2014 is a New Start

Wouldn't life be grand if the toy area always looked like this? These are the bulk of our toys post "The Great Toy Purge of 2013". 

Treavor and I got a head start on the New Year toward the end of December 2013. You see, we have five sets of people/family units/relations coming to stay with us in first six weeks of this year, and being the Messies we are, the house needed a good shake down. In fact, Christmas Day's evening was spent initiating a toy purge. We have done this for the third year running and it. is. awesome. We go through toys, ditch the ones that have been long forgotten, throw away the bent paper airplanes, broken action figures and dust bunnies...and then consider our storage space (with the goal being not to buy more boxes to fill, but to stay within those boundaries instead).  It was so liberating, as it always is.

From that day on, we spent a good part of each day sifting through piles of papers, pulling out guest blankets and sheets, rearranging, and cleaning. We even enlisted a friend to help (one whose gifting it is to be a great organizer and cleaner!).

So, when our friends Glen and Kat arrived last Saturday to stay for the week, we felt like we could finally breathe and not have to wish with baited breath that they wouldn't open our cupboards and find themselves at the bottom of the junk pile that had just fallen on them.  We are working on being hospitable and tidy people.  Help us, Jesus.

I can't tell you enough, but it is so wonderful to have clean, empty spaces!  Growing up, it was my tendency to feel like a shelf or a table or a space was for filling with some kind of junk. Can anyone else relate? It was as if an empty table was screaming, "PLEASE put junk mail and books and papers and all your loose change, etc. etc. etc. on me!"

It has been a week since we rearranged almost every corner of this house, and there have been a few lazy days of not putting things away as we have rushed from this meeting to this meal to that errand, etc.  The clutter is starting to, well, clutter up our empty spaces.  One week into our New Year and it already seems we're back to our old ways.  We didn't make a resolution, exactly, but are wanting to seriously change our ways so that our children don't inherit our messy tendencies and struggle with it for the rest of their lives. 

Have any tips for us? Leave a comment below...or you can just wallow around in the dilemma with us and leave me with an "Amen!" if you're struggling with the same thing.  Either way, I'd love to hear from ya!

Here's to a brand spankin' New Year!  God's got some wild things in store for us here, I just know it!

Thanks for reading,
Alina

Survey/Christmas Giveaway Winner Announced!

You really should check out the goods at The Open Arms Shop

Last week, I opened a Christmas Giveaway here on the blog.  Saturday at noon, Central Time, the giveaway and the survey involved officially closed.  THANK YOU for stopping by and for giving me your thoughts about this blog and answering some questions about yourself.  This information is truly gold for me as I look to the next year of blogging and plan to write about things that you are actually interested in rather than things I just happen to be excited about.  

Hey, I can get excited over bugs, write lame poetry and take an obscene amount of pictures...but maybe you're not looking for that...or maybe you are?!  Time will tell as I write and share more in the coming year.  Your opinion and your thoughts matter to me.  Thanks, friends!

If you skimmed over that last paragraph to just know who won...then wait no longer...

The winner of the Christmas Giveaway is...

CARRIE!  

Carrie, please shoot me an email at ordinaryalina@gmail.com to let me know whether you would like to receive a scarf (red or white) or a kilo of some awesome coffee from Hillkoff.  Also, let me know the type of roast you prefer.  Are you a dark roast kinda girl or someone who likes keeping life and her coffee a little lighter?  I will never know...unless you tell me.  THANKS!

As for the rest of you who come to read...there will be more opportunities to win goodies that I will most undoubtedly offer.  Who doesn't like a giveaway?  Stuff for free?  I'm game.  

But, of course, until then...I will be living life here in Thailand and telling you all about it and about the people and places we live around.  Keep dropping by!


Blessings!
Alina

ps, if you are still interested in taking my survey (a whopping FIVE questions)...let me know in the comments or shoot me an email. I would really appreciate it!

GIVEAWAY - Just In Time For Christmas! - A Survey

Who doesn't like a GIVEAWAY?

This week here at Ordinary Life in the Wild, I am hosting a giveaway just in time for Christmas.  If you have read for years now, or are visiting for the first time, you are welcome to join in the fun!  By fun, I mean a bribe of sorts...

In order to get a better idea of what my readers (that would be you) enjoy whenever they visit here, I created a poll!  And, while most of you are busy with your...well, busy lives...I thought I would give you a little incentive to fill out the survey form and enlighten me a little bit in the process.  

Of course, you can always fill out this survey to bless me with no strings attached...but it would be more fun to win one of these instead:

A handmade scarf made from recycled t-shirts...by refugees living in Austin, TX. And, in pretty holiday colors...(click here to read more about the makers at Open Arms)

Or, a kilo of coffee from these people at Hillkoff coffee in Thailand (our every-day choice to fill our mugs!!):

So, what do you have to do to enter for a chance to win one of these awesome gifts?  Fill out the form below (please be truthful and please please enter at least your first name so I know who to gift once this is over!)...by noon on December 14th (this Saturday!).  Thank you SO MUCH for helping me become a better blogger and giving me an opportunity to bless you, my readers, in the process! (If you are having trouble with the survey through my site, click here for direct access on PollDaddy).

