My life seems to be about moving.  Packing up belongings, hauling them to another location and settling in to a new place has almost become a routine.   Now, it not only applies to my physical life but my cyber life as well.  Today I am officially packing up my blog and moving here. 

Moving a blog is similar to moving in the physical world.  There are fears of the unknown.  Will I like my new home?  Can I arrange my furniture in a reasonable, comfortable way?  How long will it take to learn my way around?  Will my friends in my former neighborhood forget about me?  I have loved my home here at HSB.  It was my blogging birthplace.  I have made some incredible friends.  Thankfully, the internet is a tremendous tool for making the world seem smaller.  My real life friend Julie may be in Texas while I am here in Romania, but we can sit down with a cup of hot chocolate and visit each other easily, no matter where we are in the world or on the web. 

I am looking forward to my new home.  We have some exciting things going on in our lives that I will be posting about soon.  I hope you will come by for a visit soon.  God bless!

Visit me at Wired Wisdom.

http://www.woodward-family.com/karenwoodward/blog.html

1. The Map

2. The Flag

3. Benin lies on the West Coast of Africa.

4. It has a population of  6,305,567. (July 1999 est.)

5. French is the official language

6. There are over 40 different ethnic groups and 51 languages spoken in the country.

7. Porto-Novo is the official capital.

8. Cotonou is the seat of government.

9. Most Haitians trace their ancestry to Benin.

10. Benin is the cradle of Vodou.

11. Many of the Beninese vodou Gods, were transplanted to Haiti during slavery.

12. In Benin Christianity, Islam and Vodou cohabit peacefully.

13. My dad is going there this week with a small group of Gideons to distribute the Word of God.  Please keep him and his team in your prayers.

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Remember the “friends” option where we could click a button and find all the entries that those on our friends list had made that day?  That was a nice way to keep up with other blogs but it didn’t seem to catch everyone on my list.  If I didn’t get a chance to check it everyday, those posts were gone.  Thanks to Danielle W,  I have discovered Google Reader.  It is very simple to use, it's free, and now I can even keep up with friends who blog elsewhere.  If you have any questions, I’ll try to help.

We had a good time with our missionary friends except for the fact that John has some sort of stomach bug.  He has just been miserable.  I hated to have company when he was sick, for his sake and for theirs but we didn’t know he was sick until they were already on their way.  It’s been almost two days now and no one else has come down with it. . . yet.  A virus is going around but I find myself wondering if it was a piece of pork that John ate on Sunday.  It was practically raw.  He said he only had a bite of it but that could be one bite too many.  I ventured out first thing this morning in search of some Gatorade.  It was cold and windy and I am glad I didn’t bother doing my hair.  It would have been undone right away.  I asked John what flavor he wanted and he said, “Blue.”  So after a 15 minute windy walk, we arrived home with 8 half liters or $10 worth of blue Gatorade.  Please pray that he is better soon and the rest of us will stay well.  Thanks!

Here are some pictures of our friends:

Today I took a short break from my jet lagged life of sleeping in late at woke up at 7 AM.  Company was on their way and my house was turned upside down.  They weren’t scheduled to arrive until around 11 AM but I knew that it would take me that long to make the place look decent.  They are another missionary couple who live about three hours away so we do not get to see them very often.  They don’t have a Pizza Hut where they live so they wanted to buy some for us for lunch.  I love it, John hates it.  We all enjoyed it but mostly we have enjoyed the time of fellowship.  They have a sweet little boy that they have adopted.  He is two.  They also have a little Romanian girl living with them temporarily.  She is six and Holly has had a great day having a friend all to herself all day long. Right now they are all in the living room watching a movie that I have already seen.  It’s one of those “once is enough” movies.  At least for me.  Gabriel could probably watch it on a daily basis.  I feel incredibly rude not watching it with them but I am sure that I would sit there and fall asleep.  I begged to be excused.  Unfortunately, they will have to leave tomorrow morning, making the visit much too short.  But we all have things that must be tended to ministry wise and of course there is school. 

I talked to the kids yesterday about our sporadic school schedule.  We do not live a normal life, making a typical September through June school calendar impossible.  So we all agreed that we would officially be year round schoolers, which is pretty much what we have been doing anyway.  Is there a term for that?  I really don’t like the idea of just saying, “We school year round.”  Seems there should be something more sophisticated.

