a little bit of life...

I'll try to write more later, but to prove we haven't fallen off the end of the earth, here are some kid pics of our pre-Christmas, December happenings! 

A friend of mine invited us out to eat

 fresh-caught, farm-raised tilapia with her family.

Glory is holding the ready to grill packets of fish. 

Nate and his dinner.

...my always-serious husband.

 I was so wowed to see all 4 of our boys still at the same moment

 that I ran to get the camera...

 yup...it lasted for the length of time it took to snap ONE picture,

 before normalcy took over. ;)

 Glory has really been working hard to learn to play the guitar.

 It has become very pleasant to hear her practice.

 Sorry this one's blurry...but I still like it.

 (if you can't tell, he's walking the Nativity Scene people around on the roof.)

Life continues...

In honor of lots happening around here (and my computer getting worked on so that I can blog more easily)...here is an update of what life has been like in our corner of the world!

Dan Courage turned 5!  His gift from us was a little green parakeet, who has since been named Kiwi. After two or three weeks of practice, Dan can now get him to sit on his finger! (still inside the cage). Dan is our boy who delights in holding little animals...baby chickens, snails, and earthworms are particular favorites. :) He says that Kiwi is still "learning to be his friend" and wants to get him finger trained enough to be able to take him out of the cage.

Glory Lynn is now a nine year old!!!! Now, you have to understand, Taylor has been looking forward to Glory being nine ever since she was born. He loves his little-bitties dearly, but there is a level of maturity and logic that happens around when a kid turns nine...they join his world a little bit more. Her present from us, (apart from a new paint job on her old bike) is that she no longer has to go to bed with the boys. Within reason, she can stay up and read /craft, etc. with the big people. :)

Friends: Monika is still living in our downstairs apartment and working for us, so she is a friendly face we get to interact with on a daily basis. Ever since going to the jungle with her extended family, we have also gotten the opportunity to know her brother and his wife a little bit. Taylor and the boys went fishing with them a week or so back. Later we were invited to eat with them. I'm so glad my kids have gotten used to being handed a whole grilled fish to eat with their fingers...they don't even bat an eye. ;)


 Ariel is still a good friend and comes over either to visit or to work for Taylor often. He is missed if he doesn't come for a few days. :)






Sala Kairos:

Our downstairs study room is up and running! Or at least started finally! We're open downstairsTuesday and Thursday afternoons, though since we have Monika working for us down there, we do not have to be down there non-stop. Taylor set up a wireless doorbell so that we could know if we were needed without much hassle. It was really good to have our first few students to tutor this week...Taylor had lots of fun helping with math and physics, and two people came the other day to practice English.
(OK, one of them was Ariel, who perhaps doesn't count, but he was invaluable in not making the other student feel completely out of his comfort zone reading for the scary gringo lady. :) I have not taken any pictures while things are going on downstairs, so you'll have to use your imagination. :)

School: We are really enjoying homeschooling this year! Since we school year round (meaning that we school if we are here at home and don't if we aren't. ;), our school year doesn't switch over at the "proper" time of year. We do have a schedule, and we do level up to the next grade, it just doesn't happen in September, necesarily. That being the case, Glory is continuing 3rd grade; Levi is in 1st. Dan is learning how to read and write. Nate is learning how to play by himself until it's time for Mama to read him a book or Dan is ready to play outside with him. We hope Noah sleeps through most of it. ;)

call it woodshop??? He's helping Papa sand. :P

...big brave boy. blowing bubbles. biking backwards :)

Makuma Birthday Adventure

"Taaayylor, where are yoouuuu?" I could already hear my mom calling me and concerned that I was not answering the phone so that she could say, "Happy birthday!" So, she was warned ahead of time, but for the rest of you that called and got no answer, here are the highlights of our jungle-touring, mud-stompin', hut-building, no-electricity, river-bathing weekend:

Since moving to Puyo, we have waiting semi-patiently for a good opportunity to go into the jungle. Of course, we do live in the jungle city, but it is not the same as what the natives call the "jungle, jungle". A few weeks ago, we told Monika who lives downstairs, that we wanted to go to the jungle and since she has family in the jungle, we decided that it would be a good place to start. Makuma, is a little town with a big reputation since some missionaries setup a hydroelectric power station many years back...but I'm diverging from our notable moments already...

