I know I haven’t been writing lately. I’m finally feeling better this week, but am preoccupied with trip “planning.” I still haven’t (and won’t) reserve any places to stay, but the side of me that likes to know the future keeps reading all that I can about Crete, trying to absorb every last bit of information into my brain so I can “wing it” in a well prepared way. I’m also needing to hand off responsibilities to people who are going to take over for children’s church and a few other things while I’m gone. And I need to get some Euros. And pay our rent. And Josie. And the guy who started washing my car last week (though I don’t know his name or how much he charges). And buy dog food. And refill my prescription. And pack. And make sure the kids all have hiking/trail shoes that fit. And some sort of waterproof outer layer. Since this is turning into a massive To Do list instead of a story, I’ll end here with a warning that there may not be any other blog posts this week. It means I’m busy packing up for our Thursday night flight. Fingers crossed since we’re flying Space A and nothing is guaranteed. The flight this past week was delayed for 2 days so this is going to be one big inshallah experiment.
Side note: I think I want to get inshallah tattooed on the inside of my wrist. That is, if I ever actually get a tattoo, which is a remote possibility. But I want it done in brown, so it looks like henna and not a regular tattoo.
To wrap up this week: This scene makes me so happy. Calvin and Carter have Arabic class together so they are studying and listening to the audio files that help with pronouncing their Arabic vocabulary correctly. The boys look at me like I’m crazy when I fawn over the fact that they are in class together or ask if they sit by each other. I think because one of my favorite memories of college is when Carrie and I had a class together (Anatomy/Physiology and we were lab partners and learned every bone in the human body and cut up a dead cat. Good times.) I hope they have the same great memories of sibling teamwork.
Twinsies — Caleb was climbing on the railing and Zeki hopped up to join him
And then Camille had to get in on the action too, of course.
So if you don’t hear from me, all is well here, just prepping for Crete!