Thursday morning brought yet another delay to the flying men in Palawan in the form of an emergency flight to one of our locations. We were so thankful to be able to do the flight. By the time that flight was done the wind was picking up, so it wasn't suitable for training. They were able to fly an hour this morning and may try again late in the afternoon if the wind dies down again. Thankfully, the flying they have done has gone well! Plus, the guys have discussed a lot of good things.

We did, indeed, call Kevin's badminton trainer in Canada at 11 p.m. the other night. We had a very profitable conversation and got a ton of great information from him. We have hit a bit of a plateau with Kevin's recent injuries, so have been asking God what to do and if we needed input from someone else. God cares. It really is incredible, isn't it?! Even the small things in our lives are of interest to the God of the Universe, simply because He loves us!

The boys have begun work on a biking movie this week. They've been doing tricks and trying to have impressive-looking crashes (the crashing seems to be Kaleb's speciality and pet interest). We've also been studying hard. It continues to amaze me how changes, like Garry being gone this week, affect the boys and their ability to learn academic things. Our minds are finite and when we spend them processing one thing there is less capacity left for other things.

I walked into the dining room with my eyes only half open this morning, and there, outside my window, was our car backing out of our driveway! This kind of stuff always happens when Garry's gone, I thought. I hadn't quite figured out what to do about it when the car pulled into the neighbors yard. Wow, it wasn't our car after all, but the neighbor has an identical vehicle... silly me! Thankfully I did finally get myself totally awake!

Yesterday Garry left for Palawan. His flight out of the city here was scheduled for 2:20 p.m. but it was slightly delayed. The 90-minute flight took nearly 2 hours, but he arrived in Manila in time to catch his flight to Palawan. Unfortunately when the plane got to Palawan the winds were too strong to land, so they returned to Manila, arriving just before 9 p.m. We were all very thankful for our guesthome in Manila that had room for him to spend the night-- the airline was offering passengers room to sleep in the lobby. Garry has his flight helmet with him and the airline said it is a weapon, so when he arrived at the guesthome at 11 p.m. he repacked his bag before he headed off to bed.

This morning I was still fast asleep when Garry left for the airport at 5 a.m. to catch his 7:00 flight to Palawan. Thankfully, this time he actually got there! It was very windy today, so the guys didn't actually get to fly... we're praying they can fly tomorrow!

The boys and I did school today then I had a friend over for coffee. Some badminton finished off the day.... except a phone call to Kevin's badminton trainer at 11 p.m.

I can't remember last time we had a really boring week... but a boring blog post, that's another story! And this might be another one because nothing very noteworthy has actually happened in the past few days. Or nothing that is final enough to share, anyway.

Garry has been busy emptying his inbox and filling his notebook for Palawan. I think he's actually basically ready to go, and he doesn't leave until Tuesday (yes, he was planning to leave Sunday, but that was a few options ago.

Kevin and Kaleb are both doing great at school and have their work for this week done. Yeah for a week well-done! Kevin continues to struggle with wrist injuries and we are trying to find someone who can help us know what to do. Kaleb has built bottle rockets that go further than is safe in the yard, so he's at a bit of a standstill at the moment. He wants to find some better ideas, but the reality is that then he has to take his rockets elsewhere to shoot them off. Here he is doing a puppet show...

For my part, I'm just trying to keep up with the guys and keep food on the table. Keeping food on the table keeps getting harder since Kaleb is growing an extra hollow leg these days also. I've been trying some new recipes, which I think is more fun for me than for Garry.

Saturday ended up being a great day! Everybody had fun and accomplished what they wanted to get done. That's nice, isn't it? Somewhat rare, but nice. We like to feel useful and we enjoy doing things that we are relatively good at. Often God allows us to do those things: sometimes He has other plans.

And sometimes we just can't see His plan. There is a young woman who comes to my door selling empanadas-- vegetables and chicken wrapped in a crispy flour wrapper. They're pretty good at 20 cents each: more than that, this woman strikes me as someone who could use some help and is making an honest effort to do something productive. So I buy empanadas several times a week. I give her small gifts-- an apple, a juice pack, or some cookies. Where is it going? I don't have a clue, particularly since her English is only slightly better than my Cebuano. Somehow, though, I think it's going somewhere. It's a small calling and it makes me smile and it makes her smile.

