Family Alive

Ok, I chuckled about this title all afternoon.   Forgive me if it lead you to believe anything else!

I know it might sound crazy, but I made my own hamburger buns on Friday.  A couple friends had tried this amazing recipe, and promised it was easy and worth the effort.  So decided nervously to try it out, and let me tell you… I may NEVER buy buns from the store again!  These are so good.  And SO EASY!  I’ll post the recipe fromKing Arthur Flour (the only flour I use – it’s awesome!), and the post a few of my notes.  Again I say… these are so worth the small effort!!

Ingredients

* 3/4 to 1 cup lukewarm water
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 1 large egg
* 3 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
* 1 tablespoon instant yeast

Directions

1) Mix and knead all of the dough ingredients—by hand, mixer, or bread machine—to make a soft, smooth dough.

2) Cover the dough, and let it rise for 1 hour, or until it’s doubled in bulk.

3) Gently deflate the dough, and divide it into 8 pieces. Shape each piece into a round 1″ thick (more or less); flatten to about 3″ across. Place the buns on a lightly greased baking sheet, cover, and let rise for about an hour, until very puffy.

4) If desired, brush buns with melted butter. Or brush lightly with egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water), and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

5) Bake the buns in a preheated 375°F oven for 12 to 15 minutes, till golden. Cool on a rack.

Notes from Kristine

• I mixed my dough in the KitchenAid mixer with a dough hook.
• Because it’s dry here right now, I used the full 1 cup of water.  I had to add about a half-tablespoon of extra flour to get the dough soft and smooth (it was grainy and sticky).
• I let it rise for about 1hr 15 minutes, and it still didn’t seem to have quite doubled.
• I floured my surface, dumped it out and formed it into a log (more notes on this on the actual recipe page from King Arthur Flour). I used a piece of dental floss to cut the dough, and my pieces came out a little misformed, but that isn’t a big deal to me 🙂
• I used the “proofing oven” idea from the recipe reviews (heat a glass measuring cup of water for a couple minutes in the microwave, and put it in the cold oven with the dough to rise).  My buns didn’t seem to rise very much, but we were in a hurry to get dinner done, so we baked them anyway.
• They still turned out delicious, beautifully golden, and I honestly had 2 for dinner, one for breakfast and another for lunch yesterday!
• The recipe reviews also say you can sub 2 c King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour (which I use often!) for 2 c. of the all-purpose, you can use EggBeaters, or you can even sub honey for the sugar.

Ok, leave me a note if you try them!  I promise… I’m not an accomplished baker.  Anyone can do these!

Ok, I know most of you think I’m creative, but I get my creative ideas from all kinds of great blogs.  I spend too much time on the internet (gasp!  the first step to recovery is admitting it…), but I’m trying to redeem that by putting into action the cool things I find (which at the moment, are collected into a HUGE list of bookmarks in FireFox).   So here are a few good moments from this past week…

It’s January, so of course, it’s a good time to be celebrating (or dreaming about!) snowmen.  So I made Analise and Josiah these cute and yummy snowmen milkshakes.  I just realized mine weren’t quite the same as the blog, but here’s where I claim creative liberty.   And yes, Analise is dressed as Cinderella 🙂

Lauren and Anna came over to play on Thursday.  I made snacktime and mealtime more interesting with a muffin tin.  They LOVED it!  I might serve more meals in muffin tins.  I even gave the kids fun little fruit picks for spearing their food and dipping.

Snacktime with strawberries, grapes, graham snacks, yogurt and whipped cream for dipping.

Lunchtime with hotdogs, grilled cheese, chips, ketchup, carrots and ranch dip.

From my last post… Jane and I (mostly Jane!) made these beautiful silhouettes from a tutorial here.  Not a great picture, but I think they turned out lovely.  They are missing the “E” (on the left) and the “A” (on the right), because she’s waiting for me to send gold paint…  I’ve got everything to do a set of my two kiddos, as well, and now I’m motivated to get at it!

Silhouettes of Jane's little girls

**Ok, I started this blog nearly a week ago, and it’s getting longer and longer, so I’m thinking I should post now and add more as I get more thoughts together.  So for those of you who are still checking our blog… enjoy!**

I’ve had more than a week now to get caught up (not that I’ll ever be!) and process my thoughts (still thinking!).  Because my amazing hubby did such a fantastic job posting pictures during our trip, it’s the least I can do to chime in with my thoughts about all things related to Nicaragua.  Warning… they are a jumbled lot!  I’ll try to bring some order, though, through my editing.

