~This is the Day that the Lord hath made...~

...Let us R.E.J.O.I.C.E. and be Glad in it! Like Pollyanna...let's play the GLAD GAME.  Whatever you may be facing...let's find some reason to be Thankful...even in the midst of hard times.  That's what our family is doing today! =)
In praying on Saturday as to where we should try to go to church, Phillip felt like we should have a home service.  If any one is FAITHFUL to gather at their local church, my husband is.  But, when one doesn't HAVE a local church, that's a different story. =) 
~Here's Elijah "preaching" before we started our service.~

~We all got "dressed up for church". 
Phillip snapped this picture of me doing last minute things in the kitchen before our service started.~

~And the kids before service.~

~Phillip asked me to lead some songs.  We opened our windows, Kimberly played the violin, and we sang several hymns in Spanish.  We were hoping that some passer-bys heard us singing.  I'm sure they did for...!!!

~Some of us Sang VERY LoUdLy ...
(Please note Elijah's TIE that he insisted on wearing with a knit shirt.=])~
(Moma and Laura, Doesn't Elijah look like his cousin Drew in this picture?)

~Especially the little blonde haired boy in the middle...he gave it all! he! had!!~

~Phillip holding an active little boy while he was preaching.  We had a very nice service that lasted over an hour.~ 

God's presence was very close.  Hasn't He promised  to be..."Where 2 or 3 are gathered together?" =)

~Fun Food Friday...Spice cake~

~I'm so grateful to the Lord (and our nice landlady) that I now have a rack in my oven.  =) I'm slowly but surely learning how to bake cakes in my oven.  You see it has no temperature gauge, it's just like an dial on a gas stove...high, med. and low.  =}
When one has just moved to a new country it takes awhile to stock up the pantry.   So, I was looking through my October Taste of Home trying to find a recipe for which I had at least most of the ingredients.  I found one on p. 21 and I made it yesterday.  It's yummy.   It called for powdered sugar (of which I had none) so I drizzled white choc. on top.  (Don't you hate it when you get a lump in your white choc. and it squirts out messing up your pretty design?  But, one of my family asked if she could have her piece from THAT side?! =)~

~Greek Spice Cake~
1 Tab. shortening
2 Tab. PLUS 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup oil
1 cup buttermilk
3 eggs
1 Tab. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract (I didn't have this)
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves (didn't have this either)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup chopped pecans
1 tsp. confectioners' sugar
1. Grease 10 in. fluted pan (Or whatever pan you find in your apt. in Argentina ; -) with shortening and lightly coat with 2 Tsp. flour, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat the sugars, oil, buttermilk, eggs, and extracts until well blended. Combine the remaining flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and baking soda; gradually beat into the sugar mixture until blended.  Stir in pecans.
3. Transfer to prepared pan.  Bake at 325 for 50-60 mins. or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.
4. Cool for 10 mins.before removing from pan to wire racks to cool completely.  Dust with confectioners' sugar or drizzle with white chocolate.
And as Always....ENJOY!                                               

 

~All in a Day's work~

Thank y'all for all your prayers, and sweet comments.  Phillip is praying and fasting and asking that God guide us as we try to be his SALT in Argentina.  One thing we have noticed is that there aren't a lot of children...at least in the area where we live.  We get lots of looks and people counting our kids as we are walking down the streets.  But, thankfully, we get a lot of nice comments and smiles too. =)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Today, Wednesday, Oct. 26th, was our kid's first day of school in Argentina.  Kimberly and Sarah didn't quite get their goals done for today...since they had "HomeEc 101" and helped me hand wash and hang dry a TON of dark clothes, jeans, and towels. =)  Thankfully God gave us a good sunny day.
~Last night we got to see some of the Union Bible College missionary convention.  Here's Mary watching Bro. Hight as he was speaking. =)~

 ~For our breakfast this morning I made a cinnamon swirl coffee cake.  The pan was way to BIG for the cake, (and even Noah asked me if I was going to put more in there to help fill up the pan =) but it was the pan that was in this apt. so I used it....~

