Off to the waterfall

The Coban Rondo waterfall is one of our favorite places to go for a few hours of hiking and enjoying Indonesia. Well, it’s actually been years since we’ve been back there, even though it only takes us about an hour to drive up there. But over the spring break, we took the day off and hauled ourselves up the mountain (driving first, then hiking).

 The view of our city down below is beautiful.

 There are even wild monkeys along the way that love to come out for food . . . or steal it from you.

 Get in close to the fall and you definitely get soaked from the mist.

And one of our favorite Indonesian treats, especially to help warm you up after getting all wet, is grilled corn on the cob.

School Days

It’s been a while since we’ve posted anything about the learning center. Since Wenny has been battling cancer, we’ve had to re-arrange our daily routine. Instead of the super creative themes that the teachers have been developing each semester, we shifted to just English classes and tutoring in Math and Indonesian. Though, we’re still able to get some creative stuff in there.

 Patrick teaching the staff English and also various methods for teaching English to the kids.

This month, we had a mother-daughter team from the USA come and lead the kids through a couple of art projects . . . and teach them the Hawaiian Hula.

Easter and The Insomnia of Jesus

Well, I know that most of you have probably stopped checking our blog by now. I’ve pretty much relegated it to “if I can ever get to it” these days. My schedule, and our family schedule, has been pretty intense the past few months. But somewhere deep inside I have an urge to get back into the blogging, both to keep you up to date on our family life in Indonesia, and to share thoughts from my heart and things I’m learning in my walk with Jesus.

Which brings me to why I’m posting now. I’ve been really having trouble sleeping for the past two months . . . that dreaded nighttime malady of  I- n- s- o- m- n- i- a. So the juxtaposition of Jesus sleeping through a storm while the disciples had an adrenaline rush vs. Jesus insomnia in the Garden while the disciples couldn’t keep their eyes open caught my attention.

Read this article and may we learn to follow Jesus’ example of when to lose sleep.

HT: JT

Ethan is 3

 This year for Ethan’s birthday he wanted Bert and Ernie riding in a car.

And all over his face!

Big Sis Brienzi made a pin the cookie on Cookie Monster’s mouth for his party. Way to go Brienzi!! (and Ethan does a great Cookie Monster – or as Ethan calls him “Monster Cookie” - impression of stuffing cookies down his mouth).

 Giving Brienzi a big hug and kiss for a great party.

Kuala Lumpur ala Lego

After visiting Kuala Lumpur last year, Aidan just came out of nowhere with an idea to build a mini Lego replica of the city. I was amazed at his memory of the city. It’s a really good likeness to the Petronas Twin Towers and other landmarks.

Delaney's first lesson!

Getting in on Delaney’s first piano lesson. Her teacher is part of the teaching staff at Charis, where Brienzi, Adian, and Delaney go to school. We’re very thankful to have Sharon here in town and working with our kids.

Marble Coaster

Like almost every boy, Aidan is enthralled with building. He could build something out of crumbs if he had nothing else. So for Christmas, we got him the gigantic Ultimate Building Book (I think it took a tanker to get it over to Indo, it’s so big) along with a tool box of toothpicks, popsicle sticks, glue sticks, paper clips, straws, Q-tips, and a bunch of other things you can build with. We then set out to build Aidan’s Marble Coaster:

 Straws used for tressels and paper towel centers cut in half for tracks.

S - U - M - O

The other day at the table, we started talking about what the word Sumo means. Well, that got us on one of our favorite pastimes . . . acrostics:

Super Unusually Miniscule Outfits

Swollen Undeterred Men Oscillating

Some Unclothed Massive Ones

Sweaty Underdressed Marshmallow Olympians

Somewhat Unmotivated Man Ogres

Seriously Uninhibited Mushy Orbs

Well, you get the idea. Once you get on a role, you can lose sleep trying to think up new ones. Give it a try! And while you’re at it, here are a few pictures to get you motivated.

 We were introduced to an awesome playground that included the chance to find out what Sumo wrestlers feel like. Brienzi and Preston T were eager to try it out.

Aidan and Joshua T. Aidan is definitely proving the S in Sumo stands for sweaty.

Ahem . . . would that be Kim and Patrick? I'll tell you this, once you go down, 

you can't get up unless they help you up!!

Tree Tops

At the end of last year, we traveled with a group of friends to do a ropes course. They had five levels of difficulty. All the kids did great, but Brienzi was impressive getting up to level three – VERY high up in the trees.

Laney getting started on the beginner course. She went up to the next level with dad, but that was all she wrote for this first grader.

Aidan was tearing up the course on the zip line, or also known as the flying fox on this side of the planet.

Brienzi and her friends getting started on their first trek around the forest tree tops.

Long ago in Bethlehem . . .

As Brienzi, Aidan, Delaney have been going to Indonesian school, they've also been doing home school and a home school co-op. For the co-op, the kids got the idea to write a script for the story of the birth of Jesus and then put on a performance for the parents. They borrowed the clothes from the international school.

Ethan and his friend Elijah trying to squeeze in on the action as the angels visit the shepherds.

And again, Ethan trying to figure out what's going on, or what mischief to get into, while Elijah was trying to feed Jesus.

And when it was done, and all the cast members were backstage, we overheard one of the little guys saying, "I don't want to do this play." To which Brienzi responded,  "You have to. You already did!"