Sorry!

Sorry we've not had many posts up the past few days! We have had power issues Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Supposedly they were scheduled power outages, but we had no clue until after the power had gone off and come back on. So, we've gotten a couple posts up today and will try our best to stay on schedule when Nana, Poppy, and Aunt Beth get here. They should be going to the airport in a few hours to start their journey to Africa. Please keep them in your prayers today and tomorrow as they will be traveling a long way. Hope you all have a great weekend! Much love to you all!

Words

Most Kenyans speak English as well as Swahili. We don't usually have a problem understanding them although sometimes we have to listen really closely. They speak with a British accent. Sometimes it's funny because they are speaking English, but the word they are saying doesn't mean the same thing to us as it does to them. We've tried to think of the words that are different yet still English to give you a glimpse of what we hear on a regular basis.

our word-their word

closet-store
flashlight-torch
hood of car-bonnet of car
trunk of car-boot of car
gasoline-petrol
powdered sugar-icing sugar
zuchini-courgettes
colored peppers-capsicom
pants-trousers
shovel-spade
sedan-saloon
line-queue
grocery cart or buggy-trolley
shorts-short pants
rug-carpet

Morning Activity

Dinah and John love to climb up on the couch and "read" their books. This is just about a daily activity whether it's encouraged or spontaneous. They are so cute when they do it on their own.

John had climbed up on the couch and I was taking his picture so Dinah decided she needed to have her picture taken, too. :)

There's that silly face when I ask for a smile. :)

Studying hard.

Chocolate Cake

I've been craving a chocolate cake with chocolate icing lately so I decided to make one yesterday. I thought I had a cake mix in the pantry but didn't. So I brought out my new Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook (thanks Mom and Dad) and whipped up a yummy made-from- scratch chocolate cake with my Aunt Linda's chocolate icing. It's really quite good. :)

Chocolate Cake

3/4 c. butter
3 eggs
2 c. all purpose flour
3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. milk

Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Grease bottoms of 2 8x8x2 square or 9x1 1/2" round cake pans. Line bottom of pans with waxed paper; grease and lightly flour pans. Or grease one 13x9x2" baking pan. Set pan(s) aside. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt: set aside.

Preheat oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, 1/4 c. at a time, beating on medium speed until well combined. Scrape sides of bowl; beat 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition Beat in vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and milk to butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. Beat on medium to high speed for 20 seconds more. Spread into prepared pan(s).

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes for 8" pans and 13x9x2" pan, 30 to 35 minutes for 9" pans, or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool cake layers in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove layers from pans. Peel off waxed paper. Cool thoroughly on racks; cool thoroughly. Frost with desire frosting.

Chocolate Icing

1 stick butter or margarine
1/4 c. cocoa
2 1/2 oz. evaporate milk (I just use regular milk.)
1 box powdered sugar

Melt butter. Mix in cocoa until well blended. Add powdered sugar and milk. Cream well and spread on cooled cake.

Prayer and Praise

Prayer~

Nana, Poppy, and Aunt Bethany will be here next Sunday night! Please pray for safe and easy traveling.

Our truck is not going to be ready by the time Nana, Poppy, and Aunt Bethany get here so we are changing our request to praying for a borrowed vehicle while they are here.

Rain...we have not had any more rain. Rainy season is coming up, but not fast enough.


Praise~

We were able to buy some food for a little girl in the grocery store last night. She was so sweet and humble.

Nathan and I are going on a date tonight! Thanks Kurt, Angie, and Micah for watching the kids!

Kiddos

Loopy came to Africa! :)

They loved having Ruth on the floor to play with!

What a cutie! I can't believe how big she is!

Ruth started falling over on John and he wasn't sure what to think. :)

I tried taking their picture yesterday morning since they were all dressed for church. When I told Dinah to smile...this is the face I got. :) Crazy girl.

This might be the best one...although it's not great.

I was trying to get them to kiss her on the cheek at the same time. They never got coordinated enough to do it at the same time.

They were being really quiet one day and so I went to see what they were in to and found them playing quietly at the water table turned tool table.

She's really getting the smiling thing.

Told you.

Washing Clothes

Most Kenyans don't have washing machines or dryers so they wash their clothes by hand and then hang them out to dry. It's quite interesting to watch them do it. I think it would take a lot of practice to do it as well and as fast as they can do it. These pictures are of the directions on the back of the bag of laundry detergent that we buy. We've been buying this same detergent ever since we moved into our house. We just bought it and never really paid attention to what it said on the back. When we actually stopped and read the bag, we found it was hilarious...

The Roll

I caught her rolling over on camera this morning. Isn't she adorable?! :)

Three Little Blessings

Aren't they precious?!


