Caberete

We've spent 3 weekends out of the last 7 weeks in Caberete and I have yet to post many pics. Here are a few of life in Caberete.

This is the pool at my friends' apartment complex. Although they are moving back to England to have baby #2, other friends will be moving into this complex. You can rent an apartment here for a vacation. We hung out here all day Sunday morning before heading for lunch at a restaurant on the beach. There are many resturaunts along the beach within walking distance from my friends' place. We saw many splashes made by a whale in the far distance while waiting for our lunch. It was very cool. Caberete is a famous kite surfing beach. I took this picture to remind me that there was a day when daddy could hold both of my kiddos. Things will change come November. We also went to a nearby surfing beach.

This is our friends' kids - Isabelle & Owen surfing together. They are only 8 & 6yrs old! But these are the same kids that at the age of 2 & 4 spent a year on a sailboat with their parents!

If you are looking for a water sport vacation Caberete is the spot for you! It's a get-away from the DR for us since most all of the people are expats living there.

On a pregnancy note...could eat everything last week...don't want to eat anything this week!

Captions are Important to Read

Flying kites. Thanks Aunt Jana! In the distance there were about 100 kites being flown. It's a favorite Dominican pastime. Eating lunch in the Colonial Zone on a rooftop. Do I really live in a 3rd world country????

4 weeks pregnant with #3!!!

When the Airport Doesn't Have Electricity...

...your parents get to stay 2 more days!!! Whoohoo!

Unfortunately they had to endure 5 hours in an unairconditioned airport toting 4 peices of luggage in line after line before finding out that their flight was cancelled! All the flights are booked for tomorrow, so we have them on an early morning flight on Tuesday. I'm not complaining!

Good-bye 3 Week Depression

I lived with depression for 6 years and was freed from it's bonds in 2002, but since living here it has hit me twice.

It was Friday, February 19 when a wave of undescribable tiredness hit me. It was Sunday, February 20 when I let the little things in family life get me down. I thought...it's hormonal...it will go away with my girls' weekend at the spa. It didn't.

The mommy I had prayed for over a year to become and was becoming starting last January was fading away. Anger, frustration, and a spirit of unrest was controlling my every move. Blogging overwhelmed me. Putting on make-up overwhelmed me. I was constantly on the verge of tears and always wanting someone to hold me. My phone conversations were rare and rash with Scott. I slept with my back to my husband, although I wanted him near. He wasn't aware.

On March 4 I shared with my Bible Study friends that I was slipping into my old mommy habits and needed prayer. I was almost 2 full weeks into my depression without realizing fully acknowledging it.

This past week I studied the chapter in The Power of a Praying Woman "Lord, Deliver Me from Every Evil Work." It was this chapter that helped me realize that "no matter how spiritual we are, we're still made of flesh. No matter how perfectly we live, we still have an enemy who is trying to erect strongholds of evil in our lives" (171). Jesus taught us to pray, "Deliver us from the evil one" (Mt 6:13). It wasn't just hormonal...it was the ENEMY. I realized that it was because Christ was winning the battle in me to become a better mommy that Satan went full force ahead and hit me where I have a history of being weak.

Before February 19 I had many conversations about my faith with friends who thought it was foolishness. I was thankful for the conversations, but they were weighing me down. My friends were making me question myself more than I was probably making them question. This was a contribution to my spirit of unrest.

On Sunday, March 6 I participated without much enthusiasm in our family devotion. I admitted to my husband my spiritual unrest. This WAS NOT easy.

This past week with the help of Omartian's book, I began praying that God would restore my joy in Him and renew a steadfast spirit in me (Ps 51:10). I read in 2 Cor 1:8-10 that Paul was "burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that he despaired even of life" while preaching the Gospel. I'm not the first! What comfort! Paul goes on to say that "we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in who we trust that He will still deliver us. Paul in Phil 1:7 tells us that God will complete his good work in us until the day of Jesus Christ. God doesn't stop working in me. And lastly I was greatly encouraged my Psalm 34:15-22 where I read that the righteous are not promised a life without strife, but God will hear my cry and deliver me from all afflictions.

A girlfriend from the Bible Study wrote me an email this past Thursday, March 11 stating that she had prayed for me that morning and was wondering how I was doing. I responded, "I was wondering why my joy was being restored that day, and now I know." Yesterday I told my husband about the email and he said he too was praying this past week. I must not take for granted the prayers of the saints.

Be encouraged and press on!

Classical Education & The Homeschool

One more book read..well this one was more of a pamphlet size...but we'll count it anyways.

Some background info - Scott was homeschooled through 12th grade and successfully graduated from college and knows how to make friends. I went to public school and successfully graduated from college and know how to make friends. :)

What is the one difference I would note between my hubby and me? He is a thinker. Now I think some of that has to do with the way God wired him (i.e. he is an engineer). But I also think a bigger part of it is he was trained to think/analyze. Therefore....

