all things powdered

I really miss having a DPO address.  Here in Addis Ababa we rely on pouch mail that is sent to a US address and then "pouched" over on flights as space is available.  The timeliness isn't the issue (even though things generally do take longer to arrive).  It's the restrictions on liquids that has my panties in a wad.  Everything has to be sixteen ounces or less and that includes pastes and canned goods.  That means no shampoo, no baby food, and heaven forbid...no peanut butter.

There are plenty of work-arounds.  We can simply ask our family members to stick some of these things in a box and send them to us (one 16 ounce or less thing at a time) and we order on Amazon.  Only many vendors won't ship small enough quantities of things.  It's a bit of a challenge.

But I'm typically up for a challenge and I've done some research.  Another overseas parent tipped me off about powdered organic baby food.  I decided to try it since it's all good and well to make my homemade baby food but sometimes I just want to be lazy.  My daughter shouldn't suffer because I want to be a lazy sack.  Welcome NurtureMe baby food.  I ordered a variety pack that comes with four boxes, 8 pouches each of peas, sweet potatoes, apples and pumpkin.  Each pouch is equivalent to one glass jar of baby food.

NurtureMe peas reconstituted

The positive is that it's extremely convenient.  I can throw a pouch in my diaper bag with a spoon, bib, sippy cup and a tupperware bowl of dry baby cereal.  When it's meal time while we are out and about, I simply mix the pouch contents with water until it's the right consistency.  Whatever Ashlynn doesn't eat we refrigerate for the next meal.

yummy peas

Ashlynn really likes it, which is ultimately what gives a product the green light for moms right?  I appreciate that the peas are bright green and taste like fresh sweet peas.  Ashlynn's favorite are the apples and I don't blame her.  They mix up nice and brown and taste like orchard squeezed apple juice.  They taste like real apples not just smooth applesauce.  My least favorite is the sweet potatoes.  They're a little pasty and Ash isn't thrilled with the taste.

Ultimately, I give NurtureMe a thumbs up for convenience and taste.  It's a healthy and convenient alternative to the jarred baby food that I no longer have access to.

homemade zucchini

That being said, homemade baby food is what we rely on mostly in our house.  At $40 for a four pack, (that's 32 pouches, $1.25 per pouch) NurtureMe is not super cheap (especially if you have to pay for shipping costs).  But it's not on the extremely high end either.  Buying local produce and roasting, steaming, and pureeing my own food is definitely cheaper. All the local produce is "organic" here. Homemade isn't significantly more time consuming. It takes about 8 minutes to steam and puree enough zucchini for eight baby meals.  I just freeze it for the week.

homemade zucchini, apples, carrots

I'm not sure I'd recommend solely relying on powdered baby food for the majority of your baby's meals simply because homemade baby food is so easy.  NurtureMe is a nice back up for when you throw open the freezer and realize you've used the last of the baby food and there is no way your hungry baby is going to wait 8 minutes for anything.  It's nice to be able to grab a pouch, add some water and shovel it in the hungry little beast's mouth so she can quickly return to her sweet self.  NurtureMe is perfect for these situations as well as when we go out to eat at a restaurant or when we are traveling.  I'm very grateful this powdered option is available.  I plan on ordering Ashlynn's favorite flavors again!


Low and behold I discovered powdered peanut butter too.  We're going to give this a shot and see how it goes.  I'll let you know what we (Addie and Bella) think of it.

tour of our home in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Addie and Bella's bedroom

I guess reading all those Design Mom: Living With Kids series has me inspired to finally post some pictures of our home here in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  I mock interviewed myself.  Enjoy snooping around my home.  It's clean too, lucky you!

Q: Tell us about the family who lives here.
A: Myself, my wonderfully devoted husband, Justin, our three daughters Adelaide Rose (5), Arabella Jun (3) and Ashlynn Olivia (7 1/2 months) and our dog Lucy (8).  We also have a housekeeper Eneye, gardener/day guard Teklu, driver Zalalem and two night guards, both named Ghetu who spend quite some time on our compound.

View of the entryway and non-working fire place.  The rock wall in the entryway is pretty neat.

View of the open living space on the first floor.

