It is a soggy morning today at 6:30am as Judah gets up to get ready for school. The rain that started last night as we were enjoying tea and toffee bars with an old friend who has moved away, was torrential, so loud upon our tin roof that we had to talk loudly over the thundering of it overhead. We were in need of the rain though.

Asher is feverish due to teething, i suspect. The red marks on his cheeks are the giveaway. He is, unfortunately for everyone in house, a VERY unhappy teether.   Josh is flying today with the Canadian Flyers to Moramanga and Tomasina. The twin otter. Apparently that’s an exciting thing. I am planning to do not much of anything today because i’m too tired from not sleeping during the night. alas. a little less excitement for those of us left at home. shame.

Have had a vision, an epiphany, of what i could do here in this place, something that fits my skills and my joys, something that is scarily beyond me and yet so fantastically challenging… I’m afraid of what i do not know, i am afraid of following a dream that might be too big for me to do (alone). I suspect it is the Lord who has sent me this gift, and it is to the Lord i must turn for confirmation and inspiration. He is navigating me towards an unknown, thrillingly scary precipice path that overlooks vistas of such awe-inducing beauty and majesty that i’m a bit freaked out about the whole thing. I’m afraid of falling off. And yet, Peter could walk on water if he only kept his eyes on Jesus without looking down to admire his feet (his feat).

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.

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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!!
 

We had a real tea tea-party this last week. The boys were very tickled about it.

asher poured himself some cereal…

Morning sandbox time. And my new plant. Woot!

Our secret fort. Can you see it? The striped plastic serving as roofing is kind of a dead giveaway.

Josh has a stomach bug now for the last few days. This afternoon at lunch Josh said, “my stomach is in bad shape”. To which Judah responded, “do you mean like a triangle?”

Judah was just accepted to the French Elementary School this last week. Woot! We were reading his kindergarten report card with a dictionary in hand. I plan to sit down to get through the acceptance email and instructions with a dictionary also, so i dont miss anything. ha.

Josh is flying again tomorrow (Sunday). I’m sending Judah to church with friends so he can go to Sunday school. Single parenting with Asher at church is a pointless activity so i’m opting to stay home.

 

I’m having a difficult time setting myself down to write anything. I apologize. I really believe it’s due to some spiritual attack, as strange as that may sound. I have finally committed to getting back into writing and now i cant find the resolve to actually do it. Hence the abundance of videos. I suppose some might prefer the videos and photos to the blathering. I’m actually talking about other writing though. Book reviews and articles for venues other than my personal blog. ha.

Caught Asher playing with an earthworm today. He was so tickled by the squirming and jumping little thing he squealed with delight every time it jumped and twisted in response to his prodding, picking up and putting down. When i ran in to get the camera to take a video i came back to find him with the thing in his mouth…

Judah and i were talking at bedtime today about how daddy needs to go away in a few months for some meetings in Kenya so he can get better at his job. After pondering this a while he said to me that i was already quite good at my job, so i neednt go away for meetings. (ha. thanks buddy.)

Asher is cutting his two bottom teeth on either side of the two middle chompers. Hence the sleep-less nights recently. (gah!)

I wrote a long and involved treatise on why i celebrate lent… and then lost it. probably to your benefit. in it i quoted Beth Moore’s Daniel introductory session, Doris Longacre Janzen’s More with Less Cookbook, and some books on Sabbath… in addition to some academically and theologically suspect websites on the origins of lent. I dont care anymore to write about it. sorry. but i have been convicted to spend my Lenten season focusing on the freedom to NOT buy things i do not need and on the sufficiency i have in the Almighty and what he has already blessed us with. Beth Moore’s Daniel series is just so fantastic. and especially during the Lenten season. I’m sorry that Josh cant take it with me.

A month after our anniversary and i still havent really touched the E-Book reader Josh bought me for a present. He’s monopolized it to read his own books.

Hopefully our newsletter will hit newsstands (figuratively speaking) next week. My writers ‘block’ seems to have had ‘far-reaching’ effects. I’m hoping to start going on more flights on my own while Josh stays home so i can write about what’s going on ‘out there’ for the benefit of the “wider MAF community” (aka. the MAF home office in England). Looking forward to this new challenge, but a bit nervous about the logistics of how that will work out with things/children at home.

The rain is ridonculous. Our secret fort house in the back is still lacking the plastic roofing that i did buy on Monday, but Josh hasnt put it up yet and therefore the house is flooded with a foot of water every morning. Boo-urns! Our real house is suffering the effects of the rain also – moldy smells abound. Deck chair cushions remained stacked indoors for days, cluttering up the space and providing endless cluttery fun for the boys who love to jump on them and whack each other over the head with the foam. (i’m talking mostly of Josh and Judah here). Our truck has a leak somewhere and after a good rain i can hear buckets of water sloshing around under the floor mats. the MAF garage is so busy, however, that they dont have time to check it out… but when they did hoist it up to see under the truck on Monday for a quick look-see they also found another problem with the ______ (i dont remember the name. the seal that connects the wheel to the axel?). Sigh.

