Snow Fort

N and J have a language tutor who comes to our home to teach them two afternoons per week. She is a very bright 14 year old girl who is wonderful with them. They play games together and she teaches them basic conversation skills. She has been such a gift to us. One afternoon, after our first big snow, she took N and J out to play. She taught them how to build a snow fort! It was a two day project and Baba helped them finish it on the second day.

As soon as they wake up each day, N and J run to the window to check on their fort. Even though the snow is melting, the fort is standing strong!

Tour of our Home – Part 2

After the office, you turn the corner and see another hallway.

The first door on the left is our restroom/laundry room.

The white thing on the wall is a radiator for warmth. I’ve  never had one of these in anywhere we’ve lived here before but it is designed to hang wet things on to dry quickly. I have really enjoyed this and seem to always have something hanging there. We have a dryer but it doesn’t work all that well so sometimes hang drying is a better option.

The next room on the right is the kids bedroom. We chose to have them all in the same room, for now. Later, N will probably want his own room, if possible. But, for now, this helps them feel secure.

They each have their own ‘closet’. Inside holds all of their clothes and toys.

The room at the end of the hall is our guest room. All that this room needs now is YOU, here to visit us! It is a bright cheery room with lots of windows. This is why we didn’t choose this for the kids room. It gets dark at 4:30 PM and gets light so early in the morning that I didn’t want the kids in a room with lots of windows!

The final room is the master bedroom. Much of the bedroom furniture here is either white, two toned or blinged out with crystals and fake stones. I was super happy to find plain brown!

The best for last….I had wanted a prayer corner in our home somewhere. Just a place to retreat and pray throughout the day. I never imagined that we would get to have an actual room for this purpose! Just off the master bedroom is a small shower room. No toilet, just a sink and a place to shower. Instead of using this for showers, we bought a mat for the floor and use it as a prayer room. I hope to eventually have pictures and things on the walls to remind us to pray for various things. This room is such an added gift for which I am very thankful!

That concludes the tour of our home. We are so thankful for such a wonderful home. Come see it in person. As they say here, “we are always waiting for you!”

Tour of our Home- Part 1

I have loved the privilege of decorating our home. Here is our living room, or salon as we say here. This is the formal room of the house, used to entertain guests. In fact, some people only use their salon when they have guests. Their furniture can be very fancy. We use ours as a living space as well but tried to find furniture formal enough to also honor to our guests. My favorite part of the room is the rug. It is from Iran and was inexpensive because it is not hand made but I love the colors and design. We had wanted to bring our rug from our home in America but decided to leave it behind. This is a wonderful replacement!

Next comes the hallway. I’m very appreciative for the storage space in this hallway. There are no closets in homes here and any storage space is much appreciated.

The door on the left in the picture above is to our squatty potty. Maybe there is a more formal name but I don’t know what it is. We don’t use it much but it is nice to have when the other one is being used.

Next comes our kitchen.

After the kitchen comes my favorite room, the office and home school room. Having this furniture made was less expensive than anything we wanted to purchase ready made. It was such fun to design and has been great for home school.

Here is the kids special desk. I’m so thankful we had a spot made for SK also. She will  be in school soon enough and it gives her a place to feel included while they are doing their work. I made the bulletin board out of the cardboard from our refrigerator box.

We spend the majority of the day in this room. It is cozy and inviting with a beautiful mountain view, on a clear day. We read many books together on the floor by the book shelves. The drawers and bench came with our bedroom furniture but go great in this room instead.

I’ll continue the tour tomorrow!

Views from our Windows

These are the views from our windows, just to get a feel for our surroundings. These were taken earlier in the year. I’m so appreciative of the fall leaves and mountain views. It blesses me so much to look out the window and see any type of nature as opposed the the wall of another building.

This is off the balcony of the living room.

Living room window. The little rectangular structure in the forefront is a shelter for a sheep and several chickens. We enjoy watching the elderly lady come out to care for her animals each morning. There is a beautiful mountain view out this window also, it was just foggy on the day I took the picture!

Kitchen window view. I am very appreciative of a window over the kitchen counter. This is rare as many times the kitchen seems to be a bit of an afterthought- narrow, small and not many windows!

