September Update! (Finally)

Allo allo!
Well, it has been a busy month (September was anyway), and we can't really believe how time has been flying by. One thing we do know however is that it is about time we gave you all an update! 

Josh's story is currently pretty straight forward - he is studying. Ha ha, that hasn't really changed. He has a couple of exams this week, and in the weeks ahead - so he is just really focusing on that and making sure that he has things clear in his head. Primarily he has been focusing on the languages. Greek he found relatively straight forward to learn - and I think that his year at Uni studying Latin perhaps helped a little with that. Hebrew has been trickier, especially as the characters are new too. Thankfully, there are a couple of guys in his class who have already learnt Hebrew, and are good teachers themselves - so he has been able to study with them which has been a great help. He seems to be able to cover more ground that way, and because they can test him on it it speeds up his learning process a lot. 

As for me, I have been (mostly) keeping out of mischief. ;) As I have perhaps mentioned in my last post I have been volunteering as an art teacher each week for a homeschooling group. This has been really fun - they are a great group of kids, and boy do they have amazing imaginations! Ha ha! I was working with the 3-7 year olds last week drawing a imaginary trip that we had thought up - I got them to think of a place they wanted to travel too, how they were going to get there, and who they were going to see. One very creative young man was flying to Canada in a jet plane, which was being attacked by missiles from all directions (he's only 4, and you know what - his drawing was very good). It's interesting seeing what the boys come up with in comparison to the girls. :D

Each fortnight on a Thursday morning I have also been helping out taking care of a bunch of about 8-10 3 and 4 year olds for an hour and a half while their Mum's go to Bible study. That is definitely an interesting challenge! They are super cute, but it is an age group that I haven't worked with much before, and they are quite different! We have been working on the Armour of God - which is lots of fun. So each time we are making different parts of the armour. Last week we made helmet masks so they put their masks on and then to occupy them for a while we did things that soldiers do. So marching, riding horses (more fun than pretending to be in a jeep or tank ha ha), flying in aeroplanes, and then by that time I was exhausted, so I said that the other thing that soldiers do is sleep so they can recoup their energy - so I managed to get them lying down for about 5 seconds before we were up marching again. : ) The week where we make swords is going to be an interesting one...

I have also had the opportunity to start up some piano lessons again! I figured out that I haven't actually had lessons since I was about 13 - which is slightly scary, but I have kept up playing. So we thought that this is something that we could invest in that may come in useful in the future. It has been really great to learn again. Unfortunately we don't have a piano (I don't think there is any way we could get one into our flat anyway, ha ha) however some very generous people from church have said that I can go around to their place any time and use their piano to practice on. Plus I was given a little keyboard that I can use at home to practice with when I can't make it to the piano. Generous people huh!

Piano practice time!

The trees are all changing colours over here now - and the weather has been a lot cooler - and actually really nice over the past couple of weeks. Although the weekend was unseasonably warm. 

Morning walk - doesn't really look that different from NZ huh? :)

I also got to go with another lady from church last week to the Westfield Mall that they have over here. We just had a mooch around the stores and stopped for a coffee. In the middle of this mall they have a full sized, double story merry-go-round! It's pretty cool. 

So otherwise it's been nice to have time to spend with people from Seminary and church, there are some very very cool people over here, and we are so thankful for the opportunity to get to know them better! Experiencing their generosity and thoughtfulness has been a massive learning curve for us - in so far as learning to graciously accept it, as well as hopefully learning how to do it ourselves. So that, Lord willing when we are in a position to be able to be generous in the future we will be able to do so in a similar way to these people. Unrestrainedly. 

I was also given a ticket to attend a conference the other weekend - so a lady from church who was going took me along. It was really encouraging and challenging stuff. With a focus on being thoughtful and loving towards others from a Biblical perspective - and selflessly giving of our time and gifts to other people. As you can see - it was challenging! But we got to hear Paul Tripp, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Susan Hunt and Elyse Fitzpatrick - all who have written books that I have read, so it was pretty cool to be able to actually get to hear them speak. They were all really good. Very humble people - which was pretty cool. 

