On June 18, 2020 we finished reading aloud through the Little House on the Prairie series (by Laura Ingalls Wilder). We started in January with the goal of finishing in one year. My plan was to read them to the younger girls as part of their school day, Becca and Isaiah decided to join. I wasn’t expecting the series to be such a hit or to finish in half a year.

Little House in the Big Woods – Jan. 22, 2020 (283 pages)
Little House on the Prairie – Feb. 8, 2020 (335 pages)
On the Banks of Plum Creek – Feb. 25, 2020 (339 pages)
Farmer Boy – March 17, 2020 (372 pages)
By the Shores of Silver Lake – April 17, 2020 (290 pages)
The Long Winter – May 6, 2020 (335 pages)
Little Town on the Prairie – May 23, 2020 (306 pages)
These Happy Golden Years – June 10, 2020 (289 pages)
The First Four Years – June 18, 2020 (134 pages)

My biggest surprise was how much Clara (4) loved the books. She decided she was Laura and was absolutely smitten with Almanzo. She was devastated when Jack died and when Mary lost her sight. She couldn’t wait until Laura married Almanzo. She loved when Nellie Oleson was angry. It was a delight to read these to Clara. The other kids got involved too. During our reading of Plum Creek they spent lots of time outside building houses in the mud.

The series ends on a downer. They should have stopped with These Happy Golden Years, as The First Four Years is rather depressing (crops fail for four years straight, house burns, baby boy dies) and doesn’t have the same tone as the other books. I think we’re going to try to find a copy of On the Way Home to see if that leaves us in a happier state.

What did Ezra do while we read? We usually read after breakfast, Bible study, and clean up were finished. Ezra usually napped, watched worship songs, or wandered around.

Other chapter books we’ve read this year:

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White – April 8, 2020 (184 pages)
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary – April 22, 2020 (158 pages)
Babe the Gallant Pig by Dick King-Smith – April 30, 2020 (112 pages)
The Hundred Dresses by E. Estes – May 4, 2020 (80 pages)
TumTum and Nutmeg – Adventures Beyond Nutmeg Hall (a three book collection) by Emily Bearn – April 2020 (read by Josh) (503 pages
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl – June 2020 (read by Josh)

The kids have also listened to many Audible books this year. We’ve especially enjoyed all the free books made available by Audible during the pandemic including: Five Children and It, White Fang, The Enchanted Castle, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Happy Little Family, The Lost Prince, The Princess Test, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, & Homesick – My Own Story.

A big thank you to the Gottwals for giving us many of the books in the Little House on the Prairie series!

In July 2016 the kids and I started reading through the Old Testament. We read one chapter every morning (minus Sundays). Or course, there were days we missed due to sickness or traveling, etc. We also took about a half a year break when were were traveling in the States. On May 28, 2020 we read the last chapter together. Now on to the New Testament!

This week Isaiah celebrated his 8th birthday! We started the celebrations two weeks ago with a Hardy Boys countdown calendar, which included gifts, snacks, making his cake, swimming, movie (March of the Wooden Soldiers), etc. It was nice to be able to go swimming. Ezra loved it and went down the slide multiple times.

Isaiah chose a soccer ball cake with a birthday dinner of hotdogs, baked beans, and mac & cheese. He also requested baked potatoes with sour cream for lunch.

After eating, we watched a slideshow of pictures of Isaiah’s past 9 years. Some siblings were surprised at how cute Isaiah was as a baby. Gifts were the last part of the night. It’s always fun to watch our kids give their sibling gifts. So much fun!

Isaiah’s main birthday gift was a new bike. His previous bike was form his 3rd birthday, we it was time for an upgrade!

We’re thankful for our newest 8 year old! Isaiah is finishing up the 2nd grade and enjoys math most of all. He’s almost done with 3rd grade math! He’s working on reading 100 books this year and has read 61 books already. He enjoys reading the Hardy Boys. He likes to creating things, climbing trees, riding bikes, and listening to books. This year Isaiah started taking piano lessons and is progressing nicely. We’re thankful for our firstborn son and the man he is becoming!

We’ve had a breakthrough in the heat and we’re so thankful for some rain and cooler temperatures (high 80s, low 90s during the day). One thing we do enjoy about hot season is that it’s also mango season. We’ve been enjoying mango ice pops almost everyday!

Josh and I continue doing morning prayer and coffee before our day starts. Most of our kids are out of bed by 6AM, so our prayer time is never peaceful.

Life continues without church or any church activities. Rumor has it that the government plans to keep schools closed until November (their “summer break is usually August -October), and that religious organizations will be the last to open back up.

We find creative ways to stay cool. Ezra decided to open a coffee bar….

