This post was originally more awesome when I planned it in my head...

I thought I had more pictures on my camera, but apparently it was a fiction of my poor teacher brain. So, more pictures to follow at some other time!

What I have is, I built a castle!

I probably spent about 3-4 hours in total working on this, but I found it oddly rewarding. The precision of the cutting, folding, and gluing was an interesting challenge, and I was fascinated by the shapes that the flat cardstock came together to make.

This will be a part of the decorations for our Medieval birthday party on Wednesday of this week. Half my house will end up there actually as I apparently like that sort of thing...

I've been cross stitching a lot lately as well as working on some gifty things for Christmas gifts. Pictures to follow soon...

An interesting week...

This will be brief--maybe after the weekend I'll do a 'real' post with pictures and everything, but I felt that since I've made Friday my update day, that I aught to follow through with that. This week has been sort of tough--I had my identity stolen on Tuesday, and it's been a bit of a process getting everything ironed out. Thankfully God has been involved in my details--there are people coming out before end of term who can bring me my new card, the bank identified the fraud right away, and there was cell service so I could call and get things worked out. I have to say, while it's a little demoralizing to say the least to have your identity stolen, I did think how wonderful it is that no one can steal my real identity--who I am and my status as God's child. Credit cards can be changed, but nothing can change God's love for me or who I am in Him.

Oddments

I really missed my cat while I was away. Yes, I had my family's three cats to enjoy and brave little Claudia, but I missed my own crazy kitty.

I know it's a really silly little thing, but I LOVE this new color of nail polish that I brought back with me. And yes,I have a dirty missionary foot!

Last week for handwork we dyed some yarn with Kool-aid; in case you're wondering, 2 packets will do a pretty good job on 100g of fiber, but I think that 3 would be better for pink.

A new garden was put in just over the ditch that divides my yard from the soccer field, and because things are bone dry around here it needs to be watered every other day at least. I came home last night to find this:

I ended up with three buckets of water to use in my own garden and without a lake on my porch. Waste not, want not!

Various small projects

I may have committed some more plastic canvass.

Because I saw something similar when I was in Ohio, I decided that I wanted to try making these with my handwork group. We're not doing this big one--it's way to complex for my kids, but I'm working on scaling it down.

I went on a teacher cross stitch kick last week--notice that I didn't feel like doing that big chunk of black more than once!

I've also been playing with model making. There is a castle under construction right now, but last night I finished this model of the Globe that has been kicking around my house for the last year or so. *cough cough*

Beth brought me back some fun goodies--this totally made my day! NERD!

I also had to laugh at these napkins-

When I got back, I had a lot of fun arranging my new magnets on my not-so-boring-anymore fridge.

I also made a whole lot of banana bread the day the kids came back, and after giving a few loaves away I stashed the rest in the freezer. Freezers are a missionary's friend...

Finally, my very own "I'm in ur box" moment. Silly cat!

Of Towers and Transit

I wanted to share a few pictures from my trip over before term starts. Not that I took that many--I was rather busy being in transit after all!

First of all, a picture of my beloved Delta Flyer which pretty much saved my summer.

In London I ended up hanging out in the National Portrait Gallery and Trafalgar Square because the bank helpfully froze my card AGAIN, but I did get to see this interesting performer. I would love to know how he was hovering!

I enjoyed seeing this statue of Trajan beside a remnant of the old London wall on my way to the Tower. I had so much fun teaching Rome this spring!

I had to laugh when I got to the Tower of London because when my dad was there many years ago he unwittingly took a picture of a dog answering the call of nature. No dogs that day, but it was a much needed smile! The Beefeater tour is totally worth it by the way.

When I made it to Solwezi after almost missing my plane to Lusaka, I had to smile when I saw this on the road as we drove up to Sakeji-

I have been working on getting my house and classroom put into order these last few days. I have some little mendy/alteration projects to do before I get too busy, and yesterday I made some bread and sun tea. I also may have committed some more plastic canvas...