I found this at Marsha's blog and just had to try it out since I don't have anything intersting to blog about right now.

1. YOUR REAL NAME:
Karen

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first three letters of your name, plus izzle)
Karizzle

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three of your last)
Kwoo

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (fav color and fav animal)
Blue Eagle  I don’t really have a favorite animal but I like birds so I guess I could just as easily be Blue Parrot or Blue Canary.

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, Street you live on):
Elaine Brookhaven  - that’s not my current street name but giving our Romanian street name sounded silly. We lived on Brookhaven before we came to Romania in 1997 and it sounds soap opera-ish.

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 3 letters of mom’s maiden name)
Wookahor  I don’t think I like the sound of that one.

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (favorite color, favorite drink)
Blue Coke  I think that’s been done before – or was that Pepsi?

8. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother & father’s middle name)
Elaine Edward – that might work.

Let me know if you try this one!  I'm off to actually get something accomplished.

1.Aprons – Y/N? If Y, what does your favorite look like?
Sometimes.  It really depends on what I’m doing at the time.  Chicken and dumplings, sugar cookies, something with a lot of flour might demand one.  My favorite is a gift a kindergartener gave me years ago. It’s white with his handprints painted on it.

2.Baking – Favorite thing to bake:
Cookies

3.Clothesline – Y/N?
Yes. It is in my front yard since I don’t have a back yard. I really like hanging clothes out because it usually means it’s a pleasant day.  For whatever reason, I don’t like to take them off the line.

4.Donuts – Have you ever made them?
Yes, years ago.  My older brother and I bought my mom a donut maker for Mother’s Day.  I think she paid for it.

5.Every day –  One homemaking thing you do every day:
Make the bed.  Well – almost everyday! 

6.Freezer – Do you have a separate deep freeze?
In the winter time, yes.  Our back hall is not heated and doubles as a freezer.  Actually, that’s not quite accurate.  We don’t use it as a freezer but we do use it as an extra refrigerator when the weather is cold and we are having a big get together.  To answer the question, no, I do not have a separate deep freeze.

7.Garbage Disposal – Y/N?
Here in Romania?  What a dream.  No.

8.Handbook – What is your favorite homemaking resource?
I’ve never really thought about it but I guess it would be my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.  It’s just a good basic recipe book that I started out with and should be on the bookshelf of every kitchen.

9.Ironing – Love it or hate it? Or hate it but love the results?
Hate it.  Most things come off the line just fine for me.  Cotton must be ironed and it is a dreaded chore.

10.Junk drawer – Y/N? Where is it?
I do not have very many drawers here so they stay pretty neat.  The one in my nightstand would be my junk drawer.

11.Kitchen – Color and decorating scheme:
None at the moment.  I am dreaming of a blue and white theme.

12.Love – What is your favorite part of homemaking?
Cooking.  Really!  Somehow a rumor was started years ago that I don’t or didn’t like to cook.  I don’t know how or by whom.  I will admit that when I first got married, I didn’t know very many recipes but I did and still do like to cook.  What I don’t like is washing the dishes.

13.Mop – Y/N?
I don’t mind mopping so much.  It’s the filling of the bucket that keeps me from doing it as often as I should.  My mom has a swiffer and that is a handy tool that I’d like to have someday.

14.Nylons – Wash by hand or in the washing machine?
Washing machine on delicate cycle-hang to dry...

15.Oven – Do you use the window or open the oven to check?
I open the door because the window is too dark. 

16.Pizza – What do you put on yours?
Meats no veggies.  Pepperoni, ham, sausage, beef, chicken and hold the anchovies.  I’ve seen tuna on pizza here and that looks disgusting.

17.Quiet – What do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment?
I used to read.  Now I blog although recently I’ve been doing a bit of both.

18.Recipe card box – Y/N? What does it look like?
I have most of my recipes on word.  The ones I use frequently, I have printed out and put in a 4 ring binder (we don’t have 3 ring binders here) with page protectors.  I also have a recipe blog - Karen's Kitchen.

19.Style of house – What style is your house?
Strange.  Even Romanians think our house is strange.  I won’t go into the necessary lengthy explanation here.

