daily life

Now that we have been in Glasgow for almost 2 months we have established a routine for daily life.  I think it's fun to know how other people spend their time, so I thought I give you a run down of what we do here.

Monday through Friday, the kids and I do our abbreviated school routine.  We were not able to bring all of our school materials in our luggage so I selected the necessities for 6-8 weeks of school.  I thought that our shipment would arrive as planned and we would expand back into the full schedule, but I was overly optimistic!  I think it's important to count moving to a new culture as an educational experience, so our lack of science experiments won't bother me.  For now, the kids write postcards to friends, keep up with math and english workbooks and we read the books I brought from home and check out more from the library.

In the afternoons I take the kids to one of the three parks nearby or we run errands.  Yes, we have three parks, all within a 3 block radius of our flat.  Hooray for city planning!  When this area, Hyndland, was built at the turn of the century it was far outside the city center and meant to be a lovely suburb for the middle and upper classes.  The planners and architects took great care to provide quick access to the city and many parks and amenities for the residents.  To this day, it is still a desirable area.

During the week Darren spends a lot of time reading and studying.  He goes to meetings and also meets with individuals for prayer.  We are learning to adjust to him working from home.  We'll soon try to get him a proper desk so he can work behind closed doors and the kids will have a better idea of when dad is available.  Darren has staff meeting on Tuesday morning, I go to Bible read through group Tuesday night.  He goes to read through Thursday morning and there's a staff breakfast every other Friday.

I'm trying to get back into running.  I go out three times a week and explore the neighborhoods.  I quickly realized that I was a softie, running on a treadmill in my garage.  The city streets are uneven, treacherous terrain, and I'm getting used to paying attention to my next steps so I don't turn an ankle!

On Friday nights we have been getting take out from restaurants in the neighborhood.  We found a cheese pizza that the kids will eat, so that's about as wild as they get.

Saturdays we've been training into the city centre to explore.  The kids love to take the train.  We found a giant toy store called Hamley's and they love to browse the aisles and think about how they'll convince the grandparents to them things!

Sundays are full days.  Darren heads to church early for prayer and we follow along later.  The kids enjoy their class and Hayden eventually enjoys her time after the tears subside.  We head home for a late lunch and rest.  Darren goes back for the evening service, leaving at 5:30 and often not returning home until 10pm.  The kids and I have been meeting friends at the park in the afternoon and then eating a light dinner at home (honestly, its usually cereal because I don't feel like cooking!).

And that's our typical week.  Every week seems to bring a new challenge, for example last week we were car shopping.  Darren picked out a car for us, but the buying process has been delayed due to UK laws and inspections, but hopefully he'll drive it home this week.  So our next challenge will be learning to drive on the other side of the road.  I wouldn't seem so difficult except that you have to shift with your left hand (not many automatic cars here).

We seem to be easing into our new routine very quickly.  The next big prayer request would be for learning to drive all over again and staying safe in the process!

a few pictures

I found a few pictures from moving into the flat.  Of course, I'll start with shots of the kids because that's what most of you tune in for anyway...

We have to bundle up everywhere we go.  Good thing Hayden looks so cute in her kitty cat beanie.

Cam still has her rockin' fashions, the cold weather just allows for more layers of awesomeness.  Here she is at the park, jumping on a mini trampoline.

Jason loves his new bed and if you come to visit us he'll happily let you stay in his room.  Watch out for legos under foot :)

The kids and their pals hanging out in Jason's wardrobe.  They were all nervous about this picture though because their Sunday school teacher had just told them the story about how he once hid in his wardrobe and the whole thing fell forward and trapped him inside.  I like a good cautionary tale.

This is a part of our kitchen.  I snapped this because I knew you'd all like to see the washing machine there next to the wine rack and dishwasher.  The oven is narrow, just about the same size as the dishwasher.  After a few weeks here I'm starting to get used to washing laundry in the kitchen, it's not so weird considering all the time I spend in this room.  And the more I think about it, it's not nearly as strange as washing your clothes in the garage.  We don't have a dryer so we hang our clothes to dry on the radiators and they dry pretty quickly.

And here's a shot of me and Cam.  Look Jill, I'm wearing the shirt I bought when we went shopping, only I have like 13 layers underneath it.  And Cam can't stop wearing sundresses and going barefoot, she's a warm-blooded kid so she doesn't freeze inside like I do.  I'm cold-blooded (muhahahahahhaha!!!!!).

Ok, that's all for now.  I'll get to work on pics of the building and neighborhood.  This is a pretty cool place to live with lots of history.  We're having a great time getting to know all about our new home.

internet!!!!!

After a long delay, we finally have internet.  Now I use the term "long" loosely because when you don't have internet you feel as though the world is happening all around you and you can't jump into the conversation.  And that makes you feel very frustrated!  So here we are, fully loaded and ready to go.

