Year: 2014

  • Prepping for a Party

    Even though Avery’s birthday is a week away (Nov. 29), we’re having a birthday party for her tomorrow. Bethany has been hard at work today getting things ready or tomorrow’s special day. As I write Bethany is meticulously cutting colorful paper into pinwheels. You know…she’s making the party pretty. That’s why you see the flowery…

  • Tired, Cold, and Wet

    Sleep was limited last night. Not only did I have some kind of insomnia, but Avery coughed for at least an hour from around 2-3am. We were up early and out the door this morning so I think I only got around four hours of sleep. Needless to say I’m just plain old tired right…

  • Through the Fog

    Someone at the Josiah Venture office today asked me how language lessons were going. She is from Czech and I said to he, “Rozumím trochu česky” which translates to, “I understand a little Czech.” Unfortunately, that’s where the conversation ends, but that doesn’t mean I’m not learning. It was only a few months ago that…

  • Learn Me Something

    Doing language learning is worse than going back to school for one reason: you can’t read the directions. Both of the books we have used have used to study Czech employ the theory that if they put the directions in Czech we will learn. In reality, all this does is frustrate me because it takes…

  • Why History Matters and Working on Our Home

    Today is a holiday in the Czech Republic. Schools and businesses were closed and people were celebrating what is known as the Velvet Revolution. Twenty five years ago, in 1989, students were holding a demonstration in the capitol city of Prague. As BBC News put it, the students were holding a “peaceful demonstration to commemorate…