Homesick

I know that the opportunity here in Russia is amazing. However, that doesnt stop the homesickness we feel sometimes. My family and I have lead a fairly nomadic life thus far and we are all pretty adaptable. But we miss things from the States... first and foremost our family. Not all our kids were able to come to Russia and we miss them incredibly. We miss our parents and all our extended family. It wasnt as bad when we had Skype but the computer with Skype crashed and we havent been able to get the Skype updated on Gary's work computer. Nothing seems easy here. Something as simple as getting the administration to update your computer takes months. There isnt any computer repair places in the villages around us. One must travel for hours to get these kinds of things done. Theres no Walmart to run to for everyday needs. There is basically one market. If what you are looking for isnt there, you do without. As Americans, we very seldom do without and this has been a huge change.

Other things we miss? I miss warm baths. We only have showers here and both Gary and I HATE showering. I also miss eating out. We take something like that for granted in the States and here, we are THRILLED to find a restraunt to dine at! I miss lawns. Even in the winter time in Idaho, we still see grass a good portion of the time. People here dont seem to have yards or lawns. The parks are littered with trash and most of the time you will find a village horse or milk cow staked in the park, grazing. Emma misses TV!! We all miss our pets. 

That said, we enjoy the opportunity to be here as a family. Sometimes I want to kick myself for saying that as somedays I feel like if I have one more second of family time, I may go insane. It takes time to get used to the kids NEVER leaving to go to school or not having a vehicle to go wherever I want, whenever I want. But Gary and I both know that we are truly meant to be here together. Not many couples could survive an experience like this. Its trying and difficult sometimes. But its an opportunity most people never want and one we may never get again.

So, we take it one day at a time. Never in our wildest imaginations did we think we would be living and working in Russia. So, we will see what the future holds and see where the winds will take us!!

A Day In Our Life

Things here in Russia work a bit differently for our family since we are home schooling. I thought some of you might be interested see what we do all day!! Our daily schedule starts with school in the morning. We work on learning and doing our school work until noon. At noon, Gary comes in for lunch and we have an hour break from our schedule. I usually spend mornings doing laundry as well. There are only washers here, no dryers. The washing machines are very small. I can usually wash one pair of Gary's pants and two pairs of Okies in one load. We then have to hang everything up to dry on the drying rack or the fancy clothes-line I made in our hall closet. It is very important that we stay on top of the laundry as we can usually only get two small loads a day to dry completely.

                                                          Our small washing machine

                                                     The drying rack in the utility room

                                         This is the clothes-line I made in the hall closet

After lunch, we have outside play time. There have been many days when it is too cold to go outside but we have had a few warm days lately and the kids have played in the snow alot. They also have some new Russian toys they have been playing with.

                                      Okie playing with his new WWII Russian Army guys

From 2 to 3 pm, we alternate between computer time and play time. 3 pm is the dreaded because it is chore time. But its also snack time so 3 pm is met with mixed emotions :)

                                                 A somewhat clean room with beds made

We then have a little TV time until supper time. Our tv here is pretty limited to the DVDs that we brought from America. We have a satellite but it only has about 4 English channels. In Okies desperation, he sometimes watches cartoons is Spanish, Arabic and Russsian. After supper is reading time and the last bit of TV time for the day. Whew... time to go to bed!!!