Spared

Looks like Tyhoon Jelawat is going to move east!  We've been feeling the wind, and today will be really rainy, but it looks like Taiwan won't get slammed.  And we won't be cooped up all weekend!  Here's the latest Wundermap from Wunderground.com.  You can click on the picture to make it bigger on your screen.

This morning's rainy day agenda: baking.  Today is cool enough to turn on the oven.  I'm going to make treats to bring to the coffeehouse that our church is sponsoring tomorrow night.  I'm not sure what I'll be making yet - perhaps something with cinnamon, pumpkin, or apple.

Typhon Season in Taiwan

It's typhoon season. We've already weathered several typhoons that have hit different parts of the island and been in our general area. None have affected Taiwan terribly. The southern part of the island is always worse off - we're at the north end of the island.

All eyes are glued to the weather websites again this week. These storms always seem to hit on the weekends, much to the students' and teachers' grief. This one, Typhoon Jelawat, is projected to hit Taiwan on Friday, and to continue into Saturday. No typhoon day for us.  It is currently classified as a super typhoon - category 5, but it looks like it will lose steam as it moves toward us.   As you can see from the radar image, it's pretty intense now.

Here's this morning's Wundermap courtesy of Wunderground, my favorite weather site.

We were recently (about 10 days ago) on the northern coast of Taiwan for our staff retreat.  A typhoon had passed by Taiwan and was headed toward the southernmost Japanese islands.  However, the waves it left behind that were crashing on Taiwan's coast were immensely powerful.  I have underestimated the power of the sea for so long.  That left me with an incredible respect for the power of the ocean.  Needless to say, we didn't spend any time at the beach at the staff retreat.

One good thing about typhoon season (other than the occasional typhoon day) is that when a typhoon is swirling in the ocean to the east of us, it acts like a massive vacuum sucking all the precipitation clouds into its vortex. So we get some pretty beautiful days before a few windy, rainy days! Yesterday was one of those gorgeous days. Today looks pretty promising, too! So I guess I better get my housework done so I can get out and enjoy it later!

Bright Future

Ruby will snatch your glasses right off of your face pretty quickly.  Now she has her own glasses!
In other news, she started crawling yesterday!  It's pretty exciting to watch her on the move!

8 Months Old!

Ruby will turn 8 months old tomorrow. She's growing up way too fast! We are loving her fun personality that we get to see more of each day!   At this moment, she's leafing through the diaper bag and inspecting my Bible study notes.  I need to remember to put things out of her reach.  Oh well, she's happy as a clam, and actually isn't eating them (yet).  Hope you enjoy these recent pictures.

8 months old already! Where does the time go? 

                                           

Swimming at the water park near our house!  

Cheers for dinner!

Tonight's dinner: avocado, peas, tofu mix - YUM!  But I always feel like she's turning into a little Shrek baby by the time she's done with it all over her face, hands, hair.  

Cereal with bananas and blueberries for breakfast.  Ruby HATES having her face and hands cleaned.  

It's a great day in Da An Park!  Hooray!  

Come play with me!  

Monday's Victory: Though it May Seem Mundane

Sunday night. Monday looms. Kevin and I did not feel like taking 15 minutes to wash the dishes before bed. So we left them in the sink. Wouldn't you know it, the dish fairy didn't show up. Again.  We keep hoping that she will come.  

So we were greeted with dirty dishes the next morning.  The dishes were done first thing in the morning, and my goal was to wash any dirty dishes (where do they all come from?) as soon as possible so that I wouldn't end up with a huge pile of dirty dishes at the end of the day.  Kev usually washes the dishes after dinner - so sweet!  

Three cheers for not having a huge pile of dishes to do after dinner and not waking up to dirty dishes this morning!  The success of yesterday makes me want to do it again today!  It's totally the little things that make me giddy. 

What's Cookin'?

I don't even like tomatoes.  Raw tomatoes, anyways. I'm just not a huge fan. So, when we were home on the farm in August and pulled in several days of tomato harvests like this (see picture):

1 day's harvest of tomatoes from my dad's garden arranged from ripest to least ripe.  I counted 58 tomatoes on this day.  There were several days when we brought in similar piles of lycopene-rich healthiness.

I wasn't quite sure what to do with such abundance. We ended up giving many of them away because the deep freezer is still at the old house and the goal is to empty it so it will be easier to move. See, filling it up with tomato sauce wouldn't help accomplish that goal. Plus, there was no time to can or freeze (especially because I don't know how to do it) with a 7 month old baby around.

One night I decided that tomato soup would be a good way to use up some tomaters. I found this fabulous recipe and I would say it was a hit ... even with dad, who was in the hospital and had no appetite.  I followed the recipe, just omitted the heavy cream.  It was plenty rich without it.  I plan to try it again here sometime when we finally get a break from the 90 degree temps and humidity. Too bad I'll have to buy the tomatoes from the market here.

Does it seem strange that my first post after a long, summer hiatus is about tomatoes.  Maybe.  I'm trying to start small.  Summer was truly wonderful.  We LOVED reuniting with our family and friends and introducing them to Ruby.  I'm considering working on a summer memory book of summer pictures. At this point, all the wonderfulness of family and friends and summer seems kinda overwhelming to blog about.  Perhaps I will revisit it later.  For now, I leave you with a great recipe.