Back into the swing

Lilia sledding.

Lilia ice skating.

Arianna is longingly watching her brothers play outside.

What a good week we had.  Last Saturday, Angie took Lilia with a couple of friends to Carcassonne.  They went ice skating and did a little shopping.  They also got some free tickets for sledding as well. Sunday services went well.  We did not stay and eat because we had to get home and get homework done because the kids were back in school on Monday.  School went well for the kids.  The all continue to do well.  The government and president Hollande, are working on passing a rule allowing no homework for kids, adding weekly school hours, but shortening the school day.  I'm not sure if it will pass, but it will help us have more time if we are no longer having to help with kids with their homework.  Angie's resolution this year was to pick back up teaching the kids English, which she has done well this week.  We picked back up with basketball and we had "galette des rois" afterwards.  It was a nice treat for all the kids that I coach and also gave us the chance to get to know the parents some.  I met two English ladies whose boys play in Caleb's group.  During my practice I got poked in the eye, which has turned my eye all read on one half.  The boys and I think it is kind of cool.  It doesn't hurt thankfully.  Tuesday evening Bible study was real good.  After several weeks of people missing, we were finally all together and had a great time of discussion and prayers.  Friday mornings market went well.  It rained off and on, but I did have some good contacts before packing it up.  Angie is currently at a birthday party and then heading to the youth group.  She made about 30 cupcakes to take to the party and experimented with different icings;  which means, we have about a gallon of icing leftover in there.  I think I will go make some cakes and use up some of that icing.  Tomorrow after church we have our neighbors coming over, and that would be a good time to serve cake.  We were able to speak to Lauren, who will be coming at the end of the year to help us with the work here in Limoux. We are real excited about this opportunity. She will have a unique and helpful outreach.  I'd better be off, because those cakes are going to make themselves.  God bless, JASON 

Sixth New Years in France

Annual Measuring

Can you find all 5 Clark kids?

Tuesday night New Years fun.

Christmas week finished well.  I still felt poorly until Friday.  Friday night we had some friends over for supper.  The weekend passed well, with me getting all the finances done, monthly report almost complete, and teaching the kids lesson at church on Sunday.  Monday, it was just our family that brought in the New Years together, we did plan to have some friends over, but those plans fell through.  Tuesday was New Years day, instead of the Bible study, we invited a lot of people over for an evening with finger foods.  We spent most of the day cooking. We had ten people come, and enjoyed a great time together. New Years is also the official day that we measure all the kids.  Arianna won the prize for most growth, having added 14 cm.  runners up were Andrew - 10cm, Lilia 9 cm, Micah 6 cm, and Caleb 5 cm.Wednesday was running errands, and cleaning.  Thursday we took the kids to downtown to ride the carousel and enjoyed some hot chocolate as well. We had some good calls to the states as well.  Looks like we will be having a young lady come from the states and join us in working in Limoux for two years.  We are excited about this opportunity.  Friday evening we had guests over for supper.  A family that moved here recently from Martinique.  Today, Angie has taken Lilia and her friends ice skating, and so it is me and the boys, working on homework and playing while Arianna takes her nap.God bless, JASON

Christmas Time

We saw a pretty sunset on our walk.

The town's Christmas lights.

Arianna drinks without getting her dirty hands on her cup.

Caleb's birthday party.

Christmas morning.

Arianna got a slide.

Last week did end up being busy, but not as bad. Wednesday, Caleb had his birthday party, and Lilia had a swimming competition at the same time.  I went to Lilia's competition, where she did good, even beating some of the kids in High School. Our guests were not able to make it on Thursday. We did have a good visit on Friday afternoon.  Friday, Angie and Lilia went to the youth meeting and so the boys, Arianna, and I took a walk at dusk.  We enjoyed a nice, and the 70 degree weather was nice as well.  Services went well Sunday, we had a guests from Limoux go with us and attend the services.  The afternoon, we decided to take the kids to McDonalds, were they had happy meals and nine piece nuggets on sale for 2 euros.   That's right our whole family ate for about $18.  Christmas eve, Angie finished up some shopping.  Arianna has a full blown cold.  She had a little fever, cough, and runny nose.  Christmas eve, everyone went to bed ready for Christmas day.  I slept poorly, having fever myself during the night.  At our request the kids did not wake us up until 7 am.  We read the story about the birth of Jesus.  Each person took turns opening gifts.  Everyone was spoiled.  I felt poorly, but had a great time, and even took a nap.  We had a nice talk with our families.  The food was great for the day as well.  We always do a large breakfast about mid-morning.  Everyone had a great day.  I am still recuperating today, but also getting a little work done and a little play time in.  God bless, JASON   

Christmas dinner

Spiderweb frozen in the back yard.

