The kids school had a special guest named Ba Nong come in from the village to lead a singing camp. He writes his own music, a lot of the basis comes from working in the fields and being in nature. They were doing a promo at a local library/drink shop and asked Kylie and some other kids from the school to join. They worked hard to learn several songs in one day. . . Kylie still didn’t know them very well since they were in his local village dialect, not just standard Mandarin, but I think she enjoyed it. She didn’t really like being on stage and having lots of people taking pictures which surprised me. I thought she would love that part

Colt’s class did some hands-on geography at the end of this school year. They learned how to use maps, pretty much walked all over this city, and saw lots of really cool stuff! Thankful for his teacher and his friends. Think June. Hot! They would leave after lunch from school and we would pick them up from somewhere in the city around 8pm. They WALKED many many miles each time. . . This kind of learning leaves impressions that won’t be forgotten.

This is one of our favorite places to go. . . a village about 5 minutes from our house. We love to play around the mountain there and have become quite familiar with the villagers that live there. The kids have cleaned out an abandoned house and made a secret clubhouse. They have picked mulberries and caught crawfish. We have found birds nests and bugs of all kinds.  The kids also often help the villagers catch escaped chickens and return them to their coop   We have climbed that mountain a hundred times, and enjoyed both sunrises and sunsets. Recently, the kids were delighted to find 6 puppies had been born. They quickly named them all and started “training” them. Now, they want to go back all the more and check on “their puppies.” The villagers live in a crude brick building with an open dirt courtyard and well water. The kids are always welcome and love it there!

I mentioned before that it has been raining for about. . . half a year. Rainy season brings a big flood each year, and that happened yesterday. The rain came down hard the whole day, but within the first hour the streets were filling and drains were back flowing. The river that runs through the city overflowed and spilled into the streets as well. We haven’t read about any casualties which is good. The kids are home from school today since some places are still flooded, and it’s still raining. The kids don’t seems to mind

I thought this picture of Caden was so cute from the library at their school. The other pictures are from Colt’s class. They are learning geography hands on! Using their map and exploring the city!

Colt has been taking art lessons for a couple of months and really loving it. Kylie took about 8 classes during an art camp over winter break, then decided she didn’t want to continue. Their art teacher gave me info on entering an art competition. I asked if it mattered if they were foreigners, and she said it didn’t specify that stipulation so it was no problem. I asked the kids to pick out their favorite painting and submitted it along with their Chinese name, age, school, and name of their painting. The prize was 100 yuan (which is about $15). I was shocked when Kylie’s painting was chosen for second place award. We went to the ceremony and felt a bit out of place since I don’t think anyone was expecting a foreigner to show up (Haha). Kylie was in it for the prize money though and willing to walk the red carpet and get her picture taken. . . just not really smile (until we left).  Colt said he was going to win next time around!

I subscribe to Not Consumed and the author sent out such a great reminder for me on this Mother’s Day. I wanted to share it in case any other moms also needed to read it too

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Hi Haley!
So it’s almost Mother’s Day. Ya know, the day Hallmark declared as a day to celebrate, love, and appreciate Mothers.

And I think we should. (If you haven’t celebrated, loved on, or appreciated your mother yet, stop and do that this very minute, young lady. Hehe. Kidding…a little… but seriously, go do it.)

Now let’s talk about you. Have you ever felt like you WEREN’T celebrated, loved, or appreciated on Mother’s day?

Maybe you have. Maybe you haven’t. I’ll be honest, I usually don’t get “presents.” My kids are little. No one has a car. No one has a job. And no one tells them it’s mother’s day. So, this day typically comes and goes as a regular old day complete with sibling rivalry and normal kid behaviors.

It might surprise you to know that I’m FINE WITH THAT!

One thing God taught me many years ago is that I DON’T mother my babies to be appreciated. That’s not my goal in this. I’m not doing all of this work to make sure they grow up and tell me how amazing I am.

I’m doing it so they will grow up knowing how amazing God is. I’m doing it to please the Lord.

So, I suppose you could say it’s not about being appreciated. It’s about being faithful.

Sweet momma, if there is anything I could say to encourage you today it would be this. STAY FAITHFUL. Don’t do this thing for the accolades. Don’t do it because you hope they will celebrate you, appreciate you, or make much out of what you’ve done for them.

Do it because you love them and the best we can love them is to model faithfulness so they too will trust and obey God, whether they feel celebrated, loved, or appreciated.

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Pretty good huh? Every piece of laundry you’ve folded, every tear you’ve wiped, and every moment of sleep you’ve missed… MATTERS. You are both noticed and appreciated by God. Stay faithful and keep pressing on!

In case you were wondering what’s for dinner. . .
I spent around $3 for this meal. I bought some pumpkin and put it in our rice (brown rice today), the round tan veggie is lotus root, the green thing is a type of gourd, some cabbage, eggs, and layered tofu. And ALWAYS cook with fresh garlic and ginger! I stir-fried it in our homemade lard. . . just like grandma huh? It sure does make these veggies taste even more delicious! There wasn’t much left when we were all full!  I love the diversity of so many yummy veggies and fruits here!  And I love going to the market each day and just buying what I’m going to make.  I just do. . .

One of the 2 rain free days while the kids were out of school this past week we took some friends to the mountain. The kids usually just run around and play in the village but this time they found some great surprises! Mulberry trees and crawfish! We brought the berries home and made yummy syrup for our pancakes the next morning.