A Whole New Chapter

Today was the first day of school for my kids.

I should have taken a picture of both my kids dressed in their uniform as they will be going to the same high school.

Isaiah -- a year ago

10th grade

Isaiah -- today

11th grade

Abby -- today

10th grade

Abby -- today

I dropped them off at the MRT Station and waved good-bye!

I had a project to finish up, so that kept me busy all day.

I picked Abby up at around 5:15 and got the scoop, i.e. what did she have for lunch, what's her schedule going to be like, who did she meet, etc. etc. etc.

This summer went by so quickly! This is the beginning of a new chapter. I'm sure that these next few years will go by very quickly as well.

Seek Him First!

Prayer Walking in New Beitou

This is the fifth Sunday in August and I had the chance to go and lead another prayer walk at the New Beitou Baptist Church.

The people there are getting excited about prayer walking.

Each time, the Lord has given me something different to do... and each time, it has been a total blessing to those who joined. We actually do it as part of the service.

This morning I asked the Lord to keep the rain away... and during the whole time, we saw the gray clouds just hanging over us. At a couple of points, it sprinkled every so lightly... which is actually my favorite kind of weather.

I had prepared 11 Scriptural verses and we had 11 people. Yes, the church is very small.

What a delightful time. We were out there for almost an hour and no one felt that it was too long or too boring.

I'm excited for our next one on Nov. 29th!

Seek Him First!

The Middle of the "Ghost Month"

Yesterday was the middle of the lunar month of July, which is considered to be "ghost month". Thus, in the middle of this month, many in Taiwan believes that the gate of 'hell' is opened the widest. Most businesses would put out tables of offering and burn paper money.  The air quality gets very bad, so it's been great to have the rain.

Today, our complex had the 'joint worship service'. Many complexes would do this and again, tables are set out in front of the complex and again, massive amount of paper money is burned.

I had to be home during the afternoon when this was going on. I had the fans on as you feel as if you're getting smoked out of your own house!

In the afternoon, it started to rain and that again, helped tremendously.

A Christina friend sent me this link for any who might be interested to find out more about what happens in Taiwan and other Asian countries during this month --

http://taichungexpat.com/2015/08/13/what-is-ghost-month/

Seek Him First!

Baking, Baking, Baking

After making dragon fruit peel jam, I started baking, baking, baking.

I love my second hand bread machine.

I put all the ingredients in and then I set it on DOUGH.

After about 90 minutes, I pour the dough out in a pan and bake for 40 minutes.

I have been making my own yeast and then I add bananas, raisins or cranberries, and the jam. Today, I found a new vegetable that looked like a zucchini but inside the texture was like an avocado. I cut it up and threw it in. After baking it, yikes... the peel made the bread taste bitter. Not every bite, but only when you get a bite with the peel. I should have peeled this 'vegetable' before throwing it in. Oh well... it's going to be an interesting bread for people to try.

Isaiah and Abby love the bread. They eat about a loaf a day. So, I have to keep baking.

Tomorrow, I'll make another loaf. What will I put in it? That all depends what I find at the market!

Seek Him First!

It Rained All Day

It rained pretty much all day, which cooled down the temperature.

I like days that are raining.

I had a nice long talk with Alan.

I changed the sheets on the kids' beds and cleaned their rooms.

I baked a fabulous bread with homemade jam and yeast.

I did a load of laundry and went for a run in the afternoon. The rain had stopped by then, unfortunately, as I like running in the rain.

Abby finished her summer homework as everything will need to be turned in on Monday.

Isaiah had practice all day and went to his ortho appointment.

We had dinner at home.

Seek Him First!

The Second Day of Freshmen Orientation

The updates from today are:

The boys in her class are more active than yesterday.

The 11th grade boys are better looking.

She thinks one of her classmates might be 'special ed' and she is going to reach out to her.

She still doesn't know which club to join.

The activities today were fun.

Lunches at school are inexpensive, very filling, and not too bad in taste.  She might decide to buy each day instead of bringing her own lunch box to school.

She does walk a lot when she is at school.

Seek Him First!

Freshmen Orientation

Abby came back from her first day of freshmen orientation and had some encouraging and disappointing experiences.

Her classmates seemed very quiet.

