We haven't posted since the beginning of May...I think that might be a record!
We have been back in Honduras for 7 weeks, and the time has flown by! My allergies hit the day we got back, and then I later got a cold, so I have spent a lot of time recovering, as well as we've all had to adjust back into a new routine.
Kyle
Kyle is nearly done with his Master's Degree! He only has 2 classes plus an internship (which is also his job) left, and then he will graduate in December. It has been an easier semester so far, but I think we will all be very relieved to have him done. He has gone back to work full time, and is again in charge of all sports and other events. He usually stays at work a couple extra hours each day working on his classes so that most nights he doesn't have to study at home. Tomorrow he will take a bus to San Pedro Sula for an Athletic Director's meeting, and then this coming Wednesday-Saturday he will return for the annual track & field meet. He has had to take on a job this year with the local association of athletic directors, which will involve working on some Saturdays.
His youth group is doing well. Kyle has started reading the book Clean with the boys and the girls are doing a different book study. They are also hoping to have some fund raisers in the upcoming months in order to pay for their yearly service project and retreat.
Melodee
I have been working on making some changes/additions to the Honduran Fellowship website, to make it look a little more professional. We're also working on creating a place where we can have password protected files that only our members will have access to. We also have a number of events during the months of October & November that we are hosting or co-hosting: singles mini-retreat, Living in Your Strengths workshops, General Assembly, etc... Outside of my work for the HFMM, I still attend my Tuesday morning ladies Bible Study (working our way through Judah & Israel's kings, currently just before the exile) and we are hosting our Thursday evening Bible Study at our house (it is better to be able to have Juliana in bed on time). I have also been meeting with the 2 other stay-at-home moms at school once a week...one has a new baby and is homeschooling her two older boys, and the other is new to Honduras and has 4 kids, 2 not yet in school. We get together to sit and encourage each other for an hour an a half each Wednesday morning while the kids get to play.
Juliana
Juliana has started Pre-Kinder! She goes from 7:30-2:30, 5 days a week and it has been a VERY rough start. Many days she wakes up a cries and has temper tantrums until she leaves for school (after sleeping almost 11 hours every night). Yesterday it was so bad that we put her back to bed until 9 am and then took her to school. Starting school for the first time is hard for anyone, but she is the only English speaker in her class. All Pre-K classes are in both English & Spanish, except Bible with is only in Spanish. She adores both her teacher and the assistant, and has made a few friends, but can't really communicate with any of the other kids and comes home completely exhausted. I was able to talk to her teacher when I dropped her off yesterday, and hopefully we'll be able to work with the school counselor to help her adjust better.
Levi
Levi is loving all of the attention he gets as the only child home on school days! He can be a pretty crazy boy some days. Our nanny has been trying to teach him some words in Spanish. So far, he really hasn't had the desire to say any words other than Mama, Dada, and Nana...but he does express his desires very well nonetheless using sign language, pointing, and boy noises. This week however, he started saying a few words...ba (for both ball and bus), da (dog) and I think there's been a few other words that I can't remember. Then today, he started saying some of the words that Iris has been trying to teach him awa (agua), torrrrrta (tortilla), and zapato (although I never actually heard that one).
Family Pic - June 2018
9.27.2014
5.07.2014
We have rain!
Almost exactly a week after I blogged the last time it finally rained! And it was a very big storm with lots of lightening and thunder. I had thought it looked like it might rain, but took the kids to school and we barely made it into the gym when it started pouring! It hasn't rained every day, and the plague of flying termites hasn't appeared yet, so I'm not sure if we're in the rainy season or not...but its enough that the smoke is gone from El Hatillo.
Also, after I posted the last time our church had a baptism and church picnic at a nearby lake some private property that belongs to the father of someone in our church. Thirteen people ended up getting baptized...a huge number considering how small our church is. Other than the flies that swarmed during lunch it was a great day. Nice to get out of the city for a few hours. Kyle was not able to go since he was gone for the volleyball tournament, but me and the kids had a lot of fun. Here's a few pictures from that day.
Speaking of Kyle, he is currently working on his final week of classes for the semester! He will then have the summer off and begin the last year of classes in August. He has huge amounts of reading to do this week, then a 2 or 3 hour test to do over the reading. He hasn't done well on the other big tests, so pray that this one will be better.
