Life's differences

Yes, life in France is different.  Some differences in life are good, some are annoying, some just make you want to scream.  I know over time that some of the differences will fade into normal, I experienced this in Ecuador.  Over the year I lived there, many of the things that initially were strange or hard to accept, became normal and commonplace for me.  And now as time has faded, only the most unusual or pleasing stand out in my mind.  I am glad that a friend and I made a list of "top ways to know you are in Ecuador."  So, I will attempt to capture some of the newness and things that strike me at the beginning of our time here.  Maybe even allowing me to reflect back on it as the year passes.

Driving:  Never having learned to drive a manual, that was the first task to tackle for me.  While mastering that I encountered many things that perhaps made it even more difficult.  Many of the roads surrounding the area we live are particularly windy and narrow.  Many, many places when you encounter a car, either you or the oncoming vehicle must pull off the edge and stop, you will even see areas in the ditch that area a result of this.  The roundabouts, or rotary, as our TomTom calls them actually have made driving the manual a bit easier and if we miss a turn, we can count on a roundabout to help us navigate back to our turn.
There are many one-lane bridges and underpasses, one we use each morning, where we can't even see oncoming cars, so we honk and pray that no one is approaching.  Not sure why there isn't a mirror at this spot as mirrors are very common due to the narrow, windy roads and houses commonly having walls and tall hedges.  Which reminds me of another difference, in the US we commonly can see the house in neighborhoods all down the street, and over into the neighbors backyard.  Here they go out of their way to black any view of they house from neighbors, passersby, you can literally live next to house and not know what they look like or never see the neighbors.  I have finally seen that we live next to an older couple, I know this only because I saw the wife on the second story patio.

Parking...yes, you can almost park anywhere, unless the authorities are present, and it's common to temporarily park and put on your hazards; is the easiest way to accomplish an errand, unless you can walk rather than drive somewhere.  Cars are small here, so spaces are small too, and it's normal to fold in your mirrors to fit a tight spot.  Love the parking garages we have used that have a lighted system of green and red for letting you know whether each spot is vacant or full.  We need that in the States, or maybe we have it and I've never experienced it.

Groceries/Food:
Food seems more expensive in general(although it's sometimes hard to compare with the difference in packaging and measurement, I have to remind myself that a K is over 2 lbs).  As a result we are choosing to eat less meat(which seems to be most expensive), and make use of other sources of protein, beans and cheese since it is in such abundance here!  SO many kinds too.  A complete aisle with various kinds, one side almost entirely yogurts and puddings(they are really popular).  A whole aisle of small packages of cookies, but little in the way of salty snacks, and when you do find them, they are these tiny bags.  You know how our grocery has hundreds of kinds of cereal, it's like that with cheese and cookies here, but not much cereal.

Some general observances about the grocery.  The carts have 4 wheels that all rotate, which makes it really hard to control them, so I have taken not to wear well-tractioned shoes to control the cart!  The store also seems to have a really strong meat/fish odor.  At checkout you are expected to handle the task of bagging your things.  The counter descends and you have a pileup of groceries when the checker is done.

Some foods we have had a hard time finding
Peanut Butter: Nutella is really, really popular here, but it's so chock full of sugar and little protein.  For sure, it's super yummy, but we need something a bit more substantial for making sandwiches.
Baking soda I finally found, but was using baking powder which comes in these small packets, kind of like yeast, but only holds a couple teaspoons.
Hot breakfast cereal is also something we don't see often.  Oatmeal comes in smaller packages, but we have discovered that we like rice, couscous, and polenta for breakfast even more than cold cereal! I was even able to find what is basically Cream of Wheat and Cream of Rice hot cereal, near the flour and baking items.


Greetings:
I love the politeness of the French.  They greet people upon entering a shop, room, and again upon leaving.  Some, but not all use the European kiss, mostly one on each cheek here.  Lots of please, thank you, thank you very much can be heard as well.


The two-hour lunch break:  It's great for the girls to have a break from the all-French they have at school.  We pick them up and head home for lunch.  Many students stay at school,  and the smaller shops close for lunch.  Don't expect to run errands during this time.  One of the bakeries in town even closes till 4 in the afternoon.  The other one stays open, they of course get the lunch crowd for business.

 Those are just some observances that I have noticed so far, I'll have to update as time goes on.

Blessings

Sometimes it comes to mind that there have been SO many blessings that I need to make a list.  This has been one of those seasons, not to say that God hasn't been blessing me up until this decision to journey to France.  I believe that perhaps I have had to have more faith and trust and therefore have been more aware of his working in our lives.  Here is a list of those things that came to mind, but by no means a complete list of all God has done!
Family to help us move
A loving farewell with family
Monetary support from family
Family to drive us to NYC
Ease of travel and flights
All our luggage arriving undamaged
Help from someone at Larry's school
-finding our housing
-birth certificate translation
advice on various things
-bank account
-carte dejour
quick adjustment of schedule change
Getting a chance to explore Aix en Provence
Meeting other ex-pats at the park and church
Help from church individuals to move us
Amazing landlords who helped us with
-school registration
-getting a car
-getting car insurance
-providing the misc. things we needed for the house
-allow us to use their pool
-drove us to the first day of school and helped us communicate
-internet connection
Great church service with several invitations to do things together
Good first days for the girls
Nice/supportive teachers at both schools
Friendly parents
Finding an economical grocery solution
Purchasing household supplies easily
Selling our house in the States-over list price
Amazing trip to Cassis
Use of the TomTom to get us around easier
Help with learning to drive a manual

When I look at this list I stand amazed at how God has truly taken care of us, providing for us, even at times we didn't know what we needed.  May I keep my eyes on Jesus during this journey, keeping my faith strong enough to keep me above the water.  May the most important thing out of this entire year be a stronger relationship with my Savior.

a mini vacation

 The girls earned a trip to Pottery Bayou to create some Christmas ornaments.

