A Bunch of Burts

Last week saw a flurry of activity for us.

Greg headed off to the South of Thailand for a survey trip with one of our co-workers. The kids and I took part of that time away to go up to Chiang Kham to visit his wife and kids while our husbands were gallivanting around Phuket.

Ok, so they weren’t exactly gallivanting, but they were down in the beautiful Andaman Sea area, with clean air and lovely beaches.

These are the kinds of boats they were island hopping in.

I will try hard not to mention that Greg in not wearing his lifejacket. Those who know me know that sort of stresses me out. Good thing he is an adult already.

Greg joined Rob for a week as he looked into a southern people group to see what sort of Gospel witness and access exists among that people group. It involved quite a bit of driving and island hopping, visiting multiple villages and meeting with village headmen and other local churches.

One of the villages with the tide in. It is easy to see why this people group was hit so hard by the tsunami a few years back.

A similar village at low(er) tide

The Lord clearly was paving the way for them though with contacts and timing, and the time was very profitable.

This time of survey, was not for us to see if we would be working with this people group, but for the leadership of Thailand to be able to think about future works with NTM Thailand.

We are still eagerly anticipating moving up to the north and joining the Thai Lue team.

For my part, the drive up to our co-workers’ village was smooth and uneventful. Just what I want in a road trip. ha.
We enjoyed several days with our friends, and Zach and Calvin played and played and played, only stopping to crash for the nights. We girls brought up a special project, fabric for making aprons. This was Leah and Ema’s first time using a sewing machine, and they thought it was great and are ready for their next project.
(I know, shame on me for not teaching my girls to sew earlier. I am shaking my finger at myself.)

sorry, no pictures, Greg had the camera with him. But I would much rather have the pictures he took anyway!

Greg arrived back last Thursday around 2:00pm, and by 6:00 the next morning, he was off again!
His men’s group at church had an overnight outing at a local dam for a time of fellowship and fishing. There are a couple of kinds of fishing here, the kind with poles, the kind with nets, and with guns. Nail guns. Greg has his own fishing nail gun, courtesy of a friend, and he shot his first fish with it last weekend!

We are sort of getting back into a schedule around our house, but of course there are some ‘extra’ events. What would a week be without those?
The group we attended the Thai Bible school with last year are graduating this week, and there is a wedding out the same direction of one of the young men who attends our church. Greg would really like to see the group of guys from Bible school one more time before they all scatter to go back home to their own villages and churches and is planning on heading up to the village where the wedding will be.

So, he left again this morning, but this will be a quick trip with him only gone for two days.

I mean really, he HAS to be back for our anniversary on Friday!
We are sending to kids a friend’s house, and we are off for a date!
Whoo-hoo! It has been waaaaay too long since we had a night out. Come on Friday!

Is it the little things that make a big difference.
One of our friends from home sent us a care package that had a tub of frosting around Christmas time and we saved it for a Valentines cookie party. It was sooooo good. Somethings are hard to duplicate.
Although I will not claim that this tip will make your frosting taste like Duncan Hines, I find it does make it better.

#1. Use real butter, or for a richer flavor cream cheese. Sometimes I will even use both, for a very nice result.

#2. Almond extract. Just a tad. This is the secret. I do not substitute it for the vanilla flavoring but use it in addition. Only a smidgen is needed. Half a capful of the little brown bottle, or maybe just a drop or two if you happen to have a large bottle and therefore a large cap. The frosting does not taste strongly like almond, and if you ask someone, they will probably not be able to identify the difference in flavor. But it makes a difference and the result is very tasty.

That is my nugget of psuedo-wisdom for the week. Thanks for stopping by! Remember, WFMW has moved to We Are That Family if you are searching for more useful hints.

How are we already in the third week of March?

One of our most important events of the last weeks was of course the birthday of my only son!
Zach is now 11 years old, which seems totally improbably since he was just a sweet baby.

Zach asked for a cookie cake this year instead of regular cake. I think Ema wants some!

He had a great birthday party last week, Greg took him and some friends paintballing at a field just down the ringroad from us. As surprising as it sounds, it was less expensive than taking him bowling like we did last year! Everyone had a blast and Zach had a great time connecting with his friends from Grace that he does not get to see as often now that we are homeschooling.
We love you very Zach and are so thankful for your 11 years, and pray that God will be your leading influence this year and every year as you grow into a man of God.

Last week both Ema and Zach played in futsal tournaments as well. Futsal was a new sport to us here in Thailand and it is very popular. It is somewhat like indoor soccer, but played on a basketball court with a smaller and harder ball.
Zach was goalie and did a great job. Goalie is not a position I would like to play, but he seems to enjoy it.

Ema is a defense player. She has not had as much experience as the other girls on her team, but she played her best and came away smiling, that is a good sign.

That is Ema with the bright blue socks, always easy to spot her!

Ema’s team did well in the tournament, and came away with third place, but only gave up two goals the whole day. Since they did so well, they were invited to go back last Saturday and play in the JV tournament as they needed one more team. That was a lot of futsal for us last week. (which translates to not too much school )

This past Saturday Leah and I were invited on an outing with the girl who sold ice at our neighborhood store. Since we buy a bag of ice every day, Leah saw this girl alot. She invited us to go to a waterfall and the temple with her. What I did not know was that she was sneaking off of work to go, and now does not work at the store anymore. Yikes! This young lady is only 17 years old and has clearly been on her own for a while. She seems interested in developing a relationship with us, and so we would ask your prayers as we interact with her and get to know her better.

Leah and A on the trail down to the waterfall

Whew! The month is not even half over. But something good is coming up for me at the end of this month, our anniversary! We have already conspired, er, I mean arranged to have the kids stay with some friends for the night. Definitely looking forward to that.