Sunny Days in WA!

No really, there have been a few!  Whenever the lovely sun peeks her head out of the grey skies, we try and do *something* out of doors! Taking walks and bike rides have been fun pastimes here. In addition, we will sometimes enjoy meals together, the King Family and ours at the picnic tables.  Anyone else visiting the ‘Mission Home’ is always welcome too!

Sharing dinner together.. in hopes there may still be enough daylight for a walk

After dinner, we start heading on a walk..this time we plan to explore the creek!

 

A nice chat with a friend of the Kings

The boys hack down nettles so that the walking party can proceed

Heading down toward the creek

Taking a rest in the lovely green grass..

 

 

As the sun sets, we all head home

Grady and the children like to ride into town and over the pedestrian bridge,

which goes over the train tracks.

Mandy, looking down at the train tracks below..

Here Mandy is taking little Gracie on a walk just down the road from the house. It is such a pretty setting here! We are blessed for sure..

Going Worldly?

In general, our days these days consist of trying to finish up some schoolwork for the boys, getting the little girls in ‘line’ and trying to get on some  semblance of a schedule. (Thank you Stephanie for the inspiration) It has been an adjustment for sure.  No sun, indoors all day.. blech.  BUT, it has been nice to really focus in on the family, listening to sermons together, singing together (albeit  off key!)  One of the fun things we have been doing is unit studies again.  Now, I know that some people view unit studies as unprofitable and even worldly-minded;  but for us, we have to do something here to keep us from going stir-crazy! LOL. In addition, as our family continues to pray for the Lord to enlarge our hearts for the world, we do see the benefit of studying cultures and countries at this time for our family. 'Unit Studies' as a whole seems to be a great way for us at this time to accomplish that goal! We are greatful to Amanda Bennett who has offered all of her Unit Studies to us FREE of charge due to us being missionaries. What a blessing. Her unit studies are in E-Book form and although we as a family are trying to lessen our time on the internet, we have figured out ways to utilize her study without being online much. We open her ebook and  (plan on) printing (once I can figure out how to! LOL) some of her pre-planned worksheets (blank maps etc) and then look at her list of complimentory books in order to check them out from the library. We try to stay away from the youtube links included as we have recently seen such trashy clips, you know, the ones after the great youtube you just watched! Ugh! But really with a little pre-planning I think anyone interested in this type of curriculum would be very happy with it.  She does such a great job organizing her information! Check her exhaustive unit studies topics at http://www.unitstudy.com/

 Our latest study has been on the country of Ireland. Traditionally a Catholic country, riddled with generations of warfare and infighting, it has been very interesting to learn more about.  There are many prayer needs for the country of Ireland…  mainly that there would be a true revival of authentic Christianity. Praise the Lord, wouldn’t that be a blessing in and amidst a very atheistic and godless continent?

  Of course the kids all want to move to ‘The Emerald Isle’ next  (or at least have Grandma Bonnie take them all for a visit!) But for now we had to settle on preparing and enjoying a nice traditional Irish meal!  Our friends the Kings, graciously allowed us to spend the evening  in their home and share it with them! 

Amanda and Ryan prepared an ‘Iced Beet Salad” (which was my favorite!) Mandy made some” Irish Soda Bread “(both gf and wheat) served with orange marmalade.. Ashley and Amanda with the help of a few of the King children prepared “ Irish Ginger Cookies” w/icing and Mama made some traditional “Irish Lamb Stew” (which by the way was really horrible and needed a LOT more salt! LOL)

Did you know that Ireland is separated into 2 part.. Northern Ireland actually

 being part of the UK?The main differences being that Ireland (proper)

 has been mainly Catholic while Northern calls itself Prodestant.

 Hence some of the violence between the two over the years..

The children in our outdoor kitchen, preparing the meal..

                                                                                           
                                                                                  

Yummy Iced Beet Salad

Irish Soda Bread

Becca helps pass out the cookies

Clover shaped cookies!

Irish Stew

Mandy

Stephanie's sister, Susanna

Here is a 'shamrock', much like the ones reportably used by St. Patrick (who almost single handedly converted all of Ireland) to describe the trinity.

 Now onto China!  Library here we come!

Blog Update

Originally we started blogging as a way in which to create a diary-of-sorts for our children..  We saw it as a way to remember what the Lord has taken us through and to document fond memories we were creating. Unfortunately it has become too time consuming for this Mama to keep up on! J In order to better serve our family, we have decided to only update our blog twice monthly, around the 1^st and 15^th of each month.. at least for now.  And to be quite frank, there isn’t much to ‘report’ these days anyhow! Thanks for reading!

Blessings, The McDonald Family

Water Trouble and A Garden Party!