I have been very busy lately working on things for the Honduran Fellowship. Last week we changed some of our job titles, and rearranged some of our tasks. This week our "homework" was to write out procedures for how to do each of our duties. I finished my 10 or so pages this afternoon while the kids napped. This morning I also had to go and renew my driver's license. Licenses here are only given for the amount of time that you have residency. Since my residency is renewed on a yearly basis, I am also required to renew my driver's license every year around the same time. Before you are able to renew the license you have to go into a little shack outside and pay for a medical and eye exam...which consists of reading 3 lines of letters and getting your blood pressure checked. This year they also added a psychological exam...which you must also pay for :) I walked into this little tiny room crammed with desks and was handed a packet with 50-60 questions in it all in Spanish. The first 40 questions or so were basically an IQ test. The next section was questions about how you would feel if you arrived late to an event, or how you would feel if someone arrived at a party badly dressed. And the final section asked if you knew the day, date, year, season, what floor of the building you were on, etc... Someone had told us yesterday that the test wouldn't be a problem. But once I opened the packet and realized how long it was (and how bad the copies were---some questions were impossible to see the entire thing) I was a little worried I might fail the psych exam :) Apparently I worried Kyle because I was in there so long...I had put my phone on vibrate and I could feel it vibrating in my purse over and over and over. When I walked out of the test I had 5 missed calls and 2 texts from him asking where I was and if I was ok. But most of the other people taking the test were in there for longer than I was, so I think it is normal to take awhile on it.
The kids are their normal crazy selves. Levi likes to go outside and talk to the birds, and wants to be wherever his big sister is, doing whatever she is doing. Juliana has been saying and doing some pretty funny things lately. At dinner she told us, "I wish mommies could just take care of kids and let them do whatever they want to". After she dinner she asked "why do I call you mommy?" And yesterday she asked for a pair of scissors so she could cut out a parable. Apparently in Sunday School she learned that a parable is a "rectangle with a little topper". I think they've been learning about Jesus' parables, but I'm not sure how that fit with the story of the Good Shepherd :)
Also, after I posted the last time our church had a baptism and church picnic at a nearby lake some private property that belongs to the father of someone in our church. Thirteen people ended up getting baptized...a huge number considering how small our church is. Other than the flies that swarmed during lunch it was a great day. Nice to get out of the city for a few hours. Kyle was not able to go since he was gone for the volleyball tournament, but me and the kids had a lot of fun. Here's a few pictures from that day.
Speaking of Kyle, he is currently working on his final week of classes for the semester! He will then have the summer off and begin the last year of classes in August. He has huge amounts of reading to do this week, then a 2 or 3 hour test to do over the reading. He hasn't done well on the other big tests, so pray that this one will be better.
I have been very busy lately working on things for the Honduran Fellowship. Last week we changed some of our job titles, and rearranged some of our tasks. This week our "homework" was to write out procedures for how to do each of our duties. I finished my 10 or so pages this afternoon while the kids napped. This morning I also had to go and renew my driver's license. Licenses here are only given for the amount of time that you have residency. Since my residency is renewed on a yearly basis, I am also required to renew my driver's license every year around the same time. Before you are able to renew the license you have to go into a little shack outside and pay for a medical and eye exam...which consists of reading 3 lines of letters and getting your blood pressure checked. This year they also added a psychological exam...which you must also pay for :) I walked into this little tiny room crammed with desks and was handed a packet with 50-60 questions in it all in Spanish. The first 40 questions or so were basically an IQ test. The next section was questions about how you would feel if you arrived late to an event, or how you would feel if someone arrived at a party badly dressed. And the final section asked if you knew the day, date, year, season, what floor of the building you were on, etc... Someone had told us yesterday that the test wouldn't be a problem. But once I opened the packet and realized how long it was (and how bad the copies were---some questions were impossible to see the entire thing) I was a little worried I might fail the psych exam :) Apparently I worried Kyle because I was in there so long...I had put my phone on vibrate and I could feel it vibrating in my purse over and over and over. When I walked out of the test I had 5 missed calls and 2 texts from him asking where I was and if I was ok. But most of the other people taking the test were in there for longer than I was, so I think it is normal to take awhile on it.
The kids are their normal crazy selves. Levi likes to go outside and talk to the birds, and wants to be wherever his big sister is, doing whatever she is doing. Juliana has been saying and doing some pretty funny things lately. At dinner she told us, "I wish mommies could just take care of kids and let them do whatever they want to". After she dinner she asked "why do I call you mommy?" And yesterday she asked for a pair of scissors so she could cut out a parable. Apparently in Sunday School she learned that a parable is a "rectangle with a little topper". I think they've been learning about Jesus' parables, but I'm not sure how that fit with the story of the Good Shepherd :)
4.23.2014
Praying for rain...
