We Have a Senior

Blog Post about November 2021

Did I wait until November to take "first day of school" pictures?

Yes, I did.

Does anyone know why?

No, they do not.

Do we have a SENIOR this year?

YES, WE DO!

The current academics presently living at home

Since it was only 10pm in Nashville, our distant academic joined us.

Our fourth grader at the French School

Our very tall Sophomore

AND....OUR SENIOR!!! 

Karis is amazing, and this house will feel a void when she is gone.

She is funny, kind, smart, caring, clever, and she is such a hard worker!

She has plans to pursue an education in dance science, working toward a degree in physical therapy.

Life in These United States

Blog Post About Fall 2020

We had car trouble on our way back from Nashville, and it was just me and the kids. Doug stayed behind to help Kylie finish getting situated with a bank and other details, and he rented a car to come home later (and stop and see more people on the way home).

Thankfully, I was able to stop in Memphis at our friends and let the kids do school for three hours while we waited for the car to get fixed.

It put us on the road late, and we knew we couldn't make it all the way home, so we decided to take a detour and see my brother. We knew we couldn't stay with them because the day before, they had just moved into their new house.

We got a hotel near them and went to see them the next morning, bringing my sister-in-law some coffee. She had arrived the night before, as well, seeing her house with all of the furnishings for the first time. She was away with family because her father had died the week before, but they have some wonderful friends who moved them in.

We took one of their children home with us for a few days until the rest of them came down for the funeral.

These two responsible boys got all their school work done each day.

September 7, 2020

Many days, Keira chose to do online school in pajamas and roller skates. Her French school was 8 hours ahead of her, so the teacher recorded each of the classes, and then Keira just watched the recordings without participating.

However, about 6 times during the semester, she did get up at 1 or 2am just to talk with her class and join in, but it never became the norm.

September 14, 2020

She was diligent about doing all of her projects though.

During the year, they followed a little pigeon named Emma who traveled all over the world, and every time she went to a different city, they studied all the culture, food, and art of the country that city was in.

The first city Emma visited was New York City. We made a crown, found a bedsheet, borrowed a vacuuming tool and a roll of tape and voilà...Lady Liberty.

September 16, 2020

Here, Keira created her own Keith Haring art. We just did the projects. Took a picture and sent them in.

I helped Keira where I could, but I had the added benefit of being connected with a sweet girl named Lucille who attended the university in town. Her mother is French and her dad is American. Lucille spent the first 14 years of her life in France, and she was a wonderful tutor for Keira, helping her memorize poems and reading to understand.

September 24, 2020

Amongst all of our travels, we kept a full schedule when we were at "home." Karis and Caleb didn't travel with us a lot, so they continued all of their activities with VERY sweet people picking them up and taking them to youth group, ballet, and soccer, but the rest of the time, our schedule gave our kids opportunities to make friends with and spend time with kids in America.
 

French Cuisine

The French teacher contacted all the parents and asked if we could help her on a "cooking day" with the kids. Another lady and I responded that we could.

She told us to come at the beginning of the day and just wait for the morning lessons to be over, and then we would all walk to the cafeteria to "cook."  

I don't speak French, but the other mother does.

The teacher wrote the recipe on the board in French and all the students had to copy it down and recite it a few times.

Next she started writing something, and I saw the words "Keira" and "maman," and I got a little nervous.

The next thing I know, the kids are grinning, looking at us, and then they start working.

And then they start showing the teacher what they have drawn.

I couldn't type the words into google translate at the time because I was trying to be engaged, but later at home, I was able to use my app to translate what it said:

Keira's mom and Aryana's mom are in the class.  They are seated on small chairs. They eat a cake.  They cat is under the table.



It wasn't quite like sitting for a portrait painting, but it was a little intimidating to have 23 second graders drawing pictures of you :)

The teacher paired up the students and gave each table of four a bowl and a wooden spoon.

Everything was in French, but at one point the teacher told me in broken English, "These kids have never been in the kitchen before.  They don't know how to mix, get their hands dirty, cut, or cook.  This is a shame!"

