A Bunch of Burts

This week Works For Me Wednesday is the “Mom I’m Bored” Edition.
School is out or will be shortly and the lazy summer days begin. But so do the bickering and fussy attitudes from boredom, right?

A hike to a lovely lake is a great summer activity! Don’t forget your water bottle.

I am eager to read some/many/all of everyone’s ideas. Our summer will be living in two different places for several weeks each while we are studying Thai immersion style or out in a village for our village orientation. The kids will be out of their normal routine and a bit more constricted on what is available for them to do since we will just be bringing essentials with us and living in unfamiliar surroundings.

But no matter where you are, I find one of the best boredom busters is simple.

Turn off the TV.
No TV, no videos, no computer games.
This encourages (forces) your kids to play together, with the neighbors, invent games, or play the ones languishing in your cupboard.

Along with turning the TV off, you need to be willing to let some mess creep into the house. If kids are doing art projects, inventing or making up games, it gets a bit messy. (Don’t get me wrong, expect clean up to happen and preferably before moving on to another project, but let the project have room to grow.)

Paint ball is certainly messy, but tons of fun too. Pull out those old holey clothes for this one and don those saftely goggles!

Some things we do when we have free time:
Bake cookies
Play games, all kinds
Puzzles (I know not everyone like this, but they are a big hit at our house and if you are not careful, a real time sucker!)
Write letters (email or snail Surely there are old friends and grandparents and such that would love a letter and certainly would write back, thus encouraging more letter writing on the part of your kids. )
—-and letters do not have to be just written; try pictures, collages, ‘ransom’ style from cutting magazines, ect…..

If you have enough of your own or other kids around, play outside games:
Kick the Can
Sardines
Soccer
Hide and Seek
Jumprope
Badminton (don’t even need to have a net)
Don’t forget old fashioned wood, nails and a hammer and imagination!

This next one may not sound like much fun for your summer vacationers, but definitely good for the family: Chores

Doesn’t Ema look like she is enjoying helping Mama with the laundry?

If the kids have free time, use it! Summer is a great time for Life Training. During the school year, if your family is like ours, time is gone each night after homework and activities. Learning housework (inside and out) is important, and helps free Mom up so trips to the park, zoo, beach ect.. are more feasible.
(When we still lived in WA, all three of the kids loved to chop firewood. It kept them busy for hours. And summer is when the wood needs to be chopped and stacked so it is ready for next winter. Not to mention good exercise )

Zach is very proud of his first piece of firewood. Chopped it all by himself.

That is way more than my 2 Baht worth.
See you at Shannons!

Happy Summer Break,
Tina

P.S. These were pictures from our time in Jungle Camp as part of our training with NTM. Even though life was ‘primitive’ and the kids had many chores each day and no ‘modern’ entertainment, all three of them will tell you it was one their favorite times!

I have read several posts lately on a subject I can totally relate to.

Ants.

I hate intensely dislike them. I never thought much about them before, but we are innundated with them, in several varieties.

Although they are used as a symbol of industry and hard work in Scripture, I feel they are clear evidence of the Fall. I mean really, there is something wrong that they can emerge from a microwave unharmed. Chicken is cooked, butter melted and the bowl used is piping hot, but the ants, no harm done. They crawl out and go about thier business of invading my home. Creepy.

Maybe I need to have some more of these around, keep them out of the house.
(Beware, semi-gross picture coming up)

Notice the little leg bones poking out. These ants mean business. Exhibit #1 why I do not want to share my house with them.

By the time I was able to get this posted, I checked on this unsuspecting gecko again. Picked completely clean.

We have tried all sorts of things to get the ants out of our house. Unforuntately, they live in our walls, behind the tiles and in the cement. I think they are here to stay. But I do not have to like their company.

This week, Works-For-Me-Wednesday’s edition is what does NOT work for you. (Doesn’t-Work-For-Me)
I was not sure if it meant to post about things you do not like and how to fix them, or ‘hints’, ‘helps’, recipes, ect…. that turn out to be not so helpful or do not live up to their claims.

I am going with the later.

I love recipes. I love to bake. One of my favorite things to check out of the Bookmobile (mobile library for those of us who live waaaay out in the sticks,) was cookbooks. I especially like the cookbooks that give small snippets of info regarding the history of the dish, ingredients or country of origin.

One of my favorite cookbooks is one I found in the Mission Barrel while we were in Bible School. It is called The Heritage of Southern Cooking by Camille Glenn.

Fun, fun, cookbook. Great old pictures and anecdotes all the way through. To be honest, I only make a couple of things out of the book, one of which is Chocolate Finale Cake, which we renamed Chocolate Sin on a Plate. It is soooo good. But the book is great fun for me just to look through every once in a while and think about making something else from it.
The drink section is a riot. With perhaps one exception, all the recipes call for alcohol of some kind, and the ones that don’t, list it as optional.
I knew several ladies from the South in our years of training, and when I teased one of them about the drink recipes, she quickly retored, “How do you think we are so hospitable all the time!?” Hahahaha, ummm, you were joking, right?

But I digress.

I try to make a hot breakfast each morning for the family, but tend to get stuck in the same dishes over and over.