You can tell it's Autumn (or Fall) over here when all the Pumpkin flavoured stuff starts coming out. Not to mention all the Halloween decorations show up in people's front yards. I got to try some of these cookies at someone's house, and managed to discover them on sale at the store this morning - so I nabbed some. They are soooooo delicious. The American's know how to do good cookies, that's for sure. Good for Josh to be able to snack on while he's studying huh. I was thinking of him. ;)

Drooooool.

In the meantime we can say that we are still so thankful and feel very privileged to be over here. We are being massively blest by being able to live here and experience the culture and build relationships over here. Plus the seminary is so great - Josh is learning a lot and is enjoying his studies. We have a lot to be thankful for! Speaking of thankfulness - Thanksgiving is coming up in a couple of months and we are really looking forward to celebrating that for the first time. :)

Right well, that's about everything up-to-date for now. I promise that I will try and be a little more regular, but our lives are kind of ticking along in a routine now, so there isn't much that is newsworthy right at this moment, however you never know from week to week what could happen. ;)

Life goes on...

Well, we are still here! We are surviving and continuing to enjoy the USA. Things have started to get busy as Josh's studies continue to intensify, and I get some more commitments. 

There has been a bit of change in temperature over the past week, and despite having highs in the 30's last week, Friday dropped to 18 degrees as the high, and we are now mostly in the 20's - which has actually been really nice! It means we can ditch the aircon, and just have the windows open. So we'll make the most of that until the cold really sets in!

Last weekend we had an amazing opportunity to go and visit California for a few days. Some very good and generous friends from the US/NZ were over there, and they gave us flights to go and visit with them. We were super thankful for the opportunity to spend time with them, and it was cool to see another part of the States. It was also nice to have a short time away together, probably for the last time in a long time as Josh's studies won't allow it from now on (which is fine, because we are here to study anyway) - but it was such a treat to be able to visit. The Californian coast was beautiful (just like in the movies hehe) and it was really nice to see the beach again. 

It was amazing to see how different the landscape was in comparison to Indiana - I'll give you a bit of a run-down:

Indiana/Illinois:

-  Flat
-  Farmland
-  Green
-  Big trees - like oaks etc
-  Farm style houses, made of wood, or brick

Orange County, California:
-  Hills
-  Colorful flowering gardens
-  Palm Trees & Eucalyptus
-  Rocky scrub hills (which kind of reminded me of pictures I've seen of Australia)
-  Terracotta mud-brick/stucco Spanish style villas & beach houses

Those are just summaries obviously - but illustrate how these places are almost opposites! 

I have also been continuing to do some domesticated stuff. I just want to put a little N.B. in here and say that I am not an amazing baker or cook. And I have been enjoying having some more time to invest in getting better at it. I just follow recipes and have the assistance of kitchen gadgets to help me make food that thankfully is edible! Plus I have the added blessing of having a husband that is not fussy (thank you Lord!).

So anyway, I have been trying out some American recipes because some of them that I have tried at other people's houses are most excellent. In fact, I decided that I wanted to learn to cook some more American meals so I went out and managed to get (on special I might add), the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook - which seems to be the equivalent of the Edmonds Cookbook in the US (in so far as most people seem to own it).

And I have discovered Snickerdoodles. My new most favourite cookies (plus isn't that a most excellent name? Haha). If I could I would write the name with sparkles and glowy lights, because that's just how it feels it should be written. These are basically vanilla cinnamon sugar cookies. Which sums up the deliciousness of them really.

Josh has been continuing to study like crazy. He has been getting stuck into Greek and Hebrew again, plus there is quite a bit of reading for his other classes now too. He gets pretty tied up all day, and then in the evenings - but we have meals together which is a really good time to catch up. We have also been able to have some of the other students over for dinner which is a good opportunity to get to know them better. There are some really cool people who are studying over here. And it's been an awesome blessing for Josh to be able to find some people who he can study with really well. He has also been really enjoying his Professors. These guys have a looooooot of knowledge in their heads, and are very good at imparting it back to the students. So although the workload seems like it is a huge amount at times for Josh (and it is) - we are just constantly aware of how blest we are to be able to study and learn from the people over here. 

Plus it has been fun to be able to spend a little more time with the other Kiwi students! I pinched this photo off Albert & Hanneke's blog - which you can check out here. :)

Well that is all for now - but there will be more a little later in the week! :D