How much I take for granted!

I read this little saying the other day, and it got me thinking of how little I thank God for and how much I take for granted! 

Every once in awhile I remember to say thank you for something He's done for me, but when I take into consideration all He's done for me and given to me, I see just how much I take for granted! At times I  don't seem to realize He gives me my every breath, sees that the sun rises every morning, hears all my prayers, He's preparing a home for me in heaven.....and so much more! 

I recently read a story written by Helen Keller, called "Three Days To See". She was just writing about what she would want to see if she had three days to see. She also was saying that people who have always had their sight really see so little....it's true.... there are so many things I see every day, yet don't even notice. How often do I thank God for my sight? This is just one of the things I take for granted, one of the gifts, I rarely say thank you for.....and there is so much more! 

God's done so much for me, yet how little I do for Him? Sometimes, I would rather not teach Sunday school, pass out tracts, or help in nursery,...... and I think how can I complain at such things. Where would I be if Jesus had said, I would rather not hear all your prayers, or be there always with you, or even I don't want to die for your sins!.....He could have, but He didn't.

 It was a great reminder for me, and the next time I want to complain, I'll think twice. 

By - Ashlyn Elaine  

                         

Room Cleaning

One of the question I get ask in America is what does your house or room look like? So I thought showing each of us cleaning our rooms would be a neat way to show off our rooms. How we clean our rooms also shows our personalities and fast motion makes it funnier. So enjoy this fun video!!! 

Don't you wish you could clean your room that fast? :o) 

By Sara Anne                                                                                                                                     

Baking from Scratch

One of the things that living in Kenya has taught me is... how to cook from scratch. In Kenya there are very few ready made food products or any kind of foods that you just microwave and eat. So the other day I decided to make a croissant roll. I started at 9:00am with a butter/flour mixture which had to be rolled out thin between wax paper and refrigerated for an hour.

butter and flour

 While the butter mixture was refrigerating I made the dough and rolled it out. After the hour was up I put the butter mixture on the dough, folded and sealed edges and then refrigerated again. I then rolled and folded into thirds three times...after each time refrigerating for a half hour.

The dough all rolled out

As you can guess...This is my best friend...

 After the dough spent the rest of the day in the fridge around 4:00 pm I brought the dough out and rolled and cut it into rectangles laying it in a circle on a cookie sheet...

The fillings: we had a taco mixture of ground beef/tomato/onion/cheese (above) and ranch mixture of chicken/grated carrot/chopped green beans and a package of dry ranch dressing with a little mayo. 

All filled and ready to go into the oven!

Baked!

All that was left after dinner...

By Emily Swain

Crafting Away!!

One of my most favourite things to do is crafting! I could spend hours doing crafts. I have a lot of crafts, I have done. In this post I will try and explain how I made these crafts.

French memo broad 

 I found a cardboard box the size I wanted it. Then I sewed this cute quilted cover and stapled it on to the back. After that I stapled the ribbons on the back and sewed the buttons on. There you are a cute memo broad! I think it took me 30 min. to make...very easy!

earring organizer

 I have a lot of earrings and sometimes I find it hard to find a pair of earrings, so I made this to help. I cut out a strip of cardboard found a cute material, duck taped it on, poked holes with a needle and then put the earrings through! I love it! And it fits perfectly in my jewelry box.

Before

This backpack has had three other owners before me. I felt that it need it a new look. I found orange material, sewed beads on it and hot glued it to the front pocket. Then I made cute little bows and hot glued it to the handle and left side corner, after that I cut little strips and tied it to the zippers. I think it is adorable!  

After

This is an "S" ...I know it is hard to believe it! ;o)

 I was seeing this around a lot and wanted to make one for myself but all the ones I saw were made out of wood, but then I saw someone make one out of cardboard!  I took a cereal box and drew the letter "S" on it with a pencil. I drew and redrew about five times to get the "S" to look perfect. I then wrapped the letter in this cute yarn,and taped the ends securely. I absolutely love it!!!

Here is my whole desk

My cute coaster 

I really wanted a cute girly looking coaster for my room. I found a cool one using Popsicle sticks. You take three sticks and hot glue them together three times, then hot gluing the three together with fourteen sticks...seven on both sides...! After I was done I really wasn't impressed with it, it look rough and not at all girly. So then I took lavender and dark purple yarn weaving it back and forth. I think it is pretty cute.        

Here it is modeled with a purple cup!

That is all the crafts I have made this month. I hope you like it and feel free to try any of these crafts! 

By Sara Anne 

I'm Loving Vacation!!!!

Yes, I'm enjoying my month off; I'm enjoying sleeping in, (shhh, don't tell anyone but one morning I slept in till nine thirty:-) and doing all the things I couldn't get done during the school year.

We got to start our month off with a week of Mk camp, and had a great time. I had fun dressing up as a clown, playing MK style foot ball:-) (lots of fun, but lots of collisions:-),playing dodge ball, (one time I didn't quite dodge in time, and got the (ping pong) ball on my forehead,...but I made it up the next round by getting two boys out:-) and many other such games.

