Nunderwear

We got to visit with this adorable nun. She had worked for the secret service until retirement at 55, didn't think she'd live long so decided to come to the monestary. Now at 76, she's still going strong, hangs her own laundry out, grows her own food and her house doesn't even have indoor plumbing...can't even imagine how much work that would be in winter. I love our encounters with amazing people, stories and history.

new Sofia

Sloane and Cort are dear friends and she's always taking care of him. Yesterday he told Bill "I like flowers, for real!!" Weapons and baby dolls are his favorite toys. Cort wasn't sure what to make of this painting, a lovely courtyard at the monestary, a walk in the woods.

Sofia close-up

We also like all the funniness of being overseas again. Chuppa Chups enormous advertisement, broken playground equipment we let our kids play on, making friends with stray animals and interesting European art.

Welcome to Bulgaria

So, we pretty much love Bulgaria. I think I might even be getting good at moving...it's taken some practice, or maybe we got lucky this time; I'm not sure I can take the credit. We're doing well here. After our initial 4 days of running around the house up and down the five spiral staircases, down dark hallways, peeking into room after room and singing "I think I'm gonna like it here!" as Annie does when she arrives at Daddy Warbuck's. We were able to make some friends, visit an orphanage, get in some traditional Bulgarian dancing, try out some new foods, learn to love instant coffee, become obsessed with a Plants vs. Zombies, count bathrooms, get totally sick of spending time with each other and then learn to enjoy eachother again.
So, that's been our whirlwind of a new life. Going from tae kwon doe six days a week, friends at the park 4 days a week, library 3 times a week, drama class, camps, tennis courts, bikes, piano lessons, visits from family, dinner invitations, free concerts, swimming pools- I could go on and on about the things we got to do with our Virginia family. Well, we went from that to a screeching halt of nothing. No phone calls, no phone, no emails, no internet, no sports, no friends, no Life cereal, no life. It was a shock to my system and I got a little insane on some days, insisting that we all put on boots and coats and go out over the 547 potholes in the not-really-what-you'd-call-a-sidewalk to get to the cafe, get myself some nes-cafe in a plastic cup with a straw and fresh bread, tomatoes, feta cheese, cucumbers...just to get out of the house and do SOMETHING really.
I sent out friend-fishing emails and invited perfect strangers to stop by the house any chance they got. It worked, I made some friends, some playdates and a strange thing started to happen- especially between the bigs who'd been fighting recently- they started to say things like "wanna play mastermind?" "sure!" and sort of started getting along because they had to. Two days ago we woke up to snow all over and when it got dark we played tennis in the basement, which is now a tennis and racquet ball court, the other room is good for scooters and skateboards. We sing this line a lot now "The tennis court is...down the stairs. Inside the house? Oh boy!"

Last weekend we went for a beautiful walk in the mountain woods. We live on Mt. Vitosha and look forward to skiing soon.

Cousins

The joys of cousinhood...

Things that make us happy

We are total groupies of this band- Rocknocerous, yesterday we went to see them play at Wolftrap, theater in the woods. Colonel Purple Turtle is Sloane and Cort's favorite song.









Riding bikes.











Here comes yummy!

creek time

This summer we have spent a lot of time in creeks. We prefer playgrounds near creeks. We never ever come home dry or clean. This is how it is: Jackson is first to scramble down rocks and in the water, Billie helps Cort. Sloane wears dresses or skirts no matter where we are going that day. Cort wears a Hibiki helmet and pajamas.

I'm Cort, I'm free!

Cort is THREE now, he says it 'Free' and connects his ring finger to his thumb in an odd way of pointing 3 fingers up to show people. He says this to random people, in an elevator, sitting at the next table in the restaurant, strangers in the pool..."I'm Tort, I'm free!"
Jackson gave him his own 'pirate ship' and he got tons of weapons, which are his favorite things. We went to the Air & Space museum and had a very happy birthday for him.

Berry cute

A fun summer day.

How on earth do you do it?

So, there are definitely times when we are moving, packing suitcases for 10 months, living in hotel-like homes, not getting too settled where we are, leaving all the comfort of what we know and wandering into new territory and I think this is just CRAZY. Seriously, what are we doing? And then we get pictures of our new house and it looks like this. And then I'm like- oh yeah, I can totally live with this.






Really, there's a lot that moving around offers us; at all times the promise of a new beginning is on the horizon. We can enjoy the time where we are knowing that we'll only be there for a limited time; we don't sweat the small stuff...it'll be gone soon enough. Crappy celing fans, cranky neighbors, bad haircuts...who cares?


Moving helps me sort through our 'stuff' and stay focused on what's really important. Each time we move I have to think about who I'll miss, what I need, what I want to change, what rituals I want to keep, and what I want to forget. It's like New Year's Resolutions but more often and more through. I have grown to love the cleansing-ness of a new beginning. I can move there and pretend I have always had dreads, I can start over as a Mom who never yells (we'll see how long that one lasts), I can set up a 'quiet room' for yoga, legos, puzzles, as I've been meaning to do for the last 2 years. It's suddenly a time to re-new.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have a solid ground, a home that I considered MY OWN, with mosiacs in the kitchen that I had made. For the kids to have neighborhood friends that they play with ALL the time, to be part of a knit group that was going to keep meeting for the next 20 years. To have a spice collection or a pantry that really contained everything...

Moving isn't always easy but it's constantly exciting to wonder- what will our next home be like? Where will we be? What new people will I meet? What adventure is out there just waiting for us?

Stay tuned for my next post when I whine about all the things I just said I love: Sorting, stuff, wondering, unknowns, etc.

July

Jackson had the best birthday ever. Meeting up with tons of friends at the playground, we provided snack foods which required no plates or silverware ( twizzlers, cheese sticks, decorate-your-own-cupcake station with icing and sprinkle choices, fruit and granola bars).
We also made up a TON of yo-yo balloons- a big hit for all ages and we hid treasure stones amoung the trees and kids had to hunt for them. I made them all the day before so I just put silly bands inside and baked them at 200 degrees for maybe 20-40 min depending on how hard they felt, when the stones feel hard I take them out.
Jackson had a fantastic time and we all went to see Despicable Me the next day, a water park the day after that and yet ANOTHER water park the following day. It's been quite the fun week. Happy 8 years old!