-Oatmeal Cookies

Simply Natural Baby Food - Cathe Olson

2 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup almonds
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt (used regular table salt)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (used allspice)
1 1/2 cups mashed banana (3 bananas)
1/4 cup canola or safflower oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup raisins (I used chopped dates)

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly oil baking sheet. Grind oats & almonds to a coarse powder in food processor or blener. Stir in baking powder, salt, cinn, & nutmeg.
Beat (or use food processor) bananas, oil, and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Add to oat mixture. Stir in raisins.
Drop cookie dough by tablespons on baking sheet. Bake for 13-16minutes or until bottoms are golden brown. (b/tw 2-3 dozen)

Definately worth trying out!

Raising Children

I read a post that prompted me to think and respond with the following: (it would be best if you go to the hyperlink first)

There is nothing small about your sacrifice! I too fight the same battle of computer time and the battle of showing my children the Lord through my actions. I am thankful thought that the Lord is the one who can only change their hearts and I will do my best to raise my children in the admonition of the Lord. I will teach them that God has a hand in everything…ABCs & 123s. I will teach them that He is their Savior if they choose Him as Lord of their life. I will not treat my children as pagans who are on their way to Hell unless I do something about it. No, I will teach my children instead how daily life encorporates living by the Word of God and pray that one day I will get to see fruits of the Holy Spirit working in them. Press on Sister! Don’t be overcome by fear and timidity, but walk in the Spirit and your children will know that God is real.


Now I know this isn't anything profound, but it caused me to put thoughts into words that I hadn't before which helps me to be more grounded in my beliefs.

Hooray! We got water this morning...thankfully my expectations were NOT met!

We Got Nada

We've hit the true Dominican life today...
1. Our generator has been broken for 2wks and we are at the mercy of the city for electricity (not such a good thing especially when they don't pay the power company). We are guaranteed no power at some point during the day/night.
2. Our well broke today and all the water that could be removed from the cistern has been. Flushing toilet, washing hands, brushing teeth...the little things that you just don't think about the amount of water you use. We've been told the well is broken, not the pump. We're thinking if the well is broken then it can't be an afternoon fix.

We have plenty of friends to go to if worse comes to worse. Workmen come tomorrow to look at it...but we've had workmen "looking" at our generator for 2 weeks now. Sigh.

I'm sure most of you have had to experience a similare situation at some point. We'll get through it...nothing can get us too down since my parents will be here on Friday night and then a girlfriend, Mariah, comes on Aug 13! Whoohoo for visitors!

Dominican friends invited us to their 500acre finca (farm) yesterday. I forgot my camera, but it won't be the last time we visit. It was a day of pool time and dune buggies.

Beach without Daddy

Olivia & I took the kids to the beach yesterday in Guayacanes wihtout the daddies. It was the first time I had done this or even thought to do it. We ate ata a Swiss Deli and used their beach. Olivia was introduced to the deli by some upper-class Dominicans. They told her it's the hotspot. :) We enjoyed a cheese and meat tray with frozen chinola (passion fruit) juice.

Today we are heading to the beloved countryside with friends who live in our apartment building.

Encouragement

Last Sunday we spent the afternoon with Kathryn & David and their kids at their house.

Yeah everyone is looking! Kathryn is due with #3 (a boy) in September. Her oldest, Jonathan, turns three in December...you can do the math. Whew! I finally calculated how much milk the kids drink in one week. Here is the case of milk that gets us through one week. It costs between $15-20US.

Ana made the most delicious empanadas from scratch. She has perfect form will all the food she makes.

Now to get to the encouragmentpart of my post. Most of you know I've been daily working on being gentle with my children. My goal as a mother is to show my children Christ, which includes his love and gentleness. God is also a God of wrath and judgment, and my children need to also understand just judgment, but I want them to see God's mercy, love, and grace through my actions. Correct discipline will show them just judgment and mercy all in one.

Someone is praying, because I've had a very good week with controlling my tongue and temperment while working with Adeline and Darton. However, Adeline's actions (phyically lashing out at her brother or me, attitude/harshness in her words) this week have shown me that one good day for me doesn't mean that Adeline will be able to change her habits that she's formed from watching me for the past three years. So I will continue to run the race set before me (Hebrews 12:1).

I have been encouraged by these words from God's Word in the battle for a gentle spirit.

Isaiah 58:6

Is this not the fast that I have chosen:

To loose the bonds of wickedness,

To undo the heavy burdens,

To let the oppressed go free,

And that you break every yoke?

Our natural man wants to walk in the flesh (i.e. outbursts of wrath Galatians 5:19-21), but we must fight to walk in the Spirit (i.e. producing fruit of kindness, love, joy, goodness, gentleness, self-control Galatians 5:22-23).