 I also learned a lot from the messages on facing your fears face 2 face. Realizing my need to stand up for Christ, and live out my favourite verses - Philippians 1: 20 - 21.

Today I started on giving my three youngest siblings piano lessons, which I'll be doing all month, and enjoyed it....I hope they did too.:-) 

Right now, I just came in from a game of flash light freeze tag, with my family, and we had a lot of fun!..... There was just one of us who didn't play fair, and that was, Jimmy(our one - year old, pup). Every time I hid somewhere he would give away my hiding spot.:-) Oh well, he'll learn.:-)

So anyway, I'm hoping to get done all the books I've set aside that I want to read, lots of baking/cooking (of which I love to do:-), finish writing out all the Sunday school songs, relax.....;-)

Here are just some pics from over the last couple of days....hope you enjoy!

By - Ashlyn Elaine

Visiting my friend Halima, and her newborn, Tiana. I have been waiting to see Tiana for a long time....she's awful cute.:-)

Zahra playing  in a plastic bag?!:-)

Cats?....I love them:-)

Taylor and I took a walk, and went and got some chips (or French fries)

We had waffles for breakfast this morning; here is my favourite waffle recipe.. 

Enjoying my waffles on my McDonald's plate.:-)

Here is my eleventh grade books.....I know I'm strange,.....I'm glad I have a month off, but I'm looking forward to starting into these books.:-)

IBMK Kamp

This past week we have been enjoying camp (Colossal Coaster World was the theme). It has been a lot of fun! We have played hard, memorized tones of verses, made crafts, and learned not to fear. We learned about what fear looks like through Man's eyes and we also learned about what fear looks like through God's eyes. Fear can be a good thing because it makes us cautious but we shouldn't let fear stop us.
This year we had 20 campers, 11 girls and 9 boys. The girls were all on one team and the boys were on the other team. The girls team was called Corkscrew and the boys team was called Helix. All week it was very close as to which team was going to win...guess who won...Corkscrew! Yes, we girls won! One night we all dressed up as clowns.
Enjoy the pictures!
by Emily Swain

A Sermon illustration...

Class time

Little kids class time

Foot ball toss

Relay!!!

Suzy, the grand champion of ring toss

Memorizing verses

Saying verses

Ashlyn doing Aunt Tracie's makeup

Painting on a clown face

My clown outfit

Sara's clown outfit

Ashlyn's clown outfit

The three Mksketeers!

Corkscrew!

Helix!

Game time

Personal devotions

Group activity time

Group activity time

Chapel

All together, we campers memorized a total of 1703 verses this week.

How is life in Kenya different?

In this post, I am just going to tell you about some things I enjoy about Kenya, and what, I think, makes life, here in Kenya, different. I know, I love to hear about other countries, and how they do things differently; so I thought you might enjoy seeing some of these things.:-)  So here we go, on my little tour, for you, on life in Kenya! :-)

By - Ashlyn Elaine

Brian (isn't he cute?) and us three.
If I didn't live in Kenya there wouldn't be a Brian, Meli, Christian or any of our other Sunday school kids.  This may not be something different but it is something I love about being in Kenya; I enjoy all the kids at church and the one million and one stories they have to tell me.:-) 

Here is our group of Mk's here in Thika. 

Matatus!!
I cannot, honestly, say this is something I enjoy about Kenya, but they are here and they are everywhere!:-) They are the main form of public transport here, and lets just say, they don't enjoy sharing the roads with other people.:-)

The open air market.
Open air- it's not in a shop it's in the open air.:-) This is where we enjoy shopping for clothes. I guess you can call it the Good will of Kenya.:-)

A duka.
Duka means little shop in Swahili, and it is where a lot of people buy their fruits, vegetables, and such things.

The next three pics, are just of the wild animals we can see, here in Kenya. I love going through the game parks, and seeing all these animals....I am still waiting to see the Leopard, though. I have yet to see one, and I am hoping I can soon.:-)

My favourite!!!! Isn't he cute?

This is a picture of my sister Suzy, in line at her school. From first to fourth grade I went to a Kenyan school, like my siblings have; it's hard getting used to being the only white kid there, but you get used to it, and I am glad I went.  I made many friends in school, I would have never made if I didn't go.
(In this picture they are lining up to get on the bus.)

Notice the wall, with the barbed wire on top, around our yard. You have to have this here in Kenya, just for safety.

Just another of our yard and the wall around it. (can you spot the American flag hanging up?:-)

I think this is interesting about our neighbour hood, that there are houses like this tin shack, and notice behind it, the huge mansions.:-) Just the huge difference in houses amazes me.  (This picture is right along our wall.)

Here is the gate we have to open and shut every time we come into the yard. Sometimes, it is scary when coming home at night, and having to get out of the car and open the gate. 

Here is the filter we use to filter all our drinking water. We can't drink the water straight from the sink here.

And here is my favourite kind of Kenyan food....chapati. I just love them...they are just about the same as a tortilla. Kenyans usually eat it with some kind of stew.
(side note - I had it for breakfast today!:-)

So ends my little tour of life in Kenya! I am sure I have left out much, but at least you get some idea of our life in Kenya...I hope!:-)