A tribute to my Grandmother

Last week we went to Dallas to visit my grandmother who is now 99 years old and whose health is failing. Recently she had a bout with pneumonia and was hospitalized. During that visit they discovered that her aorta was 75% blocked and her time left on this earth was limited. We had not seen her in 2 years, so we felt it was a good time to go see her for what may be the last time.

Lillian was born in 1910 in Ewing, Lee County, Virginia, near the Cumberland Gap. She was the oldest of three children, and had two grandmothers who were Cherokee Indian. Lillian went to gradeschool in the two room Elydale school house, which today is no longer standing. Grades 1-3 were in the first room, and and 4-7 were in an upper room. She had to walk about 2 miles to school. Lillian became a Christian at the age of 12, and was baptized in Indian Creek near her home, the same place where my dad would one day be baptized.

She went to Ewing High School about 6 miles away by car. She graduated in 1930.When she was 21 in 1930, Lillian went to Hiwassee college in Madisonville, Tennessee, training to be a teacher. She lived on the third floor of the college dorm. After one year of college, she got her first teaching job in Virginia, a little way down the country road from where she grew up. She taught there for one year, the Fall of 1931 and Spring of 1932.

She only had around 20 students in a one room school house, which she enjoyed. Many of the children were relatives. The beginners would sit on the front row. Her oldest student was 17 years old. This older boy helped with janitorial duties and building the fire in the wood burning stove. The school had outdoor toilets, and from time to time students would be caught out in the toilets smoking. She would teach school all day, and walk there and back from her home.

It was during this year that she met my grandfather, Dale. One day after she returned home from teaching, her mother was ready to go to church at Bethany church one evening for a revival, and asked Lillian to go. She told her mother, "Oh, I'm so tired, I've walked all the way home after teaching school all day. I don't think I want to go." Her mother said, "Oh, yes you do. There's a young man preaching there." So she told her mother, "I'll go just like I am if you let me sit in the back seat of the church so nobody will see me." They always had large crowds at these revivals. The church had an old pump organ. When Dale wanted to sing a special number, "I Choose Jesus", the boy who usually played the organ couldn't play it, and so the preacher's wife began motioning with her hand for Lillian to come up and play. The preacher's wife and Lillian were good friends. So Lillian went up and played the song for Dale, and that is how they met. She once commented that "he sang very well."

Dale soon became the regular preacher at the Bethany church, and began making house calls at the home of Lillian's parents where Lillian was living. Lillian's brothers, Morrison and Joe (who was sixteen at the time) would play baseball in the yard, and Dale would play ball with them and stay to have a meal with them. Dale would hold baptismal services in the creek behind Lillian's home. One day the sister of one of Lillian's students was going to be baptized, so Lillian let the class out early and they walked down to the creek to witness the baptism. Dale and Lillian began courting by writing letters back and forth.

In the summer of 1932, she went to Berea College in Berea, Kentucky, to take college algebra, public speaking, and music. In the Fall of 1932 she returned to Hiwassee and graduated in the Spring of 1933 receiving a life time teaching certificate. Dale and Lillian were married on early 1933 in Athens, Tennessee, not far from Johnson Bible College where Dale was then in his junior year.

Dale still had a year to complete at Johnson Bible College. But Lillian still wanted to teach school. Because jobs for men were scarce during the depression, a law had been passed in which no married woman could teach. After they were married, Lillian stayed at home with her family while Dale lived at Johnson Bible College.

They then moved a lot, following one preaching job after another. They moved to Rural Hall, North Caralinia, near Winston-Salem, where their first son, James was born in 1935. From there they moved to Champain-Urbana, where they ministered at the Weber Street Church for one year. Next they lived in Ogden Illinois, about 20 miles away, where their second child, Janice was born in 1937. Then they moved on to West Lebanon, Indiana. While there they were approached by a committee from the Second Christian Church in Danville, IL, to take a preaching position in Danville, Illinois After moving there, their third child, Charles Tracy, my father, was born 1939. Sixteen months later, Ernie, their fourth child, was born when Lillian was 29 years old.

They then moved to Mountain City, TN around 1940. From there they moved to Jacksonville, Florida in 1941, but only stayed about 7 months because Dale began having asthma problems. Then they moved to Woburn, Illinois, near Greenville. While there, they were asked to take a position at Belleville, Illinois, so they moved to Belleville and ministered there for five years.

After this, Dale began a church planting ministry out of Collinsville; he started 7 new churches, with the help of the Mississippi Men's Fellowship. They lived in the housing project behind the First Christian Church in Collinsville, which he helped to start. He started two churches in Iowa, three in Missouri (Owensville, Columbia, O'Fallon). Part of the time he lived out of trailer and worked the fields. He taught "singing school" at Mulberry Grove while the lived there when Tracy was in first grade.

In the late 50's Dale settled in Collinsville, and stopped travelling as much, as he was getting older. Lillian started teaching again when Tracy and Ernie were in highschool while living in Collinsville. Dale also enrolled himself in McKendree College, Lebanon, Illinois, and was certified as a teacher, teaching 18 years. Lillian finished her A.B. degree.

Dale did preach for a while at Beardstown after his son, Tracy, and his wife, Cathi, left there to serve in Barbados for a year. After Beardstown, he began teaching in East Saint Louis, while Lillian continued to teach in Collinsville. During this time Dale preached at his last church, the Holly Oaks church near Collinsville.

After he stopped preaching, Dale and Lillian attended the Collinsville church part of the time, the Chapel Hill church and the Holly Oaks church.

After Dale died in 1987, Lillian contined to live in Collinsville. She later sold their home and moved to an apartment.

Lillian was a school teacher for a total of 20 years. Lillian taught bible study classes at various churches for 19 years, including Edwardsville and Collinsville.

In her later years Lillian has enjoyed reciting poetry at public gathering, and even at her 99th birthday was able to recite them with clarity.

She and her husband, Dale, leave behind a great legacy, having planted dozens of churches, having mentored many Christians in their faith and having been a positive Christian role model to their 4 children, 11 grand-children and 22 great grandchildren and 2 great-great-grandchildren as well as many others whose lives they have touched.

Too Old to Start Something New?

Six months ago our family returned to the US and started a new phase of our lives. It has been trying at times, but one of those things you just do because you have to, like breathing. As part of our new life, it has become necessary for me to go back to "work" as a nurse in the US, at the age of 44. I have been working as a nurse in Africa, but it had been over 13 year since I had worked in the US. There was a lot to catch up on, but I'm slowly getting up to speed. For four months now I have been working in the Emergency Room of a small rural hospital.

