A Day of Contented Rest

After dropping Abby off at school (today was her last set of practice exams), I did not go out. I had no appointments. I decided that I was not going to run any errands or shop for anything. I tidied up the house and sat down to read and do my Bible study 'homework'.  I listened to language CDs and had a delicious lunch -- fruit salad, tossed salad with tofu and bitter melon. I know it doesn't sound good, but it's one of my favorites.  I had three cups of decaf coffee with soy bean milk. Another one of my favorites... and it was just so enjoyable!

The weather was beautiful, so in the afternoon, I went out for a quick run.

Alan picked up Abby from school and she has more tests tomorrow.  She went to her cram school tonight. And since Isaiah has to go down to Kaohsuing this weekend for more tennis competitions, he also went to cram school. I met up with Lily. She treated me to Cold Stone Ice Cream. Wow, no wonder my kids love that place. And then we walked around at Jason's and Amart.

What a day of contented rest!

Seek Him First!

A Day of Joyful Prayer

Today was my day with sweet baby, Kimmy.

I got there at around 9:15 and just took the day to walk and pray.

The weather was beautiful and Wendy gave me 220cc of milk so that I could be out longer.

Instead of having one long nap, Kimmy took three shorter 45 minute naps and ate twice, finishing all 220cc of milk!

I thoroughly enjoyed the time to 'prayer walk', while pushing the stroller. I even went to the library and checked out a few more language books and CDs.

Kimmy woke up at 2:30 and I was all out of milk. I had to run back as she was hungry!

Next Wednesday, I'm planning to run a couple of errands, including going to the bank and post office.


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A Day of Fun + Routine

This Tuesday had a certain fun element to an other wise routine Tuesday.

Abby was home and we were zooming through another lesson in Science.  Yeah. We are now at Unit 7!  We see light at the end of the tunnel.

While Abby was studying, I started baking. Yes, I made more goodies!  My frig is now packed with at least three different items for lunch or dinner.

At 12:20, I took her to school and headed out to meet up with a dear sister, Lily. She and her husband are back for two weeks.  We met at McDonald's and chatted.  Then we went for a body massage, my treat. She got two hours and I only had time for a one hour session. Wow, it was so relaxing. I wonder why I don't do it more often... Oh... yes, the cost!

I came back and went to pick up Abby. We had dinner together before I took her over to her cram school.  I went for a long run at the River Park. The weather was perfect and there were lots of people out, running or biking.

When I got back, I quickly hopped into the shower, so that I can have time to read and listen to language CDs. I am working through four books and four different language CDs. Tonight, I listened to Turkish. Fascinating! And read John Ortberg's book, Everybody's Normal Till You Get To Know Them. Excellent!

Unfortunately, after a short 45 minutes, Alan was home.  I fixed his dinner and rushed off to pick up the kids.  Indeed, today was a day of fun + routine.

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A Day of Cleaning

It was time! I haven't cleaned the house thoroughly for a while now. So, I cleaned for about four hours. I'm far from finished as  I like our 'camp' to be clean since the Lord moves among us. His Presence is here.  For that reason, I like our 'house' to be clean and organized.

Then I spent the rest of the time cooking.  I made several dishes. Abby, my taste tester, gave me two thumbs up.

We even had time for a bike ride in the afternoon. While on our bike ride, I realize that I won't have these leisurely rides with Abby when September comes around as she'd be in high school full time. Sob, sob, sob, sob, sob... I sure do enjoy having Abby around.

After dropping her off at the cram school, I went for a short run before going to pick up Isaiah.

I was hoping for some time to read and listen to language learning CDs. But the day flew by all too quickly!


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A Day of Worship

This morning I dropped Abby off and went to Cathay Hospital to have a time of worship with a dear sister who is in ICU.

God placed upon my heart certain passages and songs. I had to ask Abby to teach me to sing the songs as we'd sing acapella and I'm not very good at holding a tune.

We read Ps. 23-25, Rom. 8: 26-38 and Ps. 91.  We sang four different songs.  Since we could only have two people in at one time, we had to switch off. All the visitors were not yet believers, so it was a very interesting service. I asked them to read the Scripture passages and to sing with me.  I am asking for every soul who came.

Please pray for this sweet sister. May God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I know that God will use this for good, even though I don't see or understand how. I trust in Him.

