Eli's Birthday

Yesterday was a doozy.  It was Eli's birthday, but we ended up extending the celebration into today since there wasn't much celebrating that happened yesterday.

The power had gone out the evening before and still wasn't on in the morning.  It ended up being out for about 20 hours all said and done.  (It's the beginning of the rainy season, which means we're headed into a lot of power outages.  Whenever it rains, the power goes out.  Literally.)  Without power we couldn't risk opening the fridge, so my plans for Eli's birthday breakfast were derailed.  Thankfully one of his presents was a stash of imported goods, including some granola bars.  Breakfast on the go: check!

The day was so busy at the hospital that Eli had to skip lunch, which he normally comes home for.  Thankfully he did get home in time for supper (which the birthday boy made since stir-fry is his favorite and I still haven't learned how to make it).

Just as I was putting candles in the scotcheroos, the ICU called and needed him quickly.  So we rushed singing Happy Birthday and watching him blow out the candles, but he ran out the door before even taking a bite of his own birthday dessert.  The boys and I chose to dive in, knowing Eli wouldn't be home again before their bedtime.  I felt a little guilty, but just a little :)

The boys wanted to know why Daddy had to work on his birthday?  They always get the day off school when it's their birthdays (a perk of homeschooling!) so it made no sense to them why Dad had to work and be on-call.  Sheesh!  I had to explain that most people have to work or go to school on their birthdays.  That's life!  They're still having trouble wrapping their heads around that concept.

So today we tried celebrating again, and this time we had power so I could make a decent breakfast, and this time Eli was around long enough to finish opening presents.  He received two picture books to enjoy with the kids.  One of them was supposed to be his Father's Day present this year but we couldn't get it over here until recently, and the other is a book about J.R.R. Tolkien as a child which I know they'll all love reading together, especially since Eli is currently reading The Hobbit to the boys.

And there are leftover scotcheroos to enjoy today, which is always a win!

We are so grateful for this man.  Eli is kind and he invests in us.  He wants to be present and he wants to take care of us, and he does.  He is a servant to everyone around him and he encourages people without even trying.  I can't even begin to count how many times someone has told me how much they admire Eli, and I am proud of that.  He's an amazing husband and an amazing father, and we get to call him ours.

Happy Birthday to my Beloved!

Life on the Homefront

Life on the homefront has been fairly monotonous these days, which has been nice as we've settled into a new school year and new routine.  There've been some exciting happenings in the past few weeks, however.

I'd been wanting some kind of shelving in the corner of the boys' room.  We have rapidly run out of bookshelf space in our house (for which there is no real long-term solution since we are book people and I have a problem with acquiring books as much as possible), but having a shelf of some kind in the corner of their room was one small way to address the problem.  It was also an opportunity to spruce up the corner which previously had a lamp on the floor and an old fan hanging from the ceiling with some old twine.  It was functional but ugly.

So after many months of dreaming of something else, we finally changed things up.  Our friend Nathan (who built our outdoor shed and has helped with several random projects along the way) cut some corner shelves and let Kai help him (because he is amazing like that).  Nathan was also the one to suggest that I paint the tree on the wall.  My original idea for the corner was different and apparently unrealistic, so we met in the middle and this is what we came up with.  It turned out rather well and the boys love it!

I feel so good when a project is completed!

In other news, although creature discoveries are a regular occurrence around here, we recently had a new experience: seeing weaver birds up close!

We were given a bunch of bananas from our friends' house, but in chopping down the bananas, a weaver bird nest was dislodged and fell to the ground.  Two baby birds were inside.  They weren't brand new babies but were still in the nest.  So on top of bananas, we received a weaver bird nest to learn about!  Eli pulled out the birds to make sure they weren't injured, then let the boys have a turn to hold them before we put them back and replaced the nest near where we found it (on top of a hedge instead of on the ground where the cats would easily find it).  The parents were still nearby and we weren't sure what they'd do with their predicament, but we did what we could.

Weaver birds are beautiful and fascinating birds.  They live all over and are easily spotted because their nests are obvious in trees.  They often live in colonies, so a tree could be completely full of their nests, which are basically big round balls of grass hanging like ornaments from the branches.  And weaver birds build their nests while hanging upside down!

These are pictures I took a couple years ago of a weaver bird.  It's so fascinating to watch them work.

