Christmas at Our House

Christmas was a several day event for us...

Christmas for the four of us, spending time with some friends, an overnight guest, Skyping with family in the States, and getting ready for a visit from family from South Africa.

Peppermint Mocha Recreation

Someone's feeling festive...

I love listening to beginning readers reading the Word of God!

Today the SA Hammetts went back home, so we drove with them partway to the border and stopped to do some fun stuff on the way. Things got a little crazy in the backseat with Tanni Rachel. :) 

Merry Christmas!

It’s the age-old story that never grows old… how God became a man and came to earth. But what? How can this be? For centuries, men have been trying to understand this. Movies have been made, books written, and every year around the world, little children dress up to reenact the most striking moment that has ever occurred in human history.

Jesus left behind everything – this we cannot imagine. Have you ever heard of ‘culture shock?’ It is a coping mechanism that we automatically default to when trying to live and understand a culture not like our own. I’ve been in cultures where it was a step backwards from my own – sanitarily and technologically. Yet, I still live as an American, dress as an American, and have my culture in my home. It is a minor shock to me to visit houses where there is no electricity, no running water, and yet, it is nothing compared to the shock I would receive were I to change my entire life to live that way.

Imagine the difference for Jesus. We can’t fully, because we don’t know the glories of Heaven… but can you start to get a glimpse of the difference for Him? He didn’t come to a digitally advanced age. He didn’t come to a well-educated and conquering nation. He didn’t come to a wealthy family in a good situation. He didn’t come as a full-grown man, or to royalty, or even to what most of us would call ‘clean’ circumstances. Instead, He was born as a baby, a helpless little baby who couldn’t even feed himself. He came as a Jew, to a poor carpenter and his penniless young bride, in a stable surrounded by the animals. Welcome, Lord Jesus. That would have been the ultimate ‘culture shock,’ and yet He did it willingly… for me.

What a picture of love! What a picture of mercy! What a picture of grace! No matter how many times we may reenact the precious scene, no matter how many times we may ponder on what everyone was thinking or feeling… we will never, ever be able to realize the complete picture of what happened the night that Jesus was born. So much culminated with His birth – hundreds of years of prophecies were fulfilled in a tiny little baby in Bethlehem.

Tonight, on this Christmas night, I am so thankful that He decided to come. I look forward to the day when I can be with Him in Heaven, and maybe then I’ll fully realize what it was for Him to come. Probably not even then. I hope they have instant replay, because I’d certainly like to see it! :)

'Tis the Season...

Made a huge batch of sugar cookies... iced with lemon, mint, and cinnamon. 

...for making cookies in the 'cool' breeze of a fan.
...for playing Christmas music and chuckling every time someone sings "the weather outside is frightful."
...for drinking cinnamon coffee and eating a bowl of watermelon.
...for turning the air con down as low as it can go, and simmering a pot of cinnamon and lemon on the stove to create the right Christmas 'atmosphere.'

{in progress: quilt}

Material prewashed...
Then cut into strips, and then into uniform little squares...

A general idea of what I'm envisioning...
We'll see what it ends up looking like. ;)

Stuck much?

Why, yes... it is rainy season here. Why do you ask?

December 16th, 2010

It’s late at night, but my stomach won’t let me wait until morning. Why this sudden midnight pang of hunger? I make oatmeal… I overpour and end up with a huge bowl. Fruit flies buzz around a banana that has broken open. I peel off limp skin and mush a knife through. Oatmeal with mashed banana… I feel like I’m six again. I crave the comfort of this food.

Today was one of those wonderfully busy days that isn’t stressful. Things start going in the morning and everything falls so nicely into place, so at the end of the day, you look back at all you have accomplished, and yet you don’t feel tired.

As we ran errands – picking up mail, getting price quotes on printing supplies, the hardware store again – I realized that I am becoming familiar with this Africa. Things no longer look new and strange. We drive by ladies in tribal dress, Zulu boys selling brooms, the homeless man who scavenges, zealous carwashers beckoning us into their stalls. None of these give me cause for second glance… this is the Africa that I know. Thorn trees, dung beetles, and stray dogs receive as much attention from me as the trash that blows in the wind. Is it good that this place is feeling normal?

