Silence coupled with Thankfulness

On our blog, silence is usually one of two things.

1. Nothing to write about, or at least drawing a blank as to what to share among the blogosphere.

2. Busy. Busy. Busy.

This time around, it's the latter. I feel I've got too much to write about, just no time to do it. Here's a quick update on our world lately...

We've reached a much sought after benchmark as far as our language progress. We're hopeful that within a month we won't be thought of as full-time language learners anymore. Will the end ever come to language learning? Definitely not! But at least I won't have a tutor showing up at my front door every morning at 9 am anymore. We're so thankful for the time we've gotten to commit to learning this language, but we're even more grateful that it's drawing to a close.

I've been spending every wednesday morning with the kids at their preschool, helping out the teachers, teaching "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" until my back nearly breaks, and hugging little necks from 7:30 - 11:30 am. Just so you know, Ring around the Rosie is a hit anywhere, no matter if they understand the words or not! Getting to know the kids' teachers better has helped me to further understand the Lord's provision and how he's so graciously provided teachers for our children that love them and love Him. So thankful for them.

We spent a week mentally and verbally prepping for leading a discussion on parenting. About 50ish preschool student's parents came to hear us teach on "American methods of parenting." It was completely daunting, since we often feel inept at parenting...much less at communicating it all in Big Chickenese! I'm thankful for the opportunity as it was truly encouraging and challenging as we found ourselves being careful to practice with the kids what we were teaching! Not to mention that it totally stretched our language!

We had our first snow last weekend which means it has cooled down quite a bit here. But as it's not quite mid-November, the government regulated steam heating hasn't been turned on yet. We're walking around at home in big fuzzy slippers, layers, and cuddling under lots of blankets on the couch for multiple nights a week of family movie night! Thankful for these chilly nights and how they can make us slow down.

And with the winter has come the usual cough/congestion that has made it's rounds through all of us. Anyone want to send us another BIG bag of Hall's cherry flavored cough drops?! I've had them sitting high up on the medicine cabinet for a year and a half now, since we arrived here, and within one week we've dwindled them down to two! Thankfully we're all feeling much better and are no worse off having consumed so much mucinex and and so many cough drops!

This is my favorite time of the year. Fall, transitioning to winter, choosing gratitude and recalling on things that the Lord has been faithful to provide for our family and the ways He's gone about revealing himself to us, molding us and conforming us more to His image.