Tag Archives: Foreign Service

First Things First: Getting Back to “Normal”

21 Monday May 2012

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Monday Morning. Again. They just keep on coming, don’t they?

Last week was our massive final push to get the house unpacked and livable. And mostly, we’ve succeeded. All the “extra” is in a storage unit (which I now am in the process of selling and purging bit by bit), the classroom is put together (well, it was before I tore it apart this morning to try a new organizational system), and we had our first dinner guests! A dear couple, who has been just a rock for us through this nonsense and their two adorable babies. I made grilled veggies, enough fruit salad for an entire army, and balsamic chicken. They brought brownies. See, didn’t I tell you they were awesome friends?

This morning, hubbie left at the crack of dawn to for another work thing, where he will be gone for six weeks. Sigh. Yup, our normal. What we didn’t want to be our normal anymore. It is what it is. So, I’ve planned six full weeks full of work, fun, and activity for both me and the girls – to keep ourselves and our minds occupied. Today, we started our normal school routine and didn’t get as far as I hoped, though we might get back to that after nap time.

In my Bible study group, we’re working through Kelly Minter’s study, “Nehemiah: a heart that can break.” It’s really interesting. I’m trying to catch up a little, since I spent the first week or so unpacking, but I’ve never really thought much about the book of Nehemiah, and am enjoying how she is tying things in and pulling new things out.

The past few days of this study, what’s been coming at me is this idea of what has God put on my heart? What is my “cup to bear” (Nehemiah was the king’s cupbearer, but he also carried a burden for the city of Jerusalem.)

In Nehemiah 3, we read about the individuals who worked on various parts of the wall – and many of them worked on the wall right in front of their own house. And Kelly brings out the point that we are called to serve God right where we are.

(Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 here.)

But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. — 1 Corinthians 12:18

Which of course, has me thinking about me, and our situation of being in the DC area without planning on it.

Yes, we know this is all to God’s plan in the long run, or at least mentally we do. (Not all of me has completely caught up or is solidly sold on the ideal still, I confess. I’m trying to work on it.)

But God has me right where he wants me.

I really needed to read that today. In fact, I’m going to copy that and put it up on my bulletin board. (As soon as it’s put up on the wall of course.)

God has a reason that I am here. He has a work, a serving him right in front of my home, that He is calling me to do. He has walls that need repairing, and gates that need to be fixed. There is work IN me, IN our family, and in our area of influence that He is calling us to step up and dig in and get dirty doing.

So I’m thinking this week on what is burdening my heart. What is my current cup to bear. What is my wall that I feel called to right now.

And what I plan to do about it.

First Things First: When Life is in Limbo

23 Monday Apr 2012

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Last week was NOT a good week. Dealing with getting the car repaired after a fender bender, dealing with the other person’s insurance company, buying new car seats, getting a rental car, and dealing with packers and movers who came and got all of our stuff — can you believe it THAT was the easy part of the week?

But then, add in the hotel that sprung a massive leak. As in, the leak was on the seventh floor. Our room was highly affected.On the third floor. Yeah. Thankfully, we were dealing with soggy carpet and not ruined STUFF because all of our stuff was gone! Now, we’re living in a reconstruction zone with industrial fans, de-humidifier and holes in the walls.

To top it all off, after all the toys are packed up, the car is getting repaired, and we’re living out of suitcases, we find out that our move has been delayed at least two additional weeks.

Which began my complete and total freak out.

Yeah, we all know I have issues with the lack of control over my own life in this Foreign Service lifestyle. So the fact I’ve held it together this long while living in a hotel, it quite miraculous.

All the same, it was a pretty ugly sight.

The weekend was spent just coming to the point of acceptance and resignation. And we’re back to waiting. Just waiting for answers, decisions, and a chance to move forward.

This period of waiting with seemingly no direction and no “purpose” can be so demoralizing. And that, for me, leads to just being completely frozen in procrastination. What to do?

So, today, I am pretending to erase last week entirely and declaring a do-over.