The younger girls made their own cell phone recently. They found pieces of wood outdoors and painted them.

I taught Isaiah how to play Solitaire. Anna learned how to play Dutch Blitz and we had our first family game on her birthday.

Ezra goes between being very germ conscience to putting his fingerings into the mixing bowl. The kids made me a countdown calendar for Mother’s Day. I’m not taking many pictures these days…between home schooling and managing everything else. But we manage to get birthday pictures and event pictures!

Having trouble uploading pictures this afternoon. This is the one that came through….me and our youngest. We were playing with modeling clay, since I didn’t feel like being outside in the sun.

It’s hot season here and well….it’s hot. The big difference this week is that the lows are getting higher, so we’re not cooling down as much in the evening. (This week it’s getting down to 79 by 5am.)

Tuesday early morning, the power went out from 1:30AM to 3:30AM. All the kids woke up – hot. The four older kids took their pillows into our main room and slept on the floor. Josh set up a battery fan (weak as it was) and they were content. Once the power went back on at 3:30am – they straggled back to their beds and were all back in their own beds by 5:30am.

Ezra woke up so sweaty. I put him in bed with us with our car battery fan. That way he got the best air, but he kept snuggling close to me (my own personal heater!). He even started singing at 2AM. I think we just about fell back to see sleep right before the power came back on.

Exciting times! Usually we have good power, but during hot season it can go off 1 to 2 days a week for several hours. That Tuesday it was also mostly out from 10:30am to 4pm. We were very very thankful to have it back on and have a good night of sleep – with fans. We wait for rainy season, which usually begins sometime in June. But in the meantime, I’m enjoying having my laundry dry each day!

Ezra loves playing with Magna Tiles! He’s having so much fun learning how to build! Thankfully, we have hundreds of them, so there’s enough to go around for everyone!

No pictures this week as the server would not support any uploads.

Last week, our normally quiet home was filled with the sounds of a Buddhist funeral taking place across the street. For four days, traditional music was blared from the top of a loud speaker, along with Buddhist sermons, chants, and songs. You could not ignore the fact that someone had died.

After nearly two months of deterioration, our 94 year old neighbor died (we’ll call her Great Grandma). She was Davi’s and our landlords’ grandmother and the mother, grandmother, and great grandmother of many of our neighbors. When we first moved to Oyadao, Josh had some opportunities to talk with Great Grandma about the Gospel. Her response to almost everything he said was “it’s the same as Buddhism.” We were so saddened by her blindness to the truth.

When Great Grandma first became sick, I went over with the children to visit and pray with her. We sang some of the Khmer Bible verses I’ve put tunes to and read John 14:6. I prayed aloud that Great Grandma would turn and believe in Jesus. For the past two months, I’ve gone and visited with Great Grandma on the weekends. She was less and less alert but always permitted me to pray with her. I kept praying out loud that Great Grandma would turn to Jesus.

It was hard to be with someone who rejected Christ and had such strong faith that her good works would atone for her sins. It was hard to not weep and plead with her to turn to Christ. It was hard when she died – there was no hope without Christ. She is lost and we weep at her death with a loss that is so different than when you know someone is safe with Christ. This is true death.

Davi (Great Grandma’s granddaughter) told us that many of her relatives have tied a red string around their wrists to protect them from their grandma’s ghost coming to haunt them. For us it is a symbol of their bondage to fear. How Satan must delight in their fear. Davi told us she’s not afraid because she believes in Jesus.

Please pray with us as we seek to speak the truth of Christ to our neighbors. Pray that God will use their fear to turn them to Christ.

Last Saturday Anna celebrated her 6th birthday! We had a fun day celebrating our newest 6 year old. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19, we couldn’t go on any outings (swimming), but Anna took it really well.

Anna loves pigs, so I made her a pig themed countdown calendar. For Anna’s birthday we spent the morning playing Dutch Blitz. Anna wanted hotdogs, mac & cheese, and beans for her birthday meal. She also wanted carrot soup, which we had the day before with breadsticks.

Anna designed her cake and I was thankful it didn’t require too many colors. As part of her party we had our Easter Egg hunt (see last weeks’ blog).

This year Anna is learning to read. It’s been really neat to see her grow in this area. She’s also taken to practicing her math addition facts and I’m very pleased with how fast she’s caught on.

One thing Anna has always enjoyed is writing. I remember when she would fill every block of her notebook with lines. Now that she can read, she’s figured out how to spell words too. Just recently, she’s beginning to write her own books with original illustrations.

The week of Anna’s birthday, Clara began riding a bike without training wheels. It was amazing how fast Clara caught on – she just seemed to do it. But then I remembered that Anna has spent hours with Clara on Anna’s bike, running alongside of her, helping her learn to ride a bike. This is a testimony to Anna’s kindness and patience – even when her sister wasn’t so kind.