Q: What's the story of your home?  How did you come to live in it?
A: We heard through the diplomat grapevine that an ambassador to another African country lived in this home before us.  It makes sense to us because the home feels very grand.  I guess it's just luck that this home came to be ours when we moved to Addis Ababa.  It might help that we moved here in January and very few families were moving around so there probably weren't many homes available for a family of 5. This home is brand new to the US embassy housing pool. We are the first American family to live it.  Which essentially means we've had to find all the kinks and get them worked out with the facility maintenance folks. That hasn't always been a blast but we can't complain.  The house is beautiful.

Formal living room with great wall of curved windows

View of the dinning room and kitchen taken from the formal living room

Dinning room with built in cabinetry 

Our first piece of Ethiopian art.  

Q: It seems that you've really made this home your own even with the standard issue embassy furniture. What's your trick to make the space yours? How did you come by your decorating inspirations?
A: Gosh, thanks.  It's always a challenge to personalize an embassy home.  We've collected a lot of art work and decorative items from the countries we've lived in and visited. We were in the Philippines for three years and have lots of great stuff from Manila and other SE Asian countries we visited. We only own one piece of Ethiopian art right now.  I like to stake out the art we want to buy during the first year in a country.  Year two I will do more purchasing. We really like the style of art in Ethiopia so I'm sure we'll acquire a few more pieces. Long before we moved overseas as a family, Justin traveled often and picked up a small bit of art to display in our collection in every country he visited.

hallway on the first floor that leads to the powder room and den

Also, I come from a long line of antique collectors. My mother's home is full of collections (quilts, pottery, miniatures, you name it, my Mom collects it).  She taught me how to scavenge estate and garage sales for beautiful things.  We frequented Good Will and Salvation Army to find treasures when I was a kid.  Some of my favorite quirky things around the house I picked up for pennies at the local Good Will.

Some of my tricks for making embassy housing more personalized are layering our own throw rugs over the embassy issued ones.  This adds color and an added layer of protection from stains.  For the childrens' spaces, I like to use removable sticker decals on the walls.  I let the girls help on the decals in the playroom but for the girls' bedroom I had a very specific pattern in mind.  Being mindful about placement of the decals can turn a sticker collage into a work of art.  Plus they're cheap!

One of the four bathrooms in the home.  This happens to be one of the smaller bathrooms but it's where Justin and I have claimed the shower.  It's the only shower in the house that is halfway decent.

Q. What is your decorating style?
A. I'd say ultimately I'd like my style to be old meets new.  It's hard living in a home you are provided and not one you've had a chance to choose and fall in love with.  Some day when we have a home of our own that we choose to settle down in, I'd like to combine my love for monochromatic white and neutral things, with our international collection, and old things. Phew, that could be tough!  I love the idea of re-purposing items like doors, benches, wood, metal work, frames, mirrors etc for new things.  I'd love to re-purpose an old house, remodel, and make it our home.

The playroom is the largest of the rooms on the second floor.  It has an entire wall of built in closets we use for craft supplies and dress up.  It's a great airy room to play in.  Oh, and it's always in a state of disarray.   

Q. What is your philosophy on living with kids?

The kid books took over an entire book shelf.  Not a bad thing to have too many of.  I love these owl book ends that my crafty sister made for the girls.  I love owls.  The pictures on the wall are framed batik elephants from Thailand.

A: I'd love to say I had an overarching philosophy on anything related to kids before I had them.  It's not the case.  Over time I've become more relaxed and patient about living with kids than I ever thought I'd be.  There is no off-limit space in our home.  I try to keep the toys and kid stuff in the playroom but inevitably there isn't a space in our home that doesn't end up invaded by the children.  Normally, I don't mind.  I love being a family with small children.  The kids and all that comes with them is our life right now.  I can't see the reasoning behind trying to hid that three little girls reside in our home.  I will admit to having moments where I freak out and have to purge every room of kids stuff and throw it all in the playroom. As my husband likes to say, it's nice to feel like grown ups live here sometimes.  I also don't own many things that if broken would honestly make me weep.  The few things I own that are precious are up high enough that the kids can't reach.

A "collection" of memories.  Left to right: framed etching from our weekend trip to Paris (before kids),  99 cent ugly owl from Good Will, print on metal from our honeymoon in  Kauai, pottery from Manila.

