We are in Costa Rica, in case you haven’t heard. We have also created a main site for all of our ministries and blogs. You will find that here:
Dixon Family Ministries http://dixonhomestead.com

I hope to get on a better schedule blogging soon, but I am on FaceBook right now. Yeah, FB isn’t blogging, and I can’t believe I am on there rather than here, because I LOVE to keep memories and journaling all together HERE. Alas, my friends are there. I have family there, and Jocelyn and Rachel keep me company too!

It is also easy to post links there and share really quickly what I believe. I need to just do that here. That will be coming soon!

You will find Dixon Family Ministries on FB here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dixon-Family-Ministries/129843340377805?v=wall&ref=ts

I am working on Newsletter updates, but for now, I am going to just post it here, there, somewhere… lol

We are settling into a new place few hours northwest of Heredia, where we had been for the past couple of months.  It was quite a trip here. So, I will be officially posting CR updates on the DFM site, but I want to share it here too…

We so appreciate the support in love and prayers we have gotten from friends! Believe me, on the trip down here from Heredia, we sure needed them! We loaded up our belongings onto a 20ft. box trailer that Wednesday and slept on the floor on blankets that night (those of us who actually slept that is!). Then, at 4:30am Thursday, we woke up the Littles to go to meet the bus to San Jose by 5am. We were not sure we were going to make it. LucyLillie, Samuel, and Hannah had been feverish and feeling sick for the two previous days, and that night before, Caleb had come down with a fever. We had a last-minute decision to make to either catch the bus or wait to see if they were better the next day. We were meeting the movers the next day and had literally nothing there at the house to eat or sleep on or do. I had made some Goot and rubbed it onto their faces, their chests and feet late that night, hoping it would infuse into their systems and give them enough to keep them going that day.

It was a tough decision, but we decided to go ahead and wake up Caleb and the others and go. Caleb got up and was fine and ready to go. After that, we woke up the others, and we were assigning and grabbing bags and heading out the gate just in time to walk to the bus stop, just a short distance away. I still can’t believe we managed to do it.

We boarded the bus from Heredia to San Jose, and soon the sun was coming up. We were looking forward to finding the bus to Tilaran and getting on our way. One thing I will remember to do on the next trip is to pack plenty of rags, wet cloths, and plastic bags… as we had several get carsick on the trip. Caleb and Lucy started before we got off the bus to San Jose.

Once in San Jose, Matt had the task of remembering where in the world the bus station was downtown. He had made the trip a few days before to sign the rental agreement, but all the shops were open then, and he had gotten off from a different location than we arrived at. On that day, at 6am, the closed shops all looked the same with their gates and large metal garage doors! Needless to say, we walked around for a little while, asking where it was before it all became familiar.

Once we found it, we had plenty of time before the bus was leaving for Tilaran at 7:30am. It didn’t seem quite so long, and we took the time to have get our faces washed and get some water and a snack before we were to get on the bus. Matt bought the tickets: it came out to 3320 colones or about $6-$6.50 per person. We were looking at a 4 hour trip. Considering the lack of sleep most of us had, we were incredibly cheery and awake! When 7:15 rolled around, we took our luggage over to be put under the bus and headed to our seats.

As I sit here and type, the bus trip is all a blur. Imagine traveling from 80mph down to 40mph around curves, on the side of a mountain, through traffic, uphill, downhill, starting and stopping in an instant. And carsickness! Out of the ten of us who made the trip, four of us got carsick. All but one of us slept at least part of the trip, and several of us slept most of the trip. Samuel, almost 8months old, slept and nursed a lot, so that was a blessing for him and all of us on the bus!
The trip was all right, and the people were friendly. We had a break in the middle at a large outdoor cantina for a bathroom and snack break for a few minutes. Eric and I got to take a look out across the most breathtaking view. I so wished I had a camera at that time. Green, green, green hills, trees, farm land. We could see garden plots and sheep grazing. It was beautiful.

