hello from Beijing

 

Y was kind enough to send a few pictures of Tim & Abby ~  In a couple hours they will be checking in at the airport!

 

 

We are SO looking forward to SEEing them HERE…in less than 24 hours, Lord willing!

We support Chick fil A

 

…or more importantly, the biblical definition of marriage. 

May God be glorified!

 

 

We’ll be there Tuesday ~ on our way to the airport!  : )

a few more words from Tim {China}

I guess I skipped this news on my last post ~

Monday 23 July

We went to a Chinese supermarket - it had some great big frogs and a purple skinned chicken.

Yesterday we ate at a place called Hot Pot. Each person gets a pot that sits on the table and when you turn it on the water in it starts to boil, Then you take meat, vegetables, potatoes, shrimp and noodles  and cook them in your boiling pot. When it is cooked, top the stuff with a variety of sauces and eat. This chop stick thing could certainly keep a person from overeating-- at least it slows down the eating process. 

And this is probably all we'll hear until they reach Seattle on Tuesday ~

Friday 27 July

Tomorrow is our last full day {with the A family}. Will probably do some shopping around town in the am, then maybe do some games at the apartment. Y will try to get a copy of the TV episode but don't know how that will turn out. Sunday morning we plan to do morning at the house then head to Beijing. We will do some looking around there on Monday maybe the Great Wall and Forbidden City. Tuesday some looking around in the morning and to the airport by 1:30. 



We are looking forward to having them both HOME again  : )

what's up in China?

For those who have had no clue what's going on here or why I posted the Beijing clock, this is Abby's senior trip with her dad.  They are staying with friends {abbreviated as Y & R} in China for two weeks.  They are just halfway through their visit. 

I've been reluctant to try to share here what's going on in China via the emails from Tim & Abby.  For one thing, Conny thinks Abby should write her own posts  ;-)  And for another, there are the bzillion pictures they have been accumulating on their cameras.  Sooo, my posting before they return will be a bit boring without any pictures...

Today, I came up with an idea {well, just now...} Maybe I should post Tim's emails but not Abby's?  That would give you all a tiny taste of what they're doing, but save all the elaborate and colorful descriptions and narrations for Abby to relate, complete with pictures.  : )  We don't call her Miss Artist for nothing, ya know.  And if you can imagine a paragraph for every sentence from Tim, you'll have a good idea of what you have to look forward to!

Now, without further ado - and before I think of something else I should be doing instead - here are a few comments from Tim.

Thursday 19 July

Well, China is an interesting place when you get outside the image zone and get to realville. We rode a high speed train to a town about 2 hours drive from Y and R’s, he called someone he knows to drive us the rest of the way. Y thought he had a small van, but the guy shows up in a compact car. Y says, “What’s this? this will never work,” the guy jumps out starts shoving bags in the trunk, gets out a piece of bed sheet, ties the bags down and away we go, couldn’t close the trunk. Needless to say he drove like you would expect. We made it without incident. Proof that miracles are real. 

Abby got motion sickness just as we were taxiing to the airport in Beijing, she fought it for a long way.

R had some good chicken noodle soup for lunch, that was the right thing for us.

Tonight we went out to a street restaurant I think Abby got some good pictures, you will love it. Had some lamb kabobs, they were pretty good.



Saturday 21 July

I think my system got a little overwhelmed with new things, feeling a little better today. Maybe you remember their presentation with the fried flour tortilla kind of thing. That was breakfast this morning. For lunch we had blueberry pancakes and some bacon that Y picked up in Beijing. 

I can sleep till about 1am then tend to lay in bed for a couple hours. 

Y's boss showed us the correct way to make tea, you only steep it for about 20 seconds then pour it into a different pot for serving. 

Did some minor house repairs and got to see the China version of Lowes.

I think Abby is really tired, she has been a blessing.

I will let her tell the police and propaganda story, ended up with a TV camera at the house. Nothing serious, we were supposed to register with the local police station. Y called them and they told us to come over this morning. This morning they called up and said they would just come over we did not need to come to the station. We look out the window and see a half dozen police, a TV person and somebody else with a still camera. Everybody was very friendly, I guess that is why R keeps her house so clean. You never know when someone is going to show up.