Q: What do you collect?
A: I don't really have collections.  I have a lot of vintage jewelry and a good number of pairs of shoes.  I have a thing for vintage soap dishes and cake stands for whatever reason.  I like mirrors and frames and things that are white.  Maybe some day I'll have lots of one thing that is beautiful and I can say I have a collection but I don't really agree with the idea of having too many of one thing.  I prefer one of something really beautiful.  Sometimes having too many of one thing detracts from the beauty of the individual. Plus I hate clutter.  I like items to be thoughtfully curated and arranged to look precise, not messy.

The second floor family/TV room nook

Q: What is your favorite space in your home? Favorite feature of the home?
A: I love our TV family nook on the second floor. It's cozy and in the evenings I love to pull the ottoman out, kick up my feet with a beer or a bowl of ice cream and read a good article or flip through a magazine for a few minutes.  We have family movie nights in this room with popcorn and blankets, we eat pancakes in the morning on the couch. It's just a great family space.

wooden desk made of reclaimed wood from the Philippines.  

Hands down, the best part of this home is the size.  It's truly the first home we've lived in that feels like the space suits our family.  Maybe it's because all our stuff gets spread out among the three floors and feel less cluttered.  Maybe it's the extra bedroom and all the storage space.  The only problem will be downsizing when we get back to America some day.  The space in this home is enchanting.

Second floor patio

There are four flights of marble stairs in our house.  Justin calls them "teeth chippers"

I love all the large windows and natural light that comes into the home.  In the afternoon the third floor rooms are lovely for photography.  The open floor plan on the first floor is wonderful too. The ceilings are tall with beautiful crown molding and recessed lighting. It's a great space for entertaining.

The entire third floor is the master bedroom suite.  We are never disappointed that we bring our own mattress with us  overseas.  The bed  was made in the Philippines.  The outer wall of the master suite is mostly windows.

View of the master bedroom from the opposite side.  This space doubles as our panic room.  The main doors have  multiple heavy duty dead bolts and locks.  Every room in the house has a panic button for the security alarm as well.

Q: What's the craziest maintenance request you've had to submit so far?
A: Yikes, there has been a ton. Everything from broken water lines to building baby gates, but the craziest so far has to be asking for the removal of a colony of African honey bees that swarmed into a downspout connected to our master bathroom.  The bathrooms buzzed for a few days as bees were able to fly in and out through a hole connecting the downspout to our hot water heater. My husband was the bee killer and used the vacuum to suck some of them up. It was pretty scary.

Q: When does your home work for you?  What time of the day do things run smoothly?
A: I'd have to say after I've cooked dinner and the girls and I have eaten.  The two older girls run off to play full of after-dinner-energy and the kitchen gets cleaned up a bit by my housekeeper.  When she leaves it's just us girls. I love that feeling of winding up a day well done.  I start the bath and round up the kids and put all three of them in the tub.  I love that sleepy eyed look the baby gets as she starts to yawn when we are getting ready for bed.  Bath time and bedtime by myself can be hectic with three little girls but on most days I feel good about accomplishing so much in the home all by myself.  When I'm nursing the baby before bedtime and I can hear the older two playing quietly together waiting for me to come down and brush their teeth. I get to rest my head for a minute and call it a day.

The little nook in the master bedroom between the bathroom and the walk in closet.  This is my jewelry dresser

Q: How would you finish this sentence: If I had only known…
A: I wish I would have known that living overseas would provide me with such wonder and joy.  I had no idea I had so much learning and growing still to do as a woman/wife/mom/human.  

View of the strange half wall that sort of separates the master suite.  We've made what would normally be a sitting room into the nursery.  There are a ton of pros and cons to this set up.  

Lots of light in the nursery

The two areas are connected without a door.  We might remedy this with a folding screen of some sort.

Decals!

Walk in closet in the master suite. Messy but pretty darn awesome.

third floor landing

third world cooking

Cooking in the third world is all about compromises.  Compromising quality and freedom.  It's about cutting off the bad spot and making something beautiful with what is left.

Cooking in the third world is all about substitution. It's about thinking outside the original recipe.  Changing ingredients out for things you have on hand or things that are available even if the end result looks nothing like you intended.  It's about creativity and taking risks to create something delicious.

