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Goals: A Look Back, A Look Ahead

As 2017 draws to a close and 2018 careens its way toward us, I’ve been thinking about the goals I set for myself in 2017. I blogged earlier this year about a couple of my goals so thought I’d report on those and what I’m looking ahead to accomplish in 2018.

A Look Back at 2017

1. 52 Book in 52 Weeks

I’d set a goal to read 52 books this year and met that goal in mid November. This year, roughly 1/3 of the books I read were non-fiction. I’m not against reading fiction, I was just surprised by this outcome for the year. I’m currently reading book #59 but I don’t know if I’ll get it done before midnight tomorrow.

Bonus goal:

In January I started reading through the Bible chronologically. I was concerned I wouldn’t be able to keep up due to all the traveling we did this year. Turned out I didn’t need to worry. I finished reading through the Bible in mid November. In fact, book #52 for the year was God’s Word. I thought that was pretty great!

In the process of all our travel, the Bible I’ve had and used since I was 17 started falling apart. 🙁 The binding broke and everything from I Timothy on fell out. As I continued to use it, Romans and on started looking iffy and I had to stop carrying it to church. I finished reading through it this year and I’ll be carefully using it for future Bible study. It’s hard to let go of an old friend!

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I have another Bible my parents gave me when I learned to read. It hasn’t been used as much since I got the other one. I’ve been refamiliarizing myself with it the last couple months and using it when we go to church or attend classes to help the other Bible last longer.

2. Keep a Journal

My goal was to write in my journal at least once a week. I didn’t quite make that goal. Most weeks I kept up pretty well. Some weeks I wrote more than once. Other weeks, I was so busy it didn’t happen at all. That’s okay. The goal of journalling is to write things I want to remember, verbalize things I’m struggling with in an effort to lower my stress level, and write down goals and ideas I have. I accomplished those goals.

I started a new journal at the beginning of December, another one I’d gotten at the little shop in Egypt. It’s my favorite color and has smooth, lined pages. I’m loving it!

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3. Bonus Goal #2: Fitness Tracking

James and I got fitness watches in 2016. The first week of January, the app announced an achievement award for making my fitness goals every day for the whole week. Being the overachiever that I am, I earned the “award,” virtual though it was. Then it offered an “award” for meeting the fitness goal every day of the month. Then another if I did it for 100 days. Well, you get the picture. It wasn’t a goal I originally set out to meet, but day by day the year passed and here we are. If I meet the goal tomorrow, I’ll have done it every day for the whole year.

Looking Ahead to 2018

1. 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Yep, I have that goal again. 🙂 It’s become a tradition. This year, I’m doing a challenge with some online friends. The first month I have to read a book published in my birth year. The book I’ve chosen in #4 in a series, so I have to read the first 3 books before I can even meet the challenge for January. Should be fun. There are several non-fiction books on my To Be Read list this year, too.

I’m not making a Through the Bible in a Year challenge this year. I’d like to concentrate my study on the New Testament, using a Bible Study book my friend Rachel Miller put together, In All Thy Ways.

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2. Keep a Journal

My goal this year is still once a week, but I might try for a few minutes three days a week instead. Either way, it’ll get those thoughts and ideas out of my head onto paper.

3. Fitness Tracking

I’ll hit 500 days sometime in April. Why stop now? 😉 It’s become such a habit, that I’d feel weird stopping. 

4. Swahili Study

I need to get over the hurdle of not being able to use the Swahili I understand. It’s frustrating to know what someone is telling me and not be able to reply. It’s mental hurdle that I’m determined to beat. I have all the tools I need to meet this goal, I just need to use them.

Once I’ve accomplished this, I’d like to start teaching Sunday School in Swahili for practice. It doesn’t bother me as much when kids laugh at me as it does when adults do it. So there’s that. Hah! 😀

5. Writing and Editing

I’ve got several books in various stages of the writing and editing process. This fall, NaNoWriMo introduced a goal tracker. Check the little box when you reach your goal for the day. I’ve set it up to write or edit one hour a day, five days a week. It’s more than the hit and miss I’ve been doing up to now and I’m looking forward to seeing how much I get done when using it.

That’s pretty much it for now. I’ve got some sewing and crochet goals but those are rather fluid, whatever is most pressing gets done first.

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How’s Africa – Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas in Africa is, in many ways, the same as Christmas in the US, but in some ways it’s different. The differences surprised us when we first came to Africa.

