Found the Markers

Yesterday, Elli found big brother's markers. I don't remember Ethan being so artistic at this age, but then I guess we didn't have markers around until he was older. The perks of being the second born; earlier access.

Brother made sure to complete the applications with some "lipstick" and the Central Asian darkened eyebrows.

After she quit giggling, her question was "pretty, pretty?" This is her new giggle as of the last several days. Also very culturally appropriate; keeping her mouth covered. I'm not quite sure where she learned it, but it's pretty cute.

Sundays with Alan

Alan Jackson . . . isn't that the country singer with the hit "5 o'clock somewhere" that is played on every country radio station at some point on a Friday broadcast? Did you know he also has a hymns album? I didn't either, until we sang along with him on Sunday morning; a recording, not live of course. At the time it didn't seem too strange until I got home and started thinking about who are "lead worshiper" was for the day. Sure made me miss my like-hearted 3rd service friends at River!!! I think it's time for me to break out the guitar and hone my very basic cords. Otherwise we may have sing-along with Alan every week!

We have running water!

There it is!!! Perched a top our grape vine trelace (an Austin original idea) and plumbing water, by way of a pump, to our house!

These are the 2 guys that helped Austin make it happen! They have come out from the capitol to help fix up 3 (possibly 4) of our houses and the new office. They worked at our house a total of 3 1/2 days. I cooked all of their meals, exhausting my national menus. (Thanks Aunt Marj for the Taco Soup recipe. They loved it and it came as a nice break halfway through.) They slept 3 nights at our house and even joined us for pancake breakfast on our anniversary morning!

Ethan loved every minute of having the guys with us. He loved to help them and they graciously let him. Here he's helping mix the concrete. Behind him is the cistern where the water comes into our yard. A pump now pumps that into the tank which then is plumbed to bring water into our house.

It is funny how each kid clicked with a different guy. This was Elli's favorite. She knows him by name and is quick to run to him to great him whenever she sees him. A father of 3 sons, I think Elli's convinced him that a daughter is worth having!

This is when you realize your house is really just mud with a nice coat of paint over top! They pounded a hole through the wall to bring in the water pipe. So even though it looks like a nice western home on the outside . . . it's just a good paint job! :)

Look at those cabinets!!! We found them in a furniture store here and were doubtful they would all fit in my little kitchen (if you don't remember how small my kitchen is see previous post:http://amersheks.blogspot.com/2009/06/we-have-home.html ). They all fit and actually make the kitchen feel so much bigger. It is so wonderful to have a place for things. I've put off buying dishes (plates/bowls/silverware) until I had somewhere to put them. So I'm excited to go shopping for my own.

A double sink, can you believe it!!!! Friends found it at a random furniture store in the capitol. It is so wonderful and makes me feel like I'm washing dishes in America! And I love my dish drainer. So as not to take up counter space, it is hung on the wall. I didn't think I'd like it as much as a similar style I had in Ancient City, but it is proving to work better than I expected.

Austin built this step stool to make passage in and out of our veranda (through the kitchen window) a little easier. He designed it to be wide enough for Ethan and Elli to sit on for snack time and it works great. Underneath you see a second pump we had to install to get the water pressure strong enough to use a hot water heater. Unfortunately that means our bathroom water usage is dependent on the electricity being on (which in the winter is only 2-3 hours/day) but we are loving the showers right now!

Why some days I feel like Laura Engles Wilder

I’ve kind of lost track of all the new things that I’ve learned to do here. There are some days it feels like I’m always learning something and then there are some days when I can’t believe how quickly crazy things have become normal. I didn’t want to inundate you with a blog for each new thing, so I’ve been saving up. And I’ve decided that there are some elements of my new life here that at the end of the day make me feel like Laura Ingles Wilder.

I’ve learned to grind my own meat. Praise the Lord for good tools like the 220V Kitchen Aid with meat grinding attachment that I inherited from my mom and an awesome de-boning knife my husband bought for me in Dubai before we moved here. It actually turned out pretty good, other than the splatterings of meat and fat that I wore all over my front.

I’ve now made 4 different kinds of jam; strawberry, blackberry, apricot and triple berry. I think this one (triple berry) is the prettiest of the 4 with all the rich colors. It is also my favorite berry jam, not too sweet and not too tart. I’d like to try several other kinds of jam, but have used up all the Sure Jell packets currently in my possession. If the packages laden with it make it here we’ll keep a jammin’!

