just a few pics from this week

I'm sitting here on the edge of the bed, by the window, holding the laptop at various and sometimes elevated angles, just to catch a signal - something I do every time I want to do the internet. Sometimes it works, sometimes it's doesn't. Let's see...

Tony freelanced a lot this week, thanks be to Jesus - here he is covering the news around the city

since the Mission Mobile is currently on lock down, he rode one of our donated bikes 8 miles one way
in 90 degree heat to work, then back again 12 hours later. one does what one has to do.

freelancing for a production company somewhere way out in the middle of nowhere Neuquen Province
(he clearly gets to do all the fun stuff)



Me, what have I been doing? Oh, I'm busy wiping noses, hanging laundry (no clothes dryers here, nosirree), washing dishes by hand (such suffering!), and sweaping and dusting the whole house a mininum of twice a day due to the dust and ash that blows in the windows. Exciting, evangelistic stuff. I know, you're jealous. You're thinking, Wow, I wish I had her life. I know, I know, it's tough not to envy me and my amazing life.

This week I reached three kids for Christ. I made brownies. Hey, happy kids, happy mommy. We ignored the boxes that needed unpacking, the heat, and the fact that we still don't have fans and the oven would make the kitchen a bit more toasty than it already is, and dug into our precious chocolate chip and brown sugar stash to escape reality for a bit by drowning ourselves in butter and sugar and chocolate. It was worth it.

Sorry, no pics of the finished product... they were gone way too soon.

got some of my extra kitchen stuff together to give to Yoli, the wife of one of the construction guys
next door who came here from Mendoza with barely a thing to even cook with. it feels good to give.
(hey Denise, see your cups??)

met and talked with Enzo about going down to help him do some sort of Christmas outreach in Bariloche -
he is an artist and the church's contact there who lives and works in a very poor and pretty rough neighborhood reaching the community with change for Christ by teaching art

we shared our testimonies with the youth group - great group of kids - half of them are first generation Christians that have been reached through the church's Christian school

getting to know the church better - they're still pretty awesome

finally unpacked some books (shudder with happy goodness)... ah, you're never alone with a good book

It was like Christmas! Here I was a little worried about how we're not able to do "normal homeschooing" like all our good and diligent and disciplined homeschooling friends back home, but just hide the books for a couple of months and then voila! All of a sudden they're eating up the Classics. {Oh, yeah, and blowing out the big screen TV works, too.}

My boy actually read his first non-fiction book this week all on his own: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I couldn't believe it! My girl read Anne of Green Gables, Black Beauty, and Grimm's Fairy Tales. Great Illustrated Classics are a great way to ease them into good literature. The pictures and shorter versions are working for us.

And by far my favorite picture...

seatbelts and car seat optional! (and this is the pastor's wife... they're a fun bunch! lol)