Instant Rewind #2...

City Market, Bangalore, India...March 2009

Slices of our summer...

Owen has taken to the trees... Not long ago, I was relaxing on my blanket at the park while the kids played when I heard a familiar, yet oddly placed voice, "Hi, Mom!" Startled out of my mom alone reverie I looked around. "Up here, mama, I climbed the tree." And climb he did...so far up that his head stood out above the leaves and a bird circled his noble (and breakable) head. "Umm, Mama...I think, maybe...maybe it's gonna be harder to get down?" Why yes, my son, maybe it is! After a bit of discussion in which Owen learned that mama doesn't really climb trees (shocking, I know,) and my encouragement to make a plan before he moved, he successfully and quite sure footedly scaled his way back down. "Ya know mama, that was kinda like climbin' a mountain and I'm pretty great at that." Super. I think it is quite clear that this child does not have agoraphobic leanings. We did settle, however, on his asking mom if it is okay to climb before he does so...and I'm holding him to that until he's at least 35!

Somewhere, in the midst of this rather tumultuous summer, Grayce managed to turn 8. I've forbidden her to grow further. Up until this year, she planned on living with me forever... Now, she's planning on going off to college "and living with some cool, smart women." Luckily, her plans include a return to the family in which she and Owen envision living together in a house directly next to mom and dad...

Isn't she great! She wants to be a veterinarian. She is a lovely dancer. She's funny and she has a flare for drama. She is a flashlight-under-the-covers kind of voracious reader. And she totally does not let me get away with unfairness, subterfuge or bad mom behavior, including the ability to recall the things I say with frightening accuracy...

Birthday bouquets from Daddy... She was delighted to find out that Bob has not ever brought me TWO dozen roses!

Beautiful milkweed in the backyard...

Crispy Kale...from the garden. Kale, good olive oil, roast in hot oven till crispy...add sea salt. Even the kids love it.

"Pirates like MEAT, mama...Grrrr." Better even than crispy kale...Fourth of July feasting.

Peaceful boy and butterfly...a fine example of nature's gifts.

And a last photo: Kids camping...dirty, sweaty, sticky, awesomeness with friends.

The Fischers

in Minneapolis, MN

The Conscious Wander...

Wow, have I ever let this blog slide! At one point I had visions of posting our transition to life back in the U.S. but as it turns out, life was just a bit too complicated and the transition more awkward than even I, expected. I needed space to process. Heck, I needed space to manage normal social interaction, trips to the grocery store, and lecturing myself for not embracing the challenges of the return in the same way that I embraced our move to Bangalore. Oh...and for trying not to snarl at people, because, well...we do wish to have and maintain a certain amount of amiability! In the midst of all that, my Dad was diagnosed with liver cancer. And I discovered I had a previously unknown half sister. Honestly, I began to feel as if we were right smack in the middle of some bizarre and badly written reality t.v series!

So I haven't blogged. And I have despaired. And whined. And felt sorry for myself...and all those other little self-involved but seemingly necessary things that human beings tend to sink into when life feels inside out and upside down.

And then I felt...just...bored with myself...and I knew it was probably time to dust off my sense of adventure and recall that the law of attraction works both ways.

So, we carry on. We took a break from homeschooling (had been planning to school through the summer), listened to a lot of Michael Franti (because his music tends to remind me that I need to get over myself and start a revolution some where...even if only in my own mind,) went back to yoga (grounding, plus there is an awesome studio three minutes from our house http://www.sighyoga.com/,) and generally tending to the small moments in our days, the needs of our family, the pull of chairs on the back deck and the ever impending realization that winter is coming and we will not be ready ;-)

My Dad still has terminal cancer and that has been a terrible thing...to see him so sick. Yet our family remains hopeful. My new half-sister, as it turns out, is really great and she has two really great boys, too...one of whom appears to be Owen's kindred cousin. We are all looking forward to an August family reunion with all my siblings and their significant others and the kid's cousins. My family is scattered across the U.S. so the last time we were all together was last year for my sister, Alicia's, wedding. It will be a chance for us to gather in support of my Dad and Mom and be together. We'll celebrate my sister Sasha and her new fiancee, Tom, and hold a baby shower for my sister, Mari. We're a loud and talkative bunch...each of us a piece of our unique family puzzle.

Next weekend, we're off to Brule, Wisconsin...for our annual week at a river cabin, with Bob's family. It's the first place that Grayce (our girly, girl) realized that getting dirty is a whole lot of fun and a peaceful place where we've created a lot of enduring happy memories with Bob's family.