First off, this is more of a list of notable events that we remembered together while driving back to Puyo, so except for little Noah, each of us had something to contribute here and since that is how we remembered it together then that is how I will share it with you.

• EVERYONE remembers the hike into the jungle, and I suppose that it will be a long time before we forget it! It was like nothing that we had ever done before. We set out on foot from the little jungle community and walked for more than 45 minutes on a narrow, 1-2-foot wide trail. The trail had its ups and downs which we had met before in Honduras, but this had an aspect which we hadn't yet experienced: MUD! and there was lots of it. People wear calf-high rubber boots, and now we know why. We crossed three streams that were shallow and only 5-9 feet across, but typically they were also at the bottom of a steep, muddy hillside. We all had a grand time, both on the way and at the return, and the children each picked up their own special jungle-trekking nickname: 
• Glory the brave. She was the quickest to figure out how to slog through the muddy trail. Though sometimes she lost a boot and fell in the mud, she did so with smiles and laughter the whole way through. 
• Levi the 'loose-boot'. Levi claims that he lost his boots more than anyone and each time he thinks about the trips he will recall one of the numerous times that he lost his boot in the mud and then laugh hysterically. 
• Dan the swift-footed. On the hike out, while I was still trying to figure out how NOT to slip in the mud, Dan and I ended up together and it was all that I could do to keep up with him. He never really got far ahead of me, like Glory could, but neither did he slow me down one bit. I kept thinking that at my next step that I would step on him with my longer strides, but somehow he would scuttle on ahead...maybe his lighter frame didn't allow him to get as stuck in the mud as the rest of us.
• Nate and Noah the cargo. Is there anything more to say here???

• Upon arriving at our destination, which was the newly inherited property of Monika and her siblings. They wanted to clear a bit of land and build a small hut that they could stack wood under, sleep, and basically make the start of a camp. So I took my machete and learned how to cut a small, thigh-sized tree with it...not too different from using an axe, but I'm glad that I had seen in done many times before and that I had been using my machete. After enough clearing had been done, we took some of the felled trees, which were 20-30 feet tall, and cut them into 7-foot segments. With 12 posts, 4 think, 4 medium, and 4 thin, and using some "jungle rope" (think about what Tarzan swings on, but these were younger/thinner) we tied the posts together while Monika and her sister cut down some palm leaves for a roof covering. So in about 2 hours, with 5 people, we made a decent spot for Monika's brother and sister to begin working on the land.

• The friendly pavo (turkey). Our dear Nathanael is still a bit fearful of animals, but he is learning. While petting a dog, he saw a turkey. So he decided to try to pet him too, but that turkey would just keep walking away from him...never running, but never letting Nathanael get close enough. Since the turkey didn't have teeth (and is therefore not hostile according to Nate), then Nathanael decided that the turkey was friendly and going to be his new friend. 

• Glory, Daniel, and Nathanael, spent quite some time investigating a small pool of minows and tadpoles. They started catching them and saving them in their boot until Alesha told them that we will not be bringing them back to Puyo with us! (Note: not that Alesha is against having tadpoles, but it was more about the practicality of hauling them 5 hours in a boot in the overly stuffed truck.)

• On a separate trek (not the one into the jungle), we came upon a very steep and muddy embankment. Already being late in the afternoon and still tired from our morning outing to the jungle, we declined the slide downhill. As we were leaving, both Alesha and I had to marvel at an old Shuar woman carrying a basket on her head making her way, not quite swiftly, but certainly not slowly down the hill that we were not able to make. 

• Alesha enjoys the Butterflies. "I've seen more new butterflies these last two days in the jungle than I have since coming to Ecuador." says my wife on the return voyage to Puyo. That is quite a statement when you realize just how many new butterflies we have already seen just in Puyo! 

• "Maito". Twice during the weekend we were gifted with "maito" for supper. This is a small portion of either fish or chicken, folded in a leaf and grilled on the kitchen fire. The fish maito we had contained two, perch-sized fish, the leaf folded around them like a wallet and then tied closed with another piece of leaf. You pick the fish out with your fingers, leaving the bones. When you're finished, the whole leafy plate goes in the camp fire. A side dish of the ever-present yucca or verde, (both starchy vegetables), is served along side. Glory deemed it the best fish she has ever had. 

