Christmas and New Years (lots of photos!)

This is why New Year resolutions are so good. I made one to blog at least twice a month and if I hadn't, I wouldn't be writing this write now. In about 30 minutes Jake and I are headed to our church's annual "Leaders' Retreat." It is up in the mountains at a small guest house and I can't wait. It will be a time of fasting, prayer, fellowship, encouragement, and planning for 2015. The kids are staying with friends, so I can totally focus on everything (and maybe get an extra hour of sleep in at night?). Should be good!

I have been meaning to get the following photos up for a couple of weeks now. Our main computer has gone kaput so I'm currently using Josh's 10 year old laptop (not very fast!). Anyway, these are photos of Christmas and New Year, we had such an amazing time at HHCH and with friends. Since we are meant to be heading out the door and I still haven't finished packing, this is short and sweet. Enjoy the photos!

Christmas cookies for my women's group at church

HHCH kids decorating cookies for their Christmas concert

The finished product. They did an awesome job!

Snowman cookies for Missionary Christmas Eve party. I had a lot of fun making these!

Christmas morning, headed to HHCH!

The best gift I received on Christmas day; fried fish and fish pies. These were given to us by a neighbour (a sister in Christ) who a couple of months ago was about to be kicked out of her apartment. She had been sick and had to spend her capitol for her little donut business. We got her some flour and oil to start up again and got her lights turned back on. We praise the Lord her business is doing well again and she had enough to spare on Christmas Day!

My custom made bird bath from Jake for Christmas; I LOVE IT!

Right after Christmas, Jake put together a "father and sons" camping trip. Jake, our boys, and a bunch of other missionaries and their sons headed up to the mountains to ride horses, cook over open fires, and sleep in tents. They all had a blast even if they were REALLY cold. So proud of Jude who rode all by himself this time. 

New Year's Eve we had a bunch of friends over. We sang and roasted marshmallows, good times!

It gets chilly here at Christmas too! (in the low 60's :D )

PS. I still need to upload photos from our camera of Christmas day at HHCH: hopefully once we get our computer fixed.

2015

Wow, I knew it had been a while since my last blog post but I didn't realize it was back in May! And people have still been checking my blog weekly, I feel so bad! Thanks to all you faithful readers out there. Well, I'm a firm believer in New Year Resolutions and one of mine this year is to blog at least twice a month. I simply have to make the time to do it. I don't journal so I feel like my blog helps me to keep track of family milestones, breakthroughs in the ministry, and God's miraculous work in our lives.  

Here are a few more resolutions for 2015:

#1 Simplify... in many areas of my life. I'm reading "Organized Simplicity" right now and it's making a big impression on me. I took an extra week off of school and the kids and I have been going through all our "junk." I feel like we are finally out of the "little kids that scatter everything in sight" stage (which we've been in practically for the last 12 years) thus I have no more excuses for having a cluttered home. So hopefully, my house will be much more organized next time you visit! It's already a lot better as I repainted the front room this week. Nice to have a fresh start!

#2 Read my entire bible chronologically. And I don't just mean by book, I'm following a guide by Selwyn Hughes that starts you in John 1:1, then jumps to the first few verses of Genesis, then sends you to the prophets where it talks about Lucifer falling, etc. So it is a lot of skipping around, but I love it so far. Always great to see the Word of God in a fresh light.

#3 Drink water (yeah, you read it write, not "more water" just "drink water")

#4 Allot times in the week for gardening, ministry finances, personal finances, and sorting out our digital photos. First my flower and vegetable gardens were terribly neglected in 2014. Being out in the yard is one of my favorite hobbies but I just couldn't find the time to work on it last year. During the rainy season I sometime wondered if triffids weren't going to come lurching out of our back yard. So I feel like if I say, Saturday afternoons are saved for the garden, I'll get it done. Next, since I'm in charge of the finances for the ministry (orphanage, bible school, animal farms, etc.) and the 5 business, it can get overwhelming at times. I am often up late at night on the computer sorting everything out from the many receipts staff keep bringing me. So Monday afternoons are going to be the time I work on it (and kids will know not to bother me). Then I will be free from the stress of it for the rest of the week. And then we come to our digital photos. We have soooooo many it is unbelievable  We've had numerous teams the past 11 years, and we just copy everybody's photos when they leave. Plus Jake loves to take picture, and then add two iPhones into the mix, and we've quickly filled up a 1TB hardrive. For the last Furlough I made a digital photo book up and can't rave about it enough. The kids and visitors look at it all the time. Henceforth I would like to create one for each year and then delete the thousands of blurry, boring, or duplicate photos we have. I think it will take me all year but I'm setting aside a couple of hours each week for this venture. And we're implementing a strict policy that as soon as someone uploads photos, they have to delete the ones that are rubbish immediately.

#5 Have a date night with Jake at least once month. I think we probably got two in last year... we need time together, even if it is just a walk down town for an hour or two.

#6 Improve my French. Since moving to the English zone of Cameroon almost 7 years ago my French has really declined (I notice it when we go to Douala). I used to be able to teach Kid's Club in it but that would be quite a challenge now. So I am going to strive to spend an hour a week conversing with a francophone lady over a cup of tea (plus continue with duolingo.com). It is amazingly helpful to be able to speak it easily here, even though we are in the English zone. Most govement and police officials are francophones and we do travel a lot. Also good for my aging brain!

#7 And last but not least, I started Crossfit this year. My brother is really into it and has been whetting my fitness appetite. It's right up my ally as it is lots of strength, lots of running, and pretty competative. My goal is to get stronger, faster, and fitter (and hopefully lose a few pounds along the way). I don't have all the equipment but we're good at adapting things here in Cameroon (we already have a weight made from a bar and two flywheels). 

Well, I think that is it. I know the Lord has a lot instore for us personally and for the ministry in 2015, and I can't wait!

2015, here we come!!