Growing...

Nate is weaned, walking, and sitting in the carseat face-forward...

Dan is a thinking, helping, learning-not-to-fuss, little individual...

Levi "is almost grown up to be five"...

Glory, she's my little lady...


Growing - everyday growing - by God's grace.

The Bowyer Experiment

So a couple weekends ago I had some spare time, and after reading an interesting web article I decided to conduct an experiment. The result is what Glory is holding in her hand in the below image.

...yes, the bow shoots!...actually it is a bit more powerful than I had originally expected. The arrow that she is shooting in this image has a whistle point on it so that it whistles as it flies through the air. The kids really enjoy listening to it and then going to fetch it.

For those who are interested, this bow was made with a scrape piece of pine from our house construction with a cedar riser. I am looking forward to going to Lubbock to get a nicer piece of wood and try my hand at making a nicer longbow...as I stated above, this first bow was an "experiment", but now I'm hooked on this bow building stuff!

Enjoy!
Taylor

Our birthday girl...

 It seems a really crazy thing that our firstborn is 7! Here are some snippets of Glory's birthday...during the little boys' nap, we kicked Levi outside to do man things (I think he hunted pretend tigers with his bow and arrows) while I got to dance with the birthday girl. After Taylor got off work we went into town to pick out Glory's present from Taylor and I...her own bike...without training wheels, I might add - we're really proud of her for working so hard to learn to ride it! :) Her brothers worked together to buy her a helmet...and they even decided that BEFORE we discovered that the one that fit her was the only one on clearance. :) That night, Grandma and Pa came over for supper and brought birthday cake, which Glory cut and served herself. She looked like quite the young lady - I am going to have to get used to having a second grader around. :)  We love you, sweet girl - you add such a different dimension to our life full of cars and archery. ;) Happy Birthday!

Daniel Courage is 3!

It was really fun to get ready for Dan's birthday this year. The older kids are finally old enough to be part of the plotting and planning. They decided what they wanted to get and I gladly took them to the store while Taylor supervised Daniel's nap one day. I was really proud that they were big enough to think about what someone else would enjoy and not just figure that Dan would like exactly what they would like. I coached Levi in the decision-making more than Glory, but we all had a great time making Dan feel special...and he is! Happy Birthday, Daniel!

Incoming!

We are flying back to the States tomorrow. Today is our last day in Honduras. Here is a snippet from my brain today:

My rent house in Seymour has "renter" issues.

I'm struggling to make a decision about traveling to Engedi (a Bible conference).

Last minute packing of our stuff.

Last minute packing for the Collier's things.

Work calls and gives me two jobs that need testing TODAY!

Had a long, wonderful (but time consuming) lunch with Honduran friends, one last time.

Cleaning out the kitchen.

More visiting with friends and exchanging of gifts.

My wife has learned the Honduran hand wave that means, "REALLY busy". (in context: "Thanks for stopping by, but I'm *really busy* right now. Bye!")

...
Busy, fun, saddness, and joy all rolled into one 14 hour period! Whew!
Enjoy!
Taylor

The ??? Tester

My good friend, Rodolfo recently confessed to me that he still did not know what I did for work while in Honduras. Being that most of the people near us work in more of a "manual labor" type of job, and given that my Spanish is not fluent, I can understand that the people here do not fully understand what I do for money. In any case, I tried again with only moderate success.

I then decided to try something more drastic so I told him:
"Yo pruebo camas en otros países."

By his laugh, I think he understood. :-D

Enjoy!
Taylor

Misadventures in Honduran Houswifery

Cooking tip #1:
Be an extra-cautious shopper if the labels are written in something other than your first language.


Ahh, supper was going to be so good. Fish fillets with fresh lime and butter, noodles, tomatoes with vinegar dressing...such a fun break from beans and rice. I got out the package of frozen fish fillet I had bought last time we were in Tegucigalpa and started the water for the noodles. I knew the fish wouldn't take too long, but since I am from the border between the desert southwest and the rest of the world, I am usually a bit cautious when it comes to sea food expertise. After almost 15 minutes I stabbed the fish with a fork to see if it would flake. It would not. In fact, it wouldn't even stab. Beginning to be worried that I had done something wrong, I cooked it for a little longer. Now fully convinced that it should be getting done, I tried stabbing it again. No such luck. I tried cutting it. With a big serrated Cutco knife I had brought from the States. It DID cut through it. But not without effort. :-? Something was NOT right. I went to the freezer and pulled out the other package of fish that I had bought at the same time. The label read "Caracol Limpio". I knew that "limpio" meant "clean", but I didn't know what kind of fish Caracol was. Stepping over to my laptop, I typed it into Google Translate. What it gave me back was the truth in cold, blunt type as only a computer program can do:

Caracol = Snail.

Yup. It wasn't actually a fillet at all. It was two huge snail feet. We ate our noodles and tomatoes with hard boiled eggs out of the fridge. We will bury the rubberized snail. Now the question is: what do I do with the other package? ;)