Grace.

At first glance this looks like a picture of my three sweet children. Even at second glance it does. But there is more than meets the eye here. First of all, you will notice that the entire picture is a bit blurry and washed out. Why? Because it was taken in blackness. As I attempted to make breakfast for the family - which is usually toast - the electricity was shut off. And it remained off from about 7:30 am until 12:30 pm on this particular day.

Typically, no electricity means a bit of an adjustment in daily tasks and plans. Today it was the icing on the cake.

You will notice that my children are sitting on a bed sheet on the couch. Why? Because of my poor decorating skills? Not this time. :) Because sweet Annalise has contracted headlice at school and we just discovered it last night. Sarah has not. Yet. So of course, last night I immediately planned that the next day would be full of doing large amounts of laundry in hot water to rid our home of these little pests that have made their home my daughter's head.

Another small detail that further brings clarity to this fuzzy picture is that my girls both have full blown strep throat infections. And Ben is right on their heels.

Even that has been taken into stride, but the straw that almost broke this camel's back is when we went into town to the one sanitary clinic available to us and were at the mercy of the doctor who gave a prescription for tonsillitis but not strep throat. Then a prescription that we discovered Sarah is allergic to and a separate one for Anna that hopefully she won't be allergic to.

When we returned home from visiting the clinic, gathering the medicines and special shampoo, we got everyone settled. The electricity came back on at 12:30 so I quickly started a load of laundry and within five minutes discovered we had no water.

This time though, there was a still small voice that reminded me... "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness..." Let me tell you, I have the weakness part. But I am so grateful that my Heavenly Father has the grace part. And that He shares.

"Catch A Tiger By It's Tail....!"

Or a gecko. Not a Geico gecko. Just a regular little guy.

And I do mean little. He was just a baby.

Yes, WAS.

The fact is, that Sarah found this little guy on the floor and was suprised when it didn't run away from her. So then, she touched it, squealed and ran around the house basking in her bravery. As she should have. When we had all gathered at the spot where the "scared" gecko remained, it dawned on us that perhaps he was only with us in body, not in spirit.

Mommy, What Is My Baby Holding?

Just the other day, Sarah went on the front screened in porch to play school with her dolls. She pulled out one of her favorite dolls from the basket and found a "creature" nestled in the palm of her baby's hand. It was a sticky, slimy slug. What are the chances it would find the palm of a doll's hand to curl up for its afternoon nap?

Gross.

Welcome to the family, LICORICE!

Yes, this is Licorice. And we like him very much.

So does Ben.

This is Ben AFTER playing outside with Licorice...

I don't really remember Anna and Sarah ever looking like this.

:)

Anna's Epiphany

Every week we get a bag of vegetables that the nuns on the side of Mt.Kilimanjaro grow and sell. This week, among the carrots, we discovered this interesting specimen. I suppose it isn't too unusual, but struck as as quite funny! When Anna stopped giggling, she said, "What IS that green stuff ANYway?!?" Apparently she hadn't ever seen the carrot tops as they are usually snapped off by the time we get them... the fact that it was a bit "siamese" didn't strike her as out of the ordinary. I don't know which is more strange... :)

Welcome to the family, uhhh... what's your name?

Here is the newest addition to our family! Isn't he cute???

We just haven't decided on a name yet.

Anna lamenting our dear former puppy, named Coulter, while warming up to her new puppy.

Ben and new friend.

Just to give a size comparison... Soon he will have a personal identity that we can call him by, and that he won't respond to, but until then he is just our new cute puppy, that we are cuddling with alot!

Weekend Fun

Roasting marshmallows in our garden with a mini campfire built by the girls.

Benjamin after polishing off a chocolate chip cookie!

Benjamin napping as a 16month old after a full day at the ISM Family Picnic.

Anna's restaurant, "a la carte" or "a la wagon".

Eddy Elephant

Each Friday Anna and Sarah start their school day with an assembly for all of Primary. Each time there are special awards given out to a few select students for various academic or behaviorial accomplishments throughout the week.

Last Friday Sarah received an Eddy Elephant award for her accomplishments in reading. We would like to share it with all of you. She would especially like to point out the shiny star on Eddy's head.

Well done, Sarah!