Seven is the Magic Number

Today was Libby's big day; as of this evening, she is officially SEVEN years old.

If you happen to know how it is possible that my little bitty baby is now a big seven year old girl, please let me know.

Rain boots and pizza and cupcakes at school made for a great day.

Lib- Here's hoping this next year will be the bomb.com.

You are so wonderful in so many ways.

Happy birthday to the girl who made me a mom.

Love you mucho grande, Libster.

AND in case there was any question, this one is doing A-OKAY after yesterday's tubes......

....even though you'd never know it by looking at this picture.

Happy Wednesday to you and you and you.

WHOOOOO Wants to Come to Her Party?

Tomorrow is the Libster's seventh birthday.

And you know I LOVE birthdays at my house.

And I must admit, I was a little bit nervous about trying to top last year's party,

which was nothing short of amazing.

However, it was also a ton of work. And with going back to work, having a sick baby, and being in and out of the hospital with my liver (which is 100% better now, btw), time has been in short supply and high demand in my house lately.

So, this year we are doing something easy.

By that I mean I'm letting someone else do most of the work.

This year we are having Lib's party at the paint your own pottery place here in town.

Each of her friends will be given a little owl to paint, seeing as how Libby LOVES owls.

They will do the set up, the clean up, and take care of all materials. I just have to bring the food, the favors, and take care of the invitations.

So take care of the invitations I did.

See for yourself:

Cute, yes?

And might I add that since getting our new computer I have not yet hooked up my Silhouette, so I made these TOTALLY BY HAND.

I bought the precut cards from Michael's in packs of eight for a $1.

Then I drew a little owl on card stock, cut him into pieces, traced each piece, did a little cutting, a little gluing, and voila. I did take a little extra time to sew the tulle onto each owl's 'skirt', but it took longer to thread the needle on this one than it did to sew it.

The inside (which contains too much personal info. to post on the web like phone numbers and whatnot), says:

WHOOOOO is turning seven?

Libby, that's who!

And she wants to paint, giggle and celebrate with YOU!

Now if only coming to terms with her turning seven were as easy as making the invites.....

Come back this weekend to see her super cute favors, get the low down on the party, and check out the par-tay food, which is sure to be delish.

And thanks to everyone who sent prayers and happy thoughts our way this morning; Hollyn's tubes went in without a hitch. Here's hoping for no more ear trouble!

Happy Tuesday to you and you and you.

Over the River and Through the Woods

See this precious face?

She'll be getting tubes in her ears first thing in the morning tomorrow.

 Send happy thoughts our way? We'd be forever appreciative.

Saturday morning we just couldn't resist a little road trip,

and now that my grandmother is living only thirty minutes away, I knew exactly where I wanted to go.

Libby did a bit of this:

While Hollyn did a whole lot of this:

And if there were a hide-and-seek portion of the Olympics, my kid would be bringing home the gold.

Here's hoping your Labor Day is t-totally fabulous. Seven years ago today was my last day being preggers with the Libster. Her birthday is on Wednesday this year, and tomorrow I'll be giving a peek (or three) at her homemade party invitations (assuming all goes well with H's ears, which I'm confident it will).

Happy non-working Monday to you and you and you.

Yummy Yogurt Goodness

News flash:

It's been really, really hot lately.

And all Libby wants to do is eat popsicles.

Well, seeing as how popsicles are usually loaded with sugar and artificial sweeteners, and all kinds of other unmentionables, I came up with a nice alternative.

I give you Yummy Yogurt Goodness.

Super dooper easy to make; yummy yummy in your tummy.

Here's all you do:

-fill a muffin tin with cupcake liners

-place one vanilla wafer (or animal cracker) in the bottom of each tin

-mix equal amounts of the yogurt of your choice with cool whip

-scoop some yogurt/cool whip mix into each tin

-top each tin with another cookie of your choice

-freeze

-eat and enjoy

I like to make several dozen at one time and stock my freezer full of them.

They do melt, but they are usually all gone before the melting process really begins.

And this mom can feel good about this after school snack.

Here's hoping your Labor Day weekend-ing is in full swing.

And in case you missed it, I posted two straight to the heart posts about Kristen's Africa trip this weekend, which you can find here and here.

