Life on the Musi

A river runs through our city.  Life is active on the shores of this coffee colored waterway.  We took a boat trip to check it out.  Wanna come along?

There are ferries that transport people and goods to other locations along the river and even out to islands off the coast of the island.

I don't think the boat below is gonna be sea-worthy, hopefully it is just transporting along the river!

Below is a paint shop.  Look at those bright boats!

Every day is laundry day. 

Check out the goat skins on the front wall of this house!

You can see the dome of a blue mosque behind the houses.

Indonesian flag

Back at the shores of the main market area of a city.  

Object Lessons and Perspective

Here's why it's good to have time with the Lord first thing in the morning:  you never know what's going to happen that day...and God does!

This morning I woke up feeling rested.  Kris brought me coffee in bed, saWEEEEET!  Time with the Lord, priceless.  I got up and wandered into the living room.  Kris was relaxed on his recliner.  It is Sunday morning and he is looking forward to preaching at a house church fellowship and then coming home to a relaxing afternoon.  I hear the kids in the kitchen eating breakfast.  They remembered the pancakes from last night and are eating the leftovers for breakfast.  Looks to be an easy day!  But the kitchen smells bad.  I look in the kitty litter box...kitty missed the box!  I clean it up.  Now to throw the trash out.  I unlock the front door, or at least try to.  The key is stuck.  I go to the store room to get the WD40.  The store room is flooded by a broken pipe from an air conditioner.  OK, that's for later, but I go ahead and tell Kris about it.  WD40 doesn't work for the key because...the lock is broken...we can't get out of the door.  This one can't wait because we gotta go to church!  Kris tries all sorts of things but the cheap lock has crumbled and there isn't much to be done in the half hour we have before church.

At our worship time, Kris' sermon is very appropriate.  It's about our light and momentary troubles!  We all decide to go out to eat together.  We have four cars.  One car is hit by a motorcycle on the way. We arrive at the restaurant who says they aren't serving until 2 O'clock.  We pile back into our cars.  One car won't start, needs a new battery!  We leave it behind and go to the next restaurant!  Today feels like trying to run through mud: we are all working hard, but not getting anywhere very fast!  Today is a day of object lessons.

After lunch Kris brings the boys and I home and goes to help get a new battery for our friends' car.  Then our friend helps Kris fix the door.  When they left to go buy a new door handle, I went to take a picture.  And then it hit me...perspective!  Take a look at this picture.  What do you see?  A broken door leaning against the wall?

Well, that's what I was taking a picture of.  But as I looked at the picture I realized there are so many things that are "right" about this picture and only one thing that is "wrong."  At first I saw our front door...off it's hinges...leaning against the wall...that's WRONG!  But then I saw...a Christmas tree: we found one for sale here! ...and I saw our family picture on the wall:  we have a fun, loving, healthy family ...and I saw the grass outside:  the rains came and have refreshed us and made everything look so green and pretty ...and I saw our neighbor's house across the street: we have kind neighbors, who need to hear about Christ ...and I saw our furniture: the Lord has blessed us with beautiful furniture for our home...our home...God has provided that too.  There is so much to be thankful for.  I could spend my time sighing about the broken door, or I could look at the blessings all around me.  It's all about object lessons and perspective!

SEA Games!

Our city is hosting half of the South East Asian Games!  Amazingly, admission was FREE!  So we took a school field trip.  Hey, in Texas everyone is taking a State Fair Day, right?  I think we are entitled to a SEA Games Day! :)

After paying the parking dude 50 cents (20 cents for parking, he said, and 30 cents for snacks and a smoke!) we headed to our first event:  Sepak Takraw.

We had a friendly gun slinger escort us to the venue!

Sepak Takraw is a really cool sport.  It is a mix of volleyball and hacky sack!  Oh man, it was amazing to watch, like volleyball with no hands!

But first, a stop at the toilet.  We felt very safe since they controlled the doping! (?)

Kris and Joel got their picture taken with the Malaysian Sepak Takraw team!  This was just before Indonesia beat them!  AYO!  Indonesia Bisa!  Later, though, we got to ride a bus with this very team, we were looking for transport and a military commando dude invited us to ride with the team!  We dropped them off at their dorm and then went to our next venue (but I'm getting ahead of myself...)

Here is the gym and some of us from the group of 22 foreigners who all went together!  Parts of the day WE were the main attraction!

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the right setting on my camera to capture the amazing Takraw moves.  But if you Google it, you'll see how they fling their legs up over their heads to spike the ball!  Here is one of Indonesia's star players.  He was practicing right behind where we were sitting.

Here is part of the time we were the main attraction.  That's Seth with the Ladies' Takraw Team!

And Joel with a random girl who wanted her picture with him.  After awhile we were surrounded by giggly girls and couldn't even see the takraw game, so we excused ourselves, found some lunch, then headed to the next venue...

Gymnastics!  Men and Women were competing in the finals.  It was SO COOL!  We didn't get to see all of it, but we watched them practice and we watched men's floor, vault and pommel horse and the women's uneven bars!

Here is one of Malaysia's gymnasts.

Here is one of Indonesia's gymnasts.  

This is one of Indonesia's gymnasts.  I took this picture especially for my gymnast niece Kayla!!

What a great day of fun!  We got to see some neat stuff and still there was so much more to see!  What a great opportunity to see some great competition!

Congratulations! You just won...a...ummm...

