Settling In

So mostly we're settled in to our new place. Here's a list of the things that we're trying to keep our eyes half closed about:

• flimsy plastic toilet seats that are not bolted down
• one remote that is the only way to open the garage door
• a kitchen faucet with a mind of its own
• no bath tub

AND here's the list of things we love:

• towel hooks for everyone
• 2800 sq ft of usable roominess which is only 400 sq ft less than our last place of less useable roominess
• 1/2 floor to anything
• new washer and an effective dryer
• a living room AND a family room
• a garage with a door
• a great complex with fun parks and lots of flowers
• closer proximity to shopping
• glass shelves for really cool displays
• a dining table that's mostly big enough and plenty of chairs
• a large-by-Chinese-standards fridge
• great lamps and canned lighting

slide park

Our family room and office (because the desk doesn't fit into the real office down stairs) during General Conference

climbing boulders at fish and boulder park

Spring in Shanghai

After 8 years in Mesa, AZ, we had a really nice and cold winter here in Shanghai, China. Now we're experiencing a really nice Spring. Easter kind of snuck up on us, but we made the best of it. Here's my first Smilebox with pictures of our adventures over the past 2 months.

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Elective & Basics days

Today is an elective day. (Sorry, no pictures.) Now that our lives are relaxing into a new rhythm with regular employment for Rob and living here in China, we’re shifting into new seasons for our home school. We have 3 ‘Basics days’ and 2 ‘Elective days’ a week.

A Basics day starts with the basics of math, spelling, language learning, reading (for Mathew), and writing. Then we are free to do other projects or activities. An Elective day starts with whatever project or activity, with in the list of things already deemed appropriate for school time, they choose, This also includes Basics, which really does happen quite often, particularly when a child has a reward they are working toward in their Basics. Elective days also include field trip and outing days and days when Mom is not available to assist in Basics (mostly for grocery shopping).

The idea behind these Days came from seeing that morning momentum on an activity or project can be very inspiring. Since we’re home a lot, however, we decided that we only needed 2 days of this kind of freedom per week. And we didn’t want to hit burn out in the Basics, so we limit those to 3 a week. All of this happens after morning meal, daily, and weekly jobs, of course.

Today the kids have, among other things, explored and played in the neighborhood, packed their rooms for our coming move, worked on various projects, ridden bikes, practiced riding our new electric scooter, read, and counted (Mathew). I have gotten caught up on writing various blog posts (!!!), and generally enjoyed the down time. Oh, and we decided to call today an Elective Day when Rob went in to work late after getting home late from a business trip last night. This allowed us to continue the relaxed atmosphere into the day rather than trying to shift into a Basics day behind schedule.

So, there you have it: Basics days and Elective days. We like our new rhythm. May you find a comfortable rhythm in your days too!

~vbb

Feeling Civilized Again

Bathrooms:

Shelves for the 2 bathrooms without cabinets. Yeah!!!

I LOVE having the toilet paper off of the floor in my bathroom.

 Bedrooms BEFORE:

Ema and Anne's room

Beca and Merisa's room

Nathan and Mathew's room

Construction:

The mattresses are too small, but these are the beds they wanted. We're hoping to ship just the frames back to the States when we go.

AFTER:

 

 Whew! Yes, after 8 months of the kids sleeping on the floor, we are breathing a civilized sigh of relief.

Pruning and New Growth

Pruning:

It has been tough trying to muddle through after the pruning of leaving so much behind and as we work to get back on our feet in many ways. I think often of what I had to leave behind. Our family has grown closer as we’ve pruned out old habits that are now unnecessary with the added effort just to take care of the basics. More and more, home isn’t so dependant on the stuff, even though we’re grateful to be gathering it again. For me home is primarily with Rob, but also with the kids. We’re more confident in who we are and the Goodness we have in our lives, even as we appreciate the Goodness in others and find mercy with the not-so-good in ourselves and others.

