The Wayfaring Wordhack

Got the tickets

Sat, 04 Nov 2023 06:59:35 GMT

We will fly out Monday in the afternoon, at a later time-slot than normal, which will give us only a 2hr layover instead of almost 5. Huzzah! And our lovely neighbors are coming with two cars to take us home, keeping me from having to arrange a taxi-van. I am so grateful to them, especially since we live an hour away from the airport and arrive at 10:30 p.m.

Another wonderful thing is that we were able to change the departure date for our pre-paid tickets in December, so this flight isn't costing us anything. A true blessing given the unplanned escapade to Cyprus and all the expenses thus incurred!

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Peace

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 07:16:42 GMT

So, J and I decided the kids and I will go back to France until Christmas at least and give the world a chance to calm down. My flight back to Lebanon from Cyprus was bumped up a day, so we are returning tonight. J will book us flights some time between Saturday and next Tuesday back home, where our super kind neighbors have offered to pick us up at the airport, even though we live an hour away and arrive at 10:30p.m. I feel great peace at our decision that is pro-active and has many upsides.

It is such a blessing that:

- we kept our home in France;
- we home-educate our kids (this is a HUGE decision factor of stay-or-go for other families);
- that this is a great season for me to be back working in the garden, planting/moving trees and such;
- we will spend autumn in the house and can heat it, which will be verrrrrry good for it. Houses don't like to be empty;
- we don't have to live in constant fear of having to be forced to flee.

The downside is that J must remain in Beirut for work. We have obviously gone months apart before but never in such circumstances. I sincerely don't think anything will happen to him, but it will be wearing on us just the same.

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Trying to get used to this again

Tue, 07 Feb 2023 06:51:42 GMT

For a while, we weren't having significant electricity cuts any more (just the one at night between 2:30-5:30 a.m.), but for the past couple of days, we are having sporadic, totally unpredictable cuts. Sometimes we have not micro-cuts but micro-restorations: the power flashing on for mere seconds before going off minutes, and then seconds of it on again before losing it for a lot longer. And now the Internet provider is also having technical problems (I am paired with my phone's mobile data to make this post). Because this has happened before, I am not sure it is tied to the earthquake, but it could be...

It is colder these days, so I would like to be able to turn on the heat. Alas, although we have a gas furnace, it needs elec to run.

BUT! We have a home with standing walls, a roof and unbroken windows; we have warm clothes to pile on; and we have a gas stove to cook and heat water on. We have more blessings than we can count.

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A New Year's Beginnings

Sun, 03 Jan 2021 09:38:12 GMT

Neither J nor I have ever been big News Year's Eve celebrators, so it is rare that we do anything special. On NYE, J was in bed by 22h00, but the kids were still awake and excited. We went up to their room and read lots of stories, and Ti'Loup longingly expressed a wish to set off fireworks (prompted by Bobby's 5th birthday with his Grandpa Bob in the book Now One Foot, Now the Other by Tomie dePaola).

"We have sparklers," I said. "This is a special occasion; let's use them."*

Which, as you can imagine, was met with great enthusiasm. Except by J, who did not want to get out of bed to come sparkle in the New Year with us. :P The kids danced in the snow in front of the house with their sparklers, then we went to the cross that is set up at the entrance to our hamlet and said a prayer for the New Year. We are blessed to be alive, to be together, to be healthy, to have shelter, to have grace:

( More Family Fun and Traditions under the cut )
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* I have never found sparklers for sale in France (OK, I haven't looked super hard), so I have hoarded these from Egypt.

** A silver lining to losing old friends is that, by moving along, we have made new friends

*** For those who don't know, Farmer Boy was born with a squint. He had surgery a couple of years ago, but he still needs to wear a patch 3hrs/day on his right eye to make the left one work more.

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