First, and most noticeable, is the temperature. Christmas where we live falls at the end of the rainy season, just as it is changing over to the dry season. Some years we get our last rain for three months during the week of Christmas. It’s cooler than normal for here when that happens. But most years it’s hot and dry. We make plans to go swimming that week because it feels so nice to go in this weather.

Another difference is that people don’t put up Christmas decorations until about 2 weeks before Christmas. No one puts lights on their houses. All the grocery stores put up decorations and play Christmas music. But outside everything moves on as normal.

Christmas here isn’t a huge merchandise driven holiday, though it has become more than way since we first arrived. People buy each other gifts of food, or clothing and shoes. The price of many food items increases in the middle of November. We’ve learned to stock up on essentials like flour, rice, and oil at least by the beginning of November so we can miss out on that price hike.

Cost of travel also increases in December. People like to travel to their village to celebrate the day with their family and the taxi and bus services take advantage of that desire. 

Thursday last week, James and I needed to go to town for a couple things. Town was crazy busy! We struggled to move around because of all the vehicle and foot traffic.

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We walked down to town today and got pictures of those same intersections on Christmas Day.

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You almost expect tumbleweed to roll across the road and a gun slinger to ride out of the dust. There were more people in town today than I expected, but still no where near what there are on a normal day.

All the protestant religions hold services either on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, sometimes both. We had our big service yesterday and it lasted until late afternoon. There were choir specials. Many visitors attended. It finished with a big meal and cake. (You can read about it in my blog post about the wedding.)

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We followed our Church people from Isanja and Ngarama home as they rode on the truck and sang hymns all the way.

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So, while Christmas here is different in many ways, we’ve all come to love and embrace those differences.

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A Wedding With a Murphy’s Law Twist

Sometimes you have those Murphy’s Law days, also known as “if it can go wrong, it will go wrong.” We’ve had a few of those days this week.

It started on Friday when I was making cake for the wedding today. I ran out of flour in the middle of a recipe and, in an effort to not forget how many cups I’d already added, I totally forgot to add the sugar to the cake. Oh. The. Horror. It can’t really be counted as cake if it has no sugar, right? No one here likes super sweet things, so I decided to improvise. The cake tasted fine, good even, it just wasn’t sweet. So I cut the layer in half,  filled it with icing and put it back together, then iced over the whole thing. It actually tasted pretty good that way. 

I’d baked all the cakes on Friday and planned to decorate them on Saturday. I made the same amount of icing I’d made before….and it wasn’t enough to ice all the cakes, let alone decorate them. Thankfully, I’d gotten extra icing ingredients, but even those weren’t enough to do more than just spread a layer of icing over all the cakes and smooth it out. How could we decorate them without icing?

Then I remembered the sprinkles I’d gotten on clearance last year in the states after Christmas. I’d planned to use them on the gingerbread houses we decorated but forgot all about them until it was too late. God knew I was going to need those decorations for the cake. I found some red ribbon and wrapped it around the cakes. Elizabeth came behind me and arranged the sprinkles. Problem solved.

This morning, James discovered that the marriage vows he always uses had been deleted from every form of back-up we have. He had to find a copy of the vows to replace the ones he’d lost before we could leave for church.

We were almost half-way to church when James remembered that he’d forgotten to grab a dress shirt to wear with his suit and tie. He had everything else *except* the shirt. This seems like a small matter. He could borrow one, right? Not so easy here. On average, he’s a foot taller than all the men. He couldn’t wear his suit without a shirt and he *had* to wear a suit for the wedding.

But everything worked out just fine. The cakes were beautiful and everyone loved them. 

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We found a solution for James’ dress shirt dilemma.

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(I’m pretty sure Hawaiian shirts everywhere are screaming in protest at one of their brothers being worn with a tie, which goes against the point of even wearing a Hawaiian shirt in the first place. But sacrifices must be made for the greater good. 😉 )

We had a fantastic time with the children.

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Three Wise Guys…er, I mean Wise Men even showed up to tell us about their search for Baby Jesus.

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At the end of the day, Kiza and Jaqueline ended up married. Which was kind of the point of the whole thing.

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Exciting Progress!

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Remember when the church at Ngarama looked like this? We didn’t know how it would ever be repaired but we knew God is able to answer prayer. Our church people prayed. We prayed. God provided for the repair.
 
A couple weeks ago it looked like this:
 
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It was progress but we were still sitting outside for church.
 
