It's Christmas Time, in the City

 Time to go sledding~!  Josh rides a mattress down our steps. 

Of course there are Christmas trees for sale

 in the parking lot. 

 These long needled pines are maybe not what Americans are used to for Christmas trees, and the sellers don't sit in the parking lot in shorts where I come from. 

Josh poses next to a fine specimen of a Christmas tree.  We have a fake one in our house, and it isn't quite this big, but it is an evergreen.   

 It was so fun to have our great-nephew and niece, Daniel and Connie around for the holidays. Here Connie models her innovative use of a scarf for a nappie (diaper). Desperate times call for desperate measures!

Here Connie demonstrates that true happiness is not sharing your new pram with your brother!  She wanted exclusive rights, and was a bit miffed to discover it's a family pram. 

Another little things that may gave me a little culture shocks included hearing "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" sung as the special song in Sunday morning church.  :-)   I wish I could think of more to share, but I'm afraid I don't notice them all any more. 

A white Christmas Sunday

 See all that white to the left of the church?  It's fine white sand.   Today Paul preached in a  church in Vrygrond (Free ground) which is pretty close to our house. 

The last time we visited this church, there was quite a large parking area beside the church, but the pastor told us the story of what happened.  He came to the building one day, and in the night, some drunks had stolen the fence and sold it for scrap metal so they could buy more drink.  The southeasterly wind that blows fiercely around here sent enough sand so that parking lot looked 2 feet deep in some spots, and anyone who parked there would probably need a 4 wheel drive to get out again.

But they were rejoicing.  A Canadian church is donating money for them to get a wall around the building, and the local  city council said they would send equipment to dig out the sand. 

So Paul preached, and the church had Communion and the rest of their program, and handed out food packets as this is in quite a poor neighborhood.  Josh and I split a plastic shot glass of grape juice for the Communion.  I think kids don't generally partake there.  Earlier in life, I'd have asked Josh to forgo for the day, but now I feel strongly that the saved, whether children or adults, begin to participate in Communion when they are saved.  They're not on probation until they are 18;  they are just young believers. 

I notice Paul is getting bolder as he gets older.  He's starting to hit modesty a lot harder then he used to.  It's appalling the amount of skin we see in church some times, some of it shaking and jiggling in the leaders of "worship" in the front of the church.  It's time to remind/teach ladies of what they do to men.  We're finding men are sometimes scorned for their "weakness" toward lust in immodestly dressed women, but that is how the Lord God made them.  I guess there's sin enough on both sexes, but...I was talking about Christmas.  May we all be decent even in the heat of summer!

Merry Christmas! 

The Changing of the Guard

 OK, Mom was seriously lax with the camera, and only got a few pictures of the party yesterday, but it'll give a glimpse of the sword fighting in the park...

And the

tender moment in jail in Capture the Flag at the beach.

 I had an excuse on that one. I thought my camera would get all full of salt and sand as a southeaster has been raging through here for days, reminding me that we live at "the Cape of Storms" as this Cape was originally called, and then also called The Cape of Good Hope.  I imagine sailors just hope they get to the Cape before they go under from the wind!

 It's always nice to see what Grammy and Grampa send from across the sea.

 I'm looking forward to teasing Tim about being loony when he wears his new Maine loon t-shirt.

And then came the changing of the guard.  Timothy has been our breakfast cook for 5 years, after Evangel did her 5 years, now he got to present Josh with this new blue frying pan as Josh begins his breakfast cooking years.  Maybe no one will notice when his 5 years are up, and we can go for 10!!! 

He's quite excited about the chance to cook, so don't think otherwise just because Evangel has a bull whip in her hand.  That was just another birthday gift for Tim.

Now I'm making him a card with "Finally, my son-ling, be strong, put on the whole armour of God..." because he likes armour and strategy and all that battle stuff, AND because I found some little miniature armour to stick in the card.  He'll love it.

Snail Pizza

I have dozens of cute pictures of babies, and children, and dashing teens, so why do you need to see this gross picture of my snail pizza? 

All

All I can think of is because it is so gross!  All these slimey, oozy snails, collected along the west wall of our back yard/garden in about 10 minutes...it's like a new horror movie where snails take over the world, sliming everyone to death.  (If they would slim me instead of slime me, I'd like them better.) 

 Obviously there's enough of a kid left in my aging body to still like to gross people out. 

After I collected them, I ran upstairs to show the kids, and Evangel proceeded to make an alphabet out of snails, so you may be seeing more of these babies.  She's thinking of making stationery with

SNAIL MAIL

spelled out in snails at the top! 

 

Cheap missionary humor, at it's finest. 

 

"Then was their mouth filled with laughter..." taken slightly out of context from Psalm 126.

