Sunday was my birthday, but since Sunday is always such a full day for us, we delayed celebrating until Monday. For dinner we had steak strips (from next-door), potatoes, and veggies. Afterwards we did gifts – I received many lovely handmade gifts. Then we had apple pie for dessert and ended the night with a birthday slideshow. It was a lovely way to celebrate my birthday – with my family, eating and enjoying each other.

In other news, Ezra lost his first tooth on July 16th. He’s been vigorously working on it for a few weeks now, and I pulled it out for him when I was putting him to bed.

Thursday, July 10, the Jensen Studio (students of Amy and Rebecca Jensen) gave a piano recital. Becca teaches Clara, and I teach the rest of our children and four of the Kanes. We met for lunch, and then the students put on their fancy clothes as we set up the chairs for the recital. Everyone did a wonderful job performing. I was most pleased with how the performers recovered from mistakes and finished each piece well. It was a very successful performance. After the recital, we handed out certificates and then had a dessert buffet and the kids played games.

Last week we celebrated 11 years in Cambodia. We’re so thankful for being allowed to be here and minister in this country. We’re thankful for the many ways God has lead us the past 11 years. We’re thankful for our co-workers and the friends we’ve made here over these past 11 years. Thankful.

Micah is doing well with learning to read. This week he enjoyed having a captive audience!

Last month Josh and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary. We thank God for the gift of 17 years together as one. For our anniversary Josh hired a friend to make our family lok-lak (our favorite Khmer dish) for lunch.

The next evening we watched our wedding with the kids – it was their first time to see it. It was a blessing to hear our wedding sermon again and look at all those who participated in our wedding – each member is still walking faithfully with the Lord, and we’re so thankful for them and their friendships to our family. We’re very thankful for the marriage God has given us and the children He has added to our home. We are blessed. Looking forward to this 18th year of marriage together!

We celebrated Father’s Day this past Sunday, after a week-long countdown calendar sponsored by the kids. The celebration started with an book written by the kids. Isaiah begins the story and then each child (including Micah) adds a following page. It make for a very interesting storyline. The kids also gave Josh a game – Dixit – except they made all their own pictures. We played the game the Wednesday night of that week. Thankful for Josh and the wonderful daddy he is to all our children.

In other news, we attended the Kanes’ graduation celebration last Friday night for Sophia and Hugh. And here’s an interesting caterpillar picture – you don’t want to touch of of these little guys!

Two days after Isaiah’s birthday celebration we headed to Phnom Penh for a week of errands and visiting. When I asked our kids what they wanted to eat in the big city, the only answer I got was “rice.” Guess our kids are not impressed with all the city options. 🙂 We did eat at Brooklyn Pizza on one of our shopping days. The first thing on our agenda was dentist appointments for 7/9 of us. I was concerned with how Ezra would do on his first visit (with a cavity too), but he did great. The staff was very kind to him, and he didn’t even flinch. After our morning at the dentist we headed to Decathlon for shopping.

Friday morning the four older kids went to buffet brunch to celebrate Kolianne’s 12th birthday. They had a great time. They spent the rest of the day with the Nhoemvans at the guesthouse with us. Besides our travel days, the kids got to spend time with the Nhoemvans every day. Sunday evening we had cake for Kolianne’s birthday and then the kids watches S&S Esther.

Other errands included shots for the three younger kids, shopping, printing of home school materials, etc. We also got together with the Whitaker family for a meal and the singing of Christmas songs/carols. We got to visit with Kim C. and spend a little time with the Queys. Ezra especially enjoyed playing with Jonathan.

It was a good “work” trip, and we were able to check lots of things off our list. Sadly Clara came down with some sort of virus, and then I came down with something too, so we weren’t able to do everything we wanted to, but on a whole it was a good trip and we accomplished lots.

We now have two teenagers in our family! We had a fun time celebrating Isaiah’s birthday starting with his countdown calendar which included a bike ride with Daddy, game afternoon with Mommy, swimming, movie night (Captains Courageous), fresh OJ, and other things. Each day Isaiah had to do a math problem to figure out which door to open next. The week before we celebrated Isaiah’s birthday, he was sick and quite lethargic for three days. We were thankful that he recovered in time to celebrate his birthday.

We ended up celebrating Isaiah’s birthday on Monday, since Sunday isn’t a good day for us to do anything extra. He had the most unusual birthday cake we’ve ever made – a white layer cake with minimal frosting. But that’s what he wanted, so we made the cake together on his birthday. For snack on Isaiah’s birthday we made pancakes. Then the girls played Monopoly with Isaiah in the afternoon. Isaiah chose tacos as his birthday meal – including freshly made chips. After dinner we did gifts and had cake, then we ended the night with Isaiah’s birthday slideshow.

Isaiah is a fine young man who is helpful and enjoys his siblings. He likes figuring out things and making things with wood. He’s faithful with his chores and does extra things like grinding the coffee beans and preparing the coffee at night for the next day. He has been a good student and always expresses thanks for the help I give him with his work. We’re thankful for our first-born son.

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!