On Structure, "Home Schooling" of Sorts, and And a Fun Link

I do really, really love me some structure. I think last year was a bit of a fog for me wherein I was just often a step or two behind and unable to feel like I was on top of just about anything. After a year of learning and a respite in the U.S., I am finding that I am much more efficient and comfortable here. I have lots of systems in place and systems make me such a happy, happy camper! (Systems can be as simple as figuring out "pick up sites" for objects that need to go up or downstairs; how to stay on top of menu planning, inventory of stuff like diapers, etc.,or a monthly day to deep clean and seriously organize the playroom. Basic, but EVERYTHING had to be figured out last year and now it all feels much more manageable and doable.)

As for home schooling, I am just referring to super cool materials I just ordered for Tiras. There are great resources for activities with toddlers. We have decided to keep him home one more year and I am really looking forward to having some structured activities with him! (Yep, there's that word again!) I even ordered a lesson plan book so that I can have each week's activities blocked out in advance so that all my good intentions don't simply remain intentions but actually turn into actions!

My Little Student To Be



As for the fun link, there is a missionary family that just moved here from North Carolina. They have four kids, two of which are pretty close in age to Micah and Tiras. They are keeping a blog and it has all sorts of fun and wonderful details about life here in Kisumu. Wish I had been so clever, but having missed that boat, am totally delighted someone else was and gave me the go ahead to link to their blog so you can check out everything from matatu names they've spied, to observations about the different foods here to typical moments they've entitled "Only in Kenya". It's definitely a slice of life here in Kisumu and really well done and fun to read. Enjoy!

http://www.theagapepages.blogspot.com

And, I just can't help but geek out over the fact that I am doing my first ever link insert. So very exciting! :-) Edited to add that my link did not seem to work so I just cut and paste their blog address. Hmph!

Weekend in Kericho

This past weekend we joined another family in our compound and drove up to Kericho. Kericho is the center of Kenya's tea industry and its rolling tea plantations made for a wonderful visual treat.

Our neighbor said that she grew up watching Indian movies where the male and female leads would sing love songs to each other in the rolling hills of tea plantations and I could well see how they make for a magical setting. They reminded me of wine country or hiking in the Swiss Alps and reminded Deron of driving through Germany--I think what they all have in common is a glorious pastoral vibe of blue skies and green rolling hills!

Another perk of our visit was that with its high altitude and daily rains, Kericho is significantly cooler than Kisumu. We even had a fire going in the evening and were snuggled in sweatshirts. It felt like autumn!

The kids had a ball together. Tiras has gotten so talkative and it's fun watching him hang out with "the big kids". It was an altogether wonderful weekend. Even the drive back was a pleasure as we made our way down the hills and back toward Kisumu.



Garden Entrance to our Lodging


Walking in the Tea Fields


Our Drive Back

Returning: Part 2

And after our trip to the U.S., we returned to Kisumu. And it felt like a happy return--Kenya really is home for us right now and I was struck by a few things. As different as it is from where I have lived all my life heretofore, it feels absolutely comfortable and like just where I am supposed to be. I was also struck by how far we have come since last summer. This time around we have our house up and running (albeit with plenty of surprise repairs and residents* with which to contend); we have friends and people we know; we have routines and a sense of how to function--Kisumu is now familiar.

And I was struck by the fact that we had not only survived travel with our young kids--it had gone fairly smoothly and that makes the whole world seem much more accessible. I think we are likely to do a lot more travel as the kids grow up than we might otherwise have thought to take on and I am excited about that.

And speaking of kids, we are at such a wonderful and fun stage with both of the kids. I was often reminded of the following exchange from Lost in Translation:

Bob: It gets a whole lot more complicated when you have kids.
Charlotte: It's scary.
Bob: The most terrifying day of your life is the day the first one is born.
Charlotte: Nobody ever tells you that.
Bob: Your life, as you know it... is gone. Never to return. But they learn how to walk, and they learn how to talk... and you want to be with them. And they turn out to be the most delightful people you will ever meet in your life.
Charlotte: That's nice.

