Simple Woman's Daybook

Please visit Peggy who encourages us to journal in our Daybook each week.

FOR TODAY... Monday, January 18

I am thinking...about making each word a gift. "...say only what helps, each word a gift." Eph. 4:29 The Message

Outside my window...dark, quiet, wet from the rain that fell all afternoon as it filled up the rain tank, it's been a very full day

I am thankful for...my sweet husband and the cup of coffee he brings me each morning

I am wearing...faded cotton pajamas, damp hair, bare feet

I am remembering...Martin Luther King, Jr. and his peace-loving, life-changing ways

I am going...to enjoy lots of company this week!

I am currently reading..."The New Laurel's Kitchen" by Laurel Robertson, Carol Flinders, and Brian Ruppenthal (I know it's a cookbook, but as Sarah says, "Mom, there's a lecture with every recipe!")

I am hoping...to make the time to catch up on e-mail soon.

On my mind...how much I need need insight and understanding. "...if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God . For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding." Proverbs 2:3-6

Noticing that...there are several ways to put "hands" to our prayers for Haiti

Pondering these words... "...it has become clear...that nurturant work is not only for mothers, not only for parents even; it is the birthright of every man, woman, and child. Without it, we never grow to our full stature. This is an easy truth to discover when you start living it out. The only reason it is obscured from view in today's world is that supporting life is not a value on which our culture is based." from The New Laurel's Kitchen (emphasis mine)

From the kitchen...tomorrow we will enjoy camper's oatmeal in the morning, clean up leftovers for lunch, and share curried lentils & rice, fresh greens, pineapple, and scotch bars with a SITAG family

One of my favorite things...cooking with my kids

From my picture journal...

Katherine helping roll out tortillas

the least sign of a feather

[Amy Carmichael] was finding out firsthand that missionaries are not set apart from the rest of the human race, not purer, nobler, higher. "Wings are an illusive fallacy," she wrote. "Some people may possess them, but they are not very visible, and as for me, there isn't the least sign of a feather. Don't imagine that by crossing the sea and landing on a foreign shore and learning a foreign lingo you 'burst the bonds of outer sin and hatch yourself a cherubim.' "

from "A Chance to Die" by Elisabeth Elliot

Fertile Soil

This morning, Aaron and I went on our proposal-versary date followed by a trip to Honiara's Central Market. I hoped not only to pick up food for my family but also to find some Lavukal who had come to sell food in Honiara. We began by walking through the fish section, and as we approached the first cooler, we heard "Lalomomeahobea!" (good morning). Somebody recognized us immediately and called out in Lavukaleve! The man and his wife were from the Eastern part of the Russells (we live in the West), and they had just come in last night with a cooler full of beautiful fish. Somehow, he knew that we had just come back on the Bikoi last week, and he asked how our New Year celebrations (complete with "singroll") had been in Marulaon. I guess word gets around. We bought an almost 4 pound fish for a great price, and continued to walk around toward the shellfish.

I saw some "haleav" (not my favorite), and then I spied piles of "kalimeto" something I actually knew how to prepare! Just for fun, I asked where the young ladies had gathered the kalimeto, which were still crawling crawling around the bag laid on the ground. Their response? "The Russells"! I felt like God had led us straight to them. I was able to buy the shellfish using Lavukaleve (my limited vocabulary consists almost entirely of market phrases), and I discovered that the ladies were from Louna, the village in the East Russells that Aaron and Benjamin had visited last summer. On our way home, Aaron teased me that he couldn't take me to market without coming home with lots of extra food. But we think that going to market may be a great connection with the Eastern Russells and a way for me to continue language learning while staying in Honiara. What an exciting gift the Lord handed us this morning!

I called my friend from SITAG who had been asking how to prepare some local food, and she sat down with us to visit while we pulled the little critters out of their shells for two hours (the bowl on the left is the edible fruit of our labor). Karen works in literacy, especially in using God's Word to teach people to read. One of my burdens is that our friends in Marulaon aren't interested in the Pijin Bible. The entire Pijin Bible was dedicated in July 2008, and parts of it have been available for 30 years. I always thought that the Bible was just too expensive (about $10 US), but Karen suggested that the people just didn't know how to read in Pijin.

Whatever the reason, ever since we began to live among the Lavukal last April, I've been impressed that they are the soil in Jesus' parable of the Sower (Mark 4:1-20). Their hearts are so ready to receive God's truth and to apply it to their lives, but Satan uses so many things to steal away that Truth, especially since God's Word isn't written in their heart language - YET. Our road to facilitating translated scripture is a very long one. But, there are things we can do now to begin literacy and scripture use in the Russells. Will you please pray that God will continue to prepare fertile soil among the hearts of the Lavukal?

And the winner is...

Holly! (who beads beautiful silverware to raise funds to bring home a daughter from China)

The Choate Bed and Breakfast (by Joy)

Visit over here for our newest B & B brochure.

