“Thankful Lists!”

We compiled “thankful lists” again this year, varying the craft slightly from last year’s design. As you can see, one member of the family was very inspired; the other was trying to fit the whole idea in while studying for end-of-the-school-year tests. (But she was the one who suggested we alter the craft as we did.)

Some items on the Little Man’s list make us grin; others actually make us both sad and thankful...

We truly have SO much to be thankful for!

Ending Y2 of FEBU

Last night the FEBU school year ended with the last final exam followed by a meal together, which has become customary at the end of each semester.

Please pray for (much) preparatory work needing to be done for next year, for the Lord’s protection of the students, and for His blessing on their summer ministries.

Just for Fun!

“My Most Used Words on FB:”

¡Es una gran mezcla de mis dos idiomas!

I love the pictorial recap of this past year...

But as at least one of my multi-lingual friends noted:

“del” and “una” ranked up there pretty well. Imagine how boring your posts would have been without those great topics.

Ha! You can tell the software isn’t bilingual, eh?! But I’m guessing it’s set up to filter out “of” and “the” and “a” and such in English... J

Thankful!

Today I’m thankful to be thankful to be in Uruguay on Thanksgiving Day – even though that means no turkey dinner! J

I’m thankful for my wonderful husband and two precious children AND for our Loving Shepherd showing Himself faithful in taking away what we preferred as first choice for schooling and guiding us – so evidently – along the path He is choosing for our family. (It’s a long story...)

I’m thankful for real, eternal Hope and opportunities to share that Hope every day! And I’m thankful for the enabling grace of God, His mercies that are new every morning, and His great faithfulness!

Here’s to a joy-filled Thanksgiving Season for all my friends and family!

Happy B-Day [Party], DJM!

We had fun developing the “Construction Worker” theme this year!

“Cousins!”

We grilled out in the back yard...

Gotta stop to snack on olives between bites of cake! J

And we enjoyed the time with friends and family – from as far away as northern Canada this year! J

DJM is a very blessed boy!

We love our “Little Engineer” more than words could possibly say!

And we thank our Loving Shepherd for entrusting him to us! ♥

B-Day Season!

We’ve celebrated “birthday season” in our little family – for as long as I can remember (and maybe even since our founding in 1999). Whatever the case, our tradition has worked well so far. Furthermore, October has been doubly “birthday season” because we have two birthdays almost back to back at the end of the month. (DJM was, in fact, “due” on JM’s birthday!)

This year (not surprisingly) wasn’t any less busy than last. In fact, at the very last minute, several unexpected adventures came up which trumped our (birthday drive) celebration plans for JM. So, “birthday season” actually became an even better idea than ever for us...

We “celebrated” JM’s birthday (on the actual date) with pasta frola – one of his favorite Uruguayan desserts.

But I still owe him his favorite (made from scratch!) chocolate cake with chocolate frosting!

And DJ took a bakery cake (one of my favorites!) to school on his actual birthday.

We sent a camera, so they would take pictures.

And we went out that evening for our favorite ice-cream!

Stay tuned for pictures from DJ’s birthday party just this past Saturday...

Blessings!

We’ve been blessed in extra special ways by our most recent visitors!

Gina shared her testimony at a multi-church ladies’ meeting, hosted by Templo Calvario here in Montevideo.

Jerry and Gina “remodeled” the hallways (downstairs and up) as well as the main stairwell and our master bedroom! In the words of E and DJ: “This is a different place now!”

We heartily agree! It is a different place!

We thoroughly enjoyed a very competitive soccer game on Tuesday night – probably the most competitive I’ve ever attended! The stadium was packed! (If you followed the events of this year’s Copa America, you’ll understand the background.)

These “extras” didn’t stay empty for long...

¡Viva URUGUAY!

We won 3 to 0!

We’re very thankful for these friends and their time with us.

And we’re going to miss them!

Creative Writing!

During the 2014 World Cup, DJ learned numbers (including double digits) from his favorite Celeste jerseys! Sometime since the beginning of this year, he also (somehow!) learned (from games and from watching his sister, we’re guessing) to write the whole alphabet (at least in capital letters).

Now he loves to write out words, letter by painstaking letter, that others spell out for him. And he’ll stick to it until he fills in all the blanks – for instance, on Sunday School papers at church (designed for elementary-aged students)! But he writes some of the letters backward (for example, the “J”) and also starts many of the letters from the bottom. (Should I be concerned about that at this point?)

He likes to write numbers

– forward and backward –

partly to prove that he can!

During half days at K-4, pre-reading skills are taught (for Spanish) and objectives include recognizing and writing the letters in his name and the numbers 1 to 10. Because English is much more challenging (to read and write) than Spanish is, however, I’ve wanted him to learn to read English first. So, several months ago, we started basic reading lessons, using “Reading Eggs” (an online interactive program). We’re only on Lesson 20 out of 120 or so.

It’s been a lot of fun for us to watch DJ take the knowledge he is acquiring and run with it! He’s been trying to write words for a while now, but just yesterday he wrote his first creative sentence:

And I understood!

A note for educator friends:

“Reading Eggs” seems to be structured in similar fashion to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, which I used for a bit with E when she was five and a half (before we changed K-5 plans after extended travel to Uruguay that year).