Think about what we traditionally believe a fast to be...that of doing without (i.e. food). I saw in this verse that God is saying that the fast (or that which He has chosen for us to do without) is the bond of wickedness, heavy burdens, oppression, and breaking of our yokes.

One of my yokes is a harsh tongue and hand. Jesus' words in Matthew 11:28-29

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden,

and I will give you rest.

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me,

for I am gentle and lowly in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

Jesus' yoke isn't difficult to carry. He asks that I learn from Him how to be gentle and lowly in heart and in return I will show my daughter Christ through my actions. I pray you are encouraged by these verses as I was!

On a side note: Isaiah 58 lead me to Isaiah 61 & 25, and Ezekiel 34. All of these verses describe what God has for His people. Is 25: lavished banquet and defeated enemies. Is 61: the mercies given to the afflicted. Ez 34: God will take care of His sheep.

Pachamanca

Que es una Pachamanca?

Panchamanca is a Peruvian (Peruana) BBQ...or so at least that's the closest idea I can compare it to for you.
It was hosted at this beautiful home seen below. We felt like we were on a set of a Spanish movie.

The first preparation for a Pachamanca is to heat stones for hours to make them hot enough to use for cooking. The food (meat & veggies) is cooked in a large hole in the ground. The crowd is gathered around the hole. We are in the far background. Notice I was wearing a long white skirt on a rainy afternoon to an outside event....not so white anymore.

The food is layered in between hot stones and large banana leaves. The food below is similar to a tamale. Peruana food is nice and spicy. A great change from Dominican food. The last food to be layered was whole peppers and green beans. The whole is then covered with dirt with a flower and cross placed on top.
This was the yummy rabbit cooked Pachamanca style. Thankfully Scott left out the part that the eyes were still in the rabbit. Pork, chicken, and goat were the other meats cooked. The kids loved the papas (potatoes). What priceless faces!"Here ya go, sister. Try out mine" [Note: Why I call my children "sister" and "brother" I do not know! It is quite the hillybilly habit.]"Sure, no problem Darton."

The large basket in the background was what held the food while in the ground. Traditional Peruana dancing.

No lie, we were the ONLY white gringos there. There was a group of Barrick people invited and Scott got on the email list somehow. We laugh that we're sure it was a mistroke on the keyboard. We made sure the "powers that be" knew we were very grateful for the opportunity.

Reading Blogs

Reading one blog leads to reading another blog which leads to another blog. In the last two days I have come upon some very encouraging blogs as a mommy and as a Christian.
I found out that I'm really not the only one praying to be a gentle mother.
We were encouraged by a white haired man's testimony in Syndney. We get comfortable with life and the way we minister to others. This video enourages us to take the next step of faith in evangelizing.

Pat on the Back and Slap in the Face

I have been trying to be more frugal with grocery shopping and not just buying the product because it's what I'm familiar with (p.s. I'm mainly having to do this because I overshot my budget with the last trip to the States!!). I was a very frugal shopper in Elko, but moving to another country has undone every restraint that I had taught myself when grocery shopping. Today I had my first success. I stopped a shopper in the aisle and asked what chocolate powder is "dominican" to use to make chocolate milk. She pointed out the cocoa that was only $40ish pesos (under $1.50US). Next to this product was cocoa powder you use for baking. I had already put the $160RD ($4US) Hershey's cocoa powder in my basket. The dominican product was only $45RD (under$1.50US). So you can do the math and figure out which one is the smarter buy. We'll see if the quality decreases with the price. Pat on the back.
But the frugal shopping went downhill fast when I saw the promo with buying Presidente (the national beer). On the promo table were three gifts with purchases (bottle opener, bottle koozie, pack of 2 Presidente glasses). I called Scott and he wanted 4 glasses. I wanted a koozie. So our "wants" lead to me buying the max purchase of 3 6packs. From what I had gathered from the promo lady, all I needed to do was buy a six pack and then recieve a gift. Buy 3 6packs, Get 3 gifts. All right! I even called Rosalyn to let her in on the deal since she had just said this past wkend that she wanted some Presidente glasses. made my purchases and then took the receipt back to the promo lady who then preceeded to hand me a scratch off card!!! Buy a 6 pack, Get a scratch off card...I left with 2 bottle openers. Slap in the face!

On a side note: I had a conversation with Ana a few weeks ago about the reasons I buy food that I might not eat for more than a month later. My two reasons were that I have the money to live beyond today and that I don't enjoy going to the market every day. That conversation has made me better about eating what I've bought before buying more...which helps the monthly budget more than I expected.