Homeschooling intrigues me. Classical education intrigues me. So I picked up Classical Education and The Homeschool by W. Callihan, D. Jones, D. Wilson.

I constantly hear that if my child is homeschooled he won't have social skills..obviously they don't know many. I constantly hear that if I want my children to have a Christian education that I need to send them to a Chistrian school.

Maybe someday down the line my child won't be homeschooled. I don't know what the future holds, but I do know now that I am more solidly grounded in the reasonings my heart wanted to homeschool with a classical education yet I couldn't verbalize it.

What is a Classical Education...what makes it different from today's mainstream education (including most homeschool material)?

"One of the primary purposes of classical education is to equip the students to learn for themselves" (6). There are 3 levels within the education method: grammar (elementary), dialectic (middle school), and rhetoric (high school). The content studied on top of your average studies are Latin, logic, theology, and rhetoric. A CE education teaches everything under the sovereign God's hand. Historically, the early American education system was a CE education.

More about the trivium:

Grammar: this stage is all about facts in every subject

Dialectic: the facts start being connected and you nourish the questioning stage of the early teenage years. At this stage we begin teaching the laws of logic and proper argumentation.

Rhetoric: learning how to manipulate our language in order to effectively communicate what they believe. "All of morality and reasoning involve imagination and metaphor" (28).

More about the extra content:

Latin: it's the key to all the Romance languages and "the precision of mind required in the study of Latin is a great benefit in other fields requiring such precision" (32).

Logic: "is concerned with evaluating arguments, and every academic subject involves arguments" (39).

Rhetoric: a way of gathering, organizing, and using knowledge with eloquence. A thought of Aristotle: communication through language is a characteristic of human beings and therefore we have only two choices - attempt to communicate and persuade by trial and error and accident, or think about what we are doing and try to refine, hone, and improve it (46).

But as people ask, "Why don't you send your kid to the Christian school down the street?" Fair enough. Why don't I? On average (and truth be known I don't know this for a fact), your Christian schools tack on Bible class as a subject, but don't use it as the focul point of all subjects. My God is the creator of all and I want my children to see that in their education. I want them to have a Christian worldview.

What's a Christian worldview? Realizing that there is a relationship between Jesus Christ and the subject under consideration. It's "bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (2 Cor 10:4-5).

As I read the book, I thought, "Wow, I must be careful not to make studies the end all for my kids if I use a CE." The authors brought everything into perspective in this quote: "All gifts and abilities, including those of language, when submitted to the God who gave them, become powerful tools for the edification of the saints, the dominion of the earth, and the advancement of the kingdom of God" (49).

I honestly also think that an education outside the home can cause too much individualism within the family instead of creating a tighter family unit. Sigh I do recognize I am only 28 and I've yet to teach something consistenly in my home (outside of Biblical concepts anyways). But I do know that the thoughts within this book really spoke to my heart and made me say "Yes! That's what I've been wanting to communicate to people in defense of homeschooling." We shall see what the future holds.

A God Thing

I was in bed ready to read myself to sleep when I realized I didn't write about how our home is completely and totally a God thing!
We've house hunted before (for 2yrs actually) and it was during that process that we learned God has the perfect house for perfect price for us. I remember looking at houses in Elko that I thought, "yeah I could picture my stuff here." But I wasn't 100% sold. Then came along the house we desired (non split-level and unfinished basement) for the perfect price! God took care of us.
Flashforward to last Fall when we begun seriously house hunting after living in an apartment on a super busy street for a year. Remember the neon green house I posted about last Fall? There were things about the house that were fine, but I'd rather they be different (i.e. playroom on 2nd level, 2 awkard sized sitting areas, no grass). The house was priced at $200 over our budget and although monthly that might not be much, yearly it can turn into plane tickets for the whole family to go home! So we didn't go forward with the green house...I know so many of you are bummed ;)
Let me tell you that our current home monthly rent was dropped by $1000 from the original asking price and she put bars on all windows and installed 3 air cons! Then she put in a generator that could probably light a sporting complex. I'm telling ya...it was God. All I wanted was some grass...seriously. But with the grass came a 5200sqft home and a pool. I mean come on...can God bless, or CAN GOD BLESS!!

p.s. I would have NEVER EVER written $200 a month doesn't sound like much in NV! The price of living here is just that high.

Our Home - Mom & Dad don't look if you want to be surprised

We have now been in our new home for 3 full months and I really can't remember not living here. Funny how that happens. People ask if it was hard to move into such a big space after an apartment....are you kidding me? :)
Do to how the pictures uploaded I will begin upstairs.
You are looking into the playroom. Go down a few stairs to the 1/2bath. The playroom. Upstairs. Family roomGuest roomGuest bath

Master. Ironically the curtains matched our bedding! All the closests are cedar lined. Whoohoo! A closet big enough to store the ugly metal filing cabinet!The master has 2walk-in closets and both have shoe holes. I only put details like this because most houses we walked into when searching didn't have near the detail this one has.