Third world cooking is about setting your mind to eliminate failures in the kitchen.  Nothing fails, it just turns out "different".

This is my philosophy for cooking in Ethiopia.  Recipes are guidelines.  This is the reason I rarely describe a detailed recipe with all the measurements.  I don't cook like that.  You definitely can't cook by a recipe in the third world.

I love stuffed peppers but all the ground beef and pork I used to stuff them with made it a heavy dish.  I wanted something lighter.  I was inspired by a recipe for Greek stuffed peppers.  Here is my interpretation of the meal.

"Different" stuffed bell peppers

 Cook 1/2 cup long grain white rice until tender.  Chop one onion, zucchini, and corn on the cob (great for leftover corn).  Saute on medium heat three cloves of garlic in a pan with a bit of olive oil. Add 1 cup ground beef or pork and cook until done.   Add the veggies, salt and pepper and saute for two minutes.  Add the cooked rice. In a small bowl mix 1 Tbsp cream with 1 egg.  Add this to the meet/veggie/rice mixture.  Stir quickly and turn down the heat so the egg doesn't cook too fast.  Sprinkle the mixture with a dash of Parmesan cheese. Add more salt and pepper if needed.

 Wash and prepare three bell peppers for stuffing.  Fill each pepper with a heaping amount of filling.  Pour 1 cup of water or chicken broth in the bottom of the baking pan.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Uncover and top each pepper with cheese.  I had Camembert cheese but Fontina, feta or grated Asiago would be lovely (I'm always dreaming about other cheese options).  Bake uncovered for another 10-15 minutes until the cheese is all melted and gooey.

The end result was delicious.  I scooped out the middle for the girls and then sliced the bell pepper for them to eat on the side.  It was a very light meal and perfect paired with roasted broccoli.  It hardly looked like the original Greek stuffed pepper recipe but in my kitchen developing my own recipe with what I have is even more fun!  

dark days ahead?

About 6 months in to an overseas post is when the "honeymoon" phase is over and things start to take a turn for the worse.  Everything that seemed interesting and new about Addis Ababa is starting to be annoying and frustrating and heartbreaking at times.  This past weekend was the first time I wanted to hide in my house and at the same time felt suffocated by the four walls around me.  I wanted to pack the kids up and take a walk to a park, drive to the Mall and get a burrito, go to the movies with my husband, hug my sisters and parents.  It was the first time since we've arrived that I looked around and thought it would just be better if I went back to bed and didn't get up the entire day.  We all know that didn't happen, but I wanted to.  I knew I was in trouble for wishing it.

When I counted on my fingers how many months we've been here, and saw four digits wagging at me I thought it was a tad early to feel down about Addis.  Maybe it's the rainy skies or the isolation.  Maybe it's the spring air I miss in the U.S.  I'm sure a stomach bug making the rounds among our family the past few days isn't helping my feelings about this country.  Then Eneye tells me that she found a man who had hung himself on Sunday.  She was so traumatized by the experience she couldn't eat or sleep the entire day and night.  This man apparently had a wife and 5 children, who he couldn't feed from lack of work.  After being hungry and a failure too long he wanted out.  His wife had to give her children away to other families yesterday so they could eat and be cared for.  This story is every day life for some Ethiopians.  It's absolutely, crushingly heartbreaking for me to hear stories like this.  To experience things like this.  I see at least twenty naked, sick, malnourished babies on the streets every day.  At some point I have to close my eyes.

I make a assessment of where I am mentally most days.  It's just what I do.  Admittedly, motherhood makes me feel a bit weary some days.  Weary, but in a busy raising my daughters and happy about, it kind of way. If I'm feeling off or down I feel guilty.  There isn't much I should feel off or down about.  I recognize the greatness in my life.  I recognize the contentedness and peace I feel 99% of the time.  Every day I'm presented with a situation that makes me thankful for my health, my husband and his hard work and my children.  Living and experiencing this third world country is a startling wake-up call (even more so than Manila, Philippines)  as to how lucky we are for the comfortable life we are living.  I recognize these things on a daily basis and yet some days I can't help but feel down lately.  Bottoming out in Addis Ababa about 6 months in is something I am prepared for.  We felt it in Manila and I will feel it here.  I know it won't last long.  I know we will reach a healthy plateau of livability that will require some filters being set in place so I don't tear up every time I see a desperate woman begging while her baby suckles her breast ("that could be me" and "my children are so lucky" runs through my head incessantly).