In Honduras we don't have 4 seasons---we have 2--rainy season and dry season. Rainy season is from the beginning of May to the end of January. Dry season is the rest of the year--and is definitely my favorite time of year. I love the warmth and sunshine, and because our school is so good to us we haven't had to worry as much about the water rationing that affects so many people. And its also our anniversary, and Easter, and usually we get to go on a short trip to the beach for a couple of nights to rejuvenate before heading into the last month or 2 of school. And for the first time, I have a real clothes line, with 2 poles and 3 lines strung nicely in between. In the past Kyle has tied up make-shift clothes lines between trees, and cement walls, and bars on windows...and they aren't always at a height that I can easily reach without standing on something. So its been a huge blessing this year to be able to save a little money on electricity and hang out almost all the laundry to dry...especially since Levi has been wearing cloth diapers this year and its better for them to hang in the sun.
That said, the end of April is my least favorite time of year. Its when the fires take over. Traditionally it doesn't rain from April till May 3rd...I'm not sure how scientific it is, but May 3rd is the day that the rains are "supposed" to start. But by the end of April almost all the grass and leaves on the trees are dead. So people start "controlled" fires to clean out fields because its the easiest way and it add nutrients to the ground. And often these fires get out of control. Other times, the forests burn for whatever reason. Either way, during April the mountains and forests burn and the city below gets covered in a thick layer of smoke.
For much of the month we aren't too affected by it because we live higher than the layer of smoke. But once the fires start on our mountain the smoke takes over El Hatillo. According to the newspaper, there have been 5 fires in the last 4 days (3 major) that have burned 1000 hectares (a hectare is equal to 2.47 acres). Two of the major fires and 1 minor are burning in our area. Our house is not in danger but there is ash falling everywhere, it burns your eyes and throat to spend much time outside, and the sun hasn't made it through the smoke in the last couple days. I've tried to keep the windows closed as much as possible, but Levi has gotten a cough and runny nose that I'm pretty sure is from the smoke.
So although I'm not quite ready for the end of the cloudless, sunshine filled days, I am ready for the rains to come soon to stop the fires and smoke.
That said, the end of April is my least favorite time of year. Its when the fires take over. Traditionally it doesn't rain from April till May 3rd...I'm not sure how scientific it is, but May 3rd is the day that the rains are "supposed" to start. But by the end of April almost all the grass and leaves on the trees are dead. So people start "controlled" fires to clean out fields because its the easiest way and it add nutrients to the ground. And often these fires get out of control. Other times, the forests burn for whatever reason. Either way, during April the mountains and forests burn and the city below gets covered in a thick layer of smoke.
 |
| And looks something like this... |
 |
| A friend who lives in the city took a picture of our mountain last night. There's also a bigger fire that is further up the mountain than us. |
1.23.2014
Catch up...
So I've been telling myself that I should update the blog since probably Thanksgiving...and now it's the end of January. Sigh. Let's see...I've missed Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and Juliana's birthday, just to name a few of the big events. If I catch you up on everything you'll probably be reading all night :) So I'll try to make it brief...
Christmas & New Years
We celebrated the holidays here again and had a lot of nice, restful time with friends and as a family. We attended a number of dinners, a birthday party among other things. The weather was beautiful most of the time, and since the kids got a sandbox for Christmas, they spent a lot of time playing outside. Most of the teachers left for Christmas, so it was very quiet around our house, which was a nice change. Kyle also had a month off from his grad school classes, which was GREAT! The last quarter was really rough and we were all pretty burned out from all the work he had to do.
For me the best part was planning a service project with Kyle's youth group at a low-cost daycare for kids of single working moms, run by a family in our church. I had wanted to do something to teach our kids about giving in a way that they (at least Juliana for now) could understand, and was talking about it with a couple friends of mine. We came up with an idea and Kyle wanted to get his youth group involved. We bought gifts for 21 kids and 3 workers, went to the daycare on their last day before Christmas, and got to sing songs with them, play games, eat a snack, and hand out the gifts. The youth took on leadership roles (all on their own!) and everyone had a great time. Juliana got pretty shy, and had just started warming up not long before it was time to go, but I think the more she's involved in projects like this the easier it will be for her.
Juliana's 4th Birthday
Juliana always has big parties. And every year when planning her next party I try to get her to invite a few less people. And every year she has more and more people that she wants to invite. In fact, she has so many people from school and church that she wants to invite, that I'm afraid I'll just be leaving out 1 or 2 people accidently. So this year I basically just opened it up to anybody and everybody who wanted to come, and made it a Grilled Cheese Potluck. Good thing we have a bigger house this year, because I believe we had 61 people who came! It was crazy, but she loved every minute of it. Her cardboard kitchen that we had given her for her 2nd birthday was completely worn out, so I started looking for a used plastic kitchen in October or November and had it hiding in the closet.
