5 you say!!!

Our girl turned 5 on 23rd November! I am so proud of her. I am so proud that we can have a deep conversation that comes with a lot of understanding. She seems to understand things better and she has become very responsible.

So far: 

• She absolutely loves Jesus and loves to pray
• She loves and loves to share her bed. She wants to share with me her bed all the time, well I can't...
• She will read all the writings on my T-shirts, she has been doing great in school
• She is now diving in a pool!!! She does this with her Dad all the time...
• She loves her books - it’s hard to get her out of them
• She will not go out of her way to ask for a dress- she loves her trousers!
• She prefers the company of boys rather than girls
• She has a mind of her own and will make decisions without sometimes consulting  
• She has been eating too well....grown tall and added weight so fast in the last one year
• She lies without blinking – WE ARE DEALING WITH THAT!!!
• She loves her siblings and defends them when duty calls!
• She is absolutely wonderful and we simply love her, we are so blessed to have her and we thank God for the gift of Tehillah Kendi Makuthi.

Birthday girl!

 Her sister (Tana) and cousin (Samara) Enjoying the day

 Friends and brother (Ethan)

 Angie. Cute smile, with brother watching

 She asked for a ball cake and a ball cake she got..

 We love you Kendi and we love that God gave you to us!

 5 candles

 Happy birthday Sweet girl! May the Lord give you many more and like David, May He fulfill the days of your life. May you find favour in all you do and may His word forever be a lamp unto your feet and light unto your path.

Memories to treasure.

These are hubby's parents ( Babu and Nyanya) with their grand-children. One Baby Eliana missing in action. Are they not blessed? They all look wonderful! 

 We recently had a great time visiting Nyanya and Babu . I pray that these children will treasure these memories in their hearts.

Just sweet Kids

Kendi: Mum are you dropping us to school today?

Mum: I am sorry I can’t I, have a few things to do this morning but Dad will drop you.

Kendi: Oh!-I will miss you a lot today (Hugging Mum) - Cute!

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Kendi: Mum, Dad has given me, two vests to wear

Mum: Okay...

Kendi: Which one do you think I should wear (showing me the two)?

Mum: Well, either, comme ci comme ca,

Kendi: What is comme ci comme ca?

Mum: I mean it really does not matter which you wear, I am good with any...

Kendi: Okay Mum (she chooses one)

(I am glad that she thinks Mum's opinion matters)

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Tana wakes up extremely cranky. I am looking at her and thinking. Dear Jesus, not another Monday morning. So I decide to look at her, eye ball to eye ball and I proceed on to tell her, “You have a lot to be happy about girl, come on-let’s sing a song!”

Before we could even sing, she gives a warm hearty laugh!!!. And that was it! Her mood changed  instantly! I thank God for His grace. God has a way of filling our hearts with Joy and dealing with the small details in our lives!

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Kendi: Mum, do you know Jesus loves me?

Mum: Sure, He does

Kendi: And He is in my heart?

Mum: Yes He is!

Kendi: So is He in the hearts of bad people? (Dad looks at me –with those eyes of...you are in trouble!!!)

Mum: Not quite, but He sure does hope they can change and then He can come into their hearts

Kendi: Okay.

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Kendi: Mum, are we getting another baby?

Mum: May be, if God wants us to.

Kendi: Okay, so do you need to marry Dad again so that we can get that baby?

Mum: (What??????)

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Believe you are having a great week....its been BUSY!!!!!!

Just Kids

Tana: Mum, today we learnt about Queen Esther in Sunday school.

Dad: Who is Esther?

Tana: Elijah’s wife

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Kendi gently and fondly rubs her Dad’s shoulders while we are having Dinner and then she says –“You are nice Man” Dad almost cries.

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I am dropping the kids to school and Kendi asks

“Mum, why are you driving ahead of Dad, is it because you are his babe?”

Yes Kendi and dad likes to keep watch that we are okay and he is my friend you know.

"Okay- we also need to look for a friend, we have no friends", Kendi replies.

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Tana: Mum, I think I want to marry Kendi (her Sister).


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We always pray with the kids when we drop them to school. There are times when i lay my hands on them and tell them, "Come here girls i need to bless you"
Some of the  days one of them will say-"Mum today we will bless you" and they lay their hands on my head. Sweet girls!

Funny kids

Well, somethings that my kids say-just makes me appreciate the innocence of childhood.

