One of the surprising things about this super urban city is the amount of fruit trees and berry bushes everywhere. There may not be a lot of green grass but there are tiny strips of land around apartment buildings and whatnot (in my area). On those strips of land, fruit trees grow. In the summer, you can see fig trees, apricot trees, plum trees, and orange trees. Today, I saw what looks like a blackberry bush.
You could essentially live off the land here.
Just sharing an observation, that's all.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Monday, July 29, 2013
Organizing
Ever since I returned from vacation about three weeks ago, I've noticed a surge of motivation, energy, alertness. Prior to vacation, I was in a fog, as I mentioned in a post, from being so tired, stressed, and too busy. My thinking processes slowed down to the rate of molasses and I was constantly forgetful (putting things in the wrong places, turning off lights in a room forgetting that someone was still occupying it, etc). Vacation helped and what's also helping is that I've weaned DB to two feedings a day. My body is becoming less taxed after nearly two years of growing a human being and then sustaining said human being with food. I remember the same surge of energy after I weaned A.
So, when I realized that a vacation week of making only two decisions daily (what to eat and whether to swim in the pool or sea) subsequently lifted the brain fog, I needed to simplify my life more. I can't eliminate much but I can super-organize it, as far as I am able with the unpredictable nature of my job and expat life that defies organization.
Now, I've never had to be a super-organized nerd - and I say "nerd" affectionately because I think all nerds are wonderful - because I didn't juggle so many things like I do currently. It doesn't mean I was less busy before but I was able to stay on top of things without needing an organizational tool or a calendar. I don't really have great organization skills.
To learn some organizational skills, I went to ol' reliable Google and stumbled on the concept of homemaking binder. A homemaking binder is simply a central place to keep everything in order to keep your home running (and whatever else you need to keep running). You keep everything you need in it and you can put in anything you want: contact list, birthday/anniversary list, daily/weekly/monthly planner, task list, cleaning schedule, meal planner/recipe lists/inventories, anything related to kids like school, activities, etc, home maintenance reminders, budget/financial planner, auto maintenance log, etc. You can find many printables on the Internet for free that you can print and fill out for your use -- and they're pretty printables, too :-) It's whatever you want the binder to be but the point is that everything is organized, listed, and put in one central place.
A central place seemed like a good idea, especially since I have no desk. I'm terrible because I keep the calendar on my computer and phone (which syncs with G's calendar so we can see each other's schedule and not double-book ourselves), the grocery list on the whiteboard in the kitchen, the meal planner is usually written down on a piece of paper or on the whiteboard, various stuff on my computer, and I write to-do lists in a notebook which I also jot down ideas and thoughts so the notebook itself is disorganized. The notebook is never in the same place and it migrates from the bedroom to living room to kitchen and back to living room.
So, I've started a binder and it's still a work in progress. My binder isn't just a homemaking binder; it's also a language and work binder. It will help me tremendously to use my time efficiently when I am focusing on language study with its various tasks and projects which are simultaneous so that's a lot of balls to juggle in the air. I can also schedule activities for the girls by keeping it all in the binder. I can also write down work-related tasks (not language) in one category, instead of intermixing the tasks with other tasks on one list so the list is just long and jumbled and not prioritized. Anyway, I could go on and on.
Even though my binder is still a work in progress, I already feel less stressed. I am finally adjusting to the hectic, unpredictable expat life, balancing work and family, and adjusting to the strange nature of my job that isn't like any 9-to-5 job in the States. I won't say that I've arrived but I am getting there.
Cheers!
So, when I realized that a vacation week of making only two decisions daily (what to eat and whether to swim in the pool or sea) subsequently lifted the brain fog, I needed to simplify my life more. I can't eliminate much but I can super-organize it, as far as I am able with the unpredictable nature of my job and expat life that defies organization.
Now, I've never had to be a super-organized nerd - and I say "nerd" affectionately because I think all nerds are wonderful - because I didn't juggle so many things like I do currently. It doesn't mean I was less busy before but I was able to stay on top of things without needing an organizational tool or a calendar. I don't really have great organization skills.
To learn some organizational skills, I went to ol' reliable Google and stumbled on the concept of homemaking binder. A homemaking binder is simply a central place to keep everything in order to keep your home running (and whatever else you need to keep running). You keep everything you need in it and you can put in anything you want: contact list, birthday/anniversary list, daily/weekly/monthly planner, task list, cleaning schedule, meal planner/recipe lists/inventories, anything related to kids like school, activities, etc, home maintenance reminders, budget/financial planner, auto maintenance log, etc. You can find many printables on the Internet for free that you can print and fill out for your use -- and they're pretty printables, too :-) It's whatever you want the binder to be but the point is that everything is organized, listed, and put in one central place.
