The Simple Woman's Daybook 04/27/2010

Outside my window…sunny and hot, although often now it clouds up in the late afternoon and we sometimes get a little rain. Its so hot and dry though that in no time, it appears to not have rained at all no matter how much it might have rained.

I am thinking…..that I am grateful that G0d is our Almighty Healer (not only of illness/physical things but also of broken hearts/spiritual things) and our Sustainer. Without Him, there’s no way I could live here. But because of Him, I can. We are pushing to get out of survival mode and move on to thriving mode!

I am thankful….it seems that we have found the right medicine and the right dosage to help keep my newly surfaced allergies in check. I’m still having some vertigo which is bothersome, but no eye/face swelling now for nearly a week! Yay!

From the kitchen…..a wonderful recipe of coconut rice with cashews that Maria, our helper, makes and we love; fresh spinach crustless quiche which I just showed Maria how to make; guava, a newly discovered favorite fruit of ours (its also mango season here, but I just don’t like them….I have tried to but its just not good to me); AND some amazing women delivered to my door several meals for our family to bless me b/c of all of these allergy issues we have been wrestling with, and what a huge blessing it is. I am so thankful for them and for the love of G0d shown me through them.

I am wearing…gray cotton jersey capris, pink Canada t-shirt, my ‘inside’ flip-flops, pony tail. We take our shoes off at the door in Asia. Not only is it a cultural thing, it is a necessity b/c of what you walk through when you do go out. But the floors are so hard that I find it more comfortable to have on some sort of shoe indoors most of the time.

I am reading…..Breaking Free new B!ble study by Beth Moore….I think I’m ready for week 9 video, or week 10, I’ll have to look. Its GREAT!

I am hoping…..that Steve has success as he is hunting down a water cooler/dispenser for drinking water. We’ve recently heard about how great these are. We have some 2 liter bottles that we keep in the fridge filled with water, but our fridge is tiny and sometimes there’s not space. With a family of 5 and as hot as it is, we go through a lot of water so most of the time the water isn’t very cold b/c it hasn’t been in there very long by the time we drink it.

I am creating….our school book list for next year….its pretty much complete now, just tweaking it here and there before submitting our order. The cost of shipping all those books from the US is sooooo high. But we are getting several of our books secondhand from other company people here in our country which is nice and the shipping is much lower.

I am hearing…..the ceiling fan on helicopter speed. Not too many other noises right now that are louder than my ceiling fan, although I did hear an auto rickshaw just zoom by outside which sounds sort of like a speeding riding lawnmower. :o)

Around the house…..the national kids are on summer break now, and many are out of town or even out of the country until school begins again in June. Emma has been attending a summer camp for kids her age here in our apartment complex which she just loves. It is every weekday from 1pm until 3pm for a month. They have done some fun crafts and learned a little dance routine, among other things. She will be very sad when it’s over. Also, we have a little plastic container filled with droopy roses. We had some roses in a vase on the table and later noticed a caterpillar walking around on the table, then another one, and then a third. I had no idea how much they love eating roses. So, we put the roses in a plastic container and fashioned a covering with breathing holes. We have watched them grow from tiny to large and are wondering when they will begin their transformation process. They will probably be moths, not butterflies, but it will be fun to see.

One of my favorite things…..Dr. Pepper or even better Diet Dr. Pepper, which we found Sunday after church when we went by a little grocery store known for their western products! Ha-le-lu-jah! We were thrilled to find that and broccoli, celery, and basalmic vinegar. And a tiny little shop underneath a staircase that was filled with all kinds of neat treasures for tourists. We’ll have to go back here when its time to Christmas shop. The little things…..

A few plans for the rest of the week….we will be having a language assessment for which we are nervous yet excited about. We are over that hill of being rusty from being away from language learning for 6 weeks or so. And the language barrier is a motivator for us to learn more…even though many people speak English here, its not always the greatest English, and lots of people do not speak any English at all. In order to share the Good News with them, we have got to learn way more than the colors, numbers, and days of the week! So we are pushing hard to learn as much as we can.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you….

This is a view from an apartment on the 15th floor on our apartment complex.