As we got closer to Guanacaste province, the landscape had changed. It was green with farmland and the homes were further apart. When we started seeing cows all over, I knew we had to be close! It was a good thing, too, since it was getting so warm on the bus that the rest of us were getting pretty uncomfortable. Even Samuel had woke up and did not like sitting with the back of the seat in his face. I felt so bad for the passengers who kept having to hear our children get sick, but as a man and woman and their little girl exited and she looked like she was not going to make it off the bus without being sick, I knew it wasn’t just us. It was a rough ride there!! I felt so bad for our children. We tried to get them to sleep as much as possible to deter their carsickness… but we were so thankful when the bus finally rolled into the stop in Tilaran…

Can you say, “AAAHhhhhhhhhhhh……………..”?

Matt got two taxis and our driver was over to get our things right away. Soon we were again traveling down the road, heading to our place, anxiously awaiting a nice, quiet, cool place with water to just relax and let our bodies catch up with the experience we had just had. We arrived, and ohh! how I wanted to have a camera to share the moment with you all!

Before we got there, we knew there were coconut trees. We knew there was a gate and plenty of tall bushes surrounding the one acre the home sits on. We knew it was a single level home. What we didn’t know was that we would open the door to furniture!! Just a little info Matt kept to himself as a surprise….

We were awaiting the arrival of the moving truck, looking forward to the rest of our things arriving. Shortly thereafter, as we were still discussing the land, the fireplace, the furniture – BEDS! – we were greeted with a most wonderful surprise. We already knew that Joel and Gaby of Crucified Life Ministries would be coming over. They were so gracious to help us as we were looking and emailing before we came. We were looking forward to meeting them and their family. When the doorbell rang,  it was Mr. Hemingway who introduced himself and let us know that he and his wife were friends of Joel and Gaby’s and were there to welcome us to the neighborhood. They brought some drinks and ice! Then came a few more new friends and Joel’s family and his mother and grandmother also came. How awesome is that?!?

We have not gotten everything unpacked but we are doing well unpacking. We have bedrooms all situated, the kitchen tubs are unpacked, and we are working on getting school books out and organized. There is a bookshelf here, which is presently holding our Scriptures and references, Spanish books, and some books for the Littles, Battleship, and a large checkers game.

We are still in need of a washer, and can you believe it? An OVEN!? Matt overlooked the fact that the stove is a stoveTOP and not a stove when he came and looked at the house – OOPS! He has been looking, but there is no used appliance store here in this area that he has found. So, needless to say, we have had no baked goods… and I am getting pretty good at hand-washing clothes… [no comment] Actually, I will be going over to the Hemingway’s to do a couple of loads tomorrow.

I still have much to tell you about the creatures and plants here, how it compares to Indiana, the fact that Samuel is 8 MONTHS OLD!!! OH MY! Where did that time go?!

Hopefully, in the near future, I will be able to get some semblance of order to be able to post about the trip to Miami when we left the States. And, I STILL owe the awesome folks at Tropical Traditions a bunch of reviews!! -which is GREAT for you all, because that means GIVEAWAYS!! But, I will be doing that at The DFM Store!

As always, you can keep up with our lives through our multiple websites. Hopefully we will get a new camera soon so we can share photos!

Shalom~

We have been in the process of doing this on a larger scale since we are moving, but I am finding it difficult to put Samuel down and spend even the 20m some days to do this. It isn’t that I even want to put him down, nor is it possible sometimes since he is so young, but, it is a necessary thing if I am going to get done what all needs to get done. Even the majority of my blog posts are written only because I sit here and type one-handed as I hold my little guy. The times I do have to get up are taken by personal care, care for our other children, etc. Right now, I am holding him, as he just fell asleep nursing.  Good thing we can read Scriptures and teach/learn with me sitting holding him.
We have had a couple of “move dates” that have gotten pushed back, in part because I have to do some of what needs to be done. On the other hand, we still do have a lot of  furniture and things to sell, and we have had no one look at our house. Please pray with us that the right buyer will come quickly!

Anyway, I love the diligence in this list, and I am going to pray and ask our Father to please give me wisdom and inspiration to do this as we need me to in our home so I can accomplish what needs done.
It is a great motivator!

