The Stecherbush Abroad

So a day or so after the girls and I arrived, we found kittens on our front porch. Cats here are wild animals. Westerners feed and try to tame them but that's not the subject of this post. They are indeed "wild".  So this good little Mama came from next door where she'd birthed these babies, to our front porch. As adorable as they are I believe in not feeding wild animals. We've had so many cat adventures thus far. The big problem comes when she moves them under our cars. This seems to be her fallback spot. We physically removed them one day and Matt put them into a box to try and keep them safer and Mama got offended and left the premesis-thankfully taking the kittens with her. There's a lot of stress around this whole kitten thing. I don't want to be left with orphaned kittens if Mama goes missing. I don't want to run over them. One fell in a grate full of water while we were gone and we found it and saved it when we got home. Sometimes the spot they...

  Moving to Oman I had 3 goals for my family. One of them is to help my picky eaters expand their pallet. I was struggling at home and felt like anything new I tried was given a negative opinion before it ever hit the table. Kids who were unwilling to taste food until they knew all the ingredients almost never ended up enjoying what they ate. I felt like there were some unhealthy trends that others (besides me) were integrating into our family. I hoped by eliminating the dependency of certain SAD foods maybe we could start fresh. I am reporting that I SEE PROGRESS! It's still not perfect but a couple of the kids are really branching out!  Tonight's dinner was a beetroot burger with peri peri haloumi and slaw on a homemade whole wheat roll. That's maybe TMI. It was yummy. Most of the family loved it. Ok, I was trying to not call anybody out but the girls in our family are the ones who struggle and I will say Sennia asked for extra slaw and ate her food without a complaint. H...

We were all set to make the journey to Salalah for the Eid-al-Adha holiday until the Ministry of Health declared a 24hr lockdown for the entire 4 days. Not to be kept down, we declared our own holiday and chose a few doable favorite moments. Matt had recently purchased a large Omani "pumpkin" which he was itching to turn into a pie. Our friends had mentioned doing something similar, putting up a Christmas Tree and having Christmas in July. I wanted to gift them cinnamon rolls so it was the perfect opportunity to have a day of Thanksgiving, a day of Christmas, and a day of New Year. The kids were all over it, even excited for the lockdown. I had a few ideas up my sleeve. Setting goals to get us going on our new adventure? Yes please! The pie was actually some of the best ever made! We were missing a few spices but cardamom was lovely. We had rolls, tropical fruit salad, a chicken, homemade mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, and spicy sautéed veggies. Everyone contributed. Alena ...

A lovely invitation to pretend it's not 100+ degrees outside on our last free day before a 4 day, 24 hr lockdown for the Eid holiday.  Elise is going to grow up and be an ice skater after today. I was pretty nervous that her efforts to twirl and glide on 1 foot were going to send us to urgent care but she can't believe that twirling isn't the first step in learning to skate. Alena on the other hand, had no desire to end up in urgent care for a broken wrist again.  I was done with adventures today but Matt and company got out of work early and wanted a quick trip to the beach before lockdown so I couldn't resist. I didn't take a lot of pictures because the water was just that perfect blend of warm and cool. I need to start being besties with the GoPro. The building in the background is actually the US Embassy. Matt had a 3:30 meeting with HQ even though everyone had  gone home so he slipped back in for that and joined us again when it was over!   

Welcome to Nizwah Souk. We drove over 2 hrs to see this and while it was underwhelming to a high degree, it was also clean, calm and friendly. Lots of clay pots, frankincense, trinkets, guns, knives and swords. There were, carved boxes and lots of jewelry and silver items. Matt loves markets. The girls love to buy things at markets. They pretty much don't even talk to me because I struggle to buy things I don't need, or watch other people do it. HA! Not sure if this is just a COVID precaution? This was the fruit and vegetable section of the souk. The vendors were the opposite of what I've experienced every other middle eastern market. They were giving things away and just incredibly friendly and kind. A man had some jubjube berries? fruit? I think that's what they were calling them anyway. He encouraged me to try it out of a bowl he had sitting out. I couldn't say no. It wasn't extremely tasty but he wasn't pushing them. He was separating garlic cloves and I...

In Oman the Holy Day is Friday. We align our Sabbath to match theirs. COVID numbers are still really high here, although they have stopped climbing as of this month. So, we don't meet in person as a congregation but continue with Zoom. After church we decided to try and drive to a nice beach for a walk. As we got into the mountains, the rain started coming down harder and harder until we actually had to stop and turn around. It's incredible to watch things begin to flow and flood. It happens so fast here. Every mountain becomes a waterfall which shouldn't surprise me. It's 90%rock here. As relieved as I was to get home without getting stuck, it was worth the stress and excitement. Seeing Oman as one big waterfall was thrilling. The locals were stopping to watch, jumping out and sticking their heads in the waterfalls, and also trying not to flood their cars haha. It was no joke. We were gone less than an hour and there were deeply flooded houses and roads. You can't ...