February (and a bit of March): Full of firsts and fun. {Time capsule}

Straight after  I posted the time capsule about New Year- I felt like another new year was starting. While January was full of new things, February was also full of firsts and beginnings.

Dinner prep by Soeun for House Church

First time going to church together 3/2/19
Once a month our  (English language) House Church has a meal together after our Sunday afternoon meeting. The first Sunday in February was our first time to go all together. The kids and I have been going to HC as much as we can for about just over a year now, with Soeun joining us once a year in December. In January we finished up at our Khmer church, so February was the start of our new Sundays. Its a potluck meal and we took a Khmer meat dish Soeun made.

First school-y type home school activities 4/2/19
In the first week of Feb I was greeted by the sight of the magnet letters arranged in order on the fridge. The kids stood proudly beside it to see my reaction.

I was surprised, and also surprised to discover that it was like the starter pistol for our school type work. The kids have been out of preschool since June, just playing and we've been reading to them. I was thinking at some stage to start some letters and numbers with our oldest but it hadn't been time yet.

Suddenly it was time and we set up the small table with their chairs in the home school room. A few mornings a week the older does a little bit of maths or letters, while the younger keeps herself busy with snipping and scribbling.

Coincidentally early Feb is also the start of the Australian school. I hadn't planned that we would necessarily follow the Aus school year.

First warm days and Chinese New Year 5/2/19
That same week CNY, and on that very day the weather suddenly got a bit warmer, after months of cool season. People in China call it Spring Festival, and it feels like a fitting name for it here, much more than it does in north east China where everything is still frozen at that time of year!

First football match with newly formed team 9/2/19
Since December Soeun has spent one afternoon a week with some local boys and a football trainer. This new nameless team had its first match on the second Saturday in Feb. Soeun is still feeling surprised and excited about the team.

First trip to a new community out of town 10-11/02/19
The day after the first football match, Soeun left on his motorbike for his first visit to a new church a couple of hours away. He got there in time for their Sunday afternoon meeting and stayed overnight and spent some time meeting the community the next day. I'm not sure if new church is an accurate description, we are still learning about the situation. He came in contact with them through a church we used to be part of, they sent a pastor to live there and requested Soeun come and help with Bible teaching.

Ready for a long ride to the teaching location

First time teaching How to Study the Bible (again)
In late late Feb, so late it ended up being in March, Soeun spent another couple of nights out of town. He was helping teach a course with others at a location new to him. He loves teaching How to Study the Bible and was excited he got time at the end to help the students practice their new skill, not just regurgitate information for an exam.

First fun for the kids
We dug out a Lego kit we were given ages ago. Our oldest was so excited to play with his own Lego for the first time! And then we bought a second box at a toy shop. He already uses anything and everything to build, so he was more than ready.

Daddy asked them to water the plants...

We read books every day, and we still have a few books that we received back in June that we haven't read yet! In Feb I read them a kids book about the Titanic. It was their first time to hear about it, and our oldest became even more obsessed with boat building than before.

We are also reading other new interesting titles about alligators, Lewis and Clark and Johnny Appleseed. Each of these books needs to be read to them multiple times a day and they branch off into other lines of interest and research. Mostly to do with American history and animals. Like the ground hog, which is also called a Woodchuck. This branched out into learning the tongue twister. So many fun things for kids to learn, so far we have been following their interests and looking things up on Youtube together to learn science and history. 



The kids also happily played in the water for basically the first time. In this tropical tourist town lots of playdates revolve around the swimming pool. Its mostly not that fun for us but hopefully things are changing.

Soeun sent the kids on a treasure hunt one day. They had to read a map he drew and follow it until they found their afternoon snack in a jar! He put it together while they were asleep, they were so surprised. Our oldest had so much fun he responded by making a map for Daddy too. 

Our son's own idea and design: mini beach umbrellas for his toy beach 

One week we had some Khmer friends and relatives staying for a few nights. The kids had so much fun with them while I had some time off to read etc. In their wake then left some lovely potted plants on our front steps, as well as a variety of homemade toys such as a cardboard sword and a pull along vehicle made from a bottle and bottle lids.