A central place seemed like a good idea, especially since I have no desk. I'm terrible because I keep the calendar on my computer and phone (which syncs with G's calendar so we can see each other's schedule and not double-book ourselves), the grocery list on the whiteboard in the kitchen, the meal planner is usually written down on a piece of paper or on the whiteboard, various stuff on my computer, and I write to-do lists in a notebook which I also jot down ideas and thoughts so the notebook itself is disorganized. The notebook is never in the same place and it migrates from the bedroom to living room to kitchen and back to living room.
So, I've started a binder and it's still a work in progress. My binder isn't just a homemaking binder; it's also a language and work binder. It will help me tremendously to use my time efficiently when I am focusing on language study with its various tasks and projects which are simultaneous so that's a lot of balls to juggle in the air. I can also schedule activities for the girls by keeping it all in the binder. I can also write down work-related tasks (not language) in one category, instead of intermixing the tasks with other tasks on one list so the list is just long and jumbled and not prioritized. Anyway, I could go on and on.
Even though my binder is still a work in progress, I already feel less stressed. I am finally adjusting to the hectic, unpredictable expat life, balancing work and family, and adjusting to the strange nature of my job that isn't like any 9-to-5 job in the States. I won't say that I've arrived but I am getting there.
Cheers!
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Am I Cut Out For Motherhood?
As I went through college, I had many plans in my ambitious heart. I was going to have a career and make X amount of money, driven by a quest for security. Marriage was definitely in the plans and as for having children, I was absolutely devoid of any feelings about it. I didn't really see myself as a mother and, to be honest, I didn't have a great respect for motherhood. I suspect, looking back, I was influenced by rampant feminism which exalts career over motherhood. Be a homemaker who stays home with her kids? Not me.
Then, I became a believer just before my last year of college. My ambitions and fierce need for a hefty savings account to protect me from all the trials of the world slowly disappeared. I learned to put my self-worth and my security in the Son. The desire for marriage and the lack of maternal urge remained.
Since the Son changed the many plans in my heart, I didn't get a career that I envisioned. It wasn't because the choice was taken from me. Instead, I pursued the Son's calling on my life clear across the Atlantic Ocean to another country for two years without a single regret about the direction my life was taking. Then, I got married. I still had no urge to have kids but I wasn't opposed to them either. Motherhood seemed like such a thankless task. Almost uncool. I wasn't really suited for homemaking and motherhood because my gifts and skills lie elsewhere.
I actually chose and pursued motherhood with heartfelt prayers because a loss of a precious baby, who the Father planted in my heart to my surprise. My priorities and the many plans in my heart changed. After discovering that our baby no longer lived, I suddenly understood the value of a child and how motherhood was a noble calling. The loss changed me irrevocably.
With one baby in heaven, the Father has blessed us with two girls. Am I cut out for domesticity and motherhood now? Of course not. As I pointed out above, my gifts and skills lie elsewhere. My skills and gifts are not in hospitality, organizing, decorating, baking, teaching at a preschool level, making cool crafts with the kids, and things pertaining to homemaking and motherhood. I stumble through each day making mistakes and struggle with feelings of inadequacy often.
As I said, motherhood is a calling. If I have learned anything in my life about the numerous callings the Father placed on me, I was never equipped in the first place and the Father never abandoned me to obey His calling on my own. He always equips and brings about fruit. One doesn't have to have amazing parenting and homemaking skills to be a mother; the most important part is the grace the Father extends to a mother. The grace is bottomless and always sufficient. If my kids turn out to follow the Son with all their hearts, it will be because of His grace, not my skills or the lack of.
If anything, the feelings of inadequacy are the perfect sign that I am where I am supposed to be....completely reliant on His grace. That's the way to go.
PS: If you can't follow my thread of reasoning here, it's because I wrote this at midnight and I ought to be in bed.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Summer Time, Fourth of July, and Vacation
This summer has been really nice and cool so far. This morning, it's about 75 degrees outside with cool breezes running through the house. The temperatures climb into the mid-80s and it's still humid, as evident by the hair around my face curling into waves (not pretty ones). Our building heats up by the end of the day and if the breezes aren't blowing in the right direction, our apartment will get too still and warm. I would feel sorry for the girls when they play and their hair get plastered to their skulls with sweat. They spend their days in underwear and diaper, respectively. By 6:00, it's hot enough that we'll turn on the klima so the girls (and us adults) can cool down and get comfortable for bed. Some days, the building will heat up in the relentless sun and it's too warm to cook. Nevertheless, this summer has not been as hot as last summer. It was downright miserable then and I was in my last weeks of pregnancy on top of that.
