One Hundred Days

Growing up, my elementary school didn't celebrate the 100th day of school like they do now.

And since I homeschooled all my older kids during their elementary years, my first experience with this event was with Keira as a 1st grader.

Her teacher asked if I could help at one of the "stations."

No problem.

I helped them cut out paper glasses that didn't work so well, but they were in the shape of "100," so the kids liked them.

Keira also had to bring 100 items of something.
I am not creative and the first thing I thought of were beans or noodles, so...

Yep, those are Keira's bowtie noodles.



Other cool moms made cookies

 Or let their kid bring junk food

Or brought 100 strawberries and Nutella for dipping



So it really made me appreciate the mom who thought a little more like me.

Pre-packaged cups and straws in the count of 100.

The kids had fun, and you can even see some of them wearing their "100" glasses.

Next year, maybe I'll be more creative...maybe :)

March 2, 2019

"A Lovely Leg Up"

I have no clever title for today's post because it's about so many things.  I don't have enough pictures of any one topic, so I combined three topics in one.

The "Lovely" part is obvious from the pictures.  

The ladies we have "tea" with met together for breakfast on Valentine's Day, and a beautiful lady from Syria hosted.  

She had a special cake made, and then she made other desserts and dishes on top of that.  

We turned off the lights and ate by candlelight for part of the breakfast.
She also bought each of us a rose.

I want to brag on her for just a moment.

That painting on the wall with the beautiful purple flowers...

She did that (and several others in the house).  Amazing talent!

The "Leg" part of the title is about Kylie's injured knee.
Her knee displacement occurred on October 1, 2018, and this was taken on February 10, 2019.
The x-ray is backward, so her injured left leg is actually on the right.  You can see that the density and the size of the muscle is reduced in that leg.  This was about nine weeks from the Spring performance, and the doctor told her "no dancing," and get in the gym and start "doing leg weights."

So we got her a gym membership and she went faithfully to re-gain her strength, hoping to be able to perform at the end April.

Now, for the "Up" part...Caleb.

Starting at the beginning of 2019, we had a hard time keeping track of Caleb's growth.

Here he is in February standing back-to-back with Karis and me. 

February 20, 2019

And these were taken just a few months ago in November.  

Even though no one is standing up straight, you can see he's taller than both of them.

And I'm pretty sure they don't like that :)

  .

November 6, 2019

Things I See (Vol 10)

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

It always amazes me that with all of the English speakers in this country, the businesses don't take advantage of them for spell-checking ads.

  

Life Water becomes Lefi Weter.

Some poor fellow named Henry is on sale.

Your guess is as good as mine.

I'm not sure this would be my first choice for a travel agency.

And just like Africa, we find some overloaded vehicles here, too.

I've told you before how each household washes the street in front of their house every day.

But what is new is that in the last year, the government has started "metering" water on houses for the first time.

I'm anxious to see if they will still think cleaning the street is important when they have to pay for it ;)

And let me leave you with this...the taste of Cardamom chewing gum in your mouth.  YUM!

Syrian Cooking Class

My friend and I saw a cooking class advertised on Facebook.  It was to help a Syrian refugee woman earn some money for her family.  I thought there were be more cooking involved, but it ended up being a lot of watching, a little helping, and a lot of eating, and I was okay with all of that.

I have had this dish before in a restaurant, but I didn't know how to make it until now.  

I also didn't know that it's made with uncooked meat!

I'm not sure I'll be eating this again anytime soon.

Then we all sat down (after a four hour experience)!

February 2, 2019

Ballet and the Cold

February came, and still no snow in the city.  Keira was missing the snow we had seen on the mountain, so she cut up some bubble wrap, put it in a bowl, and stuck it in the fridge to make it cold.

The other kids were good keeping warm with lots of coffee and hot chocolate.  When we first moved in, we were cooking, washing dishes, and doing school in big ski jackets, but with the heaters working in a few rooms, it made a difference in what we all wore.

Every five to six weeks, the French school that Keira attends takes a week off.  During their February break, the dance studio asked all the French school ballet students to help out with a project.  A TV station wanted to make a video for children, teaching them how to do ballet in their homes.  This was the first time they videoed, and they've done it a couple of times since.

It's a blessing to live where we live so that Keira gets opportunities like this.

It just so happens that all of the little ballet girls are Keira's best friends, so afterward they enjoyed an afternoon play time together.






Sweet girls!



February 10, 2019

Tea Time Melting Pot

A group of ladies I know decided to start meeting each month for "tea" at different houses to encourage each other, share struggles, and bless each other in a land that none of us call home.  They are from Nicaragua, Columbia, Morocco, United States, Brazil, and a few places in between.

The first lady who volunteered to host is from South America, but she had lived most of her married life in Kuwait before moving here. She had a party planning business there, and as you can see from the pictures below, she really knew how to throw a party.

I asked where she had gotten all of her decorations, and she said she had friends ship them to her from all sorts of places.

She has collected and moved with more Christmas decorations than I've seen in any house in this country.  I was blown away at what she travelled here with, and all the decorations made me smile.

I know this might seem like nothing to you, but after living here for three Christmas' (2019 will be our fourth), this was really a jaw-dropping experience for me. (Remember, I live in a country where people barely acknowledge the holiday and do not decorate their homes for Christmas).

This is not pork sausage.  Don't worry.

This is a special dish from our hosts' South American country.

This was my beautiful spread :)

After lunch chit-chat.

January 8, 2019