Singing "Grace"

A former pastor of mine liked to sometimes sing the blessing over the food. So, we did it with our Asian friends even if it says nothing about food. This is what we sang:

"Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul.

Thank you, Lord, for making me whole.

Thank you, Lord, for giving to me

Thy great salvation, so rich and free."

..and OH!...for pumpkin pie!

In one word...

Thankful.

I spent all day yesterday cooking and baking. The weather was sunshine-y and beautiful instead of the dreary overcast it has been lately. I anticipated the Prince's homecoming with a smile and baked his favorite chocolate cake. I thought of my mother almost constantly and how for all of my life she has been the one preparing the meals almost completely alone for our large family. I was lonely for her, but thankful for her. By the time she was my age, her mother had already passed on. I'm thankful I have her and the rest of my family even if they are not here this holiday with me in body...they are in spirit.

Right now, it's Thanksgiving morning. Everyone in the house is still asleep. The Prince arrived home safely with hugs and smiles to melt a momma's heart and giggles and tickles to make a Princess leap for joy. He stayed up late talking with his dad just because he could (no curfew). The house smells of the pumpkin pie that's in the oven. In a few hours there will be 20+ people to fill it with fellowship and lots of the noise of thanksgiving. We've invited many Asian friends to share with us in the bounty. (We received and entire Thanksgiving meal by care package. Unbelievable!) I cannot WAIT to eat that pumpkin pie. :) But for right now, it's peacefully quiet. I know I'll probably not be back on the blog for a few days, but I wanted to wish you well.

Our lives no longer have the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and although at times I miss it, I have learned to be content.

Being thankful for you,

My cup runneth over. How about yours?

5 more sleeps!

When the Prince was young and before he had mastered the concept of time, we would tell him time in concept of Veggie Tale movies. One Veggie Tale (about 30 minutes) or 3 VTales. (and hour and a half).

Anyway. It worked for some things. But while driving with my mom in the backseat with him in his car seat, I remember hearing her tell him how long it would be 'til Christmas in the number of times he had to go to sleep (not nap). He thought about it and it made sense to him. So...we've always counted sleeps! We still do.

5 more sleeps 'til the Prince is home for a long weekend! WOOHOO! We are all excited. I hope he is!

After that, we begin the countdown to Christmas and then another important event which I'll tell you about later.

It's times like these that I wish I had access to all my pictures back in the states. In my mind I see a picture of the Prince about 5 or 6 years old wearing a "Larry Boy" hat and T-shirt making the face as if he was sending off one of his plungers! Sweet remembrances.

A funny...

We were reading (listening to) the NIV for devo one night and we were in the latter parts Exodus where God is giving the law to Moses about how to treat foreigners. You should know that we use the computer and when we want to emphasize something or clarify we just push the space bar to "pause" the reading. Likewise, when The Princess has a question or something she's not sure of she reaches over and "pauses" the reading. As parents, we really like that. Anyway, back to Exodus. The NIV uses the word alien for foreigner. As soon as we heard the word, we knew there might be a question and sure enough we watched this little hand reach out and press "pause" She looked up with a truly puzzled look on her face and said, "What?" It was funny. Maybe you had to be there, but I think you can imagine. Being as we are foreigners currently, she had to work that word out in her brain...are we aliens? Some would say, yes! LOL.

Our new thing...

We do family devotionals and like to try new things in our study time for the varied learning styles in the family. This is our newest thing and we really like it.

It's The Listener's Bible on audio. We use NIV. You can go to listenersbible.com and download the book of John for free to try it out. After we did, we bought the whole Bible.

Have you ever read Leviticus? All God's laws for his people as given to Moses. I have a few times. It's not my favorite book, but the audio helps to paint a picture that I didn't fully get from reading.

Try it and let me know what you think.

For your viewing pleasure...

This doesn't go with the others, but it made me laugh. It's an ashtray.

Can you say, "EEEWWWWW."?
You can be sure I didn't kiss him after he ate this stuff!
Again...."eeewwww." I know there are some of you who think this looks delicious and you are just plain weird. But I love you anyway.
Notice the antennae in the bottom right hand corner of the picture. Gross. Totally Gross.

By the way...

I read a statistic that I find interesting...

"It takes the average person living in a foreign land on average 6 times longer to perform simple tasks."

Well...no wonder. What about those of us dummies trying to LEARN a foreign language? Hmmmm.

Some technical difficulties

It seems technical difficulties are a part of daily life and even more so in a foreign land. We bought a new computer before moving over here with and international warranty. But it seems, that means I have to come back from my foreign land to get it fixed even if it broke while in the foreign land. The bad news is...I'm not coming back any time soon. I cracked my monitor. :( But the good news is that it can plug into the TV monitor and still work. It's very inconvenient for working on the computer, but it's better than nothing.

Anyway, it is part of the delay of posting on the blog. The other things are just as annoying but less consequential.

Early in October the Prince had a break from school and came home for a week. We took him to Subway. We don't have Daylight Savings Time where we live...so it's dark at 5:00...but you get the picture. :)

This is the newest place we have. We are really coming into our own in this city! The King and I have already been on a date here. They only have about 20 choices (which sounds funny to say because it's plenty) but as long as they have Caramel Frappuccino (sp?)(which they do!) then I'm happy.

I have to post this picture no matter how dark it is because the King dropped his coffee trying to take it! Thanks Sweetheart.

I will try to be back soon. Maybe my technical difficulties will let up and I can be regular again. I do have some things to say.

Love!