Getting in the swing of things

Sunday

The dorm kids arrive back today after having a month off. It is quite the adjustment for our family, but we are ready, and we enjoy the change. Our cook Ibu Poppi is still gone, so the feat of feeding everyone lies in my lap. I normally don’t mind as long as I have advance warning. What would you make if you were soon to have a houseful of 18? It is a totally different way of thinking here since we do not have the convenience of premade or packaged foods. Say for instance if I wanted to make some lasagnas, this is what it would be like- first I would make the noodles and boil them. While they were drying a bit on a towel I would make the sauce from scratch, then since there is no ricotta and I don’t make my own, I would use the homemade yogurt that I made the night before with some seasonings, and brown the ground beef. There is one store that sometimes has mozzarella so hopefully I would have been able to find some and then while the lasagnas are all in the oven cooking I can make the homemade garlic bread. A few hours later we can all sit down to enjoy my “speedy” creations. I opted not to make lasagna, instead I made a big pot of potato soup, some soft pretzels and a huge batch of pancakes..that should fill some stomachs for awhile.

Today is Monday and the dorm kids are all back now. One came with a broken arm, one is recovering from hernia surgery, one flew in this morning and had to go straight to school, and the rest are here and reluctant to start back up in school. It is always tough to get back in the swing of things. The house is bustling and thankfully, our cook, Ibu Poppi showed up!!! Yeah! That is awesome news for me.

Sophie wrote something that she said I MUST put in my email. We were studying the planets and how cool it is that we are on Earth as it is the only planets with water and just the perfect tilt and the right distance from the sun…so part of the email is from that new information. I am not sure about the rest. But here it is:

From Sophie

We travel threw the world to people in need . We love to follow god any ware he tells us to go. We live in a hostel, but we don’t own it. Now could you pray that we are doing the right thing? ]prayer] thank god for you and me. He made the planets not the same, but he provided a planet just…for…us.

Love you all     Rachel