May 30th we celebrated the end of our 2024-2025 school year. We’re very proud of how hard all our children worked to complete the school year by the end of May. We didn’t take many breaks, since we started later than normal, due to coming back from the US, and no one complained. They were all ahppy to get the year done.

Our graduation meal was steak strips. We had to delay starting our program, as we waited in the dark for the flying termites to stop swarming at our lights. After our program we had apple pie for dessert and then had a slideshow reviewing the past school year.

During our program, each of our children recited a poem or section of Scripture:

9th Grade – Becca – Judges 4-5
7th Grade – Isaiah – Acts 7
5th Grade – Anna – The Book of Ruth
3rd Grade – Clara – Northwest Passage by Robert Lewis Stevenson
K-6 – Ezra – The Elephant by Arnold Sundgaard
K-4 – Micah – Busy by Phyllis Halloran
Maria – an original composition

After the recitations, I gave out diplomas to all the kids, including a Big Girl Potty Award to Maria. After Micah recited his poem he wandered over the couch and eventually fell to sleep with a slight fever. He kinda woke up for his diploma but then went back to sleep.

One funny story about Micah – when he saw the chalkboard sign I made, he asked to make a sign as well. I left him up front with all the necessary supplies. He really took things to heart and made himself a personalized graduation sign.

Very proud of all our children!

We celebrated Mother’s Day a week late, since we just did Easter the week before. The kids started the week off with giving me a Mother’s Day countdown calendar. The calendar had quotes on it from different books I’ve read aloud to them over the years. The first day was a special original book from the kids, and the folllowing days were gifts from the kids. For Mother’s Day we had breakfast for supper – bacon (Becca), pancakes (Isaiah), fruit plate (Anna & Clara), fruit juice (Clara). I helped in the kitchen and it was fun helping our kids work on a meal together. I’m thankful for our 7 kids. Thankful for my man who wasn’t afraid to have lots of kids. Thankful for each of the gifts God has given us to us.

Most of the day and now again too. Can’t post. The following was added later. Life goes on here when the electricity goes out. We put tape over the fridge so no one will open it. We work on the porch if we need more light. We make our rice on the gas stove instead of the ricemaker. The only big concern is running out of water – since we have to pump from the well to the tank on the top of our house. The tank serves our house and our landlady’s house – so we have no way of knowing how much water is being used. The water issue makes me a little nervous – I feel like we can live without all the other things, except water. Thankfully, we don’t lose power that often. It’s usually when they are cutting trees in town or when a storm is coming.

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.