March 17, 2011
-
For Grampa Peters
Dear Grampa Peters,
Thank you so much for the money you gave to us at Christmas time. We have spent some of the money on new bamboo deck furniture and some fabric to cover the cushions i cut out of an old foam queen mattress (because i’m thrifty like that). We found a guy through Mme Fanja (our afternoon lady who seems to know everything and everyone!) who makes bamboo furniture and other things. We paid just over 100,000 Ar (50$) for a set of 3 chairs and 1 longer couch. I got to select the style, size/dimensions, and colour and the guy lives nearby to where we live, so picking it up once it was completed wasnt a huge problem. Now i just need to buckle down and sew the cushion covers (i’ve done one since we got the furniture mid-February). We’re already enjoying the new set on the deck though.Thanks again Grampa!
Love Jocelyn and family.
In other news, Josh is off today because he’s been flying weekends recently (boo-urns!) and will be gone this weekend on the men’s retreat at Ile aux Nattes… ahem. Judah piped up to Josh this morning over breakfast that it wasnt fair that he got to go to Ockie’s place without us. Indeed. Some of the men’s retreat attendee’s wives were suggesting that since the men significantly increased precidence, perhaps the women’s retreat next year could be held in Mauritius. haha.We went out for lunch because he was at home. It was nice.
I’m planning to do Easter preparations/crafts/decorating this weekend as a pass-the-time-without-Dad activity. Does anyone have suggestions on fun things to do/make?
We’re talking recently about being more intentional about how we spend our family time, especially time with Josh since he seems to be the person most in demand and the person we (ie. judah, asher and i) all fight over when he’s home. Does anyone have suggestions on how to up quality time when the quantity is lacking?
The weather has gotten gusty and cooler in the last few days. I’m loving the chance to wear pants and long sleeves.
I’m hoping to order some French Leapster games online in the next week or so to send with incoming neighbours from Canada. If someone knows a cheaper-than-online-prices-place i could find such (ie. cheaper than 25$ per game – egad!) i would really appreciate the advice of where to look. This is in preparation for our LONG plane voyage coming up in June. blech/yeah!
I’d also like to know if you or anyone you know has ever put their blog into hardcopy. It’s a project i’d like to start sometime soon, but would like some advice from anyone who has done it before. Are there sites/programs i could use to schlep the whole file into a compatible-with-printing format or must i cut/paste everything manually from the blog into a pdf format? What’s the best site to use for printing books at good quality for good price? I’m also thinking of changing from xanga to a more user-friendly blog host like WordPress or Blogger. Although i was hoodwinked into paying for a “Lifetime” membership at Xanga for the purpose of getting rid of those dodgy ads they had (which no other blog provider had and didnt make their customers pay for the absence of ads…) i stayed because i value continuity and wanted all my blog archives in one place. But now i’m annoyed enough to think of switching. Will that confuse you if you have to go somewhere else? Do you have suggestions on where to go?
I sent out our March Newsletter “Cyclone Season” yesterday. If you’d like to receive it via email let me know and i’ll add you to our mailing list.
Phew! That’s a lot of questions for, and requests for advice from, the readership… I’m looking forward to the replies of my regular commenters and would love to hear from the rest of you too!!
Comments (2)
i suspect that i should probably just write you an email, as this could get long.
i recently saw a craft idea for simple felt/cloth easter egg shaped beanbags. they were on the small side (3″?) and had simple designs embroidered on them and were stuffed with lentils. it was all rather rustic looking and i thought they would look cute tied from branches, too. i hope someone else will answer the quantity/quality question here so i can see the answer…i made the mistake of counting M’s days away in the last 2.5 months. oops. that wasn’t cheerful. ha. several years ago, i bought leapster games on ebay.ca – i didn’t check now to see what the prices are, though. i’ve heard, but haven’t tried it, that the website called blurb will automatically put blogs into book format. you know i’m a huge wordpress fan, but i think blogger has improved a lot since i left. all i know is that i have had far fewer frustrations since moving over. can you add us to your newsletter list? thanks. 
also, can you post your paska (sp?) recipe on the mada blog? or here? i’ve been waiting all year for easter to come around again so we can try making them. 
love the furniture jocelyn! and i love your thrifty ways too
my idea for a crafty/meaningful easter idea is to make an easter tree (somewhat along the themes of our christmas trees). i know the climate and foliage is all different but you are a creative woman!! i get a bunch of dogwood branches, tie them together and put them in a pot, and then we cut out symbolic easter shapes, add strings and hang them on the tree. we put the names of people we would like to pray for on the backs of the shapes. last year was the first go, but i am keeping the shapes from year to year to remind us who we prayed for and how God answered prayers.
i also just read through my latest copy of Living (thanks, my dear friend!!) and there they had very cute eggs. some were dyed and decorated with dot stickers or scrapbooking stickers.
and as for the ‘time’ question . . . we have really enjoyed playing charades with our kids as of late. free, easy, don’t have to leave home, we laugh, the kids love it. we do it very simply. we either go in groups of two or one at a time, and each person comes up with something to act out independently. we set up a little ‘stage’ of cushions and enjoy. simon likes it too. he doesn’t have a hot clue what is going on but he loves the action!
we are also trying (once again) to reserve one day each month where each child gets two hours alone with one parent, to do an activity of the child’s choice. we choose the birth – date. so on september 2 nadia gets to choose what she would like to do with me (the following month with steve) for two full hours. for you guys, maybe the child would get that time with dad every month, because they already get lots of mom time.
fiona