We had a pretty quiet week. Ben worked a a lot and Mikayla and I played a lot! She did request on several occasions for the twins to come play though.
In the last week or so Mikayla has learned to gallop. She thinks it is fun and so everywhere we go she gallops. It is so cute, but don’t take my word for it. Watch it for yourself!
In addition to learning to gallop, Mikayla has gained a new cooking obsession in the last week or two. When I start cooking she pulls her chair over to the counter and gets a measuring cup. Then she proceeds to "make dessert" with the spices on the counter and any scraps of veggies and what not that are leftover from my cooking. She will spend the whole time I am cooking doing this and is so serious about it. She even knows the names for most of the spices. Most of the time the concoction is inedible, but she always tries it! Here is her latest concoction.
This concoction included matches, noodles, water, spices galore, some wild berries found on the mission, onions and I think apple peels. Yum yum!
Sunday was Sister Barbara’s birthday, so on Monday we cooked her a meal of her choice which just so happened to be one of our favorites…MEXICAN! We still had some chips and salsa leftover from our Christmas finds so we served those with black beans, rice, guacamole, chicken fajitas and homemade corn tortillas. The corn tortillas weren’t truly authentic because we didn’t have the right kind of corn flour (it requires a special one), but they still turned out pretty good. Ben said he liked them better than the flour tortillas I have made in the past. We topped the meal off with some chocolate covered pretzels made by Mikayla (of course I helped a little).
On Tuesday night we had a big storm come through. Probably an hour before it started raining we lost power. And then the rains came! It was actually so windy and rainy that the wind blew the rain sideways and into our house. Mikayla’s room was flooded and our room got quite a bit of rain too. We quickly realized what was happening and shut all the windows and then set to work to clean up the mess! Lucky for us we didn’t have anything too valuable on the ground. Mikayla had some books and a couple of toys lying around, but we were able to get them all dried out with only a few wrinkles. Unlucky for us was that the power didn’t come back on for almost 24 hours! Humidity + plus heat + no fans = HOT! Since there was no power all day on Wednesday, Ben decided he would try his hand at cutting our grass with a "slasher" (similar to a machete). He posted a video on his blog that you can check out if you are so inclined.
Back around Christmas I started reading Harry Potter. I have put it off for so long for no good reason and finally decided I would give it a go. And I am so glad I did! Like my friend Catherine said to me when I started reading them, they are not the most well written books, but I still love them! Just ask Ben, I couldn’t stop reading them until I had completed the series! I read all 7 books in just over 2 weeks. If you haven’t read the series yet you should really give it a shot. Just a question though for all you HP fans…are the movies worth trying to track down to watch?
Friday morning turned out to be pretty exciting for Ben and not in a good way. Mcamiso, one of our drivers, stopped by early to pick up our propane tank to get refilled and asked Ben to help. When they tipped the tank back there was a cobra coiled up underneath it. Luckily the snake was pretty docile. Between Ben, Mcomiso, Socks (the dog) and some garden tools, the snake was dealt with swiftly.
On a more warm and fuzzy note, Friday evening I made cookies for the “Ambassador” for the EU (European Union). Never thought I would say that when I moved to the bush in Swaziland!
To all you friends out there with little kids, here is a fun cooking activity that your kids can help out with (or make completely on their own)…pudding pops! Basically you make pudding (which they can practically do without your help) and then pour into a popsicle mold or ice cube trays. Add a stick of some sort and then freeze. The best part is that because they are pudding they don’t melt as fast and are way less messy! Doesn’t mean much to you guys getting snow right now, but for us battling the heat at the moment it makes great sense! Your kids can feel proud because they can make them on their own (with a little supervision of course)! And like with any cooking, licking the spoon is the best part…just ask Mikayla!