Good food at the Christmas dinner outreach.

Arianna enjoying a snack with her friends at church.

Things have continued to be busy for everyone.  We have not had anyone for the Bible Study for a couple of weeks now because everyone seems to have things come up at the last minute.  We know that most will be gone during the holidays and so it might just be us.  Last weeks highlight was we picked up our visas, so we are good for another year.  Another good thing is that we have finished our Christmas shopping.  That is unless Angie thinks of other stuff that she wants at the last moment.  We have been having a good time watching Arianna recently.  She is growing taller and smarter. She was sleeping in church Sunday and started to wake up, when she noticed Andrew was sleeping next to her, she would reach out and rub his cheeks every now and then.  It was cute.  Lilia had a cross country run last week with her school.  She finished 26th out of several grades going all the way up to high school age.  I was shocked that they still had the race, being that it was rainy and cold.  But they did, and Lilia did a good job, a couple of the other students passed out.  It warmed up by the weekend to a nice 65 degrees, but I should be cooling back off today. Angie has continued to have a good time in her French class. She had a lunch last week with her class and had a good time visiting. Angie is by far the youngest in her class, and everyone is real impressed when she pulls out our cell phone to look something up.  One of our friends car re-broke down, so we took her to the train station on Wednesday.  Friday night, I had a practice with a choir group.  I am playing the piano for them, they sang at the Christmas dinner outreach at the church in Carcassonne.  We have been practicing together son Saturday mornings for several weeks now.  They are a nice group, most are from Madagascar and Mauritius.  Speaking of the Christmas dinner, we had a wonderful time.  All Saturday was spent getting ready for it, preparing the food.  We invited our neighbors and another family that we have had good contact with.  We almost did not invite this other family, but Angie ran into them at the grocery store on Friday and we asked and they said they would love to come.  They are a real sweet family and real open to talking about God and the Bible.  The dinner was real good, well attended.  The boys sang a special with the children's choir, Lilia sang with the young people's choir, Angie sang with the adult choir, and I sang and played with the other choir.  We had a great time.  Even the mayor attended. Sunday we were out all day.  We left for church Sunday morning, I was leading the services and doing the kids devotional.  After services we treated the kids to McDonalds as an early Christmas gift.  We then took them for a little shopping.  A church in the states had sent our children money, and we decided to let them exchange names and buy gifts for each other. Angie took them into the store one at a time, while I stayed in the car and helped the other finish their homework. It was the only time we had available to do it.  At 4:00 we attended the English (British) Carol service that the church in Carcassonne puts on every year.  We enjoyed the service and even knew most of the songs this year.   Snacks were served afterwards and someone made brownies with peanut butter chunks.  Wow!  Caleb's birthday is today. Ten years old already.  He is so excited because he can ride in the front seat now.  His party will not be until Wednesday, but he did get some Ramen noodles for lunch, his favorite, and we bought him a Dr. Pepper.  I need to get some yard work done while the weather is a little warmer.  Angie is taking a friend to the grocery store.  She will have her French class tomorrow morning.  I need to get visit some people tomorrow afternoon.  Tomorrow night will be the Bible Study, possibly.  Wednesday, Lilia has a swimming competition, Caleb will have his party, and I have my kids basketball group, followed by my practice with the guys team.  We might have some guests arriving on Thursday, so better get some other things finished today.  Blessings, JASON

Lights out

At the awards ceremony.

Lilia and Caleb play Wii, Micah and Andrew watch, Arianna pretends.

Our car passed the 100,000 km mark.

Rainy and cold would describe the weather of last week.  There was just one person for the Bible study.  I decided against going to the market Friday morning as it was below freezing and windy.  We put some Christmas lights up on the palm tree in front of our house.  The only problem with outdoor lights is there usually is not a outdoor plug.  Doors and windows close tightly to keep out the cold, so it is not easy to string lights up.  We found some solar powered lights for a good deal and put up a string to see how they did.  They worked good.  Unfortunately Sunday someone stole them off the tree.  We have an idea that it could be a neighbor boy who has stolen from us before, but we have no proof.  They were nice while they lasted.  Friday  I was given special recognition for volunteering in the basketball program.  There was a big sports assembly to recognize all the volunteers and others who had contributed in different ways.  We had a good time, I enjoyed visiting with my teammates.  Saturday mornings, I have been helping a choir from the church in Carcassonne with their Christmas music.  I play the piano for them.  They sound really good, and I am glad to be able to help.  Angie and Lilia had youth group Saturday evening, and left a little early to do some Christmas shopping.  Sunday went well.  After church, I took some banana bread to Philippe, and afterwards Angie went and visited with a neighbor. In between we enjoyed hearing the services in Carcassonne with Skype.  Monday, I talked with a basketball coach in Arkansas.  I have been working with him for several weeks, trying to get a couple of players from here into college over there.  Angie had her French class this morning.  She ate lunch with a couple from the class who invited everyone to their house.  God bless, JASON 

Wasted

Lilia is ready for school, Andrew is not.

