Did you even wonder what it would be like to have 14 people in your family? Everyone living in a cozy, small house? Let me attempt to describe it to you.

Each morning starts at 4:30 with the soft sounds of someone starting breakfast. When you cook over a small fire, it takes time to cook for this many people. At 6:00, Jason gets the two little girls up and helps them get their exercise and personal worships done, while the students start their day. Maria gives Jabez his first official bottle of the day, and Hannah climbs in bed with Mommy and Daddy and practices her new words on us, asks us to sing or pray with her, and warms her cold feet on us. At 6:45, everyone gathers around the way- to- small table for morning worship, which each student takes turns presenting.  After worship, everyone scrambles to turn the worship table into the breakfast table. Then, we all enjoy the scrumptuous feast that our good cooks have prepared at the expense of their sleep. It always consists of rice and vegetables, but they sure know how to make good rice and vegetables! At the breakfast table, there is always happy chatter, and the kids take turns trying to steal my bowl and spoon without me noticing it when I finish eating, so that they can wash it for me. Once in a while I win, and actually get to wash my own dish, but they are pretty good theives, and so it doesn’t happen very often.

After breakfast, I head back to my room for my personal worship time, while Travis takes the school girls to school, and Roy and Jason start math class with all the rest. Maria studies in her corner in preparation for Karen class, and Pearl works on her lesson plans for the day. Hannah flits from person to person, seeing how she can pester each one, or on rare occasions, she plays quietly with her toys.

After math class, everyone heads outside to work. Most of us go to the gardens to weed and water, but Seh Doe and Roy head to the kitchen to work on laying brick. Even Hannah has a little watering can and she helps us water the garden the best she knows how…at least she should grow well, since she dumps most of it on herself.

At 10:00, it is back to the house for Karen class. Since Seh Doe is already proficient in that subject, he keeps on working with Roy while the rest of us diligently try to make ourselves sound like intelligent, Karen speaking people. Some are more successful than others. (the “others” being me and Hannah) At 11:00, I take a break to sing Hannah to sleep in her hammock, then it is back to the grind.

At 12:00, we raid the kitchen for a light lunch, then we either head to town or to the well, or to work with Roy and Seh Doe. At the well, everyone takes baths and does their own laundry, or if they go to town to me, we catch up on all our emails at the internet shop, post things on my blog, and then do the daily shopping for the family. We have no refridgeration, so this is certainly something that has to be done every day. Then we head to the first school to pick up Pawkuhmooeydee. Those at home then start to cook supper.

Next, we take her home and head to the well for our baths, while Travis heads back to town to pick up Thunduh, since her school gets out an hour later. This is undoubtedly the most hectic time of the day with everyone trying to get their baths in before supper time. (it is too cold after supper)

Supper is at 5:00, and also consists of rice and vegetables. After supper, everyone does their chores, and makes sure that everything is in top shape for the evening, then we all settle down around the table for evening worship. We start off with a special story for Hannah, and then she sweetly waves goodnight to everyone, kisses Mommy and Daddy, and then trots off willingly to her bed. (I give her a bottle at night, which is the only time she ever gets one anymore, and she is rather fond of that bottle!) When she is tucked in and sleeping for the night, I rejoin the family for the rest of worship, and then it is English class time.

All the English people have a part in teaching this class, since we tailor it to each persons learning needs. It is anything but a quiet class! There is laughter, and the murmur of people concentrating on their lesson…out loud…and people practicing talking in English, etc… We really have fun with this time of night, and it has also become the time to talk to each other and discuss problems or to tell Mom and Dad about exciting things that happened during the day. Then, I bid everyone good night, and they switch to Burmese class, which usually lasts until 9:00.

Our days usually flow like a well oiled machine. Everyone has their own jobs to do, and we also help each other in any way we can. Maria commented to me the other day that it feels more like a resort than a school. I found that to be a little humorous since we cannot claim to be very comfortable, compared to American standards! (Oh for a lazy boy recliner!!!) But, I think that what she was refering to was the fact that each person here is learning to walk with the Lord. That makes it peaceful and happy the majority of the time. Even when people make mistakes, we talk about them and deal with them when they happen so that the problems do not last for very long. Even though each one of us has  a LONG ways to go in becoming the people that God would have us to be, trying to do things God’s way is a reward all in itself.