Reading Three Cups of Tea just now. Amazing. Also, Sabbath Keeping by Lynne M. Baab as a Lenten read, Hold onto Your Kids, Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Mate; Families on the Move: Growing up Overseas and Loving it! by Marion Knell (which i WILL write a book review for for the Messenger, i’m committed!) Josh is reading some Clive Cussler book on the e-reader. (bah!) Also, still reading Wizard of Oz to Judah. Almost done.

Was just chatting with someone in Canada who just went to bed for the night, and we’re already in the next morning. Despite the years we’ve spent overseas, that concept is still weird to me. I quite wish we could just be going to bed right now in last night because last night was, in a word, terrible. Agh! I dont know what Asher’s deal is, but he wakes up at times and just screams. For hours. He’s not in pain, because when i come in to lie down with him he’s quiet. It’s like he’s just not sleepy and therefore angry that he’s confined to his bed, in the dark, with no juice or milk to suck on… ALL NIGHT! Like, is he not tired at all?! Did that travel mug of tea he pilfered from the neighbour keep him up? Teething? Hungry? Gah!! I actually thought i might have a bad night of sleep due to nightmares after watching a ‘water movie’ (i hate water movies), but no, i didnt sleep enough during the night to have any. I took the night shift, which means Josh was good enough to take the morning shift with the boys (of course Asher wakes up chipper as a lark!) and he and Judah have gone off to church already.

Judah singing along to his Maranatha Kids Praise tape on his walkman.

a few ‘good things’ from our house:

here’s asher demonstrating his teethbrushing and into-sink-spitting that he’s obviously learned from watching others.

I finally got (most of) Josh’s gift given today for our wedding anniversary (Feb 8). I got a few Pierrot Men photographs (taken for MAF just before the crisis) blown up and framed, one in a large black frame with wide white mat, the others in palisandre frames. I’m pretty stoked about them. Asher and i went to pick the big one (and a few others for Asher’s room) from Mr. Bricolage this morning, but got there before the shop opened, so we had to wait while having a morning coffee in the morning light in the upstairs coffee shop.

Asher, like Judah did when he was this age, creates quite a stir with the Malagasy when we walk into a shop or anywhere. He’s just so dang cute i guess… or has such brilliantly white blond hair… or has an obviously challenging temperament that everyone is thinking “yikes, that poor mom has to keep on her toes”. haha

i trimmed the grass with a scissor today.

Josh is home again from a 3 day trip.

Our weekend mornings look like:

Rhonda, do you miss this? haha.

It could be time for the ‘bug bomb’.

one day i’ll come into the kitchen to find A half way up the wall, looking for snacks, i’m sure of it. He already knows he’s not to climb the kitchen shelves because after i took this photo he started shaking his finger and his head. aha. someone has already been confronted in this activity. haha.

This evening Josh proposed a family adventure to the New Korea restaurant in Ivandry. Considering that Asher has proven himself to be an “action jackson” by some (and i heartily agree, Judah was never this active!) and Judah isnt exactly adventure-eater-extraordinaire, i reckoned we were in for an adventure of the ‘highest’ order (highest order of patience that is), but we were all quite pleasantly surprised and our drive home after our delectable korean meal was triumphant if nothing else. Woot! We drove 30 minutes to a restaurant, waited for our meal and ate it all unscathed… and then Judah actually found the chicken dumpling whatevers to his liking… and his chopstick prowess was nothing short of unbelievable. Who knew he was a natural at wielding chopsticks?! no dropping chicken bits all over the floor, no frustrated 2nd, 3rd, 23rd attempts. wow. the adults were simply licking our chops (and chopsticks) in palate paradise. OH! YUM!

I said to Josh on the way home in the torrential downpour that it feels like we’re entering a new phase of parenting/family life recently, where Judah is old enough to have intelligent discussions about things and can refer to past experiences and things he’s learned in literature with a rationality never experienced before. It’s rather thrilling, if i do say so myself. It makes family adventures such as this more exciting to embark on because it’s 3 out of 4 people engaging in the experience rather than 2 people experiencing and 2 kids dragged along for the ride and entertained through it all.

Asher continues to be a delight to be around – especially if he’s somewhat restrained in his physical mobility. haha. I enjoy his singing and chattering immensely. And his new skill of folding his hands when he hears the word “pray”, with the subsequent mumbling “prayers” from his own lips, and the closing and triumphant lifting of the hands when we say “amen”, it is a joy to watch.

The end of school vacation. Josh is back from his 3-day trip to Maintiraino where he got sick.