20.Tablecloths and napkins – Y/N?
Tabelcoths, yes.  Napkins, not usually.

21.Under the kitchen sink – Organized or toxic wasteland?
It is fairly organized.  That is where my pots and pans are stored.  Could be better but the kids usually do the dishes and things do not get put away the way they should.

22.Vacuum – How many times per week?
This is a weekly chore?  Hmmm.  I think I need to work on this. . .

23.Wash – How many loads of laundry do you do per week?
I haven’t counted but in order to keep up I am usually washing every day except Sunday for a good part of the day.  I have a small European washer that holds six kilograms of clothes (do you weigh your laundry???) which isn’t much.  That’s a full load that takes two and a half hours to wash.  I do half loads on a 30 minute cycle.  I cannot wash and dry at the same time because our electrical system will not handle it.  That’s another reason I like to hang clothes out when the weather is nice.

24.X’s – Do you keep a daily list of things to do that you cross off?
No but I think that I should.

25.Yard – Y/N? Who does what?
My husband and son work on the yard.  I am terrible with any type of gardening.

26.Zzz’s – What is your last homemaking task for the day before going to bed?
I turn on the dishwasher.  It’s best to run it the very last thing at night because no one is taking a bath and no other electrical appliances are running that might blow a fuse.

TAG --you're it! Let me know if you want to play.

This week’s assignment for Blogger Friend School is to post a picture and tell about it.  It’s our chance to show off something new, special or treasured.

When my brother’s first child was born, I knew that I would be a “great” aunt.  Well, I don’t know if I’ve been the best aunt in the world but a couple of years ago I truly became a great-aunt.  My niece and her husband live out of state and we live out of the country so I have not had many opportunities to get to know their daughter very well.  She is sweet and certainly special.  Hopefully someday we will be able to spend some time together. Now my sweet little great niece is in a photo contest and we would all appreciate your vote!  Click here and enter # 42221 in the box.  You can vote as many times as you’d like.  Thanks!

This idea is from Firefly at Bioluminescence.   She chose the letter for me and I had to name my favorites.  Let me know if you want to play along.  The original meme called for 10 things but we used 13 to go along with the Thursday Thirteen.  These are in no particular order.

1.  Manicures

2.  Milk shakes

3.  Mail – snail mail, email, as long as it’s not junk mail

4.  Musicals

5.  Munster cheese

6.  Magnolia trees

7.  Mexican food

8.  Money

9.  my Mom

10. the Moon

11. Music

12. Matthew 28:6  “He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”

13. the Mercy of God  

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1. Di

2. Carmen

3. Mikki

4. Dane Bramage

5. Mitch

6. Ally Bean

7. DK

8. Christine

Winter decided to finally make her appearance here in Constanta with temperatures near freezing for the past two days.  The forecast called for snow but the sun has been shining brightly.  Sun with teeth, the Romanians say.  This old house, lacking insulation, freely invited the chill of winter to join us in our happy home.  Thankful for warm clothes, blankets, candles burning and wishing for a few more rugs, we continued with life.  Today we attempted routine but I am not sure that I remember what that is.

It was ten in the morning and the children were still snug in their beds.  I hated to wake them but knew that we must somehow, sometime consider setting aside a reasonable amount of time for learning.

On Sunday, I made a list of what I hoped to accomplish academically.  My children do much better with a list.  I do not believe they could ever be unschoolers, even if I could.  They want to know where they are going and how much effort it will take to get them there.  I suspect their main thoughts are not about how much they might learn that day but how much electronic time they will be given if they are successful.

Tasks were completed.  Lists checked off.  Was everything done?  No, but tomorrow is another day.  Another opportunity for learning.  Another chance to search for routine.  Has Winter come to your home? 

The Christmas decorations are packed away, the party season is over and we still have two long months of winter stretching out before us…

5 Minutes for Mom is hosting The Ultimate Blog Party!  This is truly the best kind of party.  No need to worry about cleaning your house or wearing the perfect outfit.

February and March are promising to be some of the busiest days we have seen in a while.  And if you happen to keep up with my blog, you know we stay pretty busy.  I am looking forward to some relaxation time, chatting with friends and making some new ones!  Please join me and so many others for The Ultimate Blog Party, March 2-9!