Still, I’ve been praying for some time that I could let go of the pain of sometimes leaving things—anything that is left (for a variety of reasons)—behind. Somehow on Sunday we missed our driver, Ralph, that usually takes us to the subway for church. We saw him, but he left without us for some unknown reason. We had to walk out (hoping to see him) to the front gate where we took two taxis. My taxi driver was a jerk. (Let’s just say I didn’t put up with his “听不懂 Tīng bù dǒng”. And yes, he really said that.) We had to take two more taxis to get home later, which more than doubled our taxi fees for the day. All day I just felt incredibly hurt that Ralph would bail on us. Deeply hurt. And just as sad that my beautiful Sunday lacked the time in his taxi with nice music and all of us together. At church I would just sob every time I had any time alone (the bathroom mostly). Prayer and experience helped me pull out of myself until I had the luxury of walking home to the subway alone with my family.

My family mostly gave me space to cry. Nathan asked if he could hold my hand. It was a nice vent, though I was still exhausted and frustrated. The next day, after a decent night’s sleep (decent is relative when sleeping on a Chinese board/bed) I came to realize what the Lord gave me instead of a ride to church with Ralph. The Lord gave me the opportunity to cry, to cry about everything I’ve lost, especially over the last few months.

I’m reminded of this that Trina Johansson posted to Facebook on the 10^thof January, which I repost here with her permission

Missing my sweet baby boy today. It has been 10 years today since we lost him, but I try not to relive that morning. I only relive the beautiful Spirit we felt in our home at that time, and the way my awareness of the debt I owe my Savior grew. I ponder the plan of Salvation and think about how I am a better, stronger person because of that experience. The Lord never takes away from us. In reality He only gives. He gave me strength, love of family and friends, understanding, and best of all, hope. I will have my baby again some day. I have lost nothing, my time with him was only delayed. How grateful I am for this testimony. How grateful I am for those of you who were there for me, and are here for me now. How grateful I am for the love I feel in my life. How grateful I am for that precious baby who is waiting for me on the other side of the veil. I love you Cardon!

Thank you, Trina, for your example. I have lost nothing. And not just in comparison to loosing a child. I’m not comparing pain, only rejoicing that the Savior can lift mine. (The pain is real, and sometimes no one else can lift it.) The Lord doesn’t take away. He just delays some things in exchange for others. For now, my prayer is answered. Now I just need to pray that I can keep this feeling.

New Growth:

After leaving so much behind that was either placed in storage, sold, or given away, the kids and I came here to China with only 14 suitcases. Rob had found and/or outfitted the house with 7 mattresses, 1 bed, 2 armoires (both on the top floor in the master bedroom), a limited amount of sheets, a few throw blankets, 2 small dressers, 2 bigish dressers, one bathroom with cabinets (2 without), one rug, a washing machine, one bookshelf (one!!), 2 couches, one dining table with 6 chairs, a TV that Rob hates, 1 small kitchen table and a smallish kitchen with cabinets, a stove, a few dishes & a fridge (no oven or dishwasher). We also sold our vehicles. Consequently, any time we go anywhere we have to walk, take a taxi, bus or the complex shuttle.

Here’s the list of things to acquire that we made shortly after moving in and priority level:

1. scooter, blankets, beds, paper plates, glasses

3. travel, big plates, master bath shelf, kitchen table, bookshelf, organizing baskets, laundry shelf, Buddy (shipping our dog here), extension cord, rugs, coat rack, DVD player

5. oven, dryer, closets, TV

Here’s a priority list of what we’ve purchased and/or acquired over the last 5-6 months:

Immediate needs: water dispenser (for bottle delivery), laundry racks, dish drainer, clock, spices, more dishes (small plates), trash cans for the bathrooms

Breathing a little: 3 stools, picnic table (in case anyone out there doesn’t know, I hate picnic tables, or rather the bench part), more laundry racks and baskets, blankets, bikes, a new dog

New needs: coats & warm clothes, more clocks, storage shelves & boxes (bath & bedroom), beds, more sheets, more trash cans,

Next: more tables & chairs, scooter for cheap, independent travel, blankets so we can return the borrowed and poorly functioning ones (1 big blanket instead of 5 small ones for a king size bed), book shelves, new clothes to replace those worn out and too small (or too big, in my case ;)

Stay tuned for pictures!