We are in the throes of planning furlough flights. Looks like we’ll be returning at the beginning of June until the end of July. As i’ve been thinking about the change in furlough schedule (usually we go at the end of the year, but now with Judah going into grade 1 in the ‘big’ French school it’s better if he doesnt miss any school) i’m quite stoked at the fact that a) we’ll have nice weather for outdoor activities including biking!! and camping!! etc. b) we’ll miss the crummy season of Madagascar winter when everything is dead and cold(er) and yucky c) everyone else tends to leave during those two months, so we wont miss anything fun while away like retreats or study series or great weather.

With summer furlough in mind, does anyone have a behind-the-bike-child-carriage thing we could borrow and/or a baby seat to mount on the back of a bike? We’ll also be looking to borrow:
- a highchair for that time period… or some kind of high stool to sit at the table for Asher
- a bike for age 5 (no pink/purple or princesses please, if possible).
- elementary school French readers/books to read or the knowledge of a good place to buy cheap french books for beginning readers.
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Judah and i just finished reading Call it Courage the story of Mafato, the boy who was afraid. Anyone remember that from required reading in middle school? Anyway, it was a challenge to slog  through some of the words and ideas with a 5 year old, but it’s quite evident that he’s definitely picked up some new words and understandings from that book. (how thrilling!) and has even referred to it on many occasions when he hears a word in conversation he learned from the book (like “reef”, “leap”, “courage”, “coward”). Courage and cowardice are something that are repeated themes in our new read-aloud book: The Wizard of Oz. It’s a surprisingly quick and easy read and the vocabulary is much less difficult for him, knowing that i dont have to stop every few paragraphs to ensure he’s still following what’s going on. With a few chapters of the Old Testament read aloud by Josh every night, added to a chapter or two of fiction Judah is getting a LOT of reading aloud treatment. Hopefully it will hold him in good stead with language acquisition and learning concepts like courage and thought processing.

Today Judah and i went to the store to buy groceries. I had quite a cart full when i got to the cashier only to be told (before we rang everything through, thankfully) that the VISA machine was not working. GAH! So i had to scrounge in my wallet for cash, which i rarely carry for grocery runs because Josh has instructed me to use VISA when i can, since it’s cheaper. 40,000AR was all the cash had for the load i wanted to buy… one 10,000 item which Judah was particularly concerned about: chocolate cereal. Against all 5-year-old-reason we left the shop with a small bag of priority items, chocolate cereal not included. After a drive home involving a HUGE fit, pouting, crying and yelling i was convinced that it was high time to learn a little lesson about money, costs, and tough choices. We made a stack of paper money with ones, fives, tens and twenties and then i proceeded to price anything i could think of that he would want to pay for. He had a grand time… is still having a grand time paying for things. I also billed him for rent, water and electricity and a gardener (he claimed he didnt need a cleaning lady because his brother and him would clean the house themselves). He is currently watching a 10$ movie and i made him 20$ popcorn (things i’d rather he didnt have i overpriced to attempt dissuasion… to little effect). I also billed him for his lunch and the ice cream he wanted thereafter. He chose the 2 scoops rather than the half-the-price one scoop of ice cream. Asher’s schleming for an apple, water and some crackers were also put on Judah’s tab. We’ll see what happens when he realizes that his money runs out at some point and then he’s S.O.L. for anything else. I have half a mind to pay him in paper money for doing chores so he can also learn the idea of working for things, as well as relate the idea that Dad goes to work everyday to make the money we need to buy food and pay for light and power to run the t.v. so he can play x-box…

(part of Judah’s store. Another reading of The Wizard of Oz will cost him 14 monies. If he wants to listen to tapes on his walkman he’ll have to purchase the walkman first, plus headphones, plus tape of his choice…)

Our secret fort is on stand-by because Solo is on leave to bring in his rice harvest, but the half built walls are already providing lots of entertainment for the boys and the girl-next-door.

I’ve just completed the 2011 edition of the MAF Madagascar In-flight Magazine. I’m glad that’s over.

Josh is home for the weekend and then off again on another trip for a few days. Alas. In a few weeks the men’s retreat leaves for Ile Ste.Marie (if you recall, the women’s retreat was at a share-a-double-bed-with-a-stranger Bible Camp just 1.5 hour drive from Tana) via MAF plane to enjoy fishing and male bonding… that’s a great precedent they’re setting there, i tell you. haha. April will bring another 2 weeks of Easter school holidays and then a few weeks later Josh will leave for Kenya for an Ops Manager meeting and then it’s almost time to leave for Canada! gah!

Asher is finally showing the tooth that he’s been teething on since before December. He’s calming down a bit in the last few days, actually sitting with me sometimes for more than 30 seconds! He’s moving to a one-nap-a-day routine, which is a bit of a drag i confess. Hopefully if he sleeps less during the day he’ll sleep through the night without waking up? (it’s usually only once, but still!)

What else… I’m trying mightily to finish my current book (made of paper) so i can start a new book on my new e-book reader. Does anyone have any great recommendations for me? The options for reading now seem endless! I still am working on Josh’s anniversary gift… i’m hoping it’ll be tied with a bow when he returns on Wednesday when he comes back from his trip. We’ll see.