Giving!

I keep thinking about what I want Landon to think about during the Christmas season and 2 things keep crossing my mind. 1. that He knows the reason we celebrate Christmas (Jesus’ birth) and that He has a spirit of giving instead of just getting.  So…in Europe they celebrate St. Nicholas Day on Dec. 6th, that’s when they do their stockings. The history of St. Nicholas and how the tradition started really centers around him being kind and giving and being very generous with 3 sisters in need. So, on Friday Landon and I talked and talked about it and then we made stockings and got all ready to give them to our good friends David and Katka.  I also told them that he would get a stocking too! He was really excited about that but also excited about giving too! Then I realized that St. Nicholas Day was on Sunday  not Saturday and I had pumped him up on the wrong day ! So, we had St. Nicholas day on Saturday instead of Sunday! If anyone has creative ways on how to teach your kids the spirit of giving I would love to hear!

Nativity

Years ago I got this idea in my head that if I ever bought a Nativity set I would want it to be kid friendly. Something Landon could interact with and that he could play with and we could talk about the real reason we celebrate Christmas.  Our first year of marriage God gave me a little wooden nativity set-really I felt like God gave it to me, it’s a cool story (it’s the one in the picture). Then a few years ago we took our Middle School kids on mission trips to Elim Mission in Poland. One of the ways they minister to families is through providing jobs for people so they can support their families.  One of the ways they provide jobs is through making beautiful handmade cloth nativity sets-again very kid friendly, so we got one. Then, two Christmases ago my mom bought Landon the fisher price Nativity set…so this year was the first year Landon really interacted with it (last year everything was in boxes) and it has been so cool! He plays with them ALL the time! He loves it…we keep talking about Christmas and why we celebrate it and what these nativity sets have to do with it, I keep trying to connect the dots for him but we’re still working on it Anyway, it’s just been really cool to see a idea of mine being played out in my son’s life! If any of you have good Christmas ideas that bring out the real meaning of the holiday, please feel free to share!

Strep throat!

So, today I had a new experience-we had our first doctor’s appointment and it went quite well! Yesterday, Landon woke up crying and said “something is touching my throat!”.  He has a history of strep throat so we were concerned…the rest of the day he was not himself at all, so last night I looked down his throat and saw that it was red and swollen and had white spots on it! So, today my friend Lori kindly drove me and Landon to her doctor’s office.  The doctor was kind and spoke great English but did not believe me that he had strep.  I felt pretty confident it was, because of our past experience with Landon and strep, so I was trying to catch it on the front end. I asked for a strep test and although she did not agree she kindly gave him one.  Lo and behold the kid has strep! I am so thankful for the smooth doctors visit this morning, that we caught it quickly and after 2 doses of medicine we already see significant improvement! Yeah!! I prayed and I totally felt God’s clear hand of guidance and faithfulness through the whole event!

Muffins!

The other day Landon and I made muffins together!  In the states I got so used to buying instant mixes of things that I had never made muffins from scratch until a few days ago! I have really enjoyed these last few months of cooking in a different country and figuring out how to do it. I have also enjoyed involving Landon in this process. He LOVES to stir, pour and help in the kitchen. I really enjoy doing this with him and love teaching him things as we go along. (He now knows what a teaspoon is! ).

A visitor!

Soon after we moved to Slovenia one of our past students, Nicole, e-mailed me and said she was studying abroad this year in Austria. We realized that we were pretty close to each other and we hoped that we could see each other. She graduated a few years ago and we haven’t seen each other since then. This weekend she came down to visit us! We have had such a great time catching up with her and showing her Ljubljana. Today we went downtown and up to the castle. The view is very nice from there, we haven’t been up there for a few years so it was fun for us to up too!  It is great to have a piece of our old world connect with us in our new world. Thanks Nicole for coming to visit!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We would just like to say Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! (sorry we’re one day late!) We hope that you all had a great day thanking God and loving the people you were with! We know we sure did!  We went with our whole JV Slovenia team to Lake Bled for 2 days and had an amazing time! Brad and Landon played football, we ate a delicious meal (American style: turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes, cranberry sauce ect…). We played a great game with our whole team in the evening and all the kids performed talents for us (singing, poetry reading, various musical instruments, comedian routines ect…). Then today we went in a boat across Lake Bled to a little island and played sardines. We had a great time talking, laughing, eating and playing. It was so good to connect with our team for a few days! We are so thankful for these people. And, we do want to say we are so thankful for YOU (for real!).

Kitchen table!

OK…so I know everyone is probably thinking, ENOUGH about the apartment! But…we are so excited to be in our place that I just have to write a little more and post one more picture! Two weekends ago our dear friend Juliana brought us a wonderful table and chairs that a friend of our so generously gave us! We are so excited about it for multiple reasons. 1. It is made of beatiful wood 2. It extends to seat quite a few people or can be made small (as shown in the picture) 3. It is unique not your run of the mill IKEA type furniture which most of our furniture just happens to be! 4. When we look at the table we get so curious wondering who God is going to bring to our table in the next few years! So, all that to say…we are very thankful for the table!

Yeah!!!

After many weeks of scaffolding all around our apartment and men working right outside our windows-the outside of the house we live in is complete! We are very excited and it really looks great! The couple that owns the house did a great job picking out the color and it really feels like a whole new house! Just a little side note, Landon was very intrigued with the men that were working on the outside of our apartment. One day Landon picked up his stool and trotted over to the window, I was talking to my friend on skype and wasn’t paying much attention, I realized that he had been staring out the window for a few minutes and came over to see what he was up to. He was standing on the stool with his nose pressed to the window glass and was staring at one of the workers that was eye level with Landon and the window. Landon was directly looking right at him as the man was working on the outside of the house right around the window! Poor worker man, probably weirded him out ! I shooed Lando away but had to laugh at my sons curiosity!

A visit from a GREAT friend!

Our dear friend Juliana came and stayed with us for a few days! She drove from Germany to Slovenia and brought a lovely kitchen table and chairs, the rest of our stuff that was still in Germany and some goodies from America!! Her timing was great since Thanksgiving is just around the corner, she brought canned pumpkins, cranberry sauce, stuffing mix, canned green beans and even the crunchy onion stuff that goes on top! It was so good to see her. We worked with her for a few years when we were in Germany and really miss the sweet fellowship that we experience with her. Landon loves Juliana so much! She plays with him and loves him so well. Thanks Jules for coming to visit! We miss you already!

Our home

We are feeling very settled in our apartment so I thought I would post a picture.  Our friend Juliana is coming to visit us from Germany and is bringing a table and chairs for us so I didn’t include the kitchen/dining room because it is quite bare .  Hope this gives you an idea of where we are living and that through our blog you can get a picture of what our life is like here.