Funny that I ended up working in the ER. I never thought I would want to - always thought that would be too stressful, and after 15+ years of striving to survive, let alone thrive, in the African continent amidst disease, cultural challenges, language barriers, horrible roads, corruption, evil, unending logistical hassles, sometimes living in fear and trying not to, not to mention bullets occasionally flying and racial tensions mounting, caring for the burned, the sick with tropical diseases, the insane, and those severely wounded from a war and strife filled region, and trying to live something of a normal life for me, my husband and four children, you think I would run as far away as I could from Emergency room care. I thought I would. Crazy enough, each time I applied for a job after returning to the US, the ER was what was available and what I was "suitably matched" to do. Hmmm. Well, I stopped fighting it and was hired in an ER. It has not been that bad. I thought I would struggle more with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Ironically the ER has been thus far rather mild compared to some of what I witnessed in Africa, and I am thriving in the atmosphere of a team, where I am not alone in deciding the fate of the individual, if there is any deciding at all, where there is access to the best of medical care and hope is not completely lost, and where most people come in for less than emergencies.

It is a far cry from Africa. There is nothing more grim and disheartening to bear witness and feel deeply the grief of those doomed to their lot in life without hope in the "Dark Continent", those whose bodies are eaten away day by day by the grotesque tumors that are slowly claiming their bodies without any hope of escaping them, those whose only water source is poluted with countless microbes that kill them daily, those who live and fear daily the autrocities of evil war lords who terrorize without accountability, giving into fatalism and accepting it as normal and unavoidable.

Yet the contrasts in what people fight against to survive is astounding. I come from 15+ years of working in a country whose mothers lose half their children on the average before the children reach adulthood, some of whom have died right before my eyes. I come from a world where men, women and children die daily from tetanus, rabies, bacteria, malaria, amebas, typhoid, Schisto, Hemorrhagic and Yellow Fever, to name a few, of the diseases resulting from the war of man against nature and microbes, where people fear what they cannot see that can really kill them, where natural selection has left only the strongest to survive (no, I don't believe in Evolution, by the way), where no hospital has ever seen a neurosurgeon or heart surgeon, and where the average life expectancy is 42. Most people don't live long enough to ever experience heart disease, lung disease or the miriad of other co-morbid conditions experienced by the vast majority of Americans today resulting from indulgence, addictions, sedentary lifestyles and poor health habits. In the US the strong and the weak alike have the privelege to survive and escape the onslaught of most microbes through the invention of vaccines, antibiotics and eradication programs, yet end up killing themselves by overeating, underexercising, and indulging in everything from food to drugs and alcohol. Even sadder, the youth of this nation who should have the greatest potential of ever realizing their hopes and dreams more than any other generation or culture end up committing suicide, lost and misguided without God. All too often ER's around the country see people suffering from anxiety, mental illness and out of control. It begs the question, have we done any better? Has all that we have achieved in this country made a difference?

I believe the answer is no, not without God. God's presence in a person's life is the only person that can help them make sense, wherever they are in the world. We are all going to die, the only difference is how we die and when, and whether we have hope or not for something beyond this meaningless life. Having that hope while still living on this earth is the only thing I believe that can really allow us to truly thrive. I have been all too close to death myself, and to losing my own mind from witnessing and experiencing some of the atrocities, desperation and evil that exists across the Atlantic. Only by God's grace was I pulled up from that darkness and given something to grasp a hold of, something to find hope in.

I noticed that there weren't too many other nurses older than me working in the ER. One colleague commented that most ER nurses burn out at 45. Hmm, I just got started at 44. The stress is certainly there, but it is a change from where I have been, a merciful change, and God willing, I will endure whatever comes my way during this next phase of my life.

Squeezing in Schooling Into Our Day

Now that I'm working several days a week, I am finding it increasingly hard to get work done . Many activities compete for my few hours at home. I have to juggle desk work, teaching kids, paying bills, laundry, cleaning house, meal planning, meal preparation, organizing and sorting, and planning. Today I really felt the crunch. I had to take the kids to buy new clothes at the Goodwill store, since especially Joshua is growing so fast, and then try to cram 2 days of school into one, since I'm working an extra day this week for a friend in exchange for a weekend day off. So today Joshua and Katie pitched in and helped teach Gabriel while I doubled up subjects with Aisha.

God's little reminders sometimes hit hard

Yesterday I started the day thankful to finally have four days off of work, and finally able to spend time with my kids homeschooling and catching up on a bunch of other things. However, I ended up losing most of the day to an unfortunate turn of events that I believe now may have been preventable if I had just stopped and prayed about it.

Early into the morning Jim was checking our bank account and noticed an unknown charge on our credit card. Hmm, I thought it sounded vaguely familiar. I wondered if it was a promotion deal I was going to sign up for about two weeks ago online, but backed out of. I knew that I had not signed up for it, and had "abandoned ship" so to speak before I got in too deep, but not before they got my credit card number, apparently. A guy from their company even called me the next day to see if I wanted to complete my application and finish signing up for the deal. I made it very clear that I wasn't interested and wanted to cancel any service that they might think I signed up for. And that was the end of it...or so I thought. Apparently not, since there was now a charge for $79.90 on my credit card.

So I called the phone number on the charge and tried to inquire about how do get the charge credited to my account - after all, I never even received a product of any kind that I knew of. However, the only person I could get in touch with at that number was a whole plethera of foreign telephone operators in the Phillippines who said it was too late, that the 7 days to cancel had passed and that I was bound by the legal terms of and conditions of what I had agreed to. Hmmm. Sounded fishy to me, since I clearly remember backing out before signing on, and telling the guy on the phone I didn't want the service. After calling them back dozens of times and getting hung up on while on hold waiting to talk to their manager, who apparently was "on break" for over two hours, I started getting really angry. Each time I spoke with someone, the tone in my voice got more desperate, more irritated. No one would give me any information as to how I could dispute the charge, talk to a manager or get the charge removed from my account.

While all of this was going on, my husband was browsing the web for the name of the company - and he not only found it, but found hundreds of complaints from people who had gone through an almost identical ordeal to mine. Now we were both fuming - an injustice had been done, we had been scammed and we weren't going to let it just roll off our backs. Jim got on the phone and insisted this time, but to no avail. I continued to browse the web for information, and finally found a different phone number to call, this time in the US. The lady, this time not foreign, was not any more helpful, and even though she was a supervisor, was not helping us out at all and said it was "impossible" to credit the amount to us.