We arrived this Sunday and it looked like this:
 
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There is the church that God built! The church thrummed with excitement about the new building.
 
We had to take advantage of the weather and get a picture of the church people in front of the building.
 
There is still a little work to do on the inside and some landscaping and cement that needs to be finished on the outside. They are busily building the toilet now that the building is almost done.
 
Elizabeth told me she wanted to learn how to teach the children in Sunday School so she worked hard to get the lesson ready for this week. She did a very good job, much better than I did my first time teaching children when I was her age! 
 
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Most of the adults were already there so they heard her teach, too. Everyone listened in rapt attention. She taught again at Isanja to a packed house.
 
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Our Favorite Pies

Thanksgiving wouldn’t feel right without pies. Growing up, we’d bake as many as 15 pies for the holiday. Whenever my dad would remind us that this was almost 2 pies each, we’d stop to consider this fact and then keep baking anyway. We’d have leftovers for a week.

I don’t make that many pies anymore. We usually whittle it down to three or four kinds we love most and that’s what we have for Thanksgiving.

Here are recipes for our three most requested pies and the pie crust recipe I use. 

I’ve never been good at pie crusts. That’s why I was so happy to get this recipe for shortbread crust in my family and friends cookbook. I use it without sugar for all my savory pies (we like quiche, shepherd’s pie, and chicken pot pie).

Shortbread Pie Crust

  • 1-1/2 cups flour
  • 1-1/2 tbsp sugar (may omit)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • 1/2 cup oil

Mix together with a fork until moistened. Press into the bottom of two 9 inch pie plates. Prick the bottom of the crust if pre-baking (10 minutes at 400°). Otherwise add filling and bake according to pie recipe directions

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The first year we were in Africa, I realized I couldn’t get corn syrup. My husband loves pecan pie and his parents had sent us some just for Thanksgiving pies. A friend who was a missionary in Russia at the time gave me her recipe for Pecan Pie made with sugar instead of corn syrup. We all think it tastes better.

We have to bring our pecans from the US. This year I’m using pecans I got in Georgia last year while we were on our way to visit my sister — and driving straight into Hurricane Matthew. 

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Pecan Pie

  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tbsp all purpose flour
  • 1 tbsp milk
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 cup chopped pecans

Place in a 9 inch pie crust. Bake at 350° for 1 hour.

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Pumpkin Pie

  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups pumpkin
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ginger
  • 1/4 tsp. cloves
  • 1-2/3 cup evaporated milk or light cream (I use milk)

Add all ingredients together in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a deep 9 or regular 10 inch pie crust. Bake at 350° for approximately an hour or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

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Sour Cream Raisin Pie is, hands down, my favorite pie ever. I’ve had people say it sounds gross and then fall in love once they tried it. The one and only time I ever won a cooking contest was with this pie recipe.

Sour Cream Raisin Pie

  • 1 baked pie shell
  • Wash 1 cup raisins
  • Add 1 cup water
  • Boil together for 5 minutes
  • In a separate bowl mix together:
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup sour cream (can use yogurt)
  • 3 level tbsp corn starch
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 eggs

Pour sour cream mixture over boiled raisins. Cook until thick, stirring constantly (only a few minutes). Pour into baked shell and cool.

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How’s Africa? – Turkey!

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Let me introduce you to our Thanksgiving turkey. No, he didn’t have a name. We didn’t know him long enough to give him one. 

James mentioned to one of our national pastors, Zizi, that we were interested in buying a turkey or two. Zizi knew of a man in the church who had two for sale for a price we were willing to pay.

The man brought the turkeys to church so we could see them before we bought them. This guy was huge! 

I’ll spare you the gory pictures but they killed the turkeys right there at church in a storage room behind Zizi’s house. They plucked them and gutted them and we brought home two turkeys ready to cook.

I popped the turkey right into the roaster and let it slow cook all night. It filled the whole roaster full — at least 22 pounds worth of bird, maybe more! The next morning, I carved it and froze the meat. Then I made bone broth for the dressing.

That’s one thing about living here in Uganda that you don’t get to experience in the US unless you hunt for or raise your meat. You get to be up close and personal with all your food from start to finish.

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Ask

A few weeks ago, when we were at Ngarama, sitting in the sun because the roof was off, I encouraged the children to pray for God’s provision for their church building. Many of the adults were already there for church so they heard me too.

I had Theogene read this verse to them: 

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Then I asked the children, “How many of you will pray for God to provide for your church to be fixed?”