What are you doing to prepare for Passover? Has the Spring cleaning bug bitten you yet? Any new moms out there who find it hard to do other things while baby needs to be held, nursed, cared for?

Shalom~

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Outside my window… slanted, blowing snow.
I am thinking… that I am sitting too much to get enough done.
I am thankful for… sitting holding Samuel. See the pattern here?
From the Learning Rooms …
*Littles: Music Ace Starter. and Old Yeller. There has to be a lesson in there somewhere!
*Middles: Music Ace Starter. Reading, and cooking. Rachel is a reviewer for Tropical Traditions and other home school books, so that is something she does weekly.
*Older: Amanda is on Livemocha.com, learning Espanol. I need to get everyone else on this!
From the kitchen… cold homemade pizza: hamburger, provolone cheese, olives and pineapple. -with pepperoncinis!
I am wearing… the black skirt Amanda bought me for my birthday and a blue maternity top. Funny, that is what I was wearing last week too…
I am creating… piles of things I need to pack away and piles of what I need to keep out.
I am going… crazy trying to figure out exactly which Creative Memories we need to keep out for home schooling and family fun time.
I am currently reading… still reading“King of the Jews” by D. Thomas Lancaster, sent to me by our lovely friends, the Humphreys at Consider His Ways. I will likely be reading it for awhile. I have been able to share it out loud with the family.
I am hoping… we have a buyer real soon.
I am hearing…. Old Yeller again after Caleb found it in the giveaway box… I need to find that on DVD. I wonder if it is on YouTube?
On my mind…. getting to where we are going as soon as possible.
Noticing that… It is almost February 2010.
Around the house… deciding what to do to have a more public moving sale.
One of my favorite things……nighttime, getting our children ready for bed. I can hold them and nurse the babes, and love on them without them going after other things.

A picture to share:..

LucyLillie {2} Drying Dishes

Shalom~

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For Guidelines of this meme, visit The Simple Woman’s Daybook.

The fact is that we are going to be moving, and a lot of this just needs to go. I can’t believe how much clothing we have been given in the past 10+ years that I have stored and used for each child as they grew. Time to get rid of some old things. Time to get rid of a lot of things. We also are selling our animals, which has been a very hard thing to even start. Jocelyn has been handling that. She has put them into the paper, taken photos and handling emails about them. Books have been my problem… after the clothing, that is. If you are interested, you can see a list of things we are selling on my For Sale Pages.

Mom moved up to a new place and new job a couple of weeks ago, and we have been cleaning the garage out as well as the house. We also have the out-building, the “Schoolhouse”, that she was staying in to clean out and get in shape. I have been supervising, holding Samuel, of course!

To keep things lively, last week, I went down for just a few minutes to help Amanda and Eric in the garage, and Eric did a completely weird thing. He slid on something that rolled and then it sat straight up and went into his foot. UGH! It did not have a sharp point on it, and it was thinner than a nail. Glad it wasn’t any thinner or it may have broken off in his foot! Anyway, he is on the couch today, and not too happy about it either. He wants to get up and help! Unfortunately, his foot is swollen, and we are watching it, because it looks a little discolored… Don’t remember that from the last time he stepped on a nail. He did get a tetanus shot then though, so it’s a good thing it wasn’t someone else who stepped on it. It was still weird how it happened, and we are praying Yahweh heals him completely.

Of course, we went to my Grandfather’s funeral a couple of weeks ago in Mishawaka. That was not fun with Samuel. I have to say he is the best newborn in a carseat we have had. My sister came up for a week during the funeral. She went home last week. I was sorry we didn’t get to spend more time together with her, and she didn’t get to see Samuel very much. We did get to talk once, so that was good.  I know our children, young and old, were hoping for more time with Aunt Jen though. Hannah didn’t realize she was leaving when she did, and has made several comments about not seeing her again. Yeah, it stinks.

Hannah-9 and Caleb-4 decided to make a special lunch treat last week, too. Caleb peeled the carrots, and Hannah made us stir fry with carrots, broccoli, onions, red pepper, garlic and chicken. It was pretty good! I added Bragg’s Amino Acids to mine instead of soy sauce.