Home again to hang laundry and clean up lunch dishes… the guys are off to Bible study; the afternoon has begun, and with it passing rain showers. With our new dining table, we now have a small table for the office, so organization has begun in full force. With our new dining table, our house is beginning to look more like home. Little touches here and there make our space more comfortable and more effective.

We all gather in the kitchen to have toast – it is really just the vehicle to try mom’s freshly-made peach jam. A nearby orchard gets two crops of peaches a year… first come, first served. To make our peaches last longer, she mashed and preserved them. Do you really think it will last that long?

Soon it will be dark, and I settle down for some Scripture writing. I’ve always loved the book of John, but I’m gaining a new respect for the book of Matthew while writing it out. Such things as I’ve never noticed before are jumping out. We sit together to listen to a sermon from home. The dog snores through the whole thing, though occasionally waking to lick my foot in affection. (At least, I surmise it is affection!) I keep my hands busy and work on making a memo board out of a ruined whiteboard. (We bought it last year while here, but since that time, someone wrote on it in permanent marker… oops.) I cover it in fabric, sew the corners, and tie ribbons while listening about Jesus our Counselor.

Cleanup around the house and preparing for tomorrow bring us to now… I'm sitting here thinking of many things while eating my bowl of oatmeal and mashed banana. I'm missing snowstorms and Christmas caroling, but I'm glad I can work in the garden and have long-lit days. I'm missing my boots and my sweaters, but I'm so happy for freckles and flip-flop tan lines. Such conflictions I have to have deal with! And yet, of one thing I am sure - I love comfort food.

Sewing Adventures... or what I like to do when I have the time

We were blessed to be given a disabled old sewing machine, which my brother was able to fix for our use. It has to be run on a transformer, and our only little plastic table shakes under its action, but we've had fun with it! My mom was able to sew some kitchen curtains, as the windows were an odd size and we were having trouble finding premade curtains to fit. This week, she's been working on some curtain toppers for our living room. It looked rather like a hospital waiting room - white ceiling, white walls, white curtains, tile floor. :) Our new curtains help pull color out of the furniture and soften the look of the whole room. It's a work in progress, what can I say.

One day, as my mom and I were deliberating over fabric choices for the living room, I spied these cute cotton prints, which happened to be on sale. I had the brilliant idea to buy three different kinds to make some culottes (split skirt) for my niece for Christmas. Now remember, I don't have a pattern, nor did I have her measurements at the time... but who was I to wait for that? 

Hhhmm... so here's what I ended up with:

The pink ones were my first endeavor, and turned out beautifully. I was rather proud (in a good way, of course ;) of myself that they actually turned out! My sis-in-law sent the measurements, and I was only two inches off in the waist, which was easy enough to fix! The second thing I made was a circle skirt out of the third, blue fabric I bought. That is still in process... and at this point, I think its future life will be a doll's skirt. LOL! I wanted to make another pair of culottes out of the purple fabric, but they ended up too narrow in the hips for the niece that I had in mind. No worries... I just cinched the waist and hemmed them a bit more, and they will be a good present to send to a smaller, younger niece in the Spring. Good thing I have so many nieces. :) 

(Just a side note... those of you who grew up wearing homeade culottes will appreciate this. Can you see the little tags I put in the back? That was always my pet peeve, all the years growing up with culottes. I could never, ever figure out which was the back and which was the front. I have vowed that the next generation of culotte wearers will not undergo the same stress!)

