Tea, Tacos, and a Turtle

I am sitting in front of an oscillating fan, sipping chai spiced rooibos tea which is meant to make it feel more fall than the 90 degree afternoon we’re enduring enjoying.  It’s October and I’m too stubborn to turn on the air; besides it doesn’t really work anyway.  Rooibos tea, which is grown in South Africa, transports me right back to Lesotho days.  I didn’t love it when I first tried it, but over time it grew on me; when I discovered the chai spiced version, I was sold.  Since it is naturally decaffeinated, it’s a great option for a late afternoon slow-sip.  Dinner is prepped and ready to go in the oven.  I usually do some variation of Taco-Tuesday, but this week it got postponed to Wednesday.  Keto-taco-casserole (known around here as ke-taco) it is, and it’s so good!  I loosely use this recipe.

Yesterday I spent the entire afternoon in the kitchen, preparing all sorts of goodies.  I have many eager helpers, which doesn’t make things go very quickly.  Just when I was about ready to finish up and have a seat, Ellee reminded me I had promised we would make something from this alphabet cookbook this week.  So she, Sadie and I whipped up this Turtle Bread to accompany dinner. It was quick and easy and great for little helping hands.  I even managed to get out of kneading!

The finished product was well received by little turtles and Daddy turtle alike.

I also decided to use some super ripe bananas to make up a sort of low-carb banana bread.  Oxymoron, I know, but where the kids are concerned it's only an effort for healthier eating.  So I did my usual 3 mashed bananas, 2 eggs, stick of soft butter, drizzle of vanilla.  Then I added about 1/2 cup of coconut flour and a shake of baking powder and a shake of baking soda.  The technical details to recipes are negotiable in my book. It had to bake a good long while to set up - probably an hour or more - but once it did, it was very tasty.  The addition of a couple dark chocolate chips was not objected by any of the members of my household.

Hope you are having a great week!

~Abby

A New Roof

Somewhere in the midst of four children, a couple big moves, homeschooling, and the array of other duties which follow me wherever I go, my almost-forgotten blog was pushed aside.  I have kept up (and not kept up) with this blog for nine and a half years.  I often don’t even remember it exists, but when I do, I enjoy looking back through the virtual scrapbook of my unusual life. 

I am seated on the floor of our roof top patio, listening to happy birds chirp.  The breeze is refreshingly cool after months of exhausting heat.  It may not feel as fall as I would like it, but the respite from unbearable heat is welcome.  And the cool dips at night make my morning coffee with a sprinkle of ground pumpkin spice all that much more enjoyable.  A coconut-lime keto cheesecake is cooling on the counter.  Homemade keto chocolate ice cream is also freezing in the freezer.  A roast is in the crock pot and I am excited to see how the sweet potatoes I finally found here turn out this evening when I bake them.  We didn’t have lunch until nearly 3, which is so Spanish of us.  You see, we really are adjusting.  Dinner will be on the table by 8.  School has been accomplished, Kyle in 3rd and Ellee in 1st, and Rosie has napped on and off all day.  Teething has disrupted our days and nights for over a week now.  Jonathan has been in and out - out at the store helping with refugee grocery shopping, in working on class preparations for English class tomorrow, back out here shortly to help with an immigrant food distribution and then on to his African migrant soccer team’s practice this evening.  If it sounds like he should be tired, that’s because he is.

Moving to Spain has been quite a smooth transition, as far as transitions go.  Buying a car, securing a rental home, filling it with furniture and getting it set up during our first week here wasn’t exactly the least stressful thing I’ve ever done.  We checked out of a guesthouse on Saturday morning, July 13th, and went and dropped a few thousand dollars at IKEA that afternoon buying beds, couches, a table, a pot and pan, silverware, pillows and sheets and everything else you might imagine needs putting into a house if a family plans to live there starting that evening.  Now the house, which at first didn’t attract my love and affection but was all that was available, feels like home.  I enjoy the quiet setting, the very low traffic along our street, and access to the pool and neighborhood garden for outdoor time. Since Jonathan is away a lot with the car, I am pretty well situated here at the house with the kids all-the-time, so it at least feels like we’ve gotten out when we go up to the swings for a picnic.  We’ve managed to work out a few kinks with the place, except the A/C that couldn’t handle the heat.  Fortunately, it seem the worst is behind us now, so I’ll wait for Spring to bug the maintenance guy again about that. My favorite thing about the place is probably the stunning view.  And the dishwasher.

Spanish has come flooding back, although thankfully we never lost it completely.  We’ve been using it for years as a secret language when we want to hide something from the kids or to speak privately in Lesotho or South Africa.  Unfortunately, now we are encouraging our children to learn our secret language.  Kyle works daily on DuoLingo and Ellee listens intently.  Sadie is picking up bits and pieces along the way.  I have made it my personal goal to be absolutely fluent someday, but that day is far in the future, I am sure.  Nevertheless, being able to get around and make my point or ask my question in the language is not a luxury I enjoyed in Lesotho.  And English is not widely spoken here, so it is pretty well a necessity.

The baby is now awake after another barely-nap, so I am off to see how my ice cream is coming along (read: have a bowl regardless of if it is frozen yet or not).  Then maybe I’ll try to pointlessly sweep the house or fail miserably at attempting to read my awesome book about a missionary family in Peru during the 1960’s.  Although more than likely, that will have to wait until the kids are all tucked into bed and I am left with silence until Rose wakes back up.  This is a life I love and appreciate, even in the frustrating and mundane.  I wouldn’t trade it for all the cleanliness, structure, or silence in the world…. But at times that does sound appealing. 

~Abby