February photos

Hello my friends! I'm finally finding some time to share some pictures and info from me and my family.

These are just some random images from this month. Hope you enjoy them!

Brianna loves playing with our German Shepherd, but because he is aggresive towards strangers, we keep him on the chain during the day. This was taken in the morning, before Chester was tied up for the day.

Marv thinks we need more pets, so he found this dove (chick, baby?) and brought it home. In the beginning Cindy was its prime caretaker, feeding her 4 times a day and cleaning out her box. But now Cindy is in the dorm and Brianna in school, so guess who gets to feed this ugly duckling? And enjoying it:)

This is my wonderful, beautiful, hardworking, Pfaff in action. I sewed sheets and pillowcases for the girls to use in the dorm. At least no one will have the same ones:)

I can't wait to embellish a baby blanket or something with these cute turtles!

My nephews came over to play. They are NOT  playing with dolls, but playing with TOYS.:)

Nicole and Brianna however are playing with Barbies. Brianna has half of the living room for a barbie city!

My cats taking a siesta together. Finally they started to accept the other one, and only fight when one gets his food before the other.

This is the baby dove, a few days later. The girls named her Peepsi. Her feathers are starting to grow out here.

Sunday school graduation last sunday. Our village and a neighboring village preformed a skit and a song. So funny: the youngest Sundayschool student was singing with half closed eyes and dancing to the music:) Amy was accompaning the group on the guitar, and Cindy and Brianna were also singing.

Brianna on her second day of school. (We did take pictures on the first day, but you could see the stress shining through, so I decided to take some on the next day)

This is how big Peepsi is this morning, I have my second cup of coffee while feeding her and watching the news on TV, which I never do otherwise!

Thanks for dropping in to see my blog. I need to prepare some stuff for supper now, my parents are coming for a simple bbq:)

Take care and come again!

Christmas preparations

I haven't posted anything in a while, but maybe you're too busy to read too many blog posts now anyway:) So I'll make my post like a children's book today: a lot of pictures and a little bit of writing! Here goes:
I started baking some goodies for pre-Christmas snacking. These little cookies are a Mennonite (German maybe even) favorite called Peppernuts or Pfeffernüsse. We all love eating them while drinking Terere.

These cookies are called Lebkuchen. Something like a soft gingerbread cookie with royal icing and sprinkles on top.

Last week my two closest friends in my village brought me a gift. It's an advent's wreath. I didn't get around to lighting any candles yet, it's just too hot! It was 43 C (108 F) here today. We are really waiting for rain by now.

This is a close up. (From up close, I was going to write...) Isn't that straw angel just adorable?

Last night, a few friends and I went to the neighbor colony (Neuland) to participate in a little crafting course. We learned how to make origami stars. :) If you make them big enough and out of strong paper you can even hang a light bulb inside of them. We had a lot of fun crafting and taking a break from our hectic lives at home.

This is how mine turned out. I'd love to make another one soon, but they don't have the right paper in our colony right now.

This is our Christmas tree this year. For the first time we have a tree with a theme:) Purple and gold; Amy made some gold and white angels out of clothes pins. We have them on the tree for now, but we want to use them to attach our Christmas cars onto some ribbon and hang them up.

We set up our inflatable pool this week, and the girls have been enjoying themselves. I think I'll go for a cooling dip before going to bed tonight. :)

What I also wanted to write about is this new (for me) excersise plan my sister found on the internet. (Don't worry, they are not paying me for this ad!)

You can find the site here: http://www.c25k.com/

They have some great resoures here on this page too. The one I like the best is the podcasts that you can download (for FREE) for each week, for 8 (in some cases 10) weeks. I like DJ Beatsmith's podcasts, because the music is upbeat and almost totally instrumental (no singing). You can find his download page here: http://www.djsteveboy.com/1day25k.html

My walking buddy and I started a few weeks ago, and since we don't always have time to do the programm 3 times a week, it'll take slightly longer than 8 weeks. The goal is to get up from your couch to running a 5 k(m) distance in 8 weeks. (Not that it takes you 8 weeks to run 5 km, but it should take you about 30 minutes to complete this distance)
 
When you listen to the first week of the plan, you start out pretty easy. It's about 3 minutes of the host talking, during which you start walking already to warm up. Then the music changes and you start running/jogging to the beat for about a minute. The music always lets you know when to walk or run.
 
I love this program! Since it's so hot here at 6:00 pm, the time we usually walk, I've set the alarm at 5:30 am to start out as soon as it's light enough outside. I recomend this program for everyone who wants to get in shape and needs a little bit of help. Since we started walking in August, I've felt so much healthier. My acid reflux is totally gone. (I had it every night before going to bed) My bladder is stronger (I know, TMI). And I lost 4 kg (8lb). YAY!!!
 
So, I'm not promising myself that I will continue to lose weight throughout the Christmas season, but I'll try:)
 

A WARM hug from Paraguay to anyone reading my post. Comment if you want, I love getting feedback!

Some crafts I made

I just got back from a ladies night out at a restaurant in town that just re-opened today. The food was delicious, but the waiter was very nervous, as it was his first day on the job.

So now I'll show you some crafts I've finished in the last few weeks.

First would be this bag. It's crocheted from a pattern I found on Ravelry, and I sewed some wooden beads on around the ruffle. I'm not sure what I'll do with this bag yet, but it would be the perfect size for one of my daughters to take her bible along to sunday school:)

Second is this embroidered journal cover. I made some similar ones last year for my 2 best friends, and just finished mine last week. The embroidery is done with all six strands and is easy and fun to do.

This is the inside of the "padfolio".

Next is this crocheted duster/vest. I hate the way I'm posing for this picture, but I didn't have anyone close by to take my picture so I set the camera on timer. But you're supposed to look at the vest anyways:) It took me about a month of drinking maté with Marvin until this project was done.

This was a totally new project for me. I found the idea in a Country Woman magazine. Marvin helped me cut the barbed wire and I put together the dried/artificial flowers. We gave it to friends of ours who were celebrating their 10 th wedding anniversary this weekend.

One of the things I love to do while reading blogs, is enter blog-giveaways. The other day, Quilting Ranny send me a message that I had won a pillow in her giveaway. She even wanted to personalize it:) YAY! I love quilting too, but haven't done a lot of it in a while. Here I am opening my package:

Here is the pillow! Thank you again, Quilting Ranny! I really love it and I will always think of you when I see this pillow. I wish you a lot of happiness and wisdom in raising your grandchildren!

On the same day I received another package in the mail, all the way from France!!! I joined a web-group called Swap-bot. You can pick in which swap you would like to participate, and they asign you partners. Then you send something to them, and someone else sends something to you.

And this is what I got in my first ever swap. Two keychains, a pair of earrings and a nice card. I'd like to say: Merci and thank you to "City700" of France.

 



Thank you to all of you, who took the time to read my blog today. I appreciate the comments I get from around the world and love to visit your blogs in return!