• Saturday evening, with still plenty of daylight left (remember that there is no electricity), we headed down to the nearby river with a bar of soap to bathe. (Clothes on...they were quite muddy too.) Bathed in a river: check! The saddest part was that when Alesha and Nathanael came, though we tried to warn them, they managed to find the slippery spot, and slipped partway down the slope to the river. :-( What I found interesting was watching the community etiquette. I arrived at the watering hole with the three oldest of our children first. We started bathing. Then came some little girls. Then some older girls. Then some of the older boys came, but they did not get in. Instead, they waited. We finished and got out. As we were leaving, I saw that most of the older girls got out too, and as soon as they did the boys jumped in. 

• Probably anyone who has been to a remote part of the world will associate with this: One thing we were really looking forward to was listening to the sounds of the jungle at night. Keep in mind that we are sleeping in a small community of houses. As we lay down to rest and hear the strange new sounds, what instead we hear is, "brrummmmm, mmmm, mmmmm". This was the nightly generator which ran until about 9pm. After the generator cut out, there were some very unique sounds, of course I was so wiped out that I only recall listening to them for a few minutes right after the generator cut off and before I passed out. 

• Dan also made some new friends: baby chickens. He has a long story associated with it which is too cute to be able to repeat here, but that is one of his memories: playing with the baby chickens while waiting for breakfast. 

• Sunday morning, we noticed that some of our clothes were still wet. Knowing that the "kitchen" would already be hot, Levi and I grabbed the wettest of the clothes and headed down to the fire to dry them off. The people cooking their breakfast were very accomodating while Levi and I wafted our family laundry over their food. They seemed to have this, "been there, done that before" sort of expression on their faces. 

• Glory also has a colorful tale of her adventure with a butterfly just before we left the jungle. Again, to get the full impact of the encounter, you will have to hear it from her, but I will give some mention of it here: as she was skipping across the field, she noticed a butterfly. So Glory stopped to watch it (as I mentioned previously, there were some very beautiful butterflies). In doing so, the butterfly approached her, so she held out her hand and the butterfly landed on it and even tried to taste Glory to see if she was sweet enough. 

Through all of this, I would have to say that one of the fondest memories that Alesha and I will take back with us is having watched our children adapt to the new and strange surroundings. Eating strange foods, bathing in a river, sleeping in odd places, slogging through the mud...ok, ok, so I do realize that many kids would think many of these things to be fun, but as a parent, you are never quite sure until you see it happen with your own children. We are so very satisfied from watching how they handled themselves and we are very appreciative to our God for giving us these opportunities and look forward to see what He will raise them up to become.

Enjoy!
TaylorH
P.S. - As usual, if you want some of the finer details, then you will just have to call and here it from us directly.
P.P.S. - You can find Makuma with these coordinates in a map search engine: -2.151784,-77.704953

A bit of birthday....

Happy birthday to Noah!!!!

The mixer died while we were making whipped cream...Papa to the rescue. :)

"happy birthday to Noah, happy birthday to you!"

Aww, shucks, strawberries are my favorite, too!

I think he approves of birthdays. :)

Home Again

Last month, we were able to see family and friends in Texas. It was oh. so. lovely. We're back home now and nearly caught up and organized. This was a process slightly delayed by a weekend Bible Conference. (SO VERY NEAT to be able to break bread in Nate Saint's house with born again descendants of the spearmen who killed him.) Several of the youth had been waiting to be Baptized at the conference, so we all went down to a calm bend of the river. What a sweet weekend. Now we're home putting away books and clothes and other loot from TX. We had planned to start school this monday, but I've done very little other than hold my baby with his croopy cruddy caugh...so...the kids are perfecting their climbing skills and continue to bring me random wonderful things they found, dead or alive. :) I hope they always do.

P.S. I am STILL trying to get all the bugs worked out so that I can add pictures from my new device. I have not forgotten you. I will go pester my favorite tech support guy again.

To Texas and Back!