I could hear Jim getting more and more angry as he talked with her, so I took the phone again and gave it another try, hoping to explain things more clearly so she could understand. While I was doing this, the other phone rang, and it was a friend on the line. Jim explained to him that we couldn't chat right now, we were in the middle of an ordeal of getting out of a scam that had begun that morning and was now dragging out late into the afternoon. The friend said he would pray, and Jim hung up. As I talked to the woman on the other line, she kept interrupting me, saying there was nothing I could do. Then Jim turned to me and whispered to me "Bob said he would pray". A few seconds later the women's voice on the other line went silent, and she let me talk. I was able to clearly state what happened, and to my surprise, she said in a subdued tone that she would refund the whole amount. Tears came to my eyes as I took down the information, thanked her and hung up. We got a confirmation email today that the charge would be credited to us.

It took me a whole day of adrenaline, frustration, a few more gray hairs and perhaps even a few years off my life to realize and be reminded that a prayer could resolve this mess much quicker and more easily than my angry voice crying out injustice ever could. God forgive us for the times when we forget to let go and let God.

Today I learned that a dear woman, Cindy Adams, that I have come to know via the internet, the MOMYS yahoo group and her blog, has lost her battle with Colon cancer. She is the mother of 10 children, 9 of which were adopted from various countries. Her life and view of adversity has so inspired me, and her passing has impacted me deeply. Please visit her website at:

http://faithfulpromises.blogspot.com/2009/07/what-week.html

All things Nature

One of the hardest things about leaving Africa for me was leaving my garden. Over the years it had become a place of rest and solice, away from the stress and craziness of cross-cultural ministry. Learning to tame and and marvel at the tropical lushness and beauty of Africa's rainy season, and at other times nurturing, watering and sustaining the life of living things in the 6 months of Africa's dry season gave me such a great wonder at God's perfection in every flower that came out of the dust when the rains began and thrived, and a great respect for God's balance in nature when despite my best efforts things sometimes didn't make it. When we left, I dug up what I could, potted it and moved it to a shady spot in a colleague's garden where it could be cared for until someone else could take charge of the plants and carry on and enjoy God's miracles.

Now back in the US, there is something inside of me driving me to find little ways to bring life out of the dirt. I have already begun to nurture numerous potted plants in my room, and the back porch of my mom's villa where we are temporarily staying. And little by little we have begun to plant some flowers on our farm and tame the wilderness that it has become after decades of resting fallow, and the woods which as far as we can tell have never been lived in except for animals.

Nothing Sacred

I have been working now for about a month. After so many years of living in a foreign culture and being out of American culture, or just being among God-fearing Christian Americans most of the time, and the rest of the time speaking foreign languages with people of foreign cultures to my own, I have been plunged back into the "real world" of the secular culture whenever I go to work each day. I am saddened by the state of people's lives who don't have Christ as their hope. I know it will be a struggle to fight against synicism and apathy that is all around me. I pray for the strength not to lose hope in people and in God's ability to transform even the most hopeless of lives. I know He can and has for me and for so many. I am amazed at the choices people have made in the American culture, a culture that offers more than any other for realizing one's greatest potential. I am saddened by how others waste money and giftedness, settling for less than their greatest potential. I am reminded of the lyrics of Billy Sprague's song "Nothing Sacred" which resounds more than a decade later as a true picture of the sad state which our society has become:

"People need true love, but chase infatuation,
they need a hope, but live on short supply,
People need wisdom, but get more education,
People need forgiveness, but settle things eye-for-eye.

People need identity, but are satisfied with titles,
They need true courage, but bravado looks sincere,
People need a living God, but seem content with idols,
People need destiny, but settle for careers,

And the soul remains unsettled,
and the world a wilderness,
In a time where nothing's sacred,
and souls settle for less.

People need faith, but place their bets on science,
They need a refuge, but stay out in the rain,
People need eachother but rely on self reliance,
People need a Christmas, but settle for a holiday,

People need dignity but survive on ego,
They need the truth, but will take an alibi,
People need a savior, but much prefer a hero,
Most long for heaven, but have settled for the sky.

And the soul remains unsettled,
and the world a wilderness,
In a time where nothing's sacred,
and souls settle for less.

My first week at work

This has been a busy week for me as I have adjusted to my new job working as an RN. It is challenging, but something that I'm excited about. It is a big change from the schedule I have kept for so long, mostly working out of the home. I miss working with the kids most of the day, but my schedule should soon change so that I will be working late evenings and home during part of the day when I can help homeschool my kids. My husband works out of the home, so he is there all day to help them along with their asignments and keep things going while I am gone.

So why am I doing this? well, for me, I would rather stay home, but frankly we need the means to make it in the US, and Jim's job does not earn enough to keep us afloat. We are currently living with my mom, but are hoping to save enough money for a down payment on a house. Such is life in this economy and in the US. I'm thankful Jim can work from home so our kids can continue to follow their homeschool studies. Our kids seem to be transitioning to this well, and it is less traumatic for them than to have to put them in public school, something they have never done. In the Fall we will be able to enroll them in a few homeschool co-op classes, like Music and Drama.

Big savings on Homeschool books!

I just got back from another homeschool used book sale. There are several homeschool co-op groups in the St. Louis area, and this is that time of year when the sales are on! Over the past two weeks I have gotten some great deals and probably saved around $250! Now I can shop on Amazon and get what is left for next year's curriculum.

Two other groups where I often find good used homeschool book deals: I subscribe to the Homeschool Lounge, and have joined their "Buy/Sell Used Curriculum" sub-group. I also am part of the MOMYS yahoo group, a group for larger families, which sends out emails on line regarding items members have for sale.

Back to Homeschooling

We are pretty much settled into living in my mother's house for the moment, and have her basement set up for school, office, etc. The kids all seem to have jumped right back into school with no trouble, and the books we don't seem to be able to find, we have found on Amazon or at the library. I am so thankful I created weekly schedules for the whole school year ahead of time so that we could just pick up right where we left off in the midst of transition. We are however a month behind now after the move, so we will be working on school all summer (which we end up doing most of the time anyway to spread it out a bit). We use Saxon Math and Sonlight, supplementing with Bob Jones for language arts, and we are pretty much diehards for this method. Amazingly the older kids are getting all their work done by noon with little help, and have time to help the little kids so Jim can get more translation done, and I can do some job hunting. I hope to go back to work full time as a nurse, and so it is a real blessing that the kids are all in a nice routine for school.