John Culver~ (he gets to go first this time since he's always in the middle) :)

He LOVES bugs. He'll find one and scream to get your attention so you know he found something. It's so cute!

He absolutely ADORES his little sister. He's always wanting to hug or kiss on her.

He's learning to put his clothes on by himself. He started being very adament about doing it himself so we're helping him a little and he's doing a great job!


Ruth Amelia Mueni~

She is blowing bubbles now! She's so cute to watch.

She's starting to grab her toes when I'm changing her diaper. I can't wait to get a pic of her doing it.

She loves for Dinah and John to play with her. They are so precious to watch interacting together. They can get her laughing really good sometimes.


Dinah Belle~

She's doing great putting puzzles together. We just got a new one when Mimi and Papa came and I thought I was going to have to put it up for a while. Boy, did she show me! She can do it all by herself!

She is really starting to like to color. She likes blue the best. :)

She and John LOVE to play outside...swinging, walking, digging in the dirt, looking for bugs, whatever it is...they love it!

Japanese Shrimp Sauce

We LOVE Japanese food...well, the fast food kind you can get in the States. We've been to one Japanese restaurant here and it was totally not what we are used to. So, our love for Japanese food drove us to figure out how to make it at home. We figured out with a little butter, salt, pepper, and soy sauce we can make fried rice and veggies VERY close to what we get at home. We've been searching for a recipe for shrimp sauce and found one that's pretty close and SO easy to make. Here it is...

Japanese Shrimp Sauce

1 1/4 c. Hellman's mayo
1/4 c. water
1 tsp. tomato paste
1 Tbsp. melted butter
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. paprika
dash of cayenne pepper (I didn't have this so I used a dash of white pepper.)

Using a fork or whisk, blend all ingredients together until thoroughly mixed and the sauce is smooth. Refridgerate overnight to allow flavors to blend. Bring to room temperature before serving.

The sauce will not taste right if you do not allow it to sit overnight. Don't try to substitute ketchup for the tomato paste. The water is needed to bring this to the right consistency. Use other brands of mayo at your discretion. Many cheap brands make it taste too much like mayo.

Brownie Pudding Cake

Last night we had the Hurds over for dinner. I made the good old standby of veggie lasagna, salad, and bread but tried a new dessert. It turned out pretty good. I served it warm with some ice cream and everyone seemed to enjoy it. It's like a brownie layer on the top with a chocolate pudding layer on the bottom, and it does it all by itself! Yum! I need to remember to take pics of the new recipes, but I forogt. I'll try to remember next time! So here's the recipe...

Brownie Pudding Cake

1 c. all purpose flour
3/4 c. sugar
2 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4. tsp salt
1/2 c. milk
2 Tbsp. cooking oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. chopped walnuts (I didn't have these, so I didn't use any nuts.)
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 c. boiling water

Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8x8x2 baking pan; set aside. In a medium bowl stir together the flour, sugar, the 2 Tbsp. cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the milk, oil, and vanilla. Stir in walnuts.

Pour batter into prepared baking pan. In a small bowl stir together the brown sugar and the 1/4 c. cocoa. Stir in the boiling water. Slowly pour brown sugar mixtured over batter.

Bake for 40 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool for 45 to 60 minutes. Serve warm. Spoon cake into dessert bowls; spoon pudding from the bottom of the pan over the cake. If desired, serve with vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!

Tortillas and Bagels

Dinah and John love to help Salomi when she's in the kitchen cooking. Last week she let them roll out the last tortilla, and they loved it!

John was so cute helping her with the bagels yesterday. He was obeying her so he got to stay and help. (Dinah wasn't obeying.) I think he really just likes eating the dough! :)

Prayer and Praise

Praise~

Nana, Poppy, and Aunt Bethany get here in 2 weeks!

We have new neighbors...Jerry, Breanna, Olivia, Grace, and Isaiah Hurd! We're excited about new friends and playmates for the kids.

We had a fun time at the Valentines Party last night. It was good food and great fun fellowshipping with fellow missionaries.

The new SP plane completed it's first week of flying.

We got to cultivate a Kenyan relationship this afternoon. Jared's wife and cousin stopped by for a visit (a little unexpectedly, but thankfully, we had a fresh pan of brownies to share).


Prayer~

Pray for the people of the region of Ukambani. There are many people starving to death. Without rain, there are no crops, and when there are no crops, people are hungry.

Our truck is still in the shop, but now there is a SP mechanic in charge of making sure it gets done. So that's a little more promising.

There are many people here that need help. Please pray we have wisdom and discernment in the situations that arise for us to help Kenyans around us.

Please continue to pray for rain. I don't think we had any this week.

When the Cat's Away...

...the mice will play.

