the simple woman's daybook

FOR TODAY... Monday, December 1

Outside My Window... clear blue sky, volcanoes and mountains unmarred by fog or cloud

I am thinking... about report cards and how I have never really written any before

I am thankful for... hope

From the kitchen... coffee for husband

I am wearing... pjs, when I should be dressed for teaching

I am creating... quite a stir

I am going... to trust

I am reading... third culture kids, as soon as I pick it up at the school library

I am hoping... that our tickets can be settled tomorrow

I am hearing... cereal being poured ... and I am wishing it wasn't always stale and outdated

Around the house... children waking up who are incredibly loud right from the get-go

One of my favorite things... the baltic sea, hands down

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week ... booking a room at the "Y" in hong kong ... you should seriously check it out online

Here is picture thought I am sharing ...

going home

so we made our decision, after much deliberation and prayer, and we are going "home" to Ontario, Lord willing, for the new year.
many have said they are shocked by our news. guess we keep good secrets.
some have assumed we will be getting back on five planes and returning to PNG, once the surgery has been done and son has recovered.

nope.
nogat.

how can we make a choice like that, so "easily" when we told everyone we were going to Papua New Guinea to serve Him for two years? not simple.

we checked into many options, including having Grandpa fly here, pick up son, fly back with him for surgery and recovery, return him and fly back himself. this actually brought some tears to son's eyes as he realized "this is how much my family loves me"

yes ... that much and more.

so much has happened in such a short time. knife wounds have healed, friends have been made, plans have been changed.
one auntie passed away, not knowing the Lord. one uncle remains on dialysis, also not knowing the Lord.
one friend loses a child, another announces she is expecting.
dreams come and go, but the Lord remains the same.

going home.

here is an excerpt from a letter to a friend ...

Thank you for your prayers and all your support. You guys were part of a dream of ours and we will never forget that or our time here. It has been a real roller coaster of ups and downs but something I will never regret ... we leave part of our hearts here in Hoskins ... we love the people so much and will miss them incredibly. I never dreamed that I would go to the other side of the world and meet such kindred spirits, but I have, and leaving them is going to hurt a lot.

going home.

for a number of years, my husband and I noticed that our son had kind of stopped smiling. it seemed he had aquired a number of burdens and they were weighing him down. we would pray and discuss but not much changed ... until we came here. now he smiles. a lot. and he is ok with going back to canada.
so I ask you ... how could I be bitter or angry about any of this? It was completely worth it all.

going home. thank you, Lord.

sunday spiritual

hmmm.
where does one go with a title like that? I had thought it would be easier to surf and post things here (not sure why) but it appears there is a tree in the way of our reception, so those of us at the tail end of the base are left wanting.

I am thinking there is a spiritual lesson in there somewhere.

I could get all philosophical on you, or freudian, or try art therapy (especially since I once had a dream that I would pursue that line of work), or I could simply say what I am thinking.

It seems to me that most often there is a road block to what I am trying to accomplish ... and most often that road block is me.

Trees are kind of a theme in our home. I used a homeschooling service the one year I could afford it, called Tree of Life. Their main verse refects on the Lord making us like trees, planted by streams of living water. nice.

A few years ago, I prayed for a verse and felt that God laid it on my heart to read Isaiah 61:3. It is always Isaiah, for me. To all who mourn in Israel, he will give beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, praise instead of despair. For the Lord has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for his own glory.
I was especially drawn to the strong and graceful oak part, and even found a pin set for my guitar strap; one acorn, one oak leaf. cool.

Then for the last two years, Neal has done a sketch of a tree that he drove past every day on both the way to work and the way home from work. It seemed to impress something on his mind about his spiritual condition at the time. I like that kind of art most of all. He called it self portrait. Later, he noticed a similar sketch in our doctor's office ... it was a tribute to mental health patients.

... interesting ...

all that to say, even if there are road blocks, and even if I am always, exclusively, making them, I am still standing ... and I won't stop asking the questions until He tells me to or takes me home.

Bikpela i tok olsem, Mi laik skulim yu gut, na soim yu long rot yu mas wokabaut long en. Bai mi skulim yu na lainim yu. Sam 32:8

forget the format

I have been unable to blog for just about a week now ... total frustration, but I suppose you are getting tired of hearing that from me.
this past week has been a whirlwind of "stuff".
things that make you go "hmmm" to borrow a lyric.
Jonam's knife wound is healing nicely, though it may end up causing some to re-think the wisdom behind allowing throwing knives on base. he is to take out the stitches tomorrow.
his need for surgery is another thing all together. certainly not expected and in no way his fault. It has had us on our knees and in deep conversation with each other.