This is how we do milk. A very eccentric little old lady from a neighboring village brings us fresh milk in her old 2 L plastic bottles. I heat it to 262F to kill whatever really bad things that is supposed to kill, and then quickly cool it back down to room temperature. I strain all of it when it's done cooling, to remove random hairs, chunks, etc. With some of the milk and a hearty dollop of sour cream for my start, I make some really yummy yogurt for breakfast. I wrap the warm milk/sour cream mix in a towel and it shares self space in my closet for about 8 hours. Our family loves yogurt with either fresh fruit or jam mixed in!

With the fresh fruit that is now in abundance, I've also learned how to make "compote;" fresh juice that I've canned to drink in the winter. I've made sour cherry (delicious family favorite), apricot and yellow plum. It's a process of a 2 liter jar 1/3 full of clean fresh fruit, 1 cup of sugar and then boiling water poured over top. They can using a tool to crimp the lid down over top of the jar and then it is stored upside down for 2 days. By that time it has sucked down and sealed. Unfortunately my first 2 batches turned into wine which I then had to dump down our squatty potty. So sad after all that work! I've learned better how to sterilize and firmly seal the jars. So hopefully I won't be flushing an more work down the toilet.

And then there is the bucketing of water. With the red buckets in the background, my hubby and I have bucketed every drop of water we've used to wash clothes, shower, clean, wash dishes, etc. for the last 3 months. Will I miss these buckets when the water starts running from my faucet? Doubtful! :) Though they have provided a free and very effective upper body workout!

Party Pics

We just celebrated Ezra's (Ezie) birthday. And having the camera out for pictures of the party, yielded some fun pictures of my kiddos I wanted to share.

This is Ezra, Ethan's closest English speaking friend. Ezra just turned 7, so they are 3 years apart. It is quite a gap, but amazingly they play really well together.

Since watching "The Incredibles," Ethan has been begging for a super hero costume. So for Ezie's birthday, I made the boys matching super E capes. Both capes have a large E sewn on the back.

A fun game of balloon toss. Ethan, at least 4 years younger than his partner, didn't want to back up for fear of the balloon popping. We're working on catching and throwing!

Elli LOVES babies. Everywhere we go, she's pointing out "nini" (baby). And she loves to bring a nini with her. If you enlarge the picture you can see the little curls that appear to be coming in on the back of her head! So fun!

Elli's other love . . . watermelon. She'd eat her weight in it, if I let her.

Big Girl Panties

With all the repairs going on in our house, we really made no further progress to report on potty training. But Auntie J bought Elli some big girl panties at the bazaar and Elli loves to wear them! Since babies don't really wear diapers here, she was able to find them small enough for my little "string bean." However, for all their ruffles, they are without the wonderful extra absorbancy of Gerber training pants.

Even though we're far from potty trained, all the "potty talk" did prove helpful in identifying a UTI and getting Elli on the meds she needed. She would start crying and explain "pee-pee ouchie." It is so helpful now that she's talking more! The meds have kicked in and she's on the road to health! And still sporting her cute panties!

Celebrating our 7th!

This is my leader and co-adventurer through this crazy life! I sure love this man and am so grateful that God has given him to me! There is no one else I'd rather journey with than him!

And we just celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. After 2 nights of having live-in workers in our home, we were able to have an afternoon off without work going on in our home. Though living in the middle of remodeling, made making a romantic plan more challenging.

E&J agreed to watch Ethan and Elli for the afternoon and evening. We were excited to have some time alone to reconnect, but not even 10 minutes after returning from dropping the kids off, Bibi, Kaleen and Merona (from our homestay) showed up for lunch. Luckily I had spaghetti leftovers to warm up and share. For much of the time, they pestered Austin and I about hiring someone outside of the family to help us around the house.

After they left, we decided to flee the "remodeling mess" and take a drive. Here are some of the pictures from our drive to the border and back.

Familiar sites from Kansas; sunflowers and a combine at work harvesting wheat

We also ventured across the river to see some of the surrounding villages in our valley

Without the kids, truck time is great talk time for us. So it was fun to talk and dream as we explored together. The only thing missing . . . a 79c big pop from Quick Trip.

The day also included watching our wedding video, which was so fun to remember what a great celebration that day was!!! We finally had alert time to watch "Amazing Grace" which was a great film and then splurged with a dessert of blackberry crisp from the berries we brought from the capitol.

Even with the unexpected visitors for our lunch, it was all in all a great day! So here's to year 7!