Kristen, Part 2: At the Heart of the Matter

In case you missed it, last night I interviewed Kristen about the mission trip she took to Africa this summer. In part one, we talked about the simple things: day to day life, schooling, etc. Today, we'll get a bit more deep......

Tell me about your favorite kid at the orphanage.
Efua. At first sight, I mean you can tell she is the 'bad' kid. I'd heard horror stories when I got there....the biting, the pinching..... I mean, she's four, but I guess it was the first day we were there, I spent some time with her and just the little love and affection I gave to her just calmed her. She was getting that love and individual attention that she never gets. She just had a draw to me. Her dimples were like craters. Her voice was high pitched....mainly screaming. But she could also be so sweet. I'd hold her and pat her on the back, and she'd pat my back too. We'd play patty cake but an African version. She'd sing it in her village language. Normally she doesn't talk to people. When she got to the orphanage, she couldn't walk because she was so malnourished. But after a couple of meals, she started livening up. For a year at least she was on a walker because her legs weren't strong enough to support her weight. It was just so clear that she needed that love and attention. She just acts out because she is so desperate for that attention. She is the brave little girl who is beating up boys who are older than her. But when she went to the ocean, she was terrified. I did get her to go in once with me, and then she fell asleep in my lap.

What did you learn from this whole experience?
That we are so blessed. To have a country that values education, to HAVE an education. I mean, that we're able to better ourselves in that way and that we are able to do more with our life than sell goods on the side of the street. I'm thankful for my family. I'm really thankful that I know God and who He is. I'm thankful that Christianity is so common here. There are certain people who have spoken the true word of God into my life. There are not as many true Christians who really know who God is there. I'm so grateful to have people in my life who love and know Jesus. I hate to say that because there are Christians there who are doing a really good thing, but overall as a society, I think they focus on God more as a way of life or a part of their culture. They DON'T really focus on God, mainly just Christian sayings or seeing it as something popular to do. It's just a part of their culture and something you do, but God's not a part of their culture. For instance, everything there was called 'By His Grace' or 'God First', like 'The Anointed Hair Salon'. We even saw a bar called something like 'By His Grace Chop Bar'.

What was the biggest difference in their daily life and ours?

Well, they wake up before the sun comes up to do all the daily work to get ready for the day. If you're a mom that consumes your day. You get up, you get ready. You go get stuff to cook. You cook all day long. You either cook over a fire or a wood-burning stove if you have one. Every second of their time is used on things they have to do to survive. They live one day at a time; there is no pre-planning. Everything is last minute. We are so scheduled; they don't really keep up with the time like we do. They are very hard-working people, and they do a lot more physical work than the people I know. I can never imagine balancing my body weight on my head like the women there do...also while carrying a baby on my back. Life is just so different here because we are so spoiled in so many ways.

What did you miss most about America for the two weeks you were gone?
My hot shower. We took ice cold ones there. Feeling clean-- the air there is just so hot all the time. You were never not in the hot since there was no air conditioning. I definitely missed the air conditioning.

Do you think they have an accurate perception of America, Americans, and American life?
They certainly idolize Obama. His face is everywhere...on billboards, on the kids school books, on their snacks, and like on the billboards it would say "A Partnership for Change". I think it was their president's campaign slogan. Some kids though in the village saw us and would run away crying; they'd never seen a white person before.... Others acted like they were in awe. They just wanted to touch us. It's like you're white and the people in the city assume that because we're Americans we have money, which compared to them I guess we all do. The poorest of the poor here has more than they do there.  While I really enjoyed my time there, I can't express how hard it was to leave them. I was hands and feet of Christ to these kids. I came, I established a relationship with them, I worked to help them see God, and then I left. I know that was the plan all along, but something about it just felt so wrong. It was so hard to just walk away after establishing these relationships with these amazing kids.

This was your first out of the country mission trip. Will there be more?
YES! Well, let's hope so. God willing, I'd like to speak to people who have never heard the name Jesus Christ. Like someone who you ask, "Do you know who Jesus is?", and they've never even heard of them. But, it kinda scares me in a way to have that responsibility of telling them....that or I want to go back to Africa...maybe to work with kids in an orphanage who have disabilities. But I also want to witness to adults because talking to kids and talking to adults is obviously a different type of witnessing.