The past week and into the next I've been spending time thinking about and planning our upcoming homeschooling year and planning for continuing my own midwifery and birth studies. The kids will be doing Kindergarten (Owen) and third grade (Grayce). A lot of people have assumed that we would put the kids in school now that we are not living in India. They assume that we homeschooled in India because we "had" to. In all actuality, we started homeschooling in India because we felt we could best serve *our* kids' education that way (and our desired travel schedule!) In doing so, we came to love it and appreciate the flexibility, fun and strengthened relationships that it's offered us. We are eclectic, relaxed homeschoolers...with a real unschooling bent. We do use varied curriculum, which is sometimes parent-prompted and try for a family rhythm (a la Waldorf) so we can't totally call ourselved unschoolers, but we take a LOT of child-led side trips along the way and very rarely adhere to straight curriculum. We are, like the title of this post, "conscious wanderers," in our homeschool, as well as in, (we hope) our lives.

Lastly, the kids and I spent a glorious week in New York City (and Long Island) with our terrific expat friends(the same friends we traveled to Oman with)...Laura Lee, Lucia and Henry! It was so much fun to see the kids together again and for Laura Lee and I to have the chance for a regular conversation rather than a skype call filled with kids showing each other their belly buttons...As the kids said, in reference to our friendship..."chat, chat, chat, coffee, coffee, coffee, chat, chat, chat, wine, wine, wine..." We explored the parks of Manhattan, went to the Met and Central Park, shopped at American Girl and FAO Schwarz, walked over the Brooklyn Bridge, went to a Whaling Museum and the Fire Island light house, met Laura Lee's parents and had the kids up till 11 pm almost every night...Blissful :-) They are off to Hong Kong on their next assignment and the kids are already "planning" their next trip!

Grayce and Lucia on the Brooklyn Bridge

Owen and Henry on the rooftop garden at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Owen and Henry: Long Island Lobster Feast...

Hair Raising on the deck of the Fire Island Lighthouse!

At a Long Island Park...

Ahoy, Mateys! Pirate dress up at the Whaling Museum...Long Island.

Grayce in a tree...New York City park...near Battery City

Owen in a tree...Battery City Park, New York City.

Grayce, Hen and Lucia playing...Battery City Park...New York City

The foursome at the Met rooftop...after 5 hours exploring the museum.

Grayce and Lucia...birthday money or economic stimulus?

Brookly Heights pier...apres ice cream at 10 pm!

Best Friends walk over the Brooklyn Bridge...

Bryant Park playtime....New York City.

And that is where we are at. We still miss India and hope to return one day, but we are looking forward; trying to focus in on the now, while at the same time, continually re-imagining our future ;-) Who knows, where we'll end up next?!!

The Fischers

in South Minneapolis, MN, USA

Instant Rewind...

I found my favorite traveling sandals in a box. The sandals that have carried me across continents...across India and parts of southeast Asia. The sandals that were comfortable to hike in, wade in, swim in, stomp through dirt and filth and god-knows-what-is-in-this, muck, in. I carried them to the laundry room; sat them on the floor. When purchased, I was assured that they were washable...

But WHY?

I couldn't bring myself to do it...this washing away of foreign, familiar dirt...of MY India. Looking down I see the red dirt ground in...the spatter of pink and purple from this year's Holi festival among generous and loving friends, the hours spent sweating on a bus through Northern India. These shoes, my dearies, were most definitely made for walking...

To wash away all of this is unimagineable...

Soooooo....the next time you see me and you wonder why-on-earth-she-doesn't-spring-for-a new-pair-of-shoes...

Just remember...the whole story is in the soles of my feet, the rubber arch, the dust.

For those of you who know our Grayce...let's just say this is the lovely antithesis of her usual self...

Aswarthi...our host for the Holi festival...great people who we miss a whole lot! We could not have asked for a better homeschooling group, in any country...

The Story of Holi...come to our 1st Annual Holi party next spring and we'll clue you in.

Grayce and Owen got smart and wore swim goggles, this year :-) Mom forgot a change of clothes....

So...I thought it might be fun to post more of India. We have so many wonderful memories and SO many photos that never made it to the blog...

Enjoy.

The Fischers

for whom India was a life changing "moment" in time...

In Honor of Friendship...

A Last Sleep Over...in Bangalore. On the night of the Grown Up Going Away Party (the kids at our house, the adults at Laura Lee and Dave's!)

We miss you, "Brother H and Sister L" !!

Moving Day...

