Happy belated Canada Day!

Good morning (or a hearty Good night, if you be slumbering still…) and a happy belated Canada Day!  We certainly missed the fireworks and festivities, but we did have a glass of beer to toast dear Canada…

Week 2 and 3 have come and gone just as quickly as week 1.  I have lost track of the days and nights – one day blends into another so seamlessly.  This is not to say that we haven’t been doing things.  It just means that things done are soon forgotten as they run together like mismatched beads on a necklace.

M has run the gauntlet already: fevers, diarrhea, vomiting, and throat infection.  Poor little guy.  J has met with slightly more luck: a bad diaper rash and mild diarrhea.  On the bright side, her appetite has picked up significantly.  Hurray for Teta's cooking!

The children are flourishing here surrounded as they are by love, family and food to an extraordinary degree.  They’re learning Arabic at a dizzying pace.  I can’t keep up.  Uncles and aunts in the neighbourhood teach them a new word every day.  It’s amazing! 

I am learning how to keep house the Lebanese way.  Or, more accurately, the Amira way!  My MIL is a whirlwind of cleanliness.  She puts my best days to shame.  Despite the fact that we keep our shoes on inside, I believe her floors are cleaner than mine ever were.  She washes the floor every day and sometimes more!   I have no problem with my kids eating the crumbs off the floor…  :o) 

I am also learning, albeit slowly, how to cook a few Lebanese dishes.  Simple, delectable dishes: stuffed zucchini, cracked wheat with chicken (DIVINE!), Romano beans in tomato sauce.  No pictures from my forays - a it's spur of the moment thing.  :o(  I'm usually summoned straight from playing with the kids, or from the shower to watch and help with dinner or lunch.  Oh well.  

We’ve been eating fresh from the garden every day.  Most of our food consists of vegetables, a little meat – mostly ground beef or chicken, and fruit.  There are eggs galore too, and rice and potatoes.  I should mention that Dany's sister Therese has a huge garden where the kids like to play while the veggies are harvested.  It's my dream come true.  Except it's not my garden.  Hehe.  Details, details I say!

This will have to do by way of an update.  The internet is a little slow and I'm worried it will cut out before I finish this post.  At least you now know why my updates are few and far between!  Lots of love from us here!