I've heard people say that going to Africa changes you or stays with you forever. Thoughts on this?
It definitely changed my perceptive of praying for the nations. It made it real and put faces and names with those people in one of those nations. I don't think I'll ever view American life the same way. I realize all the frivolous and excess things we have that we don't need. I think more now about what I spend my time and money and energy on...I'll never be able to forget that or go throughout my life not remembering those less fortunate who don't even have enough money to cover their basic necessities. They live in stick houses with straw roofs, and we worry about if our car is good enough or wanting two new pairs of shoes while we have twenty at home.

Have you had an experience that made you thankful the way this trip did for Kristen?

I would love to hear about it.

And come back soon....

I'll be sharing some ideas for ways you can help make a difference to the people of Africa.

Here's hoping your weekend is fan-freakin-tastic.

Did your team win this week?

Mine did.

Hail State.

The end.

Kristen: The Low Down on Her Africa Trip

If you do recall, last spring I worked to raise money and spread awareness for my friend/little sister Kristen who went to an orphanage in Ghana, Africa, this summer for two weeks. After being inspired last spring, Africa has been on my mind CONSTANTLY, and talking to Kristen about her time there has really opened my eyes to several things I never would have known otherwise.

 Well, we FINALLY had enough time together to sit down and talk about everything that she experienced there in blog-worthy detail. So for those of you who are wanting to know or who supported her on her trip or just want a little insight into an African mission trip, here's the first part of my interview with Kristen.

 My questions are first and her answers (in her own words) follow.

Let's talk travel. How long was the flight and what in the world did you do with all that time?
From New York from Africa was eleven hours, and that was after our flight was delayed for an hour and a half. I mostly slept and ate. I also read Radical, which was one of the most life-changing Christian books I've ever read. It pointed out all the flaws in my Christian walk and altered my view of Christianity as an American. It changed the way I saw it from being here in America.

What was your last American meal before spending two weeks in Africa?
I had Wendy's and a Smoothie King Smoothie, simply because it was the closest thing to our terminal.

Tell me about packing for two weeks in third world country.
Well, we had to wear knee length or longer skirt, and it was obviously going to be really hot. I started packing like three days before we left, and I tried to bring full size bathroom stuff to leave there for Katie, who is staying in Africa through next August. I made sure to bring snacks, my blankie, and lots of deodorant, hand sanitizer, and bug spray.


How was the food?
It was actually really good. I was a little nervous. Some of it was a little spicy, but we had jalof fries, and it it literally one of my favorite things. I want my mom to learn to cook it. We ate chicken almost every night. We had some really good pizza, but my favorite thing I had there was the pineapple and the pineapple juice that I had in the morning.

What were you most surprised about?
I think I was most surprised about how quickly I fell in love with the kids there. They are so in awe of Americans. They are so fun, so full of life, so easily entertained.

How does city life in Ghana compare to city life in America?
Well, if you go into an air-conditioned building, you are lucky, for sure. There is never a vacant spot on either side of the street ANYWHERE where someone is not selling something constantly. One minute you might be looking at a really nice, newly built building like you'd see in America, and then right next to it might be a shack or a tent where people are selling goods. The traffic was insane. Well, the driving was insane. We probably went three miles in about an hour and a half because of all the traffic. For example, when we got there there were two lanes of traffic merging into one. Everyone sits there and just honks, honks, honks. It was like a game of bumper cars, and it made me so nervous to watch.

While you were there you worked in a school in the orphanage. How does it to compare to school in America?
It doesn't. I mean, there is no organization whatsoever. The kids just don't listen. Now I was in a preschool class, but even then you sit in a desk and are taught to respect your teacher. There they just run around like crazy, doing this, doing that while she's talking unless she gets really mad. They wouldn't sit for us while we were teaching. It's really hard to concentrate, and the kids with a problem, like those who need glasses, well they just don't get them. One little girl had a really time reading things, and I guess she just has to deal with it. The still have lessons and workbooks, with Obama on the cover. Everyone loves Obama there. They draw on chalkboards, count things, write their letters and numbers, but there is very, very little structure. I don't see how they learn in an environment that is so chaotic.

If could go back, would you have done anything about the trip differently?
I would have brought watches for all the little kids. They were so enthralled with them. They don't need clothes, but they have no toys. Old, empty aerosol cans are what they play with, and most of these are broken. I would have brought toys and some sort of learning material that they can use. We did bring school supplies, which is really good. They have a bag of crayons but if you find one over a centimeter big, you are lucky.