Tiras is talking so much now and Micah has long been talking. I feel like the talking piece opens up a whole new realm of personality and I love it. I thought I loved the boys when they were babies, but with both boys, a whole new exponential level of adoring and enjoying them came into play when the talking started. I am so with Bill Murray's character--these are two of the most delightful people I will ever meet! Things can get tiring, hectic, chaotic, and even frustrating, but underneath it all, this motherhood gig really is sublime. Truly sublime.


There is still so, so, so much more to explore and discover here in Kenya and about my two boys! I am excited to see what the year ahead brings.

*By residents I mean critters ranging from the cute (geckos and tiny frogs) to the less appealing (such as the bats who decided they wanted penthouse privileges in our home and whose aromatic urine and guano made us all too aware of their presence)

Returning: Part 1

In the months that have elapsed since my "Spring Cleaning" post, we have flown back to the U.S. to have Micah checked out for medical issues (he's fine); returned home for a week and a half and then flown to Spain to join Deron's family for a cruise honoring his mom's 70th birthday (it was wonderful); returned to Kenya with Deron's mom to visit with her here, share Kisumu with her, and visit the Mara (a happy, happy time with so many memories); and then flown back to the U.S. with Deron's mom where we hit Baltimore, Walnut Creek, and Atlanta (a whirlwind packed with many special moments).

Returning to the U.S. (without the underlying tension of medical issues, as we had with Micah) was a happy whirlwind--time passed way too quickly in each spot, but held so many wonderful moments and so many familiar and nice to see again sights. We came nowhere close to doing all we had planned to do or seeing all the people we had hoped to see. We probably underestimated how quickly a tri-city tour would zip past. If we saw you, it was fabulous and cherished and we thank you! If we did not, it was largely due to how quickly time zipped in Baltimore and Walnut Creek--we had large contigents of family gather to see us in each place--and we sure hope to catch you in the next wave!

Even beyond the obvious interpersonal connections, there were lots of things to love about being back in the U.S. There are way too many to list them all, so in no particular order, here were some often-taken-for-granted-but-newly appreciated aspects to being back:

Deron and I both loved the freedom of movement. Roads are so good in the U.S. (not to mention signage, police regulating how people drive thus decreasing the truly crazy and obnoxiously aggressive behavior that might otherwise ensue, rest stops, and roadside assist services should something go awry) and we loved the feeling that should we wish, we could jump in the car at any time and to be able to go anywhere (heck, I just loved DRIVING again!).

I had a giant grin on my face every time I stepped in Target. Whole Foods and Publix as well. There are products and produce items I have missed. There are ingenious products I did not even know existed but discovered. (Hello Munchkin diaper discs--looks like the start of a beautiful friendship! These little guys totally work on the diaper pail as nothing else ever has! We may be on the tail end of life with diapers, but what a happy note on which to end our run thanks to these brilliant little game changers in the fight against yucky smell in Tiras's room.)

I cannot possibly overstate how much I enjoyed having clean, running tap water with which to brush my teeth and wash my dishes. So nice! (And, yes, I do fully appreciate how lucky I am to have running water at all and to have the distiller for my drinking water. I am not marching for ages to a water source and then painstakingly carrying my water back to my home. I still have it easy and I am grateful. Still, clean water so easily accessible as it was in the U.S. was something I relished.)

Speaking of doing dishes, garbage disposals. Ahhhh...

Chocolate cream pie at Chow in Lafayette. Had it three (yes, 3!) times while we were in Walnut Creek. Also had fish tacos at Chow the day we arrived in California and they were so delicious. I basically ate whatever I wanted in the U.S. since I knew it would be a year until I would have access to certain flavors and types of food again. I savored and fully appreciated all manner of food and beverage.

And on that very sweet note, I will end my written reflections on the U.S. visit. I can't do it full justice, so just suffice it to say that it was a fun and refreshing time.

Below are some pictures of the kids enjoying Atlanta's Fernbank Museum (run, don't walk to see their amazing new children's exhibit on the top floor--so well done and so much fun even for an adult to explore) and Destin Beach in Florida (a road trip our family took during the Atlanta portion of our trip).

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!