I had no idea how ready I was for a break from our normal routine! The kids started their 10-day long spring break last Friday, and we kicked off the holiday with a dinner out to TGI Friday's with our friends Sam and Charis. It was totally refreshing and relaxing; it's hilarious how we can let the kids kind of run free in the restaurant due to the few number of people who are normally there to eat and the high population of Chinese staff who think our little "wai guo xiao peng you" (foreign small friends!) are cute enough to let them get away with whatever they want. After enjoying our American burgers, ribs, and chicken strips, along with HUGE cherry Cokes, we returned home with enough balloons to make each kid happy and the taxi driver constantly have to glance in his rear view mirror!
On Saturday we hosted another birthday party--a dual one for one of our national friends and for Sam, who happened to have their birthdays on the same day! We had fun watching "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" (with Chinese subtitles) after enjoying dinner and dessert together (traditional cupcakes for Sam and sour cream coffee cake that I made at my Chinese friend's request!). On Sunday we went to our international fellowship where I taught Karis' Sunday school class (a really cute group of 1st and 2nd graders). We followed up the service with lunch at Mc Donald's for the kids and KFC for me--we'd heard that they just came out with a new sandwich at KFC here in China that is called the Texas something-or-other BBQ sandwich! I thought we had to at least give it a try due to it's name! Not too bad, but not exactly Texas BBQ either!!
On Monday I decided to play hookie from class! With the kids being home all week, I knew I needed to plan something to keep us all busy and to keep them from driving one another crazy! So we're going through some VBS material that I happen to have which focuses on Creation and the Creator. So each morning this week we are doing a quick lesson, followed by a "field trip", and then returning home in the afternoon to do crafts or special projects that are best tackled when the youngest member of our family is napping! So on Monday we took off for the zoo--one of the kids' very favorite spots! They had an absolute blast exploring new nooks and crannies (most of which ended up in dead ends to some sort of maintenance area!) and gathering things for their "creation bags" to take home. Karis even had her drawing pad and pencil to record special things in the creation that she enjoyed but could not bring home. There was a HORDE of people there, due to Tuesday being a huge national holiday (grave sweeping day, where you're supposed to go and honor deceased relatives by cleaning or visiting their graves); so most people have work off on Monday and Tuesday of this week. I find it interesting that when there is a huge holiday, rather than just taking the time off of work or school, both businesses and schools make up for the holiday's missed hours by having class or work the previous Saturday and sometimes Sunday! So much for getting to enjoy a long three or four-day weekend...
Today (Tuesday), after we did our lesson we took off to go hike the backwoods of Trash Mountain. Karis' teacher and my friend Natalie, along with her two little ones, joined our hiking and picnic lunch. The kids came home covered in dirt (but relatively clean dirt, so no complaints here!) and thoroughly having enjoyed their outing. As I type, they are currently spending time with one of their favorite people here in Tianjin--Ms. Barbara! She came over to bake cookies, read with, and just have play time with the older three for several hours this afternoon. When living in a place where time with grandparents is MUCH less than any of us would choose, it is such an amazing blessing to have someone willing and excited to invest in the lives of our little ones, being a godly example of what life can look like when you're living for Him... We are sooooo thankful!
So after two days of focusing on just being a mom--not doing homework, folding laundry (our ayi is off due to the national holiday, so I'm doing more than my normal share of trying to keep us in clean clothes!), not hostessing any (I realized that as much as I LOVE hostessing, I was getting a little burned out and needed a break--thus my intentionally trying to just focus on my family of 6 this week rather than cooking for or hostessing others!), and just having time to play with my kids--I've decided that I'll take another day off of class tomorrow!! I got permission from Kevin, and think I am going to spend some more time tomorrow afternoon just reading and playing Legos with my kids. The time is just too short! Is it really possible that I'm going to be a mom of a seven year old this summer?! Talk about incentive to redeem the time!!
