Second week of Advent

This first photo has nothing to do with the topic, but I liked it. :-) On the Saturday before the first Sunday in Advent, while Jörn, Mom, and the boys were at the art workshop, Dad and the little girls and I went for a long walk in the Salt Lake park. We were looking for flamingos, and did see them, but so far away that I didn't bother taking a photograph of them.

Later in the afternoon, just my dad and Helen and Elisabeth and I went over to the Salt Lake park to get pine cones for the Advent wreath. As I was starting to drill holes in them (the Advent wreath has four spikes on it, on which Jörn's family used to put apples, but I prefer pine cones and have a feeling that apples would get eaten anyway...), a waytoobigandscary spider came crawling out of one. So I ended up taking all the pinecones outside and spraying them with Biokill (an insecticide that is supposed to be harmless to mammals, and yes, I know that spiders are not insects, but it also kills spiders, and no, I don't ususally kill spiders, but I also don't willingly provide homes for them in the middle of my eating table), leaving them to dry.

On Sunday, my parents and all the girls and I went to Larnaca Community Church (where they did have an Advent wreath and lit the first two candles), then went home and played a game until Jörn called from the house church to say that it was time for lunch, then the three younger girls and my parents and I joined them for lunch there. In the afternoon/evening we were at Sue's and Richard's house to play games and have a meal, so we never did have a meal together at home, so the fact that we didn't have any candles yet wasn't really that relevant. I did drill holes in the pinecones and put them on the wreath either Saturday night or Sunday morning, though.

Monday morning Jörn had to work and Marie didn't want to go out, so the other eight of us squeezed into our seven-seater car and tried to go see a free museum that had been closed on Friday, and turned out to be closed on Monday, too. It was just across the road from Rizoelia National Park, though, so we went with plan B and drove up there, playing on the playground for awhile.

We did have my dad on the see-saw too. In fact, at one point all eight of us were on it at once. :-)

After the park we stopped at home to let Jacob out, then went to see the mosque across the Salt Lake from where we live, but the only photos I took were blurry.

When we got home, we realized that we didn't have much in the house for lunch, so Jacob rode his bike to the grocery store. While he was there I called him and asked him to look for candles, so along with lunch supplies, he brought home four gold-colored candles, which we added to our still-not-green Advent wreath. In the center I put our wedding candle, being a large white candle. That's something that my German husband still finds a bit strange. In fact, in German there's even a rhyme that says "In Advent first the first candle burns, then the second, then the third, then the fourth. If the fifth candle is burning, you slept through Christmas." We call the fifth candle the Christ candle, and we light it on Christmas Day.

Although not the most flattering photo of any of the people involved, here's a photo of our Advent wreath, finally with candles and two of them lit, on the second Monday in Advent:

My parents left Monday afternoon. They wouldn't have minded at all joining us in an Advent study, I'm sure, but their visit was so short and we were so busy, that I never got organized for it. So it was on the second Tuesday in Advent that we finally started a family Bible study, something we've thought of doing during Advent for many years and never had. In that respect, I guess starting over a week late is better than we've done before! There were pictures to color in, which most of the children helped with, and we hung them up on the kitchen door:

The top left is the cover page, then comes the theme verse for the entire study, John 8:12: "Jesus said to the people, 'I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't be sumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.' ". Underneath is the cover page for the first week, about the prophecies around Jesus' birth, as well as a drawing of Samuel annointing David, and some sheep to go along with David, I guess. We took two days to do week one, and on Thursday started week two, about angels. Katie and Helen did color in some pictures, but I'm not exactly sure where they disappeared to. We'll finish week two today, putting us on track for week three, which we'll probably start on Monday, as we again won't have any meals at home together tomorrow.

Morning walks

Thursday we received two package slips, one for a package to be picked up at the local post office, one at the customs office of the main post office. I suggested that I pick them up yesterday morning before Jörn left for work, as he otherwise would have gotten up 20 minutes earlier to drive to the two post offices. We left it that if I was still asleep when he got up at 7:40, he'd wake me and I'd drive, but if I woke up on my own earlier, I would walk. I was pleased to be awake already when Helen woke up at 6:15, and even happier when she only nursed briefly and then fell back asleep. I got up and got dressed and even had some time on my own, as the post offices don't even open until 7:30! I left a little past 7:00, with Elisabeth in the Ergo carrier, and was surprised to arrive at the first post office only 16 minutes later. It takes considerably longer with children along! That was of course too early, so I went down to the sea front (unfortunately, I didn't have my camera--it was gorgeous) and ambled on to the big post office, where I picked up one package. (Photos from Kodak Gallery, in a rather huge box for only 200 photos--I took them out of the box and left the box there.) Then back to the small post office, where I got a package from my mother with a sweatshirt Lukas had left at my parents' house and a rattle that Elisabeth had left there. Elisabeth seemed very pleased to see her rattle again, and Lukas was thrilled with his sweatshirt. :-)

When I got home, Helen, Katie and Lukas all greeted me enthusiastically, and I discovered that Helen had woken up only minutes after I'd left, so Jörn hadn't gotten to sleep in after all. :-( I was disappointed for him, but also for me, because I had enjoyed the walk so much I was already thinking about how I could do that again. Then last night Jörn said he was happy for me to go for a walk today if I wanted, so I went to bed early enough to wake up at a reasonable hour, pleased to be awake at 6:30 this morning.

However...Elisabeth and Helen were both very much enjoying their morning mama-milk and I didn't want to wake up Jörn, so I lay there in bed letting it get later and later. Helen woke up Jörn, then, and I commented that I'd have liked to take a walk, but now it was too late, and Helen said, "Helen walk too?" I said, "Well, I was kind of hoping to walk fast..." and she said, "I run! Like this!" and jumped out of bed to show us. :-) So I got up and got dressed after all. As soon as Helen and I (and Elisabeth!) were ready to leave, though, Katie woke up. So we waited for her to get dressed. Then as we were ready to leave, Lukas woke up. So we waited for him to get dressed. My peaceful morning walk turned into a 90-minute ramble with four children...but at least Jörn got to sleep!

I did take the camera today, so here are a few photos. First, the salt lake with water:

And to contrast, here's a photo of the same place in October:

Lukas and Katie were having a great time using their imagination, running ahead and calling out what they were discovering in their explorations. They followed bear tracks and made secret signs and cut through undergrowth with a bush knife and made plans for a sea voyage and I don't know what all else. Helen tried hard to keep up and it was cool seeing how Lukas and Katie took care of her. Here the three posed for a photo:

Elisabeth would have liked to get out of the Ergo carrier and follow them, but as she's not even crawling yet, I wouldn't let her:

At one point Helen asked me to carry her, and when I wouldn't, Lukas offered. He actually only carried her for maybe a minute--she walked the rest of the time.

This is the grove of trees where there used to be a very nice playground. We played there in December 2009, then were out of Cyprus for six weeks, and when we went back a day or two after getting home again, discovered that they had removed it. We'd hoped that maybe they were just going to replace it, but nothing has happened there since.

Part of our walk was on the soft "nature path" (and off of it, going cross-country), this photo was obviously taken in the paved part of the park:

Pretty close to home, we discovered a nearly-dead playground, with a dangerous-looking slide. Helen was eager to go on the "Sy-lide!" but when she got to the top of the steps, decided that discretion was the better part of valour and went back down the steps.

There apparently used to be a swingset...now just some cut-off poles and two lonely seats:

The rest of the walk was through a residential area and I didn't take any photos.

I still hope to get in another walk or two on my own in the next few months, before it's too hot after 7:00 a.m....