So maybe I'm on the downward slide to the bottom.  The positive in all this is that I recognize it.  Today I got busy and found a few things that I'm grateful for.  Beyond the obvious stuff of course.  Every heard of 365 Grateful?  I heard about it a few weeks ago and thought it was such a wonderful way for this woman to turn her mental well being around.  I'm going to try to notice something every day that I'm grateful for in the hopes that it will help the "bottoming out" be a quick one this post.


Today I am grateful for the beautiful green lettuce I found at the store this morning.  The lettuce here comes with the roots still attached so you can see the earth it was growing in.  I like getting my lettuce this way.  I like only buying lettuce when it's beautiful.  In the U.S. you can have a salad every day if you want.  Salad comes in a bag.  It's a ridiculous concept really.

I am also grateful how happy these light green flowers made me this morning.  Carnations usually bring to mind ugly prom corsages but this monochromatic selection could stand up to any lily.

 I think I'll be getting through this low point with an apron on.  Here's to cooking and baking through any problem.  

School and Embassy

So far, our third world internet leaves a lot to be desired. A whole week without internet access had me itching to search the interwebs. It’s amazing how wireless internet has become something most of us take for granted.

Anyway, crappy internet is the reason why we ended up at the embassy last weekend. We grabbed our iPad and Kindle Fire and spent an hour or so letting the girls play at the playground while Justin and I downloaded the new issue of Wired (hands down the best magazine ever) . We updated our settings, downloaded a book or two, and just sat there while everything loaded. The girls didn’t mind because it’s gorgeous every day here in Ethiopia. Ashlynn napped in the Bijorn and everyone was happy.

We attended an open house at Addie’s new school. Head to Toe preschool has an adorable playground and a very well thought out education program. I was especially impressed with their art teacher and program. Miss Martha has a degree in fine arts and is marching the kids through a children’s art instructional put out by the Museum of Modern Art. It’s no wonder I’ve seen Addie’s artistic side blossom in the past few weeks. She’s thoughtfully creating drawings and coloring impeccably in the lines in her coloring books. Last month she was happy scribbling, this month she’s taking pride in her work. At school they are working with clay, paints, abstract sculpture art, paper mache, drawing and more. It’s amazing really. Each child has an art day during the week where they learn a technique and start a project. Later they can revisit their projects to keep adding to their work.

The music teacher is a sweet British primary school teacher who apologized to the American parents for all the kids coming home singing the British version of children’s songs. Justin and I were hoping she’d come home singing them in a British accent too.

Astamari (teacher) Marki is Addie’s learning block teacher who she spends time with every day. Addie loves her.

Bella loves to come in and play in the mornings when we drop Addie off.

Our new home

A comfortable home is going to be key for our family in Ethiopia. I have a feeling we will be spending most of our time together in our home and if we venture out it will be to the rare playground or school function. Possibly playdates and dinner parties at other family’s homes. Our home is our sanctuary here.

We arrived at an off time in January. Not many homes were available because not many families were coming and going. It could have gone one of two ways. We receive the last crummy house that is a last resort to assign a family of five; or they locate something more appropriate for us and we end up with a palace. Luckily the later was the case.

It’s a three story, 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom, palatial home. The bottom floor is an open floor plan with double front doors into a huge entry way, formal living room, dinning room with built in china cabinets and a large functional kitchen. There is a den and powder room on the first floor as well. The second floor is a perfect set-up for the kids. Addie and Bella share one of the three bedrooms, the largest bedroom on this floor is the playroom and the third bedroom willbe a spare until Ashlynn is ready to move to her own space. On the second floor is a cozy family room where the TV is. The third floor is entirely the master suite with a large bathroom and immense walk in closet. Off the master suite is a sitting area that we’ve turned into the nursery. It’s a nice compromise. Ashlynn is in her own space but I don’t have to walk up and down two flights of stairs all night to nurse her.