In addition, I’m starting to realize certain daily routines that will need to be added to our daily schedules once we eventually DO move . . . somewhere. In order to keep on top of the house insanity, we will all have to pitch in and do one hour of hard-core housework each day, on top of regular pick-up. That should keep us from living in a total pig sty. I don’t know how much of the deep cleaning can fit in that hour, but that will be my goal. Right now I think my idea will be to focus on a certain area or chore each day, just to keep up. I hope our budget will be able to grow and allow us someone to come in once a week and do some of the heavy-duty cleaning and ironing.

So for today, we spent the morning getting Mt. St. Laundry folded and completely put away. Quite an endeavor, but the girls are getting much better at helping – they now sort and fold all the socks and their underwear. As soon as we do one day move, I’m going to start them learning the towels and wash cloths next, since those are the next easiest part of the task. One thing I am trying to teach them is that when we all work together, we can get more done more quickly, and then we can move on to more fun things!

For the rest of the day: I do have a client call this afternoon, so I plan to spend some time writing and catching up on blog work, and paperwork like balancing the checkbook and paying bills, that sort of thing. (All I seem to be behind on at the moment.) And while the girls are playing nicely together right now, I’m going to take a break and get back into my devotional study which I am really looking forward to. Might as well look at the positive of this “limbo-ness:” more time without a plan or schedule means I can devote time to things I want and need to do, like prayer and study time with God!

Join Me for My Annual January Challenge: 2012- The Big Organizational PackFest!

31 Saturday Dec 2011

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Each year on another board I frequent, I host some sort of “organizational challenge” each January. In the past, I’ve done a “Control the Paper Monster” challenge, and last year I did a “Closet” challenge. (A copy of which, can be found here.)

But this year, I have to move. AGAIN. And since I’ve become somewhat of a moving guru having done my own form of this challenge seven times in the past seven years, I decided to take everyone along for the ride with me through the process. So this year we’ll be doing the THE BIG ORGANIZATIONAL PACKFEST as our January challenge! And I thought it would be fun to also bring it here to my blog and see how many of “you guys” might want to join along as well! Let’s face it, I would appreciate the company and support, not to mention the accountability!

So, what you might want to know before you join up: this is a month-long challenge! And to tell you the truth, this one is going to be all-encompassing and a big project!  So, if you jump in, be warned that it’s gonna be a lot of work, but will be over by February 1! And you’ll get to enjoy the fruits of your labor for the rest of the year!

I will go into much more detail in future posts – but the premise of this challenge is that you guys will be pretending to join me in my upcoming move! This is not a “move down the street” kind of move. No, this will be a major, life altering move: maybe moving across the country or overseas, or perhaps moving AND downsizing to a MUCH smaller living situation.

As you can imagine there is a lot that goes into that sort of move, but what we will be spending the bulk of this challenge focusing on will be the prepping for the move – purging, sorting, organizing of our “stuff.” Also, we will deal with planning, organizing, scheduling type tasks – many things I have to do for my own move, but as you will come to see, they will set you up to have a much more organized year and home for the rest of the year! I promise, you will enjoy the fruits of all your labors! That’s one of the reasons I do this type of crazy challenge in January, to take advantage of everyone’s “New Year’s Resolutions” enthusiasm and energy.

 

GET STARTED

A couple of Pre-Assignments:

1) Put away the Christmas stuff NOW. You won’t have time later and it will be in the way.

2) Gather needed supplies. Garbage bags, file folders, boxes, dumpster (Nancy D), whatever. Walk around taking a quick tally of what you are going to need. AND THEN GO GET IT. So you won’t have any excuses. (And hopefully you can get some good deals while things are on sale.)

3) Catch up on the daily stuff and see if you can get ahead. Kinda hard to organize closets and sort clothes if they are all in the dirty pile, right? And just like the Christmas stuff, you won’t have time later.

HOW TO JOIN

Please feel free to blog about your experience and tasks, and join up with us here by posting in the comments, etc. so we can all commiserate support and encourage each other this month! And don’t worry about starting late, just join in and catch up!

To get the appropriate code to add to your own posts, Please click here: get the InLinkz code

I do not have a graphic yet for this challenge. Does anyone out there want to volunteer their help??

Click the link below to join us for the Big Organizational PackFest, and to check out who’s participating!

Bilingual-ism

18 Sunday Dec 2011

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Ya’ll that know us know that we’re a bilingual family. That happened two ways.

Real way: Girl meets guy. Guy happens to be Hispanic. Girl and Guy get married and have little senoritas.

