Make Yourself At Home

I've always thought, "You know you've moved in once you've baked a batch of cookies." I've tried to bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies early on at each of the 13 places we've lived since we first were married so that we could begin to feel settled in.

Now that our oven is working, I've finally been able to make some cookies and I'm feeling optimistic today.

Besides baking cookies, here are some other things that have helped me feel at home. If you ever find yourself in a country foreign to you, do these things:

• Get a cell phone and memorize your number.
• Clean your bathrooms. (After hours of scrubbing and sweat literally dripping off my face, I felt so much better knowing that the bathrooms were cleaned to MY standard of "clean").
• Grocery shop several times until you're familiar with where things are located in the store and what brands you like.
• Take time in between your adventurous eating of local foods to just eat comfort food. (For me tonight, it was spam and rice. I know that will sound nasty to some of my readers, but there's nothing like spam and rice and tomatoes to make me feel comforted--besides my mom's cooking. Sigh…I miss my mom's cooking. The boys were thrilled).

• Go out and talk to people. Say hi to the same people you see everyday and learn their names. Soon you'll have friends everywhere you go.
• Do what you need to to make your life easier. Hiring a maid was the smartest thing I've done so far. Miriam comes with me into town and translates and makes sure I don't get ripped off. I didn't realize we matched the other day until it was time to go. I'm also so relieved that the ant spray my landlord gave me to put along the baseboards seems to actually be working--Hallelujah!!!!!.

• Develop a routine (having the boys in school helps immensely)…BUT...
• Don't be too attached to your expectations. Things definitely don't operate as reliably here as in the U.S.. If the power goes out when you need to bake something, "Hakuna matata." Just wait until it comes on again. I think people here are patient because they have learned to just wait when things don't go as they had planned. Allow for mistakes. Some days I really struggle with the difficulty of life here, but when I keep the right perspective, I can cope.
• Hang on to your traditions. For family home evening, we made these Halloween decorations. I won't be doing costumes this year, but the decorations made the kids happy.