Slices of life.

Here's a slice of my life... An observation I have from living here : Old people here are in great shape. I see them out walking all the time and they have all these old people playgrounds...you think they are for kids at first but nope. They are for elderly people to work out with - monkey-bars, things to stretch and climb on, etc. I watched a lady recently walk by one and throw her leg over the edge for a pretty deep stretch (she was probably 70!). I've seen them out in the mornings or evenings do Tai Chi. The woman below was in my courtyard laying these out - I think they are some type of leaf. Not sure. I'll investigate and get back with you. She spread them out to dry in the sun all day.

This lady (as others do) walks around our apartment courtyard to hang her laundry. She finds a good tree and like any flexible, healthy old woman ...

Tries to climb it and tie her rope around. She is successful.
I would never have seen this in my apartment courtyard back in the States!

Ikea arrives. Green Smoothies are good.

We've had a busy last week or so. Getting into a weekly routine of buying groceries, fruit and such and meeting our language tutor, a possible house helper and trying to make our place our own. We came in the door the other night from eating at a restaurant and it felt so much more like home to me. A great feeling when so many things are so unfamiliar! Speaking of fruit and groceries...take a look at last week's finds from my sweet little family who sells me fruit (I must get a picture sometime of them):

The photo directly above is one of the things I have been using all the fruit in. It's a green smoothie. It looks like it would possibly taste like grass, I know, but it's sweet and yummy because you add lots of fruit in after you've blended a bunch of spinach up...I've made these lots before but never had such a great reason to make them every single morning now that I have such easy access to great fruit/vegetable variety. Our whole family drinks a glass and the kids love it (it's dinosaur juice) - great way to get veggies in. Here's a book about them. Here's a website with lots of yummy recipes and ideas.

We got our furniture from Ikea! We also got the kids bunk beds! We were so happy to finally get these things to start making things feel more like a home. We are going to keep chipping away at hanging things, putting things together, etc but here's a shot of our living room so far:

I love how much light our home gets. Light makes such a difference in the feel of a house.

We are good. We miss everyone so much! But we are slowly making strides in trusting in the good plans Dad has for us here, watching that unfold every day is totally amazing. Watching our little family grow and experience it together is a gift. The 4 people I live with every day make this such an adventure!

Blessings.

Life these days.

Life these days having us just getting settled. I forgot to mention in my last post that it takes 7-10 days to get what you purchased from Ikea. So we are pretty much furniture-less (we have a table and a bed in our room). We will have a little celebration I'm sure when we get all that stuff in, but in the meantime it gives us one more reason to go with the flow and be patient. We are quickly learning if you lack patience things will not be enjoyable here as life just takes longer. Great opportunities for growth for impatient people like myself :) We are much more comfortable than we were just 2 weeks ago landing here in our city, wide-eyed and absorbing the unfamililar. We are more familiar with those unknown grocery labels, we know how to hail a taxi now (just have to be prepared to know how to say where we want to go and NOT in English!), getting to see some of the same faces as we go about life: market trips, getting water, grocery stops, taxis. I have what I like to call "alien moments" where I look around and cannot believe I live here (in a good way). I know this will most likely wear off at some point, so for now I'm glad to just see the glass as half full.

Our place is great, full of natural light and open. We love our location, across from a small grocery store and next to a bakery that sells western style breads with chairs to sit in. It's the new place for "daddy dates". Here's the view from our from window on a somewhat clear day. That means maybe 2x a week we get to see the string of islands, you can't see but two in this photo but as I sit looking right now I can count 7 including a few tiny ones - it's amazingly clear this morning. I can see small fishing boats moving around. It can get hazy or foggy here quickly. We can always see the shore but not always those beautiful islands out there. Those are apt.'s to the left, there are just tons of those high rises around us, we are in one of them. That also boggles my mind... so different from where we last called "home".

Here's my newest sidekick: my oven. It's like a little bigger than a toaster oven but it sits on your counter and fits a small 9x13 without handles. Cooking is going better and better. I just have to think through cooking a lot since I'm not always sure what I can get or not or if I need to make something from scratch (like bbq sauce, tortillas or maple syrup). A small freezer we bought from friends is going to come in handy so I can cook in bulk and freeze things to use in recipes.