Joke way: Guy meets girl. Girl happens to be from Alabama. Guy and girl meet and have little Southern Belles.

Oh, don’t worry, Hubbie and I could tell those jokes FOR DAYS. Really.

Anyway, when Hubbie and I got married we were both in full agreement that all our children would learn Spanish. I was fully for it because from my work in the recruiting world, I knew how much of a boost to their careers and professional opportunities it would be to have multiple languages under their belt. Hubbie wanted to pass down that part of his culture and family.

Yet, in all of “our” (I say that in quotes because I’m the one that reads it first and then usually pass it along to Hubbie) reading and research, we’ve come to learn that there is a bigger benefit:

SMART TALK: 
If you parlez francais, sprechen Deutsch or habla espanol, good for you. According to a study by the Rotman Research Institute in Toronto, being bilingual sharpens the mind, improves your ability to zero in on important info and ignore distractions, and even forestalls the symptoms of Alzheimer’s. Alas, your high school French, German, or Spanish won’t do the trick. You have to use two languages all the time, since it’s the switching back and forth that boosts brainpower. Berlitz, anyone?

-Family Circle, October 2011

That’s just one quick snippet that I read just recently, but does emphasize the basics of what I’ve read in other places (which I seem to have misplaced. Ooops).

Here’s another great blurb from the same magazine:

Tongue-tied?
Only 9% of Americans are bilingual, compared with a rate of 65% in the rest of the world, according to the Census Bureau. Maybe that’s why 67% of US parents would choose that their child take up a second language over a new sport.

I know that part of that is because parents are looking for any little thing that will help their children be successful in the future, but I am now more personally interested in the idea that being exposed to multiple languages rewires the brain. (This is the article I can’t currently find, but will add here if it shows up.) Basically, the act of listening to more than one language on a regular/constant basis before the age of two actually adds more synapses between the two sides of the brain.

Recently, this article showed up in my inbox: “The Brain-Growing Magic of Foreign Languages.” It has some great suggestions on how to incorporate a second language into your child’s life – music (specifically children’s music), foods, a bilingual babysitter, and even aps.

I think the best idea from this article is all about “investigating your local community.” No, not everyone can go spend two years living in a foreign country immersed in the language like we have. But you can visit a restaurant that serves food from that country, look for groceries that cater to that market (there’s always a “Hispanic” grocery store somewhere). Depending on where in the country you live, there might be a university or college with a large international population.

I really suggest finding a church that offers services in different languages. That is my favorite. When we lived in Croatia, I actually picked up a bit of the local language just from singing popular praise songs that had been translated into Croat. Not enough to actually be useful, mind you. But at least a word here or there. However, most of the time you will find a wonderfully welcome group of people who will be very encouraging of your language efforts. (When I lived in New York years ago, I once ended up at a Filipino Baptist Church by accident. They were the most wonderful group of people and practically wanted to adopt me. Heck, one of the “old ladies” at the church felt so sorry for me that I wasn’t already married with ten kids, that she was trying to find me a “good young man!) Oh, and they usually love to feed you too!

I’ve also read in the past that the best way to be a “real” bilingual family is to have to have one parent speak only in one language and the other parent only speak in the other. Well, in our case, I’m not such a fan of that. I don’t like being left out! But, since Hubbie is the primary Spanish speaker in our family, he does speak primarily all Spanish to the girls (at least they are not learning it with my horrible accent).

So, here are some additional things we’ve tried as a family.

Flash Cards – We have a massive flash card collection at our home! Started when our oldest was just a baby, we have great picture flash cards. For the ones that are not already in Spanish, Hubbie took a label maker and added the translation. These helped me as well.

Translated Mommy-isms Quite often I would call Hubbie at work and ask “How do you say ___ in Spanish, because she certainly doesn’t listen to me in English!” So the first real things in Spanish that I learned to say were “Don’t touch,” “Don’t do that,” “Do you want more ___”, and “Did you pee/poop?”. You know, the basics! In fact, it wasn’t until this past year being home in Alabama did my girls call poop “poop.” Our youngest still calls milk “leche.” Basically certain words and certain phrases in our house just became “Spanish.”