There are balconies on the second and third floor. Large enough to put lounge chairs and have meals. We’ve been issued patio furniture with an umbrella for the second floor balcony because it’s huge enough to entertain outside. The windows in the home are worth mentioning. They are floor to ceiling and open for a nice breeze during the day. My favorite part of the home is the lovely garden we have out front on either side of the home within the walled compound. There is grass and flowering bushes and roses that climb the walls! I’ve been eyeing this gorgeous yellow roses as it’s bloomed each day. IT givesme a bit of The Secret Garden vibe. I’m in love! I’m also in love with the decorative moldings in the home. There i

s recessed track lighting in living room and master bedroom circling the rooms’ perimeters. Chandeliers hang in the formal living room, dinning room and the master bedroom. If I was a jerk like most the picky Americans on HGTV’s House Hunters, I’d say the chandelier in the master bedroom is “not really my style”. But I’m not because seriously, there is a chandelier in my master bedroom. I had a blanket hanging over the window in our bedroom in Virginia ghetto style to keep the light out when Ashlynn napped. I’m moving up people!

The view outside the windows is also worth mentioning. We look out onto the road and grassy fields. There is a fair amount of car traffic during the day. Possibly more foot traffic including shepherds herding their flocks of sheep, goats, and ox to and from pastures. I really love watching the Ethiopian school children walk home from school in flocks too. The younger kids get out early, while the teenagers come down the road in packs later in the day. At night we hear hyenas in the fields which makes all the dogs bark. The moon shines big and bright every night but not before a spectacular pink and orange sunset every evening.

There are some things about this house/compound that could fall into the not-so-awesome or interesting category depending on how optimistic I am at that moment. We have an “out-building”, I guess you could call it, where the laundry room is as well as a huge pantry to house our consumables. Right now the pantry has an ant/bug problem which is bad news for food storage. We are going to get that fixed before the shipment arrives. There is an empty room where our housekeeper could live and another storage closet where I see our Christmas decorations going. The day and night guards have a room and restroom. In the back of the house there is a creepy alley looking corridor where our water tanks are as well as a clothesline.

The entire compound is walled complete with barbed wire. The gate is always locked and guarded. Every window/sliding door has an outer layer of iron grates. The bathrooms have those gross stinky third world drains with leaking sewer gas. Screw water drainage, we tape those stinky holes up! There is one decent shower in the entire house and it’s not in the master bathroom. The master bathroom has a crummy Chinese shower that spurts hot water for a few seconds then switches back to freezing cold for a few seconds over and over until I’m fed up and hardly clean.

We have a water distiller in the kitchen that dispenses our clean drinking and cooking water. The water we bathe with or wash dishes with is not suitable for consumption. Giving a girls their bath in brown tinged water is a big wake up call. Justin and I are Nazis about not letting the girls put their hands or toys in their mouths while in the bath.

Ugh! Florescent lights...need I say more.

Besides the annoyance of having water deliveries for the tanks outside and the screech and grind of the pumps shooting the water up pipes to the second and third floors things are going well in the house. With a few more voltage converters we should be in business.

Across the street is a squatters village/shanty town. It’s not entirely awesome that we smell the smoke from their fires on the cooler mornings and evenings. It seems like a petty complaint when I’m sitting on the second floor balcony of our African palace. Now I really am a jerk American.I have a few before pictures of the house I took week one. It’s fun to see how the home evolves as the air freight and HHE shipments arrive.

count down

We knew all along that we would be bringing our new daughter into the world among some major transition for our family. The count down to moving to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia began the moment she was born. At 40 weeks pregnant I was torn between wanting Ashlynn to arrive already so I didn't have to be pregnant any longer, and her staying put so we as a family could stay put in America a little longer.We have roughly 5 weeks before we have to pack up and move to our new home in Africa and I'm panicking a little bit about all that needs to be done but cannot possibly done with a newborn, a two and a half year old and a four and a half year old.We knew that we wouldn't have much time in America to repatriate and enjoy being Americans. We knew that we probably wouldn't be allowed to stay at home with family for Christmas. We knew all these things and yet I am having a really hard time processing the upcoming move and all it's inevitable transitions for my children and myself. We've only gotten settled here in Virginia. I knew I'd feel this way and still it's hard.
5 weeks and counting.