Date "farms", kids at church and funny Sarah

Egypt is the biggest producer of dates in the world, so they have "farms" of date palm trees and they use the dates, the trees, the bark and the leaves for all sorts of stuff. It is funny to drive by acres of palm trees...reminds me of the tree farms in pacific northwest, but a lot drier!!

Picture of kids on Sabbath (Friday) outside of the villa we have church in. It is nice to have a place to go and such great people to meet with. Next week our numbers will swell by 53 for sacrament meeting, as a BYU tour group is coming through:) Ahhh, sweet memories of summertime in Alaska and using ALL the chairs in the house to accommodate the visiting members. The numbers will rapidly decrease though----most expats leave all summer (June-Aug), so I think our kids will be the ONLY kids in primary for the whole summer!


Sometime when the kids don't want to do something they need to do (like their kitchen job, etc...) I say to them, "You can do it, you have skills and talents and you are a strong person. I know you can do it." Well, the other day I asked Sarah to clear the table. She said, "I can't do it." I said, "of course you can do it, you are strong and you have skills." I walked out of the room and I hear Sarah shout after me, "Mom, you should clear the table because you have skills too!"