She was 'elected' to be the traffic monitor, which means she has to be at school by 7:05.

She can't decide which club to join.

Her homeroom teacher didn't seem too friendly and her English didn't sound that great.

She is wondering if she should have joined the Math Elite Class.

The guys in the English Elite Class aren't good looking.

She will be climbing more stairs in high school.

Tomorrow is the second day of orientation.  We hope it goes better.

Seek Him First!

Another Fast-paced Monday

Yes, today was another fast-paced Monday.

After taking Isaiah to the MRT station, I came back to read. I still have two book reports to finish.

Then one of my tests needed some editing.

I had to tutor in the afternoon and to meet up with Vanessa for an hour long walk on the treadmill and the chance to catch up.

I wanted to bake using dragon fruit peel that I had puree the night before. The bread came out quite tasty.  It tasted more as if I had put mashed sweet potatoes.  (I'm going to attempt to make jam out of the peel tomorrow.)

I was hoping to go for a run as the weather was so nice and cool in the evening, but again, there was plenty to do. Plus Abby was not in the mood to go out for a bike ride. So, instead, we had dinner together.

I picked Isaiah up and then went over to pick up things that Vanessa wanted to donate for our upcoming second hand sale at church.  Abby then wanted me to take in her old uniform as she has to wear it tomorrow for the freshmen orientation.  So glad I still have the borrowed sewing machine here on our dining room table!

I never got to listen to my language CDs. In fact, there were several things that I didn't get to...

Seek Him First!

Love Feast at Church

Every Sunday after church people get to stay and have a meal together.

The kids and I usually bake something to share with others.  Since we have Chinese food, there is usually no dessert. So, we bake different desserts.

Whatever we bring, we usually bring home just the empty pans.

Tonight we made two BIG sheet cookies -- chocolate chips and peanut butter M&M.  We each had one little bite. And according to everyone's review, the peanut butter M&M tasted better.

It's fun to hang out with everyone. We usually don't get back until around 9pm!

It makes for a very long Sunday... But FUN!

Seek Him First!

The Car Emergency

I can now write in more details about yesterday's car emergency!

In Taiwan, many apartment buildings have mechanical parking structures. This helps to increase the number of parking spaces in a very tight area.  So, what can usually hold three cars can now hold five cars -- using these mechanical parking structures, two cars are down below. Sometimes, two cars can be up above. The spaces that are either down below or up above have very tight limitation. Hence, one must be very careful when buying a car.

We have Space #64, which is a down space.  Our car barely makes it when another car is called 'up'. Recently we rented Space #19 so that our friends can have a space to park their car.  Since our space is more convenient, I let them have Space #64 while I parked our car in Space #19. This was also so that we can avoid any problems when asked about the rental as people who park in our complex must live in here. But we can now say we're letting them use our space.

All this to say that yesterday, I was called by our security guard who was in a panic.  When Space #20 called tried to get their space up, the mechanical structure stopped because... are you ready for this?... our car was not able to clear the height and the structure got stuck, half way across the roof of our car!!!!!! They had to call the maintenance man to come and hand-cranked the contraption in order to get the structure moving again.

And the roof of our car... scratched up!  It looked really bad at first. But I've been praying and waxing it. Today, Abby looked and said she couldn't see the scratches.  Well, if you look really closely, you can. But it has definitely improved since yesterday.

I didn't want to blog about it until I talked to Alan. And we were able to skype this morning. Now, we really have to think about what space to buy if we want to buy another space. Not all "bottom" spaces have the same height limitation. It's amazing that for the past 10 years, our car, which is in a bottom space, has never had any problem.

So, now our car is back in Space 64 and our friends are in Space 19. And our friends went out today. Upon returning, the wife lined me and said, "Wow, that is a very tight space!" Yes, it takes a lot of skill to get the car parked in properly.  All this has been a learning experience because we will have to be more cautious when choosing a space to buy. They are NOT all the same size or the same height! Glad we found out now. And Alan and I know that it's only 'things'... but we just always want to be good stewards of all that God has given us.  So, we like keeping our 'new' car looking relatively new with no dents or scratches. It was a bit of a shock when I first saw the piece of steel stuck in the middle of our car roof... I had no idea how badly it was scratched.  Very shocking to see!

Seek Him First!