They're Playing Where?!

We have written in previous posts about some of the ways our kids' childhood differs from our own. Well, "playing on the roof" certainly belongs on that list. Since our city is nothing but rows and rows and rows (and rows!) of apartment buildings, there are few green spaces, and even fewer yards. But there are plenty of roofs. And we were so excited last fall when we found an apartment we liked that also had roof access!    

It may not look like much to you, but what I saw when we first laid eyes on that big concrete slab was an occasional fifteen minutes of peace and quiet. This roof is not really private, since it's accessed from the main stairwell of our building, but our flat is directly under it, and no one else in the building uses it at all. So, practically speaking, it's ours.

Shortly after we moved in last August, we brought the kids' bikes and scooters up here, and they have had fun riding them around. We also got Lee Anna some sidewalk chalk, and she's spent a good bit of time up there beautifying the concrete. We even used her chalk to draw a big Earth during a science lesson, and they all three jumped back and forth between the Earth's layers.

So we've already been enjoying "our" roof, but this week, it got even better. We got a swingset! I've been eyeing one for a while, and we finally had a chance to go by and check it out last weekend. They delivered it on Wednesday, and would have assembled it themselves, but there was a lovely windy dust storm going on, so Jason mercifully offered to put it together on his own when the sun came back out.

We all got in on the assembling fun, although some members of the family were more helpful than others.  

 Lee Anna definitely did her share.

 Sarah Claire...well, at least she looked cute!

Here's it is almost completely assembled. There's a third swing made of a barrel with a hole cut out of the top that I unfortunately didn't get a picture of.

 Of course they didn't waste any time testing it out.

We also got this nifty umbrella and plastic table. As soon as we set up the table, Sawyer started begging me to bring him a snack. 

Hooray for swings! And roofs! And fifteen minutes of peace!

Things I Never Said as a Five-Year-Old

Growing up as a TCK (Third Culture Kid) gives you a different perspective on lots of things. When I was 7, I thought North Carolina was a far-away place. These kids do, too, but that's because for them it really is! 


Not only are these kids TCKs, but they're also growing up in an era of amazing technology. They've never known life without touch screens or cell phones or flat-screen HDTVs. Combine those two factors, and the result is that we are constantly amazed at the things that come out of their mouths. So, I made a little list of things I'm certain I didn't say when I was their age.

What Did You Say?

• That cloud looks like Mt. Kilimanjaro. (Lee Anna, 7, looking at the clouds one night last week)
• We’re playing airport. I’m the security guard.(Lee Anna, 7, while playing with a friend in America who probably had no idea what she was talking about)
• I want to go back to Kenya. (Sawyer, 5, this October)
• Hey look! I see the pyramids! (Both kids, multiple times all around the city)
• But Mom, I don’t want to go play on the roof again! (Sawyer, 5, this year)
• I think i need a frappuccino. (Sawyer, not quite 3, in the Atlanta airport walking past Starbucks)
• Can’t you just google it? I think the computer would know. (Lee Anna, 6, helping Mom answer a question)
• Mom, what’s a pine cone? (Lee Anna, 6, during a homeschool lesson)
• Look at all those tanks! (Sawyer, 4, driving to the airport during the revolution)
• I want to ride a camel this time. (Sawyer, 5, on a recent outing to the pyramids)
• The princess travelled to Libya. (Sawyer, 5, tonight at supper. We were going around the table making up a story, one sentence at a time. When it was Sawyer’s turn, the princess had just left on a journey, and he said that she was going to Libya.) (I’m pretty sure I was in 7th grade geography class the first time I heard of Libya.)
• Where my iPad? (Sarah Claire, 2, coming home from her preschool)
• crocodile.com (sawyer, 5, doing his handwriting exercise added a .com to the end)
• Those were found the same year G.G. was born. (Lee Anna, 6, looking at some of the Dead Sea Scrolls in a museum in Jordan. The date wasn’t on them, but she had learned about them in history.)(I might have been in college when I learned about the Dead Sea Scrolls.)

Celebration #2

As mentioned in a previous post, we left our home on December 19 headed for the States. The first stop was Jacksonville, where we spent about 10 days and shared Christmas with my side of the family. Stacy and Paul drove in from Texas with their three--although they were actually at Disney World the day we got there. Here's the whole tribe together in our Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes (with beautiful handmade dresses for all the granddaughters from G.G.).

One day, some more relatives came to visit from Georgia. Here's a shot of Lee Anna and Autumn up in the magnolia tree with Camden, who is my cousin's daughter. That means she's Lee Anna's second cousin, right?

And you can't really tell it, but I'm pretty sure this picture was taken right outside Chuck E. Cheese's! You see, G.G. needed us all to be somewhere else for a few hours while she got Christmas dinner cooked, so we went and played games.