All of the children and adults raised their hands. Some raised both hands. 😀

Guess what? God did just as He promised he would do. He provided for the church to be fixed!

More and more I’m coming to the conclusion that God is waiting to answer the prayers of our church people. He wants them to see that their provision comes from Him. It might come through us, but we are merely a vessel, a conduit of His blessings. We can’t do anything without Him, but as we abide in Him, He uses us. 

All I know, is that we’d been asking for God to provide for this need for months. He waited until our church folks saw the need for what it was and asked Him for it. Then he provided for them.

James contacted the engineer so he could get started. They’ve been working on the building for a couple weeks now. Last Sunday we stopped by the church for pictures on our way home from Sangano. They’d taken down the walls that were broken, and torn up the cement floor so it could be replaced. Loads of construction materials had been brought to the church and dropped off.

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They’d hoped to have the roof on by this week, but didn’t quite get that far. The church folks had to sit out in the sun for one more Sunday. 

The walls are all built and the trusses have been delivered. They have the openings ready for the metal doors and windows.

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It should be finished by the beginning of December. No one minded sitting in the sun today. They are excited and proud of how good it looks. The engineer has hired people from the church to help with the work. Their hands are helping build their church. 

The best part is, they know that God answered when they asked.

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Friday Funny – Garlic Shampoo

When I wash my hair, I like to come away smelling like freshly minced garlic, don’t you?

Guaranteed to keep the vampires away – or your money back!

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(Actual shampoo/conditioner for sale at a local grocery store.)

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Novel Planning – Part 7 – Draft Zero

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The final novel planning method we’re going to look at is called Draft Zero or Zero Draft. This is the draft that comes before your first draft. (Here is another downloadable document that tells about it.) It’s one step beyond “pantsing” your first draft. (Pantsing means writing your novel with little to no planning whatsoever. You start with an idea for a novel and then let the story flow from there.)

Draft Zero

  • Sit down with a blank page and write quickly everything that comes to mind. 
  • Write your main story idea in a sentence or two.
  • Jot down every thought you have about your story.
  • Note specific plot points you want to cover.
  • You can leave large sections of plot blank or use terms like “stuff happened” and come back to these later, even while you are writing your first draft.
  • Don’t get bogged down with details, unless you need to get those details written out so you can progress to another part of the story.
  • Story elements don’t have to be written in order, as long as you know where they belong in your first draft. You can rearrange them later.

Hopefully one of the novel planning methods we’ve covered will help you plan and write your novel! Have fun with it. Novel writing is work, but it is also enjoyable!

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How’s Africa? – Load Shedding

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You’re sitting in your living room on a Friday night watching a movie as a family. The power blinks. You realize town power has gone off and your house is now running on the back-up battery power. You look at the clock. It’s 7 PM. You know it’s probably load shedding and the power will be off all night.

What is load shedding? you might ask.

Load shedding = turning off power to part of the grid, or load, so the rest of the grid has has full power (instead of a brown out – dim lights, not enough power to run appliances, etc.). In other words, part of the power load has been shed. So load shedding.

Load shedding is a way of life in many parts of the world. With only about 30% of the population of Uganda connected to power in the first place, electricity is often not seen as a necessity of life.

Certain times of the year, we plan to have the power off at least 3 days a week. It’s not so much of a hassle during daylight hours. We have solar power to run our house. But at night it’s more of a challenge.

We hadn’t been here long when we invested in a battery back-up system – or batteries and an inverter strong enough to power most things in our house. We can run lights, some fans, and the fridge, and even do laundry during the day because we use a power efficient washer. The batteries won’t run our water heater or dryer. We can run the freezer on them during daylight hours when the sun is shining but we have to turn it off at night if the power is off. As long as you keep the freezer shut, everything stays frozen and it’s not a big deal.

We keep flashlights handy for those times when things don’t work like they should. Thankfully, those times are rare. 

One example of this happened when we’d only been here a couple years. The power company was load shedding three days a week for 18-24 hours at a time, but they started leaving it off longer. We didn’t even have enough time with the power on to fully charge our batteries for when it would go off again.

Another example is when we’ve had a cloudy day, so there was no solar power coming in. If the power is off that night, it’s really off for us. 

Next time you flip on a light or open your freezer or throw a load of laundry in the dryer, pray for missionaries in places without reliable power that God will give them grace to handle this aspect of culture stress.

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