Juliana is getting to be such a big girl (not really in size, more in how much she's learning)! She can be really helpful and a very loving sister. She has a sight words video and placemat that she watches on occasion (maybe once every 3-4 months) and the other day when she was using her placemat at dinner she started "reading" about half the words! Both Kyle and I were shocked! She's also figured out how to ride her bicycle by herself...although she has trouble steering and falls off the sidewalk sometimes. :) AND she has finally stopped wetting the bed at night! It would only happen occasionally before and only when we would forget and let her drink too much in the evenings. Now, she calls me during the night to have me take her to the bathroom! The downside is that she calls me almost every night, but at least she goes right back to sleep and no more washing all of her bedding :)
Levi
My big boy can walk! Actually he still prefers to crawl and climb, and if you try to get him to walk he'll more than likely give you a big grin and a laugh and sit down. But at least he's able to walk. And it was at Bible Study with about 15 people cheering for him, so it was memorable and perfect. And when he thinks no one is watching he'll stand up on his own and balance and bob up and down on his own. He's got 9 teeth and a 4th molar is trying to push it's way through. He has gotten very jealous of his favorite people, especially mommy...and he doesn't like it when anyone gets too close (especially in the evenings when Nana wants to cuddle). He wishes he was a bigger boy than he actually is, and gets pretty upset when Nana gets to play with friends and he can't go. He likes to babble a lot, but I'm pretty sure the only word he says in correct context is "Hola". At least he likes to pick up my phone, put it to his ear, and almost always says something that sounds an awful lot like hola :) But I'm sure he understands a lot more...whenever he wants something and I'm trying to guess what he wants, he claps his hands if I say the right thing. He can FINALLY drink out of a bottle! Only a bunch of months too late, when he should be drinking from a sippy cup instead of a bottle...but he loves loves it, and he loves to drink warm milk from it, so for now we'll allow it. AND he will still only nap in his swing. I've started trying to transition him to the crib (he sleeps there at night, you'd think it wouldn't be a problem!) but he sleeps so much better and longer in the swing...and having a whole hour after lunch when he's sleeping and Juliana's in bed looking at books is just a REALLY nice luxury.
Kyle
Kyle started his next semester of grad school about 10 days ago. His 2 classes this quarter are Ethics in Sport and something about sports and law. Yuck! So far there's been a LOT of reading. He's already had a few nights that he's been up till 1 am or much later trying to finish his work. He even asked me to buy some coffee to keep in the house (we've never owned coffee or a coffee maker since we've been married).
Melodee
I've been spending a lot of time working for the Honduran Fellowship. The Mattica's found an office to rent the end of October and moved into it in November. Around the same time, a guy who used to go to our church (still goes to the church, just one of the Spanish services) emailed John and asked if he knew of any ministries needing a Honduran volunteer. John had been praying for a couple years probably for an assistant, and JuanJo was PERFECT for the job. He spends a lot of time at immigration and running errands for John. So this past Friday we had our first staff meeting, in the office, with all 5 of us! (We also have a Director of Member Care) I believe we will be having regular meetings for the next couple of months as we are working on planning our yearly retreat. It's a free 3 1/2 day retreat for missionaries within the Honduran Fellowship, and we can fit about 150 people. We opened registration almost 2 weeks ago and already have 143 people registered. I'm also working on changing a bunch of things on the website, and the company who designed it originally is adding our new logo to it and making it more modern looking. We often have 2-3 missionaries a day apply to be members, so its growing VERY quickly. This week we realized that almost all of our members have only been members since 2009 or later so we're definitely attracting a lot of new missionaries.
Time to go make dinner--we have bible study right after supper! Hope this wasn't too long :)
Christmas & New Years
We celebrated the holidays here again and had a lot of nice, restful time with friends and as a family. We attended a number of dinners, a birthday party among other things. The weather was beautiful most of the time, and since the kids got a sandbox for Christmas, they spent a lot of time playing outside. Most of the teachers left for Christmas, so it was very quiet around our house, which was a nice change. Kyle also had a month off from his grad school classes, which was GREAT! The last quarter was really rough and we were all pretty burned out from all the work he had to do.
