Post-its Catching Dust

Maybe you guys already know about this, but what a breakthrough discovery (from Pinterest) we made. Put a couple of folded post it notes under the holes you are drilling in the wall and it catches all of the fine dust, preventing it getting all over the floor.

What a mess that little pile of dust can make. No amount of sweeping and mopping seems to completely rid it from our cement floors. So glad for that helpful information shared by others!

School Table

I started homeschooling Eliana this year. We have been blessed to have a separate building in our yard with three rooms. One is Nate's work/storage shed, one is filled with books for the work here, and one is our school room. To get ready for school over the Christmas break we painted, made shelves and curtains and Nate made us a school room table. He used a door that was sitting in the shed when we got here, and put some plywood from our crate on top. How helpful that crate has been for so many projects in this land of no wood stores! My hubby is pretty nifty.

And what is a work shed without a little helper?

Farm Yard

We've become a bit like a mini farm lately. Over the last four months we've added to our yard three goats, a bunch of chickens, two puppies, and a kitten. They all have their purpose: dogs to guard, a cat for the rats, goats for, well, because Nate just really wanted goats, and the chickens are for me. I have a soft spot for chickens and love seeing them cluck around the yard. They have also greatly reduced the termites.

one of our goats

Rosy and Ashy, named by the girls

The goat coral some locals made for us.

a hen with her chicks

our kitten whom Eliana named Millie

the chicken coop Nate made

The cool thing about having chickens is that we are not only learning a lot, but our kids got to watch the hen on her eggs and see the baby chicks come out. Did you know that a chicken will lay an egg a day but keep walking around the yard and won't sit on them for about a week. Once she has laid all of her eggs, she'll then sit on them for 21 days and hardly eat or drink. The locals thought we were pretty weird for not knowing that :)

Dreamin' of a white kitchen

I quite like simple white kitchens. I wanted to paint this kitchen as soon as we moved in. But it's hard to motivate a pregnant woman who's in language learning. However, last year, before we went to South Africa to have Anastasia, hubs put that nicely painted white shelf in at the same time our language teacher went away for a week. Once I saw how nice the shelf looked against the brown kitchen, that was all the motivation I needed. Off came the cupboard doors and we got elbows deep into white oil paint.

I free-handed some flowers onto some of the cupboard corners and drawers, being the flower-loving imperfectionist that I am.

And while I was at it, I glued some fabric over the outlet covers. The painting was a full-on job that I don't want to repeat anytime soon, but we're so glad that we did it.

They made it!

Thank you for praying for Nate, 5 year old Eliana and 1 year old Ambrose as they travelled back home last November. My trooper husband and the kids made it safe and sound, and we've all been back together at our home in Africa over these few months. It's good to be together!