A Young Family's Search for a Meaningful Holiday Overseas

Who let these crazies out of the house like that?

It's that season again.

No, not the rainy season or the hot season or the cold (OK, mildly cool) season here in Thailand...the holiday season.

For us, after the rains stop drip dropping (mostly), there come cooler days and a vague resemblance of Fall.  I wake up in the morning, chilly, donning fuzzy socks and dreaming of hot coffee to warm me up.  My husband, from Illinois, would disagree with the degree that I deem this "chilly" morning/evening weather, but then he used to walk out in the snow with a t-shirt.  Hard core, I get it.  I am not.

But with the weather changing, and despite the fact that snow is something that only happens here along with pigs flying, our minds shift to the holidays; American holidays.

Suddenly, without skipping a beat, the annual Thanksgiving Day banquet is planned. My culinary contribution is usually not much, as my close friends here have that area covered much better than myself.  And, then, like in the States, the day right after Christmas brings thoughts of ornaments and cookies and carols and Elf.  You can't have Christmas lately without Elf, right?

Last year's Thanksgiving celebration at the S-clan's house

But, without being surrounded by the American culture and influence of the holidays, our little family is left to decide for itself about how to celebrate this season.  And, lemme tell ya, I am happy to be left out of Black Friday, fruitcake and the Chipmunks singing "O Holy Night" on repeat.

On the other hand, so much of what we feel during this season is all that we see and hear around us (in the States).  Neighborhoods are lit up, carols fill the air as we shop for milk, and Santa is suddenly everywhere we see in ads and decorations.

But, what do you do when we live here? In Asia. In a Buddhist nation.

With every year that passes, we realize that the holiday culture we will be experiencing is the one we create ourselves. Instead of letting extended family and TV commercials and Target toy ads determine what enjoy in this season, WE are the determining factor.

Here is what we have been doing over the past few years to make our overseas Christmas feel just right for US:

:: Food, lots and lots of glorious food.  When the temperature drops (or, at least when November hits)...out comes the pumpkins, cinnamon sticks, sugar cookies and comfort food. Over the past four years, our best experience yet in this area has been in the current city we live in.  For a price, you can get just about any ingredient to make what you need (mostly, but you still have to make from scratch).  One Christmas morning, we had breakfast tacos with handmade flour tortillas...just because when you live overseas, any special food makes it a special day...even if you don't necessarily equate breakfast tacos with Christmas!

:: Music.  Before the days of iTunes radio (we can't really get Pandora here)...this came in the form of our own albums, the borrowing of others, and YouTube Christmas play lists.  Just hearing the classics throughout our home makes us a little nostalgic, AND realize that most of the songs are so foreign to our kids.

This year, Mrs. Tawni came over to help us overload the tree with ornaments and Mr. Mike came to oversee the eating of cookies.  He had to make sure they were fit for eating, I guess.

Huy called dibs to put on the star.  He was beyond thrilled!

:: Decor, of course.  Now, I am not the craftiest or best home decorator (just ask my family)...but the only "seasonal" decor I have is at least Christmas stuff.  A few days ago, we pulled out the table-top Christmas tree, the box of ornaments we have been collecting since we married almost a decade ago, our two nativity scenes that some dear friends sent from the States, and some lights (that blink incessantly so as to make me want to lose my mind!).  For the last few years, some friends have come over to deck the tree and have a hot drink together.  Loads of fun!

:: Focus on giving, not getting.  Though we do buy a few things for our children and for each other to open on Dec. 25th, we don't have wish lists, or pretend to be Santa's middle-men.  It is so exciting to get new things given to you in this season (hey, I LOVE gifts! we aren't pretending to be non-materialistic!)...but we have tried to steer our minds towards what we can give instead.  I used to be plagued by buying meaningless or pricey junk for others in a veiled attempt to be generous...but instead of that, we try to pray about whom to give to each year and how to do it.  Some years we give World Vision gifts or items to support the eradication of human trafficking and poverty.  We visit a local orphanage on Christmas Day (for a few years now), bring some things along to bless them, and play with the children there.  Perspective can be a great teacher.  

:: Celebrating Advent/Jesse Tree. For the last three years we have been counting down December days by reading various prophetic passages leading up to the birth of Jesus.  All throughout the Bible, there are shadows and hopes of the Messiah's coming.  It has been so wonderful to draw all these stories together for us and for our kids as we prepare to celebrate Christmas in a meaningful way.  I used to use Ann Voskamp's Jesse Tree devotional...but this year she is highlighting this study instead of her original one.  Also, YouVersion's Bible app has Advent reading plans to follow.  I am reading She Read's Truth's version and our family is going through the Countdown to Christmas reading plan.  

