Blogger’s block

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I’ve been dealing with blogger’s block. We’ve been here long enough that I begin to think that life here and life elsewhere is the same. It’s true we do the same things: work, take care of kids, shop, cook, play, relax, go to parks, etc. All it takes to see the difference are a few moments of “perspective”.

Perspective 1: I just glanced out the window and saw Huge Yellow Construction Crane #2 gliding past my window. Most of you probably don’t see that every day. It has been fascinating to see from our 7th floor view how China is built. You, on the other hand, are probably tired of pictures of construction sites and cranes. Sorry, it’s the view we have for now and will most likely have it for a while yet.

Perspective 2: The place Kevin and I met has celebrated their 60th anniversary. A friend (on Facebook) posted pictures of the event. I knew many of the faces; even related to a few of them. I understand the deep meaning, significance, and the history represented by those pictures. A history of faithfulness and truth; trials and heartbreak as well. Though many people in that community understand cross-cultural living we live in a very different world than the life portrayed in that album. A sub-perspective to this perspective, just a few years ago we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the founding of this nation. Two completely different worlds and philosophies colliding; just the thought blows my mind!!

Perspective 3: We attended a Korean 1st birthday party last week. Not something we did on a regular basis (ever) while still in the US. We daily interact with more cultures than just Chinese and our own.

Perspective 4: Sunday afternoon we had lunch with our Latin friends. The menu was Muslim-made pulled noodles with pieces of beef and cooked in broth with cilantro and green onion. Yummm! During lunch we were discussing where to hang a piñata for their son’s first birthday party. Noodles and a piñata for me represent two different worlds intersecting on a dusty street in China.

So, there’s more material than I realize. Are there any questions you have about China that I could answer in a future blog post?

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I’m gonna do it! Gonna break through that blogger’s block!!

Fixing stuff: China edition

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The day started going downhill. I blame lack of coffee first thing in the morning. The “want to be healthy” side of me cringes at those words, but it was the truth. Kevin wanted tea; I also opted for tea. I was feeling overwhelmed up to the frizzy hairs on top of my head then decided, this was NOT going to work. Made myself a French press pot of coffee. Took my favorite purple mug off the rack and while waiting for the milk to warm up decided the attitude needed to change. (Sounds much more innocent when written like this. Anyway…)

Mid-morning, after the above said purple mug of coffee was half gone,
and Kian made it to the bathroom for his third runny poo of the morning (too much fruit),
and the bowtie noodles were boiling in the kitchen for mac and cheese,
and someone else was yelling for me,
AND M-girl was running around naked,
the doorbell rang.
It was the kichen cabinet fix it man. (We’ll refer to him as FIM 1.) Thank goodness!! Not perfect timing, but my dishes have been sitting on the kitchen counter for the past month waiting for the landlord to get a FIM here to fix the cabinets. (We have a good landlord. I am not complaining!)

How do fix-it appointments work in other places? Here’s how it works here. FIM 1 came in empty-handed and looked at the cabinets…hmmm…then asked me for a measuring tape. He wanted to make sure he had the right tray size before hauling up the boxes. He left and came back with the new trays; a lit cigarette in his mouth. In the meantime I moved the boiling bowties from the stove to the hotplate so we can continue with lunch plans.

Things 1, 2 and 3 eating the mac and cheese. Classic!
2012-4-17 iPhone 128

Following order of events:
-I ask FIM 1 politely to put out his cigarette. There are children, you know. He does so, politely.
-I ask him if the new cabinets are better quality. Yes, of course. I think that’s what he said. My local dialect is not so good and his Standard Mandarin was forgotten for the day.
-FIM 1 asks me for pliers. Which I didn’t know the word for but got the hand motions.
-He asks me for a rag to clean out the bottom of the cabinet.
-He asks me for a screwdriver. Why am I providing the tools again?
-He shows me where we’ll need to get another screwdriver and tighten what he put in, because he didn’t have the right tool or the right angle to make it tight.
-FIM 1 does not have the right change and gives me a 10 kuai ($1.59) discount.

I’m happy with the fix. Here’s the old ones:
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New top drawer cabinet:
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And another to displaying the bottom drawer and the leftover Chinese food made by our house helper. Yumm! It was still sitting out at 9 at night and I kept going in and picking at it. (Don’t tell my ‘All Things Healthy’ group…oh, HI, Sarah!!)
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Same day I made a phone call to the purifier supply store. Can you bring us two new inside things (filters) for 1201 Yadu air purifier? Oh the price has gone up? Not surprising. Everything is going up. Oh, you can come this afternoon? Fantastic!! Oh and while you’re here can this humidifier that I totally fried be salvaged? It can? Oh, stupendous! OK, sure, and in our spare time we’ll look through our mountain of receipts for the original receipt because that will save us $10 on a service call. Thank you!

