Deep in the mountains - Homeschool Blogger

VERY misc. post! and kinda long.

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:22:00 -0500

Whoa! It's been a while since I did any blogging. But then I have lots of good reasons and there's no reason I can't take all the "bloggy breaks" needed. :)

One of the main reasons I've not blogged is because our house has been a construction site again....or has been more of a construction site than usual. Ha.

This month the crew was back. Plastering, digging, digging, plastering, and pouring cement and tiling and in general making a very big mess but at the same time getting a lot done in a short amount of time! THAT has been the huge praise in all of this.

From Housebuilding

They plastered the entire outside of the back side of the house. It looks so different!

From Housebuilding

They dug a BIG DEEP hole at the corner of the house to see what is wrong with the foundation. We've had huge cracks in the walls all because something settled or moved (or both) on that corner of the house. They were thinking it was a giant rock that was under the foundation that maybe settled and caused things to move, but they never found the rock.

Here's Dane working one day while all the guys stood around watching. :)

From Housebuilding

What they did end up doing was filling part of that hole (which went partially under the corner of the house) with cement...

From Housebuilding

and then tying a cement beam with re bar from the corner of the house across to the other wall to help support it.

From Housebuilding

Then a cement pad/patio was poured in order to keep things from eroding and such like.

From Housebuilding

Here's Liam trying his hand at tamping the ground where they were going to pour the pad.

From Housebuilding

Also, the one guy laid tile and put in a proper drain with a cover for our "plumbing room". So nice to have that main drain covered...it's basically where all the sewage goes. So yippee no more stink!

From Housebuilding

The guys also got this vent for the bathroom bricked and plastered. Little things that all needed to be done.

So that all sounded nice and easy to report. But it wasn't quite that way. Pretty much from the first day they had to wet down the walls and take the bedroom windows (and all the other windows) off in order to plaster. We lived for a good week without windows and really all ended up sleeping in the family room in order to be warm enough. Yeah, I know you are thinking it's South America! It's gotta be warm. Nope. It's the coldest time of the year here and even though it never gets below freezing, it has been a cooler year and some nights were down in the low 50s these past few weeks.
We all did end up with colds, which I think we also shared with friends. Rats. :{
And let's not even talk about the dirt, because, did I say it's windy this time of year? It is.

I know, complain, complain. But, something I've been learning lately is to use the word AND when talking about things sometimes. While it's good to think positively, I don't think it's good to "stuff" things and try to talk yourself into ignoring things that are going on. Sometimes even though there are hard things going on, there are ALSO great things going on. Even in just one situation. So....

It's been very windy and dirty with the windows off while the guys work on our house...AND...the house looks great all plastered!

It is amazing how Abba provided so we can get these projects done...AND...It's been stressful to have guys watching you cook, clean, homeschool, parent, etc while they work.

I'm pretty tired these days and ready for a break....AND....I am very thankful for all Abba has done to provide for our needs and EXTRA blessings.
AND I am thankful for all Abba is teaching me. I might not have learned these things any other way.
What "things"? Well, sometime I might share more but then again, I might not. But let's just say it's been an intense year or so (leaning more on the 'so" here) and that has also been another reason I've not blogged a lot lately.

But I'd like to if I can and I am looking forward to more studies we'll be doing. Right now we are mainly trying to wrap things up here before we head to the States for our "Home Assignment", aka "furlough". That is just around the corner!
A lot of excitement around here to see family and friends. A lot of excitement to do or see things they did last time we were in the "states". In Heidi and Liam's case there are things they don't remember or haven't seen that they are looking forward too. The two of them go around talking about "When we go to the 'nited States.....". A few days ago Heidi came in the room saying/singing "I want to go to Canada, I want to go to Canada.....What's Canada?"
They can't wait to see snow and make snowmen and snow forts. My mouth is practically watering just thinking about Fall apples and apple cider. Mmmmm. Salty peanuts still in the shell and just getting to be in the Plains where there's no mountains.
And these days I am thinking a LOT about seeing family members that I can't wait to hug and talk with.

I hope to post soon about how school is going for the two older boys. Some encouraging things there for me as their teacher.