One sunny day we went to use the water and nothing.. It ended up that the well pump had failed! We were feeling a bit guilty about the whole matter since despite our efforts of being conservative, we knew that adding a family of 8 must have at least helped it to break. The repair man did reassure us though that it was an OLD pump and was surprised it had lasted as long as it had! We all coped pretty well through the weekend actually.. we were able to hand pump water and fill buckets to flush toilets and we filled up various containers of potable water at a friend's house for cooking and drinking. Really it was amazing how smoothly it went.. ;) We waited to plant the garden until the day the pump was replaced.. thankfully the weather was BEAUTIFUL and perfect for planting!

The kids get up early and set up camp chairs to watch the water guy install the new well pump

The first order of business was to pull out the old pump which was some 80 feet down!

The children, watching the show

All we ladies can think about is clean children, laundry and dishes! Oh, and of course planting the garden!

The little ones play in the trailer

Night-night 'baby' Matthew!

After hand rototiling the garden all week, we were all very excited to hear the neighbor offering
one more run through with his powerful tractor!

Stephanie starts measuring out the drip tape and putting in the stakes

A bit o' garden talk

Ryan was a big help too.. really all of the boys helped out so much!

They even built this nice trellis for the sugar snap peas

Sweet sisters in the Lord

The LORD will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Isaiah 58:11

The LORD will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Isaiah 58:11

Blessed to Have Fellowship

Living back in Washington State has brought about one issue for us. There are hardly *any* Anabaptist groups here! That is why when living here before we were a part of a *very* small home fellowship- because there are only a handful of folks in this area who have the same doctrines and convictions that we do. There is a Mennonite church about 45 minutes away but since our family is not Mennonite, that is not an option for us at this time. So coming back we find our small group dis-banded and our friends attending other groups.. none of which we 'fit' into. So, just like in Belize we find ourselves without a 'church'. BUT, the body of Christ is so good! We will be able to attend the small church which we are affilicated with in Oregon every month or so and between times have sweet fellowship with friends outside of official 'Church'. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that we as Christians *are* the Church.. And that when we gather together,(regardless of the day) He is in our midst. So although for now Sundays for us may only consist of sitting as a family and listening to a sermon.. and praying and singing, or whether we are blessed enough to meet with friends after their church meetings on Sunday, we can still 'gather together' in one accord, speaking in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord. We wonder what it must be like to be missionaries in a foreign country where there are no other families to sharpen one another at all. Truly, we are very blessed.

~Happy Birthday Grady~

Grandma Bonnie wanted to take the older girls to a fun concert in Seattle called 'Ten Grands', a marvelous production which included 10 baby grand pianos! The date of the performance happened to fall on Grady's birthday. So Grady, Ashley and Amanda headed up to the great Mecca of Seattle, where Grady had spent his childhood. They had a wonderful day of visiting Grady's grandma Alma, wandering around Seattle, and eating at the fabulous Benihana- a Japanese restaurant that specializes in preparing the yummy fair right there at the table! The girls told me that they received some very strange looks while wandering around the very 'hip' city of Seattle.. the girls couldn't help gaze upward, mouths agape at the immense skyscrapers, replete with glitz and glitter. Everyone stared.. although most of the stares were quite  polite ones.. think 'Amish Girls Meet the Urban Jungle' Hee Hee! Then it was off to the Benaroya for the dazzling performance.
                                                   


                                                           Happy Birthday Honey! <3

Elliot Bay, Seattle

Seattle skyline

'Girls, we ain't in Belize any more!'

A sweet visit with Grandma Alma

A yummy meal at Benihana

!!!Happy Birthday Grady!!!

An amazing skyscraper in downtown Seattle

A typical Seattle street

10 baby grands decorated to the hilt

A lovely night

I did it!

 Finally, after hearing about it for so long.. I have actually made
KOMBUCHA!

 Kombucha is a fermented tea that is often drunk for medicinal purposes.

The practice of making Kombucha seems to me a bit like the practice of  home-birthing.. no one will actually admit that they think it is proof of super-holiness but it is just an unspoken understanding among most really, really godly women I have spent time with <;)>! Now, unlike home-birthing, I am actually able to do this Kombucha thing! Finally after all these years I can finally fit in with all of my (afore mentioned) super spiritual friends! I am now part of the 'in' group.. but don't worry, if you don't belong to that super elite group yet, all you need is a  SCOBY -< acronym standing for Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast>
and a great Kombucha recipe which you can easily google... ;) 

Here are some pics of my fermenting Kombucha, day 2. Following my pictures is one from Google images.. just to show you how it looks once it is finished fermenting.. or brewing or whatever it is called! < :) >

Happy Kombucha-ing!