Odds and Ends from the last month or so...
 |
| Microphone Stand |
Unpredictable Science
Mom brought out a molecule building set for science class, but like all learning manipulatives, it first became a toy...
Pet Problems
Jasmin's sugar glider escaped :o( In a hurry one evening, a cage door latch got left undone, and when we got home the door was open and cage was empty. We tried again with a hamster - which promptly escaped :o( And again with robo hamsters - one of which escaped :o( At this point we understood the cages we had were unreliable - mysteriously as we never did figure out how the hamster got out. We bought some big plastic containers for a substitute cage. And Jasmin promptly cut her finger open cutting a hole for a tunnel. She's told
that story already. The end of that story is that despite our super careful care, the glue didn't hold and the wound edges had pulled apart. But since we didn't discover this until a week after, it was too late to get stitches. But, a super long afternoon swim softened the wound edges so we could get them back together and the final scar is acceptably insignificant. Not as clean as
mom's, but nothing messy either. As for hamsters, we do still have two robo hamsters!
The Table on the Wall and Chinese Characters
In Canada before we left, Aiden was all about astronomy, learning and spouting space facts. When we first arrived, he left aside astronomy and was pretty intensely learning world geography on his own initiative, kick started by the world puzzle he did over and over again. Then we started Chinese classes. Once he got over the shock of learning this strange language, he's dug in and is voraciously learning - copying out his workbook on his own, snagging anyone who will listen to "teach" them what he knows, and demanding to be tested for what he knows. When the periodic table came up in the science course we're doing this year, Mom thought perhaps this would take his fancy and give us a break from Chinese... so we printed out flash cards and made a periodic table of the elements on the wall. You'd think we'd just given him a roomful of Lego, he was so excited. A few things didn't work though: we're missing some elements (and we get to hear this complaint over and over cuz it's on the wall reminding him!), we ran out of sticky tack so they keep falling down; and now it's on the wall, it doesn't hold a candle to the attraction Chinese has on Aiden.
Lego in the Living room
Aiden started saving found change to by a lego kit. Mom was puzzled as he rarely played with Lego... but a hunch had us move the lego box into the living room under the coffee table. Now? We have constant Lego play -- all over the house :o)
Tiresome Tires
Dad was gone away. His back bike tire was flat. The 3rd one in the last 5 months! And we need his bike because it has the seat on the back for taking Aiden places. Rather than wrestle with the hassle of getting the bike to the bike store to get fixed, Mom decided to fix it herself. Only she couldn't get the wheel nut to loosen to get the wheel off the bike to change the tube - we didn't have the right wrench. She wanted to then try patch it, but couldn't find the hole. With prayer, she put it back together and pumped it up. And it held. And is still holding, as if it never did have a hole. Sweet! Thank you Lord Jesus.
And then, this week, Grace had a flat tire. Again mom couldn't find the hole, but this time, pumping it up didn't fix it - it was flat again in the morning. Thankfully, though, it was a front tire and Mom could get it off to replace the inner tube. We'll go through inner tubes pretty quickly here, it seems. The total number of flats among our 5 bikes in 5 months: 10!!!
Local Lunch
A "let's go out for coffee sometime" suggestion by a new friend turned into an afternoon of exploring one of the lesser known local tourist sites and a very late lunch of nasi lemak - a signature meal of Penang.
Truant Turtles
One day, the kids discovered the one of our turtles wasn't on the balcony where they usually spend the day. They scoured the apartment, but didn't find her. So they started looking out in the hall. They were approached by a stranger asking, "Is this your turtle?" - and it was! He told the story of walking down his hall (one floor below us) and hearing something bouncing down the stairs. He turned around saw one of our turtles! In the one hour the kids were out, this turtle had found its way off the balcony (up a step), through our apartment, out into the hall (down a step and through a metal grid gate), about 100 meters to the staircase, and, for what ever reason, attempted to go down! We've had no more escapees manage to get that far, but our three turtles are attempting to leave the balcony more regularly now. Apparently, our balcony is no longer interesting enough?
A week ago we were invited to go to the local batik factory and try our hand at making our own batik squares with some friends. Grace and Jasmin sent in their own designs, which the workers outlined with melted wax for us. We then enjoyed an hour or so of experimenting and painting with dyes on our cloths.
Last week we attended a conference together as a family. It was a bit of a long way for us - a whole day of travel, with many modes of transportation. We went by taxi, ferry, train, car, plane, taxi! It was well worth the travel though, to spend the week getting to know all the workers in our organization and hearing about all that God is doing in, through, and around them. The kids enjoyed hanging out with a bunch of new friends in a kid's program, complete with lots of crafts for our creative girls and games for our bouncy boy. It wasn't so much of a refreshing week, though, as the schedule was a pretty full daily 8-6! Still, there was plenty of space for prayer with a prayer corner and a few times of prayer stations and reflections.