I will do this again next Sunday. God already placed upon my heart what songs to sing.  Now, I wait for the passages that He wants me to read.


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Nice Day for A Run

It's been a while, but I finally went out for a longer run.  My legs felt great. The weather was perfect. When I got out to the River Park, I noticed that there were runners heading towards the other side of the river. It turned out that a Night Run was set to start.

http://taipeinightrun.jogstars.com/

If I had known earlier, I might have signed up. Or, I might have just gone to do the run for fun.

Anyhow, I came back home and found out that in October, there is a longer run through the North East Coast. It looks really interesting with lots of hills.  The registration cost is 990NT$. That's 33US$. Hum?  I'll have to think about it... but it really does look fun!

Oh, what's the distance?

100K!

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Three Weeks Until

Today we start the countdown.  To what you might ask?

To Abby's High School Entrance Exams!

Last year Isaiah had to face these same exams and the result was that he took the PE class option. Abby is not going that route. She won't be going to any try-outs on May 9th. Instead, she has to do really well in order to get into a public high school in our district.

What do I mean by really well?

There are five subjects and she has to get A++ or at least an A on three out of the five subjects.

Oh, I first need to explain that here in Taiwan, public schools are better than private schools, unless we're talking about international private schools, such as Taipei American School or European School. The tuition for these two schools is comparable to paying for a university degree in the States. That means one year will be about 20,000US$. Yes, US$, not NT$. For other local private schools, the reputation is that these schools are for the non-academically motivated students whose parents are wealthy.

Back to what I was saying...

Abby is pretty sure that she can get an A++ for English. She has worked hard to get an A in Math. (This math exam will cover Calculus and Statistical Analysis!) Now, she is trying to do well in Social Studies. To achieve that she will have to memorize an extremely large amount of facts and dates as Chinese history is very LONGGGGGGGGGGG! So there are many things to memorize. Her weakest subject would be Science (which includes, Chemistry, Physics and Biology.) And no matter how hard she studies for Chinese, she has never gotten even a B++ in all her practice exams.

Her next and last practice exam will be on April 30-May 1st.

We are all looking forward to May 18th.

This picture expresses why --


Please remember to pray for her!

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Abby's Report Card

Abby brought home a slip of paper which I am required to fill out and turn in. It was her report card for this semester.

I called her school immediately as it's only APRIL.  School doesn't end for another 10 weeks.  I was told that as they are 9th graders and graduating, once the high school entrance exams are over, the school year is 'over'. They wanted the report card ASAP.  I was honest with them as Abby has not finished her homeschooling curriculum. She has Science, her journal writing and a few more essays to write.  We have been focusing half of the homeschooling time on test preparation. I was hoping to focus more on homeschooling assignments after May 17th.  I emailed the dear sister who is Abby's performing arts teacher to ask her to give Abby a grade.  I tallied up her other scores and printed out her Science grade, at least what she has done thus far. I need to print out all her essays and turn in the form by Tuesday of next week. The school did say that I don't have to turn in all the other items until the first week of June.


I realize as I was getting this done -- this semester sure is zooming by!

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A Slower Morning

I had told a dear sister that I'd take her 3 month old baby for a stroll so that she can have some time to herself and to rest.

I picked up the baby at 9am with a packed bag of stuff, including the baby's 'lunch'.  I had planned the places we'd go as I'd be on foot, pushing the stroller. The weather was great -- cool with a slight breeze.  I wanted to walk towards our old house and prayer walk that area. Then I'd go to the traditional market and make my way to the lake area.  The strangest thing was that all along my walk I'd meet people I know. The baby fell asleep by 9:50.

By 11:30, I headed towards church so that I'd have a place to get some hot water to naturally heat up the milk.  When I got to church, the baby was still fast asleep, so I had a cup of coffee. She finally woke up at 12:10 and drank all three bags of milk, which totaled 160cc.  After changing her diaper, we continued our walk towards the lake and another traditional market where I bought my favorite fried onion cake with an egg and some veggies.  I happily ate it while pushing the stroller. I found some great stuff that were on sale at the traditional markets.  I finally went back to her house by 2:30.

It was just so nice to go for a walk with a baby.  It really slowed me down. So, I'm going to do this every Wednesday.  The dear sister had a great time to rest and relax and so did I.

Seek Him First!