it was a lovely day...

today i was awakened by my alarm going off at the usual 5:20....heaven help me.  i woke up and read my emails, most of which aren't usually all that interesting.  of course pioneerwoman's blog was funny, and it woke me up enough to go ahead and get out of bed.  her and her spanx...seriously, is there anything funnier?  so anyway, i got into my workout clothes, because it's circuit training day and all.  blech...i hate it as bad as the kids do, but i can't let them know that.  they would probably capitalize on it and try to get me to change my mind even more than i already want to.  they can never know when i'm wavering on something.  it must stay internal!  these cadbury thighs aren't going to go away on their own.  trust me, i've prayed about it....but they're still there.  i wonder if they have spanx in africa?

anyway, we did school..... most of it.   but it's music day, so we had to leave at noon to get to class on time.  we got in the car with 30 minutes to drive our roughly 25 minute drive.  that's when i realized i didn't have enough gas to make it.  i promptly called randy and let him know how i felt about his leaving me with no gas in the vehicle.  it was a loving conversation.  one which involved me screaming hysterically and him laughing....also quite hysterically.  the bigger problem was i that i didn't have any money.  how am i suppose to get gas with no money?  atm cards aren't exactly an option here.  so i immediately had hudson start going through my purse trying to find enough money to get some gas.  he located enough, and so the world didn't end.  although now we were behind schedule.  i hate being late.  the lesson is only like 15 minutes...being late makes it hardly worth going.  so we were on our way.  i was speeding a little here and there, but it's a very winding and hilly ride.  speeding is a challenge.  it's up hill, very few cars in front you can even go the speed limit.  the road makes you feel like you could fall off at any moment....so on and so forth.  but when we got into town, i decided to make up a little lost time.  unfortunately, there were police waiting around the bend.  i was going 11 kilometers over the speed limit.  that's like 5 mph.  i would have never been stopped in the states.  and i told him....sir, i've been driving for almost 20 years,  and i have NEVER gotten a speeding ticket!  in fact, i have never even been pulled over.  he told me to pay 60.  of course i didn't have enough money to pay 60.  seeing as to how i had just had to dig through my purse for gas money and all!  he laughed, he gave me a ticket, and i was on my way.  i was 3 minutes late to piano lessons.  not bad all things considered.

i made chicken fajitas tonight.  i'm tired of making tortillas.  honest to goodness, i don't care if i ever make another tortilla again as long as i live.  i also chased the dogs all the way around the house trying to get griffin's tennis shoe from them.  i scrubbed almost the entire length of our hallway this morning because ella found a crayon while i was doing dishes.  and the mystery of why the water coming out of our faucets is suddenly dirty has still not been solved.  i've had to boil water to do dishes.  i'm starting to feel like i'm the pioneerwoman.

we've been here a while...

the sun comes up early here.  around 5:20 right now...i've been told it will be closer to 4:15 once summer really kicks in.  awesome.  the reason it's so awesome is because the sun wakes up the birds.  the birds are very loud and weird sounding here.  then the birds wake up the puppies.  then the puppies start barking and wrestling and frolicking about the yard...all loud like.  which wakes up griffin and/or precious ella.  it's a wonderful chain of events that takes place each and every morning.  basically, once our morning reaches 9:30 a.m., we have accomplished what seems like an entire day's work.  by 10 a.m. we are in need of lunch and a nap.  sometimes ella even asks for a nap.  i ask for a nap, too....but no one will put me down for one.

we just finished our 5th week of school.  the kids have done extremely well with staying on their schedule and routine.  i couldn't have asked for them to do any better.  hudson's work is all on computer.  his teacher in the states assigns him work everyday, and he is responsible to finish it and then upload it for the teacher to grade.  he's doing great and making good grades.  olivia is studying the underground railroad, the beginnings of the civil war, electricity, adverbs, etc.  griffin is doing worksheet after worksheet that i print off of the internet.  i'm hoping that all of this "worksheet loving" is pointing to him being an eager to learn student.  those are always nice to have.  ella loves doing the worksheets, too.  she loves drawing....although she doesn't particularly like staying confined to coloring on just paper.  she prefers to keep, "the whole house is my canvas" mentality.  ella gets quite a few spankings these days.  ella keeps me on my toes.  ella keeps us all on our toes.  she is a party looking for a place to happen.  i want to squeeze her and kiss her and bite her a little.  she's just so gooshy, and it brings it out in me....