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We are busy slaughtering  a Chicken and Tana says- "Hey, that Chicken has a lot of spaghetti/pasta in its stomach".- Meaning the intestines!!!

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Kendi: Dad, are you going to marry Mum?

Dad: Well, we are already married. I already married her!

Silence (Parents wondering where that came from)

Dad: Why do you ask, what do you mean?

Kendi: No, its okay, its because i also want to marry Tana ( Her Sister)

Parents faint! 

Have wonderful -laughter  filled weekend.

My girls in office

For some reason I am really BUSY in fact, right  now, i am in Kisumu. However, I am currently learning to set boundaries, once I am done with that lesson I will share on the need for Mums to establish boundaries. I am also learning to get just a little bit organized. I think 40% of what i call stress can be dealt with if I become a little organized. 

 All that said, I am bit swamped with work and in trying to stay above the water, some time back, I choose to go to office with the girls. They had so much fun and I was so glad they went with me. They are on holiday and having a blast at home as well. They loved counting the cars on the highway from the 24^th floor of the office block. Needless to say , they ate a little to much on the said day!
Enjoy the photos.

I was glad, i had this opportunity and the girls had a lot of Fun in the office. Its something that i will definitely try again.

We are all in trouble

When my sister (Purity) was born. I was so grateful that I had a little sister.  By then I was ten years old. The sanguine brother I have called Alex had this to say to my sister many years later.

Purity: Hey guys- how was it for you to have a little sister, i mean how did you feel when i was born?

Emmah : Well, I was so happy! I just kept hoping that mum gets a girl

Purity : Well, what about you bro?

Alex: I had no feelings about it. However the moment I laid my eyes on you, I knew for sure-We are all in trouble!

(We all laugh)

Well, I was going through some past photos of the kids and I bumped into this one. I had just arrived from Hospital with Ethan and the look on Kendi’s face makes me think that this is the look my brother must have had when he looked at my sister then.

Kendi and Tana seems to be having a hard time coping with Ethan. This is what Ethan sometimes does.

·         If Kendi and Tana refuse with a Toy that he really needs- He pulls their braids! He knows it hurts and they will drop the toy as soon as his hands are on their head.

·         Sometimes he will get on top of a seat where Tana is sitting and just beat her up for no reason and laugh as he does it.

·         He will hide their shoes on schools day and the girls will keep looking for their shoes, I mean the entire house looks for them.

·         He pushes them all over like they weigh 2kgs while he is 20kg.

Well, I guess that is that. I am still learning how to handle this boy who seems to always bully my little girls. Trust you me, we began spanking Ethan sometime back and we know with the Lords help he will catch up with discipline. 

Slaughtering Kuku (Chicken)

I was brought up in the village, where you were expected to know how to slaughter a chicken as part of home training curriculum. For me, this was one of the greatest childhood achievement.

My brother had a phobia for chickens, or so I think, and this used to drive my mum nuts. I remember at one point my Mum asking my brother to catch a chicken for slaughter and since he could not do it, she literately pushed him inside the chicken coop and locked the door. Then she went on to say "Let the chickens have a feast of you today, if you die good but if you come out alive, then you better style up". Wonderful mother. She was quite tough! Today we laugh about this all the time!

Well, last week someone gave me a chicken for slaughter and i gathered why not introduce my children  to slaughtering chicken. May be it is a tradition that i should pass on to my chilren. I know in some countries this may seem strange, but we love to do this, on this side of the world.
Enjoy the slaughter. 

Kendi and Tana Scared of what Dad was doing below...

Okay...not a good site...poor Chicken...

Stepping on the wings and legs

Cutting off the head

Kids in shock

Ethan must have been looking at the chicken below and saying - you can't be dead. 

Done cutting the head

The kids watching

Putting it in hot (boiling)water to get out the feathers

Almost there

Done. Our little home grown Kuku.

When the day came to cook the chicken, I reminded the kids of how they slaughtered the Chicken. So I asked "Are you going to eat the Chicken you waved bye-bye to and slaughtered?". Tana said "YES" and while they were eating - They said Yummy! Good...part one of learning done.With time, the must do this by themselves.

