Spring Cleaning Interrupted

Last Friday, while gearing up to do one last push in the effort to get every drawer and shelf in our office organized and every scrap of paper filed or tossed (no recycling of paper here--yes, it hurts!), I was approached by Micah wanting to do something while Tiras was napping.

I tossed out to Micah, "can't you watch t.v.?!" (I know, great moments in parenting captured forever on the blog) and he looked at me quite soberly and said, "I don't want to watch t.v. I want to interact with you." And you know, when your five-year-old informs you that he wants to "interact" with you rather than be planted in front of a t.v., by gum and by golly you are gonna set aside your organizational plans and interact with the boy! And be sheepish and feel about two millimeters tall.

I remembered that my cousin had sent us gel window decorations for Easter and that Micah had been excited to try them out. I suggested that we decorate our window and he was thrilled and we had a ball decorating with those gel designs. Well, I was only tasked with the letters--all the rest was all Micah. He was very proud to have made sure all the gel decor was well out of the reach of his brother. It turned out really cute and festive. And was way more fun and memorable than getting my office tamed. (Many thanks, Darcy!)

Good Friday has always been one of the high points of the year for me. And had I not begun my day at 4:45 a.m. courtesy of a restless Tiras, I might even be able to articulate a metaphor about a flawed mommy finding redemption and second chances in Easter decorating with her son and a flawed world finding redemption and second chances in Easter and God's son. This weekend we worship and celebrate a patient and endlessly loving God seeing past our foibles and cherishing us enough to send his Son to pay the price for our every shortcoming and wrong act--from the silly and petty to the most dark and ugly. It is well, indeed!

Happy Easter weekend!

Happy Birthday, Tiras!

Spring Cleaning and Such Cuteness

My spring cleaning efforts are a slow but sure process. I have completed a whopping ONE (that is correct, 1) room. However, I have emptied every drawer and taken every item off every shelf and the room just feels organized and orderly and functional from the inside out.

Prior to this cleaning, a lot of our organization technique was driven by, "quick, get that item out of the reach of Tiras and/or Micah" or "don't want to lose it so will put it in this important drawer/shelf of importantness and thus be able to avoid losing it". Except for there are so many such drawers and shelves that all such items were promptly forgotten. It has been like having multiple kitchen junk drawers scattered throughout the house. Which makes me feel on edge and a little drained and defeated. (My surroundings tend to go a long way in affecting my energy level and I hit that point where order needed to be established STAT)

Having put my hands on every item in my room and having created a logical place for them is a great antidote to all that chaos and vague sense of thinking we had probably brought x, y, or z with us from the U.S. but darned if I was ever going to be able to locate it except by happenstance. And, actually, I am more like one and a half rooms as I am well into the process of working on our office now. With Deron gone this week, I made a really great dent in dealing with this room, so that is a silver lining to being apart for sure!

As for "such cuteness", I just am having such a ball being around our kids. A few examples of moments I want to remember:
*Micah playing with toys and sounding just like Andy from Toy Story. He has long had a great imagination and done this kind of play. However, at five years old, it has all gotten so much more elaborate and dramatic and it is so fun to overhear him in action!
*Tiras running after Micah and Aria (our almost four year old neighbor). He is totally hanging out with the big kids and seeing his purposeful little runs and swaggers just makes me smile every time.
*Micah's habit of coming over to me to confirm that a calculator got the answer right. Ah the faith in Mom at this age. Double check the calculator by making sure Mom agrees! (He loves numbers so while I work on the budget, he plays with the calculator and has a grand old time seeing the results of the sums and differences he creates.)
*Hearing Tiras sing "talkin' you" and "oh my" and "trying" when we do our duet of "Lucky" or watching Micah rock out to "River Deep, Mountain High". (I have been watching You*Tube clips from the "Duets" episode of Glee.)



A quintet of reasons why today is a great day:
1. Deron returns home this evening! Yay for this!
2. Friday Night Lights, the best show ever in the world, kicks off its fifth and final season tonight. My DVD is on the way and I will have plenty of Kleenex on hand because I suspect that opening credits of the first episode alone will have me in tears. It's just that good. You grow to love these characters and this town so very much and are inspired to be a better and more compassionate person.
3. Two years ago my parents flew out from California to Atlanta. The reason for this visit was extra special as they were coming to help us welcome Tiras into the world. I was so excited to meet this little guy at last! (And it just keeps getting better and better.)
4. Six years ago, we shared the news with parents and siblings that we were expecting a litte one in December 2005. Our plans to wait until after the first trimester to share the news did not exactly pan out--after almost six years of trying to start a family, we lasted six DAYS before sharing the news with our nuclear families.
5. Sixteen years ago, Deron proposed. It turns out that as sweet and together as I may have fancied myself at twenty-six, I had plenty of growing up to do and I am so blessed to have married such a wise and loving man who has loved me so generously over the years. We have grown so much together and I am smiling to remember that day in Santa Barbara when he quite literally rendered me speechless. I KNEW the proposal was coming but was still so overwhelmed by joy and awe that I would spend my life with this man that all I could do was nod happily. I am such a lucky girl!

Hoppy Days

For the past few months, we have had an increasing number of visits by these tiny little frogs. Initially, they just seemed to wash in with the rain. Sadly, a few seemed to get stuck in our kitchen and we would find their dead little corpses the next morning. But as time has gone on, it is a daily occurrence to have these frogs on the inside and outside of our kitchen window and in various spots in the kitchen. One lone frog (pictured above) even ventured into the dining room and somehow managed to scale its way to the top of a chair. I am curious how long we will have these little visitors and if they will return the same time next year. Stay tuned...