olivia started ballet.  it's going pretty well, and i can tell she is going to learn a lot with this teacher.  it's pretty strict, much more so than where she was at before....  when she got into the car the other day, she said, "well, i can tell i'm going to do this to become really good at ballet, not to have fun."  i thought that was a mature way to look at it.  we will see how it goes.  hudson is taking piano.  olivia will take it too, but right now the teacher still has her on the recorder.  i'm proud of them, they both practice most days....and i only have to tell them to once....sometimes twice....and sometimes they even practice the music that they are suppose to be practicing.  yes, this is sarcasm.

it's gotten pretty busy here at the freeman household.  between all that randy has going on,  homeschooling,  extra curricular activities,  and church.  life is different here.  it's taken some getting use to....and it hasn't happened without many tears...mostly by me, not the kids.  ok, pretty much all of the tears have been mine.  sometimes i can laugh about it, and sometimes i can't.  and sometimes i have to cry before i can laugh.   i would be lying if i said it was easy.  i miss my family, i miss my friends, i miss my food options in the states.  i miss the library, i miss fall in texas, I MISS THE STATE FAIR!  i miss everything so badly that i think i may even miss football a little.  africa does strange things to a woman....

blending it up a bit....

first, let me say that this post is neither important or all that interesting...it's just a few muddled ideas and lessons learned....

second, let me add an addendum to the last post.  hudson's homeschool curriculum was software.  i am not responsible for his lesson plans or activities....his online teacher is.  i was only responsible to download the software.  that is all.

ok, on to my actual post...basically, we have finally bought a blender.  when we got here, it seemed easy enough to set up house...buy a sofa, a table, some beds.  but after a while you realize things you had tucked away in your kitchen cabinets at home, oddly enough, are not tucked away in the cabinets you are renting in swaziland.  we are forever saying, we need to buy a new one of this or of that.  a blender was one of those things.  i had thought we could get away without buying one...perhaps....  but, i had thought that at home many times before, too.  in the course of our 16 years together, i think we had purchased 4 blenders.  either we are very hard on blenders...or we are not buying the right brand.  anyway, i had finally bought one that blended beautifully.  i was very happy with my blender purchase.  but then, like 3 weeks later,  God told us to move to africa, and my blending future seemed iffy at best.  now let it be noted, i did bring my mixer and my food processor to africa...i'm not quite sure why i felt compelled to leave the blender.  i do remember my mom mentioning the need of a blender, i remember thinking, "i'll just give mine to her."   and so i did....all but the lid.  the lid mysteriously went missing when we moved our belongings to oklahoma for a short time before the "big" move to africa.  mom, did you ever find that lid?  i really think it was in dad's truck.  *sigh*  what is my poor mother going to do with a lidless blender?  you can get away without a lid on many things...but a blender is not typically one of them.  honestly, i'm not even sure i correctly recall her saying she needed a blender....i thought i did, but maybe i just wanted to keep my blender in the family.  i do weird things like that sometimes....  by that point in our move,  i had given away or sold so much...the blender attachment may have run deeper than i was conscience of.  mom, please save my blender!  i'm coming back!!!  lid or no lid!!!

anyway, yesterday randy bought a blender.  there was much anticipation in the house as we knew that meant today we were having frappucinos.  yea!  and tonight,  tonight i made milkshakes! they were quite tasty, and i feel i did a good job.  much better than the last time i made them...which was my first time to make milkshakes.  you see,  last time i attempted to make a milkshake, i stuck my wooden spoon down into the blender before the blades turned all the way off.  it took a chunk of wood out of my wooden spoon.  it dispersed wood throughout the shake.  small pieces, the kind you could easily swallow.  pieces that, in my mind....were probably very harmless.  they were so small.  the kids likely wouldn't even notice.  it was an oreo shake, and the kids and i so desperately wanted to drink it.  so, in a quick, rash, decision.... i decided to risk it!  we drank the oreo/wood shake.  well, we drank some of it.  then i had this panic attack that the wood would lodge itself into their colons, puncturing the colon walls and causing them to die.  i didn't want to be the mom that killed her kids with a wooden shake.  so i quickly gathered up all of the shakes, ripping them right out of their excited little hands.....  much to their dismay.  there was crying and yelling and great sadness throughout.  and so i learned, don't stick a wooden spoon in your blender when you are making a milkshake.  you are all very welcome for this pertinent, public service announcement.  and once again i will ask that you not judge me for any of the afore mentioned activities.

what's up?

what's going on....well, at least on my end...randy is a whole other story...

