Heavy Heart for Haiti

Over the past day and a half, like so many others out there I am sure, I have had little on my mind other than Haiti and the devastation that has occured there.  The earthquake on Tuesday claimed the lives of thousands and thousands, and robbed so many more of what little they owned.  Haiti is one of the poorest nations in the western hemisphere, and they lack the political stability and economic infrastructure required to provide prompt relief of the situation.  The Haitian people already have so little, and now many have had those meagre possessions brought to nothing.  This quake not only shook the country of Haiti but also obliterated its capital city, Port-au-Prince, reducing to rubble the Presidential Palace, Parliament, the headquarters of the United Nations as well as several aid centers from Doctors Without Borders.  How can such a country begin to recover from such a blow?  There is so much to be done.
We are extremely thankful to hear of the safety of those directly affiliated with CDIA (Coram Deo International Aid) working in Haiti at the Adoration Christian School.  Although shaken, and having experienced what is no doubt the most terrifying ordeal of their lives, the Lodders, Kim, John and Jim managed to escape without harm.  Besides this, despite a basketball tournament going on at the Adoration School, the school building was destroyed by the quake - and no one was inside.  Through the dust and rubble, we can see the hand of our Almighty God at work in the lives of His children.  In His providential timing, the shaky carport over the yard at the school was removed just two weeks before the quake, perhaps preventing even more serious events from taking place there.
Now that the dust is beginning to settle, though, we can be sure that the situation in Haiti has only just begun.  Heads have been counted, and we are so thankful for the lives that have been spared - however the bodies are piling up and there are so many more lives in jeopardy, hidden under rubble and badly injured.  One of the Adoration teachers is confirmed to be dead, and many more people connected to the school are unaccounted for as of this time.  It is a country filled with despair and great need, and many around the world share their sorrow and grief.  What can we do?  We sit here with heavy hearts, feeling helpless in the face of such devastation, but we are armed with the mighty weapon of PRAYER and we may NOT underestimate it.  Our God is strong, and mighty to save, and He will hear the requests we lay before His throne.  Please pray that He will continue to protect His workers in the field, that they might be a beacon of His light to those in such dire need of it.  Pray especially for the safety of Randy Lodder as he remains in Haiti at the school to protect what assets are left and to gather information about the situation of the teachers and other people involved with the school.  Pray that He will guide the rescue workers in their tasks, giving them strength and courage to do what they need to.  Pray that He will comfort the many who have lost loved ones, and that He will provide relief to those in all types of pain.  Pray that He will work mightily in the government of Haiti, providing as much peace and stability as possible in a time such as this.  Finally, please pray that His Word may go out with renewed force into this impoverished nation through the work of relief workers in His army, and that even through such devastation that many may be turned to the comfort and peace found in Him. 

Photos from the Lodders' blog:  http://randyandkarenlodder.blogspot.com

The basketball court a few weeks ago

Photo from under the recently removed carport

Photos from the CDIA website:  www.cdiacanada.com

[Please visit this site for updates from the team in Haiti]

Destruction at the Adoration School

Maybe I'll Post Once A Month....

All right, all right.  I've searched through the photo archives and I've selected a few to upload... I guess I need to sit down now and write something about the last few weeks!  It's been a busy few weeks (it would kind of be a shock if it wasn't busy I suppose!  I say that every time!).  The Christmas vacation was a blur of get-togethers and Christmas celebrations, and it was good to see family again.

Exciting news over the holidays:  dum de dummmmmmmmm Lauren and Tom got ENGAGED!  Wahoo!  Congratulations you two, and we wish you all the best as you plan your day!  Unfortunately I seem to have a lack of good pictures of the two of you on my computer, so I will have to use this one...

[EDIT:  As I look back over this post for mistakes to fix, I can't help but notice the weird similarity between this picture of Tom and Lauren and the one of Mike and I on the sidebar.... nah, we can't be sisters can we?]

Back to our regular programming...