With the breezes comes the dust. Our house is covered with a layer of dust. The soles of my feet are always dirty from walking around barefoot. Poor baby D, her knees and top of her feet are black from crawling around. It necessitates a new step to departing the house - wipe down her knees and feet so she'd be presentable to the outside world.
Another thing about summer is the summer produce. It's always so lovely to eat all summer long - the fresh, juicy fruit and light vegetables. We eat fruit here that we normally wouldn't in the States - a type of melon that, when cut up, goes nicely with chopped peaches; apricots; sweet cherries; green plums. We also eat the ordinary fruit like watermelon, grapes, kiwis, peaches, and nectarines. There is a store that sells a particular type of cherry tomatoes (here, they're called "seker domates" - sugar tomatoes) that I am obsessed with and I pop them into my mouth or eat them with feta cheese. DB seems to like every fruit I've offered to her, although she will only eat kiwi to a point.
We spent the Fourth of July at the beach on the Black Sea, just like last year. It was a bigger crowd this year and it was pretty fun. We didn't stay for s'mores and the sunset this time with an early bedtime for the littlest.
Two days after celebrating the Fourth, we left for a weeklong vacation in Cyprus with friends, Michelle and Shannon and their two girls about the same age as ours. They transferred their timeshare to a resort in Cyprus and invited us along. We stayed in a condo facing the sea and we watched gorgeous sunsets from the couch through the wide balcony doors thrown open to the breezes. The restaurant at the resort was staffed by Pakistanis and they made delicious Pakistani food. I couldn't eat enough of it. I was overjoyed to eat ethnic food, besides Turkish food and my own cooking. We rented a car and in Cyprus, they drive on the opposite side like Great Britain.
We mainly spent the vacation swimming in the pool where A was finally brave enough to put her face in the water and to jump into the pool without us catching her. She's turning into a fish and the sun is turning her into a brown nut (did I just mix my metaphors?). DB got her eighth tooth during vacation and loved the pool. On afternoons when she was crabby from teething and bad naps, she was easily lifted out of her crankiness by the spending time in the pool. The beach was nice, the waves were wonderful, and the Mediterranean Sea is warmer than the Black Sea.
We really needed a vacation. We were staying pretty busy and I had (and still do!) so much on my plate that my brain function was slowing. I was sinking into a fog, forgetting things, finding things in unusual places (for instance, a bag of curry powder in the freezer - ?!), and I could not think clearly. Case in point, I brought the camera for vacation but forgot the memory card. I also forgot floats, toys, books for the girls. You could call it the mommy brain but it's not; it has happened before I was ever married and having kids. It usually happens when I am stressed and have too much going on. It took about 6 days of vacation for the brain fog to finally clear and I felt more alert. The only decisions we had to make were whether we'd go to the pool or beach and what we were going to eat. I didn't have ten thousand things running through my head, anxiety over decisions to be made, a long to-do list, and the frustration of not being able to do it all (a job and raising a family). Ah, the simple life.
The monthlong fasting has started here so things seem to be pretty quiet. I am thankful for that. I know it sounds terrible but I confess that I look forward to the monthlong fasting, despite the reasons for their ritual. The city is just quieter and there is less traffic as people disappear to their summer homes out in the country or on the beach. The work of building relationships slows down for a bit and I can catch a bit of rest.
There is an express supermarket that is opening up one block over from our apartment and I'm pretty excited about it. The full-sized supermarket by the same name is in a mall that I drive to about once a month for pantry staples and paper items. Hopefully the express supermarket will carry everything I need and I don't have to make those monthly trips to the full-sized one anymore and daily trips to multiples stores. I mention this to provide a snapshot of our daily life - we go to multiple stores around our block everyday for fresh produce and for dinner ingredients. This express supermarket will cut down the time spent going to different stores and should have everything we need at a decent prices, even gluten-free items. Yay!
Here's a cultural tidbit: the folks here feed their babies differently than we do. For example, they don't have a problem feeding candy and ice cream to their babies and I don't do that with my babies. I'm always surprised when people give DB suckers, chocolate, and ice cream. The good thing is, they don't expect her to eat it right then so I'm always able to put their gifts away and eat it myself. Kind of a nice perk :-)
That's all I can think of to share. Even though I forgot the memory card to our camera, I took a few pictures with my phone. Here they are:
With the breezes comes the dust. Our house is covered with a layer of dust. The soles of my feet are always dirty from walking around barefoot. Poor baby D, her knees and top of her feet are black from crawling around. It necessitates a new step to departing the house - wipe down her knees and feet so she'd be presentable to the outside world.
