Cactus Flower

All the work of Carnaval Retreat is done.  Two days of shopping, one day of packing and prep at home, one day of early arrival to prep on the island and host 30 early arrivers, four days of actual camp, whew!  We hosted around 150 campers and "os demais" - pastors, workers, etc.  In the midst of all the frustrations and plain hard work, I allowed myself the joy of some shadows - Idson, Jadiel and Nataly.  Jadiel is my little bud from past retreats.  His grandfather is the island caretaker and his mother frequently works in the kitchen as she did this past weekend.  Jadiel and I enjoyed plenty of quality time together - sometimes a little too much. He helped me on two afternoons to make cake to sell in the canteen.  Since he was my official partner in business, I took the opportunity to instill lots about work ethics, capitalism, economics and love! Would you pray for all my little shadows, but especially for my litte shadow and culinary student...

Job 28:10 He cuts out channels in the rocks , And his eye sees every precious thing. Psalm 78:35 Then they remembered that God was their rock , And the Most High God their Redeemer. Revelation 2:17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone , and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it. On our family vacation I walked with three friends up the tallest mountain peak in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco.  It was a rocky path with a one lane road of large cobblestone.  The little road went up and down as it meandered to the top of the peak at 4134 feet.  The hike took us three hours and about ten minutes.  We could not have walked much faster if we had wanted for watching where we had to step with all the cracks and crevices between the large rocks in the road and for the occasional super stee...

All my guys are good looking fellows.  I just love this photo from our family vacation two weeks ago.  Byron and William just happened to be standing near each other as we all meandered around the top of the highest mountain in Pernambuco.

We're home after a week of traveling.  Had a great time.  Snapped this colorful line of laundry along a mountain road in Pernambuco.  It's one of my favorite photos from our trip.  Simple, everyday, common! Check out my other blogs for news of our trip @ Up A Mountain Mountain Retreat Take care!

.... So did I say that I'd left the house with no supper?  A few hours after Dalton's surgery to insert a pin to hold the bone together in his little finger, the nurse brought him some soup and a piece of bread.  By then it was about 10:00 at night.  He gulped it down.  I sat and watched and regretted not letting my neighbor's husband go out before he left to get me a snack as he had suggested.  Honestly I didn't feel much like eating.  I was nervous to be in a ward with other patients in a strange place to spend the night. After his soup and a bit of t.v., Dalton went to sleep on his bed.  An orderly told me and another lady who was with a boy who had broken his arm that we could feel free to lay down on the extra beds in the room.  I laid down, but my eyes stayed wide open most of the night.  Around 3 am I remembered that I had some dramamine in my purse and decided that it might help me relax and sleep a little.  It did and I must h...

The Broken Finger ....When all of a sudden my middle son started screaming, hollering, and doing some sort of war dance.  He had been jumping with his skateboard and bar on the front sidewalk.  Ah, ah, ugh, ugh, arrrr!  Seems he had fallen, but I could make no since out of his squalling to know what he had hit.  He ran into the house and collapsed on the couch.  This kind of thing happens a lot in my house.  So I passed on by to get a drink of water before coming back to ask what was the matter.  Then I saw blood and a bent finger!  Broken finger!  The bone poking out was causing it to bleed.  Oh joy! We live in a small interior city of Brazil.  No hospital.  There is a small emergency clinic.  They have no  x-ray machine.  Often they have no doctor for the day.  Frequently they don’t even have simple supplies.  What to do?  My dh was in the big city an hour away with the car!   That w...

It all started on Saturday and Sunday with a Siamese cat that would not go away. Why did the poor cat not see that my two dogs don’t like cats? All day on Saturday the little kitten ran around in the backyard dodging the dogs, resting, and playing tag again. We tried to catch it to no avail. We tried to run it off, but you know the song – The Cat Came Back! Sometime on Monday I decided I would catch that cat and I would make it mine! I spent a good part of my afternoon following the cat around the backyard in an attempt to coax it to come to me. Ah, I put the dogs in the house! Mmm, finally a cat for me! Sometime in the afternoon, my youngest called from the school room, because the dogs had THE cat cornered under the old washing machine. I’m going to get my cat! I bend down with dogs breathing down my neck, and see not one, but TWO little cats! One ran off and climbed the wall never to be seen again. The other stayed huddled way up under the washer. I got ...