A trip through the rain in a Key Lime Pie

Pieter has taken a month of driving classes to get a Taiwanese driving license. Today we drove our "Key Lime Pie" Van to Pieter's  school through the heavy rain. Why did we go to his school? We wanted to get his diploma. But the teacher was not there, and we couldn't get it until we got his signature. So then we went to Costco to get some stuff.

Well , it was good for our first trip in the "Key Lime Pie".

Pieter終於拿到台灣駕照. 我們決定今天全家到Pieter學校辦畢業手續。冒著颱風天提了論文跟四盒親手做的謝禮到學校。但是老師沒來，所以手續沒辦成。只能下次再來，希望下次就可以畢業了。接著我們又到家附近的Costco 買了點東西，有車真是方便，我們再也不用坐公車去Costco買東西了。今天真是很有趣。(我們的綠色馬仕達七人座有個名字"Green Pie"

Pieter's Taiwan driver's license

Pieter made Tofu Brownies for his teachers 

The kids love to sit in the car and listen to "Monkey" a Chinese story 

小孩喜歡在車上聽西遊記

Pieter drove his own car in Taiwan (2013)

I hope I can get my license soon!!

Princess Amira save gorilla Darius

Today I had a meeting at church and I could not go home early with Pieter and the kids.

When I got home, Pieter told me that they had just had an adventure. In my mind, I thought “ok!?”. Then Pieter continued his story.

He said “Darius locked himself in the kitchen for 20 minutes.” I immediately rushed to check on him, he was watching a church movie, and his face was covered with marks of tears. I looked at him, he was smiling, then I gave him a kiss and a hug. Because I was paying so much attention on Darius , I did not notice Amira next to me describing what had happened. She was talking and I didn’t even notice her until she said “ I Climbed out the window into the kitchen to open the door for Darius”

“What did you just say?” I asked Amira. She repeated herself.

Oh my! My princess Amira saved the Gorilla!! (BTW, we have titles for all our kids; Amira (Princess), Corban (Monkey), Darius (Gorilla), Benicia (Mermaid). Each has these names according to their personalities and demeanor.  

Pieter told me, he had went into the kitchen to switch the oven on and went to check a recipe for the correct temperature, when Darius shut the door and locked it. It is one of the push locks. Darius doesn’t know how to turn knobs yet, so he couldn’t open the door from the inside. Because the landlord never gave us a key for the door, Pieter could not open it. Amira gave the suggestion to pray. After praying they spent many minutes trying to pick the lock and using credit cards to open up the door but the door would not open. Pieter looked out a side window adjacent to the kitchen window and saw that the kitchen window was open and could be gotten into if the window could be reached, the only problem was that the office window that Pieter was looking out of had bars on it. But opposite our office window was the neighbors balcony. It had bars as well, but they were more gapped. So they headed to the neighbors and asked if they could use their balcony. Because the gap in the bars were so small only Amira could make it through. Pieter helped her through the gap hanging our 6 stories and guided her through the kitchen window where Darius sat crying.

Well Amira was so brave. She just helped , with no fear.

How wonderful she is. Amira knows when we have trouble, we should always think about God and pray. I love my daughter. She is so wonderful.   

第一次家庭旅遊家庭旅遊 our first time family vacation

  今年父親節很不一樣，我們花了兩天時間去了一趟花蓮。這也是我們家庭第一次出遊。我們去了遠雄悅來飯店跟遠雄海洋公園。這兩天我們很開心玩遊樂設施跟吃飯。往返就是利用接駁車。省去交通上很多不便利。也是因為家庭人口眾多，沒有自家車可以使用情況下，我們選擇了定點遊玩。不過沿路在火車上看到宜蘭、花蓮的美景，真是使我們想留在東岸。這次經驗讓我們有了美好回憶。

Amira piano practice Amira鋼琴練習

Chef Pie 我們小烘培店

Pieter 已經做了一些時日的聖餐聚會麵包。慢慢有人知道每個星期日他會親自手做麵包，讓大家可以有新鮮麵包可以使用。Pieter因為常常做，所以麵包穩定也夠好。也許還做得不錯，出現一兩名成員訂購麵包。因此開啟我們的Chef's Pie

