Last week (actually last month) our good friends Rob and Liz were visiting from Tanzania. One of the reasons they came to Nairobi was for their 4 month old’s routine doctor visit and immunizations. Since they were picking up her 6 month old shots to take home with them, I asked them if they could pick up the shots my kids also needed.

Rob is a doctor, and recently took a tropical medicine course, so it was good to pick his brain about what shots the girls should get living here in Kenya (he recommended the meningococcal vaccine.)

Lauren got make up from her Aunt Pam - I think she needs some lessons in putting it on!

My bed was the shot table, and a cooking tray the place to arrange all the shots. But Rob and Liz did a great job – all the shots were organized and labeled for each kid. Here’s what the girls got:

Lauren: Hepatitis A #2, Meningococcal
Meredith: Hep A #2, Meningococcal
Coriena: routine 4 year old shots (DTaP, MMR, Varicella), Meningococcal

Total price: $317

The total to have these shots at the clinic I used to work at (who gives immunizations basically at cost): $540 (and that doesn’t include the 2 Hep A vaccines.) Hurrah for vaccine prices here (and for Rob and Liz who were willing to give them!)

Meredith and Bridget at Village Market

• Erik goes tomorrow to South Africa for a week.

• We had no water downstairs since the previous evening, and and only a trickle upstairs. We’d had 8 people over for dinner yesterday, and every plate (dinner, dessert, kid) and almost all the silverware were dirty. And Erik needed clean clothes for his trip.

I was sitting outside in the early morning, praying about about all my woes. And then I read the next passage in Philippians (I’ve been reading through it for a few days.) “Rejoice in the Lord always. . . Do not be anxious. . . in everything, by prayer and petitition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God. . . will guard your hearts and minds.”

My first thought – “real funny God. How am I supposed to rejoice in these things!” But then I realized that I needed to pray about these requests again, but this time with thanksgiving.

(This picture of Cheza was taken by our friend Jon.)

• Thank you, Lord, that Cheza is healing well, and only has 1 1/2 more weeks of her cast.

• Thank you that Erik loves his work, and is doing so well with it. And thank you that he’s been home for about 5 weeks, and after this week will be home for 2 months.

• Thank you that we had water for the first week in our new house. (and please help us to get it again this morning – OK, that part wasn’t said very thankfully!)

After praying, I figured I should investigate our water issues some more. So I wandered around our yard, pulling up man hole covers. I discovered we have 3 underground water tanks, all of which were full. So it wasn’t a problem of no water. Next I wandered the house, looking for switches that might be water pump switches. By the dryer hookup, I found a switch that looked like a circuit breaker. I turned it on, and voila, the water pump started!!

An electrician had come on Friday to hook up the dryer, and turned that switch off. He either forgot to turn it back on, or didn’t realize it was for the water pump.

I felt so thankful to the Lord, for providing the water, and for reminding me that I needed to give thanks even when I feel overwhelmed by things going on in my life.

My parents gave the kids a trampoline for Christmas. We didn’t have room in our old place to set it up. But now we do (by the way, we moved last weekend – more about our new place later. But it’s really great!) The kids play on the trampoline for hours a day – jumping, reading, playing with toys on it. Thanks, Dad and Mom!!!

Thanks again for the great pics, Jon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brXK-g77OnI

(if the video isn’t imbedded, just cut and paste the link and it should open.)

Markus’ 4 year old son has a 50cc motorcycle with training wheels on it (how cool is that!) So he and Lauren swapped off on that all day. Lauren LOVED it. Markus and Erik went off-roading on their motorcycles.

Our friends’ 15 year old son (yes, he’s already been driving for 2 years – off-road), took Lindsey and I and the kids on a game drive. We sat on a mattress on the top of their Landcruiser, and had a blast. We saw giraffe, gazelle, ostrich, zebra, wildebeest.

I feel so priviledged to be living here, and to be able to have these kinds of adventures. I can’t wait to get a 4WD vehicle, and be able to do even more!

I feel like it’s been a good year – so much so that we’re planning on homeschooling next year again. The girls want to homeschool again, too, so that’s encouraging. I’m planning on getting involved in the homeschool co-op here next year, which I think will be a good addition to our “program.”

I have really enjoyed the chance to do things like horseback riding and Swahili lessons, without feeling like we’re rushing around everywhere. I like that we can take a day off whenever we feel like it, and that we can finish school in about 4 hours a day. We’ve also had the chance to do a lot of reading – something I wanted to prioritize before, but had trouble making the time to do. We read the Little House on the Praire series (we had read the first 2 books, I think, before we got here.) We’re on the 6th book in the Rose series (about Laura Ingalls Wilder’s daughter.) We have really enjoyed both these series.

We’ve also memorized Psalm 121, a couple hymns, and a rap about the Books of the Bible.