The filter fix-it man (FIM 2) came same day and switched out the filters for us. FIM 3 came the next day with filters for the other filter. Yes, confusing, I know, but all very convenient.

For pictures of the purifiers see our family blog

Today I got a call from FIM 4 asking if we wanted the humidifier fixed. He was on his way. I had not looked for the receipt. I had not called to remind them. He called and offered. Must have been a slow day. And it was all for free because we haven’t had it a year. Gotta love the service!
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Recap of what has been fixed this week?
-Attitude
-Kitchen cabinets
-New filters in all purifiers
-Humidifier (that I fried)

Stay tuned for…Window washing: China edition

Spring post

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Kai keeps counting down the days to spring. I think he’s imagining instant short sleeves and sandals. Not so, sweetheart! I remember one ‘first day of spring’, I was maybe 7 or 8. I dressed in short sleeves and my favorite jean skirt and went out in the driveway to shoot some hoops. After about 5 minutes, refusing the whole time to admit I was cold, I heard Mom knocking on the window. “What are you doing? Come in!!”

It’s springtime and my blog needs a thawing out. It was frozen on New Year’s; not even Chinese New Year, for goodness sake. Eeek! I’ll just admit it; my desire to write is a little cold. I do want this blog to be inspirational and encouraging, but am facing a writer’s block of ice. Time to get out the ice pick.

Things in our household continue with non-stop activity. Non-stop!! This semester feels like a reset for us. A time to be at home with the kids and figure out exactly where we want to go as a family in our continual embracing of this place and culture. The kids aren’t going to preschool. I’m homeschooling Kai. We/I have several major goals for the next few months. 1) Find out if we can enroll Kai part-time in a Chinese school this fall. 2) Get potty habits under control and be completely diaper free even at night. Whew! I’ve seen so much poop and pee from our family in the past month; it’s exhausting. You really wanted to know that, didn’t you? 3) I’m on a kick to loose 5 more kilos this spring. It’s hard work and I’d prefer just not to, but must be done.

A few pics to help thaw the ice:

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Yes, he’s as mischievous as he looks! But that smile brightens my day!

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I posted this on our family blog, but have to post again! It makes me laugh every time I look at it! Kai’s Mr. Bean pose:

Kai Mr. Bean

News articles

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Happy New Year everyone!

I’ve recently run across two articles in the news that mention hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Yeah, the spell checker doesn’t get it. Anyway, my Dad was diagnosed with HCM a year and a half ago and had open heart surgery end of 2010. The doc told him it can be genetic and possible his kids could have it. I was diagnosed with HCM a year ago. Thankfully not a severe case, but still something that needs attention.

With HCM muscles in the heart are thicker than normal causing restricted blood flow. An often accompanying problem is the mitral valve does not work efficiently because it either doesn’t close properly or hits the thickened muscle aiding the restriction of blood flow. One symptom is sudden black out and fainting, both of which I’ve had in the past. My grandpa died suddenly from a heart attack when we has 60, but I wonder if he also had undiagnosed HCM. There’s more to it, but I’d have to explain it in person. (Anyone want to come to China just so I can explain HCM?)

Since last January I’m becoming more aware of how HCM affects me and my limitations. The best part is that now I know why I get so tired so quickly. Before I thought it was because I was SOOO out of shape. While that was/is true at times I pushed myself too hard and felt guilty for being such a wimp. I am trying to work out regularly; keep the heart healthy and loose weight. I lost 20+ pounds in the past year. Mostly focusing on changing eating habits instead of dieting.

So that’s that. You’ll probably hear more about this from me as I learn. Below are the two articles I mentioned. The last one is not very enlightening, but interesting if you wonder why sometimes athletes keel over dead!! The first link is a heartbreaker. This young man had a severe case of HCM that was diagnosed early. From what I’ve heard that usually means it’s more severe.

Young man in Texas

Running a marathon won’t kill you

Kristin

Christmas Eve

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This post is not very deep or insightful. Just sort of chatty.

In the past three years we’ve made big holidays (Western & Chinese) occasions to celebrate with our friends. For most of the friends, celebrating Christmas isn’t very important, but they’re happy to oblige us and eat great food. I expected to stay up later, but to be honest we didn’t. I guess getting old has it’s upside; you go to bed when tired. We did watch the Grinch movie. The newer one with Jim Carey. I’ve never watched it before and was entertained to say the least.

There were four Christmas movies I saw during December that I’ve never watched before. 1) The Grinch 2) White Christmas (with Bing Crosby); I love older movies!! 3) The Nativity Story 4) A Muppet Christmas Carol. All are very good and entertaining. We also bought Michael Bublé’s new album “Christmas”. Very smooth, relaxing sound. My husband bought it. I didn’t have to ask.