Tuesday 24 July

We went about 2 miles south today to do an English class with the elementary superintendent at Y's school. Crossed the Yellow River and a dairy farm and saw a lot of China that most would not see.

We went to a Brazilian style buffet for lunch. They would come around to each table with skewers of different things duck, chicken, shrimp, chicken heart, I will tell more later.

What time is it in Beijing?

i don't own a 'smart' phone

... but what I was just able to read at this blog {Hands Free Mama} was reinforcement to my non-blogging decision.  This computer is my smart phone, you could say.

 http://www.handsfreemama.com/

Her permalinks don't seem to be functioning at all, so look for the post titled "How to Miss a Childhood."  If you go quickly, it will still be the top post, so you'll be able to read the entire thing.  ;-)

{btw, I removed the shortcut from our desktop, so it's with purpose I found my way through cyberspace to find my own blog  :o  Just shy of crazy, but I had reasons to make it difficult to find via search engines...}

And yes, I'm still 'facebooking' although I'm looking for reasons to deactivate while trying to keep it minimal...  [FB is where I saw the link to Rachel's blog post]  Anyway, for now it's my main contact with folks outside my house ~ 'personal' emails appear to be a bit passe.


While I'm updating...
I finally finished reading Bonhoeffer.  [pat, pat]  And the Computer Geek is already half-way through it since I've turned the book over to him this week.  ahem.  My next assignment is to talk to a recent M.Div. who wrote his thesis on Bonhoeffer.  Meanwhile I'm headed to the jungles of New Guinea during WW2 with Darlene Deibler Rose's book Evidence Not Seen.

Can't resist livening this up with some photos from recent weeks...


Landscaping in front of the house ~

Planting fruit trees in the pasture ~

A new calf and his mama ~

Another batch of elderberry syrup ~ much better this time!

Kate's latest cheesecake ~

Wind damage!  The swing set fell on our baby sugar maple tree.  :-\

Tinting jars with Mod Podge ~

Enjoying flowers from our local florist ~

Helping with a wedding at church {Miss Artist was a bridesmaid!}

Right now I'd better take care of these breakfast dishes and prepare to accomplish other great and noble things today.  {order vitamins, prepare a transcript for the 17yo should-be-driver for the insurance co, encourage the kids to DO their school work, tend the sicky who went back to bed...}   Outside is the delightful smell of fresh-cut hay {since Tuesday} that will hopefully be ready to bale later today and/or tomorrow.  Most of the trees and shrubs we've planted here are doing well, and the newly-seeded lawn is beginning to look like a green lawn!  Tim is out in a field planting soybeans this morning, but he's almost out of seed ~ so he will get a break from that until more arrives next week.

A bientot ...

adieu

 

Someone once called me an idealist.  Well, I might add to that and say, perhaps a lazy idealist.  Neither a good marriage nor good parenting comes easily.  It’s past time to put more of my time and energy into the real life relationships that are most important.

I don’t know if it will be six months or six weeks or what.  But at this point I think I must take a leave of absence from the blogging world {as well as time wasters consumers like facebook}.  I don’t plan to “lurk” here either, so I will sorely miss reading many of your blogs!

I was going to post about our 3300-mile journey to Florida, the Carolinas, and more.  Highlights like 5 Guys Burgers & Fries in Pensacola, touring colleges, meeting George & Kim Berry of Atlanta on our Ft. Sumter tour, and being blessed to meet another blogger friend, Jodi {Granola Mom 4 God}, and her family in real life.

   

   

I was going to show you snippets of the fun little girl b-day party we had for the Popper ~ which concluded with them witnessing the birth of a calf named Beller, I might add.

    

The grass is growing with thanks to yesterday’s rain.  A shipment of fruit trees is due to arrive today.  Tim and the Cattleman picked up a load of landscape edgers today ~ They’re outside now putting landscape fabric around the front of the house.  There’s always something going on around here.  If you’re in the neighborhood, please stop in and say hello!

And if you think of us, would you please pray for us to know and display the grace of God in our lives?  Thank you! 

May God shower His goodness on each of you every day!