Iglesia Bíblica Maranatha

¡Gracias a Dios (y a pesar de la lluvia y el frío) pasamos relindo hoy!

Sigamos orando que Dios obre por medio de su Palabra compartida...

¡Amiguitos!

¡El comité organizador! (¡Con dos más infiltrados!)

Remembering... Celebrating Life...

Today is cold and rainy and gray – and rather sad... I’m choosing to celebrate life...

Making guava jam, remembering my Mommy, who taught me far more than canning (and who’d be celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary today).

Also remembering my Grampa and Gramma in-love, who were also proficient at canning many home-grown goods (and who would’ve been celebrating a wedding anniversary yesterday).

And all the seals (on the “recycled” jam jars) resealed! SO thankful!

Art & Lit!

I love the intensity with which both Little People “get into” books!

Note how E’s “sun catcher” shows up in both pics!

DJ loves to “See Inside” “How Things Work!”

He’s been working on art “projects” of various sorts:

This one was inspired by several of E’s art projects.

But actual production was exhausting!

This “card” was crafted with extra love for El Abu:

Note the autumn leaves theme and

the hidden “GET WELL SOON!!!!”

(in the banner at the bottom).

Our favorite sweetgum is especially inspiring in autumn!

And I love all the detail in this drawing!

Wild weather, huge waves, sea creatures, anchors...

Late Autumn!

We’re experiencing the first few days of truly cold weather for 2017.

I love the late autumn weather – and the beauty of fall leaves and flowers! The emblematic bright yellow leaves are almost gone now, but the last of the muted yellows and browns of the ubiquitous sycamores are still clinging to trees that line many of our avenues here in Montevideo.

Throughout the day, as we come and go, we enjoy the views from both extremes of the long hall that divides the downstairs of this house almost exactly in half.

Poinsettias & bougainvillea!

The poinsettias, greatly affected during last winter’s wind storms, are recovering nicely!

We’ve now harvested all but the last dozen or so from the guava tree in the back yard, bringing this year’s crop to over 400! I’ve quartered and then frozen most of the fruit (for use in smoothies throughout the year) but may also try canning some jam (like we did two years ago).

About three dozen comprised yesterday’s harvest!

“¡Felices Cumples!”

Esta noche, durante la pausa entre horas de clase, celebramos a todos los que cumplimos o vamos a cumplir en abril y mayo.

¡Gracias, chichos, por pausar para festejar la vida conmigo!

Les queremos muchísimo y les deseamos las más ricas bendiciones de parte de nuestro Dios.

“Mother’s Day!”

“Mother’s Day!” is one of mixed emotions for me, emotions that (among other things) make me thankful for the blessings that are mine today...

At school on Friday, I especially loved the smiles I got when E and DJ found me in the crowd!

DJ recited a poem from memory with his class – quite a bit more bravely than he did last year! E played the part of a little girl in her class skit and sang with the (newly-founded) school choir.

On Saturday evening E organized her own “Treasure Hunt” for me – with clues that led to further clues and finally to my gifts: a cuddly capybara (which I’d requested) and dark chocolate (which she’d purchased with her own pennies). DJ added a mint chocolate bar to complete the stash!

We tried to get some “good” pictures yesterday... And we ended up with snapshots of real life – which I love!

SO thankful for my family! ♥

DJ is in an especially mischievous stage right now; he loves to tease his favorite girl – in typical boy fashion!

Congratulations to Marcos!

SO proud of this guy! SO thankful for technology that allowed us to be part of this important milestone in his life!

We ♥ you, Marcos!

We ♥ Camp!

Camp ministry impacted both JM and me in our later teen and/or early adult years. Taxing though it is, our whole family loves camp ministry now – especially EMU’s Campamento Emanuel on Uruguay’s coast!

Due to the schedule this year – with the end of camp season overlapping the beginning of the academic year – I was not able to take (or post!) as many pictures as I have in past years (though I did post a few from E’s week at camp).

Here are a few more favorites from this past summer camp season...

Showing off our Nigerian garb!

We always admire details in God’s creation when we’re at camp!

SO beautiful!

Memory Lane: Maldonado

Going through snapshots while working with E on a school project, makes me thankful – all over again! – for the gift of photography and the potential to cherish moments from the past like the jewels they are, holding them up and turning them so they sparkle again...

Los Dedos (Punta del Este)

Sunset at Casa Pueblo (Punta Ballena)

Art detail by Carlos Páez Vilaró (Casa Pueblo)

Puente Ondulado (Punta del Este)

Rambla (Piriápolis)

Piriápolis

Cerro Pan de Azúcar

Looking (from Punta Ballena) toward Piriápolis and Pan de Azúcar

When life gets extra busy, snapshots remind me of memory-making breaks we have been able to take in the midst of all the busyness...

SO thankful!

“So it begins...”

Seeing both Little People like this – with noses buried in books – thrills my educator-mom heart!

Ironically, books can also be a major distraction from assigned schoolwork these days! (Ahem!)

We recently started reading Little House in the Big Woods. I remember how much E loved that book when she was about DJ’s current age!

She was so pleased when she saw the theme of this cake!

We have also returned to Middle Earth!

Actually, we recently found ourselves alternating between DJ’s current favorites – the Mice series (written and illustrated by Tim Davis) – and Tolkien.

E was more than a little taken aback by the length of Tolkien’s “Prologue” in The Fellowship of the Ring; as fans know, he provides great detail in his building of Middle Earth.

When I pointed out that fact, DJ thought for just a moment and then commented:

“That’s why I prefer Davis these days!”

(That is, Tim Davis of the Mice series, his gift on the Twelfth Day of Christmas this year!) 😎

These are wonderfully hard to put down for early readers!

Future Chef?!

In honor of “Día de los Trabajadores” [“Labor Day”] yesterday, part of DJ’s homework over the weekend was coloring a drawing, captioned “Animales Trabajando” [“Animals Working”].

I love the fact that the oven bird [“hornero”] is the chef!

But my Little Man criticized the drawing!

According to him: “Cooking isn’t work!”

Labor Day Family Fun!

Our generally busy street was uncharacteristically quiet today – with no public transportation! We enjoyed that quiet and the “pause” from regular duties. (I almost got all caught up on laundry, too – almost!)

We’ve been enjoying beautiful autumn weather – and fall flowers – these days. And we harvested more pink guavas this afternoon!

Last week’s harvest looked like this!

Our little tree was just a “stick” in the ground when we arrived in mid-2013. In 2014 we got about a dozen guavas; in 2015 we got almost 100! (Last year the weather turned too cold, too fast – and much of the fruit did not ripen.) But this year promises to at least double the 2015 harvest! We’ll see...

Although I experimented with making jam (in 2015) – which the Little People loved! – I prefer to chop and freeze them, ready to make into smoothies throughout the year...

This evening, we celebrated DJ’s Half-Birthday with “Moose Muffins” and Guava Smoothies!

Life is just too short not to... 💕