Evan is ready to come home. he has had a harder go of it here than Jonam has. Jonam can see the positives in both staying here and going home.
I feel as though I have reached my limit. I do not wish to experiment with my emotions a whole lot longer, and a visit tonight from a new friend helped solidify much of what we had been mulling over already.

many are the plans in a man's heart but it's the Lord's will that prevails.

so glad Candy stopped by. so sorry to see her go.

today was a great day all around, though. Mike spoke succinctly at church asking us to examine who we look up to. challenging us to have grace for our co-workers, especially if some of them need to go back home ... it could just be possible that what the Lord has for them is back there and not on the field, like we might wish.

then we visited with some new friends in Galiwali Blok. we took with us a 2L bottle of cordial, 5 packages of biscuits and a bag of rice ... we had no idea that the whole village, practically, would be waiting to meet us!
then we visited with some new friends in Galiwali Blok. we took with us a 2L bottle of cordial, 5 packages of biscuits and a bag of rice ... we had no idea that the whole village, practically, would be waiting to meet us!
We were shown around their garden, kolau and a bag of raw corn to cook. All for us, and they watched as we ate and drank, not eating or drinking with us.
They made us feel like celebrities and asked us to please come back later tonight, but we had to decline, having tupela moa bung behin (two meetings later).
narapela taim (another time) Here, Jonam watched the other kids weaving and did as they did, producing a rather nice crown in the end.neal got into the action by wearing the headdress, only he ended up looking more like mullet head. oh well ... it was a fantastic day. did I already say that?

the simple woman's daybook

FOR TODAY... Monday, November 17

Outside My Window... a felled tree being skillfully made into firewood, by Ben

I am thinking... that there is nothing simple about today

I am thankful for... doctors who choose to fly into base camps for just a weekend

From the kitchen... smells of twice baked potatoes, reheating

I am wearing... a white short sleeved top and a very pink skirt

I am creating... a melody in my head

I am going... to pray about Australia vs home

I am reading... not another missionary story, that is for sure

I am hoping... that the guilt goes away and the answer comes clearly and swiftly; the Lord taking it out of my hands and deciding for me

I am hearing... my oldest humming when, if it were me, I would be scared out of my tree, huddled in my room, bemoaning my condition, or something like that anyway

Around the house... softly falling rain, clouds in the sky, the quiet stillness that comes when teenagers have been away all weekend and are just.plain.exhausted

One of my favorite things... options

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week ... making the decision and sticking to it, no matter what anyone else says

Here is picture thought I am sharing ...

wordless wednesday

tuesday timetable

I am trying to be decidedly quieter this week for many reasons. not sure if any of them are entirely valid, but I will continue on in my happy experiment until I cannot stand it any longer. that was simply for information, by the way.

I had to cancel an appointment with one of my students, for tomorrow afternoon, as she may have broken a toe out on the soccer field. she is going to town to have it x-rayed. I hope for her sake that it is just a sprain.

yesterday, during church, the guard dog (at our end) was put down. I am not completely sad, especially after rocky bit my neighbour the day I acidentally let him (rocky, not the neighbour) slip out of the fence. oops. after that, the german shepherd just seemed way more scary and smelled a lot more stinky. I will spare you the gory details of his last month of life, except to say that he got a bit of an infection and as is common in the tropics, things went from bad to worse rapidly. the details could make a stephen king novel. we now have two dogs filling his one place, temporarily, until a better solution can be found.

this weekend will find neal and I childless, as the boys head down the road for a Spiritual Emphasis Weekend. they are looking forward to getting to know their classmates on a different level and I am happy to be able to send them. it also means that I have a day off of teaching this week, friday to be precise, as the students leave at 8:30am.

speaking of 8:30am, I just have to let you know that this morning, before 9, the temperature was already 33 Celcius with the humidity at 90 percent. have you ever wished that on another human being? let's just say "we felt it" ... wow.then the rain came.
around 4pm.
mi amamas.
ren i pun daun.

in other riveting news, my students embark on step 8 of Learn to Write the Novel Way tomorrow and having looked over each one's initial attempts at writing, I am kind of impressed.
still unmotivated myself, but impressed nonetheless.
that has to count for something.

the simple woman's daybook

FOR TODAY... Monday, November 10

Outside My Window... one less dog

I am thinking... that there is a lot about me that needs to change

I am thankful for... surprise visitors, especially when they speak pigin

From the kitchen... the remains of mexican night

I am wearing... a white tank, a blue shrug and a brown skirt

I am creating... many problems, I am discovering

I am going... to hand back my high schooler's novel drafts

I am reading... nothing ... I finished two novels this weekend

I am hoping... yes, indeed

I am hearing... the overhead ceiling fan, plenty of night time noises; footsteps overhead that belong to the people who share this house with us

Around the house... sleeping boys, wake husband

One of my favorite things... ice cream, even in the tropics

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: going over second drafts of research papers and holding first meetings with high schoolers to discuss their novels

Here is picture thought I am sharing

thursday throw out

this is what a homeschooling die hard does with her class of twelve when it is more than 33 degrees celcius in her classroom, and she just happened to bring her compy


we can learn something new tomorrow ...

dan's birthday bash

dan's wife decided that monday is never a good day to celebrate a birthday, so we should have a party on a friday night ... oh, and come in costume. how convenient, given that friday was the last day of october. here is one shot of the dormand me, always a girl from the fifites, for lack of imagination (though last year I was an ice queen) I keep telling barb that I have lost weight since arriving here ... looks like I could be wrong ... oh, wait, I DID really roll up my skirt, around my middle, to make it short enough to be a pseudo poodle skirt. really, I did.
jonam went as his math teacher, whom he really does like and respect. too bad mike was home with a killer headache and missed the mockerythen last, but certainly not least, evan and neal as ... well, as jay fox? geeks to the core. they talked binary all night. I didn't understand a word of it. too bad jay wasn't there.later, we hit each other with a rolled up dog food bag, answered every question with the word "sausages", admitted to having watched way too much television while growing up, played with rotting, wet potatoes and ate cake. it helps with homesickness.