 

The most exciting thing of the past few weeks, however, are the boys' new bikes!  We debated for a long time whether to get them bikes in Kenya or not.  Bikes can be expensive, and we could easily get old bikes at garage sales in the States next year instead, but we decided it was worth the investment.  These boys all wanted to learn to ride.  Lots of other kids on the compound ride bikes around and our boys were motivated to join them.  So we went to a couple stores in Nairobi to find what would work, then hauled them back to Chogoria where Eli assembled them and began the process of teaching our kids to ride bikes.

My heart was happy!  Biking is my favorite outdoor activity (and one of the things I can still do with my knee problems), and I miss my bike terribly.  Teaching our kids to ride is a rite of passage but also an investment in the future.  I would love love love to go for bike rides as a family.  So we took the plunge to get our boys bikes here, and it's proven to be the right decision!

Asa begged for a bike with training wheels, which we adamantly denied, and within 5 minutes of trying to ride on his own, he was!  That kid's been scooting around on a balance bike for awhile and had the whole balance thing down.  He mastered riding without any help from us.  It was definitely a proud parent moment!

Caleb and Kai needed more help (and still do even a few weeks later).  But Caleb has begun to take off.  He's got the balance thing down and is working on his turns.  This is a huge victory because Caleb doesn't take to new things easily.  He's often unwilling to try new things at all, but bike riding was something he was excited about and has been diligently working on mastering it ever since he started.  Victory!

Kai has struggled the most to get his balance figured out, but he makes progress every time he rides.  He falls the most but gets back up every time, which is a good sign that he'll be a great biker once he masters it.

And Eli has been amazing as he works with them.  He doesn't have as much time as I do to help our boys learn to ride, but my lower back just can't handle the bending over much.  After the first day my back was in pain, and it got worse by the second and third day until I had to give up helping the boys at all.  (It's frustrating since I'd been doing really well in the back department this year and was hoping I was putting it behind me.  But apparently not.  Once aggravated, my back starts screaming at me again.  Ugh.)  But thankfully I have an all-star husband who gives our boys the time and patience they need to learn to ride a bike!

Although school fills up a lot of time, it's been good to have these other activities to capture our attention when school is not in session!

Rural Kenya

Life "in the village" is definitely different than life on our compound.  We love spending time there because the rural setting is always gorgeous and because there's good company to be had and because the boys always find an adventure.  We recently had the privilege of visiting our househelper, Jane Rose, at her shamba and it was so wonderful to meet the rest of her family and enjoy time together there.

This is the view from their home.  I told you it was gorgeous!

Like most shambas, there were animals.  There were cows, chickens, goats, and even rabbits!  The boys had a blast running around and meeting all the animals and Eli received a lesson in cutting napier grass for the cows.

We were also delighted to discover that Joy, Jane Rose's daughter, had caught a chameleon and saved it for our boys!  This was exciting because she (like most Kenyans) was afraid of chameleons before spending time with the Horn boys and learning how to appreciate them.  I always consider it a victory when a Kenyan learns not to be afraid of a chameleon!

And of course we enjoyed chai together.  Asa is still the only Horn boy who will drink chai.  I wish Caleb and Kai would choose to drink it, but alas, that day has not yet come.  At any rate, they ate their fill in chapati and we all tried arrowroot for the first time too.

Perhaps the most exciting thing for the boys was playing in the stream and catching fish, tadpoles, and crabs.  They would've stayed there all day if we'd let them.  And they would've brought home a bunch of creatures if we'd let them!

It was such a wonderful day.  Kenyan hospitality is incredible.  We are honored and blessed every time we visit friends at their home.

This past week we ventured up to the mountain again, and this time we brought Jane Rose's children with us.  They had never been there and were excited to join us.  It was a perfect day for being outside and exploring.  Kenya is a beautiful country and we are so grateful to be surrounded by such beauty. 

We saw a variety of wildlife too.  Colobus monkeys and Sykes monkeys were in the forest, plus waterbuck and birds of prey in the valleys, and bushbuck on the hiking trail.  We didn't see any elephants this time, although fresh droppings were on the road as usual.

Most of Kenya is rural even though it's filled with people.  It's actually hard to find an area that's truly void of people, but the landscape is rural with shambas almost everywhere.  And it's beautiful.  Whether the shambas are filled with maize or arrowroot, or whether you're driving past tea fields or rice fields, rural Kenya is a lovely place.