Fresh Perspective

I should shut the door.  I should say “No…..cancer is not welcome here”.  This is what my mind tells me.  My heart tells me differently.  My mind and my heart have wrestled all week long.  My heart is winning.  Let me explain. Several blogs ago I explained that I had hired a new pembantu (house helper).  Specifically to help me in the kitchen.  My former full time house helper is not too thrilled with my decision and informed me, that “she has breast cancer”.  Not sure if this was just hearsay or the honest truth, on Thursday I decided I just needed to ask my new pembantu for the truth.  She was clearly upset that I had “found out”.  Yet she was free in sharing her story with me.  Already it has been 5 years.  She will not have surgery because she says all the ladies who have surgery here are dead in one year.  “They are quick to die”.  So she is juicing.  Yet that is difficult, because it takes so much fr...

This is NOT a blog about my children’s first love.  Though that would be fun to write.  WINK!  It is a blog about puppies arriving.  I heard a rummaging on the enclosed porch, 4:30 a.m. Monday morning.  Yawn.  Not quite wanting to snap out of my slumber, I ignored it.  By 5 a.m.  I was awake enough to visit the place where my curiosity was awakened.  Princess was laying in the cardboard box that we had placed there for her and at a closer glance I see a wet little puppy poking out from under her.  Looking very fresh and new.  I go and wake up Aubrey and Andrew.  They were there to see puppy # 2 be eaten out of it’s sack and suck in air.  Both said they wanted to go ahead and get ready to go to school. So much for the original thought of they would want to stay home.  Meanwhile Jacob and Nathaniel join the on looking crowd.  They keep closer tabs on the puppies being born.  This is to be our first day of home...

Wow……..it has been a very full and exhausting 3 1/2 weeks since we arrived back in Papua.  First off it was just adjusting to jet lag and the time warp.  Then my house helper needed to have a second surgery on her eye.  A cataract that was “taken care of” at the beginning of July, had the “lens move”.  So after the first week back, it was life with no helper.  Add to that, needing to sell my friend Wendy’s stuff due to them not returning here.  Fortunately, Joy helped me and we had a great time working together, but between the two of us we put in over 60 hours.  Needless to say, I was not prepared to start home school this week, when the International school started.  I decided to grant myself the grace of an extra week to “get ready”. This Monday, as I was drowning in laundry, cooking, running kids to school, trying to get ready to school, cleaning, having 3 lot’s of guests come to eat……..a lady comes to the gate.  Asking to look at some ...

The crazy and ”professional” camera crew at St. Simon Island. Me taking a picture of the camera crew….and they taking a picture of us!   Our flight back to Papua was uneventful, other then FOREVER.  We left for the airport on Tuesday morning at 7:15 and arrived home Friday afternoon at 2:30.  We were very grateful to Malinda and Steve who hosted us the night prior to leaving the States: complete with our own personal firework show and redneck pickup ride.  Also to Darron’s parents who once again endured that last week of packing….which is just grueling and not fun.  And to the Elliott's who looked after our animals, home and picked us up at the airport this side of the world. I’ll just share a snip of what this week has been about:  ADJUSTMENT!  Mainly getting our body time clocks reset.  For me: all the firsts.  The first: batch of granola, batch of bread, trip to Abe, trip to the pasar (market), grinding wheat.  Now it is time to...