Jarabacoa

This weekend we traveled to the middle of the island to enjoy the mountains of the Dominican Republic. Green, Green, and more Green. It's the place where palm tree and pine tree meet. Absolutely beautiful and a wonderful get-a-way from the city. Our children could run barefoot in the grass....it was absolutely a beautiful thing! One of those things you miss when you live in an apartment and the park across the street is covered with more trash than green grass. In fact, I woke up this morning wishing we were spending the entire week there. City noise tends to wear on you after a while.

We traveled with our friends Nick, Rosalyn, Owen & Isabel. They are such dears to travel with a family with young children and a pup! Ros & I left on Friday morning with the kids and Sarah and the men met up with us after work. It only took 2 hours to get to Mi Vista in Hatillo. Darton managed to fall three times in about three hours and the poor thing was quite red-faced as a result of it.

The first day of travel with Sarah is always the hardest. She goes absolutely crazy when she's let of the leash (or the lead as the Aussies say). I let her off to roam the hillside with the kids and off she went passing through a barbed-wire fence after the neighbors chickens. I just knew I was going to have to restock the neighbors chicken supply...no doubt a livelihood of theirs. Sarah refused to listen to any command, especially after she found a cat to chase as well. So Owen and I passed through the barbed-wire fence and I was finally able to catch Sarah in the wetness of the ground outside the neighbor's outhouse! Sarah was so intense while chasing the other animals. It was amazing to see her work and listen for any noise in the bush that might be a fun prey to play with. She'd be an excellent bird dog for Scotty to have in Nevada. In the process of chasing Sarah I was bit by small black gnats that usually don't cause much of a reaction on your skin. However, I suffered from swollen ankles and intense itching all weekend. The itching has now passed and the swelling is going down.

Enjoying the afternoon watching the kids play on the hillside.

Minus the Doritos...this is my island girl.

El comedor - where we ate our meals.

She's realized she can pose for photos. The real reason I tookt his pic was the scenery.

Salto Jimenoa.

The waterfall in the background was one used in Jarassic Park.

Pathway to the waterfall. We only walked until it was too steep to walk with little kids. Ros & Nick went with their kids though.

Pizzeria playground...these kinds of places are a rare find in the DR. We were so happy to be at a clean kid friendly restaurant.

Hear No Spanish, See No Spanish

This post is dedicated to Scott's day at work.
He participated in an all-Spanish course on team building. I was amazed he was able to do it. However he said it wasn't not hard, you just follow the crowd. One of the last challenges of the day though was to create a square with your teammates while holding onto a rope BLINDFOLDED. If only you could hear him tell this story! Since he couldn't understand the Spanish commands or see the direction his team was going he had to listen his way through the exercise to tell if people where moving forward, backward, left, or right. Can you imagine!?

Sunday Best

Aunt Trenia bought Adeline the cutest cherry dress and she wore it for the first time to church yesterday. Mama Geer made Darton's outfit for one of Scotty's brothers and now we're getting to use it! Darton is also wearing Stride Rite sandals Mama has kept "just in case." Thanks Mama!

Notice that we have now reached the age that we want to look at the camera! Yeah!

Adeline started week 2 of school and is still in love with it. She brought home lots of things that she made and talks about what she did. This weekend Adeline decided that she can now take showers! Last Fall she screamed every time we took a bath because she didn't want to get water in her face. In January or so I figured out that I could count to 10 or sing a song to calm her down while washing her hair. This calmed her down because she knew that once I got to 10 or to the end of the song that we were finished. Around April she became completely comfortable with washing her hair and more rational about the whole process. Now here we are about 7 months later taking showers!! She still wants to lay down while I use the hand held shower head to rinse the soap out, but SO WHAT! Atleast she's not screaming!

Everything has its season...biblical advice from Eccleciastes that I MUST remember in all things with my children!

Happy July 4th!

We met Rosalynn and the kids for lunch at a new and fancy Burger King/Papa John's. There is a playground area upstairs and thankfully it wasn't overrun by too many kids, so that Ros and I could relax for a moment for a chat. After BK, we took a good nap and then made an American flag in honor of July 4th. I really didn't think much of not being in the States on the 4th until tonight. The majority of Americans in the States will be enjoying fireworks tonight. It's really cool to think about so many people doing the same thing at one time. In my 27 years of life, this is the first time I won't be doing the "norm" on July 4th...just a thought that hit me with emotion without expecting it too.
We celebrated July 4th by going to the beach! There was a small sailboat competition and people from all over the world participating. The day was extremely windy. Darton's vocabulary has grown...he can now bark like a dog :)

Kissing Sarah

Since Sarah kisses Darton with licks of her tongue, Darton thinks he must do the same. This video doesn't catch the best moments. He truly sticks his tongue all the way out and gives Sarah a big lick! I laugh and cringe and know that my Little Man is just getting a stronger immune system :)

Adeline Goes Under the Water