Painting, a long-lost passion revived

This past year has been a life-changing year for me. Lots of hard things to wrestle with, some ups and quite a few downs. But I made a decision last year that I was going to begin doing things that I was passionate about against all odds, and begin pursuing dreams that have been tucked away for a long time, almost forgotten by the business of life. One of those passions is art. As a child I always seemed to be drawn to a pencil or paint, and at the age of 13 was mentored by a great Junior High Teacher in watercolor painting. Over the next decade I dabbled in art, and was even offered some prestigious 4-year scholarships, but I was restless and wanted to do so many other things.

Well, having done those "so many other things", getting back into some of long-lost passions like art has been a stabilizing thing for me, and has helped me reconnect with who I am, especially at this point in my "mid-life" when so many things are changing.

With our move back to the US and our need to have extra income to save up for a house, I'm brainstorming many ideas to make extra money. One way I have decided to try is to sell my art.

Last fall I did several pieces, which I was able to sell (see my link to the right), the first time I have tried sell anything I've done besides a cake. It encouraged me to keep trying to do more and do better. Over the past four days I painted a picture that has been haunting me for many years, a picture taken by a friend in a remote African village while we were doing a mobile clinic, a place where I almost didn't go, but where I felt God prompting me to go, where no white person may ever again show their presence. This picture, entitled "Window to the World" is now for sale, and should be posted on boundlessgallery.com in the next 24-hours.

A "Bad Back" Week

This past week I have been in a lot of pain. I apparently pulled a shoulder muscle again in my upper back, the pain of which then got continually worse for the next five days until I was in the ER with blotchy vision and pain stronger than I have ever had before. I was sure I had slipped a disc. 6 years ago I was diagnosed with arthritis in my neck and a couple bulging discs, for which I went to physical therapy. That has worked for me up until now. Over the past year in Africa the pain was getting more easily provoqued, especially after riding on the bad roads. It was one of the medical reason we decided it was time to leave Africa and move back to the US where I could hopefully slow down the process and have better access to medical care when things got bad. However the past month of moving out of our house, dealing with our luggage, traveling on the plane, and unpacking hundreds of boxes which we had put in storage here in the US, put extra strain on my back, finally culminating in another pain crisis. Thanks to some new medications given to me by the ER doctor, and some rest, I am feeling better. It seems to just be another pulled muscle, which aparently triggered a migrain, my first. So I am back to being more careful, doing some physical therapy on a daily basis at home (with the help of Jim).

Our Son Drinking Horse Blood

Here's a note my husband posted on his facebook, which I just had to pass along. Our son Gabriel (4) is a cute li'l guy, but he asks a lot of questions. Most of them, we're convinced, he asks just because he's trying to be cute or silly or just trying to see how many we will answer before telling him to can it.

Today we had grape juice with supper. After the whole family had thoroughly discussed the grape juice and its anti-oxidants and whatever other healthy properties the grape juice offered, Gabriel, in typical Gabriel fashion, pointed to the grape juice and asked, "What dat?"

He was either not listening, or he was trying to get a rise out of Jim. Two can play that game.

"Horse blood," Jim answered (expecting to turn the tables on the wee lad), "want some?"

"Yeah!" Oh, the glee in his expression was priceless. (Jim loves to say things like that. Honestly, I think he really thought it was horse blood and wanted to try it!)

So Jim poured him some grape juice, and he loved it.

There was a little grape juice left in the pitcher near the end of the meal, so Gabriel asks, "Daddy, me hab mo horse blood, please?"

It was very cute, and he remembered to be polite too! But Jim decided that he must have been listening that last time, so he explained (before word got out that Jim makes our kids drink horse blood!) that it wasn't really horse blood, it was just grape juice.

He drank the grape juice, and he loved it all the same.

Then he asks, "Daddy, you shoot him?"

Hmmm, is this kid listening or not?!

Reflections on my "Redemptive Time" Post

I find it ironic that a few weeks ago I wrote about wanting "a quick fix" and not having to wait to make the transition at this phase of our lives. Now we have suddenly found ourselves swept forward very quickly into that transition due to the events of the last few weeks. As stressful as it was, I have to say that I am relieved that the time has come and we can get on with it. What a crazy ride it has been. In just a few days we will fly home to the US. We are getting anxious and excited. It is hard to imagine while sitting here by the fan in this cement-block, screened-in guest house on the Western coast of Africa at the hottest, sweatiest, dirtiest time of year, that by the end of this week we will be sitting in an air-conditioned, carpeted, dry-walled house in the Midwestern United States with 24-hour electricity, running water and all the creature comforts, with a Taco-Bell and Walmart just minutes away. The bumpy pot-holed filled dirt-roads will be replaced by smooth, paved freeways. Jim always says everything in the US is "plus doux" (sweeter, softer, more comfortable). We are so thankful for those things that many people in the US take for granted. Even at this crossroads in life where we are officially "homeless" (ok, it isn't as bad as it sounds) I am so thankful for the many blessings God has showered upon us- for family, for friends, for providing for all of our needs, for people here in Africa who have become family to us and who will always be a part of our lives even though removed by long distance, and on the other side of the ocean those from whom we have been apart for so long, who are ready to receive us back home, who are already offering their help to meet us at the airport, store our belongings, find us a vehicle, and find us housing. We are truly blessed. We count it such a privelege to have the friendship of so many and to be a part of the body of Christ around the world.

Not Looking Back

Well, we finally moved out of our African home of 11 years. It has been a hard two weeks. For more information, you can read about it on our family blog, www.bettisonfamily.blogspot.com.

It has been hard, but I'm truly thankful it is behind us and over. It may take us awhile to recover, but we are so ready to move on and look forward to starting over somewhere else together as a family. In all the stress and chaos, there was a sense of great peace in knowing we had our faith and we had eachother. Home is not a house, but it is family, and we are together through it all. Our kids seem to be taking it all very well, better than their parents for sure.