Tell me about the market.
That was probably one of the craziest experiences of my life. Very overwhelming. I mean, it's just so overwhelming how if you even glance at something, you have ten people running at you bringing you their items to try to convince you to buy from them. The bargaining, that's how these people make their money. Everyone, everywhere was selling something. A lot of people aren't educated. They just can't  go out and get careers. Selling goods is how they make their living, whether it's knick knacks, food, or shoes; they are all just selling, selling, selling. And the fish. Ugh. That market was just, I can't imagine. We buy our food at Wal-Mart in clean, sanitized places. I mean, you're on dirt floors, and you just weave through this big mass of people selling stuff. It's 100 degrees there, and there's just fish sitting out, and it's rotting. I mean, there are just so many people in that one area, and it's so unclean. I can't imagine actually buying my food there for me and my family to live with or walking through there with a baby in my arms and a baby on my back and trying to buy groceries. We are just so spoiled over here. We go into our nice little air conditioned buildings and buy just whatever we want to buy, and there are still people there you can't afford to buy their rotting fish. I mean, I just can't imagine eating that or feeding it to my family.

So first you stayed in the village of Winneba. Tell me about the kids there.
It was heart-breaking. Skin and bones, I mean we don't know what their home life was like, but most of them were starving. And you couldn't just give them food because they'd be in a fight over it. But even though these kids were so malnourished with their yellow eyes, either having or having had malaria or many other diseases, they were so full of life. Non-stop energy. They play football (soccer) from sun up to sun down, non-stop, never ceasing, and are probably better than people who played high school or college soccer here. It was a serious competition between our college guys and these kids.

Tell me about the communication situation.
It was pretty easy to communicate because their national language is English, but they also learn their village languages. And there are conflicting village languages, so basically everyone is bilingual. They understood what we were saying most of the time, but it was harder to understand exactly what they were saying with the heavy accent, they multiple languages they mix together, and the slang they use. Like we say we have a headache; they say 'my head is paining me'. When we had to tell the village kids bye, that was the hardest part of the whole trip. We'd been with those kids for a little over three days. We came and loved on them and played with them, and we were their new best friends. The kids all cried, and it literally broke my heart. We came and they had somebody who loved on them and played with them, I mean this one little boy sat there and cried and cried and cried. We couldn't figure out why at first, and he said it's because we were leaving and he'd never see us again. It was so sad. Just heart-breaking.

Come back tomorrow for part two of our interview...the part where we get really, really real. 

And if there's more you want to know about anything mentioned in this post, leave a comment, and I'll see what I can do....

Until then, I'll be dreaming sweet dreams of Africa.

You?

I've Got a Hankerin'

In case you missed it, I am back in the classroom this year.

This go-round I'm teaching senior English.

Can I just say that I LOVE getting to teach literature and talk about books all day?

Because I do.

Not that I don't think grammar is important. On the contrary, I happen to think grammar is very, very important.

However, grammar isn't really all that fun.

Literature, however, is loads of the good stuff.

And all this reading has me longing for more.

Don't know about you, but I am ALWAYS on the lookout for my next good read.

Here's what's up next on my list:

Love Karen Kingsbury. I will admit, I was very sceptical of Christian fiction. I basically thought it would cheese-tastic. However, her books are wonderful! Plus, she's written about two tons of them, so there's always more when you get done with one. She reminds me of Nicholas Spark except her characters are more realistic, her plots are not so predictable, and she strives to incorporate good, Christian values into her stories. And I've heard WONDERFUL things about her latest series. This is the first book, and I'm ready to get started so I can then read the second, seeing as the third comes out in November.

I'm also wanting to read this one. My precious friend Emily gave it to me this spring, and I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't gotten to it yet. I did, however, let Kristen borrow it. She read it on the plane trip to Africa and said it was truly life changing. And life changing sounds pretty good after the summer I just endured.

I know I just said two relatively negative things about Nicholas Sparks, but I do love a good, sappy story sometimes......

I've heard great things about this book, including a comparison to The Hunger Games. Can't wait to get my hands on a copy.

Although I've heard not great things about the movie, I've heard that this book is wonderful and thought-provoking. I'm thinking it deserves a little looksie.

So, what are you reading now or next or when you get the chance?

I'd love to hear your suggestions.

Happy Thursday to you and you and you.