 ~And the cake baked right up and FILLED that pan!  You can tell that I'm used to baking in Bogota...where as my friend Kathyrn teasingly said, "Is 28,000 ft. above sea level" ;-) for I wasn't expecting this to bake up so high.  It was yummy!~

 ~This evening we finally found a park to take the kids to.  This was a funny looking baby swing, but Mary loved it. =)~

 ~Phillip pushing Elijah on a swing.~

 ~Noah and Sarah on the teeter-totters.~

 ~Little Mary.  As you can see behind Mary...you can see lots of graffiti.  Sadly, that is common here.~

~Come spend a day with me in Argentina~

~I thought you'd like to see how one of my days goes here in our new country of Buenos Aires, Arg. =) First, we'll get up early (it was 5:00 AM our body time...for we are still on Colombian time) and Kimberly and I will go upstairs and hand wash a bunch of clothes.  There is a laundry mat close by, but we haven't found out if we pay them to wash our clothes, or if we use their machines to wash.~

~And here is our dryer.  =) Thankfully, right now is windy so the clothes dry pretty fast!~

~Next we make breakfast (I made quiche this morning and a fruit salad) and then we'll bathe a baby Mary.  Then she lays beside Daddy (who is reading his Bible) while I find her some clothes...and we can tell that she is ready for a nap....~

~Yep...thought so!~

~After she gets up we do several attempts of trying to get a picture of Mary...to show Gram that her hair is getting long enough to put in a little barrette.~

~Next we realize that the house is QUIET...so we must go and find Elijah...who was waiting to get into the tub.  We found him...he had climbed up into my closet and was playing in Mary's hair things. =)~

~Now, we'll go on a walk in our neighborhood, so we can see what kind of stores we have around us.  WOW! That's exciting...look at all the fruits and veggies in that store.  YEA!...And look what else I see....~

~YUMMY Strawberries~

~Now...we'll walk a little over a mile to the main grocery store.  Look at all this variety of fun crusty breads for sale.~

~And lots of different types of pastas too~

 ~And a HUGE long cooler full of every kind of cheese one kind think of.  We haven't found it, but hopefully they sell cottage cheese here too.
[And right after we take this pic, the guard comes and tells us that we are NOT allowed to take pics in this store. 
(I thought to myself...Really...WHY NOT?...this is just a grocery store.)    
But, I obeyed and put our camera away...and felt sad.  =(  ]~

Now, we'll go back home and heat up some pizza for supper.  Just after we get it on our rackless oven, and Phillip goes on a walk...the lights go off...and baby Mary starts wailing.  The lights stay off for about 45 mins.  THANK THE LORD we had purchased a fun candle as part of my centerpiece for our table...for that is how we were able to see when to get the pizza out of the oven and help Mary to stop crying. =)
We make a phone call to Thomas [who helped us get this apt.] to tell him that we'd like to continue living here, if they could please fix a few things...like the CD player, the internet which only works every 3rd day, etc. =) 
Thankfully, they are VERY NICE and helpful and just left after spending about 2 hours here trying to fix everything.  They plan to come back tomorrow to continue to make sure that everything is fixed...for I think they want us happy, for they seem happy to have us here.  =) 
[Before the owner left, she went and bought me an oven rack. YEA!!!!]  
God is GREAT...ALL THE TIME!  Thanks for coming to visit me, grab a piece of lemon cake sprinkled with BLUEBERRIES, and WALNUT as you leave! 
(YES!!!!!  We were THRILLED to find blueberries and walnuts here!!)
Please come again REALLY SOON! =D