That was hoppy news and I also have news that makes me happy. One of my most favorite authors EVER, Louise Penny, has a new book coming out this summer!!! You can get a sense of her awesomeness from her website. Yes, she writes great mysteries. And, yes, she has me determined to visit Quebec. But what makes her magical is her compassion and insight into human nature--its foibles and its graces. She has created a village filled with characters I wish I could come visit every year. My mom and cousin are as ardent as I in their fanhood. The timing of the book's release will be our return back from home leave--I think it will be a terrific pick-me-up to have this book waiting for me and to know a couple of my favorite people in the world are reading it too!
http://www.louisepenny.com/

I am off to pre-order her book, A Trick of the Light. Yay for that! Deron is at a meeting and then off to Nairobi for the week to attend a conference. A happy little book order is just the boost my morale could use because I wish he did not have to go. I realize that the days zip along and he will be back before I know it and I realize the goodbye is the hardest part, BUT, yuck. Even the idea of chocolate is not cheery enough, so it is off to Amazon I go!

Just a Few of The Things That Make Me Happy Today

1. Today's date makes me happy! 4.4.11. Love how 44 is a multiple of 11 and love the symmetry of 11 and all its multiples.

2. I love this picture. Tiras is moving into such a fun and adorable stage (oh how the talking magnifies the fun of being a parent because you get to know so much more of their thoughts and personality!) I think it is cute and happy and funny BUT the main reason I now love it so much is that Tiras bursts out laughing every time he sees it. Something about it just cracks him up and that reaction is so very infectious and priceless!



3. I love that Internet is speedy and working so that I can actually do this blog during a Tiras nap! Whoo to the hoo for that!

4. I love that my super thoughtful and awesome husband who does not even get what all the fuss about chocolate is about CALLED me specifically to find out my favorite flavors of artisan chocolates so he can purchase them for me while he is in Nairobi. Yes, I am excited about the chocolate, but long after I have gobbled down the last delicious molecule of those treats, my husband's sweetness will remain! I am a lucky girl!

5. Almost six years ago, I found out that this wonderful, charming, smart, funny, sensitive, clever, kind, thoughtful, delightful little guy was on the way. My life has been forever richer ever since and I do not think an April will ever come and go where I do not celebrate the day I learned that happy, happy, happy news!!!

It's Been A While: 10 Month Review

Amazingly, ten months have passed by since we touched down at the Kisumu airport, loaded our pile of luggage and weary selves into the CDC vehicle picking us up, and drove through our new hometown for the first time. (Well, Deron had been to Kisumu before, but never with the added dimension of it being his home.)

I actually intended to do an eight month review, but internet was down that particular day, which seems only fitting since internet going in and out is such a prevalent reality of life here. I hope when we move back to the U.S. that I don't take things like speedy and reliable Internet for granted. Realistically, I suspect that much like breathing easily and sleeping soundly after a cold, ease of access to Internet will quickly become something I don't think much about.

Life here is really good. There are challenges, to be sure. And there are also moments that are pure magic.

An example of magic occurred this past week when Micah had Cultural Day at his school. Thanks to a high school friend of mine, he was able to don the orange and black of this year's World Series Champion San Francisco Giants! (Many thanks to Shannon for not only suggesting baseball and specifically the Giants when I put out a Facebook plea for ideas as to what Micah might wear to represent U.S. culture, but also for mailing us an awesome and wonderful Cultural Day care package!!!)



And once at school he was surrounded by fellow students and teachers in such wonderful and colorful dress--everything from traditional Ugandan to Indian to Masai to one of the Sons of Liberty from the Revolutionary War (the student I have been tutoring in U.S. history who has made it so much fun due to his interest and enthusiasm!) There was a traditional African dance done by the Year Two and Three Class (ages six and seven)--it was adorable and wonderful and I loved watching the mix of Kenyan and Expat students shake their hips and shoulders and wear the traditional garb all together. I loved the drums playing and the music and the sheer joy and exuberance of it all. The performance was followed by a circle dance done by all the students and teachers who cared to join in and it was great.

There was also a traditional Punjabi wedding dance performed by some of the students. After their performance, the teacher hosting the cultural day activities praised the performance and then asked how many people had enjoyed the music and would like to dance to that music. Upon seeing a massive sea of hands raised, she cued the music once again and invited the audience to do just that. To see a mass of students and teachers of all different nationalities race out to the field to dance together so joyfully was a sight I will always cherish. They were such a mix of ethnic groups and ages and I watched some of the Indian teen dancers helping younger girls learn their moves. I watched our neighbor bring her almost four year old daughter to the field and teach her some moves. I watched Micah dancing his heart out from his perch atop a hill. There was so much joy on that field and not to get all "kumbaya-ish" or anything, but there really was a wonderful unity amidst a celebration of this world's rich diversity. And it was magic! And THAT kind of moment is what I hoped for for our boys and for us and THAT kind of moment and day is why I am so excited we get to be here.

I feel like I am getting the hang of living here. There is still so much to explore and learn and discover. But it feels like home and I am sitting here typing with a giant grin on my face because I am still so amazed to find myself getting to have this experience.