THANKSGIVING DAY

Thursday, November 22, 2012

 

We had never owned a turkey.

We had never killed a turkey.

We had never cooked a turkey...yet somehow we were responsible for all three this year!

Yikes!

Our Australian intern helped out (who, by the way, had never done the above mentioned things either).  He and his wife were great sports as they listened to us read each lunch about the history and traditions of our American Thanksgiving.

I love how all the kids are watching as Samuel kills the turkey.  This is better than TV!

 the plucking

Call my kids weird...they loved playing with the turkey head and eating the brains and feet....like I said, weird.

 

Here are some of the decorations the kids and I made for the event.   

 

Each guest had to write on a feather the things they were thankful for and then we added them to the turkey.

 

The McKissicks plus our 2 interns made hand print turkeys.  They turned out really cute.

 

Turkey table center pieces.

I made my skirt, a friend helped me Julia’s dress and Ginny made her skirt.  I’m 20 weeks pregnant.

As my SIM team mates trickled in one after the other Thanksgiving morning, so did the smells of delicious foods such as homemade stuffing, cranberry sauce from the US, mashed potatoes, rolls, cheesecakes, pumpkin, mincemeat and pecan pies.  Yum!

 

We had a wonderful gathering of 38 at our house complete with blazing sun, sticky humidity, yummy foods and a talent show.  The MKs put on a talent show which included memorized poems and scriptures, musical pieces, Joshua’s experiment, Ginny leading her goat through an obstacle course and grand finale of a reveal (which I will explain in the next post).

 Ginny and her pet goat, Cuzco, practiced hard for this obstacle course.  They both did a great job.

Ginny played an original composition.

 Joshua did a coke explosion demonstration.

 

Ryan and his friend demonstrated some ball tricks.

 

 

But the day wasn't over...we still had the grand reveal....you'll haveto stay tuned for the next post....

 

 

LIFE

ROOSTER Woes

What we thought was our neighbor’s pesky rooster has woken us up each morning at the crack of dawn.  Jeff and I have grumbled at the irony that he spent so much time building our chicken coop to contain all our fowl and yet we still have fowl problems.  We’ve lain awake in those wee early mornings plotting how to get rid of the problem.  Would just clipping his wings and throwing him over the fence be enough?  Or would more drastic measures need to take place?  Would anyone notice? 

                        Finally we’d had enough.  Between the lose hamster scratching on our wooden wall all night, the three 5 week old puppies moaning and groaning, our two dogs barking at cows being herded past our place; the rooster alarm clock had to go.  Jeff asked Ginny to catch the rooster so he could kill it.  She looked surprised and said, “But we brought that rooster with us when we moved from San Francisco?”  Our rooster?  It was ours the entire time and we could have killed it weeks ago.  We feel like idiots, to say the least.

 

KITCHEN Woes...I don’t completely understand why, but my kids substituted cumin for cinnamon in the muffins this morning.  It’s just one of those times I wish I hadn’t asked them to quadruple the recipe.

RETREAT...Our SIM missionary ladies retreat was fabulous.  So thankful for the women I get to serve with and learn from.

TYLER SAYS...While the kids were swimming, Tyler asked Ginny to count how many minutes he could stay underwater holding his breath.  Tyler dove under and came up when Ginny had counted to four.  “Four seconds, Tyler.”  Tyler replied disappointed, “Ginny, I asked you to count in minutes.”

SICKNESS....I don’t know what is worse – having all the kids sick at the same time or a different child (and Jeff) sick 7 days in row.  The latter plight was ours.  Thankful to all be healthy again.

INTERNS...Samuel and Kate – a medical couple from Australia– are doing a month long internship with us.

CAR TROUBLES...While driving back from Asuncion, Jeff noticed a strange sound under the hood and a near total loss of power.  Yesterday the car wouldn’t start and today we are having it towed back into Asuncion (5 hours away).  It doesn’t look good and it doesn’t look cheap.

PREGNANCY UPDATE...(11.16.12)....I felt the baby move for the first time last night!  Ginny was sitting next to me when it happened so she got to feel the baby too.  I am 19 weeks.

JULIA UPDATE:

Loves to yell, “Gooooooooaaaaaal!” when the boys are playing soccer.

Loves to talk on the phone.  She loves to put my phone to her ear and pretend she’s in a conversation with someone.  She’ll talk, then listen, laugh and talk and listen some more.

Covers her eyes and says, “I see you.”  Then uncovers her eyes and says, “Where do you go?”

New words every day.  She finally says all her siblings’ names.  

Plays Rock, Paper, Shoot with the kids.

