Next week Maria turns 22 months old. Hard to believe our little girl is 2 months away from turning 2 years old. She a little firecracker who loves her family and loves to make people laugh. This past month Maria learned to use to potty, and I think we can officially say she’s potty trained when at home now. I was hoping we could do this during hot season (since once rainy season starts nothing dries, and it’s just not the time to try potty training). Maria has done great!

We got to spend some extra time with our teammates last month. Salem is Maria’s special friend and has loved holding her since she was little.

Maria loves to talk. Even before she was one, she would talk with all sorts of intonation. She now loves telling stories with the construction, “—- said.” She’s very good at giving commands to all of us, and she doesn’t want to be outdone by her siblings in conversation at the dinner table. She loves singing and knows her tunes well. She loves running around with her two older brothers and laughing!

When I took out this outfit for Maria, I remembered taking pictures of Anna in it when she was 22 months old.

Maria is loved by all and we can’t imagine life without her!

We delayed our Passion Week/Resurrection celebration by two weeks. Originally we were planning to delay by one week, due to the pastor’s Bible School, but then we unexpectedly had to stop in the middle of our Passion Week and finish it up the following week. (Which made Lent a week longer.) For Lent each of us gave up something and/or had a Scripture reading goal. This year we read Amon’s Adventure during Lent. Once Passion Week hit we read Noel Piper’s Lenten Lights each night.

We had our Palm Sunday reading and play. That night we decorated our tree. Isaiah made a tree for us this year. He drilled holes through a tree trunk and put bamboo sticks through it. It worked much better than anything we’ve used.

Monday we reenacted the cleansing of the temple.

Wednesday we had our Easter eggs hunt (see last week’s blog). Thursday we had our Mundy Thursday service with feet washing and remembering the Lord’s Supper. During feet washing we work from oldest to youngest, with the oldest member of the family washing the younger’s feet. Then the youngest children wash Josh’s feet.

Friday we had a Good Friday service. Sunday evening we celebrated the Resurrection. This year we had a meal of steak stips (our neighbor sells grilled meat). It was a delicious meal and really nice for me to not have to prepare a meal after all the busyness of Sunday church. After our meal we sang and did the last Lenten Lights reading. Then we had dessert and passed out cards and gifts. It was a good time celebrating our Lord’s resurrection.

This year we’re celebrating Easter two weeks late – things have been rather full here. Yesterday we had our family Easter egg hunt. We like to keep this a bit separate from Resurrection Sunday, so we usually do it on Wednesday. This year the kids decorated wooden eggs. Each child had his/her own base color to identify the eggs and then added designs on top of that. We figure this can be a project over the years, so there are eggs left to add decorative elements to next year. Maria had plastic eggs this year, since we knew she enjoy painting her eggs a bit more when she’s older. She did get in on the painting morning.

We did the hunt twice – once upstairs and once downstairs. Everyone had a great time. After the hunts were over, we opened our store. The kids traded their eggs in to buy items at the store – headlights, art supplies, candy, etc. It’s a really fun time, and everyone was pleased with their purchases this year.

Last week we celebrated Anna’s 11th birthday. The birthday fun started two weeks before with her Anna of Green Gables themed countdown calendar, which included swimming, gifts, movie night, fresh orange juice, bike ride with Josh, hide-n-seek in the dark, and other things.

Anna chose her traditional panda cake. This was her first year to help decorate the cake. Her birthday meal was tacos, complete with salsa, guacomole, chips, and passion fruit juice (all homemade – for the chips I buy corn tortillas and fry them). After the meal, we did gifts, then cake, and ended the time with a picure slideshow. Each of the younger boys did a special chalkboard sign for Anna’s birthday.

Anna is a very sweet young lady. She is probably our most helpful child, even showing inititive with the work of cleaning up yucky messes. She never complains about her chores and is faithful to do her daily tasks. She diligently practices her piano and flute. She faithfully walks the dog 30 minutes everyday, missing out on games while the kids play outside. Anna is a faithful language learner and is working hard to learn Jarai and use it. Kind. Diligent. Faithful. We’re thankful for our sweet Anna.

Last week we celebrated Josh’s birthday with the Crowleys. We had a birthday lunch, which made for a longer celebration instead of just an evening meal (and allowed the Crowleys to come). The meal included beef stew, challah bread, and veggies. It was a nice afternoon to be together. Josh didn’t go back to work for the rest of the day. In the evening we ate again and then played 5 rounds of hide-n-go-seek in the dark in our house. We’re so thankful for Josh – the head of our home, the founder of our feasts!