May all of you find peace through the Savior in your Pruning and your New Growth! 
Happy (Chinese) New Year! 新年快乐！Xīnnián kuàilè!

Ansheng Gardens, random photos

I love the neighborhood we live in. Here's a few more pictures of some of the features that I love.

This pillar reminds me of my sister Becky. I know there's a name for all of this style (hmmm, thinking Humanities 101). I love it though. Nice patina too, don't you think?

Mathew and the kids with the bike we were given last week. I can't tell you how grateful we are for this!!

Mail man. They come in various sizes and shapes. We've seen UPS and Fed Ex trucks here that are very similar looking to back in the States. The same but different.

Stone mosaic walk ways are a popular step up from the tile sidewalks that remind me of Argentina. It's not the same tile I saw there, but they have similarly common tiles here with no continuity anywhere except for the textured tiles for the visually impaired. Hmmm, need to get a photo of that.

Our club house, decorated for the Moon festival

Taken from the club house looking at the row of homes in front of it and Beca. I just love how this neighborhood looks with the ever present white plaster and dark roofs. (Wow, my visual description is severely lacking . . .)

And, the continuity throughout the complex makes these new homes with the reddish tile even more striking. I LOVE these new homes which are located just a house or two down from ours. This is a front.

 

And here's the back of on just catty corner across from us. I really love the railing that isn't rusting away like so many of the homes (including ours).

The flowers I bought at the flower market. They're a succulent of some sort.

The other flowers, a jasmine, that I bought. I even saved this one from my own over watering, and now I think it's about ready to blossom again. I hope, I hope it does before it gets too cold here.

The view from my bedroom sanctuary looking across the street

From my bedroom looking down the street in the direction we walk to leave the complex

The view from my sitting room and the porch I have locked so my little ones don't play here. That's an elevated road you can see (NOT a free way, top speeds are maybe half what a free way like this would sport in the States). You can also see a low income housing complex, though we've seen worse here, of course.

AND this one we took on the way to a Branch activity. It shows a typical high rise dryer. Many people in our complex use their balconies as driers. That's where the girls have theirs, but ours is in the living room.

I hope that you love the places where you live too!

More Seasons: Unraveling and Founding and . . .

One of the really great things about home schooling is that we are not slaves to the public school schedules. There are certain perks, however, to following at least a similar schedule. For example, if we were slaves to our own schedules, then we would miss out on summer opportunities to spend time with our dear public schooled friends and family. Also, with stores offering such great deals on school supplies, the ‘end’ of the summer* is a great time for educational new beginnings. There’s just a lot of great momentum in the air to rejuvenate commitment to Education.

As explained in a previous post, this book shelf in our family room was RIPE for some serious Unraveling and crying out for a new Founding. In fact, a good portion of the room was, though it wasn’t as painful to look at.

Riding the wave of momentum preparing for a new educational Founding, we spent our prime morning hours to Unravel the problem areas.

A book shelf of mine, a computer desk and a storage chest needed new homes

and a little repair work.

Here they are in their new homes.

The threatening bookshelf is tamed by shifting, discarding and reorganizing books and games to meet new family needs (i.e. moving things out of two year old reach).

My three youngest express the feelings of peace, joy,and rejuvenated educational energies that we all felt in our newly Founded family room by dancing together.

Two easily tamable boxes were left for another day. Now that the room and the family has survived the Unraveling and new Founding, we can continue to organize and modify as needs arise. Small items like this, however, would never have found a home without the general Unraveling and Founding happening first. Thus, each season gives birth to the next.

*Public school starts in two days, a full month before the calendar Summer is over and LONG before our AZ Summer ends . . . Some seasons are so arbitrary.