God and Cake

These are a few of my FAVE or it ttttthhhhhhhhiinnnnnnnnngs.
we got our stuff and i've noticed my favorite thing is my music. i'm serious. i think music makes our days happy. seriously- i think everyone should put their very favorite songs on their ipod. and not just the 'eh...yeah...it's alright' songs that you hear on the radio- you must bring back the un sit still-able beats of good vibrations ! (Drug free- so put the crack UP!)
Really, how can you NOT grab your baby and rock out in your living room (which most certainly does involve air guitar on the couch) when songs like this (or showtunes) come on. Billie knows almost all the words to Girlfriend in a Coma by the Smiths and she loves Salt n'Pepa.
Also, I really love God too. Seriously. Our church here is so small and cute and our priest is so wonderful and even Bill likes hearing what he has to say each Sunday and the kids like it (well, almost) and I love having us all together on Sunday morning and just being still and appreciating how blessed all of us are. We as a family, we who have friends like you and we in the larger sense- we who get to see these amazing sunsets and we who get to spend our days choosing what to eat and watching our kids smile.
My favorite things in Turkey- the stop light turns yellow before it turns green because all the cars are in such a total frenzy to be as close to their destination as possible (every inch counts) that we need a warning before green. We're all sitting there and then it's like yellow...get ready...GO! Really! I think that's so funny. I am crazy in love with Turkey.
There! I wrote a blog not about the kids...look at me all with thoughts on other subjects and then download some Tatu.
who said you can't have your cake
and listen to it too?

the second frontier

Member when I used to be a 'good' blogger? ...those were the days. i keep putting off blogging or writing little blogs in my head about all the interesting things i see in Turkey- because i know you all want to hear about that. but when i actually sit down to write i just think about the kids. so, if you want to know about turkey- you'll just have to come see for yourself. one day our stuff will get here (maybe?!!!) and we'll have the whole place set up for you. For now, you'll have to hear more about the kids.
Turkey is another world , not only in geographical terms; we're in BIG KID world now and school kid world and in this world it's harsh. We're not in the Kansas of homeschoolers-who-avoid-labels-because-we-are-all-freaks world.
There have been so many new experiences. I cringed the first time the kids were in the line up for 'picking teams' for a kickball game in the yard. Billie standing there saying "pick me!" so enthusiastically...and just hoping someone would pick her NOT LAST. How do Mom's let go? She's seven and still never had Coke (cept for one time when my mom gave her some soda at chuck e cheese with the "it's orange" excuse).
The kids still see friends as something shared between them. How can someone play with Jackson and not play with Billie and vice versa? It would defy the laws of physics. So, they all play together...with an occasional girl pointing out in an accusing tone "You're a BOY!" and then continuing along with the game. Then the birthday party invitation comes and it's only to ONE kid...sigh.
The other day Jackson made a connection with a first grade boy over a pokemon discussion at the playground. The kid came over to our place to play. They were doing hot wheels, built a ramp out of cardboard (we make everything out of cardboard now...see our easter basket photos) I've realized that if our things never do get here...we can probably recreate our whole house if we have enough cardboard...I'm working on an Armoire for our gigantic TV at the moment.
Anyhoo- a kid came over...billie was...i don't know...off somewhere at a friend's house. So, it was just he and Jackson- the littles were sleeping I think. THEN, it's quiet for a while and I peek in on them and there Jackson is with his knitting needles in hand, sitting next to the normal kid and saying "Then you wrap the yarn around THIS way". That's right. He was showing the 7 year old boy how to knit! And what's wrong with that anyway? Why was I horrified?! Why is it that my first impulse is to grab a football and hurl it at Jackson's head to distract the kid and direct them towards more gender appropriate play? Yikes! But it was fine. The kid didn't run to the balcony and yell to all the kids downstairs 'Jackson Solley can knit!' or anything.
Who would have ever guessed that when Billie, Jackson and I sat down and learned to knit almost 2 years ago....who would have guessed that i would become obsessed and jackson would stick with it?! Jackson is that way about things- once he likes something he's really focused on it. Billie likes things for 2 weeks, max.
Sloane likes things she can break and also likes getting the disapproval face from Mom and Dad, and she likes causing Jackson grief too. She would never think of upsetting Billie. Lord knows you don't want to be at the receiving end of her wrath!
Cort is totally adorable, a major eater of anything which is not baby food, and a speed demon.
back to life.

It's like a fig...without the newton

This is my explanation as to what figs are. Yes, we get to eat FIGS- without the Newton!
And it's a good example of all the things we encounter in new lands that we aren't familiar with. In Japan we only had strawberries on special occaisions when a small box was $6 or less.and peaches were even more elusive at $7 for ONE! In the States we never had figs...(except once in a while I'd get 2 dates at Halal's and greedily keep them all to myself- the kids wouldn't touch something brown and shiny). I wonder if I could find all the marvels here with my own eyes- certainly, much of it is obvious in this country steeped with tradition and so much history...but then there are always the little things that kids find amazing. They're unabashedly curious and it's nice to get a glimpse of things from that point of view.
Normally, this would be the point when I'd reveiw the events of my past slacker weeks of non-blogging. But I'm just going to start fresh and say that we are having a wonderful time. Bill likes his job- he actually LIKES it! We like Turkey- we actually LOVE it. Billie has TONS of friends, Jackson has one friend, Sloane has two- I know lots of Moms and I have made TWO very lovely Turkish friends! Hooray!

here's us now

before turkey

made entirely from leaves, twigs and acorns

an art museum field trip

Cort's first food- oatmeal