The kids did fairly well being way out of routine, and generally slept all right despite being in several different places and in several different beds.  They even let us sleep in a few times!  It was a bit of an adjustment coming back home again, especially when Mike went back to school.  Peter is pretty fond of his Daddy and sometimes, Mommy is just NOT good enough.  This, as you can imagine, is not fun for anybody.  He has also become extremely opposed to the nursery over the last month or so... we took him into church with us once in Strathroy to see how that would go.  He made it until just before the sermon started, without being too much of a disturbance.  Besides a few little eruptions of "Praise the Lord!" and "Amen!", he was pretty quiet.  Since then, as bad as it may sound, he hasn't been in church.  Either he or Aaron has been sick since then, so we haven't had to deal with the issue again yet as Mike and I have been taking turns staying home with them.  Aaron has had a cough since just before the holidays started, and it is finally starting to break up a bit.  For a while, he would hardly take a bottle and seemed to throw up everything he ate if he gagged just a tiny bit or if he had a coughing fit.  Not fun!  Then last Monday he woke up with a puffy, boogery eye and when it didn't clear up, I took him in to the doctor.  Drops for Pink Eye seem to have cleared that up, but the poor little guy also got an ear infection.  That seems to be getting better with medication now as well, and I hope everything will go back to normal again soon - normal involving not only a cheerful little 9 month old, but also sleeping through the night. 

Ahhh, I miss that... Aaron's been waking up at 5, 5:30, it was 4:30 this morning, and he's just WIDE awake and not too keen on going back to bed like his Mom is... I might have an easier time with it if I wasn't already up with him four or five times during the night.  Enough complaining!

I decided today that Aaron is no longer in the "not crawling" phase, but has graduated to the "very-beginning-first-stages-of-crawling" phase.  He can haltingly move forward, moving one hand and knee at a time and although it is not too fluid yet and he doesn't get very far, I still think it qualifies as crawling.  Way to go Aaron!  He is getting louder as well, mixing in some shrieks here and there with his "Ba ba ba's" and "Ma ma ma's".  He LOVES his exersaucer, and rocks it so hard that I am afraid he is going to flip it over one of these days.  Perhaps it is nearing the time to put it away - all the better anyways since we are preparing our house for putting on the market.  Yes, for moving!  Although we love our house, we love our yard, and we love our location, a two bedroom house is just not going to last us forever and ever, and we would really love some more room for visitors and for the kids to run around.  Hopefully the whole selling process will go very quickly, as I have to admit I am (more than) a little nervous about keeping the house in tip-top shape for home-viewings.  It's a hard thing to do with two little kids to think about!  We look forward to what the next few months have to bring for us.  Anyways.  On to what you have all been waiting for.  Pictures!

A table shot of the Dekker family Christmas dinner.

That's a lot of people at one looooong table!

Opa and Oma Vander Deen with their 11 great-grandchildren

Dad VD with his two youngest grandchildren

Dad VD and his piggies... I like this picture!

Auntie Lauren being goofy with Peter

Peter Potter that is! Hahaha

Cutie pie...looking a little sick here with his pink eye

But he still loves to cuddle! I'm sure he was smiling just

before this photo was taken :)

Peter just loves to play in the snow... not.  He screams

the whole time he's out there, and if he touches the snow, it's

the end of the world.  Silly kid...

  This is part of his new game:  Garbage Truck.  He brings his little

stool over to the edge of the stove, steps up on it and hangs onto

the rail on the stove door.  Then he gets off and on, being very

careful of the wheels, wherever they may be, calling it his "garbage truck".
Where do kids come up with these ideas anyways?  I think it's hilarious. 

No Worries....

Yes:  Still alive and well
Yes:  Feeling guilty for not posting
No: Ideas on what to post
No: Time to think about it right now

Better Get an Update in Before Christmas!

Today, I made 128 chocolate peanut-butter balls. 127 of them made it into the freezer - not bad! It's the first day of the lifting of my self-imposed NO BAKING rule, in order to prepare for the many Christmas get-togethers over the holidays for which I need to bring baked goods along, among other things. I guess it wasn't actually baking that I did today since the oven wasn't on, but we'll disregard that since a heat source was indeed used. Besides, the caloric content of a chocolate peanut-butter ball most likely falls into the range of "too high but it tastes so good" and therefore by default, such an item is a baked good. Hopefully 127 chocolate peanut-butter balls will make their way into someone else's digestive system somewhere along the way but I have my doubts about that. Next on the list: cookies, speculaas, and perhaps if I feel particularly laden with spare time and enthusiasm, butter tarts. Oh, and maybe also some homemade arrowroot cookies since Aaron will probably appreciate some sort of snack.
Hmmm, thinking back on last week, I suppose you could accuse me of breaking the NO BAKING rule earlier already when I made a gingerbread house "with" Peter last Friday (actually a graham-cracker house). Caloric content most definitely falls into the range of "too high but it tastes so good" but since a heat source wasn't used, and since the house probably won't be entirely eaten anyways (graham crackers don't taste too good after a while out in the open), I think I will forgive myself for breaking the rules.