This will be the place to be. Get your blog noticed, win prizes, hang out with your friends and meet some new ones. Click the links to find out more.

After a long and sleepless week, I have finally slept all night for two nights in a row.  I am still feeling some effects of jet lag such as fatigue and a lack of energy but I am thankful for a good night’s sleep.  I generally sleep well and to be so exhausted yet unable to sleep is frustrating.

We went to Ion and Monica’s house for lunch this afternoon.  Monica fixed some stuffed mushrooms for John.  He loved them.  Saturday night is our teen fellowship so we got right back on track with that.  They devoured a box of Oreo cookies that we brought back from the states.  I am glad it is gone.  One less temptation for me as I seriously think about weight loss.  This evening I worked on some plans for homeschool and now, the night is almost over.  I must get to bed soon.  I have been sleeping until around 10 AM and tomorrow I must get up much earlier for church!  I am hoping that next week will resemble our previous routine.

1. Jet lag is a temporary disruption of the body's normal biological rhythms after high-speed air travel through several time zones.
2. Symptoms besides exhaustion and insomnia include disorientation, swollen hands and feet, headaches, nausea and lightheadedness.
3. The older you are, the more intensely you feel the effects of jet lag.  I’m feeling rather old right now.
4. The effects of jet lag are worse when flying west to east than east to west.  Guess which direction we flew.
5. Don’t depart exhausted.  I did because our Thursday flight was cancelled and I did not sleep well that night.
6. Drink lots of water on the plane. I drank coke. Huge mistake.  Did you know that you can go to the back of the plane and get something to drink at any time?  You don’t have to wait for the flight attendants to come to you.  You might get fussed at if the fasten seat belt sign is on.
7. Set your watch to your new destination.  I did this and it does help mentally but not physically.
8. Sleep on the plane as soon as possible.  I only slept for the last 20 minutes of our third flight.
9. Choose a window seat if you want to sleep.  That way people will not have to jump over you when they want to get out and you won’t be bumped by every person passing by.
10. Walk around when you can.  Do light stretching exercises while seated. Of course, if you choose a window seat, you may also have to do some jumping.
11. When you reach your destination, start eating and sleeping according to the new time zone.  Yeah right.  If I could sleep according to the new time zone, I wouldn’t have jet lag, would I?
12. Get as much light as possible.  Natural sunlight is best.  We did take a short walk our first couple of days here.  Now it’s cloudy and rainy.
13. Time heals all wounds, including jet lag.  It takes at least one day for every time zone crossed to recover from jet lag. I slept through the night last night for the first time in a week.  We only crossed 8 time zones so I hope I’ll be back to normal soon!

Our 14 hour layover in Amsterdam gave us plenty of time to visit the Corrie Ten Boom Museum in Haarlem.  Admission to the museum was free but the tickets for the 20 minute train ride were not.  We would have had time to site see in Amsterdam as well but it was cold and drizzly, we were exhausted and nothing was in walking distance from the train station.  Haarlem is a wonderful city with beautiful architecture, cobblestone streets, windmills and bicycles everywhere. Our delayed trip and lengthy layover ended up being a blessing, giving us the opportunity for a once in a lifetime field trip.

The triangle sign was an "all is well" signal for members of the underground.

The narrow steps they had to run up during drills and the actual raid.

The hole was knocked out for museum visitors to see inside.

The Plaque in the background says:

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.  Psalm 51-1-3

 “May this plaque be an expression of our shame and grief over the serious crime that our German people committed against Holland during World War II.  May it also be a token of love and gratitude to the Dutch people, who assisted the Jews while they were being persecuted and who responded to the injustices of our German nation by showing goodness to God’s chosen people.”

Four Jews and two members of the underground successfully hid in this tiny space for two solid days.

Our plane landed in Bucharest just before midnight Saturday night.  We have a friend who lives just minutes from the airport and he picked us up and invited us to stay the night.  We all wanted to just get home and John felt like he could stay awake for the three hour trip.  He must have been running on adrenalin because he only dozed for a few minutes at a time on the last flight.  It was a good time for driving because no one else was on the roads.  We arrived at home at 3:50 AM, unpacked a few items and I was in bed by 5 AM.  I cannot sleep in a moving vehicle but once I was in my own bed, I doubt I stayed away for 30 seconds.  I slept soundly until John woke me up at noon.  I needed more sleep but we had things to do and we need to get our bodies back on Eastern European time.