As many of your already know, the reason for our lack of blog posting has been due to our travels in Texas. So here is the bucket list of our accomplishments:

• marveled at the BIG sky that stretches beyond the horizon, 
• wore boots, 
• shot a gun, 
• relished the smell of fresh rain mixed with the dust of a dry and thirsty land, 
• met a cowboy, 
• rode a horse, 
• rode in an old Jeep, 
• drank Texas tea, 
• saw some cows, 
• fed the goats and chickens morning and evening, 
• ate a Texas-sized hamburger, 
• read books, 
• shopped at a Walmart, 
• ate Blue Bell ice cream, 
• drank Dr. Pepper (with REAL sugar), 
• rode in a semi,
• drove a Texas-sized pickup truck, 
• splashed in a "pond" (aka stock tank), 
• showered with friendship,
• loved on by family,
• snuggled with grandparents.

Enjoy!

TaylorH

Some pictures just because....

Did somebody say we're going to TX???

Ok...so this is one of several family picture attempts that will not be printed
because it is of the

"'Calvin and Hobbs' picture-day" variety. :P

 ...mainly because with subjects as calm and serious as these...well... yeah.

this one doesn't know how to be goofy for the camera yet. :)

We are so very excited to be planning our visit in TX!!! Love from our crew to yours!

To Texas!

If you have not heard yet, we will be coming to Texas for the month of May. We are still figuring out our schedule, but we are all very excited. Among other things, here is our "Bucket List":
Nate wants to have a "birthday at Pa's house".
Daniel wants to have a (hymn) sing.
Levi wants to visit Uncle Brendan and Auntie M.
Glory wants to cook with Grandma.
...and...swimming, traveling, Granny B, goats, Sunday School friends, ...
...Snyder friends, Lubbock friends, sun, and more!
...as for Alesha and myself...well, we will just be soaking up the time.

Enjoy!
TaylorH

Wheels!

We try to use Friday afternoons to go somewhere as a family, particularly with the kids in mind. They spend a lot of time tagging along on our errands, so we try to make it a priority to go somewhere a little more "fun". Today we went to the nearby park so they could ride their bikes.

First and foremost...LOOK WHO GOT HIS TRAINING WHEELS OFF!

 Levi has been working really hard to learn to ride his skateboard.

 ...Which gives Glory a lot more time on the bike they used to share!

hehehe. I told him it was a sunny day and he needed to bring a hat. :P

Growin'

Since the last post was all about Noah and his new tricks, 

I thought I should capture a few "growing moments" of the other kids. 

It's the beginning...we now have a boy who likes LEGO...
I foresee many years of pleasure
from these tiny pieces of plastic.

Umm. Yeah....I told him Uncle J would be proud. ;)

Nate plays lots of blocks when he's trying to be good during school. :D 

Glory Lynn decided the best way to get her favorite dessert
was to buy berries at the market and ask for a cooking lesson. 

Look out world...

...here comes the dust-mop! :) Noah's new trick goes like this: 

First, you get a nice slime trail started so you slide good. 

(side note: he's been trying to get teeth for months, so the drool is an ever-present comodity.) 

Then, you slap the floor a few times and get into position. 

Next, you plant your toes and scootch forward....

"Did you see that, Mama???"

Laugh, and repeat, 

polishing the floor and making yourself absolutely filthy in the process. :)

He is still reasonably slow, but can make it across the room if given enough motivation...like a kitten to antagonize or paper left on the floor - obviously left there for the dust-mop to dispose of. 

Happy Half-a-Birthday, to Noah!!!

 In honor of Noah being 6 months old yesterday, we threw him a half-a-birthday party...the main attraction being that he got to officially eat banana off a spoon. He liked it just fine. (Like we were worried...the little plate grabber. :)

 The REST of us, did not eat mashed banana. We ate half-a-birthday cake. :) It was good too.

The "icing on the cake" however, is that we brought home two fierce and mighty mousers...who are still about the same size as some of the rats we've seen, unfortunately. However, perhaps SOMEDAY they will be fierce and mighty mousers. Anyway, meet Mene and Mishi ( MIN-yeh and MEE-she). Mene is a Waorani word for jungle cat; Mishi is Kichwa for "kitty". In fact, I have friends who make a swishing noise to call a cat, which is actually "mishi-mishi-mishi-mishi" run together, like we would say, "here, kitty kitty kitty". (For any who are curious, Mene is the one sleeping in the picture. His "leopard spots" are more pronounced. )

Fun day! :D