My graham-cracker house, which may or

may not be structurally unsound

That being said, perhaps an update on the household would be in order since it's been a while since I've posted. What's new.... Mike has one week left of school, although since today is basically done and Friday is a half-day, it's actually only 3.5 days left for him. Yay! He's been busy at school with various projects, and enjoyed taking his class to the ROM on a field trip last week. We went earlier with some friends of ours to check out the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit which is there for a limited time. Quite something to see these 2000 year-old writings and artifacts in person, coming from such an important time in history. We enjoyed our trip and I would recommend going to see the scrolls if you have the opportunity, although the exhibit closes January 3 2010 so you'd better hurry up.

Out in front of the ROM - quite the interesting addition they put onApparently I'm really bad at taking pictures in low-light
situations, so I thought I'd reduce the pictures way down

so they didn't look so bad for ya. The dinosaurs, always a favourite. RUN!

Both the boys are doing very well. I know I probably keep saying this, but Peter is learning more and more all the time. I guess that's just the nature of a child, they have so much to learn especially in their first years that it is hard not to comment on their exponential learning curves. Anyways, he knows every letter of the alphabet and most of their sounds, and generally enjoys being quizzed and playing games about letters. I took the boys grocery shopping the other day, and was listening to Peter count to 20 by himself in the cart. Wow! Well, he might have skipped 13 and said 18 a few times, but I am still very impressed. He's learning his colours (favourite one is currently yellow) and is really starting to LOVE singing, which is a ton of fun! He asks for songs often, however I must sing the one HE wants to sing or else he won't participate. His imagination is really taking off and if the mood hits him, he can sit by himself and play for a long time with his trucks, blocks, trains, whatever. He's got this thing going right now where he thinks he's a "digger". He'll sit at the table, eating with one hand and having the other arm parked like a digger on his tray, or he'll be moving it around all digger-like, dumping imaginary "dirt" on the ground. Where do they come up with these things anyways? When given a box of dinky cars, he'll leave behind all the cars and pick out all the garbage trucks, dump trucks, diggers, fire trucks, transports, etc. I just have to laugh because it's such a boy thing to do. I hope we have girls some day so that we can see how much of a difference there is between the genders.

Aaron is closing in on the 8 month mark and continues to be a cheerful, content little guy. His smiles melt your heart and when he and Peter laugh at each other it's hard not to laugh yourself! He's a solid little guy, probably around 25 lbs now and he feels like a chunk of concrete when you pick him up. He doesn't look particularly chubby but I think his bones must be filled with lead or something. He watches Peter run around, and he is eager to gain his own mobility. He sits on his hands and knees and rocks all the time (even in the middle of the night) and I'm wondering when he'll figure out the key to moving forward instead of pushing himself backwards all the time. Until then, he'll get himself stuck under chairs or other furniture... the other day he ended up way under Peter's bed. My guess is that he'll be crawling before the new year, but as I recall with Peter, the transition to crawling can take longer than you think. I guess there's a lot of new muscles to be built up and coordination to figure out before then. I hope for his sake it doesn't take long, since he'll really enjoy his newfound freedom when it arrives!
Aaron loves to eat, although he's still not a pro at chunky things. This is kind of frustrating, since the immersion blender I have seems to be giving up, and the smoothie-blender we got for our wedding doesn't seem to do the trick getting rid of lumps in our suppers. I've been doing some research on a new blender, but without spending hundreds of dollars, it seems hard to find one that will do what I need it to do, and last longer than a year or two. I like the all-metal drive systems of the Oster blenders but it seems that half the reviews are very positive, and the other half are VERY negative. I'm thinking the Oster Beehive blender might be the one, even though one review claimed it was so noisy that it's "like having a helicopter and a vacuum cleaner running at the same time in your face". I think I laughed out loud at that one. The noise might scare the kids a little, and maybe even the neighbours but I guess most blenders aren't really quiet anyways.
Well, my both-kids-asleep-at-the-same-time time is running out, so I should load up some pictures for a minute while I still have a chance. Until next time, take care!

Someone's being a stinker at the park...Little bitta sunflareGotta love those runny noses...Brothers and best buds... Aaron got stuck under the
chair so Peter decided to join himDuring Peter's nap the other day, Aaron and I had a photo shoot.
Pictures like these make me REALLY want a camera with a
few more pixels!! Not that I'm a pro photographer or anything,
but a clearer picture would be really nice sometimes. Mr. Handsome admiring himself in the mirrorPeter LOVES my swiffer and will gladly "help"
me clean the house with it

BumpIts?? Seriously??

Ok. Would somebody PLEASE tell this company that they need to change the name of this product? Would YOU want to buy a Bumpit? I certainly wouldn't want to, much less put it in my hair and go out in public. Change the name to something a little more... palatable, perhaps, and they might discover an increase in sales.