Thanks to those who read and I hope to write more in the coming days as I can. All those other homeschoolers on HSB and The Homeschool Lounge, I am looking forward to reading your plans for the coming school year too.
Signing off for now. Have a good day!

Peruvian folk dancing

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:26:00 -0500

About two weekends ago Heidi and I were invited to go with our pastor's family to watch the last evening of their daughter's folk dance competition. She is in 1st grade I think so she and her class were towards the beginning of the evening's dances. We spent much of our time doing this with the rest of the folks from our friend's school:

From Happenings

Here is our little friend Cesia dancing with her class.

From Happenings

This is Cesia dancing her little toes off!

From Happenings

We stayed to watch a few more dances before Cesia's little brothers were just too cranky to stay awake and handle anymore of the crowd. And what you cannot experience in these pictures is the NOISE!! It was incredibly loud! Heidi even now when look at the pictures together mentions how noisy it was. But she really enjoyed watching all the girls and boys dancing and loved being able to see Cesia and her friends close up in all their pretty costumes. Besides, these two are already good friends.

From Happenings

Baking day

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:47:00 -0500

The bananas were piling up.
They were looking awfully black.
I finally had baking soda.
And flour.
And all the other ingredients at the same time!

All this adds up to the perfect opportunity to show the kids how to make banana bread.

With my handy assistant Dane (who has made his share of banana bread on his own), we showed the younger kids how to crack eggs and beat them, how to measure dry and liquid ingredients, how to mash the bananas, and the rest of the process.

From Happenings

We made several loaves and then decided to make some soft pretzels too.

From Happenings

Yum!

From Happenings

Growing Garden

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:58:00 -0500

Hi all! Even though it's technically Winter here in South America, Huanuco is still giving us that "Eternal Spring" weather that many use to describe it. Things ARE cooler right now, and especially in a cement house with lots of wind blowing through but the days are usually very sunny and warm. So my garden is still alive and even with the dryer weather I have tomatoes growing!

From Happenings

And Dill!!

From Happenings

And Lettuce!! (it's to the right of the stone walkway and the dill is on the end there)

From Happenings

And the strawberry plants I transplanted from the other house are spreading out and making themselves a nice little patch.

From Happenings

I did have a ton more herbs that I started and a lot more lettuce planted but the ants got to them and maybe some other bugs and pretty much wiped them out. All that is left is a tiny sage plant. I just keep encouraging it to get bigger soon so the bugs don't get it. And a little fruit called Capuli (pronounced ca-pooh-LEE) that looks like it may yet live. Thanks to a great tip from a friend I have been able to combat the ants without poisoning my garden by just sprinkling cornmeal around! They take it to their nest, they eat it, they can't digest it and there are now piles of dead ants all over my garden. I just keep sprinkling it since there are still lots more around, but it is much better. I've also been able to keep the bugs and white flies off my tomato and lettuce plants by just using some dish soap in water and spraying it all over the plants. It really keeps those little bugs off and as for the tomato eating caterpillars....God sent the wasps! There are an alarming amount of wasps in our yard, but they eat ALL..ALL of the caterpillars!! So I am now convinced, that I can grow a garden without a bunch of harmful chemicals. And I can't wait to try out those yummy tomatoes. I would still love to expand the garden. I may or may not yet this year but this little bit will begin to help the ground to improve and my compost piles are simmering away just waiting to be used too! Because of composting all our scraps we have saved a ton of plastic on garbage bags and our garbage is half or less what it was before! (We eat a lot of fruits and veggies!) These also popped up among the weeds.

From Happenings

Little Kitchen

Tue, 9 Jun 2009 08:31:00 -0500

On one wall of the kitchen a new little kitchen has appeared in the last month or two. There is always a busy arranging of dishes and containers.

From Happenings

Thanks someone for pointing out the pictures were not showing up in the last post. I think I fixed it.