I take comfort in the words of Jeremiah, who in times of distress found hope in God, and in whom all God's people can find hope and refuge: "For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

Packing up our House

Psalm 121:8: The Lord will watch over your coming and going. Lately I have been too weary to post anything, nor have I had much time.10 days ago we were surprised by an unexpected turn of event here in our home in Africa which has led us to decide to move out of our house immediately and return to the US. For seven days we have been working day and night to pack up everything we own, catalogue in detail the contents of each box, whether it goes back with us or in storage for another family to use, or throwing it in a pile to sell in a garage sale, or just merely throwing it away. My back is killing me. My legs are stiff and my whole body aches. My head is spinning and my ears are ringing. It is hard to sleep. Many times throughout the day I find that I cannot think straight. We never imagined anything like this would happen. But we are pressing on, a little bit more each day. Some friends have come to help, and our guards are helping load up the heavy furniture and move it to a storage room in a colleagues house. We have taken so far 16 truck loads to the storage rooms at our colleagues house. We are tearing up flowers out of the garden and potting them in all sorts of plastic containers, and moving them to another location so that our colleagues can some day enjoy them when they arrive. I have sorted through every piece of clothing, every toy, every bead, trinket, kitchen gadget, and piece of paper in our filing cabinet, throwing things away, burning, packing or giving things away. Fights have ensued a few times between neighbors or local children vying for their right to have even what we throw in our trash. It is insane! It has been hard. We have had some refreshing moments – a cold soda, a laugh here and there, a walk down memory lane, a friend dropping in to help – and the ever present knowledge that we will get through this, that God is with us. The Lord will watch over our coming and going. And even though this situation here seems hopeless, I am reminded that we are merely sojourners on this earth and that our real home is in heaven. We have that hope through the death and resurrection of Jesus, God’s answer to this pitiful place earth has become because of sin. I try to see the light at the end of the tunnel, knowing that in a few more days we will be out of here and can rest and relax a little, and that in 15 days or so we will be back in the US. I hope to post pictures of this whole thing when it is all over. For now, I am focusing on the tasks of each day. Happy Easter to everyone. May the peace and hope that comes from the resurrection fill you in times of uncertainty and turmoil, and give you the strength to press on.

Creamy Chicken Afredo Sauce

Ingredients:

1 onion, minced
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1 liter of milk
2 boxes (or 300 grams) “Laughing Cow” Cheese or 8 oz cream cheese
2 cups chicken chunks (cooked or raw)
1/2 cup chicken broth
1—2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp parsley
1 T basil
pasta

Sauté onion and garalic in butter, add flour until bubbly. Add milk and cheese, heat and stir with wire whisk until cheese is completely melted. Add chicken with broth, salt, basil and parsley and continue cooking on low heat another 2-3 minutes until sauce boils (or 5 minutes to thoroughly cook raw chicken chunks). Serve on cooked pasta of choice.

Variation: Add broccolli, and velveeta cheese, and serve on rice.

Curried Chicken Riz Gras

Ingredients:
1 onion, diced
1 cup oil
1 cup fine vermicelli
1-2 cloves garlic
4 small tomatoes, diced
1/2—1 cup raisins
2 cups cooked chicken
2 Tbsp curry powder
2 tsp salt
3 cups uncooked rice

Sauté onion and garlic in oil until tender, add vermicelli dry, and fry in oil until brown. Add 6 cups chicken broth or water mixed with broth to total six cups liquid, add diced tomatoes, raisins, curry powder, chicken, salt and uncooked rice. Bring to boil, then simmer until all of rice is cooked and liquid is absorbed. Stir occasionally while cooking.

Recipes!

Over the years I have really developed a love for cooking (which stems from my love for good food!). Living in Africa I have developed lots of yummy dishes from scratch adapted to the simple things we can get here, which I serve to large crowds of visitors who come pretty often from the US or just other folks passing through. So many people have asked me for my recipes, that I have created a recipe book of my favorites and their favorites, that I often give to guests. Since the list of recipes keeps growing, I have decided to begin posting them here, so people can access them more easily. So, if you love cooking like I do, or are just looking for something new that you can serve, especially to a large crowd, stay tuned!

Relationships in God's Economy

I have been reading about bonding and our need for relationship. Relationships are essential to our existence, to our happiness, to our well-being. I find it refreshing to know that God makes us whole in our lives through relationships. I was always told that if we rely too much on other people, we aren’t relying enough on God. I always struggled with that though, because I always found eventually that relationships made me feel complete. When I’m lonely, even if I seek out God, I am still relieved of my loneliness by relationships. I believe God has created us with a deep foundational need for relationships and when we don’t have it, or when those relationships are not right, life is miserable. This is a sign of our deep need to maintain healthy relationships in our lives. Many young ladies mistakenly seek out the wrong relationships to ease that need to bond with someone, by hooking up with the wrong guy, or offering a form of intimacy in order to find that bonding they so desperately need because they lack it in their home life, or elsewhere. They are looking for the right thing, but in the wrong place.

Looking to God’s Word, we see from the beginning of Creation God said “it is not good for man to be alone.” Throughout Scriptures the word “love” is written all over the place. Jesus says that the greatest command is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. Relationships. Paul states in 1 Corinthians 13 that above all things love is the greatest thing, the most important thing we can do. Well, wake up world! We can’t “love” others without relationships! Relationships are the key! When relationships are broken, people suffer, things go awry, productivity dimishes, crimes happen. When relationships are restored, happiness returns, healing takes place and people thrive and are productive. God’s Word is a tapestry interwoven throughout with teachings on how to do relationships right.

From birth God created us to thrive and exist only in relationships. A newborn baby is totally dependent on its mother. From birth the mother holds the baby, rocks the baby, soothes the baby when it is crying, and speaks soft words to the baby, wooing it into the human race. Without that relationship the baby would not survive or thrive. Instiutionalized babies and children often lack happiness and well-being, developing all sorts of abnormal coping mechanisms to compensate for that lack of bonding. This is not normal and not healthy. The human race is not made up of humans, but of humans IN relationships, who could not pro-create without relationships. Society is healthy only when the individuals work together in a synchronized inter-dependent fashion, meeting one another’s needs.

It is through healthy relationships that God restores and heals people. God comforts us through other people. All counselors will agree that no amount of counseling, or spiritualizing will help a hurting person, put that person in a redemptive parish community of a support group, they have a much greater chance of recovering from just about every addiction, trauma or crisis in life and learning to lead a productive, healthy life. Knowing God loves us in spite of what has happened to us is important, but it is difficult to know that and feel that unless someone tells us that and shows us that THROUGH relationships. Having other people reach out to us in our time of need who empathize with our pain is God’s way of reaching out to us. It is when we see the genuine Christ-like love in others that we can truly sense the depth of God’s love for us. And it is when we act out that love toward others that they see God’s love in us and are drawn to Himself. We cannot expect lost people to come to God without seeing His transforming power having its effect in relationships. When God transforms a life, it is truly a miracle, going against the fiber of the sinful world, and it has the power to transform other lives around it through relationships.

If we never had this deep sense of God’s love for us through relationships when we were young, we may follow one of several paths. One, we may remain isolated, rationalizing that we are just “loners”, but knowing all along deep inside that we are “lonely people” and unhappy. We tend to be self-sufficient, yet restless. Another course we may follow is that we allow people into our lives on the surface, but we never become intimate, because we fear things we do not know. In this case too, we feel lonely in a crowd, we have never bonded with others, it is all surface. We have never expressed our needs and allowed others to meet them. A third way is to learn that God heals us through bonding with others in healthy relationships, and we embrace it. When we pray to God, He hears us, but also beckons us to share our burdens with others so they can do the work of the body of Christ and share our burdens with us. When others pray with us and for us, the flood gates of heaven are opened!

