We had one of Sarah Caroline's friends run in yesterday saying, "Did you know we are going to have a big earthquake tonight?" (except she asked in Spanish). I had a short discussion with her that no person knows for sure when an earthquake or the end of the world is coming, but that God knows. We had some good discussions with our kids this week, too, about the end of the world. Sarah Caroline asked me today what I thought all of those followers of Harold Camping were doing today, and if they are disappointed. I found this article that I thought was interesting, and we'll be sure and share it with our kids tonight.
This is the article from theresurgence.com : Did Jesus Stand Us Up?
Peru Mission's May Update
Check out our missions' newest update by clicking this link:
Peru Mission May E-Bulletin
Peru Mission May E-Bulletin
Southwest Salad
I just made this salad for lunch tomorrow, and it's one of my favorites that I found several years ago in Southern Living. It's great with any mexican food, but it's also good with grilled chicken or steak as a meal. It serves a crowd - as a side this recipe is enough for about 12 people.
Southwest Salad
Southwest Salad
- ⅓ cup cilantro
- ½ cup lime juice
- ½ cup olive oil
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 tsp. sugar
- ½ tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. pepper
- 1 head romaine
- 5 plum tomatoes
- 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 small purple onion, chopped
- 1 8 oz pkg mexican cheese blend
- 1 can mexicorn
- 1 6 oz can black olives
- 2 cups crushed tortilla chips
Dressing:
Process the first 7 ingredients in a blender.
Salad:
Layer the ingredients in a large bowl.
Pour the dressing over the salad just before serving. If you don't like cilantro, you can serve this with ranch dressing instead.
Process the first 7 ingredients in a blender.
Salad:
Layer the ingredients in a large bowl.
Pour the dressing over the salad just before serving. If you don't like cilantro, you can serve this with ranch dressing instead.
Happy Mother's Day!
I'm so thankful I get to be Mom to these four wonderful kids...
I LOVE these kids! And I am very thankful for them and the joy they bring to our lives! But I will say I am needing a bit of encouragement in parenting them right now, and here are some verses I am going to use to remind me of my call to motherhood:
Therefore, my dear (sisters), stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:58
"I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Matthew 25:40
Therefore, my dear (sisters), stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:58
"I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Matthew 25:40
Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23
Lamentations 3:22-23
This is a good reminder that my work in raising these children is not in vain - God is honoring my work, whether it be feeding the kids a million meals they don't really appreciate, or finding shoes for the tenth time that they should have found, and teaching them how to solve their disagreements, etc. And whether I "succeed" or "fail" as mom, God is sovereign over their lives. It's not all up to us.... we do our very best and pray over them and teach them God's word, but only God is shaping their hearts, we are merely the instruments. And with every single thing I do as a mom, it is another opportunity to serve Christ. And most importantly to me, where I am right now, His mercies are new EVERY morning. When I can't get it all together, and I feel consumed and overwhelmed, HE IS FAITHFUL. It's not about my strength, but God's. Put things in perspective just a bit.
Marcus and I are so incredibly thankful for our wonderful, godly moms that raised us, and we are sad we aren't with them today to give them hugs and celebrate. We are thankful for the selfless encouragement they have given us to live in Peru, although we have taken their grandchildren so far away for a bit of time. Mom and Marlene, we love you! Thank you for keeping us going with your support and encouragement! Happy Mother's Day!
Southern Pork Roast
This pork roast is honestly the first one I've ever used that I really love, and it will be a "keeper" in our family for many years, I think. I've now made this several times, before we moved to Peru and three times since we have been here. Everyone seems to love it, and it's great to serve a crowd or for a weeknight family meal.
- 1 5-6 lb pork loin
- 1 tsp. onion salt
- 1 tsp. garlic salt
- ½ tsp. pepper
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter
- 1 10 ounce jar plum jam or jelly
- ⅓ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 cup water
- 2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
- ⅓ cup soy sauce
-For roast, preheat oven to 325.
-Rub pork loin with salts and pepper and place in roasting pan.
-Bake for 2 1/2 hours. Remove from oven, baste with half of sauce, and continue cooking until internal temperature reaches 160, 30-60 min.
