My Plan

Maybe I haven't shared much about what my plans are for the June trip. I have a lot planned and am hoping to get it all done but I know it's a lot. My three main things are:

1. Check in on my widows I've trained in the past, provide some additional training.

2. Set up a drip irrigation system and water collection basin by installing gutters on the metal roofs of the orphanage and school buildings.

3. Check in on a site donated for widows to grow coffee trees. It's the best coffee growing area. This one I'm not really sure what I'm doing yet because I know NOTHING about growing coffee trees.

The other things I hope to do include:

1. Meet with the local ag specialists and get my ladies into a formal training program.

2. Identify some leaders of my existing ladies who will train others in the community.

3. Learn more from locals about their existing bee keeping practices.

And of course, I'll love on the kids, chase them around and play soccer pretending to be much younger than I am. I'll drink some STRONG coffee, and listen to traditional singing before they drag me into the circle to dance with them. I'll hang out with the doc while she checks kids over and follow Ryan around while he checks on the livestock. It will be exhausting but worth every ounce of energy and every penny.

Fun-filled day full of firsts

The morning started with me finding dirty little paw prints that had been in the shower and drinking out of the toilet. I checked and all the cats were outside. Having been asleep when Ryan came to bed, I assumed a cat snuck in during the day and he threw it out while I was sleeping. Imagine our surprise when we came home from church and after playing on the old hay rake with my joyful little girl...

we found this:

Bethany found the cookies on the floor and scattered on the counter. I informed Ryan that something was inside the house and told him about the paw prints. He wondered how you catch a critter that you don't know what it even is. Bethany called Grammy to inform her that she needed some new cookies. All of the above ones had the frosting licked off and partially eaten.

After lunch, I took these two wiggle worms outside for 5 minutes of swinging before they had to take naps.

With the littles tucked in bed, I headed outside to play in the skid loader. I've never driven one before. Before I was much experienced in driving it, I thought I'd make our garden twice the size by removing the top 6" of grass and soil, hoping for a clean seed bed.

After naps, we jumped in the truck and headed to Echo Valley State Park to enjoy being outdoors as a family together. We don't get to do that enough. Our stroll down the trail wasn't without lots of complaining from 3 little kids. I knew it would be worth it if they would just endure the journey cause I knew what was to come. Oh, how that reminds me of our journey with God... he knows what plans he has for us, we just need to enjoy the journey.

We did a little stream stompin'

Hung out on a log checking out the stream

showed momma their muscles

checked out the fish, or frog, or some other type of eggs on the bank

Dug our fingers into the mud in the bottom of the stream bed

while momma enjoyed watching the kids have fun

and daddy enjoyed the scenery

My least adventurous kiddo splashed in the water

and while we explored a short section of stream, there were some non-photo moments too. A boy learned to water a tree in the timber, a girl decided she wanted to sit her butt in the stream and asked if she could just take her shorts off and take a bath, another boy lost his flip-flop multiple times, and no child wanted to leave. So, a while later when no one wanted to leave such a fun place, we reminded them that ice-cream at DQ would be waiting for us. Oh yes, that's how to BRIBE your kids to do what you want. And this momma didn't just want to walk up the hill listening to more whining so I challenged, not another bribe, Scott to a race. For each checkpoint that he could beat me to, I'd give him money. Oh yeah, we ran the whole way back up the hill to the truck.

After dinner and ice-cream at DQ, we got home just in time for Ryan to capture this.

I love sunsets. One thing I love about them is that it means it's bed time for our little ones. Daddy bathed them and I tucked them in. What a great day!

Great Way to Wake Up

I've been trying to work out more. Not crazy weight lifting like I used to do. More along the lines of just being healthier and stretching, doing crunches, and strengthening my back while trying to eat healthier. [here's where I pretend like I didn't take a teaspoon full of cake frosting for a snack ealier] ahem, anyway. I go to bed late, which makes waking up in the morning not so easy-peasy. But I know that I need to get up earlier so that I can have time to work out, get ready for work, do breakfast dishes, and maybe catch a quick read. So last night when going to bed, it was late again. And my cell phone was on the kitchen counter again which meant I'd wake up to Ryan's alarm - 30 minutes after I wanted to get up.

So, when I had my nightly chat with the Lord who knows the big and little details of my life, I made a simple request. Something along the lines of "Lord, I want to get up in the morning. Help me to be rested and motivated to get up earlier." And when I woke up this morning, just two minutes before Ryan's alarm, I smiled and proceeded to thank God for the little victories! Tonight, my simple request might be that my legs get used to the "easy" workout and not be so sore :)

Ready to Relax

Tonight I got home from work and started on supper. I spent the next 4 hours in the kitchen doing the following:

• Spaghetti with roasted veggies and crescent rolls for supper.
• Enough spaghetti to freeze some for another night when I'm too tired to cook.
• Help Ms. Priss with snacks for her pre-school class. She insisted on pretzels, marshmallows, prunes, and a mint in each one. Okay. I wonder how many kids won't eat the prune. All 3 of my kids love them.
• Clean up supper dishes.
• Make a batch of crab salad so I can have wraps for lunch the rest of the week.
• Clean those dishes.
• Prepare a batch of chili verde for tomorrow's supper.
• Yes, more dishes.
• Help Scott wash his hair.
• Help two kids make their lunch.
• Put away lots of dishes along the way.
• Snuggle a couple of kiddos, wipe one booty, and listen to the story of a star's life in the sky.
• I think I'm tired of being in the kitchen so I'll go start a load of laundry.

When I was done with that, it was 10 pm but I have a few more things to do. Right on to the next thing on my list. I took pics of new necklaces and post them for sale on my Journey4Hope blog. Wrote a quick blog post and now it's time to do some reading and hopefully fall fast asleep the moment I close my eyes.