Last week we had a Performance Night. There were presentations, piano pieces, poems, a flute solo, a juggler dance, and a midget tap-dance. The three middle kids are taking geography, and each gave a presentation on a European country: Clara – Sweden; Anna – Ireland; Isaiah – Wales. The three kids each made a dessert from his/her country to have after the presentations. Becca gave her presentation on one of the legends of how Stonehenge came to be in its current location.

The four older kids performed piano pieces. Poems: Micah – The Caterpillar; Ezra – The Goops; Clara – The Land of Nod; Anna – I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud; Isaiah – The Road Not Taken; Becca – Death be Not Proud. Maria was not to be left out. She got up and used Becca’s PowerPoint slide and “gave” her own talk. She also did The Caterpillar poem with the motions. Flute: Anna gave her first flute performance and did a wonderful job playing Be Still My Soul.

We closed our night with a performance by the two boys pretending to juggle. Becca played the piano, while the boys had a box of trash that they threw all over the room and had a blast doing so. The finale was a midget tap-dance. Clara was planning to use her tap-shoes to dance while Becca played the piano, but week before the shoes became too tight for her feet. So we improvised – the shoes went on Clara’s hands and Anna’s arms became Clara’s. It was very funny to watch. (And took quite a while to set up properly!)

These guys have been with us for a few weeks now. The noise can be deafening at times, especially if there is one inside the house! The boys love collecting the exoskeletons and catching the insects. Besides the boys, I think we’ll all be happy when our cicada invasion is over….till next year.

Last week we celebrated Clara’s 9th birthday. Thursday we had the Kane family over for lunch. It was their normal day to come for piano lessons, so we added on lunch to enjoy some extra fellowship with them. Friday we had Clara’s family birthday celebration.

This was Clara’s first year to help decorate her birthday cake. She chose peanut butter frosting with chocolate cake. It came out both cute and tasty! Clara chose hotdogs, baked meals, and mac&cheese (with salad added on) as her birthday meal. I made lots of food so everyone would have enough, but it ended up that people weren’t as hungry as normal, so we had lots of leftovers. After the meal we did gifts, then cake, and then Clara’s slideshow. All Clara’s siblings were very intentional with their gifts for her, and it was sweet to watch the giving and receiving. This year we gave Clara a violin, so she can start the lessons she’s been wanting so badly. So far she’s had one lesson and is keeping up with her practicing.

Clara’s birthday always sneaks up on me after Christmas, and I’m often surprised to find out she’s going to be another year older. Clara is a girl who is full of energy and loves to have a good time. She’s made good progress in math this year, after struggling with wanting to understand, and she’s enjoying reading books. In the mornings, you’ll often find Clara playing downstairs with the younger boys, building towns and running cities. Maria, of course, loves being with Clara. We’re thankful for our sweet girl and looking forward to her year of fine and nine!

We’re busy celebrating Clara’s birthday the next two days! Love this girl!

We kicked off Clara’s birthday countdown calendar last Saturday with a morning bike ride with Daddy. It was Clara’s first time to hit the road on her bike and she did great. Other things on the calendar have been small gift, new book, “eat as much of your candy as you want from 1-4pm,” movie night, and afternoon game time with Mommy. We’re having fun celebrating Clara’s birthday!

The month has flown by and we’re getting ready to get into birthday season (March & April). Maria turned 19 months. She loves being outside with all the kids now, which makes the afternoons a bit tricky. She’s no longer content to stay upstairs while the kids play down below. She’s been healthy all month and is still waking up about 4 times each night.

We tried having a well dug again. The house we rent shares a well with 4 other house, and it runs pretty low during dry season. At the end of January the well truck came, hit sand, and decided to come back after Chinese New Year. They returned the first week of February and spent a day drilling. They got 68 meters down, hitting rock and sand along the way, when finally the sand broke through the pipe and they quit and said they won’t come back to try again.

Back in January we had a chick in our home for two days. Ezra found her Saturday morning, and Clara took care of her. She couldn’t walk and there was something wrong with her. We could only get her to drink water. I was able to get some seeds in her mouth. We put her in a box with towels and put a lamp on her for the night. I didn’t think she’d make it, but Clara was thrilled that she was still with us in the morning. And she was still alive when we got back from church. However she died Sunday afternoon in Clara’s hands. It was a very sad time for the girls. They buried Ruthie in the back yard.

Life continues to move on. Becca prints a monthly family newspaper which we enjoy reading aloud the day it’s released. Ezra is learning how to read. I’m trying to write Acts Sunday School lessons for the Jarai curriculum in any blocks of time I can find. And we’re starting to feel the heat of hot season!

