Our Refuge day

A view of our part of the city.

Speed limit: 120km/hr.

Wish I had enough courage to take a pic of the woman who stepped out of this car. She was wearing size 2 black shiny leather guess jeans and had bleached blond hair.Caleb says it's the "Euro" look.

Cute little community on a hillside.

Getting lost can sometimes be fun.

There are dogs like this everywhere. They are quite territorial, usually with each other.

Sheep. Baaaaa.Baaa.

Not sheep. Chicken (Filipino-style), bulgur pilaf, marinated onions and tomatoes, and cucumber salad. Yum.

Our friend George let us use his "Refuge" for our "Throne-Room" meeting today. This beautiful mosaic hangs over his dining table. It was hand-made and contains over 13,000 little tiles.

Sweet time lifting our hearts and voices together.

A few of our favorites. Just a few.

Beautiful mini mosaic.

Lulu's gitar (guitar).

The neighborhood cats got some brief attention by the cat-lovers.

Bruce without his braids. :)

Two sweet sisters. What beautiful hearts for the Lord and this land.

The winter view

I'm still not sure how laundry gets dry in the winter...outside...when it's raining most of the time...

And, here we have a lovely picture of...wait for it...coal smoke.

The proof lies with this picture. Amazingly enough, there is great ventilation in the modern apartments that use coal, so the smoke simply exits through the chimneys. So, as long as you stay in your apartment, the air is fairly clean. Just don't open a window!

A little artist in bloom

This is Hudson's concentration face.

An artist in bloom...

Ah, Mater :)

 

Mavi blue is a good choice.

                                     

Opening gifts :)

That's one happy 5 year old!

Surprised by a Hudson sugar.

Birthday card from Grammy, Grandpa Bob, Aunt Rachel and Uncle Troy (and cuz Malachi)

Silas' Christmas card...It's the manger scene with the star and angels, the baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph. Then there's a lot of love represented by the big heart with an arrow.

Gifts from the Morse family.

Gifts from Grammy, Grandpa Bob, Aunt Rachel and Uncle Troy.

Gifts from Papa Mel and Grandma Kathy.

Books in English! Yay!!

figuring out his cool toy, wearing his new shirt.

Big gifts from the Smith and Tidwell cousins in Oklahoma and Texas!

Makes learning to read English even more fun! Thanks Tidwells and Smiths!

We also received packages from the Philpot's and their Sun School class, the Kress family, the Finch family and several Christmas and Birthday cards from friends and family. THANK YOU ALL!!!

New wheels for the boys

STRATEGIZE: to devise a strategy or course of action (Merriam Webster definition)

Trying out his new wheels from Granny Debi.

Exploring below our apartment.

The race is on! Yes, the asphalt is green...moss

A glance at the entrance to our apartment building.

Hey!!!

Okay.

Yippee!!

Homemade goodies

Pumpkin muffins. These muffins are hillarious. You can't really tell from the picture, but they are unusually tall and skinny. I like to call them "Cappadocia"muffins...

Cappadocia (Kappadokia) Turkey. Yes, they are funny looking.

Biscuit time.

A few sesame seeds and we are ready to go...they disappeared so fast I have no picture of them post baking time.

Caleb made this scrumptious lemon cheesecake topped with homemade candied lemon peel. A delightful treat to take to our friends' dinner party! There were no leftovers "maalesef" ("unfortunately").