I'd say they picked it up rather quickly.

I would go to each table to help them finish rolling out the dough or add more flour or whatever they needed.

Most of the time, I spent peeling apples for the kids, so they could cut them into small pieces. They really liked the cutting part, but there were only a couple of knives per table, so the cutting took a long time. Plus, some of these kids really had never used a knife before, so it went really slowly.

November 13, 2019

I'm really not sure what they ended up making :)

They filled the dough pan with apples, and that was it.  No topping, no sugar, no cinnamon.  They just went out to recess while I cleaned up.

Later, Keira said the teacher baked them in the school ovens, but before cooking, she added a coin to each one.  

All I know is that Keira didn't like it, so I guess we won't be recreating it at home ;)

Things I see (Vol 12)

Welcome to "Things I See."  If you want to see the previous installments, you can click on:

 Volume 1 , Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, Volume 5, Volume 6, Volume 7, Volume 8, 

Volume 9, Volume 10, Volume 11

A car with "this" on the back windshield was parked in front of our house one night, and I just thought, "You can't get any more wrong than this."

After 60 years of research, they are still "staring" instead of "starting."

Yes, you are seeing correctly.  This woman is watering astroturf.

We use one gas bottle for a long time on our stove/oven.

These are the weekly exchanges of gas bottles outside of a naan (bread) shop.

That's a lot of bread, folks.

Bread is a serious business here.  

People line up at 6am for their morning bread, 11ish for their afternoon meal, and 7pm for their evening meal.  

You just lay your money under a piece of long rope, and the man at the window takes the bills closest to the window and asks whose money it is and how much bread they want.  Then the next bills get asked about and so on.  It's quite a system.

The shop above was being charged rent that was too high, so they started construction 3 plots down on their own shop.

You can see that the size if very unassuming, but it is still the heart of the neighborhood.

Reminders of all of God's promises are a happy thing here in the Middle East, because sometimes the darkness feels heavy, and knowing He's near is a beautiful thing.

I still don't understand the Christmas and Easter decorations in this country.  The people really don't understand the meanings of any of them, but they adopt what they see from the West.

After I heard that some people think we worship the Christmas tree at Christmas, I can't imagine what they think about celebrating Easter with eggs for.

Life at the French school.  This is what happens when you say jé instead of jai.

She didn't seem to mind, and apparently, she wasn't the only student that got drawn on.

This reminded me of how big of a splash "Covfefe" made in May of 2017.

Kids Doing Their Thing

Keira has a lot of life in her.  She bring so much energy and joy to our home.

I'm also thankful for friends who invite her over and let her bring her energy to their homes as well.

Keira has been to this girls' house (pictured below) about four times for "play dates," and her mother is so creative.  They make slime, crafts, cakes, play legos, play games, play with their turtle, play with their dog, etc.  She is about three years older than Keira, and she makes Keira feel special.

It's so much fun for Keira and I'm thankful for people who invest in my child's life.

March 27, 2019

Keira has worked hard since starting the French school.  You might not can read this report card, but all those green marks on the side, say she's doing well.

Her teacher wrote at the top of her report card:  "Excellent work during this second period. No one could guess that Keira joined the french school only a few months ago!  Congratulations!"

(At the time this was written, she had only been attending 5 months)

March 18, 2019

I took Keira on a date, and she took this picture of me

Then she took this picture of herself.

Love that girl!

 March 20, 2019

Caleb took a coding class at an education center last spring.  We came on the final night to see their presentations.

Since Caleb had a nice zig zag pattern on his face for the pictures,

They finally turned the projector off, but the lighting was terrible (and he had a cap on), so we'll just take what we can get.

The class and their families enjoyed the small celebration.

 March 25, 2019

Our three older ones crack me up, and they have as much energy as Keira, but since they're teenagers, you never know when the energy is coming OR going.

I love that they can all cram together on one bench, smile, enjoy each other's company, and make each other laugh.  They bring a smile to my face, and it is a privilege to have them home for school.

March 14, 2019