-Serve the remaining sauce with pork.
-For sauce, in a heavy medium skillet over med-high heat, saute the onion in butter until translucent.
-Add jelly, brown sugar, water, balsamic vinegar, and soy sauce.
-Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 2-3 min.
-Rub pork loin with salts and pepper and place in roasting pan.
-Bake for 2 1/2 hours. Remove from oven, baste with half of sauce, and continue cooking until internal temperature reaches 160, 30-60 min.
-Serve the remaining sauce with pork.
-For sauce, in a heavy medium skillet over med-high heat, saute the onion in butter until translucent.
-Add jelly, brown sugar, water, balsamic vinegar, and soy sauce.
-Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 2-3 min.
I think you could do this in a crockpot easily for 8 hours on low heat, but here I use a pressure cooker and cook for about 1 1/2 hours but add extra water to the sauce. I usually serve this with mashed potatoes and green beans, but this past Easter Sunday I served it with roasted tomatoes and roasted asparagus and red bell pepper. Also, I used blackberry jam instead of plum because I can't buy plum jam in Peru.
Apple Muffins
These apple muffins are the yummiest ever - a great gift for a new neighbor or stick one or two in a little bag to send to your child's teacher for a snack. This is a easy and great recipe - but this is what happens if you are talking to your friends when you make them and forget to add all the flour.
As long as you follow the directions, they are great! Doesn't my photo want you to start making these muffins now?? Ha!
Apple Muffins:
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| This is what the pan looked like after we scooped out the little bit of muffin part and ate it in bowls. Not pretty, but tasty. |
Apple Muffins:
- 1 ¼ cups veg oil
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 cups flour
- 3 eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 cups apples, chopped (Macintosh)
- 1 cup pecans, chopped
- 1 cup coconut
- Mix the oil and sugar well, then add the flour with the baking soda and salt. Then add the eggs and vanilla. Stir in the apples, pecans and coconut until mixed well. Pour into greased muffin tins and bake at 350 degrees for 30 min.
Sleepy Sam, Good Friends, and Random Photo
This is how I found Sam about 3:30 one afternoon this week. Why in this world did he think a suitcase was a cozy place to take a nap?
He is so afraid he is going to miss out on some fun, so unless everyone else is headed to bed, he stays up too. Sort of!
But, this is about how I felt Sunday night. And Monday. Tuesday was a bit better. The reason? I had three great friends come to Peru for a "weekend visit". Crazy, crazy that they were only here for three days. They slept in our house only two nights, and one night in Lima (well, sort of one night in Lima - it was actually only one hour of sleep that night!). But it was SO worth it, and we made the most of our short time together! Which is why I was so exhausted, I guess?
I met them in Lima, and after a 26 hour delay we had a few hours together before heading to Trujillo. We arrived in Trujillo about 6:30 am and hit the ground running. Allen had some business and papers to take care of, but Carolyn and Candace helped me with the "walk"-pool (I walk Luke and Sam to school) and got a tour of our neighborhood and home. And we unpacked lots of this....
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| chocolate chips, instant oatmeal, protein bars, shout stain remover, dryer sheets, clorox pens and peanut butter |
and this....
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| lots of donated medicines for the clinic |
Then we had fun lunch with all the ladies of Peru Mission.
Then we headed to the Arevalo church women's group, where Allen taught a Bible study and Candace and Carolyn led a craft. The ladies LOVED seeing Allen (she and her mother-in-law started this women's group when Allen lived here) and they also loved the craft. After that we were treated to dinner with the ladies from the church and had a great time, although we were getting pretty sleepy by this point!
Saturday we gave them a tour of the medical clinic, met with Danny Hernandez of Peru Paper at her home, and had lunch at the beach. They also got to have a tour of the Parish Woodshop.
