It's a big day

Today is Hari Raya. Literally it means "Day of Celebration" but it is more than that; it is the greatest holiday of the year. You can read more about it here, if you are so inclined. The impact it has on my life is two-fold.

First, once again, we are suffering from school holidays. As a student and then as a teacher, I loved school holidays. But this is the third multiple day break we have had since June; I think that is a little over the top. Especially since some child-less minister {govt minister, not a pastor, lol} decided on THURSDAY of last week to make FRIDAY of last week a special holiday. Clearly he has never planned his morning around his child being at school only to have the day ruined by an unexpected holiday. But we shall survive.

Second, we eat. All. Day. Long. At everyone's house we have ever met. And finally, after a month of shame, we can eat in public again guilt free. And so all the weight everyone loses during the fasting month all comes back on again on Hari Raya.

Normally I wear the traditional dress to go out visiting, but this year Joel is out of town and I just didn't feel like it. I actually went to the village last night and spent the night. This morning, instead of showering in my tiled bathroom with hot water, I poured icy cold river water over my head in a kitchen made out of plywood & 2x4s. So I am pretty sure that fancy clothes or not, I wutten gonna look purty. But folks is used to that in that thar electricity-less village; in fact a good friend once told me I should wear a head covering while I am there just so I would look better.

Here are some shots from the day:


I didn't want to go, but I knew it was the right thing to do. My friend lives here in town but is originally from that village, so she rode up there with me, which is why I went a day early and spent the night. I had to borrow a bigger car, and the girl who dropped it off siad, "If you notice the smell of burning rubber, don't worry. It's been like that for a while now." And when I asked my dh about it, he said, "Eh, it's probably just a belt or something." And when I asked what I was gonna do if the belt broke on the 2 1/2 hour trip over the mountain, he said, "Don't be so melodramatic, Kellie."

Thanks for the encouragement, hun.

So with lots of prayer and very careful driving, we made it safely. No thanks to the man in my life. I had planned on eating dinner in the village and then heading into town to a hotel; I just didn't have an overflow of generosity in my heart, plus I knew if I had a pillow, someone else didn't, but it started pouring after dinner and I wasn't up for walking that 200 yard bridge made out of 2x4's in the rain in the dark with two small children. So I didn't sleep. And while I wasn't sleeping, I came up with a really clever & witty post about my experience, but today at 4:30 p.m., I'm feeling pretty darn proud of myself for being able to write a coherent sentence.

So I'll tell ya about our evening tomorrow.

Check out this little bundle of joy

I am trying to use the seven unused kits on my hard drive before I buy anything new, and since the Quarterly Assortment from SSD is one of those "kits" I was playing with Traci's contribution the other night and realized I would most definitely have to make two pages with it. One for the bold, bright colors & one for the way cool yellow & orange sunburst paper.

I actually made my pages first and then went through my unscrapped pictures of the mid-sized child's first year of life and love the results!
Plus on that first layout I used Pea Lauren's Doodles, which you can check out for free here.

Have a great weekend! We are doing dinner at 5, bedtime at 6. I don't think ANY of us will have any trouble with that.