Our long layover at Amsterdam was not too bad.  We took a train to Haarlem and saw the Ten Boom museum.  That was wonderful!  Details and pictures tomorrow!  I’m too tired this evening.  Hannah and Holly found a semi-comfortable spot and slept for a while.  I dozed off but every little thing would wake me up.

I am exhausted.  Two days of no sleep on top of jet lag is tough.

According to our itinerary, we should be on a plane to Amsterdam, Netherlands.  Plans have a way of changing, hourly sometimes. 

We left my parents’ house right on time in spite of the fact that the plumber was here trying to install the new hot water heater.  We arrived at the Huntsville airport, checked in and said our goodbyes.  Holly was begging my mom and dad to come to the gate and stay with us until we actually got on the plane.  But the rest of us decided that there wasn’t any point in that.  So they left and we went through security and had all of our carry on items checked.  We found a seat at our gate and settled into our airport travel routine.  It was about an hour until boarding time.  John was trying to get online on the laptop and I thought that I would try and write a blog entry from the airport.  It was then that John was told that our flight from Memphis to Amsterdam was cancelled due to high winds.  My parents had already gotten back to their home 30 minutes away from the airport.  They came back to get us, luggage and all. 

Weather permitting, we are supposed to leave early tomorrow morning.  The schedule is horrible and we are almost hoping for another weather delay.  We’ll leave Huntsville Friday morning and go to two other airports here in the states and then arrive in Amsterdam on Saturday morning.  There, we’ll have a 14 hour layover and arrive in Bucharest in the wee hours of Sunday morning.  Once there and after we have collected and loaded our luggage, it is still a three to four hour drive to our home in Constanta.

On a positive note, we are here at my parents’ house safe and warm.  The new hot water heater is installed so we can expect a nice hot shower in the morning.  I discovered one of Holly’s outfits was still in the dryer so I rescued that.  God is still in control and we are still loving and following Him, where ever and whenever that may be.  I’ll keep you posted!

We are returning to Romania tomorrow (Thursday).  It is a long and tiring 24 hour journey.   Packing always stresses me out.  I am not even going to talk about that here.  Actually, I am not as stressed as usual but here are some ways to accomplish that.

1.     Fill up a whirl pool bathtub to soothe aching muscles and find out there’s only enough hot water for half the tub.

2.    Get in anyway, thinking it’s enough for a short bath only to find out the drain is leaking.

3.    Stay in until you freeze half to death hoping the hot water heater will recover.

4.    Pour in more water and discover there’s still no more hot water.

5.    Get out and trip over a basket and land on the floor.  Basket’s broken but no bones thankfully.

6.    Discuss lack of hot water with husband and dad.

7.    Realize that the hot water heater must be replaced.

8.    Get up the next morning and your best resource for a shower is a pot of water boiled on the stove.

9.    Go shopping with an eight year old girl who is fashion conscious but not dollar conscious.

10.    Discover that the hot water heater will not be replaced before your return trip to   Romania.

11.  Realize your hair is way too long and your hairstylist is on maternity leave until April

12.    Resume habit of drinking caffeinated beverages because you feel stressed which only makes you more stressed.

13.  Worry about all the things that you wanted to get to take to Romania with you but you didn’t because of lack of time, money or memory.

We should arrive in Constanta around 1 PM Central time on Friday.  Your prayers are appreciated.  Thanks!

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1. Yellow Rose

2. Dane Bramage

3. Caryle

I still cannot believe that four days from now we will be in the air.  We are doing well with packing.  Either we just do not have that much stuff this time or we are getting more proficient.  I am not my usual stressed-out self, not yet anyway.  I will be glad to get the trip behind us even though that also means leaving my family.  That is the hard part.  There is not a lot of interesting things to blog about right now.  Gabriel has finally gotten back into writing on his blog.  He changed his Star Wars theme.  Check out his new template.  I think he did a great job.  Hannah still enjoys blogging too.  Stop by and tell them hello!