Kids ready to put their ornaments on the tree.

Love the coloring in this picture.

It is amazing how the season has suddenly changed here.  Not just with the sudden arrival of the Christmas season, but also with the changing weather.  Last week ended up being rainy and cold, but it was welcomed, because, after all, it has to become winter sometime.  I went to the market Friday, it was just above freezing when I arrived.  The basketball group that I coach is doing well.  They played a good scrimmage last Wednesday.  There was a new kid last week as well.  The weekend went well.  Friday night (family night) we played Scrabble with the kids and had a great time, the Caleb & Micah duo won, but there was only 10 points separating the winner from the lowest score, so it was a tight game.  Saturday night, Angie wanted to make some brownies for the meal after church on Sunday.  We got all the ingredients out to make sure we had everything, we had just enough butter.  Wouldn't you know that when Angie was getting it out of the microwave it fell out of her hand and ended up all over the floor, the rug, and herself.  We had a good laugh about it and tried best as we could to get it cleaned up.  So, no brownies.  Monday we were going to pick up our new visas that we renewed.  We arrived and found out that we needed to have brought our old visas.  Since we were in Carcassonne and had some time we wanted to stop by the Trocante.  Found a parking spot and walked over to it, found out they are closed on Monday mornings.  Guess that was a wasted trip.  I remember not long ago, I would have gotten upset about the waste, but now it seems its no big deal.  God's still in control.  We got our Christmas tree set up last night.  Have I ever mentioned how much we laugh.  I would like to see a study done on how much families laugh together.  We have to be near the top of the list.  Arianna has been talking, singing, squawking. . .non stop.  She has this new expressing that comes out frequently . . ."That's mine."  She will say it as the weirdest moments.  When we were leaving Carcassonne, we saw a man on a bike, pulling a little trailer with a dog riding on it.  They both were wearing rain coats.  As we were telling the kids about it, we asked Arianna if she remembered seeing them.  She replied, "That's mine."  God bless, JASON

Took the scenic route home from church, and found this tree.

Thankful for more visitors.

We had a good visit with Steve and Tonya.

Scenes from the drive to Barcelona.

I led a couple of songs in Spanish in 

Barcelona.

The wildmans.

A Thanksgiving feast.

Jim and Subie.

The boys and Arianna.

We said goodbye to the Rutherfords.  We enjoyed a couple of days with them.  We took them to the market Friday morning.  We were able to walk around a little until it started raining.  In the afternoon the ladies enjoyed some shopping while Steve and I watched the boys.  Saturday I drove them back to Barcelona via the scenic route.  The changing leaves made a beautiful drive.  Saturday evening, Angie was going to the youth meeting, but when Lilia and her arrived they found no one else was coming and so they drove home.  That evening I had a basketball game.  We won! It was a good game, even though I did not contribute much.  Sunday services went well in Carcassonne.  Monday the kids started back in school.  Finally Angie and I had a time to sit and talk seriously about Thanksgiving.  We were approved for a room from the Mayors office, but there was not one available until mid-December, which is when things get really busy for us.  We decided that we would just invite guests over once a week, a few at a time.  That left us with Thanksgiving as a family.  We were not really motivated to do anything, but . . . Wednesday morning Angie got a call from Jim, they are an American family traveling the world for a year.  There were looking for someone to have Thanksgiving with and so we invited them to come.  They came over with their three boys Wednesday afternoon and went to basketball practice with us, stayed for Pizza, Jim came to basketball practice with us that evening, walked with me to get our boys from school, stopped by and had lunch with us on Thursday, stayed for Thanksgiving dinner, we watched the kids for them Friday afternoon and evening. . . we just had a wonderful time with them.   Thanksgiving is one of the times when we really miss family the most, and it worked great the God sent us the Wildmans for a moment.  We were able to help them out as well, as their car had recently been broken into and they were having to deal with all the issues about replacing all their credit cards and stolen items.  You can check out their blog here, hearing the echoes.  We just had a great time with them.  And Thanksgiving was great, not just because of the food, but because of God's blessings.  Sunday we traveled to Barcelona, where I preached.  Lilia stayed home because Saturday night she had fallen off the ladder to her bunk bed and bruised her hip.  Monday our new friends stopped by for supper and to say goodbye as they continue their adventure and as we continue ours.  We definitely hope to visit with them next time we are in the States.  Thank you God for all your blessings, we are looking forward to the future.  God bless, JASON