Month: February 2015

I think I’m feeling a bit restless as this time last year we were in Oman for the weekend. Desert camping, games with friends, and surrounded by powdery soft red sand. I won’t have to wait too much longer though. We have a date with some friends at an Omani beach at the end of this month!

This girlie went to lunch with me yesterday and she sat and colored for an hour without complaint. My boys never colored. I mean they might have scribbled on a page for 3 minutes and then it was up and on to the next thing. She chooses her colors carefully, makes sure she stays within the lines and works until all the spaces are filled in. It’s like I hatched an alien creature after all these years of living with boys. 

Soccer season is in full swing, even for the littlest Chartier. It’s been a season of ups and downs involving 5 different teams (the older 2 are on school teams, but play on the same rec league team). You win some, you lose some. Josh and I have been reminding each other that the kids are learning some great life lessons, regardless of the outcome on the field (or on the bench). 

At least there’s no sports drama at this age. She plays for an hour a week and it’s all skill building and parental involvement. It’s one of the few times that an activity is just for her and she loves it. Her brothers also jump in and take turns being her passing partner or her goalie during drills. One little girl with 5 people ready to do her bidding. No wonder she likes it. 

I’m not going to stereotype (which means I totally am), but while the boys couldn’t color, they were amazingly coordinated on the soccer field from day one. Camille is fast and has good endurance, but she’s not naturally gifted with a ball. Good thing she has 3 older brothers to coach her.  

I’m happy that Josh will be home to share the cheerleading duties next weekend. 2 hours of baseball and 2 hours of soccer (and 5 hours of baseball that I skipped) is a lot of time to sit on the sidelines when you’re flying solo. Good thing I have my knitting. 

Driving to somewhere yesterday. Poor guy and his misspelled logo. He should have tried for “Porche” or “Farrari” 

My little artist — I think she was inspired by Alexander and the Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day movie and wanted to draw on her face. I totally let her do it too. She was adorable perched in front of the mirror deciding which color she was going to put where. 

After face painting we headed over to the school for a baseball game. I camped out in my very comfortable chair and knit for 2 hours. Calvin would text me every time one of ours was up to bat so I could pay attention. Faking interest in baseball is proving to be very difficult this season. 

Not much grass on the baseball field here. Caleb is way out there near second base. 

Zoomed in. that’s him throwing the ball toward first.

I don’t know what Carter is doing with his arm, but he must think he’s ready for the big leagues. This morning he told me, “One of things I love about baseball is they have great uniforms.” Oh great. How about I just buy you a jersey and save myself several hours a week?

Keeping track of the game from behind home plate.

I don’t know who won, but since I had a kid on each time, we’re all winners today!

Of course more sports equals more uniforms and more missing gear. This is how an expat kid finds missing items in the house:

By leaving a note for our housemaid. It says the note is from Carter, but Caleb is the one who wrote it  after spending 20 minutes helping Carter look for it (I would hope Carter could spell his own name!) Josie can find anything!

I don’t think two weeks have ever flown by so quickly. Mom went home last night leaving tired and happy grandkids behind. 

I love these kids. They are like puppies. We have 3 king sized beds and a twin for the four of them, but they always end up together. Usually they are listening to an audiobook as they go to sleep and pile together so they can all hear. 

We didn’t do a ton of touristy things while Mom was here, since we covered most of them last time, but something new to me was Arabic breakfast in the souk. We went shopping her last morning in town and after drooling over jewelry, blankets, and Turkish lamps, we drooled over the spread of food that we saw them serving up in the downstairs restaurant. We grabbed a table in the middle of the sunny room and ate our fill of cardamom noodles, ful (fava beans cooked so they are similar to refried beans), potatoes, vegetable fritters, something similar to baked beans in a sweet red sauce, eggs with tomato and cheese, and a pile of warm flatbread. It was so good. Add in a few lemon mint drinks and we were in Middle Eastern food paradise. 

The best part about having my mom here was experiencing normal life — going to the grocery store, planting and working in my garden (she and Camille did most of that project while I was sick), going to soccer games and baseball games, a morning at dog training class, evenings laughing over episodes of Malcom in the Middle with the kids. Nothing special, but it was all special. 

My yarn cabinet also was delivered this week. I was so happy for my mom to see it finished because it was after she sent me a box of yarn for my birthday that I was inspired to get something to display all the beautiful colors. I drew out the measurements for the cubbies and told him I wanted glass doors, but the final design elements were a surprise. 

I love that the arches in the doors look like the old style bahraini/omani windows. It’s fun to go furniture shopping when you can design your own. 

Miss you Mom!!