RANDOMNESS

Cuzco playing dress-up

I found Micah asleep for the night like this,

Turkey Tom

This is Tom.  His days are numbered.

Happy Thanksgiving ya'all!

PUPPIES

Joshua and Ginny had fun helping to deliver Comet’s triplets.  They cleaned them up and cut the umbilical cord.  They even held an all-night vigil to look out for the pups.

 

They have grown so much and the kids had loved having them around.  The first thing Julia does in the morning is go out to play with the puppies.  We were sad to see them leave at 6 weeks, but we’ll see them again....2 went to immediate neighbors and 1 went to our team mates.

DINNER!

Our neighbor brought us something new to grill....lizard.  It was very tasty.

 

NEW KID on the BLOCK

10-11-12

 

            Ginny has wanted a goat for over a year and we have been dragging our feet on answer.  After all, weren’t hamsters, guinea pigs, pigs, chickens, ducks, rabbits, a cat and dogs enough to care for and feed?  However, when we saw the nice big lawn of our new house, we decided to invest in a goat before investing in a machine to cut the grass. 

We were told that a family in a nearby town, Santa Ursula, breeds and sells goats.  We have friends in that town, so we decided to visit our friends first and then go on a goat buying search.  While we were visiting and drinking terere, the host began asking us about goats.  I am embarrassed to admit that even after living here in Paraguay 6 years; it is still terribly difficult for me to follow conversations in Guarani if (1) I have no reference of the topic, (2) when they aren’t directly speaking to me, and (3) when the person is talking a mile a minute.  Those three things began happening and Jeff and I looked back and forth with shrugged shoulders.  The next thing we knew, we were following the host through a big open field chasing a herd of 20 plus goats back toward the house.  Once they were all corralled, the host turned to Ginny and said, “Choose one.”

Ginny chose a 3 month old multi-colored girl goat with horns (I don’t know that girls could have horns).  Jeff asked our host how much she wanted and she laughed, “It’s a gift.  Your family does so much for our people.”  Talk about living in a land with generous people!  Two young children spent the next 20 minutes catching the goat and tying a rope around its neck.  I’m not sure Ginny quite knew what she was getting into.  The goat was wild and screaming like a 2 year old throwing a fit.  Ginny’s eyes were big and we were all a little fearful. 

Over the next couple of days Ginny spent so much time caring for her goat, Cuzco.  She led her each day to a grassy patch, fed her, brushed her, did her homeschooling next to her, talked with her and just watched her. Now that goat is just as enamored with Ginny and she is with Cuzco.  It follows Ginny around and “cries” when she can’t see her.

I love that Ginny has a love for animals and that our life here enables her to have some. 

THIS WEEK

10-7-12

 

Since being home from the hospital/Asuncion we have had 3 days in a row of missionary visits....all coming to help in my recovery (bringing food, helping clean).  We cannot say enough how much we love our SIM Paraguay team mates and value their friendship.  Several neighbors and friends from San Francisco have come by to visit.  They’ve brought fresh milk, yogurt, bread, homemade cheese and vegetables from their garden.

 

You know you live in a friendly culture when.....Jeff needed to change a poopy diaper while at friend’s house.  He went to the car to get the diaper and realized that there were no wipes.  He went to the store across the street to ask if they had any.  Their response, “We don’t sell those.  But we’ll change your baby for you.”

Even though Julia can say (almost) all her siblings’ individual names, she prefers to call them all Joshua.

 

Julia calls Ginny “Nee-naw” and Tyler is “Ty-lor”.

 

I don’t know why, but Julia calls all her Paraguayan friends, “Baba”.

 

I love the look on Julia’s face as she tries to protect the guinea pig from a very curious cat.

 

We continue to host Bible study at our house every Sunday. We have three consistent families that participate, plus several neighborhood children. It is a great time of singing and Bible story telling....a highlight of our week.

 

we're such a friendly family - here our cat Boots is giving the guinea pig a hug.

Did you know that moving is even stressful for chickens?  When we mentioned to our neighbors that our chickens were still not producing eggs they’d say, “Give them more time; chickens don’t handle change well.”   Exactly a month after the move, they all began laying eggs again.  It took them longer to get settled into their new home then it took us!

 

Micah’s job is to collect eggs throughout the day, a job he takes very seriously.

10-8-12.  What a good start to the week (except for the heat!).  We put a big dent in homeschooling.  I had a great visit with a neighbor today and went out of my comfort zone telling the Elijah/Mt Carmel story.  I am continually amazed that God would chose to use me in spite of and despite of my weaknesses and imperfections.  Jeff was on cloud 9 after a leaders’ meeting in San Francisco.  God is doing some amazing faith building things and the men are stepping up to the challenge!