~Today...being the Lord's day...~

She rested! =) Phillip let the younger kids and I stay home this first Sunday...to get some more REST on the day of rest and he and the girls walked for 2 1/2 hours through the city trying to find an evangelical church.  YES! You read that right.  Wow! We love this culture, but where are the churches?  Please continue to pray that God will guide us.
When I first saw our new apartment here in Argentina...there were no decorations in the kitchen and only one chipped vase with some artificial springy flowers in them in the living room. I knew I wanted to decorate a little in my kitchen, but didn't want to buy a bunch of things that I'd have to give away in just 4 1/2 months.  So, after our first day out in the city of Buenos Aires on Friday, I decided that I would use FOOD to decorate my kitchen.  It is inexpensive and we can use it up before we leave.  =D
Like I mentioned earlier hard crusty breads, cheeses, olives, hot teas, hot coffees, etc. are a big part of this culture.
~So...in a tiny grocery store we dug in a big open bin and found some hard loaves of bread.  I was wanting a basket to put them in, but on a Saturday night none were available.  In that same tiny groc. store we saw this neat old wooden box in the veggie section...and asked if we could buy it.  They sold it to us for a couple bucks...but I would have loved to have heard their conversation after we left, for I know they couldn't figure us Americans out! =)
My old box of crusty breads on top of the refrigerator.~

~Just some things that were already in the kitchen along with some garlic and onion.~

~I was delighted to find these 2 matching containers in the kitchen and knew I could put some pasta in them.  I used the one chipped vase for the "Foratini" (round hollow noodles similar to Spaghetti. =)~

~More fun crusty breads~

~Olives and Olive oil...~

~And at night~

~My nice kitchen (We were happy to see a hot water heater in the kitchen for that meant we wouldn't have to have cold showers!=) There's also a microwave, an oven (with no rack=), a blender, a coffee maker, and a nice 'fridge.~

~Such a nice breeze comes through the window in front of our kitchen sink when we're washing dishes. =) [pic taken at night.]~

~Love the nice tile floor and the granite counter tops.~

~Our nice bathroom...with a nice little Mary in it.~

~We love the clay sink.~

~The walls in the bathroom are a beautiful tile.  The dark "tiles" are actually squares of wood.~

~The most exciting part of the bathroom is that we have a BATHTUB and not just a shower.  We've not had a bathtub in any of the countries we have lived in since we left the US in 2005!  With 2 babies...bathtubs are HELPFUL! =)~

~The couch that makes out into a double bed...which is where our girls normally sleep.~

~Fun fall-ish colored pillows that were here. =)~

~I was so happy to find a REAL PUMPKIN to decorate with...along with my beloved Taste Of Home magazine that arrived THE DAY BEFORE I LEFT COLOMBIA!~

~I'm sure that those of you from the US have seen these adorable pumpkins made out of material, a stem and a roll of toilet paper but I had never seen one until last year at our church's home school group Thanksgiving dinner.  When I walked in and saw these...I fell in love with them.  So, afterward I told "Aunt Nesi' how ADORABLE the pumpkins were and she gave me one!  =D She didn't know it...but it made my heart soooo HAPPY...for I knew that the material and stem would weigh NOTHING and I would be able to take it to Argentina to decorate for Fall.  Thank you, Aunt Nesi! =) (And since I was bringing the Scrabble game anyways...why not have fun with some of the letters? =)

~Jesus gave us a nice table to seat 6 people...and the chairs have a vinyl covering...so easy to wipe off! =)~

~Our dinning room and our living room.  It's a nice, airy, fresh, and bright apartment and we are very happy!~

~The fun orange light in the living room.~

~Our bedroom. We have a king sized bed that we share with Mary for now. =) We've never even had a queen sized bed.=)~

~Mary's little dresser in our room.~

~The kids' fun colorful room. (with a fun CoLoRfUl Elijah!=)~

~The mirror in the kids' room...that has the same purple and green in it.~

~We are on the 3rd floor and a have a balcony right outside our living room.  There are elegant restaurants on every other corner it seems.  They all have tables outside with table clothes.  You can see 3 of them from our balcony.  Here's one...~

~And here's another one.  Fun!~

God truly went before us in finding the perfect Apartment for our family! =)