 Anna chose an owl.

 Maria picked a snowman.

 I did help Anna bit.

 Posing with their creations.

 We headed to Indy on Saturday and stopped at Fort Harrison State Park to play, eat a picnic lunch and attempt to hike.  The girls didn't last long.

 But they did have fun playing.

 They had a really cool slide in the side of the hill.

 Daddy even tried it out.

 Our next destination was to Elisabeth's 6th birthday party.  The girls were friends back in Culver, but we haven't seen them since we moved.  It was a surprise for both girls!

 The four girls!

 My good friend Kim.

 The were so excited to stay in a hotel, especially to go swimming.

 We spent Sat. night visiting with friends and swam in the morning and then we went to visit some other friends.  We ate lunch with them and then hit the road.

We had to stop along the way for a short treat diversion.  Can anyone figure out where this is?  Maria is only slightly covering the town's name, but it's the specific place we stopped that had us driving a bit out of the way to stop.
We have plenty to praise God for; a chance to get away as a family and see some friends. 

bouncing and teeth!

 Oh bouncy houses are so much fun!

Love the crazy face she makes to show me her 2nd lost tooth.(yes, I gave it the final yank again!)  Just for kicks I looked up when she got these teeth and it was almost exactly 5 years ago, only off by 2 days and the 1st tooth was off by a month from when she got it.  Let's see about the top teeth, if they follow the pattern they should be around Jan/Feb.

school days

We received Anna's preschool pictures today, and I may be biased, but I do think we have the cutest girls ever!

And them I had to get Maria's preschool pictures and compare the two. Definitely sisters! 

And then I realized that I don't think I ever posted Maria's school picture this year. 

We have plenty to praise God for; the blessing of these two beautiful girls, inside and out.

October

 We took the girls to a family fall festival a couple weeks back.  They had fun petting the animals and later we went on a hay ride.

 See that excitement.

 Nothing as fun as jumping in a pile of leaves, maybe sliding into them is a bit more fun!

Anna wore an old costume of mine to her fall party at school, it's one my mom made me.

See me, all the way over on the left, don't you love my mismatched shoes too! For those who know my brother Andrew, he's the clown looking right at the camera with the white knit cap on, mom made that costume too!

Royle visit

We went to visit our friends last weekend that we hadn't seen in 4 years, ironically when their youngest was a brand new baby.  Now their 3rd and youngest turned 1, so we thought it about time to head that way.  It was a three hour trip, but the girls handled it relatively well.  We enjoyed visiting and seeing the kids play together like they were old friends.  I stayed up till 1am chatting with my friend Rachel.  It reminded me of times in Ecuador(we lived with the same family while we were both there) when we would sit in the kitchen and talk way too late while eating a snack.  We hope that it doesn't take another 4 years till we see them again!

 The Birthday girl

 He was picking flowers for Larry and I.

 so serious

 playing "sleep-over"

 getting his order for restaurant

 busy at play

 I made this outfit for her big sister 3 years ago!

 precious

Too bad we didn't line them up in age order, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

We have plenty to praise; friends we enjoy visiting even after 4 years apart.

Stone's Trace

 We spent the day as a family at a Pioneer Festival near Ligonier.  They had great activities for the girls to do.  We really enjoyed the day and the weather was perfect!

There was a Punch and Judy puppet show, do you think the girls liked it?

 They were able to make, with a little help, their very own corn husk doll. (for free)

 We got to visit the sheep and chickens and watch one sheep get shorn.  Elsewhere we saw spinning looms making the cleaned wool into yarn.

 Maria riding a wooden cow?, wearing her new feather hair piece(also free to make).

 They rode in a horse drawn wagon, which was only $1.

And Maria tested her corn maze skills.

We also had some yummy food including apple fritters and ice cream!  If you live within driving distance we highly recommend visiting next year.  It's held the weekend after Labor Day.

Also we are gearing up for more changes around here.  Larry starts his new job tomorrow at Symmetry Medical as a manufacturing specialist, we will find out all the details tomorrow at orientation.  We are truly blessed to get medical coverage that starts immediately, no wait.  Since our coverage from the church just ran out Aug. 31, we are extremely thankful.  I guess the part that gives me some dread is Larry will switch to 2nd shift once he is trained.  This means that essentially I will be a single mom during the week as he will go in at 3 and home after 11.  This is a blessing as we won't have to take Anna to the sitter, whom we love, but any extra $ is helpful in our tighter budget.  So, after the dust settles we will see how things all fit together, but I can't thank God enough for providing for us as He has in the past 3 months since moving.  He is truly God of our everything.

We have plenty to praise God for; a wonderful day as a family and looking ahead to how God is providing for our needs.