Wrestling

We scored free tickets to a local wrestling event last weekend. (By we, I mean James went and I had an evening in with the girls). They had singing and other performances between each round. Wrestling is an important tradition in the local culture. There are no weight classes and no rules other than the first guy to touch the ground loses. The streamers around their neck represent past wins. (more streamers, bigger champion). They also perform a bit of a dance when they take the stage meant to intimidate their opponent.

baking bread

One of my goals for the year has been to make/bake some kind of food treat for James each week. That said, I've been doing WAY more baking than I have previously. I stumbled across the following recipe in my Joy of Cooking Cookbook. It's really easy to increase the nutritive value of bread products by making this simple addition. The Chinese diet consists of little whole grains and for us in our city it's hard to find any kind of whole grain products. We have finally found whole grain flour, but the selection of ready-made products are all white starches with loads of sugar. Anyway, I've enjoyed using this addition to the things we make at home:

Cornell Triple Rich Flour Formula 

 1 tablespoon soy flour 

1 tablespoon dry milk powder 

1 teaspoon wheat germ (I don't have this, so I've been using ground flax) 

 Put this mixture in the bottom of a one-cup measure and fill whatever flour you're using to fill the cup. Fill each cup to prepare the amount of flour called for in any recipe you're using. (anything...breads, muffins, cookies, etc) Enjoy!

And just don't comment about the delicious things you make that I can't eat here!

First Field Trip

A local friend and I have organized a series of field trips for both Chinese and foreign moms and kids. Our first one was April 8th. We went to a "wetlands" park south of our city. We had 46 participants. Our next trip is April 26th to a berry/vegetable picking field. Here's a photo recap in Asian style.

I love Catherine and her friend in the background.

a good year...

Well, I'll cut right to the chase: God's trike was stolen this week. I say "God's" because we loved our trike from the very beginning. We felt it was God's answer to prayer to one of the biggest difficulties of our life here: transportation. We know it's common for bikes and electric bikes to get stolen, so shortly after our purchase of the trike we gave it God. We knew it was something that we would hold too tightly too and would be devastated if it were lost, unless it wasn't ours to lose. We trusted Him with its protection and told Him it was His to do with as He pleased. This week we got the opportunity to practice that release of our trike and further our trust in Him. We are sad, but not as we would have been if we hadn't released it a year ago. This post is dedicated to the year we had with God's trike.

Charging in our house before we figured out to rig the charging cord through the peephole and leave the trike outside.

Our first trip as a family of four on the trike.

Me and the girls last summer

James and I on a date night at the Shang-ri-la.

It fit perfectly in our elevator.

The trike that started it all: not ours but an old man on our street who raved to me about all its good features. He was quite convincing.

James and I on our way to our anniversary excursion. The first overnight away from our girls.

Our trike didn't just transport us, it was great for hauling anything we needed to haul.