“How was your trip?” I love hearing this question.  It brings a huge smile to my face to have people remember what we were doing and want to know how it was.   And my first answer is, “Amazing.”  It was an amazing trip.  It was overwhelming and scary to have God lay it on our heart to make this trip happen at a time when finances were very tight for our family.  It was humbling to see Him provide through our friends and family in the middle of the Christmas season and financial uncertainty.  It was awesome to take my family and Abigail back to the country and people who are so dear to my heart.  It was awesome to see how God has continued His amazing work that I had the privilege of being a part of nearly 6 years ago.    It was an adventure to see Nicaragua through the eyes of Analise, Josiah and Abigail.

“Glad to be home?” It’s wonderful to be seeing everyone back here in Alabama, and quite often, this is one of the first things people say.  Yes, I am glad to be back in my home, in my own space, letting the kids entertain themselves and make as much noise as they want (both things we struggled with in our small hotel room with two very busybody kids!).  But in all honesty, I’m not 100% happy to be home.  I love Nicaragua… I love the culture and the language.  I love the people.  I’ve become very accustomed to the way of life there, so the weak tepid showers don’t bother me.  The heat wears me out, but it’s part of life.  I do like my air conditioning, but I can manage without it.  I love the work I’ve been involved in there, and if God were to call us back there to call it “home”, we’d follow Him without question.  But for now, our place is here in Alabama, and we’re challenged to keep His work there at the forefront of our hearts and minds from a distance.

Mom Fellowship One of my favorite parts of our time in Nicaragua was visiting with my friend, Jane.  We keep in close touch over email, and with 2 little ones at similar ages, we joke about our “parallel mom worlds”.  She has a different setting, but we face similar issues with potty-training, tantrums, and picky eaters.  We both enjoyed seeing our little ones together, and we had lots of time to talk about all kinds of mom things.  We even had 2 fun evenings after the kids were in bed for crafting.  One evening we made hairbows… I think we made 14 of them!  Another evening, we made beautiful silhouettes of Jane’s girls (pictures to come!).   It was fun sharing daily life in Nicaragua and getting a glimpse of what her side of the “parallel mom world” looks like.  I have new prayers for her… from 7:50 to 8:15am as the three of them navigate the 4 blocks of crazy streets, dangerous sidewalks, and crowded corners on their way to preschool; again at lunchtime as they go home; nightly bathtime (we can slide by every couple days here, but you get dusty and dirty EVERY day in Nicaragua); early morning wakeups from random fireworks and churchbells.  And on top of raising two beautiful girls in a different culture and language (which they are learning SUPER fast!), she plays a huge part in supporting Andrew’s direction of the work of Nuevas Esperanzas and managing the accounting.  Whew!  She – and my other mom friends on the frontlines of missions work – are SuperMoms, in my eyes!

Las Discipulas Bellas When I first arrived in Nicaragua in September 2001, one of the first things I was asked to help with was a Bible Study for teenage girls.  I was very hesitant.  I felt like I didn’t really know how to connect with that age, let alone in my second language!  But I started meeting with these girls every Saturday morning.  Our group grew larger and larger, and our topics got deeper and more practical for their lives.  And my Spanish got better and better 🙂  I called them my “Discipulas Bellas”, my beautiful disciples.  They grew in grace and stature with God, and week after week I was blessed to be a part of their lives.

Saying goodbye in March of 2003 was one of the hardest parts of leaving.  I wasn’t sure who would continue to meet with them.  What would happen to them?  But my dear friend Claudia took over for a long time, continuing pouring into their lives.  And then a young woman I met in California after Brian and I were married, Michelle, decided to go to Nicaragua for several months.  She stepped in as Claudia left, and she grew to love the girls as I had.  I gave her photos of our wedding and our new little baby girl to share with the girls.  When she came back to the US, I again wondered what would happen to them.  But God continued His good work… Through Michele, I heard of another young woman from another ministry who had stepped in to continue the discipleship.  Though she has since gone, someone else has continued the weekly Bible study, though at this point, it’s with almost a completely different group of girls..