The funniest experience was caroling in our complex with another American family. Since most of our sweets are WAY TOO SWEET for our Asian friends we chose to give them an apple. Six kids wild with adrenalin. Five places to visit. Four adults and copies of carols. Three songs to sing. Only Two songs could really be sung (Joy to the World in Chinese was not working without practice). One peaceful baby. I’m so sorry to the people we sang to who have no idea what we said. :) We’ll do better next year. We’ll practice.

We have a few pictures from Christmas Eve.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Vision for this blog

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Hi, friends! I’m switching blog sites once again. Seems it must be done at least once a year. I never used to be a tidy, concise person until we had kids. Now any area of my life that I can maintain efficiently brings relief; those areas are few. My former blog was causing emotional grief (just to me). Now if you want to know anything about the Bucher’s it’s all in one place.

The focus of my blog is to share stories and insights in living as a follower, a woman, wife, mom, friend (and all the other hats I wear) in a country that’s not my own. China is not my home; I’m only passing through, but in the meantime I want my family to feel this is home and to thrive here. Friends that come our way I hope they’ll feel at home with us and can get glimpse of The Light of the world.

Welcome and feel free to leave comments. Know that comments are screened before posted, so they won’t show up immediately.

Kristin

 

 

Thankful list

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Why do I wait till November to write a post about beingthankful? I should write it in the middle of the summer, but it is the weekthat we’re reminded to be thankful so here’s the list.
  • SOOOOO thankful for heat!! Friends, if you’recold this winter (between now and March 15 when heat goes off again) I’d loveyou to stop in. We have great in-floor heating that keeps us warm enough toopen windows. Even the bathroom floor is warm. It works! I was so afraid it wouldn’t come on. Sounds strange, but this is a land where the unexpected must beexpected.
  • Dad’s faithfulness. Why do I doubt?
  •  Friends who encourage me to keep doing the rightthing, who inspire to keep running the race and ask the hard questions.
  •  New friends that seem to like us for who we areand don’t want anything except friendship.
  • For no shaking of the trees…yet. (Streetsweepers occasionally shake the autumn leaves off of trees so they don’t haveto come back later and sweep them up. I understand their reasoning, but I loveautumn colors. :) )  
  • Our kids. They make me laugh and cry (yell,sometimes), and who remind me, “Mom, don’t freak out!” Sigh. You’re five. Howdo you know what “freak out” means?
  • For people in the US that for some reasonbelieve our vision and have been supportive in a million ways. We love you andmiss you, Springfield people!
  • For those who helped Kevin get a new computer.Thank you for your generosity.
  • For the reminder that Dad wants to continue workingdeep in my life and that I need to bring something bigger than a shot glass forHim to fill.
  • For family. Both Kev and I come from healthy,believing families. We realize that’s a rare gift!!
  • For my husband. You inspire me in so many waysand I love you!

We’re having turkey on Saturday evening around five with afew local friends. You’re welcome to stop by. I realize that might be hard, butwe’ll have most of the trimmings and lots of fellowship. 欢迎！！

Thankfully,
Kristin
From Autumn

http://jjuuhhaa.deviantart.com/art/Autumn-In-the-City-105654420

Neighborhood happenings

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Something exciting is happening on our street today. Not sure exactly what, but the bread/flour lady near the market said a leader (gov’t) was coming through. It is all cleared out! The food vendors on the street were cleared out last week. (I can’t get my favorite pancake/lettuce/egg/sauce snack. I’m hoping after today they’ll be back.) The police have towed all the cars parked on the street. The owners will be mad I have a feeling. I’ll let you know what happens. 
I told you I’d keep you up to date on our new friend that lives several entrances down. The last post I mentioned Kai was at their house playing. That day when I went to pick him up he threw the biggest fit I’ve ever seen him throw in front of anyone. Oh my word! He was so impolite. Did not respond to anything my friend told him. He had a talking to when we got home. OK, more than a talking to, but he got the point. I sent a text to my friend to thank her and to apologize. She was very gracious and she’s been so nice ever since. I like her a lot and it has been a huge relief to talk to her and ask questions of culture when I don’t understand. Kai and her son, Chao Chao, seem to enjoy playing together.
She went with me to do a health check. It was last minute and we had to do it ASAP to get our visas renewed. There’s not much privacy at a health check. Let’s just say my new friend has seen more of me than most of us are comfortable with. ‘Nuff said. 
I’ve been trying out this Pinterest stuff. I’ve seen other of you using it. Not exactly sure how it works. Anyone have any advice?
I’m off to make a rice noodle chicken shrimp stirfry. Later.
From 2011-11-1 iPhone
Do you think it’s coincidence the only place in the grocery store to find Band-Aids is right next to the shavers?