So when we last left off I told you all about getting our keys and receiving a few furniture deliveries.  That weekend we assembled all of our furniture with the expertise and nimble fingers of Brian and Kellie.  If you've ever bought Ikea furniture, you know what I mean!  We set up the house as best we could, did a full grocery shop and then our family left the Ingraham nest Sunday afternoon.  You need to understand that moving into a flat after just a week and a half in country is absolutely ridiculous.  This was truly an act of God.  He got us settled and put us to work right away.

In the week that followed we quickly got our bearings and figured out the quirks of our new place.  We learned which parts of the creaky floor to avoid at night so we don't wake up the kids, we learned that the bathroom sink only produces water from the north pole, and we learned that our kitchen window has a huge gap in it that lets in a howling wind.  Not bad for a flat that was built in the 1800's.  Since we live in a corner flat we have a lovely turret/bay window with window seats and we can look out over our kingdom, er, neighborhood and watch the world go by.  The kids love to play in the heavy drapes of "the castle room".

Darren got to work straight away with meetings and events and even preaching in a small church outside of town.  He and I were both glad that he was so busy right away, it really helped to crush doubts and insecurities when we saw God show up in the things that Darren is involved in.

The kids continue to plug away at their school work.  Although, it seems silly to do formal schooling when all that they've been experiencing over the past weeks has been far more educational than anything I could provide for them.  They absolutely love their class at church, Kid TOUGH.  I knew it would be hard to match their love for their PRBC teachers, especially Miss Corina and the always hilarious Mr. Key (ask Cameron about that sometime), but God knew what they needed to feel at home and a church that they love was essential to their successful transition.  Jason is having a great time running errands with Darren, especially when they take trains or taxis all over the city.  Cameron struggles to find food that she will eat but we have made a few breakthroughs.  The kids all enjoy the parks in our neighborhood.

We have been busy finding more furniture for our flat.  The bedrooms don't have closets so we are hunting down wardrobes and dressers for everyone.  I've found great bargains at the Salvation Army and we've been painting wardrobes in fun colors for the girls.  Grocery shopping without a car has been adventurous and a daily chore.  We live on a hill so going down to the stores is no problem, I'm always optimistic at first.  Then when I climb back up with all my bags I get mad at myself for buying so much.  We have a fridge with a small freezer (such a luxury!) and a washing machine in our kitchen.  I've gotten quite used to doing laundry in the kitchen.  It's pretty convenient since I spend so much time in that room preparing food and doing school with the kids.  We don't have a dryer so we hang laundry on all the radiators in the house.  Mid-afternoon our flat looks silly with so many clothes hanging about!

The weather has been cold and wet.  We've seen a little snow, rain and wind.  We've even seen the sun once or twice! Let me know in the comments if you have questions about our place or city.  I'll do my best to post pictures soon.

new normal

This week has been all about discovering our new "normal".  We started with our school work.  It wasn't pretty but we managed to do an abbreviated version of school this week.  The kids are disappointed that it's time to get back to work, but this is a familiar thing and I thought it would be helpful to establish a daily routine again.  To tell the truth, the routine is hardest on me as we are still living out of suitcases.  I think once we can unpack and spread out it will be easier to start our mornings.

I've been spending a lot of time learning the ins and outs of UK grocery shopping.  I think the most hilarious experience has been mastering control of the trolley (grocery cart).  All four wheels pivot freely so I skid out and take really wide turns.  Also, I'm pretty sure that I'm the only one laughing about it.  The most difficult transition for Cameron has been her food requirements.  She is ridiculously brand-specific when it comes to food so she has come to many points this week where her hunger overrides her stubbornness.  Her progress will be slow but she will survive :)  Oh, and we found McDonald's this week, so no worries.

We signed our lease and got our keys last night.  This morning, Darren met the delivery guys from Ikea and let them in with our beds and couches.  We will shuttle all of our things over to the new place today and start assembling the furniture.  Our fridge doesn't arrive until tomorrow, so I'll have to do a big shop sometime this weekend and get us stocked up.

This week I was able to take the kids out for a walk in our new neighborhood.  We went to the post office and the park.  It was nice to be able to do "normal" mom and kid errands on our own and explore our surroundings a bit.  I love what Cameron wrote on her postcard to a friend, "In Scotland you have to walk a lot." Ha!  I guess she's working on this new normal thing too.

We went to church last Sunday and Darren went to a few meetings and things this week.  Again, new normals to learn.  I think it's good for both of us to work on finding our niche and then come back at the end of the day and relive it for each other.  It feels more "normal" than spending every minute with each other as we have for the past month!

I think next I'll work on a picture glossary of UK terms we are learning.  Off to shoot some pictures...

