What we are up to

Life slows down during the summer on Incirlik. So many people are travelling and so many people are moving in or moving out. (Not that I was here for most of it of course.)

But with fall comes renewed life on Base. New activities and things to do as school starts again and families settle in for their two year assignment on Incirlik.

So what do our days as a family look like?

JB leaves for work sometime before 8am. It depends on what day it is and what is going on at the Clinic. Some days he works out with people from the Base. Some days he works out on his own. Some days he has to be in early for a meeting. The mornings vary. Some mornings he will even take the boys on a run in the jogger if they are up in time.

It is a rare morning that one of the kiddos is not up by 6am. Sometimes rumblings start as early as 5am, but we consider it sleeping in if we make it until 6:30am. I wake up Veronica up depending on when we need her. If things are quiet, I let her sleep. If things are hectic, we enlist her help.

Veronica works 40 hours a week for us. That means that she is not around all the time. Each week we look ahead and decide what hours we would like for her to work for us each day based on appointments, dinner invitiations, or her schedule. (She does other babysitting to make money as well.) She is incredibly helpful when I have her so I try to choose the hours that she will most benefit us each week. We want to make sure she has a life outside of helping us.

Between 7-12, it is usually me and Veronica and the kiddos. And we usually try to have an activity each morning to fill our day. It isn't that we always want an activity, but if we stay home that whole time, it makes for a long day.

On Mondays and Wednesdays the Community Center sets up their bounce houses inside. It's free and a great activity. On Thursdays I usually have MOPs or a MOPs meeting of some sort. And on Fridays, the Youth Center lets us use their gymnasium for some play time. We set up the mats and balls and let the kids run to their hearts' content inside the cool gym. Tuesdays there is a Bible Study at the church, but I am taking this semester off while I get used to life with three kids. There is also a story time at the library which I have yet to try. We were going to the pool on Tuesday mornings, but they are getting ready to shut that down for the year and have dropped their morning hours. (Which makes NO sense to me being as we are in the kiddy pool without a lifeguard anyway, but oh well.)

Many of my friends now have their kids in preschool two or three days a week. I am not doing this yet. Elijah is too young to go to the formal preschool, and with Veronica here, we didn't think we needed to do that.

We will often play with bikes in our driveway, in the backyard with cars or sand toys (our gardener found some sand so we have a sandbox now.) The boys usually watch one or two favorite shows a day on video. We also sometimes color, sometimes do play dough, sometimes fingerpaint or do bubbles. We read books or the boys play with their toys inside. In addition, we will often get an email from another mom saying they are meeting at one of the many parks on base at a certain time or an invite to join them in their driveway. Although, our driveway, due to abundance of bikes (our neighbors four children have all recently outgrown their bikes so they are passing them along to us) and location (we live on a very safe street) is usually the most popular.

JB comes home for lunch from about 12:15-12:45 which is wonderful. He usually helps put the boys down for naps. They will usually sleep at least two hours and often three hours. Many times I have to wake them at 4pm because it is getting too close to bedtime for them to still be asleep. They are great nappers. During this time, Abigail will often take her long nap. I try to rest as well. Sometimes Veronica stays here to be on "monitor duty" (listening for a waking kiddo.) Sometimes during these hours, she takes a break and goes and work-out or hangs out with her friends who work varried schedules.

We often spend from 4-5pm playing with bikes on the driveway while we wait for JB to come home. He usually makes dinner although we often have leftovers or I throw something easy together. Our evening is usually spent low-key at home playing with toys, reading books, and often eating dinner out on the back porch.

That is our life here. I just thought it might be interesting to know what we do every day. And there you have it!

P.S. In response to a great question in the comments, I should add bedtime information. The boys are usually in bed by no later than 7:30pm. Abigail's bedtime has been getting earlier and earlier. Usually she is down around 8:30pm or so. JB and I are usually in bed by 9:30pm. We try to spend time together as a couple during that last 1-2 hours before we go to bed. Sometimes we watch a movie or just sit and talk. I will catch up on emails or blogs during this time and JB works on his blog as well. But I am NEVER up later than 10pm. Ever. Just can't do it. Abigail has slept through the night the last two nights as well meaning great sleep for me -- so needed.