Reading Just like you read books to your child already, add in books of the language you’re learning! Really small children or babies could care less if you understand the book yourself, as long as you have decent pronunciation and make it fun. Older kids will ask you a million questions, so pick the easiest books you can find to start with. You can also get audio books, or try some of the Nook “Read to Me” books that will do the work for you!

Cartoons No this isn’t the best choice in the world (encouraging watching TV), BUT I will say that Dora helps keep both girls interested and enthused about learning Spanish. They identify with Dora. So, we keep it, even if it makes me want to poke my eyes out.

Immersion For us, immersion is the best way to learn a language and learn it quickly. It’s not completely necessary to leave the US to do this! For us, we just take a trip to the in-law’s house! You can also cultivate friendship with other families that speak that language and arrange playdates. Trust me, if a kid wants to play, they will find a way to do it. In many areas, public schools are offering a language immersion program. It takes more work, but it is possible.

Classes Okay, this really pertains more to me than the girls at this point. I’ve tried some “self-study” books, a Distance Language Learning Course through the US State Department, and private tutoring. All of those helped me with the technical parts of learning vocabulary and grammar. But the absolute best thing I’ve ever done was go to the grocery store. When I first move to a new country, going to the grocery store can take several hours – I walk up and down the aisles, trying to figure out what things are called, trying to read labels, etc.  So see if you can find a native speaker that will take you on field trips around town. You’ll learn to do all sorts of things like get your nails done, buy groceries, and explain to the plumber what’s wrong with your faucet. Oh, and how to ask where the bathroom is. Also a very important life skill.

Pocket Translator  This has been a very handy tool while I am out and about. No more calling Hubbie twenty times a day to ask “what is ____”. I’m sure he appreciates that.

So there ya have it. Great ways to include a second language in your family life, even if you can’t move overseas to do it. Please comment below and let me know of any other ideas you might have, because I can always use new ideas!

2011 Gratitude Challenge, Day #11

11 Friday Nov 2011

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Today I’m thankful for all those that serve our country to keep us safe.

I’m thankful for all of our military. My father was a Marine during Vietnam. Some of our dearest, sweetest friends are or have been in the military in some form or fashion.

But since the Foreign Service doesn’t have a “day,” I really want to put a shout out to them as well. For as much as Congress and certain idiotic presidential wannabes want to complain about the Foreign Service, Foreign Service Officers serve our country as well.

These folks serve our country with words, not guns. They try to improve our economy by promote US products and goods overseas. They try to improve relationships with other countries, and increase understanding of our country abroad (and let me tell ya, those are two very hard jobs because there are many countries that don’t like us and don’t understand us). And most of all, they try to use words and communication (diplomacy) to keep those that serve our country in the military out of harm’s way. They try to keep us from having to go to war in the first place.

Unfortunately, talking doesn’t always work. And no one regrets more when diplomacy fails than the Foreign Service Officers themselves.

It’s not a flashy, exciting job. It’s often thankless, as most people don’t have a clue what the Foreign Service is, much less what they do. You never hear about when diplomacy works, only when “talks break down.”

From what I’ve seen it’s a lot of meetings, a lot of talking heads, a lot of dinners of rubber chicken (or something less identifiable) that you smile through even though you’ve put in 50+ hours that week and are wishing you were home. It’s mountains of paperwork and reports and bureaucratic nonsense. It’s days and weeks and months and years of all of it.

Foreign Service Officers work in almost every single country around the world. They’re not in only nice, cushy countries. (Though I’d like to say the “cushy” countries were some of the biggest pains to live in.) They’re in third world countries. They’re in the Middle East. And they are war zones like Afghanistan and Iraq as well.

I’m not in the Foreign Service. I married into this, and just like military spouses, I had to “marry” this life, in order to marry Joel. I don’t regret this at all, because supporting him and his career is my small way of serving my country as well.

So today, I’d like to give a quick shout out to all those around the world, and say how thankful I am for all of you out there, serving your country, no matter how you might go about doing it.

This is my first attempt at a blog challenge, something you might see friends doing on Facebook – “__ days of Giving Thanks.” I thought this was a very fitting challenge to get myself back into a regular habit of blogging again. Feel free to join me, and post your own blog link in the comments below, so we can keep up with each other! Follow others that are participating HERE.