So, these are just a few ways we expats are trying to make the holidays something special to us.

What are some ways that you make your Thanksgiving/Christmas season meaningful? Expat or not, I would love to hear your traditions and ideas...feel free to comment below.

Blessings,
Alina

Five Minute Friday: Fly

The very plane that brought us to Thailand almost 4.5 years ago.

This imperfect post below is a result of taking a blind leap of exercising my writing skills through Five Minute Fridays. Hundreds of other bloggers around the globe take just five minutes every week (ok...maybe I am not that consistent!  but...working up to it) to write for only five minutes on a one-word prompt that Lisa Baker gives at her site.  Interested?  Click here to get the details.

_____________________________________________________

Fly...

I get two kinds of mental pictures when I hear the word, "fly."

Picture one:

Soaring...freedom...puffy white clouds and an endless sky.  Maybe even Superman makes an appearance in this mental picture.

Picture two: 

In order to reach my family and friends who live across an ocean or two, I have to fly.  I have to spend a zillion dollars and plan for months and FLY to be able to see them, reach them.

One picture elicits incredible freedom and exhilaration and aaaahhhhh...a sigh of relief.

The second represents a barrier of time and space and a wall between locations on this big and wide planet.

They represent wanting to fly towards space and be away from people for moments upon moments...and in my more homesick and people-sick moments...flying represents my need and craving for the people I miss.

Fly...

STOP

Tying Strings With Tickle Fights

Kyla, my smiling beauty, mid-tickle-fight.

Lately, I have been trying to perfect my ability to tickle-fight.

If you have kids, or just even an annoying or immature co-worker, then you understand that sometimes leading people can wreck your good attitude.

Even though I have four little blessings, sometimes amid whining and making lunch and messes and dirty diapers and noise, I sometimes forget that they are in fact little blessings instead of little terrors.  Can't relate? I know I am not alone.

So, in an attempt to war against the bad attitude (mine) that is just waiting to creep out from under my peaceful exterior, I have tried to make my kids' smiles come out instead.

I read once in To Train Up a Child about "Tying Strings (click for a short video)."  The basic idea is to tie "strings" of fellowship, joy, smiles, laughter, great memories and great love, with your kids (or anyone else, really).  You can do this by creating experiences and emotions that draw your heart and your child's heart together; as if they were tied to each other.  Because we all know that there are times when the strings we tie are then cut apart.  

Strings are cut with angry words, a roll of the eyes, too many "no's", sarcasm, and not enough time to look them in the eyes and engage with them.

I can list all of the above so easily not because I just see it in others, but because I see it in myself.  So, I can choose to re-tie the strings I have cut with smiles, loving touches, turning off my iPad and making eye-contact, listening to the rambling stories and about a million things more.  I am sure you can think of a few to add to the list.

And, every day, I have committed to tie more strings than I cut.  To keep them close.  To keep their heart connected with mine.  When they grow up, what is going to keep them from breaking free just as soon as they're able? ...The strings that I tie today.
  
So, bring on the tickle fights.  They are an instant attitude-breaker and a joy-bringer.  Try it!  Or, tie some different strings of your own (and share some of your ideas in the comments below).

Blessings,
Alina

10 Easy Steps For How to Draw Attention to Yourself in Thailand

These tips have come from my own (embarrassing) personal experience, and from watching other foreigner's personal experiences as they live in and visit Thailand. 

If you ever find yourself hopping a plane over here to our neck of the woods, you'll thank me, or not, for sharing these tips with you: 

10 Easy Steps For How to Draw Attention to Yourself in Thailand 

1. Be really, really loud. A lot. In public places. Especially when in a conversation with someone else.

2. Have white skin. Works every time. This is especially effective if paired with blond hair and blue eyes. Mercy on your soul if you have all three. You might have just become the most popular person in the room. Ever. 

3. Show a lot of skin. Sleeveless shirts and shorty-shorts are a must to accomplish this attention-getter. 

4. Have lots and lots of babies. Any number higher than two will shock others regularly and cause them to think you run a preschool in your own home. 

5. Forget to use a straw when drinking out of a bottle or can. Hey, didn't you ever read the article about the bacteria on the tops of those containers? Drink from a straw and live. (And you simultaneously avoid awkward dribbles of Fanta over your chin. It just makes sense.) 

6. Pick your teeth in public. Don't discretely cover you mouth, either. You lose points for that. 

7. Wear your shoes inside. 

8. Spit, loudly and with great distance. 

9. Hug your spouse/significant other in public. Better yet, a smack on the lips will really turn everyone's heads. 

And lastly... 

10. Whatever you do, don't smile. Keep those smiles to yourself. Everyone will be very sweet and concerned for your welfare. They will tell you to just forget ("mai ben rai") your troubles and cheer up. But, if you sincerely don't want the masses confused by your permanent frown, then cure your melancholy nature and just take a look around you. You are in one of the most beautiful countries in the world, and it's people's own smiles are too contagious to resist. I dare you, just try.