Transition

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We’ve been back for two and a half weeks and are feeling more settled. Our horrible jetlag eventually took care of itself.
I don’t like transitions. Really. Hate the feelings that go along with it. Dislike the internal mental and emotional processing that happens. Dislike the depression. Dislike feeling in a rut. Sorry, sounding a little gloomy! During transition for some reason, I usually feel my relationship with Dad is on the rocks. Like I’m not obeying, listening, enjoying this relationship. Feelings tend to blot out the Son.
Yesterday was bad. Last night before falling asleep I begged Dad to show up. Please, show us what You’re doing. Give us eyes to see; ears to hear. Why are we here? Why do You move so slowly at times? What are You up to? The answer—it’s the same answer He’s been giving for the past 3 years—“Do you trust me?” Sigh. Rolling of eyes. (Are we allowed to roll our eyes at Him?) Yes, I trust. I have nowhere else to go; nowhere worth going at least.
Today is different.  I finally went to visit a new Chinese friend. She, her husband, and son live very close. I like her and bought them a few gifts while in the States. Her husband is working today, and she graciously invited us in. I needed to go to the market so she invited Kai and Kian to stay while I went. To my amazement they both agreed to stay. Without me. I’m not sure, but it might have something to do with the massive TV and Wii that Kai saw while we’re were standing in the doorway. :)   But Kian! Kian started taking his shoes off and decided to stay with gege (older brother). Amazing! She’s a classic mid-upper class Chinese who, since she’s had a child, doesn’t need to work. Her husband’s salary must be enough. Her family lives on the East coast. Her son goes to Prek five days a week from 8am-5pm. They feed him breakfast, lunch, and supper. She has lots of time while he’s in school. I’m hoping that I know enough about culture and she has enough grace with my blunders that we can become good friends. I’ll keep you posted. 

A few pictures from my phone: 

Mom, I know I shouldn’t, but it’s too fun!

Three Muskateers 

M & Kai with Levi before he moved back to the States. 

Peek-a-boo

OK, this one…if you can’t read it says “Wood Hen”. Is there something called a wood hen? If not, it’s a translation problem. 木 (mu4) is the character for wood. 母 (mu3) is part of the character for mother; in this case 母鸡 is a hen.

View from our window yesterday. 

















View looking the other way. Ugh.


Same day; same recipe. What happened? 


This pink mold grows out of the floor at this specific spot when a water bottle is on top of it. Every time. In just a few hours it’s there. Not there when there’s nothing on that space. We won’t put the water bottle there anymore. What is under our floor? Eeek!! 
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Grandparents and heart

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>This summer has been so, so busy! There is no possible way to sum it up. I’ve waited too long in between posts. When we return to China and we process events from our time “home” maybe I’ll post. I’m an introvert who usually wears an extrovert mask. My think tank of “must be processed items” is full and we have 5 weeks to go yet. Eeek! I’m writing what’s on my mind right now. 


We spent the evening at Grandpa John’s house; Kevin’s Grandpa Bucher. A cousin from Idaho and aunt and uncle from S. Carolina were visiting him and we had supper together. Hamloaf, mashed potatoes, fresh sweet corn, fruit salad, ice cream. Selah. :) Need I say more? Everytime we leave and say good-bye we don’t know if this will be the last time we’ll see him on this earth. I have a memory ingrained from tonight that will stay with me forever and almost makes me cry just thinking of it. We were buckled in the van ready to leave. Gpa John said bye to the kids and closed the door. He put his forehead up against the glass and waved his hand. Kian (sitting right next to the door) grinned at giggled at him and waved his hand bye in the only way our little sunshine boy knows how. Let me tell you, he has a smile big enough to chase away a thunderstorm. The interaction between them was a split second. It was beautiful and reminds me of the blessing and heritage passed on in our families from generation to generation. Priceless.


In other not so exciting news I’m having an MRI done on Thursday morning to have a closer look at my heart. I’ve found out this year that I have a hereditary heart condition called hypertrohpic cardiomyopathy (HCM). It’s a long story that I won’t retype here. Basically, because there has been an instance of sudden death in my family (my paternal grandfather) and fainting spells when I was younger, the doctor wants to see the extent of my condition. Is it a severe case? Moderate? Mild? Let me just say that in this US medical system if you mention you are leaving the country and need things done ASAP they find a way to make it happen. I’m impressed. Thank you, Ruth Ann at the Heart Group!! 


If any of you are going to be in Maryland this weekend at CMC meetings. We’ll see you there (hopefully)!!