Cale’s Party!

We celebrated Cale’s birthday a  little early and had a party today with all of his preschool friends.  It was a great deal of fun with a clown craft, a balloon game and cupcake decorating.  Here are some pictures:

Rest

Do you ever have one of those days when you finally sit down and you think, “This is the first time I have sat down all day.”? My day was like that today, and part of it was my own doing. I woke up and made cupcakes with Cale for his party tomorrow. Then we found out that Ibu Poppi wasn’t coming again today (she hasn’t been here all week), so I decided that since the tortilla lady had come the other day to the house and sold us tortillas I would make tacos for lunch for all of us. I figured we could get the ingredients for that when we ran out to the store to buy 5 flats of eggs for the school. With eggs being scarce we were told that there was only one place that we could find them. And luckily we did, however they did not have any tomatoes or onions or lettuce. So there goes my idea of tacos. It is now almost 10:00 and I do not know what I am going to make for lunch. Then I found a recipe for this ground beef, cheese macaroni thing that I adapted to fit what was available here. And wouldn’t you know, the gas goes out on our stove. At 11:15 we still had no gas and 18 hungry kids coming to the hostel in 30 minutes. It all worked out in the long run - I asked the other hostel if I could use their oven to cook everything, Garth helped switch the gas tanks and we did have lunch, (5 minutes late). I said this was my own doing because this morning Garth asked me if I wanted the dorm kids to just order lunch and I said no. They can order stuff like rice and chicken or fish from a restaurant here in town and they will deliver it up to the school. However, I really thought that Ibu Poppi would be here or that I would have an easy morning of chopping stuff for tacos…but life doesn’t always go as you had planned, does it?

Throughout my morning, I had a song in my head from a band called Skillet. The chorus goes like this:

“I rest in the shelter of your love,

I rest in the wonder of your love,

I rest in the shelter of your love,

I rest in the wonder of You!”

I was thinking about those words-I don’t know if I actually do that. I seem to have a hard time resting. It runs in my family. I used to wake up Saturday morning to a list of chores we were all going to do before we did anything else. My Dad works when he is on vacation. My Mom would only let us watch one hour of TV a day and we had to be doing something while we were sitting there (clean out a junk drawer, write a thank you note…) Could I really rest in the wonder of God and His love? Like really enjoy His presence, sit and reflect on His greatness and love without thinking of all the things I need to get done? There is a saying up by our mirror that says, “God, if I don’t get anything else done today I want to know you better and love you more.” I don’t know about that either. I am a list person. I like to make the most of my time-I like to get a lot of things done throughout the day. A day of resting would seem really out of character and strange. But I realize that I need to practice the art of resting. How about you? Can you rest? Are you a Mary or a Martha?

Life is like a whirlpool that sweeps you along at a rapid pace and at times it can feel impossible to slow down. Yet, I think the more we take time to slow down and rest in the wonder of God’s love the more we will realize how much we NEED to make moments like that a regular part of our life.

Slow down-Rest-Soak up the wonderfulness that surrounds God’s love.

Rachie

Don't Grump It Up!

Hey there! We have had a busy two days at the hostel. Ibu Poppi did not come in both days. Someone in their family died and so she will be gone until at least Thursday. That makes it a bit crazy for me. And hot! I bet it has been awhile since you were hot and sweaty!?! Sophie was praying tonight for Grampo as he works at Grand Geneva putting up the Christmas lights. She prayed that he would not be too hot working outside all day. I don’t think that will be the problem! More like cold, huh, Dad?
Cale made up a story for me today. I wrote it down so that I would remember it.
It went something like this:

“I love you in the morning and if a mean guy shoots you dead.
I love you even when you’re mean, and I don’t like it when I see your finger. “ (He meant my pointer finger extended pointing at him when he does something wrong).
“I don’t love it when I have to go to bed.
I love it when I can watch movies.
I love you but I don’t like you when you grump it up.
Hi, Mom. I’m Cale.”
The End

I do that, too. What he said. I grump it up. Do you do that? I get upset about something or I am in a bad mood and I let it affect everything around me. The whole spaghetti concept. I am not a waffle. I don’t think we should shove our feelings down inside, but I do think that sometimes the things that upset me can be dealt with and then I can move on. Instead of stewing in them and making it a problem that messes up my whole day. I take a beautiful new day that God has given me and (like Cale says) “I grump it up.”
That does not sound like fun, now does it?
Here’s to an ungrumpy day-
Love you
Rachel