Change

     This morning I am sitting in Cool Beans, my favourite coffee shop here in Madison. Kenzie and I have come here for the morning to work. It is nice to get out and work in a different environment; so much easier to focus here, even though there are obviously quite a few people. Its not the preschool room, where I usually do my work, so that's all I need!
     Yesterday was a fun day in the YWAM preschool. Following our typical schedule, as the children arrived, they played while waiting for everyone to show up. I usually let them play for the first ten or so minutes after arriving. Then we have our circle -er, our OVAL, as the kids always correct me. I read a Bible story and have some sort of discussion. Yesterday was about obeying our parents, and God. How Jesus obeyed His Father, God.
     After this, we went outside. It has been quite cold here for the past four or five days, usually reaching a high between -15 and -20 (Celsius, because I still haven't got this Fahrenheit thing down), but yesterday it reached a mild -13! One of the kids had brought two sleds, so the kids had a blast taking turns sledding down the hill in our yard. That has been something really awesome- even though the YWAM preschool still has no sleds in our possession, it seems that every day one parents brings one or two sleds. Never the same parent on the same day, though. But I'm pretty sure they don't discuss who is bringing it on what day. So God has been faithful to provide sleds every day!
     After about twenty minutes outside, we head inside to eat snack. After this, the kids get to play again. After maybe fifteen minutes of play, I gather them together for our other activity of the day. On Thursdays, we have a craft/art activity, on Fridays we learn something academic, like something with the alphabet or numbers. On Tuesdays, we always had music, but our music teacher, Lucy, who was so good with the kids, cannot come anymore. Now I have turned Tuesdays into Science day.
     So yesterday, I took small cups of ice and put them in a muffin tray. We had five different things to pour on different ice blocks: hot water, cold water, oil, sugar, and salt. We talked about what we thought would melt the ice fastest. Then we poured the different things on the ice.
     It was really fun! The kids loved it and after I dismissed them to play again, I left the tray of ice on the table. Two of the kids spent the rest of the day touching it and pouring more water and salt on to melt the ice more.
     So that was our day yesterday. It was great!
     On Monday, my friend Kenzie and I moved out of the house we were living in into the house of another YWAM couple. I will be living there until my time in Madison is done. It is such a blessing to be living there, especially since the cost is significantly cheaper than I was anticipating paying. As in less than half the price! The couple, Kelly and James, are leaving tomorrow on a three week trip to Asia, so Kenz and I will have that time to settle into the house, which we are quite grateful for! Right now, I am staying upstairs in the guest room, but for reasons that are currently not public knowledge, once they come back from Asia, I will be moving downstairs and sharing Kenzie's room with her. The only reason I am able to stay at their home for the rest of my time on staff is because Kenzie likes me enough to be willing to share her room. Something she didn't have to agree to!
    So that's my update. Tomorrow, I will be driving to Milwaukee to bring Kevin, Tiff, and Micah to the airport; we leave at seven in the morning. Yikes! They are going home for a fundraising trip for three weeks, so I will have one less preschooler for that long. We will definitely miss him!
     Blessings,
          Katie

The view out of the front window of our old house, looking at another YWAM family's house