Mission Trip to Ethiopia

Eddie & I felt called to go on a church mission trip to Ethiopia to serve the Drawn from Water organization. They save children considered cursed from drowning, which is the local custom in three remote villages. We would work in their orphanage in the capital city of Addis Ababa. Plans for the week included painting, taking the kids on a field trip up a mountain to fly kites, filling in for the nannies so they could have a spa retreat, and just generally playing with and loving on the kids. Six of us would be travelling from the two Smyrna, TN campuses and two others would travel from our Seattle campus. The week we were leaving some things came up with the organization which left some doubt as to whether or not we would get to see the kids....

Space Center Field Trip

We are blessed to live about 2 hours away from the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. My co-op science class is studying space, so I scheduled what they call The Ultimate Field Trip. And it was!

Six families spent seven hours together, leaving only as they were literally turning out the lights, and it didn't seem that long at all. We had a tour guide for the day included, too! We looked at space ships, did two cool science labs, ate spaceburgers, watched an IMAX movie, climbed a climbing wall, sat in a space travel simulator, and just generally had a fantastic time.

Book Club Adventurers!

For book club this month we read Swiss Family Robinson. It is a hard read -- wordy and long, so most didn't finish, switched to the abridged version, or read the abridged version to begin with. I now know why the author is a "one hit wonder." Most of the kids liked the story, though.

Anyway, I'd planned some fun activities for our club meeting:
* Lost at Sea exercise to test their knowledge of survival skills (as a team their score was high enough that they would survive!)
* Tasting an MRE - chicken tettrazini, applesauce, bread with jalapeno cheese spread, orange drink, and chocolate covered cookie. Surprisingly, it was OK.
* Opening a coconut to taste the "water" inside, and trying canned coconut milk and guava juice (all parts of the story)
* Bridge building skills, using a lasso, and shooting an arrow

It was great fun! While it wears me out, I love to inspire the kids!

Afterwards some of us watched the movie, which was a great disappointment to me. It was not much like the book, and very goofy in comparison. The kids loved the movie for its goofiness. Oh, well!

Science Center

We enjoyed an afternoon at the science center with friends from co-op!

Valentine's Day

Abe Lincoln's Home

We studied Abe Lincoln in history last week. His history teacher had pointed out that his boyhood home was about 2 1/2 hours away in KY, and I told myself that if the weather was nice the week after, we would go and visit.

Well, the temps this week were in the 60s, so off we went. We were joined by the Shinds -- Joy and three of her four kids, Sam, Ben, and Lily. (Ben is the boy that Emily "likes.")

The car ride was fun as everyone had someone to talk to and play with. We made the most of the historical site -- video, small museum, junior ranger workbooks, model cabin, trails to hike, trees to climb! It was just such a pleasure to be outside and running around with good friends.

Amoxicillin Allergy

Emily got her first ear infection, and was prescribed amoxicillin to cure it. Eight days in she broke out in a rash. It took me a few hours to consider an allergic reaction. By that time I had given her another dose and the rash was spreading. Took her to the doctor and got some steroids and a stronger antihistamine. She, thank goodness, did not have any side effects from the steroids, and the rash cleared up in five days.

I am thankful that she did not take amoxicillin until age eight, rather than as a toddler, as it would have freaked me out a lot more.

Emily was a trooper, other than being embarrassed by the red spots and blotches, which we understood.