Last week we had our monthly Music/Art/Prayer time. The Smedleys couldn’t make it for the classes, but they joined us for lunch and the ladies’ prayer time. The music lesson introduced eighth notes and was about Brahm’s Hungarian Dance in g minor No. 5. The kids did great. Becca did a watercolor painting lesson with the kids.

We were actually planning to meet a few days earlier, but Micah ended up getting sick for a few days. When he was feeling better we were able to schedule it for Friday (Thursday evening), thankfully everyone had open schedules.

We celebrated Valentine’s Day a day early (since Saturday night we’re busy with our Khmer service). It ended up being a day full of celebrations. Friday morning we went to the wedding of Plin and Loai. Loai is Pastor Chuol’s widow, and Plin is a widower who lives in the US (Khmer Jarai American citizen). We had them over for dinner the Tuesday night before. Josh preached the wedding sermon.

Josh took the boys to BL in the late afternoon (originally he was planning to go to take a baby to see a doctor, but the parents didn’t show up). The boys did errands, and Josh bought flowers for all his girls. The boys got to pick out candy at the store. When Maria got her rose she said, “Daddy, you’re a good Dad.”

Friday evening we made heart-shaped pizzas for dinner and ate sugar cookies for dessert. We were planning to decorate the cookies, but everyone was full and decided we could decorate the big cookies another day. Josh read our book about St. Valentine, and then we passed out cards. Passing out cards takes quite a while as each person gives out his/her cards individually, and then the person receiving the card takes time to look at it. Maria was very pleased to be able to pass her cards. It was a very fun time for all of us. After the cards, we gave each kid a new book and then Josh read two of the books aloud.

It’s good to have fun work to do!! January, which is usually a slower month for us, went by really fast. Josh was involved in a special government meeting to accept the Jarai language into the multi-language curriculum for early education. The men at our church had a “party” to celebrate the end of their study of 1 Timothy and Philemon. Our girls had a Ladies Literary Society Tea Party. The boys are working on having a special boys’ club. I’ve started a girls’ Bible Study with our girls Friday afternoon. And life just keeps being full with people and family.

Friday will be our 120th day of school. Everyone did a great job getting back into school after Christmas break, and we’re clipping along. This past Wednesday we had a history/music/art day with a Chinese theme, since that’s what the past few history chapters have been on recently. We made Chinese lanterns and made peanut butter chicken for lunch. Music class didn’t focus on Chinese music, but we did spent some time watching a video of traditional Chinese music being performed.

In music class, we’ve learned to recognize 15 pieces of classical music – from different genres and time periods. The kids are doing great with recognizing these pieces. They are also thriving with their rhythm reading.

Becca and Isaiah are busy with their jr. high and high school work during our history/music/art days, but they often smile as they walk by and say “I remember doing that!”