Our two were pretty excited about the water fountains in America! You just push a button and cool water comes out of the spout! And it's already clean enough to drink!

We went to church with Grandpa on Christmas eve, and the girls got to sing Silent Night with their mamas. I wish you could hear the piano accompaniment. It was awesome.

Okay, you know how in pictures of your family from the 1940s or 50s, nobody smiles at the camera? Well, I thought maybe there was something really fun or cool or exciting about taking a picture that way and that's why they all did it. So I got my family to try it. Turns out, nothing special happens. It just makes you look kinda weird.

So we did it again, with smiles! :) And yes, I have teddy bear PJs, just like everyone else. Aren't they cute? Thanks Mimi!

The first two nights in Jacksonville, we left all six kids at the Grandparents' house and the four parents went and stayed in a hotel. Well, poor GG wasn't getting much sleep like that! So, we took the kids with us for a few nights. Since we didn't have a fire place, we placed the stockings in a dresser drawer. They got filled up just the same.

And here's the moment the kids were waiting for! Presents! With 12 people all exchanging gifts, we didn't try to be real orderly and calm. We just let the kids run the show and give them out as quick as they wanted to. It was a flurry of wrapping paper and bows and new toys for about 30 minutes. Thanks G.G. and Grandpa! We had a blast!

Always at home, sort of

When you are a TCK (who is always at home) the question “Where are you from?” can be considered a trick question. We left Amsterdam early one morning heading to America. Our first stop was in Atlanta. In the airplane, Beth and Sarah Claire were in the two seats next to the window, and I was in the middle section with the “twins.” A nice, older, Dutch couple was sitting behind Beth and Sarah Claire, and Sarah Claire stood up in her seat from time to time to visit with them. 

When the captain started talking about landing, they asked Sarah Claire where she was from. “Are you going home to Atlanta?” So Beth told her to tell them where we live. Now the child knows more geography than your average two-year-old, and certainly knows what country and city we live in. But when they asked her where we live, she said, “Number Five!”  We laughed and laughed. Every day when I bring her home from her day care, we walk up the stairs and look for door number 5. So, she was exactly right. We live in Number Five.

Normal Life, Almost

When we got back from Kenya, we had a few weeks of “normal” life before our next trip. I took Sarah Claire to her preschool and went to work, the kids and Beth got back to their home school material and life was pretty routine. Except it was October, which is also known as “visit your friends in the desert month.” Each October we have numerous guests who come for business or just for sight seeing and visiting. It happens every year: as people are planning to come visit and lining up their calendars, we advise against coming in the hot summer months. And then November and December are booked with holidays and family travel and the like, so October is a good time to visit. I think we had 5 or 6 visits in October this year.

For the kids, all these visits mean chances to see some sights. For many of our visitors, seeing the great pyramids is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Its something they have read about since they were kids in school, but in person, their size is just breathtaking and awe-inspiring. For our kids, it’s just another trip across town. I don’t take the kids on every trip, but several times a year they get to go and experience the grandness. Of course, they usually just like to climb on the big rocks.

Always at Home

Our children are TCKs―Third Culture Kids―which is a fancy way to say that they are growing up in a different culture than the one their parents grew up in. Their worldview is being formed through the lens of a "third" culture that blends the world they come from with the world they live in now.

Growing up in a third culture does things to you―mostly good things, we hope. It teaches you how big―and how small―the world really is. It teaches you to appreciate people, places, and ideas that are different from your own. And sometimes it causes you to think in ways you weren't expecting.

One thing we've seen in our own little TCKs is that they think of "home" much differently than either of their parents ever would have. It makes sense, really, that a little girl who has called seven different houses or apartments "home" during her seven years of life might be quicker to feel at home wherever she is than someone who has spent their entire life at one address. But, I confess that even I have been surprised at how little it takes for someplace to become "home" for our kids.

When we talk about going to visit family and friends in the states, where do they say we're going? Home. When we're in the states, and talk about our host country overseas, what do they call it? Home. When we're vacationing at our favorite beach hotel, and they want to go back to the room, where do they ask to go? Home. When we spent a few days last fall staying with friends in Mississippi, and the kids wanted to go back to that house, what did they call it? Home. When we visited Kenya last year for the first time ever, and had been at our retreat center only 24 hours, where did Lee Anna ask to go when she wanted to head back to the room? You guessed it. Home.

While it may be simply an issue of semantics, I have to believe something more is going on here. Our kids have learned that home is more than an address, more than bricks and mortar, more than a place to store all your stuff. Home is where the people you love are, and home is where you are.

And so we thought that Always at Home would be an appropriate name for our family blog―one where we'll share the joys and experiences of life in our family. Whether we're traveling in Europe, having a "normal" school day in our apartment in the desert, visiting with family in Florida, or anywhere in between, you can know that wherever we are, we are, in a sense, at home. And we hope you'll feel at home here, too.