As you can guess by the length of time in between my last post an this one, things have been moving along at a remarkably quick pace; quicker than I can keep up with, unfortunately! So here I am now, having a rare free hour within which I am hoping to cross multiple things off of my to-do list, one being catching up anyone interested on the Joseph family's last month. So (deep breath), here goes!
At the beginning of this month we celebrated our family's 4th anniversary of living here in China. Each year we have a special meal and dessert and let the kids pick a family activity to do to commemorate God's grace in allowing us to live here (and survive here!) for as long as we have. This year, they picked their favorite: a trip to the zoo! We added homemade pizza to our new list of favorite foods, as I've been working on perfecting (or at least making edible) my homemade crust and the kids' favorite dessert with pudding and brownies (special treats that I packed over from the US this summer in our luggage). I've taken one more step deeper into the core of living in China by branching out in the kitchen a bit; I've started making more homemade breads (can't get good ones here at very many places) and homemade yogurt (which is a lot healthier than the ones they sell here which are filled with sugar and other things that I don't want to know about! Yikes!). Both have been a big hit with at least some of the members of the family, and are surprisingly easy to make at home once you get the feel for them....Anyway, I digress. So our family had a Monday off from school and decided to go to the zoo then when it would be less crowded. We had our friends, Sam, Charis, and Isaiah who were staying with us while their belongings were all being sold before moving back to the US, go with us, along with our Ayi. It was a fun and bonding experience with Ayi; she loves watching the kids run and interact with each other outside the home, and it was precious to see how she came dressed up for the occasion that day, donning new clothes that we had never seen her wear before. A great time was had by all!
Later that week we celebrated Eli's 8th birthday. We did a family celebration at home, complete with tacos and birthday dessert, again all Eli's choice, and he opened lots of presents that were just in his taste--bug catchers, science books that explain how natural events occur, a remote-controlled helicopter. He also got his first Bible, and I must say that it was precious to hear he and Karis in bed with their flashlights that night giving each other tips on different exciting stories that they should each read! Eli's best friend at school is named Josiah, and he happened to stumble across the account of King Josiah's life as he was flipping through; he was thrilled to read about his friend's namesake and be able to tell him about it at school the next day! The Saturday after his birthday, we took our 4 kids and 5 of Eli's closest friends to a ropes course that has recently been added at our nearby shopping center. It's all outdoors, and pretty small in comparison to what you would expect in the US; but our kids don't know the difference and had a ball climbing for over 2 hours! There were kids ranging in age from 4 (Noah, who was the youngest) up to 14, and all were thoroughly enjoying themselves. I was so proud as I watched Noah on the high wire (which was about 8 or 10 feet off the ground), his hand shaking violently as he reached for the next rope, lip quivering to hold back the tears that were welling up in his eyes. But with a little encouragement, he completed the entire course, two times, and was soooo proud of himself at the end! It was really cute to hear him ask multiple times, "I did good, Mom? I showed courage?" I got to give him lots of hugs and words of encouragement, at least until he wiggled out of my arms to run off to climb the next portion with the "big boys" who were there to celebrate with Eli.
We celebrated another Chinese national holiday this week on Thursday--what we call Mid-Autumn Festival. It's supposedly second in importance to Chinese New Year here in the country, but our school only took off 1 day because we have so many other holidays to try to squeeze in (being an international school, we try to fit in both the US holidays and the Chinese ones, so we end up having a shorter summer as we have so many breaks during the actual school year). So we've been getting lots of gifts in honor of this special day, mainly moon cakes, which are round cakes with a bread-type outside (about 4 in. in diameter) and different things in the middle. They're definitely not our family's favorite food, but we've gotten used to the custom of exchanging and even eating them in observance of this important holiday. What has surprised me is how high a price you can pay for these small cakes. We had a friend who attends the parenting study I do on Saturdays come with a box of them. I saw that same box (from a pretty well-known, higher-end bakery) for sale for the equivalent of $40! And there were only 4 or 6 cakes in the box (which I had already given to my ayi, so I failed to see how many were actually included inside!). We had one other family who comes to the parenting study bring some from a Haagen-Dazs ice cream store in town. I have no idea what the price of them was, but those cakes were DARN good eatin', all ice cream and covered in chocolate, and even had dry ice packed in the gift box in which they were delivered. The kids loved the ice cream, but the dry ice was an even bigger hit! Kevin took a over an hour looking up on the internet all the different things you can do with dry ice, and let me tell you, we had some fun science experiments going on in the laboratory of my kitchen that afternoon! I'm including a picture or two of the smoke that came from combining the dry ice with something....Can't quite remember what all they were concocting, but everyone was having a blast in the process.I didn't have to teach on Wednesday this week, so I instead went to a nearby college campus and helped lead an English corner. This is something that many of our friends have done regularly, but I had yet to participate in. It was quite an experience! It was a total delight to see the eagerness of these college students to learn and practice their English. One of my favorite parts was interacting with Hellen, a boy (yes, I said boy) who Kevin had met at this same English corner the previous week. When Kevin pointed out that the name Hellen was typically a female name, Hellen responded by explaining that his name was masculine because it had 2 "l's" rather than just one! How can you argue with that?
On our actual day off for the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, we ended up having most of the junior class of our international school over for pizza. Kevin and I both taught the sophomores last year, and Kevin even went on a trip with them during the spring, so we've bonded with them significantly and really miss not seeing them regularly. When I told a group of them that we missed not seeing them and that I'd make brownies for them if they came over some time, they jumped on the opportunity, picked a date, and promptly invited the rest of the class to join in the party! We were a little nervous about what to expect, but I've got to say, I don't know when I've had such considerate house guests. They RSVP'd that they were coming for the most part (at least 18 of the 24 who came did), they cleaned up after themselves, they left at 9pm when I'd told them the party would be over, and most of them came with gifts to say thank you (which is usual in Asian culture when you are invited to someone's house as a guest). The kids seemed to have a blast, and MY kids loved having so many big kids in their home, playing with their toys! (The Nerf guns and basketball hoop were the biggest hits.) We even pulled out the guitar and had a few impromptu performances. It was a great opportunity to hopefully help build some relationships with some kids who could really use some guidance (most of them have a ton of worldly pressure from their families), in the hopes that they'll feel open to come to us when they need a listening ear.
And in closure, today ended up being a surprise blessing in many ways. I had planned on leaving my home by 7:30am to pick up a friend and a ton of flowers to get to a wedding venue early and help set up, then run home and get the family to take them to the wedding, then taxi home early to get back for my parenting study, and then go to another family's house for dinner following the study's conclusion. I must confess the total relief I felt last night when I found out that due to the holiday this week, our parenting study had very few who could attend (so we canceled) and my friend decided she could get all the things she had into a taxi rather than needing me to drive her to the wedding early in our minivan. So my day totally feed up! I was able to enjoy a cup of coffee, fold laundry, and even call my mom this morning. I got to attend the wedding and stay the whole time with them fam. 
And here I am, typing away at the computer this afternoon! I'm realizing that my schedule rarely has "holes" open up in it to just be still and rest, and yet I desperately need those holes to exist! So the problem is identified, and now the goal is to figure out how to better manage (or maybe cut out?) some of those things in my world....I must say, however, this might be one of my bigger life's battles! There is absolutely NO END to the work around us that needs to be done, and just not enough hours in the day to get to it all....Anyone out there want to come to China? I might even find a Haagan-Daazs moon cake to throw in to sweeten the deal if it would help! :)