We took family photos not too long ago, and Brian got a good one of each of the boys. For your enjoyment:).

Yesterday we started the second semester of school, complete with new emphasis and a new schedule. The boys both have lots to accomplish over the next months and they are starting with a lot of enthusiasm.

Garry is preparing for his trip to Palawan. He's figuring out what is the best way to check out Josh on the airstrips there and coordinating with our Palawan team. It's exciting to get another family online.

Garry got home on Thursday! I picked him up at the airport on Thursday morning and we spent a couple of hours running around the city together before heading home. It was good to hear what God did in the meetings in Manila-- there were so many things on the table for discussion in regards to our flight program, and God gave unity on those things.

Someone once told me that if we don't pray about things we don't see the way God works. I think it's often true. When we bring our requests to the Father, we see when He answers. At other times other people are praying, but we're not: in those instances God's answers feel more like "how it worked out". Another blessing of prayer-- seeing the reality of God's work!

Kevin is off riding motorbikes this morning, Garry is doing some flying, and Kaleb went to the hangar to fly with Garry and try his new bottle rockets out there (there's more space for them to fly without getting caught in trees.

The boys have been riding bicycles quite a bit lately. Kevin grew out of his frame and just got a bigger one, which has made riding more fun for him. He also got biking shoes with clips. And riding more means more washing the bikes and working on them. Overall, it's been making them busy!

Last night Brian and Bailey invited us over for pizza and a movie. What fun to get together with friends and just relax and enjoy ourselves!

This is the day of Kaleb's airplanes, as requested by Patrick. These are just a few of the current models. The balsa wood ones Kaleb designed himself. The white one is from a kit. Kaleb really wanted to post photos of these flying (which they all do well), but we couldn't capture that, so....

Garry is in Manila for some meetings this week. There are quite a few important things up for discussion this week, and it has been amazing how God is giving insight and ideas!

It sounds like Garry is also having fun, apart from having to sit still so long! I'm quite jealous that he gets to catch up with many of our friends. And this evening he had dinner with our two helicopter pilot couples... fun!

The boys and I are holding down the fort at home and doing school. Today we went out for lunch so I wouldn't have to cook... and because when Garry gets home he isn't going to want to see the inside of a restaurant for a long while! We also played badminton today. Kaleb has been using his time launching and improving bottle rockets. It's quite incredible how high they can go!

This year I got quite a bit of new praise and worship music for Christmas. I'm enjoying listening to new music and learning new songs. It is amazing how music affects me and what I think-- it has such a powerful way of turning my mind and heart back God, the Creator and Sustainer of life.

I thought today I'd post a couple more pictures from our anniversary dinner... primarily because they finally got off my camera and on to my computer! Plus, I thought you might like to see them...

We are back to school this week and into normal routine. It actually feels quite good! The boys have been doing a great job of getting their school finished every day. Kevin is also back in his training schedule. And Kaleb is back making airplanes... I wanted to post some photos of them, but he has dismantled several to improve them, so there aren't any whole airplanes for a picture!

Garry has spent the majority of his week so far in the office and on the phone. He leaves Sunday for some meetings in Manila so he's been preparing for that as well as for Josh's checkout in Palawan. One morning he got up early to do some flying while the winds were calm.

Bailey and the kids got back on Tuesday after three weeks away. It was so good to see them! We are so blessed to have a team that we enjoy being with, people we love and appreciate. People we like to work with.

It's been raining nearly every day and the pile of wet laundry has been growing. Even though it's been hanging on the line under the roof most of the time, there are clothes that have been hanging for 3 days and are still damp! Today the sun came out and we were able to get most of it dry-- what a great feeling. Of course, clothes that take that long to dry have a unique odor.

Lately I've been reading some interesting books. One was a book by G.K. Chesterton that reminded me once more of the wonder and beauty all around us. It's easy to get caught up in daily routines and lose the wonder of God and the world He's created for us to enjoy. Chesterton remarked that while pain may be a problem for us to understand, the harder thing to understand should be why an infinite God would bless us with such an amazing, beautiful world in which to live, a world filled with variety in a million ways.