We’re so thankful that God blessed us with Anna. She brings great joy to our home.

We started Passion Week with decorating our Resurrection Tree, Palm Sunday weekend. The tree is a branch Josh found outside and most of our ornaments are homemade. Every evening we read Piper’s Lenten Lights. This is the first year we were able to use the special candle holder Josh gave me two Christmases ago.

Monday night we did a play of Jesus overturning the money changers’ tables in the temple. Clara took her part seriously and was an especially angry money changer.

Thursday night we reenacted the Last Supper with crackers and grape juice and feet washing.

Saturday night we had an Easter egg hunt. Josh had the idea to put paper tokens in the eggs that could be redeemed at a store afterwards (we’re overloaded with candy). We hid the eggs twice since the kids have so much fun finding them. Then the kids collected their winnings and we set up the store. The kids loved “buying” things with their egg money after the hunt was over.

Sunday we had our Easter Service at home, exchanged gifts, and had a roast for dinner. We did a few other crafts during the week to celebrate.

Last week Josh celebrated his 39th birthday. We celebrated on Saturday with grilled chicken, grilled pork patties, mashed potatoes, tomatoes, and rolls (of the pork patties). Afterwards we had strawberry cake.

This year I made Josh a birthday countdown calendar.

So glad we have this man as daddy and husband in our home. We are blessed.

Like the rest of you, we’re waiting to see how the coronavirus situation turns out. The Cambodian government has drafted a “state of emergency” law which is waiting to be approved. It will be interesting to see what this means for all of us.

A few weeks ago, Josh went to our local health clinic to see if they wanted copies of a health information sheet the CMA had produced. They were delighted and requested many copies. Josh also dropped off a Khmer children’s comic book that includes the Gospel interspersed with heath lessons.

Last week, Josh was able to deliver soap, masks, and the health information sheet to two Kachok villages.

We’re doing a lot more singing here and waiting as we miss our Jarai church and look forward to being able to worship with them again. We’re thankful that so far Cambodia has been spared from the spread of coronavirus. So far, there have only been 110 cases confirmed and 34 of those are recovered.

Last month Rundell and Judi Maree came to visit us for a Sunday. Rundell was the consultant who did the check on Jarai Matthew 1-16 chapters. It was great to spend time with the Marees and learn from them and their experiences. Judi took lots of pictures and shared them with us. She said she knows the missionaries usually don’t have time to take pictures of their ministries and she likes to do that for them. So here’s a few from our normal Sundays…

Our Sunday begins around 8:30 with Sunday School. There are four groups: men, women, children, and youth. The men and women meet outside, the youth meets in the church building, and the children meet in the old church building. Somewhere around 9:30 or 10 we gathering in the main building for church.

Twice a month we have a neighborhood Bible Club in the afternoon at our home. This includes games, singing, Bible lesson, and snack. We have a completely new group of kids coming since we got back from our time in the States. It’s been a good change and the group of mostly older elementary girls seems to be attentive.

Sunday evenings (no pictures) we have a Bible study with a few adults and some children. We sing, Josh teaches a lessons from Firm Foundations, and we pray and then have snacks.

Last week the Cambodian government asked all religious gatherings (Buddhist, Islam, Christian, etc) to stop until the Covid-19 situation is eased. (Public and private schools have been closed as well.) This means no church or Bible club for the time being. We were told that we can meet in groups of 5-10 people (which is slightly hard for us when our family already equals 7!). We plan to still have our Sunday night Bible study, but we will restrict it to people 13 and older – which will keep our numbers down (it’s around our kids bedtime anyway, so we’ll just let them read in their room).

Life is good!

Tomorrow Clara turns 4 years old! She’s full of spunk and has been enjoying her birthday month so far. Since we were going to be out of town on her birthday, we celebrated last Saturday.

One of the highlights of Clara’s Birthday Countdown Calendar was going to the market and buying a dress. She insisted she wanted a white dress, even though I told her they might not have that color. She was delighted to find a white dress at the second shop Josh took her to. I even had to make her cake with her wearing her white dress.

Clara’s cake request was a bit complicated. She wanted to include everyone that was present at her birthday meal. Thankfully, she said the men could be in a house. Clara made name cards for everyone at her party (she took the idea from A Birthday for Francis).

For Clara’s birthday meal she requested spaghetti. We made garlic breadsticks too. As you can see, Ezra thinks making breadsticks is dangerous business.

Clara was pleased with the way her cake turned out – brownie with frosting.