Since Pieter decided to make bread for sacrament for church, some members have been interested in our breads. So they have been buying from us. Because we use mostly organic ingredients, people like our breads.
We call our small business "Chef Pie"

 french bread 法國麵包 by Pieter

 sweet rolls by Angela

 wholewheat raisin bread by Pieter 葡萄肉桂麵包

Tofu brownies (vegan)by Pieter豆腐布朗尼 

Sliced wholewheat raisin bread 葡萄肉桂麵包切面

暑假快樂兒童社 -1 Summer camp

今年暑假很特別，剛好遇到教會有幾個姊妹要組成一個兒童社團。這是針對年紀相當小孩來一同組成的暑假社團。社團內容相當豐富。涵蓋了爬山、拼布手提袋製作、纸黏土、手作PIZZA、人體彩繪到童玩製作跟遊戲教學、益智積木跟各種球類運動，甚至配合桃園縣政府的藝文活動。讓小孩享受不同體驗跟探索，這社團兼具徳智體群美。加上教師都是成員裡面媽媽，貢獻一己之長，所需費用實在也很少，比起外面的暑假活動，真是經濟又實惠。小孩也玩得相當開心，學習許多新東西。
This summer is very different from past years. We had some mothers organize a children's summer camp.There are a lot of activities, include climbing, handmade bag making, clay modeling, handmade PIZZA, body painting, sandbag making, block construction, and playing different kinds of sports. We even use the Government's  summer art activities as our lessons. Our kids get different experiences. 
Most of the teachers are from the group, some mothers provide their own skills. Therefore we don't have to spend a lot money, we still can have a  lot fun! Not only children have a good time, the mothers also have a joyful experience. 

AMIRA第一次的鋼琴演出 Amira's first time piano performance

Amira 去年到四月開始學鋼琴，當時的她，大約四歲半。在她開始學鋼琴之前，我已經懷有老四。我每天幫三個小孩排不同課程，Amira也在那時候，開始學習寫字，真正拿起筆來寫字。

我先生則每天陪她上基本樂理。但是音樂僅在紙上跳動，是無法讓Amira可以體會到音樂，因而開始想要幫她找鋼琴老師。就在因緣際會下，我們請朋友先找二手鋼琴，就在當下也敲定我們想要的老師。

Amira 就此展開她的學琴之路，當然也是經過詢問她的意願，她也表示願意學習。從她開始學琴，Amira 就展現出她的天賦。她的確相當有天份，她學習琴的能力也很好。當然練琴並不是很簡單，可是Amira 是個個性堅韌的小孩。當然她有許多樂理功課，有時候是超過她的能力範圍，但是這些都可以隨著年紀增長，理解力提高，她將來就可以懂得問題。

今年夏天，在教會輪到我們家庭演講，我於是邀請Amira可以在我們家庭演講時候，演奏教會詩歌。起先她是非常不願意，經過幾次溝通，她才願意表演。之後我們就開始加強演奏的曲子的練習，她也十分配合的練琴，加上老師的的指導跟在每週日在教堂初級會課堂上，練習演奏，增加她不少自信。後來更是希望她可以自己在睡前跟天父祈禱，希望她的鋼琴演奏能夠順利演出。甚至到當日的演出前，我先生也給她一個聖職祝福。

演出時間到了，Amira十分緊張，一直笑場。經過老師跟我在一旁的鼓勵跟穩定情緒。她順利彈奏四首曲子。而且表演的十分良好，我感動眼淚差點掉下來。我女兒真的很棒，我也看到她可以彈鋼琴，希望她一直都愛彈鋼琴。

那天，她也得到很多讚美，她感到更多的自信，這也是她努力練琴，所帶來的一個最大禮物-建立自信心。這次經驗加強她練琴的渴望。身為母親的我，真的替她開心跟感到無比的驕傲。

Last week , it was our family speech at church. Before this speech, I asked Amira if she would like to give a piano performance. At the beginning she did not want to do it. But I encouraged her a few times, she finally promised to do it. She spent a moth to practice . We also encouraged her to do her personal prayer about piano the performance.  She was wonderful,  she practiced and practiced. 

On that day, Pieter gave me a blessing because I was so nervous. I hoped she could have a good feeling to play the piano in front of people. 

When the time came, she was scared , but she overcame her fear by  the encouragement of her teacher and her family. she did very well. A lot people complimented her. she was very happy. I was so proud of her.