Fast Facts from Jori (and other kid related stuff)

-

Here are some recent “facts” that Jori has shared with us:

Did you know that if you dip a banana in wine it won’t be banana color anymore? It will be wine color. Me: What’s wine? Jori: You know, it’s like blood, but it’s bad for you. Some people drink it.

Did you know that when baby elephants go “aroo, aroo” they aren’t crying for their moms? They are just talking.

Did you know that teddy bears love honey?

Here are some other little Jori tidbits:

We recently picked up some food for a program that was taking place in the community. Jori’s response to our giving; “I’m happy we’re helping them out, buuuuut that just wastes our money!” We explained that helping others isn’t a waste and that we were able to help because we didn’t get as many groceries for ourselves. Her response; “you want us to die?”

The past couple nights, we’ve been praying as a family before bedtime. Last night when Darin tucked Jori in, she told him that she wanted to pray for him. So she asked him what he was having a hard time with. Darin said she could pray about the water filters. That wasn’t enough information for Jori, so she asked him what filter stuff he was working hard at. We could hear her praying out loud for her daddy and his partners “Carel and Blessing”.

Tonight before we prayed, the kids were singing songs from school, including “Our God is an Awesome God”, “Father I Adore You” and then the mysterious “Cost yer bellons”. We weren’t sure if this last song was in Tswana, Afrikaans or what, but we had no idea what a “bellons” was. After listening to them sing it a few times, we finally realized they were supposed to be singing “Cast your burdens”, but the heavy African accents of their classmates has led both of our kids to sing “cost yer bellons” for the past 3 weeks. They were both really skeptical that the words were indeed “Cast your burdens”, but they finally accepted that we were right.

Tyson made it SIX days in a row without moving his peg. He was so proud of himself and we are so proud of him too. We try not to make that the main focus of his day, but after moving his peg almost every day for the first few weeks of school, it’s quite an accomplishment for him. He did end up moving his peg yesterday, but he told us "I just let it go. Let it go". We are glad he is learning that moving a peg isn't the end of the world! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Connection and Community

-
Image
When we had made the decision to uproot our lives in the US and move to South Africa, I was so hungry for information about what living in South Africa would look like. We had been to South Africa several times as a couple, Darin had come on work trips, and we had spent 10 weeks here with our children. We knew some people, had been into various shops, and had a familiarity with the sounds of English being spoken with a variety of accents. However, there is a big difference between leaving home to visit a place for a few weeks or months and entirely uprooting your life in one place to start over in another. What were the schools like, would I have access to familiar ingredients to cook with, what about healthcare?  I scoured the internet to find stories about living in South Africa and found a few women who were more than happy to answer my questions, however random and weird they were. There was Annie, an American living in Pretoria, whose entire blog I read in one day and when Darin c
Read more

Family Fun Friday

-
Image
We have almost reached the end of the winter holiday. Tyson and Jori go back to school on Wednesday. We have some fun activities planned for the next few days, but we will also be cleaning bedrooms and setting out uniforms and lunch boxes. Let the school fun begin! Overall, it has been a fun holiday. Tyson and Jori have both had school friends over to play, we've made it to church twice, we've been out for pizza, had donuts, did some baking, and more. Friday, however, was probably the highlight of the school holidays for us. The day started with Jori losing her first tooth! Our baby girl is growing up. We had a few errands to run and took the kids with us. While Darin was busy at Cashbuild ordering supplies for an upcoming building project at TYB, Tyson, Jori and I went to Pick N Pay and King Pie for a little treat. We shared with Darin, of course. We spent a few hours at home, then headed out at 3 for our big adventure. We drove slowly and took a mini game drive on
Read more

More thoughts on motivation

-
When I look back at the decision making process that Darin and I went through, the process which has now brought us so close to a departure date, I have little doubt that Darin felt a call and responded to this call. Yet, when I go back over the different thought processes I went through to get us to this point, I realize that it has been all about me, which might explain why I am now suffering from some "buyer's remorse". It's not that my motivations for moving were necessarily wrong in themselves-I hope that Darin and I will be closer as a couple, I hope that our family will be closer and will do more together, I hope that Tyson will thrive in this new environment, I hope that our family will be able to reach out and help those that we come into contact with, I hope that Darin will be home more often and able to be a bigger part of our family life. Yet as we get closer, these hopes seem to be such small reasons to go. It's not like moving to a new country is goi
Read more