I guess having all of this stuff out all over to go through is a good reason to do out-of-the-ordinary meals, right? Amanda and Hannah decided they wanted Pizza Hut, and since they had their special of $10 for any pizza, I agreed. We don’t eat pork, so Matt is not quite the pizza fan anymore. Apparently he can’t eat pizza without pepperoni. SO many of their specialty pizzas have one or more of their 3 pork meats on them! Here is what we ordered for those of you who are also not pork-eaters, and don’t know what to order:

Taco Pizza – Amanda’s choice,
Chicken Club with hamburger instead of bacon,
Cheese Lover’s with chicken,
Plain cheese (for the Littles),
and a Veggie Lover’s with 1/2 pineapple.

On the home schooling front, we are learning Spanish still. We never really got to finish what we started last Spring, so we are getting the vocab book out and working on that again. It was fun last week to sit in the kitchen and go through some Spanish together and learn and quiz each other as we worked on cleaning! Now, if I can fit it in everyday, we will know it before long! It would have been nice to win the Rosetta Stone from the Homeschool Blog Awards, but we will stick with our old A Beka Spanish workbooks for now. I also found some conversational Spanish on a site: http://www.infocostarica.com/education/lesson1.html

Ok, back to my baby. He is held all the time, of course. He doesn’t mind being laid down on the bed in the sun, and actually lays there, enjoying it. Right after he was born I had to set down the rule to not ask to hold him, because fights would ensue!He does like Mommy best, of course, and Jocelyn and Rachel don’t think it’s fair that he will squirm and squeal with them, but give him to Mommy, and he calms right down!

I know he wakes up at night, but it seems like he pretty much sleeps all night for me. He is with me in our bed, so I don’t have to get up and nurse him somewhere else. One thing he really loves is LucyLillie’s voice.  When he was in my tummy, she always laid her head down on my belly to hear the baby and talked to him. And, by the way, she knew it was a brother. Like Caleb knew she was a sister when I was expecting her. I know he will know his name and hers before long, because she is sure to let him know, “My name is ‘hyuzy.” Caleb is teaching Samuel his own name each time he sees him. I’m not sure if it is to teach Samuel his name or so that Caleb will remember Samuel is his name!

I am tandem nursing again, as Lucy is still nursing. We had long talks about it before Samuel came along. She was so expectant of her baby brother and how wonderful he was going to be. We discussed his nursing long before he came along. She knows he gets to nurse first, then her. She has been pretty good about it. She has become my special sweetheart since Samuel was born. She still runs out with her arms in the air, smiling, saying, “Momma!!” in the morning when she wakes up. She then has to hug and kiss me, then she kisses and says good morning to Samuel. Caleb is so very attentive too.

Can you believe he is going to be a month old? I sure can’t. He actually ROLLED OVER yesterday from tummy to back!!

Be blessed this week!!

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If you have ever scrolled down far enough that my Player kicked on, you may have heard the song I am talking about, “By the Blood” by “Adrian Jennifer Wallace”. If you have, you may not know that Adrian and Jennifer Wallace are my Brother-in-law and my sister, Jennifer.

If you haven’t heard it, take a little listen to it. Jen is singing, and (I am pretty sure)Adrian is playing the keyboard in the background. I could go on and tell you all about how wonderful my sister and Adrian are, but this post would be a mile long. Suffice it to say that I love my sister very much and am so proud of the woman she is and is still becoming. She is a wonderful, devoted wife and Believer. She has ALWAYS been a great Auntie to my children. But, what do you expect? She has a great Mom who has always been a GREAT Mom to about everyone, especially her children. And Adrian, I couldn’t have asked for a better brother in law. Our children love him and miss them both greatly!

Speaking of Mom, I don’t know how I missed her post, The Big Question, but it is very timely for our decision to move. And, it is not particularly about moving.

Anyway, I had to share this little blessing with you.

You can read more about Jen and Adrian at Jen’s blog, Believing His Promises.

blessings!

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