After Reading "1,000 Gifts" I started a Grateful Journal. It has been picked up at random times throughout this last year and forgotten too often, but I was excited to pick it up today and realize I had 100 things listed from this year.  I tried to not repeat anything and make it specific to the day I was in, if you read through you will see several repeats...

Today I am Thankful for the gift of...

1. New Year's Sleep Over!
2. Day off from class
3. Phone call from Dad and Mom
4. Clothes drying on line on the roof
5. Quiet days
6. Songs
7. Starting new every morning
8. Coming home and having friends to chat with
9. Warm Sunshine
10. Goats on the road
11. Sweet old lady on the debaab
12. Trip to look forward to!
13. Girl's Night - laughter
14. Good night's sleep
15. Sound of rain (even on the iPod)
16. New carpet
17. lots of colors
18. Email from Bria
19. New music
20. Emails from friends
21. warm weather
22. Breeze waving curtains
23. A clean room
24. Every moment with family in Portugal!
25. Cafe
26. The Ocean
27. Clean Clothes
28. Knowledge that God hears my prayers
29. Faith in God's Word and Promises
30. Good trip out and about by myself
31. Rain and Thunder
32. Energy to Exercise
33. A shared meal
34. Phone call from Dad
35. Pictures
36. Words that Encourage
37. Baskets and Bows
38. Strawberries
39. Visitors to host
40. New recipes
41. Friends to visit with
42. Travel
43. Bright Sunshine
44. Good taxi to school this morning
45. Crossing 60m by myself today!
46. Apples and Bananas
47. Carrots
48. Electricity all morning
49. Dr Pepper from Debbie
50. Meals with friends
51. Friends to spend time with just relaxing
52. Peanut Butter and Banana Smoothie
53. Open windows and fans
54. Energy
55. Text messages from Callie and Melissa
56. Debaabs
57. Emails from Dana and Kara
58. Every memory from Italy and Cruise
59. Calendars and Organization
60. Books
61. New places
62. Ceiling Fans
63. Welcoming new neighbors
64. new teachers and classmates
65. Henna
66. Birthday parties
67. What'sApp
68. Exercise
69. My own apartment
70. Hot Water
71. Story of Daniel
72. Package from Autumn
73. Invite for Thanksgiving
74. Trip over Eid Week
75. Dad's Phone call
76. Rest
77. Peace
78. Calm
79. New phone numbers in my phone
80. Scripture prints for wall
81. Skype chats
82. Baking
83. Craft project
84. Naps
85. Books to read
86. Places to visit
87. Hope
88. Emotions
89. Internet working in my apartment
90. Christmas Lights
91. Heidi's Graduation
92. Open Windows
93. Unplanned Parties
94. Countdowns
95. Socks
96. Peppermint Candy Canes and Hot Chocolate
97. No drips in the bathroom
98. Door bell ringing
99. Sunshine
100. Staying comfy in bed that extra bit in the morning

Celebrating Christmas

 Trips to the big city - enjoying hot coffee (and at home loving the hot chocolate and candy canes my mom sent in a package - those two are meant to be together - yumminess!)

Merry Christmas from me!

 

 Christmas in a box!  Love every little detail of this package of my favorite things from my Mom!

 My little tree - the before shot - NOW there are presents wrapped and ready to give to my neighbors on Christmas Day!  Also loving sharing my Advent stories with my neighbors as I place a new ornament on the stand each day.

So thankful this Christmas to be in a place where I have so much freedom to travel around and for new friends to celebrate with.  Here I am taking a world tour last night at Global Village - we lots track of the countries we "visited" but it was a fun day getaway for us!  And look - the weather was cool enough for us to pull out our sweaters and jackets!  Fun

Thanksgiving

There was sweet potato casserole and pumpkin pie and more that didn't make the picture!

Some pics from life here...

 My new sitting room furniture.

 Food from my neighbors

 Package from my sister

And my happy project for Advent!

Eid Meat

These pictures do not fully picture the amount of meat I saw in a 3 day period!

For each day the meat is prepared in a different way and it is quite the process.

The first morning of the Eid the men gather and slaughter the animal (this can be a goat, sheep, cow or camel).  The blood is completely drained out of the animal and then the meat is cut up.  Portions of the meat are for specific dishes and portions are prepared and given to the poor.

 Meat being prepared for the fire pit.  This is the first coating of spices, which will later be rinsed off and coated with the second coating (seen below) and wrapped in foil.  I was so excited to be invited to sit with the women and watch the entire process and then follow the meat to where the men had been working all day to prepare the fire pit.

 Men filling the woven baskets to be thrown into the fire pit.  They layer the meat in with specific leaves and palm branches.

