village entertainment

There were so many things to do while in the village. Of course there were the thousands of pictures that we took. This was Preston's least favorite part of the trip. We kept telling him if he would just jump in the picture and smile people would leave him alone and let him get back to the things he wanted to do. Sometimes it was a success and sometimes a total melt down. 

 Some of the highlights for Preston was getting to go fishing in a local pond and...

Exploring the miles of rice fields. He loved to see which paths he could get on and at one point he spotted a cow at the end of the fields in the distance. He made it his goal to get to it. 

 More pictures along the way OF COURSE!

 But at last we reached the cow and that made for a VERY HAPPY BOY. especially when he got to feed that cow.

Our Black Tai friends toured us around the whole village and everywhere we went we drew a crowd. Especially other kids who were interested in my kids and adults interested in why the white people not only could speak Vietnamese (not SO uncommon) but could also speak Black Tai. Tim's teachers were very proud of how well Tim could speak and everywhere we went people would comment about what a good teacher Tim has since he speaks Black Tai so well. 

New Beginnings

I rarely make New Year resolutions. This year I decided more to take inventory of what I'm doing and areas that need improvement. I came up with a LOT, but could only focus on a few.

some of my thoughts are:

1. I want to focus less on the heart break of trying to get pregnant again (trying for 2 years now) and just be thankful for the now 3 year old that God HAS blessed me with. I want to be a better mom by: cooking healthy, playing fun and meaningful games daily, reading more to him, and crafting for fine motor skills etc.

2. Memorize more scripture: Tim and I have started a journey of memorizing the book of Philippians together. We should finish by Easter. So far I have the first 10 verses done.  After Philippians I'm not sure what I'll memorize but for now that is enough.

3. Be diligent in my Vietnamese language study. As a mom there is ALWAYS the excuse that you are too busy being a mom you can't be a full time language learner as well. When I learned Thai, Preston wasn't born so that excuse wasn't available to me. However in January I started a new program and it requires me to study 18 hours a week with my nurturer (language teacher). This means Tim has to share more Mr. mom responsibilities. We are now done with the first 18 hours and by the time I post this will be half way through week 2. It has been good and I'm enjoying it. I pray daily for God to give me a sharp mind and a diligent work ethic in this regard.

4.  BLOG MORE!  as you can see Im already doing this. I decided that twice a month I will sit down and write 4 blogs each time so I can hopefully get a post up twice a week to keep all of our friends and family involved on just the ordinary parts of what we do here in Viet Nam

So those are the ones I decided to focus on for now. So far I am moving in the right direction with all of them. Happy New Year to you all.