 

 

A Commercial for Hannah's Hats

It's a poor blog that can't afford a commercial.  Our niece Hannah has a business making and selling these charming hats like Evangel is wearing. This hat actually belongs to Connie, who is only 1 year old.  Evangel took it, and arranged her hair to kind of look like Hannah's somehow! 

www.flutterbyhannah.etsy.com is the link to go to.  Our niece is a sweet young Mom of 2 cuddly boys.  We were so excited to get to meet them in the States.  They're too little to remember us, but we will not soon forget them.

I like our creative family! 

"It would be sacrilegious...

 Camp Belle!  Named for my great-grandfather, Walter Earl Campbell, this is our American haven for family gatherings on the maternal side of the Young family.  On our recent trip to America, this was home base for this trip. 

 While we were there, my cousin Ivy had us over for lunch.  She served Sunday dinner out on their picnic table saying, "It would be sacrilegious to eat indoors on a day this beautiful."  Then they let us shoot guns! 

I agree with Ivy.  Some days you just have to get outside with a camera and capture the glory of God's Creation!  There are other days when we just reveled in the glories of the fireside and were thankful we didn't have to go outside. 

 

It was different for me.  The last 2 weeks in America, I stayed with my parents while Paul and the boys were already back in South Africa.  Evangel was taking a CNA (certified nurses aid) course in Indianapolis at the Telos Institute.  I felt strange to be without husband or children for the first time in 20 years.  I can't say I like it much, but it was nice to be with my parents.

 

 

Evangel and her fellow students plus their dorm mom.  They were a hyper bunch of happy girls at their graduation!  I was so thankful I could go to that.  Maybe I can get Evangel to do a guest blog telling of her experiences, but so far, she's just struggling to get over her jet lag and backlog of  tiredness from many 4 A.M. mornings during the course. 

 

 

 

The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof! 

Let everyone that has breath praise the Lord!

 

Mishawaka, IN

                                        Look what we found on the Mishawaka River Walk!
           We were just walking around about a mile from where we were staying, and just                                                   happened on a "Splash Pad."

 We thought it was closed for the season, then I just ran my hand across that black knob, and all the water spouts came to life! 

 Josh was the first to plunge in, but all 3 kids were drenched by the end. 

You'd have to zoom to know that's us, doing one of those run-in shots.

Josh weaving through Canada goose droppings.



A glimpse into the mission house tells us that these people really care about taking good care of missionaries.  Even a glimpse into their fridge would tell you.  This house has 3 bedrooms, all the necessities of life, and mulitiple perks.

This is a fish ladder--never seen one before but it's cool!  It allows the fish up the river by-passing the dam. 

Very first link!

click there  --> trueblueblueberries

See that beautiful link up there?  Click on it, and you'll get treated to my Sister's friend's  (and mine, to a lesser degree) blog.  Evangel just figured out how to do that!  Be impressed, be bery impressed.

Now that link is worth going to.  Melanie posted pictures of dress-up occasions during her life.  My sister is in 2 of them, but my favorite is where Melanie and her husband Mike are dressed up like pillars, and their little daughter as Samson.  Hilarious! 

So this blog has just arrived at a new level of technology hitherto unimagined.  Thank the Lord for smarty kids. 

Precious Moments

 We're making precious memories in America.  Josh discovers "the land of opportunity" as many have before him.  In the state of Maine, some plastic bottles and Coke cans can be redeemed for 5 cents each, so Josh has been raking in the big bucks by collecting cans. 

 How precious to meet a new little cousin, Austin, for the very first time.  What a cutie, and he made friends so fast.

 Josh showing off the fruit of the land, so to speak. 

 Paul and I got to visit my high school, Dublin Christian Academy in picturesque Dublin, NH.  It was filled with old memories for me, but we made some sweet new memories too. 

 My Dad turned 87 on Saturday!  Now he's precious.  I'm not sure how many 87 years old there are in the world, but I know they're not a dime a dozen. 

 Time is precious too.  Paul had time to help Josh go fishing off the end of the dock in the peaceful evening. 

 I                                                                I love my guys!

T                                                    They've caught two so far!

Roots

 I don't know if I've ever taken pictures inside my church before...yes, I did, when Joshua got dedicated, but that was way before blogging started, so here, for your viewing pleasure, is my pretty church in Maine.

The decor is cool, but I just see dear people, some of whom have known me since me since before I was born.  Well, maybe not me before I was born, but my Mom and her suspicious bump. 

