School days...

Finally - here's pictures of our school room. 

Do you see the extra little fellow helping to count? He loves being a part of math class! :-)

He always listens very carefully is quick to respond if he knows the answer.

Rachel.

Little Helpers

The minute I step foot inside the kitchen with the intent of cooking or baking, I have 2 little girls instantly underfoot begging to be allowed to help...

Sometimes it can seem so much faster, less mess, and easier just to do your things yourself, but I know they'll never learn unless I let them help. And I figure I might as well teach them to enjoy work while they are begging to help! :-) 

Sometimes I just have these moments of, "This is the life!" to be able to work in the kitchen with my two little girls... and then I want to capture the moments...these were the babies of what seems like yesterday - and they're growing up way too fast!!!

{Scarecrow}

The other week when we went over to Don's land, the children noticed the scarecrows set up in the cornfields to keep the birds from eating the corn. Apparently the idea has been brewing ever since, because yesterday Cherlise got the brainstorm to make a scarecrow to plant beside the one or two lone stalks of volunteer corn in the garden. She ended up with a pretty cute one too! :-)

Oh the life!

Watching my little girls having such a party in the hammocks made this mom want to forget about cooking and cleaning, and go join them. :-)

(this picture is especially for Dwayne and Linda - the lilies are getting so big!)

I love the view of the grasses with the fort in the background.

After taking a few pictures it was time to get back to the work at hand... I have such wonderful helpers - Michael especially enjoys mopping floors. :-)

Goat butchering

Sunday morning we discovered that dogs had attacked our goats during the night. They killed and ate 3 big goats, 4 kids, and punctured the intestines of the another nanny. (she died later) All that was left of the big goats were the heads and front legs... there was no sign of the kids. The dogs' destruction left us with only 2 billy goats. Billys do a lot of good by themselves, you know, so we butchered them the next day. It was a good educational experience for the children. I know, I should have a lot more pictures. But fact of the matter is, we didn't take anymore, and I'm not sure there are very many who would've enjoyed them if we had... but I would've liked to share pictures of Rose cleaning the intestines, and scraping hair off of goat heads and appendages... :-)

See Janelle standing in the corner with her hands up at her face? She was the only one that was not at all interested in this butchering business. :-)

And the boys? Well this was grand!!! They were delighted to hold the legs while Maxo skinned 'em.

We ended up with about 20 lbs of meat. And not a bit of those goats was wasted, let me tell you!!! Every single last bit was parceled out to someone -heads, legs, stomach, kidneys, intestines - you name it - except for the skin. I don't know that they did anything with the skin. I was telling the children that it would be fun to tan the hide, but I wouldn't have a clue what I was doing. :-/ I have to smile when I remember how before I came to Haiti, I would be so grossed out at the thought of eating goat, but I didn't realize what good cooks these Haitian ladies are... By the time they have it washed, marinated, cooked and fried... well let me just say - it's really, really good! I tasted the heart, but sadly it ranked the same as liver in my opinion... (shudder...)