Start of another house

Mon, 8 Jun 2009 12:07:00 -0500

As we've been working on the house here in the city, another house is being started in a Quechua village. The past couple of years we have been unable to spend time as a family in the Quechua village where we have decided to focus our language study and ministry due to the lack of a place to stay. We could stay a few days at a time possibly with some Quechua friends, but not for several weeks a month.
Our good friends from that village made the decision to let us use a piece of land they own to build a house for our family and one for our partners. Last year we had hoped to get that started but the deed to the land and other important papers were not in order. This was not good because it came to light that someone who had heard the news that houses were to be built on that land, was planning to claim the land when the houses were finished! (apparently he did have some sort of small right to do this) By the time the papers were in order it was well into the rainy season so we've all been trying to patiently wait until the rains ended and it was dry enough for the building to begin.
Last month things got underway and now the walls are going up on our partner's house! Shane and our partner went up a few weeks ago to check things out and take pictures. So here's what it looked like then.

From Housebuilding

You will notice the trench dug in a rectangle there. That's the start of our partner's house.

Things are done differently for a Quechua style house. It's all made of rammed earth. They first dig a foundation trench and put in rocks and maybe some cement for a solid base to work from. Then they used a rectangle form to make the big earth "blocks". (as we take pictures of the process I will post those so you can know what I'm talking about later).

From Housebuilding

As you can see this piece of land is on a major slope. This has caused some challenges in planning where the houses are to go and how to work with all the different levels. But I think we figured out something that should work out well for both families.

The houses at the top of the picture are the style of house that we are making too. Each house is two levels tall with a tin roof. Our house will be down below the dug up area off to the right of the picture where there's still grass and weeds.
I am sure it looks quite different now!

And speaking of looking different, here's our little friend who was born in July last year at our house! She's getting so big!

From Housebuilding

Walls raised

Mon, 8 Jun 2009 11:51:00 -0500

Last month we were able to have the bricklayer and his crew come and get the perimeter walls raised on the second floor of our house. Getting things going.

From Housebuilding

They worked so fast! We were really really pleased with how these guys worked. So refreshing after all the headaches we've had in the past.

From Housebuilding

Side street view

From Housebuilding

Front view

From Housebuilding

View from our neighbor's land

From Housebuilding

One more step towards a finished house. At this point we will not be working on the second floor until we have the money to finish all the inner walls support beams and ceiling/roof. Our next project will be to work on things in the back yard to help water drain away from the foundation of the house. As we save up money for that we will work on it in the next few months. Thankfully it's dry season now so we don't have to worry much about too much water.

My True Identity

Tue, 26 May 2009 21:50:00 -0500

I read this a couple days ago from a daily devotional I receive from Lifetime Guarantee Ministries. Such a good reminder to me of things I've been learning these past few months.

My True Identity

I have an identity that cannot be marred

By the circumstances of life.
It does not fade, nor age, nor fail,
No matter how great the strife.
It grows! It becomes more beautiful!
It defies all the world can give!
For it has its roots in Him who died
Who was raised
And through whom I live.
But how to live without worldly acceptance?
Without recognition or fame?
How to live with the patterns I've built
And not be a "winner" in the game?
How?
By knowing who I am,
By accepting His truth about me.
By grasping, clutching, tenaciously clinging
To the truth I have come to see.
Sweet victory--sweet trumphal fragrance,
Confident, persuaded, content to be.
No longer controlled by who I was
But to live!
Accepted!
In my true identity.

- Anabel Gillham

Breaking the silence

Mon, 25 May 2009 07:56:00 -0500

Hello again!
I decided to break the silence today and get back to blogging a little. We went away as a family for a few days of R&R towards the end of April and when we came back I just realized it would be nice to take a "bloggy break" as well.

We are back into school, house building, Shane doing some Quechua language study, me doing a little sewing and knitting (I can't NOT knit now in my spare moments), gardening (tomatoes are popping out and there's a little lettuce and dill!) and just the normal everyday things here.

Well, I WAS going to add a picture or two but I have some work to do with the photo album before I can. So pictures and more posts to come.
Have a wonderful day!

5 Things I saw today

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:13:00 -0500

1. Drawing the 3 Billy Goats Gruff

From School

2. The garden.

From Gardening

From Kids

From Gardening

5. The water was going out just before I made supper. This was filling up at the lowest point....in the garage. I was glad to be able to fill a few buckets and pitchers full before it went off completely.

From Gardening