It’s been such a blessing that the girls have so many friends in our neighborhood. They get lots of social interaction, and I get a break. That is one hard thing about homeschooling – being together ALL the time.

Because I wasn’t using the same curriculum as they had at public school in the fall, I started at the beginning with our books, and then skipped some stuff (mostly math) that they already knew. Here was our rough daily schedule (if you really want to read it! ):

1. Read the Bible (we read through Luke and started Acts), work on memory verse or song, pray

2. Story of the World (history) (done together) – we finished most of volume 1. This is an excellent book, and the girls loved it. There are coloring pages and maps, as well as other optional activities, that go with each story. Each one is only a couple pages long, so keeps their attention. I love how they are relating it to things that come up in our lives – we read a nursery rhyme about Rome today and they remembered learning about it in Story of the World.

3. Meredith: A Reason for Handwriting K (finished the book), Developing the Early learner – we completed most of the 4 books. I skipped some early lessons because they were too simple. This is a great curriculum – I also used it for Lauren in Kindergarten, and both really enjoyed it. Get ready for, Set and Go for the Code. Again, finished most of these 4 books (skipped easier lessons.) We also worked on sight words I got from her Kindergarten teacher in the US.

4. Spelling and Phonics for Lauren (she almost finished both books by doubling up on spelling lessons every week.) Realized after a couple months that the spelling lessons were based on phonics rules (oops!!), so started coordinating her phonics to go with her spelling.

4. First Language Lessons (together) – we finished all the first grade material and started the second grade material. I later learned more of the philosophy behind this book, and I think would have done a better job and enjoyed it more with that knowledge.

5. Saxon Math – Lauren did level 2 and Meredith did some of level 1. Again, Lauren mostly doubled up lessons, and we skipped ones she knew, so she was able to almost finish the whole book.

6. Five in a Row – this is a fun reading program that has math, science, art, and social studies activities that relate to a book that you read each day for a week. We did this off and on (depending on whether I could find the books that went with it.) Examples of the books: Make way for Ducklings, Andy and the Lion.

7. Reading – Lauren is really into reading, and reads at night before she falls asleep. She also reads some during the day on her own. She’s loves the Boxcar children and the Magic Tree House series’ right now. Near the end, I tried to focus more on reading with Meredith. That is something we still need to work on, especially in building her confidence in it.

We did some fun field trips, which I blogged about. And we started going to the homeschooling library here, which is really great. Sometimes I panic, thinking we haven’t learned what the kids need to know. But then I remind myself that they finished most of their books for the year, and they know most of the material in them, so they should know what they need to know (I hope!!)

At the elephant orphanage

While they were here we celebrated Bridget’s birthday by visiting the elephant orphanage, and then going to a place where there are bounce houses and a swimming pool.

We hadn’t seen each other in about 10 years, so it was great to catch up on some of the things God’s done in our lives through those years: various jobs for all of us, finishing medical school (Rob) and NP school (Liz), 6 kids between the two families, and both of us moving to East Africa after dreaming of it for many years.

And one of the best things – anticipating more visits together over the next years, as we both hope to live here long term.

Lauren and her good friend Tara

For Lauren’s birthday, she had her traditional breakfast out with Daddy, then friends over to play in the morning, other friends in the afternoon, and a party in the late afternoon. She’s been looking through a cake decorating book lately, so picked a couple different pictures from it that she wanted on her cake (flowers, writing, hearts, and an American flag in the shape of a star. I know – random.)

Some current things Lauren loves: reading (she’s always carrying around books – reminds me of myself!), horseback riding and soccer, and her friends. I’ve been so impressed by Lauren’s great attitude lately when potentially disappointed. For instance, I told her she could only open the presents from her friends at the party, and would open the others in the evening (because we have so many things compared to most of her friends), and she didn’t even complain about having to wait.

Lauren and her good friend Adonga

I’m so thankful for the last 6 months of being able to be home with the kids – not just to not be working anymore, but also having them home since I’m homeschooling. Not that it’s been all fun and games, but I am thankful for the chance to have this time with the kids, to be living our lives together, and to able to relate things from school to the rest of life (and vice versa.) I feel like Lauren has really been thriving, and it makes me so happy.

Ndevu and Cheza meet

We got her from our friends Erik and Rachel, and so have been visiting her ever since she was born. Coriena begged almost daily to go and “see the baby puppy!” So it’s great to have her here now.

Last night Cheza and Ndevu were playing – I don’t think Ndevu’s played like that in years. Now for the housetraining and “don’t chew on our furniture and shoes” training.

Lauren: I want to be a librarian.

Meredith: I want to teach horseback riding.

Coriena: I want to have babies. I want to nurse them.

So there you have it – I guess time will tell.