This is my first time to homeschool and I am learning all kinds of things.  I wonder if the boys are learning anything?  I feel like I should have been required to at least have a semester of student teaching before being entrusted with the education of the kids.  But apparently it is a sink or swim sort of thing.  I think it would be wise for me to invest in some scuba gear.

I want the boys to memorize Scripture.  So they get a verse a week.  They can quote their verses once a day to me, and when they have done so correctly five times they get a small prize.  When they have filled in a chart of 4 verses quoted five times each, they get a bigger prize.  They have been looking forward to the bigger prize.  I've been focused on keeping the small prize bag filled with interesting things.  I've done pretty good on that, and was even prepared to add new things when the prizes became a bit "old hat."  But I forgot about the big prize.

Hmmmm, I had afew ideas but nothing solid.  Seth proudly quoted a verse to me this morning and I handed him his sticker and pulled out the prize bag.  

"I get a BIG prize too, Mom!"

"Of course you do!  Yea for Seth!" (hide panic in my voice with a big high five)

"What is it?"

"What is what?"

"The BIG prize?  What is it?"

and thus began the Kelley Homeschool Teacher's longest stall yet...

"Congratulations!  You just won....a..."

The other two boys are lined up behind Seth, ready to hear the BIG prize because they each only have a couple of more verses to quote before THEY also win the much coveted but somehow elusive BIG prize.

"Mom?"

"Yes?"

"What did I win?"

"Well, see, it is time to start class now so I will give you the BIG prize later."

"But what IS it?"
"Well, I can't tell you until you get it."

and so on and so forth throughout the day.  But I never seemed to have time to rummage through my stash of things that might be deemed BIG prize, nor could I settle on what I thought would be a good alternative.  Ice cream?  By the time afternoon rolled around, it seemed anti-climactic to say...

"And NOW, what you have ALL been waiting for!!!!  SETH has, for his hard work, earned himself....a scoop of...well...ice cream."

Oh dear, I needed to decide quickly before the anticipation made ANY gift at ALL seem trivial.  But, of course, the day continued to get away from me.  And then we decided to surprise the boys with a trip to the movie theater.  The movie was great and when it was over we went out for dinner at Mr. Pancake (which, incidentally has a small section of the menu dedicated to pancakes while the other 80% of it has things like shrimp alfredo, fried rice, crispy chicken steak, noodles etc). 

Seth asks, "So what is the BIG prize?"

I tried to pass the movie off as the big prize but that definitely did not work.  OK, gotta make a decision, this is ridiculous.  On the way home Kris leans over and asks me quietly if I know what the prize is.  Well, I have an idea...sort of... When we get home I tell the boys to get ready for bed and I rush to my desk to finally decide on a BIG prize.  I rummage around and find these great coupons and immediately fill one in for an amount from iTunes.    By then Seth is ready for bed and is brushing his teeth (in the TV room because that is where our only sink is...what?...your only sink isn't in the TV room?  Really?  Weird.)  Aaron and Joel are robots fighting each other (can you guess what we watched at the theater?)  I try to make a grand presentation for Seth who turns to receive his coupon just as flying robot pieces (ie a sofa pillow) comes flying off of one of the robots and splats against Seth's hand holding the toothbrush.  I thankfully save the toothbrush, and the remotes that get whacked off the coffee table.  The presentation is less than desirable, the amount I have written on his coupon is also less than desirable, but is all I can do at the moment.  After working weeks to get his prize, then waiting all day with anticipation, Seth looks at his coupon.  He reads it.  I watch.  A moment of silence.  Then he smiles and says, "I can use this to buy the rest of the season I wanted!"  Big grin!  I LOVE MY KIDS!  They are so gracious and thankful for even the smallest things.  They make me feel like a million bucks even when I feel like the amount on that coupon!  :)  

Lesson learned, when you offer a BIG prize, know what it is before it's time to give it.  

Krabi, Thailand

Recently we went on a 10 day trip to this tropical paradise!

We got to stay in these great bungalows!

It's hard work being a Third Culture Kid!

Don't get any ideas. I will not do this at home!

Our porch overlooked a lagoon.

These guys always make life an adventure!

Cool places like this also add to the adventure!

Can you guess how old Seth turned while we were there?

Get Out the Drill...It's Time to Work!

This past weekend I decided it was time to get to work on hanging stuff...with cement walls, that require more than a hammer and nail.  I had to break out the drill.  Here's the result (plus a lot of dust and dirt!)

Shower curtain for our one tub...

Working on the kitchen cabinets.  All but the actual shelving is from Ikea, one of my favorite stores.  I shopped at the Ikea in Singapore and brought it all in our luggage.

Watch out folks, she has a drill and is not afraid to use it!

Yes, even my "L's" are from Ikea, I love that place!

Mostly finished kitchen

Here it is!

Puzzling Pictures: It's on the menu!

Are you brave enough to order this juice off the menu?

Fun in Thailand

Here are a few more pictures of our fun in Thailand...

The sign says, "Where Kings, presidents and important people visit"

One of Lola and Papa's favorite restaurants at the mall near their apartment.

Riding a sang tao (sp?) with new friends

Lunch at Mike's Burgers, right across the street from where Lola and Papa used to live!

Swensons (yum!)

Seth and Joel got new golf clubs!!!  Aaron will get his in Indonesia.  Golf will be their PE for this year!