Two weeks ago, Clara and Anna finished All About Reading – PreLevel. We had an evening party to celebrate and give the girls their certificates. Soon we’ll start Level 1.

Clara has grown up this year in good ways. She’s full of energy and loves life. She loves books and playing games. She loves clothes and shoes. She loves eating snacks. Every night when I put her to bed, the three bears make a visit to her bed and she has all sorts of things to tell Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear. It’s always funny how honest she is with them about her day and her feelings and whether she was disobedient.

We’re so thankful that the Lord gave us Clara. Can’t imagine life without her spunk and thankful for how she’s slowly learning self-control and what I’m learning thought discipling her. Our prayer is that she will grow to love Jesus with all her heart, soul, and mind.

On February 13th, Ezra hit 18 months. Our little man doesn’t sit still often, so it’s hard to take pictures of him, but every once in a while I can snap something of him. He’s much cuter in real life – if you can believe it!

Ezra loves wearing his helmet and going on moto rides. Whenever he knows Josh is leaving or hears him coming back, Era pats his head and motions that he wants to put on his helmet.

Usually Ezra is sporting a bruise somewhere. He bumps his head a lot – but usually recovers quickly. He’s a boy!

Though Ezra naps well (which helps with home schooling), he doesn’t sleep through the night. For some reason he has chosen 4AM or 4:30AM as his morning wake time. This means Mommy and Ezra have lots of quality time together in the mornings. We take a pictures every morning to send to Uncle Johnny….sometimes other kids think it’s fun to get up early too!

Though Ezra talks a lot, he doesn’t say a lot of words. He has signs for please, water, all done, and no and he waves bye-bye. He says Mama, ksss (which means yes), look, what’s that, yuck, and wa-wa.

All Ezra siblings get along with him well and think he’s cute – even though he tries to get into all their stuff. He loves playing outside and walking all over the place. He loves books and is a fan of Eric Carle (he started consistently choosing all the Eric Carle books off the shelf). He has his favorite books he brings to us to read.

So thankful for our little man and all the joy and laughter he brings to our home. Can’t imagine life with our sweet little boy.

Becca took these pictures of flowers in our yard to share with you.

Passion Fruit Flowers.

Red Hibiscus

Bird of Paradis

And some others…

We celebrated Valentine’s Day with our traditional evening party. The kids had been working on their cards for weeks. We made heart-shaped pizzas for supper and had ice cream for dessert. Isaiah was in charge of the games this year – he planned a heart-hunt (similar to an egg hunt) and a few rounds of hide-n-seek in the dark. Afterwards, we read the story of St. Valentine, passed out cards, and ended with giving the kids their gifts. It was a lovely evening.

On his way home from work, Josh asked some people if he could buy some flowers from their front yard. They were more than happy to give him some flowers and even added a rose. For Valentine’s Day Becca made Clara a paper doll with a closet of clothes. Isaiah made me a flower ring. (The other picture is the valentines I made for the family.)

We decorated heart-shaped cookies for Valentine’s Day. We also gave them out at our Bible Club on Sunday.

In other randomness…I got creative while waiting for Josh to come home for supper and made creations with the kids’ food: two Troll Princesses, a chick, and a dragon.

A few weeks ago we had a painting morning. Each child worked on a different project. We ended with a picnic.

The other day in school Isaiah did an activity in reading that required him to read the words on the back of salad ingredients. He then made salads with all the papers he read. When he was done, he said we had to eat our salads. I shocked him by stuffing all the papers in my mouth. Making memories!

Isaiah completed All About Reading Level 3 right before Christmas! We decided to postpone his completion party until after all the Christmas activities were finished. We had a great night – Isaiah received his certificate and chose to play a game, have popcorn and have Josh continue our read aloud. The little girls are looking forward to completing their level of AAR so they can get a certificate!

The second week of January we took a 4-night vacation to Siem Reap with Christmas money we received from family – a great gift! We were all ready for a break after two intense months of Bible translation meetings and all the extra activities that took place in November and December. We stayed at a boutique and had a lovely time together, being away from normal work and everyday life.

One morning we took the kids to a bookstore and let them buy art supplies with some Christmas money a friend had sent them. They were so excited and loved picking out their own things. Afterwards we went for a walk along the river (I think that’s what they call it) and the kids enjoyed climbing on the elephant statues.

The next morning we used the money from the friend to take the kids horseback riding. Becca was excited. It was very thrilling for Anna to ride a horse for the first time and for Isaiah to ride by himself for the first time. The rest of us rode in a horse cart.

Each afternoon we took the kids swimming. It was a nice time for us to be away and the kids really enjoyed having the extra time with us (we didn’t bring any work along!). Thankful for the time we had together and for the mental break it was for us.