slowly slowly settling in

It's probably note-worthy that nothing extremely eventful happened this past week.  After a series of very eventful weeks, it's a nice treat to have (almost) completed a week of, well, normalcy.  In our new "normal", that is :)

Today I thought about taking photos of the apartment and trying to upload them, but just didn't have quite enough energy (though I am feeling lots better) so I'll plan to do that tomorrow.  The apartment is feeling more and more like home every day.  Many little things have fallen into place to make life more do-able, and I am grateful. 

We are more and more at home in our complex too.  The chickens I spotted out my kitchen window a few weeks ago are no longer strangers.  The kids ask to go see them most every day and we always find them, usually confined but occasionally roaming free, and we've befriended the older couple that is raising them (in their little yard - and no, we do not plan on raising chickens in our yard!) 

We are thinking about planting a few vegetables and such in part of our yard though, and have made friends with another retired couple who can't wait to help us get started.  According to them, March is the perfect month for planting pumpkin, cucumbers and green beans, and we can expect to have a bumper crop in about 80 days.  We shall see..... I'm secretly hoping they'll adopt our family as "hopelessly ignorant about all things gardening in China" and talk me through each step.  It's looking likely, since they started out telling me where to buy seeds, and ended the conversation saying "forget it, you can just have some of ours".  Perfect. 

One of the things that frequently frustrates me about life here is the constant feeling that we are in a parade, being watched, being talked about, being talked to, etc.  Sometimes I just want to go out and have fun with my kids and not attract a bunch of attention.  Several blessings in that regard.... one, we just don't seem to make much of a scene here (at least within our apartment complex).  We still get plenty of attention, but it's not ridiculous. 

And, we've also stumbled upon a sweet little spot in our day.  Three days a week I get home from picking up the girls at school a little after 12, and almost no one is outside.  Everyone is either away at work or home eating lunch.  The girls eat at school, and Isaac and I grab something before we go get them.  So, put all that together and (when the weather is nice) me and my littles have the playground all to ourselves!  I sit in the sunshine or push Isaac on the swing or shop at Julianna's pretend store or eat Lydia's pretend fried rice  - and no one stops to ask me where we are from, or how old my kids are, or why I have so many, or why they aren't in school, or what my husband does, or how much our rent is, or how much it costs to fly to America, or .....

Granted, I often enjoy meeting new friends and it's fun to do that on the playground, but it's also good to have a time when we can be on the playground and just be us.  Speaking of, yesterday I met a young mom at the playground who told me "my husband says you are always doing laundry".  I laughed and agreed with her, I do spend a lot of time doing laundry! 

Our washer/dryer is on the enclosed back porch and easily visible to those walking by :)

So around here I am quickly becoming the "foreign lady whose kids love to watch chickens but doesn't know how to garden because she is always doing laundry".  I can work with that :)