Another thing about summer is the summer produce. It's always so lovely to eat all summer long - the fresh, juicy fruit and light vegetables. We eat fruit here that we normally wouldn't in the States - a type of melon that, when cut up, goes nicely with chopped peaches; apricots; sweet cherries; green plums. We also eat the ordinary fruit like watermelon, grapes, kiwis, peaches, and nectarines. There is a store that sells a particular type of cherry tomatoes (here, they're called "seker domates" - sugar tomatoes) that I am obsessed with and I pop them into my mouth or eat them with feta cheese. DB seems to like every fruit I've offered to her, although she will only eat kiwi to a point.
We spent the Fourth of July at the beach on the Black Sea, just like last year. It was a bigger crowd this year and it was pretty fun. We didn't stay for s'mores and the sunset this time with an early bedtime for the littlest.
Two days after celebrating the Fourth, we left for a weeklong vacation in Cyprus with friends, Michelle and Shannon and their two girls about the same age as ours. They transferred their timeshare to a resort in Cyprus and invited us along. We stayed in a condo facing the sea and we watched gorgeous sunsets from the couch through the wide balcony doors thrown open to the breezes. The restaurant at the resort was staffed by Pakistanis and they made delicious Pakistani food. I couldn't eat enough of it. I was overjoyed to eat ethnic food, besides Turkish food and my own cooking. We rented a car and in Cyprus, they drive on the opposite side like Great Britain.
We mainly spent the vacation swimming in the pool where A was finally brave enough to put her face in the water and to jump into the pool without us catching her. She's turning into a fish and the sun is turning her into a brown nut (did I just mix my metaphors?). DB got her eighth tooth during vacation and loved the pool. On afternoons when she was crabby from teething and bad naps, she was easily lifted out of her crankiness by the spending time in the pool. The beach was nice, the waves were wonderful, and the Mediterranean Sea is warmer than the Black Sea.
We really needed a vacation. We were staying pretty busy and I had (and still do!) so much on my plate that my brain function was slowing. I was sinking into a fog, forgetting things, finding things in unusual places (for instance, a bag of curry powder in the freezer - ?!), and I could not think clearly. Case in point, I brought the camera for vacation but forgot the memory card. I also forgot floats, toys, books for the girls. You could call it the mommy brain but it's not; it has happened before I was ever married and having kids. It usually happens when I am stressed and have too much going on. It took about 6 days of vacation for the brain fog to finally clear and I felt more alert. The only decisions we had to make were whether we'd go to the pool or beach and what we were going to eat. I didn't have ten thousand things running through my head, anxiety over decisions to be made, a long to-do list, and the frustration of not being able to do it all (a job and raising a family). Ah, the simple life.
The monthlong fasting has started here so things seem to be pretty quiet. I am thankful for that. I know it sounds terrible but I confess that I look forward to the monthlong fasting, despite the reasons for their ritual. The city is just quieter and there is less traffic as people disappear to their summer homes out in the country or on the beach. The work of building relationships slows down for a bit and I can catch a bit of rest.
There is an express supermarket that is opening up one block over from our apartment and I'm pretty excited about it. The full-sized supermarket by the same name is in a mall that I drive to about once a month for pantry staples and paper items. Hopefully the express supermarket will carry everything I need and I don't have to make those monthly trips to the full-sized one anymore and daily trips to multiples stores. I mention this to provide a snapshot of our daily life - we go to multiple stores around our block everyday for fresh produce and for dinner ingredients. This express supermarket will cut down the time spent going to different stores and should have everything we need at a decent prices, even gluten-free items. Yay!
Here's a cultural tidbit: the folks here feed their babies differently than we do. For example, they don't have a problem feeding candy and ice cream to their babies and I don't do that with my babies. I'm always surprised when people give DB suckers, chocolate, and ice cream. The good thing is, they don't expect her to eat it right then so I'm always able to put their gifts away and eat it myself. Kind of a nice perk :-)
That's all I can think of to share. Even though I forgot the memory card to our camera, I took a few pictures with my phone. Here they are:
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| 4th of July with other American expats |
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| The Black Sea, taken from the cliff. Can you spot people swimming? |
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| The first few minutes of acclimating to the wrong side of the car and the road |
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| Early morning view of the Mediterranean from the condo |
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| Our little water bug |
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| This picture doesn't do justice to the gorgeous sunset - taken from our balcony |