When lightning struck...

This summer, (it's summer down here) we all wished for rain. We have been having a very bad drought here in Paraguay.

On the 3. of December it finally rained for the first time this summer. We've been getting more rain since then, and we can say now, that the drought is over in our area. The temperatures had been sky high in the days before the rains came, and usually we get thunderstorms after a heat wave.

On the 9th of December I was in town for a rare get together of old friends from my teenage years. It started to rain and Marvin called me said that he thought lightning had struck somewhere close to our house. The next day we checked out all of our appliances and found out that the following we broken: router (for the Internet), my laptop, the oven, the TV, DVD player, the satellite receiver and the keyboard (electronic organ).

I was devastated.

After a few days, we got everything to town to the various places to get the things checked out. We found out that the keyboard and the oven were repairable. And the rest was completely broken. After a lot of phone calls and worrying, we could replace the appliances and get back to life as we knew it.

I found out in this time, that we had been spending a lot of time in front of the computer and TV. I hope that I will spend my time more wisely from now on.

The silver lining is, I have a brand new laptop and a wireless connection now. The downside is: I'm not sure yet, that they can retrieve the data in my old laptop. Photos from the past three years, all of my email addresses, my bookkeeping files, my recipes, etc.



During this this week the girls and I spent a day at my Mom's house in town baking 12 kids of Christmas cookies. We had a great time and I really love this tradition. My sister, C was there with her 4 kids, and we spent the day, baking, laughing, skyping with A, and a lot of terere.



I wish you all a very merry Christmas week, making memories with loved ones.



Feliz Navidad, und Frohe Weihnachten!





(Thank you C, for the wonderful gingerbread man picture!)

Book review: Faces in the Fire, by T.L. Hines

Book review of "Faces in the Fire"

When I choose this book to read and do a review about, I hadn't read the byline: a noir bizarre story. This book was very challenging for me to read, because:
- The chapters are not in the right order. The book starts with chapter 34. I was trying to find out why, when I noticed, that it's written in an easier order to read, then in chronological order.
- The characters are very strange for me. I've never met drug addicts or professional killers quite this way in books before
- I kept thinking, this was a Christian book, but it never really showed the way of salvation according to the bible, but rather each character had to find his/her own way out of his/her own mess in life
- After reading the book, I still don't get the plot.
　
There are 4 people described in this book, after you're done the book, you find out there were only 3. It's all very confusing. A catfish shows up in each of their lives, and I'm still trying to figure out the meaning that this fish has for them.

The characters were very well described. You get to know them pretty good, by the time their part in the story is over.

I was a little disappointed by the book, but maybe just because I was looking for a Christian message in it, and not just word pictures.

Praying for miracles

Last week has been very hard on a lot of us here in the paraguayan Chaco.

One of my good friends, Shilo, started losing her sight in her left eye, and had to go to Asuncion for further testing and help to regain her sight. We've been praying so hard and we really want to trust in the Lord that he can work a miracle there.

It still hasn't rained and our cattle is starting to get hungry. For now we have some feed reserves and thankfully water, too. But not everyone is able to feed their cattle and the situation in the Chaco is becoming very critical.

The temperatures have been up to 46C/116F this week and still no hope for rain.

Today we are celebrating the anniversary of our colony. It's been 79 years since our grandparents left Russia to build up a new hope and home in the hot and dusty Chaco. We are thankful for the freedom we have in this country and pray for the goverment and for our neighbors here (indigenous, paraguayan, brazilian and others). We want to be living testemonies here for the people around us, that we belong to a great God.

Please help me pray for Shilo, for a big rain, for our country!

And on a lighter note, we've been having power failures this last week. And if its 45 C outside, then you really rely on the air conditioning inside. I recieved this photo in an email last week. It explains why the power goes out so often in our region.

(Thanks, Mirjam, for the pic)

In the original picture she sent me, you could see that the masts are playing jump rope. I couldn't get it to jump for my blog:)

What I wanted for my birthday...

This is one of the things I really wanted for my birthday...

Or better yet, this:

(My sisters and I. Clockwise from top: Daniela, Me, Andrea and Caroline) This is one of the last pictures of all of us together. Love you all!

If I can't have that, then I'd like this:

I hope everybody has a great weekend! I'm praying for a dear friend and for a great big rain! Will you join me?

Birthday menu

This is for everyone who did not make it to my birthday party this morning. Just so you know what you were missing. (Note: the pictures are all taken from the internet, as I forgot to take pictures of the food I prepared)

Empanadas, with ground beef and boiled eggs.

Ranch Dip with cucumbers, carrot sticks and chips.

Bacon Cheeseburger Buns, recipe and photo from Taste of Home.

These Raspberry Bars are delicious, also Taste of Home.

Easy Tiramisu Cake, from Betty Crocker. Instead of a packaged cake mix, I use their recipe for Silver White cake. But I left out the brandy in the recipe, because I don't have any:), and because this is Brianna's favorite cake.

PB & J (Peanut Butter and Jelly) Cupcakes, from Betty Crocker. Again, instead of using a cake mix, I used their recipe for Bonnie Butter cake. These were extremly good with strawberry jam in the cupcakes and peanut sprinkles on top of the frosting.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting, Taste of Home. I used a mixture of nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and cloves instead of pumpkin pie spice. I also used some of the spice in the frosting. Keep these chilled, they are so good.

I encourage you to look up these recipes in the websites of Taste of Home and Betty Crocker.

Hope you liked my menu!

Thank you all for your kind birthday wishes, on phone, on facebook, in thought and in comments on my blog!