Celebrating Valentine’s Day at home is so much nicer than being in an airplane like we were last year. Becca used raisins to make hearts on the oatmeal in the morning. Josh was in Ban Lung for the morning and brought back roses for the ladies and KitKats for the boys.

We made heart shaped cookies and decorated them in the morning. Each kid personalized a large heart for dessert. We made heart-shaped pizzas for supper. It takes a very long time to bake that many pizzas, as our oven only fits one pan at a time. Josh read to the kids while we waiting for the pizzas to bake. We had salad and soda along with our party meal. After eating, we exchanged cards. Everyone makes special cards to give out. It’s a fun tradition that Maria was really into this year.

For over a week there’s been a carnival in town, just a block from our house. It’s actually quite annoying, as the loud dance music goes until about midnight. We’re hoping they will end soon, but we’ve been told that as long as people continue to sign up to “khmer fight” against each other for prize money, the carnival will stay. We took the kids last Friday for the little rides. It opens at 6 every night, but doesn’t get really exciting until after 8. When we arrived, we had the carnival to ourselves. The kids enjoyed the trampolines, bounce house, and round-about rides. We ate cotton candy and caramel popcorn and arrived home before 8. It was a success! Note – in the picture Maria looks unhappy, but she really loved this ride. She was so upset when it was over.

Dad and Mom Jensen were in Cambodia the last half of the month to visit with EMU missionaries. They ended their visit with a stay at our house. We enjoyed spending time with them. One day we took a trip to a waterfall and another day Josh took his dad to see the river. Saturday morning Josh and I took a bike, while the kids played at home with Dad and Mom. Josh drove his parents 9 hours to the airport Monday morning. We had a good time together.

This week our little girl turned a year and a half! This picture says a lot to me. It was taken Sunday – fever day 11 for Maria – right after we got back from having her CBC checked. She’s on fever meds and was happy. I look very tired…the past 11+ nights left me lacking sleep. But here we are – smiling and having fun. Thankfully since Monday Maria has been fever free, and her cough mostly dried up. On Monday I also noticed Maria’s top two molars had broken through, which I’m sure added to her bad nights the past week.

After over a week and a half of a fever, it’s delightful to have our happy, little, talkative girl back. Now I just need to break her habit of waking up every few hours at night.

Usually January is a rather slow month for us – a month of recovery after the very full months of November and December. But somehow this January seems to be plugging along at full speed with no breaks. Perhaps this is because of our time in the States and being under the pressure to keep up with school, so we don’t have to go far into the summer. Or perhaps it’s the pressure of the SS curriculum we’re writing. Not sure. But we’ve been going full steam ahead!

We wrapped up our 12 Days of Christmas on January 6th with a reading of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Josh read while the kids ate cookies and drank homemade chai tea. We really enjoyed keeping Advent separate from Christmas and celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas. I think we’ll do it again next year.

Our puppy is growing and looks much better than she did when we got her. We’ve given Noel her first shot (or I should say Josh did), and she also appears to be worm-free. She’s now sleeping through the night, though this week she had 3 nights of waking up at 2am-ish.

We’re back into school – which was really tricky at first with Maria and a puppy to watch after. Maria loves to participate in school. She really thinks she’s one of the big kids. We’ve also been hit with some sort of virus. Clara started with it two days after Christmas. Almost all the kids have had it now and it includes a terrible cough and some have had fevers. The worst of it seems to last at least a week, with a lingering cough. Maria got sick this time and has had a fever for over a week (which the doctor said is typical of a few viruses). I’ve never given out so much fever-meds before. There’s been a few nights we’ve been up a lot with her. Everyday I hope that her fever will be gone….maybe tomorrow. Thankfully, when she’s on meds, she’s pretty cheerful. And I’ll be really cheerful when we’re through this!

This past week Isaiah and his friend Re set up a multi-level rope swing in our tamarind tree. It’s been great fun for all the kids. Isaiah takes it down at the end of each day, to avoid injuries or his rope disappearing.

We celebrated New Year’s Eve with a bonfire. I wasn’t planning on anyone else coming, but once the neighbor kids found out it became a bigger event than planned. We had about 10 kids show up. Thankfully I had enough marshmallows and hotdogs for everyone to roast. (I cut our very large hotdogs into thirds.) After the food we shot of explosive and fireworks, and then we sang around the fire.

We’ve been continuing with our 12 Days of Christmas. Lots of beautiful cookies being made. We also had Biah and Esther over to decorate cookies and play games.