1. we have started school.  we actually started on the 23rd of august.  that was a tuesday.  originally we were going to start on the 22nd....but i temporarily misplaced hudson's curriculum.  all i could do was pray, dear God let it have made it on the plane to africa!  after a sleepless night, looks of disgust from randy, a disgruntled 13 year old, and finally, a looky see around the garage the next day (there was no light in the garage at night), yes, i waited until the night before we were going to start school to look for the curriculum...  it was discovered.  in an envelope.  marked hudson's school.  with some other odds and ends.  well, not "other" odds and ends....as the school curriculum itself was neither odd nor end.  *sigh*

anyway,  we are now in our 3rd week.  it's going marvelously.  there's reading, there's writing, there's dividing and algebra, there's french and there's arabic (don't ask), we even have P.E.  i have applied what i learned last year while losing the baby weight from ella, and have assigned the kids circuit training 2 times a week.  they love it!  no, actually, they hate it.  and they hate me while we do it.  but the other 2 days a week we just do trampoline time.  they don't hate that.  and they don't hate me....until they try to come in after 15 minutes and i start yelling at them, "NO, YOU HAVE TO STAY OUT THERE AT LEAST 20 MINUTES!  then they start hating me again.  really, i don't think my kids are too into physical activity.  which is crazy....i mean, i am the queen of physical activity.  wait, no, no i am not.  please do not make me do physical activity!  i blame it on my own homeschool experience.  there was no circuit training or trampoline time in my homeschool experience.  our physical activity was primarily shopping malls and swap meets....thank you to being raised on the evangelistic field.  it was not so bad....i'm just not a very great runner/walker/swimmer/jumper/catcher/thrower/etc. as a result.  which is fine, why would i need to run/walk/swim/jump/catch/throw/etc?  i don't.  but shop?  swap meet?  i can do that!

2. disciplining....  whose idea was it to train a 3 year old, an almost 2 year old, a 9 year old, a 13 year old, and two puppies all at the same time?!?!

3. i break up arguments and such almost all day.  the little kids fight, the big kids fight, the dogs fight.  i told a friend of mine the other day,  with all of the fighting going on between the kids and the dogs, randy i hardly have time to do our own fighting...

 4. i cook.  i cook a lot.  oh, and i go to the grocery store.....a lot.  for the first 16 years of our marriage, i went to the grocery store once a week.  if it didn't get got that day....we waited until the next week.  it was written in stone. ~ i will go to the store on monday.  if you need anything and it's not monday.  too bad for you!~  we are out of toilette paper?  use a tissue!  we are out of soap?  you need to find a soapless option.  i was not going to the store again.  tuesday-sunday, not store days.  monday, store day.  that was that.  but here, oh my sweet moses...they never have anything i need.  i have to go to the store almost every day.  it. is. killing. me!  i went to the store 4 days in a row this week hoping that they had the right milk.  once, i bought a milk that i thought would be ok...but it was chunky.  and apparently it was suppose to be like that.  soooooo, to the store 4 days in a row, i shall go.   last week, it was powdered sugar.  the week before that it was coconut.  basically, every week i make the list, some how it gets transmitted to the store via satellite, and the workers quickly go and remove key items that were on my list from their shelves.  it's very high tech for swaziland.  and i'm not sure what they have to gain by such actions.  lord give me patience.

which brings me to the next thing i do a lot of...
5. pray.  i pray all of the time.  i pray for protection over my kids' health.  i pray for wisdom to handle the different situations that moving to another continent have given to us.  i pray for the country we are in.  i pray for its leaders.  i pray for my home country.  i pray for its leaders.  i pray for my family at home.  i pray for my friends who are pregnant with little babies that i will not get to see until they are toddlers.  i pray for my friends who are church planters....because i know what that was like.  i pray for my pastor friends and my family members who are pastors...because i know what that was like, too.  i pray for my friends and family raising children.  i pray for their children.  i pray that God gives me an understanding of this culture.  i pray that the african sun isn't too hard on me and my very white children.  i pray for all of my friends who are also missionaries.  i pray that the dogs don't jump on me as i walk to my car.  i pray that i make God proud while i'm here.  i pray that i make God proud.

my day today....

-i was awakened at 4:15 this morning by none other than, ella.....

-i’ve been awake ever since.

-we laid in bed until time to let the guard out of the gate....which is 5:45.  

-i’m tired of setting my alarm for 5:45.

-i’ve decided to start getting up when we let the guard out instead of going back to sleep.  

-i’m getting a lot accomplished during my very, very, very long day.

-i’m tired.  

-we ate cake for breakfast...again.  we will most likely eat it until there isn’t any left.

-it was a big cake.  

-i don’t feel badly about eating cake for breakfast, or serving it to my children for that matter.

-i think cake is in the same category as donuts.  

-i don’t know why i think that. 

-maybe ‘cause i like cake donuts?