We had a local friend over to show me how to make a few things. Our first local meal in our home. We love the food here! My kids have done amazing with the food too. Having had the rule of making them eat what mommy makes has it's benefits living here. They have not been picky - what a mercy.

Here's a shot of Job. The only semi-good one I had. He's doing great here. He loves the people here and practices the new words he's learned all the time. He's really a social, bold personality which has been good here. I am so blessed to be this boy's mom and give thanks specifically for the way this little one has been made. He's a leader for sure. I hope he grows to LOVE this place.

Here's Phin. He's so quirky this one. The other night he asked me "mom, how do the covers get off of you at night when you sleep? Do they crawl off of your legs?" He's doing well here too, loves people watching out of our windows and notices details about things here. I love that.

Felicity - her name encompasses it all. She is so happy, wherever she is. She goes with the flow and has done amazing sleeping on her bedroom floor while her bed gets built, eating new foods, missing naps. This one is a go with the flow girl. Always singing, currently wearing the ballerina outfit you see below. The locals here LOVE her. They say she's incredibly beautiful and ask if she looks like mom or dad (what do you think:)?

One word: IKEA!

We have been using the last week to recover from jet-lag and get our house set up. We love our place and the windows in it are huge - basically floor to ceiling in the living/dining area. All that natural light just makes a person happier :) I got to take a really fun trip to the capital city's Ikea. Neat experience. New experience. Like nothing I've done before. I got the chance to go with a friend and I had such a good time. We lit up when we got inside with all the endless possibilities! I tried to keep it simple and buy items I know our place needs but also choose some items that I loved for making it ours. I think it's important to make this place "home". Not just what's functional but what will feel like our little refuge and place of refreshment. For my own heart it's important I decorate and love on my little place. Isn't "homemaker" my technical job description??

Anyways, a few items I got - HERE is the couch I chose. I love it. And THESE to go on my walls in beautiful white frames.

I have to explain the photo below. They love jelly type texture here in things or just odd combinations. Here's and example for you - Coffee Jelly anyone? From what I understand it's like a frappuchino with chunks of jelly in it.

Here we are enjoying REGULAR mocha Fraps sans the Jelly chunks :)

We are doing well. The kids are good. We are just taking it one.day.at.a.time here. There's so much to learn, so many moments feeling unable to do much on our own but trying to remember it's all a good thing. We have always been in this state, there's just times we "felt" more in control. We are battling to embrace this season before we don't see our need as much as we normally would. We are trying to enjoy being made to grow in these new ways. Be thinking of us in this regard!

Oh I have so much more to post but that will be for a later time...

We're Here!

I can hardly believe we are here in our city! We arrived last Tuesday evening. Our flight went great and the kids did much better than expected for such a long time in the air :) And our bags ALL made it safe and sound with not one thing broken - amazing (21 bags)! We are enjoying taking in so many new experiences every day, it's been new and not overwhelming thus far.

Here's a few examples of our "firsts" here:

*Hanging all laundry out on our balcony (I am surprised but they are not crunchy but soft and smell great) and trying to hide my skivvies from clear view though no one else in the building seems to care about theirs :)

*Wanting so badly to talk with someone who is giving you a big smile and being so kind yet you cannot introduce yourself or get to know them...

*My kids eating up the local food like they've had it for years.

*Feeling naked and unable to read labels to buy groceries.

And some first gifts that we have been so thankful for in our new place:

*That our apartment is on the 9th floor and overlooks big trees, stores and a bustling community life.

*That we can see boats and the coast from the corner of our dining room - our boys love this!

*That people here are so sweet and LOVE our children! They are drawn to Felicity and say she's beautiful when they see her.

*Friends helping us buy our first groceries and helping us get comfortable in our new home.

*Getting to feel more humble and dependent than we would feel in a familiar place, which drives us to think of where "home" really is for us.

We are busy here but hope to keep this thing updated as we can.

Thanks for thinking of us!