So then from the scraps I made this, all handstitched:

This little doll quilt only took me an hour or so to stitch up. I put in one of the DVDs I brought with me, and just sewed away. It was a very relaxing project, and will be a good birthday present for, you guessed it... a niece! :)

I've done hand quilting before, but always small projects - pillows, doll quilts, and once a very, very small throw (more like a lap rug). For years, I've been *meaning* to get around to making a full-size quilt, but other things always took precedence. I've always had quite a stash of crafting and sewing supplies on hand and projects in various stages of completion. I decided that now is the perfect time to work on quilting. If I do it by hand, it doesn't take very many tools, and I can work on it in the evenings that we don't have internet or power, or when I just want something relaxing to do. So I went fabric shopping again today:

I love the traditional Tswana fabrics, but I'm not a big fan of the Tswana dresses the ladies make with their traditional fabric (hhhmm... not quite my style). The fabrics always have a small, detailed, white print on blue or brown. I bought three blue and three brown, in six different patterns - one meter of each. Then I bought three meters of a plain white material. I prewashed it all and it is hanging up to dry right now. Then I will cut it all up into blocks, and lay out my pattern. I'm thinking of doing something very, very simple... I have in my mind exactly how I want it to look, so we'll see if I can pull it off.

We'll see if I can get this done before I go back to the States in about a year! My plan is to just handstitch the quilt top, then it will be easier to transport home, where I can back it and then I will have to quilt all the layers together. So this may be an ongoing project, but I thought that it would be easier to transport the quilt top and finish in the States, than to do the whole thing here and have a more bulky quilt to transport.

Those are the plans... I'll keep you posted. :)

Today is a good day

There are many things that make this a good day, in a string of good days. 

-The weather has been beautiful - breezy, overcast, and cool*ish*. It doesn't really feel like December, maybe more like September, but it is lovely all the less, and puts one more in the holiday spirit. This is my second Christmas in Africa, so I suppose I'm getting used to it - as much as this PA girl can get used to not having snow on Christmas day. 

-We got our front door unwelded and a gate put up, so we are now able to use the front entrance instead of going around the side all the time. :) 

-The internet connection is working well enough tonight to actually let me upload some pictures! Its strength comes and goes, and usually when it comes, the list of things to do and check and write is long. But I've missed blogging with regularity, and I'm feeling more word-inspired these days. Maybe it has something to do with not having anyone to talk to here (well, besides family, but you do get tired of talking to each other all the time :). I even changed my blog around a bit in anticipation of more posting!

Brilliant beauty

-Sunsets here are gorgeous... but quickly fleeting. A sky like this will last less than a minute or two, then a moment of twilight... and then dark descends. It still surprises me. 

Princess Kiara

-I really like having a girl dog. :)

Beginnings of a modest garden

-Yes, our yard needs a lot of help. We're working on it, a little bit at a time. We have a walled-in yard all the way around the house, but it isn't very wide and there is no grass. We had some grass planted in our courtyard last week, and we're working on resurrecting the flower beds. We'll see how well the garden does this year... we planted squash, watermelon, tomatoes, okra, and beans, and then I planted a little herb garden with cilantro, thyme, and parsley. I'm on the lookout for basil seeds.

Scripture writing

-I was doing Scripture writing last year when we were here, but when I got back home and into the busyness, it fell out of my routine. I had intended to read through the Bible this past year, as I have done for several years in a row. Once I got through the NT, Psalms & Proverbs, I took off on some other studies of interest until we moved here. So I decided to abandon my original plan of reading through the entire Bible this year, and started writing in Matthew instead. It's been such a blessing - so much is opened up to you when you are taking the time to write each word carefully. 

Cookie baking

-We have some guests coming this week as well as a trip planned to a neighboring country. Cookies are a must for times like these. In fact, I made a triple batch of triple chocolate chunk cookies, and I think I will be baking far into the night. I've baked 6 or 7 sheets already and I'm only halfway through my dough! Maybe I'll just finish up in the morning... then the house will smell like fresh-baked cookies all day! Yum. :) 

I am convinced that one of the greatest and most under-estimated pleasures in life is sleeping in a bed made up with freshly-washed, sun-dried sheets. There is nothing sweeter or softer... it's like you can feel everything good about sunshine seeping through the fibers and lulling you to sleep.

It's up! It's up! The Christmas edition of Grace & Honor is up! :) Enjoy!