-after “breakfast” i began making french bread from scratch.

-then i made parmesan cheese sauce....from scratch.  

-then i woke up the other kids.  

-the ones who didn’t get up at 4:15.

-the kids who actually love me.

-they ate their “breakfast.”

-school started.

-griffin had a friend come pick him up for a play date.

-randy and hudson don’t like the term “play date”

-they think it’s lame.

-it was griffin’s first “no mommy” hang out with a friend time. 

-griffin came back with dry pants....so it was successful as far as i’m concerned.

-it should be considered successful as far as the other mommy is concerned, too. 

-while griffin was away, we had P.E.

-it was circuit training today.

-hudson hit ella in the head with a dumb bell.  

-i’m not sure how to spell dumb bell....

-between being knocked in the head with a large metal weight, and the fact that she had been up for almost 7 hours by that time....ella had a break down.  

-ella took a very long nap.  

-i don’t think it was concussion induced...but i don’t know that it can be completely ruled out.  

-we homeschooled some more.  

-we had sandwiches for lunch.

-we have sandwiches almost everyday.  

-the bread here is very heavy.  

-it’s better as toast than it is a sandwich.

-another missionary kid came over because her parents had somewhere they needed to be.

-she and olivia made paper dolls.  like dolls out of actual paper.  

-olivia has also made a doll house....out of paper.

-as toys go, it’s one of the saddest i’ve ever seen.

-i’m impressed with her creativity.

-that girl can really work a piece of paper!

-but it’s a house out of paper nonetheless....

-she also makes furniture for the house.....out of paper.

-i finally got a hold of the ballet teacher in swaziland.  

-i’ve been trying for a couple of days....

-did you know you still get a busy tone here?  

-i don’t think there is voice mail either....

-i think this b/c phones ring and ring and ring and ring and ring and ring......

-i skyped with my dad....briefly...he was driving.  

-YIKES!

-i made dinner.

-i did dishes.  

-randy taught a class at the college, preached chapel at the college, went to some rural area and had a meeting with an awesome pastor, and had an all around good missionary-ing day. :)  

p.s.

i think the cock roaches in africa have longer antennae than the ones in texas.  i’m not sure if this has any effect on me, other than the fact that i have seen cock roaches, and i wish that i had not.    

from hater of dogs to......to hater of dogs who owns two dogs....

*sigh*
i dislike dogs.  all dogs.  i do not want any part of any dog.  i never have.  i do not like to be licked.  i do not like to be jumped on.  and i think dogs' paws hurt when they touch me.  i do not like the bellies of dogs....they freak me out something awful.  i do not like dogs' mouths...they freak me out as well.  dogs smell.  all dogs smell.  every owner of a dog will say, "my dogs don't stink."  and i will politely smile.  all the while thinking to myself, "yes, your dog does stink...you just can't smell it any more."  all dogs stink.  they stink badly.  they make everything around them stink.  i will never understand why it's ok for a dog to poop outside (hopefully),  and then come into a house and crawl around on the carpet, or the furniture, or God forbid...and i wince at this thought....sleep in a bed.  YIKES!  i just cannot get past it.  i just cannot.  that dog did not wipe.  that dog did not have a bath.  that dog is not wearing pants!  there is nothing between its pooper and your couch.  and that's how i see it.  but let me also state for the record...it is everyone's right to have a dog.  you can have all of the dogs you want.  love them, lounge with them, sleep with them if you want to.  it's your life, it's your home.  but please don't try to convince me that it's ok.  for me, it is not ok.  i do not like dogs.  and there is no way that anyone will convince me  that they are great.  for me, they are not great.  they are not great at all.  i hate dogs.

sadly, and i mean very sadly... i agreed to the fact that we needed dogs here in africa for protection.  that's right, i have officially given up everything in pursuit of God's will.  heaven help me.  i feel like i have nothing else to cleave to as my own in natural terms.  all of me is dead.  there is no more flesh of dezra.  i am purely a spiritual being at this point.  well, at least that's how i feel every time i go outside and SMELL DOG!  there is nothing left that was once dezra.  i left it all at the swaziland animal humane society.

so we picked up two dogs and brought them home.  one was feisty.  one was stand-offish.  they are brothers.  we named them ranger and maverick...we wanted to be true to our texas roots.  their names fit them well enough.  they are puppies, so they are cute.  but they are dogs....so they won't be cute forever.  after observing their behavior for over a week now, i have come to the conclusion that dogs are just as gross as i thought they were.  no, they are even more gross.  ranger and maverick do things to themselves and to each other that i did not know dogs did.  i am appalled.  i cannot believe these things are taking place in my yard.  *sigh*

i will take care of these dogs.  i will feed them, i will give them water, and when i am in their vicinity, i will pet the tops of their backs....as that is the only part of a dog that does not give me the heeby-geebies. i still smell them...and it still smells badly.  it smells like dog.