My mom is the one on the right, beside my Dad seated with the red shirt.  My sister is the gorgeous blond in the middle with her husband Rick in front of her, and her daughter Kara way in the front by Evangel.  Evangel arranged the camera for this picture, on the picnic table, and managed to catch us all.  The Hartmans were also with us, visiting from New York City, and a little freaked out by all the *Mainiacs, I think.  Josh says my sister told him to do his eyes funny like that.  Ariel, his cousin is right beside him, and the rest of us are Youngs.    *Maniacs is the affectionate term for people from the state of Maine, where we are at the moment. 

After church on Sunday, we came back to the camp for a baptism.  Mom had a brainstorm and bought this swimming pool and filled it with ice for the drinks and salads.  Cool idea!

I took pictures of the baptism on someone else's camera, and then didn't get them off yet.  I hope I do get them.  There were about 75 people here to see 6 people get baptized.  And then 2 more people decided to get born again that same day!  My Darling Paul was the preacher.  It was an ultra special day. 

I found my thrill...

at Blueberry Bend.

 Two years ago, I posted a blog about our last trip to Blueberry Bend.  The kids were all thrilled with the honor system of paying.  We knew we were going to go blue-berrying the first chance we got so the cloudy day invited us out. 
We had a wonderful surprise.  Normally the berries are $1.50 a pound.  They have a scale at their door, and you just weigh your berries yourself, figure out the price, and slide the money in the slot for the mail.  Cool!  Not a system we are used to seeing in Cape Town.
Well this time, the owner arrived while we were picking.  The boys were full of questions for me, which I hadn't been able to answer, so I was quickly trying to remember them all to ask the owner, Mr. Savigny, I think his name was.  He told us these blueberry bushes were planted in 1983, and should live to be 50 or 60 years old!  He told us that he had fertilized late this year and the weeds had loved it.  They were huge but he had a hard time chopping them because the bushes were so laden with berries, he'd be chopping berries and bushes along with the weeds.

It reminds me of the parable of the wheat and the tares.  They got all mixed in together, and Jesus said to just leave the tares because if you try to separate them, some of the good wheat will get hurt.  It's teaching how people are all mixed together, good and bad, and it's only when God judges that we'll be able to tell who is who.

Anyway, the surprise was that Mr. Savigny said that it was the end of blueberry season and from now on, STARTING WITH US  all blueberries are free!  Whoo-hoo!   

So there's my city slickers with their harvest.  We didn't last too long, with the heat and the bugs and all, but we felt like we got a respectable amount of berries. 

Frew Fantasies

One of the highlights of our trip so far was the family conference we attended in Indianapolis.  A family had a stand of beautiful calligraphy of scriptures, mostly, and a few good poems. 

So Tessa, Berdine, and Michelle, this is to inspire you all in your calligraphy endeavors.  I have a goal to have lots of verses on our walls, so these elegant pieces made me want to go on shopping spree, but I had to restrain myself to a few frameless ones so they would be packable. 

Our Lord's decorating instructions:  "And thou shall write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates..."   Deuteronomy 6:9. 

My Baby's a Thug

The BIG event of winter holidays for our boys was the Paintball game on Saturday!  I want to post a bunch of pictures for the moms of the other boys, but am now tired of wrestling with this uploading thing and we shall have to be content with just these 4.

It's hard to tell who's who with the masks.  I sent the one above to one mom, and then the boys told me that is Jonathan, not Daniel.  Oops. 

But I do recognize these 3 hooligans, Tim, Oliver, and Josh.  Oliver wore a real army uniform!  There's a screen between me and them, that is NOT bad photography on my part-just so you know. 

 This is the top picture, but I can't get these pictures to obey my wishes.  Evangel bailed me out twice to get this far, but she's in the middle of huge, urgent project, so I must not be so pestery. 

Loading up on cool supplies is part of the fun. 

"We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

Ephesians 6:12

My theory is a good paintball battle will help the boys visualize the unseen battle, and the courage needed for one, is a lot like the courage needed for the other. 

Little Dreams Fulfilled

Go get 'em, Tiger! 

A mall near us has these cool animals with wheels that you can ride, so we went to give it a whirl.  My grand-nephew Daniel is the only one actually brave enough to do it.  He rode the horse, the zebra, and a giraffe as well as the tiger.  Connie wasn't interested.  Those animals are scary when you're only 1. 

My Joshua John, or Mr. J.J.Y. for short, in front of a store with his friend Jesse.  I have long wanted to get Josh and this store together, and having another J. in the picture was just the icing on the cake.

Touche!  The man in black (My Tim) dreams of swordfights. 

And the grand finale: my quilt.  I have had a quilt on my bucket list for many years.  I ran across a library book that made this style look do-able and I started a couple of years ago.  Then I didn't like the shape it was coming out to be, so I stopped and wondered what to do.  Then last weekend, I was seized with determination, and decided to quit fearing mistakes, and just do it.   

"The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul..."

Proverbs 13:19

"Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life."

Proverbs 13:12