What's Cooking at the Choates

I love treating my family to special things...like good meals. Tonight we enjoyed good music ("Applalachian Journey" by Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, & Mark O'Connor ) , lots of laughs, and delicious food. Our menu tonight:

Meat-Potato Quiche

Sauteed greens with tomatoes

Butternut Squash with Pecans and Blue Cheese

Watermelon Slices

Peanut butter crackers dipped in almond bark

(thanks to some 5th & 6th graders in Minneola, Kansas)

Meat-Potato Quiche (from "More-With-Less" cookbook)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In 9" pie pan, stir together:

3 T vegetable oil

3 cups coarsely shredded raw potato

Press evenly into pie crust shape. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes or until just beginning to brown. Remove from oven. Layer on:

1 cup grated Swiss or cheddar cheese

3/4 cup cooked diced chicken, ham, or browned sausage

1/4 cup chopped onion

In a bowl, beat together:

1 cup evaporated or rich milk (part cream)

2 eggs

1/2 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

Pour egg mixture onto other ingredients. Sprinkle with

1 T parsley flakes

Return to overn and bake at 425 about 30 minutes, or until lightly browned, and knife inserted 1" from edge comes out clean. Allow to cool 5 minutes before cutting into wedges.

New Pictures from Joy

Our friend, Joy, has posted some new thoughts and pictures of her trip to visit us in the Russell Islands if you are interested in seeing our lives through her eyes.

Giveaway Time

Aaron found this beautiful bowl in town, and it's the perfect size to be able to share with those of you who encourage us so much. The carving here is astonishing, I can't even imagine the amount of time it takes to make some of the really big bowls. So, if you would like to own this bowl, drop me a comment before midnight CST, Thursday night, January 14, and our kids will once again become giddy as they draw names out of the proverbial hat.

Finishing up in Marulaon

the "three muskateers", Pogo, Joy, and Melissa

Monday, January 4

Today, as we were busily packing inside the house, I heard Eileen's infectious laugh drifting toward me from the path that leads to the bush. When I looked out the kitchen window, I found Eileen with her youngest daughter, Foamela, both balancing parcels of kimita (long skinny leaves with spikes on the edges) on their heads.

I recognized the leaves as the kind they use to weave mats, so I asked Eileen why they were making more mats. The week before Christmas, I watched a flurry of mat making activity to put new mats around the altar in the church and to provide beds for the many people coming from other villages.

Eileen said that they were making mats for Foamela to take to school with her in a few weeks. The students who just finished Standard Six at Fly Harbour School will be leaving very soon to begin Form 1 at a school in Nukufero, also in the Russell Islands.



Last week, Melissa brought us a huge fish because she wanted some bandaids for her mom. The easiest way to cook it was to motu it, so on Saturday when Pogo came to help, she gave me some firewood, and I got to practice again in my kitchen. The stones are prepared in the same way no matter what you cook, then when the stones were good and hot, we just laid the fish on top. It smelled sooo good!

Pogo, Melissa, Joy and I went to Pogo's garden to collect some bamboo to make a sturdier fence around our garden. When we came back, this is what we found. A delicious, moist lunch with easy clean up!

Tuesday, January 5

We woke up to heavy rain this morning and discovered that the clothes hanging underneath the house were wetter than they were before we hung them up. So, we brought them in the house and draped them on the bunkbeds to dry. The shipping reports led us to believe that the Bikoi would arrive around 10:00 a.m. Very little in the Solomons happens at the appointed time, in fact, everyone jokes about "Solomon Time". At 9:00 Aaron had just started taping boxes and loading them on the porch, and I was getting ready to clean up the kitchen and bathroom when we heard the neighbor kids start shouting "Bikoi!"

Sometimes they shout just as a joke, but this time it was for real. Melissa came running up to the house and assured me that the Bikoi had just rounded the last corner and was quickly approaching Marulaon. Thankfully, God stopped the rain as a line of friends formed to help us get our many boxes down to the shore to load in Chief Leonard's canoe. The bathroom and the kitchen didn't get cleaned, but we all made it down to the shore and quickly loaded into the canoe. Through tears, we waved goodbye to our friends and headed out to catch the Bikoi while the dark clouds still witheld their rain.

Many of our friends were selling food to the Bikoi (the passengers from the Western Solomons had already been on the boat a very long time) from their canoes. They moved so we could climb on board. After we moved everything to the Bikoi, I hunted down some lelenga from one of the canoes. Our friends wouldn't let us buy it, so they just tossed three still warm parcels to us as the Bikoi began to move. The rain began again as we looked for a place to settle for the six hour boat ride. The choppy waves soon made many of us on the Bikoi sick. Joy lost her lelenga overboard, and Olivia, Katherine, and I tried to lay down and rest. Water frequently splashed in through the holes for the anchor rope and over the side (see Olivia's arm in the picture above), so we spent the first half of the trip with our feet sitting in water.

Several bags of critters to sell at market lay nearby, and Olivia and I laughed as we watched some slowly escape and crawl around our feet. About halfway back to Honiara, the seas calmed and our tummies felt much better. Thanks for praying for us as we returned. We're always torn when we leave one set of friends and return to the other. Now, we're looking forward to settling in Honiara for a couple of months.