 Then wrap the basket with more palm branches and twine before lowering into the pit.  This was a hard job but they all worked together grandfather, son and grandson.  It was an event.

 And three days later...this is the only picture I have of prepared meat!

A few things that make me happy...

The money here is so colorful and pretty

 Henna Hands (and a fun afternoon with new friends)
Can anyone find in the design an apple, arch, flame star, cross and flower?

 Gifts from new friends in my neighborhood! Cookies and Dates

New Places, New Sights, New Things

 My new bedroom is coming together

 My new bathroom

 This room is going to be fabulous!  Now it only has a small table and sheet curtains, but I have ordered a M'gliss that I am so excited about!  Will post pictures once the room is complete.

 My favorite room of the apartment - the roof balcony!  It is huge and once set up will be perfect for having guests over to enjoy the view and cooler weather of fall/winter.

 My tiny kitchen.  It is going to take some creativity to cook in here, but it is all coming together (and I have a side room/hallway type area that will be the 2nd half of the kitchen, so all is good.)

I am just happy my kitchen is indoors.  Most people living in houses have a totally separate room from their house that is the kitchen.

 View from my bedroom window.  Cannot forget for long that the desert is just outside

Catching Up!

I don't even know when or where to start!

Me in my "old" house not long before I moved again.

I got to spend some time with Dad and Mom!

I spent a little bit of time in Greece...

And this is my favorite part of my new apartment - the balcony and view are amazing!

More pictures to come!

Celebrating Easter

I have had the best day in a long time.  Mostly because I have something to look forward to and get ready for!  Celebrating Easter.  It looks a lot different here...but I am having a friend over to dye eggs and so today I baked colorful cookies and prepared my Resurrection Eggs.  I have already told her the Story and explained how we use the eggs with objects inside to help up Remember and teach our children the importance of Celebrating Easter.

Also rainy season has begun.  For the last few days every afternoon has brought a shower of rain.  Don't think you can tell but the picture on the left is of my street during my first rain here!
And in the center of the pictures is my new favorite find from Pinterest!
I have printed it and put it on my wall, I have also saved it as my desktop background.
So much to Celebrate!
 

Time with Family

 

Hello from Here
It has been awhile...not much going on here.  No fun weekends away or day trips to historical sights.  Life has been rather routine being in class every morning and just getting life done.  But this weekend has been good.  Starting off with some wonderful house guests who are so encouraging and thoughtful.  For example, bringing me home this Capri-Sun because she remembered me mentioning last night how much I loved them as a kid!

 

Picture Challenge

This week I decided to try and get out my camera everyday and take a picture of what had made me happy that day...
Day 1: I Got a new shower curtain and colored towels for my bathroom.  HAPPY!

Day 2: My roommate brought home "Fazulia" for dinner!  My favorite and the first time I have had it again since coming back here = VERY HAPPY

Day 3: Was at local grocery store in the office section (I am being very generous with that statement) and I saw this notebook!  It made me think of my good friend Heather - who always says "White Rabbit" on the 1st of the month. = Lots of Happy Memories = I had to buy it!

Day 4: More furniture in my room and the perfect place to sit and read or study!  My room is really big and this side of the room was very empty.  By roommate suggested I move one of the Ma'glisses from another room into my bedroom = Another Happy for the week

Day 5:  Attempts at being Crafty...the whole point of being crafty is being resourcefull with what you have available, right?
I couldn't find cookie sheets  to make cute magnet boards, but I did find metallic serving trays and fun contact paper to decorate them with to give as gifts for Christmas!

Day 6:  My roommate found lights for our tree!  We had convinced ourselves that the tree was perfect and did not need lights, but really Christmas trees needs lights and these are fabulously quirky lights dancing to their own tune.

 

It's Begining to Look Like Christmas!

I brought with me a few fun Christmas things, but was surprised when a friend recently gave me a Christmas tree!  So I got creative and with the help of Pinterest made some ornaments from Cinnamon/Applesauce/Glue.
I began with buying 1/2 a kilo of Cinnamon (that is a lot of Cinnamon if you are wondering - I will have Cinnamon for a very long time)
Then I made my own applesauce for the very first time.
Then I also made my own glue for the very first time, because I am not a patient person and the store I went to did not have glue, so rather than going on a search for glue in my new city - I just made it from water/sugar/flour/vinegar.

I also baked for the first time in my new house.  It took me a bit to figure out the new oven, but I think I got it.  And my Cinnamon Roll Cake turned out beautiful!

My tree...we plan to add a popcorn chain soon.  Keeping with the natural/rustic theme!