It’s been nearly 6 years since I said goodbye to my Beautiful Disciples, and one thing I looked forward to most was reuniting with them.  I went back to their village wondering if I would find any of them.  After lots of knocking and asking, we came to the right house, and the reunion was tearful and sweet.  Marjorie is nearly 22, and she will be finishing her university degree in psychology this year.  What an accomplishment from a family who’s lives were devastated in the mudslides of Hurricane Mitch 10 years ago!   She has even gone on a mission trip to Honduras with her church!  Her sister, Kenia, is starting at the university next month.  Yubelka is in her last year of secondary school.  They have grown into beautiful young women.  It’s amazing and humbling… such a testimony to God’s faithfulness.  And a poignant much-needed reminder that it is not US who works, but God who works through us.  Our efforts, no matter how large or small, are in His all-powerful hands.  Seeing these grown-up girls was like a glimpse of heaven for me.

(to be continued as I continue processing…)

Here is a gallery of pictures that I missed in going through the photos in earlier postings … we took 935 photos and videos on the trip so you can see how easy it is to miss a few good ones!!!

We are home and settling in – I am already busy with a number of work projects – the kids are already busy playing with as many different toys that they can find – I’ve resized and edited a number of pictures from our trip home and posted them in a gallery below with captions. Later today or tomorrow, I will make one last picture post with some of the best pictures from our trip that I somehow missed in earlier posts!

Two weeks come and gone in what seems like only a day or two. I am writing from El Camino Real, a nice hotel near the airport in Managua, Nicaragua. Our flight out tomorrow is at 8:25AM, but the lines can be long getting to the ticket counter to check bags and then even longer to make it through security. We don’t want to chance missing the flight so we have come down the night before and said our good-byes to everyone today.

Andrew, Jane, and I had a great, productive conference call with Luke and Stephanie about the Nuevas Esperanzas website – I believe we have a good plan to make the site easier to update and yet still be configurable to the desired look/feel. My role over the next couple weeks will be to migrate the existing site to the new WordPress format and help customize the layout/design to incorporate the header images designed by Stephanie.

Kristine met her friend Xiomara to say goodbye and she gave Kristine a very cool parting gift. I tried to work on a computer for our friends Mike and Marie with Food for the Hungry, but I ran out of time to finish everything. I was able to give them the bike I had bought here, and I believe Mike had mentioned giving it to somebody they knew who needed transportation to/from work. Hopefully that will work out!

We met our taxi driver, Enrique, and I had an awesome opportunity to talk with him about everything from church, to politics, to how everyone in America is too busy (including us) – all of this was in Spanish, too. It was the most meaningful conversation I have had in Spanish ever I believe.

OK – that’s it from Nicaragua – next time we write it will probably be from the Miami airport at some point during our 6 hour layover there if we can find wireless internet.

Here is a glimpse of our day today in pictures.

Reunión is the spanish word for “meeting”, but I am using the word in its English context too of “meeting again” to describe today. Two days ago when we were walking back from lunch, somebody called out “Brian” – I looked up and there was Alvaro – one of Kristine’s ESL students from 6 years ago. He was on his way somewhere else but after a short exchange, he told us he would stop by our hotel to catch up today (Friday) morning. I knew Alvaro from playing baseball with him and his friend Manuel who was also in Kristine’s ESL class. This morning I met up with Alvaro after Kristine left to take the kids to preschool where Kristine and Abigail helped organize a really cool craft for the kids that was a big hit.

I then went for what I thought would be a 2 hour bike ride, but in reality turned into a 3 hour epic, to the Casitas Memorial. This was a first for me to visit the memorial – Kristine had been there before so I was in awe of the impact of the mudslide on the land still plainly visible more than 10 years later. Its impact on the people is still evident by a meeting to come later in the day.

When I finally made it back, I headed down to Nuevas Esperanzas and met Kristine and Abigail as they were starting to walk back to the hotel. I escorted everyone except Kristine, back to the hotel for afternoon naptime while Kristine went back to get ready for the Friday afternoon tea where Kristine would be sharing during the reflective part of her observations of the changes at Palmerita given the 6 year time lapse since we were last here. Jorge then led a devotion/oracion (prayer)/reflective time of singing and praying. It was a much needed time for processing for Kristine as well as hopefully an encouragement to the Nuevas Esperanzas staff.