having said all of this,  they do bark.... they even growl.  and so if that keeps away the prowlers...then i guess all of the afore mentioned activities and/or aromas will be overlooked.  don't look for dezra to become an animal lover.  don't look for the freemans to purchase any dogs when we are back in the states.  it will not happen.  only missionary dezra can come to terms with this arrangement.  normal dezra would never do such a thing. never. ever. ever......

we are loud americans....

really, we aren't loud americans....we are louder americans.  louder than most everyone in america.  i laugh loud.  the rest of my family talks loud.  my children "whisper" loud....and so does randy.  i know a couple of families louder than us, i will not mention their names here.  but really, i'm standing right here, you don't have to yell.  if you ask me if you are the "louder than us" family, i will not say.  just so you know.

anyway, it's been a bit weird here because our kids speak so loudly....and we aren't quiet either.  children in this culture are mostly seen and not heard.  they don't make a peep.  not in church, not in the grocery store, not when they are shopping....they just don't speak.  my children, however, do.  they also yell, cry, whine, and make other various noises.  between their loudness and the double stroller (no one has one here), we are quite a spectacle at the local shopping center.  it's just wonderful....

so we received and invitation to dinner with some of the most amazing people in swaziland.  for those of you who have been here, you would know their name if i told it to you.  these people are amazing.  dinner with their family?  we would love to!  let's get a babysitter for griffin and ella!  well, that didn't work out, so off to dinner we went, with loudy mcloudy pants and his little sister loudy britches, in tow.  the first 10 minutes went well.  i was sitting down, not chasing down, our two youngest children.  i thought to myself, this might work out.  they have 2 sets of coasters.  the kids love to play with coasters!  and that is true.  they do.....for about 10 minutes.   so this family has a british accent.  i know they told us where all they were from, but what with all the chasing, the giving dirty looks, and the threatening talk i was giving griffin and ella in their ears where no one else could hear, i didn't quite catch where they were from originally.  back to the british accent.  these people speak quietly.  they use fewer words.  they sit up straight, and use phrases that i don't understand.  i've never been in such a quiet atmosphere.  not in a home anyway.  not somewhere besides a romantic dinner in a fancy restaurant.  there were so many of us in the room eating, talking, even laughing a little...and yet, not much noise.

anyway, they had an indoor dog.  the dog was lovely, no licking or jumping...which pretty much makes it the best dog ever, in my book.  it was small, an appropriate size for indoor dogginess.  and the kids loved it.  they loved petting (hitting)  her, stepping on her tail, poking her in her eyes.  the dog was not nearly as impressed with their presence as they were with hers.

and so it was time for dinner to begin.  spaghetti noodles, fish, cheese sauce, onions, peas, broccoli, and a tomato sauce for the kids.  of course being the incredibly wise person that i am, i opted out of the tomato sauce for ella....as we are eating on a white tablecloth over light colored carpet.  awesome.  ella refuses to be fed, she likes to do it herself.  she has questionable aim.  but even with my foresight on the tomato sauce, the mess was hard to deny.  it was difficult to hide.  ella had eaten there for sure...and there wasn't anything i could do about it.  so as the adults continued to talk and to eat, griffin and ella got down to play with the dog.  the dog who went under the table to get away from them.  the dog who lured them under the table to play.  the table was long, and i got to see everyone's faces as my two little ones crawled over their feet to get the dog.  (we have got to get a dog just so they aren't such a flipping big deal when the kids see one!!!) it was wonderful....and so very very uncomfortable....  fortunately, i have long arms, i was able to grab their feet and pull them out.  at least they didn't cry....

then there was dessert.  to which griffin said, "this smells bad." what a lovely child...
not long after the dessert "episode", griffin got his finger caught in a door and began whaling... loudly, at the top of his very large and healthy lungs... uncontrollable sobbing.  this went on for several minutes.  to which the most amazing, quiet talking, british speaking, admirable man in swaziland replied, "i think the kids have reached their expiration date." .....so awesome....

i wish i could say the night ended on a high note,  but griffin wasn't finished.  he completed the evening with an accident in his trousers....i'm picking up on the british accent.  not really, i just like that word.  trousers. trousers.  i'm saying it with a british accent.  which, by the way, people here do not think it's particularly cute when you try to speak with a british accent and you are not british.  poor olivia found that out one day at church...