I find it interesting the impact that birth control and family planning has had on our society in this way. God designed married women to bear children on the average every two years, sometimes more often. In the natural order of things the large family was the norm. I have found in my own experience that when I was a mother of two, our family had a very different dynamic than when we moved to four children. At some point around four children the needs of the family become so great that it will not function until everyone pitches in and plays a role. The dynamic changes, and the members of the family are pushed into a natural interdependency, which helps bonding take place and creates a healthy supportive community. It takes more effort and determination on the part of the parents to assure a healthy, functioning family relationship, but it is well worth the effort. I don’t know too many children who come from large families who are selfish, self-centered and unhappy. Most of them are well-adjusted, compassionate and thoughtful of others. With two children, it is easy to spoil them and give them a privileged life. With four or more, that becomes impossible, unrealistic, and indeed ridiculous. Maybe, just maybe, in trying to maintain the 2.2 children, our society has been missing something very vital to our human existence and happiness.

I was one of those children who grew up in the family with 2.2 children. I remember always longing for more siblings. We moved a lot, and it was difficult for me to bond with other kids. Now I know that having a larger family meets the needs for intimacy on many levels. I find it interesting that many large homeschooled families tend to cut back on extra-curricular activities because they often can’t find the time, but they also need it less. Socialization happens in a large family in ways that it cannot happen in a smaller family. In smaller families children need more interaction with outsiders to get the needed “socialization”. Again, maybe our society has overlooked the beauty of what God intended all along. When we mess with God’s design, we mess-up a lot of the built-in mechanisms for healthy functioning.

Living in community, whether in a large family or a close knit body of believers who support one another and live out God’s transforming power in relationships, we learn how God uses relationships to grow us spiritually as well. One author I read shared about a mother who said it was easier to grow spiritually before she became a mom. She had always been told that the only way to grow was to read her Bible and pray more each day. That is what counted. She had never been taught to see that caring for two young children was a training ground for spiritual transformation where she could learn gratitude, humility, patience, forebearance, servanthood and any number of spiritual attributes better than any other place. From being a mother of many children, I have learned more about these things than at any other time or place in my life. I have learned more about God as well.

Redemptive Time

Today I was reading a section of a book about "redemptive time". I found many aspects of the discussion relevant to my life right now. There are seasons in every person’s life – a time to keep and a time to throw away. For years I have been keeping junk, stuff that “you never know” you might need. For the past year as we have planned an eventual departure from Africa we have been doing a lot of downsizing, purging our home of unused and unnecessary things. Little by little we have made decisions about virtually every item we possess – does it bear some special memory that I must hold on to it as a keepsake? Is it something that is still very useful to me? Would I have to buy another one in the US if I got rid of this one? Is it something I can live without? Is it too bulky to take home in a suitcase? Should I sell some in a garage sale? Should I throw it away?

Jim and I are in a period of transition in our lives, moving from one continent and way of life to another. We will need to rebuild our lives in a new context, but we aren’t quite where we need to be to rebuild. We are still in that stage where we are decluttering and purging out the unnecessary stuff. This is a hard place to be sometimes. It is hard because it is a place of “limbo”, and in many ways the progress we so desire is still out there, illusive. The dream we want to build is still far off. There is still so much clutter to get rid of and get out of the way, and the remainder of our time here that we need to complete to "finish well". I am trying to see the decluttering and waiting as part of the building process so that I do not grow discouraged.

People always want quick fixes. I want a quick fix. But change and transition takes time. The same is true with life in general. Life is often a desert journey that takes time. Just like a quick cheap thrill may feel good, but only a faithful loving relationship with a married spouse brings real intimacy. A get-rich-quick scheme may lure us, but blessings come through restraint, self-control, careful planning and saving. Time. Quick diet fads promise to help us lose weight, but only a life-long commitment to a disciplined approach will help us maintain a healthy weight. Medication can help us cope temporarily with crisis and depression, but they do always help us build the character we need to persevere through life.

I am drawn to the example of the papaya tree. We have many in our yard in Africa. They seem to sprout up everywhere, wherever the seeds fall. They are one of the fastest growing trees I have ever seen, often bearing fruit in the first year. Their wood however is soft and airy. Often the tree falls after 5 years or so, too tall to bear its own weight. So too without time growth is not mature or healthy growth, and is doomed for failure. Without time healing is only temporary and does not endure when another crisis arise. Someone once said “the longest distance between two points is the shortcut.” How many times have I found that true trying to get out of a traffic jam.

In Mark 4 Jesus talks about how a farmer plants grain and it grows on its own “thought he does not know how”. That teaches us that we cannot will growth into happening. It just happens. And it takes time. God makes it happen. Just like he makes our bodies heal after they are wounded. He also makes our hearts heal after they are wounded – after the cancer is removed of course. We cannot hide a part of ourselves. If our true self is hidden or suppressed, it may not grow with the rest of us and is left behind. When our true selves are placed in God’s hands in the presence of redemptive time, He can make us into His reborn, remoulded creation for His glory.

A Time of Change is Coming

Looking out my kitchen window, through the opend louvred glass panes powdered with dust, the anti-vole bars and screen I see and hear my children playing together in the garden, laughing, chasing eachother, swinging, running, enjoying the youth of their life without a care in the world. I cherish this moment. I realize that it won’t be long before they will never again play in this garden. They will have a new home. We will be relocating to the US in less than 5 months. Will they miss the freedom of this place? Will they long for this open, beautiful garden that has become their own private home and playground for as long as they can remember? I try to look forward to the new place that will become our home, but something will always be missed about this place. It was our first real home. It is the only home our children have ever known. Will they grow to love the new place as they have loved this place? I moved a lot as a child, and remember the resentment I felt every time we moved. But I always like the new place better in the end. I hope they can see the good and bad of each, and cherish each for the special place that each one is.

Weekly P.E. Time With Dad

Every Friday Jim spends an hour or so doing something special with the kids in the line of Physical Education for our homeschool. It has been a lot of fun for the kids, and an opportunity to learn a lot about staying in shape and having fun while working together as a team. Recently he put up a special pull-up bar on the tree house so that the kids could do pull-ups (and so he could do them too, of course!). The kids found it a lot harder than it looked. Most of them could not even do one. Jim did something like 15 - woah! I was impressed. I am not even going to try it, because I KNOW that I won't be able to do one.

