January 21, 2016

Happy Birthday!  Caleb turned 33 today!  Wish I had a baby picture to post, but they are all stateside now.  But it was good to be thinking of him when we got up.  It was funny, I waited to call him at work because he always go into work so early.  But we only got the message machine, so we left our birthday wishes.  It was the only day ‘ever’ he went in at 8…..well, I’m sure not the only day.  It was tag, but we talked on in the day and he said he had a great day both from work taking him out to lunch and an evening out with Della.  We miss birthdays and holidays, but it won’t be long before we are back for another visit.  I was up cooking again.  It is so much easier to cook in the mornings.  I had a meeting with Eliza regarding our class for Sunday at 9:30, so I wanted to get everything in the crock pot for a lunch with Socorro.  I actually kept it simple with parmesan chicken, broccoli salad, green beans with potatoes and carrots, and a cream potato soup and red velvet cake for desert.  You can come on over, there was bunches.  It was actually a new recipe on the soup, and I sure had my doubts at times, but it turned out great.  Although, I thought it resemble mashed potatoes a little in the end.  Well, at last, we treated with a little bacon on top and that makes everything good.  We don’t buy that often for it is expensive.  Socorro helped us find the house and we wanted to show our appreciation with a lunch.  She had broken her arm a month ago and she was out an about without her sling.  That was good improvement.  She brought yellow roses and some dulces, sweets.  The vendors are packing up slowly, but surely from the festivities, but she said she bought her sweets from a lady she knew and they were fresh.  Several people had mentioned that the figs were the best and that is what she brought along with a caramel type fudge.  Both were great, but especially the figs.  It was a nice visit, but she had to go back to her hostel about 1:30 in case anyone came by to rent a room.  We still study regularly, but like many, it seems to be going slow.  The meeting with Eliza went well.  We mostly planned the class for Sunday for the story and crafts.  Next month we will be rotating to another pair of teachers and we talked that we could offer to meet with them too, if they need craft ideas or any help with supplies.  It has been a busy month for all the transitions and we pray that we will have more and more children visiting.  After lunch we rested about 30 minutes and then headed for a 2:30 study with Alba.  Her daughter sat in on the study and always reads along with all the passages.  Several things passed that were noteworthy.  One, at the end of the study, she said that her daughter really liked going to her current church because they had various drama, crafts, cooking classes and a myriad of events all day on Saturday.  I think her daughter goes with her mother-in-law for Alba and her husband don’t attend anywhere.  Second, she said that she was starting a new job caring for an elderly lady in Sonsonate.  She said that she would be staying in Sonsonate Mon. thru Fri. and then home on Saturday and Sunday.  She said she was uncertain on the timing of future studies because of the big change in her schedule.  But, she said she would let her schedule get settled and see how things go.  We did invite her and her husband to dinner and we worked out a time for next Friday night.  We are prayerful that will work out.  She made us some coffee and gave us some more fruit for bread making.  She actually has a papaya tree, which makes up good in bread.  We stayed to about 4:30 and then had to head out for our 5:00 group study.  It was at Ariceli’s house with her husband.  We went by to check if Regina needed a ride, but she had already gone early because Ariceli is a cousin and she wanted to visit.  She had left about 4 for an hour walk.  She said she walked slowly since the doctor had said not too much exercise yet.  Dwaine led the study on Matthew 2 and there were several comments made.  It seems most are trying to come to our Wednesday night study at the building so we are uncertain if there is a need for an additional meeting during the week.  We finished up about 7 and took a few people home.  We made it home in time to make one more birthday call and everyone was together, except Clifton being at Auburn.  It sounded like Caleb had enjoyed his birthday, but I still missed that hug!

Bible study was in the home of Ariceli and her husband.

They are caretakers of a cabana in a closed community.

Beautiful views