This is the view out of the office window. The apartment in the distance is still being built. We like to watch people come and go down the lane between the apartment and our house. There are mountains this direction as well but you can’t see them as often.

This is the view from the kids bedroom.

This is the view out the master bedroom window.

One day soon, I’ll post pictures of the inside of our house too!

Merry Christmas

From our family to yours!

A WalK Down Our Street With Snow

I recently posted a pictorial walk down our street. Here’s a new version, with snow!

Hiking up the small hill out of our apartment complex.

Walking down the road.

Stopping to eat some snow.

Passing a pretty tree.

Throwing more snow,  just for the fun of it.

Cool piles of snow on baskets outside a market.

Figuring out that you can shake a tree and cause a small snow shower!

On this day, we set out to purchase a dining room table and guest bed. We are so thankful that for the majority of the time we were setting up our house, the weather was better!

Christmas Party

This Saturday, we had a Christmas party with our friends. Making gingerbread housed was the highlight. The table looked so inviting!

Everyone worked hard on their creations.

N was still working long after everyone else was done.

J and SK did an awesome job also.

What a fun crowd!

Even the ladies made houses.

After dinner, the kids watched a Christmas movie in their PJ’s

And after that, the kids went to bed and the grownups watched a Christmas movie too! In a place where there is nothing to remind us of Christmas, it sure helps to have the gift of friends to celebrate with!

10 Years

Yesterday was our 10 year anniversary. A couple of years ago, if you’d told me we would be celebrating our 10th year of marriage here, I wouldn’t have believed it. I love the surprises life brings!

Our friends kept our kids and we went to a brand new 5 star hotel in town to celebrate. We hadn’t been there yet and loved that there were western items on the menu. Even though the food was very nice, everything was only $30, including dessert. Speaking of dessert, they had chocolate souffle!

This is our favorite dessert here. I’ve tried to duplicate it over the years but have never perfected it. I’m thankful that we’ve found it in our city. And it was a great way to celebrate our anniversary!

We also explored the hotel and discovered that they have a swimming pool that isn’t segregated, meaning men and women can swim at the same time so we would be able to take our entire family there together. Another great find!

I’m thankful for 10 years of marriage and thankful to be celebrating in this city.

Let it Snow!

The kids have been excitedly anticipating snow. We have had a couple lighter snows but they big one finally came over the past few days. It just kept snowing and snowing, day and night. Even Baba and I were filled with amazement and wonder each morning when we pulled back the curtain to see the decor of the night before. Today, it finally slowed enough for us to get outside to play.

This was the ‘before’ picture.

They rolled, and romped, and licked and threw and had all sorts of fun!

SK preferred the swing.

N and J called the top of the play set for a snowball fight against Baba and I.

Sliding down a slide full of snow is such fun! Truthfully, that is something I have never in my entire life even imagined doing!

Baba and I have both lived in warm climates most of our lives and are really loving the winter wonderland as much as the kids are. We have heard though, that this will likely stay for a few months. The snowfall seems to have also effected our electricity. Normally it seems to go out once per day unexpectedly for anywhere from 15 minutes to a couple of hours. During the heavy snowfall, we had a day where it came off and on, continually all day long. At the end of the day, N said, “Mom, let me tell you something. I’m done with snow. I want electricity instead!” All I can say is it is way too early to be done with snow!

A Walk Down Our Street

We live about a 5 minute walk off a main road. So, if we want to go somewhere, we usually walk down this road to get to the taxi stand on the main road. Here is a picture description of our walk.

Here we are leaving our apartment complex and entering the residential road to the main road. Like many residential roads here, both sides have walls that are 4 or 5 feet tall, made of rocks or cinder block. I’m not a fan of these  because people drive as fast as they like and there is nowhere to escape!

Here is a look backwards at our complex. The white building is a home.

Continuing down the road.

This is our closest market. If we just need bread, or other staples, we can come here. It is about 200 meters from our house.

This is our local mosque.

Finally at the main street, looking back on our street.

Walking down the main street to the taxi stand.

At the taxi stand, waiting for a taxi.

Finally in the taxi and on our way. N and J love the fact that there aren’t any seat belts. Baba usually sits in the front and the rest of us sit in the back.