Honiara Simple Woman's Daybook

Please visit Peggy to peruse the other daybooks from around the globe.

FOR TODAY...Monday, January 11

Outside my window...still dark, the sun rises 30 minutes later here than it does in Marulaon

I am thinking...how nice it is to post links again and to actually be able to see what I'm posting on the blog. That technology enables me to send words and pictures through the radio waves so that people around the world can see them...wow, I'm blown away!

I am thankful for...frozen broccoli and frozen berries - my two big splurges while grocery shopping this week.

I am wearing...khaki skirt, green sleeveless knit shirt, shell hoops in my ears

I am remembering...thirteen years ago this week, my beloved asked me to marry him

I am going...to pick up a friend from the airport tomorrow, on a date with my husband later this week to commemorate our "proposal-versary"

I am currently reading..."A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Any Carmichael " by Elisabeth Elliot, and still enjoying tiny, slow bites from "The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds on Prayer"

I am hoping...and praying that my back heals quickly. Gathering large stones, balancing in a canoe, and hauling lots of buckets of water have left me with lower back pain for several weeks now, so I'm having to slow down (a very good thing)

On my mind...missing my friend, Joy. I've been trying to set the table with 7 plates instead of 6. Our house is so empty without her. You can see the Solomons through her eyes here.

Noticing that...I'm craving color and beauty. You would think that living in a tropical paradise would sate my eyes, but I've found so many treats of color lately that have just delighted me!

Pondering these words..."Satan is so much more in earnest than we are -- he buys up the opportunity while we are wondering how much it will cost." Amy Carmichael

From the kitchen...cinnamon apple pancakes (discovered in a care package from this sweet friend), leftovers for lunch, chili for supper (yes, I know it's hot here, but it IS January, and we like to pretend that we have seasons around here)

Around the house...still some unpacking to do, rearranging furniture to make this SITAG house feel like home

One of my favorite things...early morning two year old bed head, complete with bangs she created while leaning over the candle-lit Advent wreath

From my picture journal...

these beautiful hand-beaded spoons are helping bring a little girl from China to her new loving home in America, we use our spoons every day!

Sweet Sabbath

"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord." Acts 3:19

"Blessed is the man who always fears the Lord, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble." Proverbs 28:14

As we settle back into Honiara, we are always confronted with how exhausted we are - physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. Our prayer is that we would use the next several weeks not only to restock our kitchen and supplies for the village, but that our hearts would stay soft toward the Lord so He will reveal our sins and "restock" our lives as well.

New Year Celebrations

Friday, Januaray 1, 2010

As we were putting kids in be last night, Janet, the chief's wife, brought about 60 small fish in an overflowing bucket. Chief Leonard had rented a big net and caught enough fish for the whole village to share. Janet told me to motu them for the family breakfast on New Year's Day. I didn't have my motu going like everybody else, so I asked if it would be okay if I just boiled them in coconut milk, and she said it would be fine. So, Aaron and I stayed up late gutting fish and cutting up panna (another root crop) to cook early this morning.

At midnight, we heard lots of pots and pans banging and bells ringing. The young children walked around banging and yelling, too. They especially loved the bell by the church! After a while, Aaron went out to sit by the bell and wish everyone a "Happy New Year". We think he scared off the kids because the bell quit ringing.

Chief Leonard

This morning after church, we enjoyed the "family breakfast". Each family was assigned to eat with two other families. Since it was still raining, the chief's family and Naris's family came up on our porch to enjoy a late morning meal. They both brought turtle. Janet cooked hers with hot stones (motu) and Naris cooked hers with curry and onions - delicious!

The rain continued throughout the day, so the games and festivities were postponed, but each night for the next week groups of people will walk around the village and sing. As they come by each house, you are supposed to spray perfume on each person. The groups of kids love to come by our house and get doused with my perfume.

Sunday, January 3

Today after church, the New Year's festivities continued. When the bell rang, each of the three groups in the village (we're in group 2) gathered on the beach to "singroll". Everybody glittered their faces and brought noisemakers (Sarah used a pot and a wooden spoon).

Me and my glitter

Aaron helping the men to beat the boys in tug-of-war

Sarah in a losing battle against the boys

I was reminded of the "Battle of the Bands" as each group marched around the village singing at the top of their lungs. When we passed another group, the cacaphony reminded me of a Charles Ives compostion. It was a blast!

"singroll" while blowing in a shell

Harris and Sarah conspiring

After the singing, the games began in earnest: tug of war, sack races, splashing each other with water, smearing ashes on each other's faces, and throwing people into the ocean.

Sarah celebrating the New Year by squirting her mom

Then the Bikoi showed up, so Sarah and Joy went out in a canoe with Harris, Pogo, Juline, and Melissa to sing to the Bikoi and wish everyone a Happy New Year. As they approached the shore, Melissa announced that she would capsize the canoe and over they went!

Safe and Sound

Just letting everyone know that we are back in Honiara safe and sound. Look for more updates and pictures as soon as we finish unpacking.