Searching for new ideas, I saw a tasty sounding recipe for cheese blintzes and having had them before at a restaurant, really wanted to try them out.

Not the actual crepes I served, but tasty looking don’t you think?

The family lliked them, they are healthy, give a good mix of dairy, protien and bit of carbs, low sugar too, but… I am NOT making them again.

2 hours they took me to make. 2 hours!

Making the little crepes on my sort-of non-stick pan. Filling the little darlings with the cheese mixture and then baking them. I can only do one sheet at a time in my miniature oven, and so by the time I was done, it was nearly time to think about making lunch.

No ladies, cheese blintzes do NOT work for me. At home anyways. Maybe someone out there has a tip to make this easier, but for now, they shall remain restaurant food in our family.

Head over to Shannon’s at Rocks in My Dryer for other warnings and caveats today, they may save you a headache, money, time, or all three!

Today was the first full day of our month without Greg.

Yesterday Greg left to begin his term at CDM (Church Development and Missions), a bible school in Maesariang, about 4.5 hours from Chiang Mai. This is a chance for him to gain a new level of conversational Thai, build relationships with Thai Christians, learn the high language used for Scripture and teaching about the Lord, to sit under the teaching of two very good teachers and go through the main stories of the Old Testament, from Creation to Christ.

The kids and I will follow in a month, after the school year is done at Grace. That seems like a long time. At least for me.

I know that military and government wives are often separated from their husbands for very long periods of time. But I have been spoiled over these last few years, and have grown accustomed to having my dear husband around every day. It is one of the perks of being a missionary team, we see each other all the time and work together.

So for this spoiled wife, a month sounds awfully long. To date, in our marriage of 15 years, we have only spent 2 weeks at the most apart. (When Greg first came out to Thailand while we were still in training with NTM).

I just got off the phone with him as he was getting into bed. He gave me the rundown on what his days will look like at bible school. Very long. Starts at 5:30 and ends between 10 and 11 each night.

And this will be all in Thai. He will be the only English speaker until we arrive in June. Immersion, the best way to learn language, right? That is our plan.

So if you think of us, please pray for Greg. That he would be able to understand as much as possible, retain the new words he will be learning and recall them for use when appropriate. When he grows frustrated or discouraged, that he would lean on the Lord, and not rely on his own strength and understanding. Also, that this time would be one of blessing for him and that he would be a blessing to the other students there.

And for us too? I rely on Greg for so many things, ferrying kids back and forth from school and activities, paying bills (remember, no check to mail here, all is done in person.) and of course taking out the trash. Please pray that we will diligently finish our studies here in Chiang Mai before heading out to join Greg, and to take care of all that needs to done to leave the city for a few months.

Thanks!

Staying up late because I do not like to go bed alone,
Tina

Update. Yes, already. I am hearing all sorts of creeping and crawling noises that I usually do not hear. We have had a HUGE amount of rain these last few days and I am thinking it has washed creatures out of their lairs and they are looking for a dry place to ‘hang out’.
So far we have not had any snakes or other beasts in the house, beyond the normal little lizards, cockroaches and ants, but are we taking bets that now that Greg is gone I will have the pleasure of their company? eek.

Ema and I have been taking a Thai dance workshop every Tuesday afterschool for a month now.
It was a class offered to the students, but I showed up on the first day and asked if parents could come too.

Have you ever seen any Thai dance? Ever seen the King and I? It may look slow and simple, but it is much harder than it looks! And my hands and wrists are sore after each week.

We have been learning at a fairly quick pace. I find I must put away my former dance teacher mind and just try to keep up with the new moves, terminology and music. The music is difficult for me, as I cannot find a meter like I can with ‘western’ music, counting off my beats in sets of 8 or 4. There does not seem to be a steady underlying rythm, but it is probably just my untrained ear to Thai music.

Ema and I missed a week. Oops.

When we came back, I was told that in my absence, the teachers decided that I would be doing a solo of the Mahnora dance for the teacher inservice in May.

Ummm, I had not planned on participating with the girls for any recital. This is a student class after all.

The plan was for the kids to do the dances for the teacher development session in May, which deals with cultural awareness for the staff and teachers at Grace. Inservices of this kind are required by the Department of Education. I am all for them, but not sure I am all for yours truly doing a solo.

Apparently, there is only one costume for the Mahnora dance.
A bird costume.

I looked for a picture on the web, but could not find one. I will decide after the fact if I will post one after my performance. (we will see not only what it looks like, but what I look like in it! )

My previous Thai teacher has done some performances at language school, and her outfits have always been gorgeous. However, they have also been for small little bodies. I am not, cough cough, Thai-sized.

No, I will not be holding a lit candle while I am dancing. Let’s not get crazy. Besides, I would probably set my wings on fire.

Looks like a good time to get back on “The Eating Plan”. Nothing like being on display for motivation, right?

I am eager to see Ema all dressed and pressed for her Thai dance though. And I admit, I have really enjoyed Thai dance class. And even though I am nervous and not very confident about my upcoming debut, I don’t truly mind. The experience already has helped me build some relationships with the Thai teachers at Grace and practice my Thai too! Perhaps I can encourage others to do the same and step out beyond those comfort zones.

My old teacher, Khwaan is in the white. Aren’t those dresses beautiful?