Nothing much to say...

Uncle Tom helping Peter with his new birthday present
After eating almost all of the very melted and odd-looking cake
that I posted about earlier, there was one piece left in the kitchen...
we noticed it seemed to be looking at us with its little cake-face,
perhaps saying, "please don't eat me!"Look familiar? Peter's favourite book at Aaron's age is now
becoming Aaron's favourite book too...

Lauren, this is for you...

Dear Lauren,
I remember many a year ago, you attempted something in the kitchen, the result of which scarred forever your conception of your ability to bake a cake. On that day, you were convinced you had ruined Mom and Dad's anniversary and I believe you barricaded yourself in your room crying after we got home. The cake you baked while everyone else was out of the house had fallen apart, and what parts hadn't fallen apart had been mauled by the icing job - the crunchy icing job. We were all impressed by your attempt and we ate the cake anyways - after your sobs had been duly comforted.
This picture is for you, that you may publicly know that other people fail at making cakes sometimes too. I can't just post a picture of the nice one! I'll have you know that last year I also made two cakes for Peter's birthday: the first one was great, and the second one melted into an unrecognizable mess. This year again, the first one was great, and the second one melted into an even more unrecognizable mess. I hope you enjoy eating this cake with us this evening when you visit! And I'll have you know, my icing is crunchy too :D

Last year's cake failureThe current year's cake failureDespite the ugly cake, Peter enjoys playing with his presentsPeter's new tractor-loader hard at work in the...cereal?All I can say is HAHA!!

Happy Birthday Peter!

Has it already been two years? Today we celebrate Peter's 2nd birthday, and I have no idea where the time went. Peter has grown so much in the past year, learning new things all the time and changing each day more and more into a little boy. You are such a blessing to us, Peter, and we love you very much! May you have a happy day and a year ahead full of blessing and laughter.

Opening his presents this morning

Product Analysis

A few weeks ago I came across a coupon for a free box of 6 pieces of chocolate-dipped fruit from Edible Arrangements. I don't mind free things at all, and I found the time to drop in there this past weekend to pick up my free fruit. The small print on the coupon said it was worth $14.99 and I was interested to see how much you actually got for 15 bucks. Here goes my product analysis:
As you can see, it comes all wrapped up in a lovely little box. I didn't take a picture of the bag, but it comes in a gift bag as well, with some curly coloured ribbon on it. The box is sturdy quality, with an attractive pattern and a ribbon to keep it closed. I would re-use the box more readily if it didn't have the company name and logo printed on it. Here is our first glimpse of the product. There are 6 chocolate-dipped strawberries, each in their own little waxy paper wrapper. Chocolate was of medium quality, and fairly thick. This made it somewhat awkward to eat the strawberry, for the first bite containing chocolate causes chocolate fragments to fall off the berry or melt on the outside of your mouth. The berry tasted fairly good and quite strawberry-ish, but definitely not field-fresh or sun-sweet. $14.99 value divided by 6 strawberries = $2.50 per strawberry. Keep an eye on the flyers and you can buy a pint of strawberries for that price, and who doesn' t have a few chocolate chips sitting around in the cupboard waiting to be melted onto a strawberry. $2.50 for a single strawberry is ludicrous. Here we have a strawberry that doesn't even look ripe. Hard to tell if this is a normal occurance for this product or if they give the un-ripe fruit to the people who come in with the free coupons. Disappointing anyways, although I realize that the un-ripe fruit has to go somewhere or else it is wasted. However, this strawberry would have cost $2.50 if I hadn't had a coupon that made it free, and I would have been more upset if I had paid full price for a sub-standard berry.

November November November November

Hi Mom!Look who's making pancakes for breakfast!
Peter likes to "help" out in the kitchenLook who got wheels! I got a great deal off Kijiji on these two cozy
coupe cars, which Peter has been living in since they arrived. What
a great early birthday present! Aaron didn't seem to mind
his new matching roadster either :)Peter woke up on this particular morning with a high fever, and
hence doesn't look 100% in these pictures, but he was having a pretty
good time despite feeling sickAaron in his cozy red hatWe enjoyed sitting out in the yard on a warm November Sunday
afternoon - have to take advantage of those warm days when you still can!Mmmmm cookies...Can't be sure, but I think he likes themSometimes weird things go on in our home
Looks like someone's having a birthday! It is Peter's 2nd birthday
tomorrow, and this was Cake #1 for the Strathroy birthday party
for Peter and Matthew, his cousin who turned 1 last week.