Why cedar? The humidity creates lots of mold on anything that is slightly wet and is stored in an area w/out airflow. However, both of the closets are airconditioned....seriously...details you wouldn't even imagine. Master bathWhoohoo again! 2 sinks

Darton's room. A lot of houses we looked at had closets like his that are built into the wall. Dman's bath. The one thing that stuck out the most to me were the forest green bathrooms...as in I didn't like the house b/c of. sillinessD's bathroom as a skylight. I give this detail b/c D locked himself into his bathroom the other day when I was gone. Theo, our gardener, climbed onto the roof to see Darton and to make sure he was ok. Darton was ok. But the door frame...not so much. Seriously if Theo wasn't there I don't know what Ana would have done...I don't know what I would have done!

Adeline's room. The room was painted this way when we arrived. I LOVE IT! Adeline LOVES her pink bathroom.

Let's go back downstairs now....from the outside.

You enter from the outside either via the metal door or the metal carport gate. View when you walk onto our property. The metal door on the far right leads you to the pool area. Oh...and the sauna too! I know, seriously, a sauna in the tropics! But Scott LOVES it. When you walk into our front door. Note the shrine to TX on your right ;) Thank you Nonna & Andrew for making this shrine possible. If you walk through the sala (living room) pass the sets of glass doors, you enter the comedor (dining room).But if you turn left after the entry way and don't walk through the sala, you enter the cocina (kitchen). The 2nd kitchen is the room after the doorway and you can go left to go outside to the laundry area or right into the comedor. 2nd kitchens are common. This one has the setup for another stove, but there isn't one. I believe they are created due to the amount of heat caused by cooking and there are never air cons in kitchens. The laundry area. There's a small basketball court in the back left and above the green awning is the trabajadora's room. Pero Ana duerme en nivel 2 con nosotros.

To the right of the sala. Looking out to the terraza.

Looking in from the terraza. Our backyard. Darton was watering for me. The pool. We put in the gate after we moved in. The orchid garden and outside bbq. Orchids don't need soil to grow in, just something to latch their roots onto. Therefore there are lots growing from the various trees in the yard. Backside of the house. That's Theo in watering. Off to the side of the carport is the house for the generator. Notice the white diesel tank for it as well. The generator runs most days anywhere from 1-6 hours. It is automatic (Praise God for real!) and only takes 2 seconds to come on after the electricity goes out.

We also have a small house for the water pump on the property and an outside bath for Theo. If any problem occurs with the generator or water pump Theo is the man! Even if he's not working at my house, he's there in 10 minutes and I'm only out $50RD ($1.50US) for his time.

SOOOO I've posted a ridiculous amount of pictures to make sure that you know that you DO DEFINATELY have a place to stay here in the DR :)

There are a couple of plants I want to take pics of as well as the street we live on...next post.

A Blistery Weekend

Two great pictures of Dominican wiring.

Last week the kids and I again drove up to Caberete (3hr tirp through the mtns) again to spend part of the weeek with Olivia and Angeli. The kids and I road horses on the beach for an hour. Not so hot for the rear the next day, but Adeline was in heaven. She loves riding. Scotty met us on Friday night and then he and Mark watched the kids Saturday through Sunday afternoon while O & I went with 4 other women to a spa in the mountains. A girlfriend arranged the trip, and I didn't really check the place out until a night before we left. My jaw hit the ground when I read not coffee or wine was allowed! But it was only one night, so I could get passed the withdrawals. However to our great surprise the spa wasn't the holistic experience that the website suggestes (i.e. we did get to drink coffee and we didn't have to sneak in the wine and only drink it in our room), but it was a nice place to get away. Bravo to the hubbies for watching the kids. I forgot the camera so no pics :(

Adeline came down with a cough on Sunday when I arrived back from the spa and she had a fever by Monday. She was well enough to go to school by Friday, but Darton caught it midweek and it's hanging on longer for him.

There are two things a gringo never wears in the DR....until this weekend happened.

1. closed toed shoes WITH socks

2. sweater during midday

Although my friends in Nevada would be breaking out the flipflops for this past weekend, we were pulling out the long-sleeved pants and shirts AND socks. Darton wears socks and closed-toed shoes so little that he is totally bugged by them.

We went down to the Colonial Zone (where all the history of Columbus' landing and such is) yesterday afternoon to see the Amistad and fly kites. The house behind Scott and the kids was Columbus' brothers. Sto Dmngo is full of rich history and contains the ruins of the first hospital in the Western hemisphere.

We are now counting down the days until my parents get here on Saturday!