Then we headed back to our hotel, called up Enrique our favorite taxi driver, and headed out to Villa Soberana to try to connect with the girls (now young women) that Kristine was discipling when she was here with Mercy Ships. We went from house to house asking if people knew where the girls were, but it turns out we were on the wrong street. Once we made it to the right street, one of the first people Kristine asked was actually one of the girls in her study! It was a tearful reunion and she led us to two of the other girls (Marjorie and Kenya). Josiah was not content to stay still while we talked so I took him outside and looked to find the interesting tracks in th dirt – horse, pig, dog, chicken, bicycle tires, car tires, shoe prints were all fascinating to him (and me). I’ll let Kristine write more, but I know this was a good time for her to reconnect and see what God has done in these girls.

Finally, after we put the kids to bed leaving Abigail in charge, we walked down to Jane and Andrew’s to meet them to go out on a kid-free double date! We went to a nice place with a great atmosphere and ate and talked for several hours – in the process learning that there is so much more we need to learn about the Nicaraguan culture, as well as tracing the history of Nuevas Esperanzas, the origins of the current work, and a bit of the direction for the future — as well as a relaxing time to enjoy a nice dinner with friends!

Ok, I am fading fast now so I’ll end with the pictures … enjoy!

A main street in Gracias a Dios

Looking back at the village of La Palmerita

We visited two villages today that Nuevas Esperanzas is working with. The first, Gracias a Dios (“thanks to God”), is a village on the side of the main highway located on the pass between two volcanos. Nuevas Esperanzas worked with members of the community to build a rainwater harvesting tank for nearly every house in the village. Arturo, Enrique, and Andrew drove all of us in the chevy blazer out to the community where we turned off the highway at a spot which you could tell rarely had automobile traffic, but was plenty wide enough for bicycles, horses, wagons, etc… When we stopped, the kids got out of the car and ran over to a trough that was filled with water and I snapped this picture – it was a little out of focus so I dry brushed it, but to me it speaks volumes of the experience the kids are having here – curiosity and delight all wrapped into one moment as they stared into a large basin full of water:

Josiah and Analise stare with curiosity at a large basin of water

We walked around the village and stopped at several people’s houses. The first woman we met welcomed us enthusiastically into her yard. Andrew, Kristine, Analise, and Josiah all climbed on top of her rainwater tank to inspect how much water it had. We admired the fruit (papaya and grapefruit) growing in trees in her yard – as well as her chickens and pig. We then went to several other houses to compare the design used to construct the rainwater tank.

After leaving Gracias a Dios, we drove on down into the “Central Valley” of Nicaragua – a large flat area of land behind the line of volcanos near the west coast and west of the mountains dividing the Pacific and Atlantic sides of the country. We turned right at the small town of Malpaisillo and then began our journey on a rough dirt/rock road that used to have large vehicle-sized holes and ruts. The road has been improved a bit and grated mostly smooth. After turning off this main road to take the road to La Palmerita, it began to narrow eventually during into basically a narrow double track road through the fields.

I will let Kristine write up her thoughts on today, but the basic summary is that we met with several of the ladies that participated in a series of community health classes that she taught. We met a child named Anna Cristina born shortly after Kristine and her sister Anna who was here at the time left Nicaragua. Andrew, Arturo, and Enrique completed their survey work and we got to drive the entire boundary as Andrew recorded the information on his GPS device to establish a rough border of the property. They will be doing a traditional survey to establish the exact boundary in the coming weeks.

We left and made the long drive home, stopping at On-The-Run (a gas station) and enjoying the first real cappacinno (for $1) I have had since I have been here while the kids ate ice cream – we had already eaten lunch in the car. Then Andrew dropped Kristine, Josiah, and I off at the hotel so we could get a little bit cleaned up and I could grab the girl’s play dress-up clothes for a short play date. Josiah and I walked the few blocks down to Andrew and Jane’s house with Josiah dragging Analise’s pink backpack full of clothes the entire way!

Finally, we ate dinner at Pizza Roma – the restaurant that Kristine and I used to have our Nicaraguan dates before we were married!