Excited for them

I vividly remember my Dad taking us to Jomo Kenyatta Airport to watch planes land and take off. At least those days- you would interact with a plane but from a distance. But not anymore, the security threats and all have made such luxuries forgotten. So last week, our friends the Koskis invited us to the Africa Inland Mission (AIM) hangar at the Wilson airport and I was thrilled for the kids. I knew this was going to be fun for us, but most of all for them. I mean there are those times that I allow the kids to get excited for themselves, but this time I was really excited for them too.

Here are a few pics, may be not a few.  

Kendi, Tana and their friend Nani.  

Ethan wanted to be left alone most of the times, i guess it was the only way he could feel the planes. 

This is what happens when you ask him to smile. He closes his eyes. 

Done smiling 

Just what am i touching?    

Our pilots  

Still alone, absorbing it all.  

Still in awe  

The best we could get for the four kids. 

. 

and the family  

This guy was distracting the kids with the tractor and the kids could hardly keep their eyes on the camera so in an ingenious move, he decided to drive the tractor behind the camera . Okay, that is our friend Nathan

and ..that's how we managed to get this photo done 

and this is just a happy Mum 

Jonathan put up the girls to take a good photo, Tana boycotted  

Ethan Wanted to go up too 

So Nathan assisted, but Ethan says "you are not leaving me up here alone....you are stuck with me!"

Okay. There you go. 

Once again, you did not see much of my hubby. He is the camera guy, almost always! We love him, how could I blog without him.

Born Sinners

The other day we went out for tea with the kids. They were given some crayons and coloring paper. When we walked out, we noticed that Kendi had curled up her dressed and the waiters were starring at her on our way out. When we got to the door, we asked her to stop pulling up her dress. But little did we know that she was hiding the crayons. They were already hers and she had every right to come out with them, but to her, she was taking them away and hoping Mum and Dad don’t notice. Truly we are born sinners.

This was the look after we asked her to surrender and put down her dress

The crayons 

Overwhelmed by feelings of jealousy and anger

When my house help came back this January after the holidays, we were pleased that she did, because she is a wonderful lady, she has three kids aged 13, 11 and 9. She has been good with our three kids (below- left) and I was pleasantly surprised at how she picked up all over again with the kids. For a moment, it did not bother me at all.

However, when I realized that I will be back to the office in a few days time, I was overwhelmed by feelings of jealousy and anger.  I knew right there that this was not of God. Yet I was feeling bad that she might be hanging out more with Ethan, who is now at home, since the girls are in school. I had been at home for a whole month and I loved it and I knew I will miss my kids terribly. Yet I also knew I needed to get back to work. All these fears were projected on the house help, I started felling like she was competing with me to have my children’ attention and the story goes on and on…

Yes, when you having negative feelings about someone, always ask yourself which fear button they have pressed.  Because most of time it does not have to do with them, it has to do with you. I knew this is where I was and I needed help, because instead of appreciating my house help for her good Job, I was busy looking at the negative part of the whole issue.

So I texted my wonderful Aunt, a working mother of four boys, and I asked her to help me with this unusual state. She was so gracious and candid. I love people who tell the truth. She took the effort to write a mail because she knew that an sms cannot address my issue. I am now a happy working Mum. Oh…don’t I love the GRACE OF GOD! GRACE, GRACE, and how God use other people  to minister the same GRACE.

Her response was like this;

• Granted/assuming that your house girl has been tested and tried and come out as one with good intentions i.e not some of those who steal babies. 
• Granted/assuming that she is not ignoring the girls and leaving them unattended and only caring for Ethan.
• Granted/assuming she is not breastfeeding Ethan, or telling him to call her mummy or other weird things like those.

If the answer to the above three points is YES, then I would not be worried.

I think, most likely, the mother of Ethan is feeling guilty- (not so sure but I think so), since baby seems to be getting closer to house girl than to her.  So the problem may be more with mother, than with baby and house help.

I have experienced this with my children too, calling our house help their sister-and they owned her.  Even in their class one of the children would tell the rest of the class “I will report you to my Jessy" (house help).

One time I spanked our child and our house help went to cry in the bedroom.  She loved him that much.

I would consider your situation more of a blessing than not.  So long as you are spending time quality time-even if not as long as you would like. I have also found it important to try and do things with my kids that only mummy can do - like horsey ride on mummy's back, singing for them (I am sure your housegirl does not sing for them), singing along with them, watching a movie together, or just listening to their stories -and boy don't they have stories!!! 

Kids have that God given connection with their mums, and nothing can replace that, as long as it is cemented with quality time and discipline.