Well, we're still here. Except here, now, at least, has a house address. After three weeks in a hotel we had all had enough and we were all tired of not being able to eat a real meal at home. ( In theory, the hotel had a full kitchen. In practice, there was one semi-sharp paring knife and a few dishes...making it impossible to do more than boil water for macaroni and cheese, make a sandwich or pour a bowl of cereal.)

Everyone keeps asking us why we aren't buying a house. Interest rates are incredibly low and it is a buyer's market. The answer? Too permanent. Renting lets us keep our options open. Who knows where we may end up in the future?? (hey, we never imagined we'd live in India, either...) Honestly, most days, we still aren't sure which end is up! I do feel, however, a bit like we just graduated from college, just got married and are searching for our first place...with the exception of the two kids who won't let us stay out late, sleep in, or check out that "cool new band..."

That being the case...we started moving into "The Rental House" (as Owen calls it) on the 16th. When the humongous moving truck arrived, our new neighbors came out to watch, commenting, "That's an awful lot for that tiny house!" It was a bit like an archeological dig, being that we had little recall as to the items in our storage. Here's a tip for future reference: KEEP LESS STUFF.

By the way...Did we sell any of you our DVD player when we moved to India? We can't find it. Can't remember anything about it. No? In that case, I've got a fine assortment of assorted and mismatched dishes and towels we've had for 15 years, which, apparently, we could not bear to part with. Hmmm.

O and G spent most of that first day opening each and every box that was labeled "kids" or "toys"....therefore, their new purple room (the half story of the house) is strewn with a mix of puzzles, books, and O's toddler toys, which he is entirely confused about, "Mama, where are all my big kid toys from storage??" Ummm. Honey. You don't have any because you became a "big kid" while living in India...

"oh."

Yes. Oh. Time has a way of slipping haphazardly past us...

We remedied this situation somewhat by the purchase of a t-ball set that has an automatic soft toss and pitch and introducing both boy and bat to the new back yard...

I'll bet you didn't know that herpetologists have incredible eye-hand coordination??

Yessssssssssss....ssssss. According to Owen, there might be a speckled cobra in the overgrown garden. Maybe.

Now for the sea shipment...but just where we're going to put THAT, I have no idea!

The Fischers

here and there and everywhere

The Current State of Affairs...

So, this photo (from a sign located in Palm Meadows) pretty much sums it up...I think.

I sat down to write and wrote a page of drivel. Really. All the prophetic and wise things I want to say began to sound like this: "Like Sands Through The Hourglass, These Are The Days Of Our Lives..." Which is pretty much already taken.

I wish I could put into words what being back in the U.S. really feels like. What being out of India, REALLY feels like. I can't. Perhaps it's too soon. Perhaps the words will flow once we stop living in a hotel room. Once I have more than 2 pairs of pants and 1 sweater to wear. Once the sun comes out, stays out and forces the god-forsaken temperatures to RISE. UP. Once every Indian-English inflection that comes from our children's mouths doesn't feel so...like home. We feel uprooted. Unsettled. And that, ultimately, is nearly impossible for me to describe in any way that doesn't sound obnoxious or self-absorbed.

So...anyway. We're here. We've rented a house for less than our previous mortgage (good.) Apparently, we've bought a mini-van (good?) Bob has located his express-bus route to work, which he starts again on Monday. (I'll be driving him till we move into the house...around the 15th). We've seen a few friends. The kids have played with a couple of good, old friends, (really, really great.) We have an official membership to The Children's Museum and have been to the library (oh my, have we missed THAT! Great Libraries are like the soul of a community...) Last weekend we took a trip up to Duluth to see Bob's parents and reconnect with our long lost dog, Coltrane. Grayce ended up staying the week after which she informed me, "mom, it was a good thing you missed the blizzard!" (Yep.) We've been to Target twice, where I had a difficult time assimilating. 15 brands of stawberry jam pretty much put me into a 2 day overload trance. 15! Why? (After near 2 years of stumbling across Bangalore looking for a variety of items...it. just. seemed. like. overkill.)

Lastly, I've decided that the Universe has a seriously mocking sense of humor. Upon driving from our hotel parking lot on a particularly difficult day, I noticed that the new shopping construction next door is called, "The West End" which just happens to be the name of the hotel we stayed at for 2 weeks when we first arrived in Indian and went to brunch at numerous times. Next to that is a restaurant: A Taste of India. Coincidence? Or The Law of Attraction? Cosmic-cold-snowball-hit-precisely-on-the-back-of-the-neck? You tell me...

Thanks (ahead of time) to every single one of you who has to put up with our nuttiness and hasn't blocked our mobile number...yet.

The Fischers

One foot out and one foot in...

Minneapolis, MN, USA