Yesterday afternoon Dinah and I headed to the Valentines party a little early to help setup. Nathan kept John and Ruth here and was going to bring them a little later. When we got home last night, Nathan told me I needed to look at the pictures on the camera. These are the pics I found. They ARE cute, but Ruth is not to be pushed in the stroller by the kids. At least it was John and he won't remember. If it was Dinah, she would be asking to push her all the time!

Groceries

I thought it might be interesting for you to see how we purchase some of our food. Some of it is the same and some is very different. So here are a few of them.

Milk...obviously. But it comes in this box and you don't have to refridgerate it until it's opened.

Apple juice. It comes in these 1 liter boxes. It's about a $1.60 for a box of it.

A loaf of bread. It's called brown bread not wheat bread. If you ask for wheat bread, you'll get a blank stare.

Hot chocolate.

Shortening.

Margarine. Look familiar? Talk about copyright infingement. :)

A carton of yogurt.

Cocoa.

One liter of Coke. Yep, they come in glass bottles.

Cream cheese. It comes in 8 individually wrapped squares. It's expensive but not as expensive as Philadelphia cream cheese.

Eggs. We buy our eggs out at the duka. You can buy as many as you like and they put them in this little bag for you. We usually buy 10 at a time. Oh, and they are fresh eggs (as in unwashed with feathers and poo still on them). If you don't wash them, you don't have to keep them in the fridge. Ours just stay in the pantry til we are ready to use them.

This is the brand of mozzarella cheese that I buy when they have it. It's really good. We think it's better than Kraft. It comes in these balls and I grate it.

This is a sandwich cheese that we use for grilled cheese. I think it's imported from France and it's really good, too. We're eating it as I type this. :)

Happy Birthday, Honey!

Yesterday we celebrated Nathan's 26th birthday! Wow, it's hard to believe he's 26! It seems like yesterday we were just getting married, and he was 19. Last night we had a few friends from our estate over for cake, pie, and fruit salsa. We had a great time fellowshipping and the kids loved staying up late and getting sugar! :)

I love you, Honey! You are a great Daddy and a wonderful husband! Thank you for the incredible way you love us and provide for us. Happy Birthday!

Wow...

...can you imagine offering your child to someone in the grocery store line and actually being serious about it. I can't even begin to wrap my mind around it. It really happened to Lindy and Shauna, a couple of our friends and fellow missionaries here in Kenya. You can read Lindy's story here: http://www.onlyservants.blogspot.com.

Prayer and Praise

Prayer~

Our truck is still in the shop and no work is being done on it right now as far as we know. We really need it back for when Nana, Poppy, and Aunt Bethany get here. Please pray for a quick fix!

There is a petrol (gasoline) shortage right now.

We still need much more rain.


Praise~

Nathan and I got to go on a date Saturday! We had 2 babysitters for the kids, and took off about 9:45 Saturday morning. We went to see a movie and then to lunch at a nice restaurant. We had a great time, but almost didn't know what to do with ourselves without the kids. We decided we needed a date a little more often! :)

It rained Friday night, but don't stop praying!

What a Team!

Yesterday afternoon, Ruth and Dinah were sleeping and Nathan, John, and I were downstairs. Nathan and I were reading and John was getting books and climbing up on Daddy to read. Well, Daddy feel asleep and dropped his book. John crawled off of him and sat next to him on the couch and was "reading" Daddy's contextualization book. They were so cute; I just had to take their picture.

Always, Never, and Hardly Ever

Things you ALWAYS see in Kenya~

Men standing up next to a wall relieving themselves.
Litter.
Babies bundled up in 80 degree weather.
Flowers blooming year round.
Crooked trucks.
People walking.
Bananas and mangoes.
People sweeping the dirt.
People selling things on the side of the road.
Trees that have beautiful blooms on them.
Laundry hanging out to dry.


Things you NEVER see in Kenya~

Fast food restaurants.
Wal-Mart.
Coupons.
Hershey's chocolate.
Cheez-its.
Stores like Sams.
Dodge cars.
Customers pumping their own gas.


Things you HARDLY EVER see in Kenya~

Lawn mowers.
A road without potholes.
New clothes and shoes.
Things on sale.
Stop lights and stop signs.
People obeying traffic laws.
A car that's not banged up.
People smoking.
Cyclists wearing a helmet.
Children in carseats.
Police cars.

Great Fun

Mimi and Papa brought the kids a swing that their Great Aunt Anne and Derrick sent for them. Papa and Daddy worked to get a frame built while they were here and Daddy got the holes dug and the frame cemented in the ground last Saturday. We waited for the concrete to set and put the swing up on Monday. They LOVE it! We knew they would, but it's fun to see them enjoy it so much. Thanks Aunt Anne and Derrick!