Feliz Pascoa!

That is, Happy Passover (Easter)!

We have been enjoying a couple of Portuguese Easter traditions.

Easter Bread

If you are familiar with Portuguese Sweet Bread, this is almost the same (it is not quite as sweet).  The Cross on top has an obvious meaning.  Inside, is the "sursprise":

There is an egg inside.  The egg being a symbol of New Life.  As I understand it, the egg is cooked along with the bread in the oven (it still has its shell). 






Chocolates

Despite the big yawn, the girls were really excited about Easter Morning.  Of course, we focused on the true meaning of Easter-- we watched a Veggietales Easter video (the new one), which was really well done and very clearly speaks of why we celebrate Easter.


They do love their chocolate here.  Although you can get the chocolate bunnies, more popular seems to be Chocolate Eggs.

Unfortunately, Mika had a bad cold, so we had to cancel on the Sunrise Service. 


She also had to wait on her chocolate egg!



She was feeling well enough to sing along with Dan, though:

Lisbon Zoo

Emi and Mika's Kindergarten class went to the Lisbon Zoo.  Debe's 1st and 2nd grade class tagged along, so they were able to go together.

They had some "hands on" exhibits:

I have to say, this looks a lot nicer than the zoos in Japan, which are much smaller with lots of cement.

Emi's favorite animal?  The "Dragon"; Komodo Dragon, that is:

 

The girls all had a lot of fun!

Father's Day in Portugal

Last Saturday was Father's Day here.  Emi surprised me with a special breakfast.

As it was a Saturday, and some lovely warm Spring weather we went out to enjoy it.

Emi and Mika both made cards and Giraffe Pen Holders. 

Thank you girls, but I'm still expecting something on the American Father's Day in June!

Mika's Song

Mika seems to have a double dose of the "Shy gene"; she normally will not speak to people if she can help it.  She is getting better in person, but still will not speak on the phone (or Skype).  Therefore, people do not believe us when we inform them that she is actually quite loud at home!

Here is a small sample:

Love & Respect, by Emerson Eggerichs

Women have a need to be loved; men have a need to receive respect.  This is the basic message of Love ＆ Respect, by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs.  Drawing upon his almost 30 of pastoring and counseling, as well as the Bible, Eggerichs paints a picture of how many married couples approach their marriage.  When the wife perceives “unloving actions”, she reacts in ways that will be perceived as “disrespectful.” Naturally, when the husband perceives “disrespectful actions”, he in turn reacts in ways that are “unloving.” 

Eggerichs calls this the “Crazy Cycle.”  He goes on to explain how we can avoid (or at least limit) the time spent in this cycle and how to move to the “Energizing Cycle” (and eventually to the Reward Cycle.”

Now I get a bit wary of “Self-help” books for Christians.  Too often they are filled with the world’s thinking.  In fact, I probably would not have read this book had I not heard Dr. Eggerichs speak.  Certainly there are many people with marriages that are in need of help, but when we start using the world’s thinking to solve our problems we head down a “slippery slope” that leads away from God.  I can assure you that Eggerichs does not do this; rather his analysis is Biblically based with scripture supporting his points.

I found that this is a good read for those that have struggling marriages, but also for those that have good marriages – any marriage can be made better. 

I received this book from Thomas Nelson Press in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

The opinions expressed are my own and were not influenced in any way.

Experiencing... Blackaby

Last weekend at church we had a special speaker: Dr. Blackaby.  No, not Henry, the famous author, but this was his son, Tom. We put together a special worship team (which is why I don't have any pictures).

We had a full house and everything was translated into Portuguese, so we were all blessed.

It was a good, timely message on Luke 9 about how we make or have our own plans, but fail to consider God's.

Anyway, I got to talk to him afterwards and he gave me some advice-- actually it was advice that his father had given to him.  So, in a way, I got advice from Henry himself!  It was kind of cool and definitely a blessed night!

International Day

About once a month we have a special day at school. For January, we had "International Day".

To attend our school you must hold a foreign passport, so we have students representing about 20 different countries.

Students were invited to bring something from their country: clothing, an interesting item or a snack).


The students seemed to enjoy it and many participated.  I guess they like to share about their culture... or maybe they just like getting out of class!