Now, on to random Peruvian things.... sometimes weird things happen here, things take forever to get done, and we just have to say, "It's Peru." Last week was one of those things... I took Luke and Sam to have little passport size pictures made for their school, and after having them made the "photographer" says, (in spanish) - "would you like the photo with all of your kids to be with our without stuffed animals?" Well, I just reminded him that all we needed were the school pictures, but he insisted that the family photo was a free offer. So we continued with the pictures. Which ended up taking FOREVER. He took them with the stuffed animals and without. And it might be good to say that this was not a clean little room - and with photos of girls in questionable attire which I was not in the mood to explain to my children about. Oh, and also Luke had just spent two hours at the dentist office with half of his face numb, so he can't even smile straight. And my kids were not dressed at all in anything that I would EVER have a family photo made. But, anyway, after waiting an hour to have the photos touched up, having to buy food because the kids were starving (although let me remind you the photos were FREE), here it is:
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| (Sorry for the reflection - this is a picture of the picture) |
Look Who's Been to Peru This Year!!
We started off our new year with a visit from Mimi and DoDad (my parents). We loved every minute of having them here, and were sad to see them go! While they were here, they did a little of this:
a little of band playing (now THAT is a good DoDad!)
Thankfully, though, we've had more visitors to keep us occupied!
In February we had such a great visit with our good friend Rusty Waterer. He came alone for a couple of days then was joined by Mont Berry and Bill Bradford (who helped start Peru Mission, lived in Peru for about ten years, and now is the pastor of our home church, Lawndale Presbyterian). What a great time we had having them here! Marcus kept Dr. Mont super busy at the clinic seeing over 60 patients in two days and Bill was in Trujillo only for a quick two days, before heading to a conference in Lima. Rusty did what he does best - encouraging us all! Oh, yeah, and he brought us this.....
We were pretty shocked and surprised at such a fun and useful gift as an iPad! Many, many, many thanks to all the families who went in and gave such an incredible gift to our family!!!! We are loving using this for books, a study bible, and educational games. We can't buy books in English here, and could only bring a certain number with us in our suitcases, so this is a treat to be able to download books through Nook and Kindle apps.
Then, on Mont and Rusty's last night with us, we had more company arrive on a motorcycle!
Mr. Dan Matthews had been touring part of South America on his motorcycle, and joined us for one night. It worked out that Trujillo is on the PanAmerican highway, and I had been keeping up with Mrs. Kay Matthews to find out his itinerary. We were so glad to have him stay with us, and he had plenty of good stories to share with us!
Also, on the same night, we had Arthur and Heather Wood arrive. So, yes, we had 5 guests in our house from Mississippi in one night! And it was fun and we actually all slept (I think!).
Arthur is in his residency in Tupelo for family medicine, and he worked with Marcus in the clinic for a little over a week. Heather is a photographer (http://heatherwoodphotography.com/) and recent graduate in elementary education. We feel like they are part of our family now, although we had never met them before they arrived in Trujillo. They were so easy-going and helpful to us, and just went along with the craziness of living in our household with four kids. They saw it all - the good, the bad, the ugly! It's kind of hard to hide your sin with house-guests for that long, and thankfully, they were forgiving for all our faults and were still speaking to us when they left!
In March we had the Perkins family come to Peru, and we are so thankful for this new friendship!! Todd is also a family medicine physician and worked with Marcus in the clinic, and Beth and their four precious children worked in the orphanage for the week. Now, we do love all the children here in our mission group, but let's just say that there are no boys. Well, there is a baby boy and a teenage boy, and all the other kids aged 3 to 12 are girls ( out of 11 other children total, not including our kids). So when our boys saw these three Perkins boys they were thrilled!! We just had not realized how much they missed playing with boys (that speak English!).
We had the family over for dinner one night, all four kids spent the night one night, and we let the boys have an "all boy play day" and they ran and played water balloons (along with hide and seek) in the park.
The construction workers down the street had some good entertainment on their lunch break - they were cracking up at these white boys chasing each other with water balloons and screaming.
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| Beth and Todd |
We are thankful for this new friendship, and praying for this sweet family as they travel to Russia this spring to adopt a baby girl.
Last week we had Marcus' mom and brother visit from Forest, MS, and while they were here celebrated his mom's 79th birthday! What a treat to spend her birthday with her. She did lots of reading and playing with the kids, a bit of sight-seeing, and some touring around the parts of Peru Mission. We had a good time sharing a bit of our lives here with them, and were thankful they made it back home safely.
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