For me the best part was planning a service project with Kyle's youth group at a low-cost daycare for kids of single working moms, run by a family in our church. I had wanted to do something to teach our kids about giving in a way that they (at least Juliana for now) could understand, and was talking about it with a couple friends of mine. We came up with an idea and Kyle wanted to get his youth group involved. We bought gifts for 21 kids and 3 workers, went to the daycare on their last day before Christmas, and got to sing songs with them, play games, eat a snack, and hand out the gifts. The youth took on leadership roles (all on their own!) and everyone had a great time. Juliana got pretty shy, and had just started warming up not long before it was time to go, but I think the more she's involved in projects like this the easier it will be for her.
Juliana's 4th Birthday
Juliana always has big parties. And every year when planning her next party I try to get her to invite a few less people. And every year she has more and more people that she wants to invite. In fact, she has so many people from school and church that she wants to invite, that I'm afraid I'll just be leaving out 1 or 2 people accidently. So this year I basically just opened it up to anybody and everybody who wanted to come, and made it a Grilled Cheese Potluck. Good thing we have a bigger house this year, because I believe we had 61 people who came! It was crazy, but she loved every minute of it. Her cardboard kitchen that we had given her for her 2nd birthday was completely worn out, so I started looking for a used plastic kitchen in October or November and had it hiding in the closet.
 |
| My silly 4 year old |
.JPG) |
| and her huge crazy party! |
.JPG) |
| The kitchen (as well as the rest of her new gifts) is getting a lot of love from both kids as well as several of Nana's friends. |
 |
| Hardly anyone was around at Christmas so I let her go ride her bike in her jammies :) |
Levi
My big boy can walk! Actually he still prefers to crawl and climb, and if you try to get him to walk he'll more than likely give you a big grin and a laugh and sit down. But at least he's able to walk. And it was at Bible Study with about 15 people cheering for him, so it was memorable and perfect. And when he thinks no one is watching he'll stand up on his own and balance and bob up and down on his own. He's got 9 teeth and a 4th molar is trying to push it's way through. He has gotten very jealous of his favorite people, especially mommy...and he doesn't like it when anyone gets too close (especially in the evenings when Nana wants to cuddle). He wishes he was a bigger boy than he actually is, and gets pretty upset when Nana gets to play with friends and he can't go. He likes to babble a lot, but I'm pretty sure the only word he says in correct context is "Hola". At least he likes to pick up my phone, put it to his ear, and almost always says something that sounds an awful lot like hola :) But I'm sure he understands a lot more...whenever he wants something and I'm trying to guess what he wants, he claps his hands if I say the right thing. He can FINALLY drink out of a bottle! Only a bunch of months too late, when he should be drinking from a sippy cup instead of a bottle...but he loves loves it, and he loves to drink warm milk from it, so for now we'll allow it. AND he will still only nap in his swing. I've started trying to transition him to the crib (he sleeps there at night, you'd think it wouldn't be a problem!) but he sleeps so much better and longer in the swing...and having a whole hour after lunch when he's sleeping and Juliana's in bed looking at books is just a REALLY nice luxury.
Kyle
Kyle started his next semester of grad school about 10 days ago. His 2 classes this quarter are Ethics in Sport and something about sports and law. Yuck! So far there's been a LOT of reading. He's already had a few nights that he's been up till 1 am or much later trying to finish his work. He even asked me to buy some coffee to keep in the house (we've never owned coffee or a coffee maker since we've been married).
Melodee
I've been spending a lot of time working for the Honduran Fellowship. The Mattica's found an office to rent the end of October and moved into it in November. Around the same time, a guy who used to go to our church (still goes to the church, just one of the Spanish services) emailed John and asked if he knew of any ministries needing a Honduran volunteer. John had been praying for a couple years probably for an assistant, and JuanJo was PERFECT for the job. He spends a lot of time at immigration and running errands for John. So this past Friday we had our first staff meeting, in the office, with all 5 of us! (We also have a Director of Member Care) I believe we will be having regular meetings for the next couple of months as we are working on planning our yearly retreat. It's a free 3 1/2 day retreat for missionaries within the Honduran Fellowship, and we can fit about 150 people. We opened registration almost 2 weeks ago and already have 143 people registered. I'm also working on changing a bunch of things on the website, and the company who designed it originally is adding our new logo to it and making it more modern looking. We often have 2-3 missionaries a day apply to be members, so its growing VERY quickly. This week we realized that almost all of our members have only been members since 2009 or later so we're definitely attracting a lot of new missionaries.
Time to go make dinner--we have bible study right after supper! Hope this wasn't too long :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)