Homemade beach

And now I'm posting this when it is already half way through March, hot season has started!! This week is mostly 38. Our water pump seems to be complaining. Really hoping its because its broken and not because of the extra hot and extra dry time we're in. In Aus during a drought the government will put water restrictions in place. Here it seems some people on town water just have their water turned off randomly for long unpredictable stretches. We've been trying to use less the last few weeks, we still have maybe a month and half of official hot season to go though. 

2 ways to read more of the Bible {fmf}

Years ago I was using a Bible reading plan that took me through the whole Bible at least once in the space of two years. I did it twice in a row, back to back. In the space of four years I read the whole 66 books at least twice, some parts would have been more (I think some Psalms were repeated a few times.)

A couple of years ago I read the book of Revelation. I started in November 2016 and finished around April 2018. It took about a year and a half to read just one of those 66 books. (I didn't plan the timing, it just took how long it took.)

In some ways it feel like I read the Bible more with the whole Bible reading plan, I certainly read more of it. In other ways it feels like I read more of the Bible when I took about 18 months to read one book.

With the whole Bible reading plan, I had to skim read two new passages each day, and sometimes read a devotion on it.

With Revelation I read it myself, I read it with a group and used a study book. I listened to the Bible online while I was cleaning, I listened to Phillip Jensen sermons, he had at least one sermon on each part. I read a Paul Barnett book. I read each chapter again and again. I wrote about it such as this and this. I was fully immersed in it for all those months.

Linking up with Five Minute Friday...a one-word prompt every week, and you have the opportunity to free write for five minutes flat on that one word, then join the link-up...this week the word is MORE

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

Searching for an origin {fmf}

"Where are you from?"

I wondered how my son was going to answer this question when it was put to him by a stranger in a supermarket. I was busy choosing which oats to buy. The ones with environmentally friendly packaging, or budget friendly price?

The stranger tried to answer his own question based on my children's accents.

"England? New Zealand?"

His guesses sort of surprised me, but my son's answer surprised me more.

"THAILAND!"

Neither of his parents are Thai, and he doesn't live in Thailand. But, to be fair, he was born there. He was totally blank when the stranger started speaking Thai language to him though.

As a Third Culture Adult I find that question hard enough to answer myself, so it will be interesting to see what the next generation make of it.

I ended up choosing the oats in the tin that the kids like to use as a toy drum.

End of Five Minutes

After reading blogs like this one, about the culture gap between expat parents and their children I realised it would be useful to find out more. At the moment I'm reading some books about Third Culture Kids (TCKs). I don't know if my children fit exactly and exclusively into that category (and everyone is different anyway) but they are definitely at least one type of Cross Cultural Kid (CCK). Growing up in Cambodia with a Cambodian father, but an Australian mother.

My reading started back here with Between Worlds, but these are books I'm part way through at the moment:

Third Culture Kids: Growing up among worlds seems to be like the "Bible" of TCK literature. And the 3rd edition broadens out to include CCKs generally.
"...the authority on "TCKs"--children of expatriates, missionaries, military personnel and others who live and work abroad. With a significant part of their developmental years spent outside of their passport country, TCKs create their own, unique "third" cultures. 

Authors Pollock and Van Reken pioneered the TCK profile, which brought to light the emotional and psychologoical realities that come with the TCK journey, often resulting in feelings of rootlessness and grief but also an increased confidence and ability to interact with many cultures.... widens the net to discuss the experiences of CCKs, cross-cultural kids, who are immigrants, international adoptees or the children of biracial or bicultural parents." 

Misunderstood 
"Tanya has spent 13 years working with, and advocating for, Third Culture Kids (TCKs). Her research focuses on TCKs born after 1985 – those who grew up in the internet age. If this topic is new to you (or even if it isn’t!) a good place to begin exploring is Tanya’s explanation of what “Third Culture” is and why it matters to expat children"

Finding Home is a collection of stories from different people about their experience of growing up outside their passport country.

"Who are Third Culture Kids? What makes their experience of identity, home, belonging, travel, trauma, school unique? And yet, what connects them together, across the globe?

How can parents and educators and friends support the TCKs we know and love as they walk through issues as diverse as transitioning to university in their passport country, where they may never have lived, to how to navigate being ethnically of one country but belonging to a family from a different country through adoption while living in still another country?"

Linking up with Five Minute Friday... a one-word prompt every week, and you have the opportunity to free write for five minutes flat on that one word, then join the link-up...the word: SEARCH

Photo credit: multiple places on the internet