We made it! And other updates on the Rusco family...

Hello blog fans! As most of you know, our family has made a permanent move across the pond. And while that sentence only took me a few seconds to type, the actual move has been quite a long process. After saying many goodbyes, (some tearful, some full of laughter and mischief-- now that we're out of the country the Bernals can't retaliate) our family ate a "last supper" at In-n-Out, then boarded an airplane bound for the UK. The kids survived the 10 hour flight with lots of movies and granola bars. Darren and I survived it solely on the promise of sleep sometime in the next 24 hours, because the infant on the plane was determined not to let anyone get a moment's rest. After navigating the maze of security in Terminal 5 at London Heathrow, we boarded a short flight to Glasgow. The descent was a dreadful 20 minutes, and Hayden has never looked greener, but somehow she managed to keep her food in her tummy and not on my lap. We were greeted at the airport by Brian and Wade, two heroes who helped lug our 9 suitcases to their cars and up the 4 flights of stairs to the Ingraham's flat. We had made it!

We managed to stay awake Wednesday afternoon and fell into our beds by 7 pm. Hayden had a rough spell for a few hours that night but the other kids were able to sleep. The next day, Kellie had arranged for us to view 5 flats. We spent the afternoon traipsing the neighborhood, playing House Hunters International. She had scheduled such a great variety of places that we felt as though we had a good taste of everything available in our area. We picked the fourth flat that we viewed as it had a great location, largest space and lowest price. We put a deposit down on it that afternoon to secure it. Below is a picture of the outside of our building. We are the corner unit on the second floor so yes, that bay window is in our living room!

The next day, Friday, we joined the re:hope gang for breakfast at Scott and Monica's. There we were able to catch up with everyone and fill them in on our whirlwind experience over the past 9 months. After breakfast we relaxed for a few hours then braved the elements for an outing to the bank where we secured a bank account.

Now you need to know that we are moving at an alarming pace. It is unheard-of to get a flat and bank account so quickly. But I suppose it is also unheard of to get on the field after only 6 months of fundraising. I have often stopped for a moment to scold myself for being surprised. This is exactly what we have been praying for-- we asked God to get us to Scotland in January, and He did. We asked God to make a smooth transition for us and to get us settled quickly and He's doing just that. I never want to lose my awe for God, yet I also never want to fall back into prayer without anticipation. It's a delicate balance and I couldn't be happier living in the middle of it.

Hopefully this update will satisfy your curiosity for a little while. We don't have a move in date just yet and we still need to get cell phones. Stay tuned for updates and I'll do my best to keep you in the loop.

how are the kids?

I love this question.  I love that other people care about my kids and want to know how they're doing.  I think that's great, so thanks for asking.

I thought that this picture sums up our kids and their personalities pretty well, so let's have a look:

Start with Jason, in the back of the cardboard box boat.  He's pretending to be a gondola oarsman.  He's calm, steady, steering the girls through the water.  He is reliable, quiet and thinking, moving forward with confidence.  Despite the quiet confidence, I know thinkers like Jason need people to check in on them once in a while and ask if there's anything they need to talk about.  We've been playing board games with Jason after the girls go to bed and this gives him a lot of time to talk to us.

Take a look at Cameron.  Somehow, though the movie is older than she and not appropriate for her age, she is doing the "king of the world" move from Titanic.  Our middle child is in need of constant attention, always putting herself front and center, wanting to be a part of everyone's business.  She is all about the drama, act first, think later.  She approaches obstacles with either determined enthusiasm or determined pessimism, with her there is no middle ground.  Despite all that and because of all that, we love her fiercely and are always on the alert as to how we can help her through the big move.  She and I have great dates at Starbucks where she loves to drink a kid's hot chocolate and pretend it's coffee.

And now in the middle of the boat is sweet Hayden.  That is exactly where she wants to be at all times.  She wants to be in the center of a group hug, or sitting between her siblings.  She is anxious for everyone to stick together and she doesn't want anyone left behind.   On most days Hayden can be found walking around the house, sending and receiving pretend texts on her play cell phone.  She loves to communicate although her siblings would call it being a chatterbox.

So that's how the kids are doing.  I'm pretty impressed with their attitudes as we pack boxes and explain that they won't be seeing some things for a few weeks.  They are handling the disorganization and plugging away at their schoolwork.  Thank you to everyone who thinks of the kids in their prayers.  We can tell that they are covered and we are grateful.

new year, new design

I've used the same blog template for 4 years.  It's hard to believe that 4 years have passed and I've used this blog to chronicle our family life.  With the approach of 2012 and our impending move across the pond, I thought it was time for a new look.  And perhaps a new name may be in order... more on that in the days ahead.  Anyway, I'll try out the rainy look for a while, then maybe switch it up.  Stay tuned...