He also has a personal fitness goal of doing 100 pushups at one time. He is working on it little by little.

Using the PROM Principle to Clean My House

Keeping the house clean has always been something that I strive to do well. It has been particularly challenging doing this in the part of West Africa where I live, where 7 months out of the year it is dry season, and the harmattan winds carry dust daily into my house, covering everything with a thin layer every few days. Having four children certainly makes the job all the more challenging. 2 years ago Linda Koenig, a homeschool mom of 10, led a seminar that I attended in which she described the way she keeps her house clean while homeschooling 10 kids - it was amazing. I have always done things sort of like she did, but her ideas motivated me to do it more routinely and in a more organized fashion. Some of her ideas come from the MOTH book ("Manages Of Their Homes" by Teri Maxwell), a celebrated book among large families. These ideas help me keep my sanity in organizing my home.

Another good resource is a book "Totally Together: an Organizational Journal for the Busy Household" by Stephanie O'Dea, whose ideas she shares on her blog http://www.totallytogetherjournal.com. There she describes some cleaning/organizing steps under the acronym she calls "PROM". I thought I would share here some of her ideas with notes on how I adapt it to my situation:

P

Purge. Stephanie: Grab a large plastic garbage bag, and go through quickly and just start tossing. If something is obvious garbage, get it out of your sight, and out of your house. There is no reason to save a random puzzle piece or a Barbie shoe. Just toss it. After your first pass through a room (or drawer, toy box, etc.) go back with another bag or bin for charity. If you have items that are no longer beneficial to your family, pass them along to someone who could truly need your give-aways. Do not give away items that are badly worn, damaged, or missing parts. That’s not fair to anyone.

(Karen's note: I do this by dividing up the house mentally into 6 sections, and I work on each section

one day a week under ideal situations. I take a basket with me for the decluttering part, and throw anything that doesn't belong in the room, including trash, in that basket. Most of the time there is a LOT of trash. When the room is clean, I distribute the items in the basket into their proper "pookah" or container or place in the house where they belong. In our house everything has a place it belongs. We also have a box for things to return to other people, as suggested by Linda Koenig, and a labeled box for library books and videos ready to return, tucked out of the way. Linda Koenig has a little different twist to this: she suggests labelling four boxes while cleaning a room to put those items in that don't belong:

Put Away Give Away Throw Away Store Away

R

Remove. Stephanie: Once you have purged items, seal the bag or box up securely and do NOT look inside. Keep purged items away from children who will gladly rifle through cast-aways to discover lost treasure. Take garbage to the outdoor bin or to the local dump. Give still-useful items to charity. There are numerous organizations who will gladly accept your items. If your family would prefer to hold a garage sale, schedule one right away. Holding on to items for too long is just as bad as never purging in the first place. Craigslist and freecycle are your friends; use them.

(Karen's note: Almost weekly I remove things from our house to give away. I am constantly going through the clothes finding stained ones or torn ones to get rid of, or small ones that go in storage for the next kid to grow into, and sifting through books and toys that the kids never play with, etc. We keep boxes in storage for garage sales. We also have a "recycle bin" for toilet paper rolls, plastic containers, etc that the kids use for crafts. Many of those crafts also get thrown out on a regular basis when I do the "Purge" part, and we have a "pookah" for crafts too. We recycle jars for canning; in Africa we store our overflow of plastic bottles, tin cans and jars in a box till it is full; then we take the full box out to the neighborhood and set it down. Usually before I can even set it down the whole neighborhood converges on it and takes what they need. I love the way the local children recycle tin cans by reshaping them into little cars and trucks.)

O

Stephanie: O is for organize. Take the time to group like items together and put in storage containers that are sturdy, accessible, and attractive. These containers do NOT need to cost a lot of money, nor do they necessarily need to match. Your local dollar store has lots of baskets and containers that will do just fine for storage. When storing children’s items, label clearly on the outside of a solid container what is housed inside. When I ran

preeschool centers, I’d often take a photo of the toys, or cut a picture out of a catalog or magazine to help pre-readers identify what lived inside each box or bin.

(Karen's note: This is the "pookah" part. Our family is really into pookas. I love going to garage sales and buying used containers or "pookahs". Lately though I am steering toward clear sterilite containers that I can see through, and I make labels on everything - I really need to get a label maker!)

M

Stephanie: Maintain. This is the hardest one, I know. We all have good intentions of keeping up with our newly-organized spaces, yet somehow life gets in the way sometimes. It’s okay. If you take the time to think about each and every purchase you make, or item that comes into your home, you will not get overwhelmed. Let well-meaning relatives know that although buying large stuffed animals for gifts can pack a momentary punch, a gift-certificate to the local museum or zoo is a much more useful gift. Take back your home—-when your home feels cluttered, your brain feels cluttered and you’re more apt to anxiety, depression, and a quick-temper.

You can’t expect your house to look like a magazine or design catalog, but you can expect children (and spouses!) to clean up after themselves.

(Karen's note: This is where my family comes in. Everyone has their chore. And everyone must know my system of organization that I have established. I try to train everyone on this on a regular basis, and make adjustments when necessary. We have an older kid teamed up with a younger kid to help keep them accountable to their chore and to keep things put where they belong. Linda Koenig has her kids do this first thing every morning, and they can only get out one "pookah" at a time. She keeps her house "company ready" at all times, something we also strive to do. I also make a schedule for my kids and an activity list so they can clearly see they must finish and clean up after an activity before. We do the cleaning up in the evening, and by bedtime all the toys are put away, floors are swept and mopped, making it easier for me to get started the following day with a clean house, when mornings are already pretty packed full of chores and things to do for everyone. This helps me to not feel so overwhelmed in the mornings. Then I go around the house to my six areas each day of the week and do a super cleaning, de-clutter of that area. This way I do it a little at a time, so if company comes over by surprise there is less of a disaster to deal with.)

A Very Happy Birthday

Today is my birthday. I'm not going to say my age, but let's just say I'm almost half way into my 5th decade. Many people seem shocked when they discover my age - I on the other hand have a constant reminder - not the gray hairs and wrinkles (though they are there), but the aches and pains of arthritis and other ailments. Still, I am thankful for what I can still do, and for all the blessings God has sent my way. My husband and children are some of them. Today my almost 13-year-old daughter baked and decorated a birthday cake for me on her own. I was so proud of her. My 11-year-old son who is really into making stop-motion videos made me one in which the words "Happy Birthday Mommy" magically wrote themselves on the chalk board. My third oldest, Aisha, who is 6 was amazed that I was "born" at one time, and my youngest, Gabriel, who is 4, just wanted to know when we get to eat the cake. They all made me cards and Jim plans to take me out to dinner this evening. It was so nice to be pampered in that way, and to see my children using their talents to bless others.

