December 25, 2015

 MERRY...

                                                
 CHRISTMAS...

CHRISTMAS...

 GIFT!

December 22, 2015

 We had our first snow today, and Zadok is exactly 18 months old!



He wasn't interested in demonstrating for his dearest (if not nearest) relatives how much he has grown the past year and a half by holding up his first onesie...

...At least not in a way that the size difference could be clearly seen and duly noted...

...So the past and present onesies had to pose by themselves.

December 20, 2015

And the word of the day is...

December 16, 2015

 You can make a half circle skirt in just a few easy steps.

1) Measure the circumference of your waist, remembering to give yourself a little breathing room.

2) Divide this measurement (in my case, 30 inches) by a third, or .33. I would now have 10 inches. Some would have more, some less.

3) Lay out your fabric, right sides together. Keep in mind the skirt will only be as long as the short side of the fabric.

4) Measure 10 inches (or 8, or 12, whatever your measurement is) from the corner down the fold and mark with a pin.

 

 5) Keeping the end of the measuring tape at the upper corner, continue measuring across from the fold edge to the open edge, marking your arc with pins as you go.

 

 6) From the bottom of this first small arc (the waist), measure down the side as long as you want the skirt to be and then, using the measuring tape to measure from the marking pins you have already placed, create a larger arc (the hem.)

7) Cut your piece out along the pinned lines. It should be a quarter circle that unfolds to be a half circle. Sew up the open edge and attach it to the dress bodice or the waistband of a skirt.

December 10, 2015

Zadok enjoyed watching me decorate the Christmas cookies. He was a lot more aware of, and interested in, the process than he was last year. I think he's beginning to suspect that they are edible.

December 5, 2015

Here's just a small sampling of the dozens of sketches I've created over the past month for the literacy program and the (possibly first ever) picture dictionary in one of the indigenous languages of Nuristan (a.k.a. Kaffiristan.)

December 1, 2015

Amos plus past and present team members in Nampa. Training went well and they accomplished everything they had hoped to, but we are so glad to have him back!

November 24, 2015

And the walls keep tumbling down
In the city that we love...



Great clouds roll over the hills,
Bringing darkness from above.



But if you close your eyes,
Does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?



Oh where do we begin--
The rubble or our sins?

                                               "Pompeii" by Bastille

November 21, 2015

I decline to comment.

November 18, 2015

"The walls are high, but the sky is higher."

And on evenings like this, it's easy to forget that the walls are even there.

November 12, 2015

This blog is already in danger of Zadok overload, but in spite of that, here are a couple recent pictures of him:

Zadok reads one of his favorite books, LMNOPeas...

And enjoys breakfast next to Ludmilla, our new stove. She was presiding over the kitchen when we arrived, but when the cold weather began Amos moved her to the sitting room. Ludmilla is a formidable personality as stoves go, but I'm not convinced that she puts out any more warmth then one of our old "tin can" stoves.

It's way outdated but too cute to pass up--Zadok is attacked by a school of clothespins!

November 4, 2015

A good friend connects with her Mongol roots at an impromptu concert the other day. The instrument is called a "Du Tar" which means, "Two strings." It was made from a tin cracker box and what appears to have been a chair leg in some previous existence. Surprisingly sweet sounds can come from lowly roots.

Note: As always, pictures of local friends are not to be shared outside the family.

November 1, 2015

It's called Talent...

October 25, 2015

Meet our water filters--on the left, the Katadyn, the charcoal candle filter, on the right, the Clear Water machine, which is a creature very dear to my heart, as it dispenses hot water as well.

October 23, 2015

Yesterday I celebrated my 29th birthday. Apparently I'm not having any more. Amos has declared me permanently stuck at 29.

We had a party for our small team, and amazingly the whole team (six people besides us) showed up. Also, for the first time since moving to Kabul, the people who came were aware that it was my birthday. Amos decorated, and Sandi brought a cake.

October 20, 2015

I didn't think I' be doing one of those rather laborious "summer recap" posts two summers in a row, but then again, why not? It's all good...very good.

It was a summer of lavish salads from our own garden...

Of uncertainty...about chocolate cake, among other things...

Of a long journey and two joyful weddings...

Of rides in the yellow cart pulled by Grandmother, uncles and aunts...

Of man to man conversations around the breakfast table while Mother was recovering from surgery...

Of beautiful chalk art (and artists)...

We went to a great deal of trouble for the dubious privilege of possessing this:



And then it was fall...and we headed home.

June 28, 2015

I sewed this dress for Joel/Amanda and Ian/Elizabeth's weddings. It's the best one I've made because I finally figured out how to make a skirt correctly.Why it wasn't obvious to me before is anybody's guess.

 Amos had fears that I had become a bit colorblind after living here so long (July 20th is the four year anniversary of my arrival--I think) but he decided he liked the dress when it was made up.

On a related note, a friend lent/gave me a sewing machine. It's the old fashioned, hand crank style.

I have yet to sew anything on it, because it's a bit awkward turning the crank with one hand and guiding fabric, etc. with the other. Also because it's badly in need of some maintanance.

June 25, 2015

I think these may be my new favorite flowers...

I don't even know what to call them, but how could you not revel in a plant that bears two different colors on the same stem...

Or even the same bloom, in an infinite variety of speckles, stripes and patches...

Besides, the magenta and yellow color combination is the epitome of tropical luxury.