Back to.... civilization?... again.

Back to ...Civilization?

We've been at the apartment all this week, for a change. I was wanting to make some progress on getting a bit more settled in. There's been a wardrobe (shkaf, that would be in Russian) waiting for us over at Pavel and Tanya's house. They were gone on vacation, and while I located the wardrobe, I couldn't quite find the bolts that held it together. It was completely disassembled, having come from the apartment where we currently meet for church.
Pavel and I brought it over in his car and got it together w/in an hour or so. Good thing I asked him to help, too! It was a bit like a jig-saw puzzle, only working with boards 2ft wide and 5ft long... Thanks to Pavel's help, we finally have a bit more space for clothes.
Next project was using up some spare boards had around to make some shelving for album supplies. We still have stuff in trunks and boxes and sacks, bags, tins, and ziplocs (get the picture?) all over the apartment. Made good progress on that, also cleared out a little cabinet/tumbochka to use as a base for the album shelves. Looks halfway decent, even. =)

One of the challenges when renting here is that you almost NEVER come into a truly empty apartment. You're renting someone's mother's apt, or father's, or cousin's, or grandmother's, etc. These people all had stuff, and while they may have died or moved across town, or to Germany... the stuff is still there! It's not quite trash, but nobody really needs it, so why not just leave it in the old apartment? Sound reasoning, waste not, want not, and all that. It's just a bit disappointing after three years of trying to get one landlord to get rid of extra stuff, we start right over again! ;o) No real complaining here, though. These new landlords are nothing near the obsessive-compulsive pack rat type that our old landlord was!
What it boils down to is that to 'settle in'. we have to be constantly juggling stuff. (Either that or build floor to ceiling shelving in all the rooms. Actually, you know, I've made a good start on doing just that! )Their stuff under the bed... ah, no, get the baby stuff out of there first, THEN put their stuff under there long term. Next... hmmm... all those 3-liter jars of old preserves taking up room in the pantry area... can we call Marina and get permission to toss them?? And on and on... Personally, I enjoy the challenge. I mean, how hard is it to move into an EMPTY apartment and start setting everything up just right?? =) The disorder and piles of stuff everywhere wear on Phyllis, though, and I don't really enjoy that myself. So, I tried to make some progress this week on the great 'civilize the apartment' project.

Sad Story...
While we were here and I was trying to get things done, we were assaulted by a one-day stomach virus. Monday or tuesday, Jaan woke me up early, throwing up in bed. Then off and on till later afternoon, he would feel fine, eat something... and then lose it again. Very traumatic for him. For some reason he didn't revel in being sick, didn't lie around playing up the 'poor me' bit. He just wanted to play, and for some reason at the oddest times he would start feeling funny and then be sick - not fair at all from his point of view.
Raia had her bout a day or two later. Also started quite early in the morning, but thankfully, hers didn't keep going on and on. She, however, did lie around most of the day, saying 'I'm sick', and looking very pitiful.
Friday I was gone all day at a missionary/pastor's meeting in Vladimir. Phyllis was strong all day, felt good, and kept up with the children all on her own. (Which has not been a very frequently occurring combination recently). I promised her she could rest on Saturday...
Saturday turned out to be my day. I had already had an impending cold, and I had a hard time sleeping Friday night, for some reason my stomach was bothering me. Well, I spent almost all day Saturday flat on my back. When I wasn't, when I was 'watching' the children, I felt like I should be. Watching was about the extent of what I did, too!

But Niiiiice Weather!
One of the reasons we had considered staying at the apartment this week was that over the last weekend there had been a significant drop in temperatures. Phyllis was sleeping even better at the apartment then at the dacha because of this, and we were reveling in actually being COLD!! It's been mostly sunny and quite cool all week here, wonderful fall weather. After what seemed to us to be almost scorching weather the past couple of weeks, we have been thanking God every day for this change. We're actually sleeping with blankets! Well, all the windows are open, too, but how else to get all that nice cold air inside?

I could write more, but I'm being eagerly awaited at home. Thank God I'm back on my feet again, this is a very bad time for me to get sick. Please pray that Phyllis will continue to be protected from this virus. Thanks for checking in... more later!