Check out my other blog

If you are a follower of this blog, I would like to invite you to check out my other blog, "Bettison Adventures". There is where I journal some of the fun things our family has been able to experience over the past several years living in Africa. You can view it at www.bettisonfamily.blogspot.com.

The Art of Cooking

I think too many times today's generation has been short changed. They are so often growing up on fast food and pre-packaged food items, and running from one activity to another, that they never learn the skill of cooking, especially young girls. I was blessed somehow in my childhood to learn some of the basics from my mom in cooking, like making a white sauce, and making many of our family's favorites, but over the years much of what I learned was from trying out many recipes. After moving to rural Africa, where I could not get a lot of ingredients for recipes that called for "canned this" or "1 package of that", I found some wonderful cookbooks that taught how to make many things from scratch. 20 years later I rarely use anything packaged and most of these recipes are ingrained in my mind, I rarely use a recipe. These are the things I want to pass on to my children. I believe passing on life skills is one of the most important roles of a parent.

My oldest daughter, Katie, will soon be 13 and has shown an increasing desire and aptitude for all things cooking. I have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her in the kitchen showing her the ropes, and letting her put a recipe together herself, or plan a whole meal. Among her recent culinary adventures have been making cheese sauces, chili, deviled eggs, fruit tarts and various baked goods. She has also demonstrated an artistic flare in things like organizing vegetable trays.

Valentine's Weekend with 10

This past weekend we had the chance to play parents to 8 kids, while we hosted the 4 kids of fellow missionaries as they went out to do a medical clinic, making a total of 10 in our house. We've done this before, and it was great - I know a lot of people think I'm nuts, but I actually find it easier sometimes with more kids, because they all have someone to play with, and I never have anyone come up to me saying they are "bored". We tend to do things in a more organized way just to get everything done in an orderly fashion. Maybe some would call it the "assembly-line" mentality - call it what you want, but it works. I am a creature of routine and order. This weekend we decorated Valentine cookies (around 150 altogether) and they disappeared by the end of the weekend. We also had other friends drop in, the more the merrier! I think there is something in me sometimes that craves the crowd of kids, as if I was made for a large family. I love the special closeness everyone feels, and the sense of belonging to something special that only exists in a big family. I love seeing the older kids pull together to help the little kids along, and everyone sharing a little piece of the bigger task, getting it done faster. It's the same special feeling we get when our whole extended family gathers for the holidays. It is a feeling of community and togetherness, sharing the knoweldge that together we are something more than merely the sum of each individual part.

35 funny things my kids have said

Over the years we have had the habit of writing down the funny or things that have come out of our children's mouths. Here are some of them:

Katie:

1) age 1 ½ “See, I can book!” (See, I can read a book!)

2) age 2 – “ook boys, I’m pretty!” (to some boys as she pulled her dress over her head)

3) age 2 - “Sometimes it takes two” (when asking for mom’s help)

4) age 2 -“Koombah-yah, N’ord” (Koombah-yah, my Lord)

5) age 2 1/2 - “it’s de’icious!”

6) age 2 1/2 - “the cookie-bread man” (the ginger-bread man)

7) age 2 1/2 - “it’s the princess plane!” (when she heard us talking about the president’s plane flying over head)

8) age 2 1/2 - “you have to drink your memomade to make your toe feel better” (said to Mommy after Mommy hurt her toe)

9) age 2 1/2 - “you have to ask nicely” (said to Daddy who asked for more tea in a make-believe tea party)

10) age 2 3/4 - “Are you guys making pie for the Katie-nator and the two guys-nators?” (after we called her younger brother Joshua the “Josh-inator”)

11) age 3 - (anxious to finally start eating breakfast) “Let’s pray...Mommy, will you do the honors?”

12) age 3 - After Mommy came into the room to see why Joshua was crying, I asked Katie, "What happened? Did Joshua fall down?" and Katie replied, "Yeah, and I broke his crown."

13) age 3 – “My shoulders are too high, right here and right here” (pointing to her two shoulders)

14) age 3 -“it’s not a big hot, it’s only a little hot”

15) age 3- Said “busketti” for Spaghetti, “buzzert” for dessert, and “buzzanya” for Lasagna.

16) age 3 - "There are a lot of bees in the forest, and they are very very nice and they can very very sting ya.”

17) age 6 – “When you’re grown up, then you’re getting old.”

18) age 6 - “Can you photocopy me doing it?” (playing the piano)

19) age 6 - Daddy asks Katie, “Don’t you feel good when your room is clean? Doesn’t it look clean?”, to which Katie replied “Yeah, like a leaf.”

20 ) age 8 - “Grandma is a saint because she lives in St. Louis.”

Joshua:

21) age 1 ½ - called chocolate milk “goppit”, somebody “buh-ee”

22) age 2 - called oatmeal "uckmeal", strawberries "strawbabies"

23) age 3 - called a certain person's hairy armpits "a beard"

24) "There’s fire in the hole!” (after sticking a hair pin into an electric socket)

25) age 4 – “Grandma’s name is Grandma Cathi, because she has curly hair; that’s why she’s called Grandma Cathi.”

26) age 5 – “I’m true!” (I’m telling the truth)

27) age 5 - "It’s in the saloon” (It’s in the salon/living room

28) “Let’s go fly a kite and send it snoring!” (from Mary Poppins)

29) age 6 – “The garden is a very hide-iful place.”

30) age 6 - (before bed one night, after having nightmares) “Lord God, help me only have dreams about diamonds sparkling all over the place" and "help me not bleed when I fall down on my bike."

31) age 7 - (Joshua was asked to choose a Bible verse to write out and share with someone to encourage them. After awhile he brought me a paper with Proverbs 5:3 "For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil." Trying not to show too much alarm at the verse he had chosen for me, I asked him, "Joshua, do you know what an adulteress is?" He then looked up quite matter-of-factly at me and said, "Yes, you are; you are an adult, and everything you say is so sweet."

32) age 10 - "reverse physiology" (was supposed to say "reverse psychology", in a story he wrote)

Aisha:

33) age 6 – “Gabriel is not cropolating” (cooperating)

34) “OK, Daddy I scluded Gabriel” (excluded)

Gabriel:

35) age 4 – (sitting on the slowly deflating air mattress he is about to sleep on for the second night in a row while guests were staying with us) “Mommy, my bed is going downer and downer and downer!”