Kid's Pics - First time in 2 years!!!

Katrina - 15 weeks old

Julia - 3 years 11 months old

Mitchell - 6 years 3 1/2 months

Spencer - 8 years 3 1/2 months

On my to-do list

I thought that a look at my to-do list might give you a better idea of what I'm up to here.  Of course, this to do list is more like a project list, as I'm first of all occupied with the things that moms and wives do - cooking, organizing, Pre-school with Julia, feeding Katrina, helping boys with homework, not to mention helping Josh in the office when he needs it!

To do:

Burn family home video to DVD
Back up pics (2003-2007) to disc
Sew new skort

Mend Julia’s dress
Make tortillas
Make yogurt
Make spaghetti sauce

Make baby food and freeze
Back up laptop and external drive
Write thank-you notes
Fix family picture and get copies printed
Get kids’ school pics printed for their friends
Christmas Mailing
Get kids’ blood typed
Curriculum Research
Team Meeting Email
Team Meeting Agenda
Update – Due Dec 1
Katrina’s Canadian Birth Abroad Paperwork
Medical Claims Paperwork
Update blog

A lot of what I do at the computer involves communication - with supporters, friends and family.  I also use the internet a lot to access resources for the various needs of my family - whether it be how to treat a sickness my kids have, a recipe for something we miss from back home, extra practice sheets for the boys when they are struggling with a concept in school, how to make or a substitute for an ingredient we can't get here.  

An example of making a substitute for something we can't get is pancakes.  I pre-make my ownpancake mix so I don't have to make it from scratch in a pinch.  Then, since we can't get pancake syrup (except expensive stuff at import shops in big cities) I make a syrup with sugar and water (which works OK most of the time - sometimes it crystallizes).  I then add maple and butter flavoring which I've had sent from the US and we're good to go!  I try to always do it ahead of time and store it in the fridge, cause if I don't then it's too hot for the kids to eat with the meal!  

We can get corn flakes here, as well as some very sugared cereals (nothing "normal" like Wheaties, raisin bran, and so far Rice Krispies has only been available a couple of times).  As a result I try to keep granola in the cupboard.  We can only get instant and quick oats so I generally stock up on rolled oats when we're at import stores so that there's some bulk to the granola.  

So there you have a bit of an idea of what I do from day to day!

Flexibility is highly underrated...

Something I’ve heard over and over again from our leaders here is that flexibility is a virtue.  I think that’s true across the board in life, but especially in a country where so much is uncertain.  That's not to say that I am really good at it - I often struggle when things mess up my plans.  That's one of those things God's working at in me!

Here’s a look into one aspect of my life here. 

Josh & I love to have people in for dinner and generally try to have Mission Home guests (generally the guests are our interior co-workers) in for dinner at least once during their stay.  It’s a great way to stay in touch with what’s going on in their lives and in their work, not to mention getting to know them better.  The kids love it too.

This week, we invited our Korean friends in for dinner – they got here late last week.  I wanted to keep it easy so I planned to do grilled pork chops (easy 'cause Josh does them!), seasoned roasted potato wedges, salad, bread and a dessert.  Josh went to take the meat out of the freezer this morning and said, “Josie, I think we used the rest of the pork chops last week.  All I could find was a pork roast.”  Ok, so I’ll change the menu a bit – Garlic Pork Roast with Sour Cream Gravy, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Salad, Bread and dessert.  Since we can’t get sour cream here, I’ll use my homemade yogurt instead – should work just fine – in both the gravy and the mashed potatoes.  So while the meat thaws, I scour cook books to find an easy dessert recipe that’s not brownies – I’ve been making those a lot lately.  Then I remember that Barbara and friends sent me a lemon cake mix – that will be easy.  I check online to find out how to make Lemon Poppyseed Cupcakes with the mix, get those started, and then check on the meat. 

What I see causes me to call Josh, who’s walking through the dining room to get some water.  It’s FISH, not a roast!  Well, it's already thawed, so we're going to have to use it. OK – so I make sure Josh is willing to do the frying – we still have some of that great seasoning mix that my parents brought this past summer, so we’ll fry up the fish, change the potatoes back to potato wedges, keep on with the salad, bread and dessert.

I’m thinking the garlic heads I have ready to go into the oven to roast (doused in olive oil and wrapped in foil) will still have to be roasted, but that’s great smeared on fresh homemade bread, so that will still be OK.  Less than 2 hours until our guests will arrive – gotta feed Katrina, Josh has to run over to the corner store for some lemons (which I saw there when I picked up some extra garlic heads) for the fish, and we’re good to go!  How’s that for flexible!!!?  The good thing is that while generally this kind of upheaval is somewhat upsetting, today it didn’t really bother me!  PTL!

A few hours later… I didn’t think anything else would probably change after I wrote the above – but… last minute we added 2 more guests.  They were staying at the mission home and as no one was aware there were no dinner plans for them, Josh offered to order dinner in from a restaurant for them (they don’t speak the local language).  We ended up deciding to just have them join us instead.  Josh went and bought more fish and there was a lot of the other stuff (including a papaya I had my helper cut up last minute before the left today), so we were fine.  We had a good time!