Assisi... the home of St. Francis

This home of one of Italy's 2 official patron saints, St. Francis, Assisi sits on the top of a mountain with Roman ruins above it. This was one of our favorite little villages when we came here a decade ago, and it's just as charming now. After driving all morning in the rain, the sun came out just in time for us to walk about the town... yet another perfect sight-seeing experience. We've marvelled at our luck after 10 months of being here: great weather at every place we've visited. (Oh, Sweet Haven...God must love us!)   8-)

Here's the Basilica of San Francesco behind Kenny - we went in and toured around it. Stained glass windows, the burial tomb of St. Francis - it was interesting, likening it as a place of import to these followers as a burial site for one of our prophets would be.



So all those years ago, I fell in love with this sunflower plate, but didn't buy it because it was $250... but I've always thought about it... we couldn't believe the same little shop was there with the same plate! Same price too - the guy needs to get the hint that he should consider dropping the cost if it hasn't sold in over 11 years...



Next stop: Rome! Here are the kids... getting along great and enjoying the hours of car riding to get to all these places! (About 27 hours in the car in 3 days... thank heavens for snacks and coloring books!)

Beautiful Venice!

To kick off our 2-week fall vacation, we started our fun-filled weekend by driving 7 hours to lovely Venice! It was just the same from 11 years ago when we came here with Stephanie... still the same amazing gelato, the same gondola rides (now they cost $200 per ride, so we opted to watch them sail by...) and the same chaseable pigeons on St. Mark's Square. But this time we had 3 fun little people to accompany us!   Here's the water ferry taking us to the island ~

Entering St. Mark's Square



These balloons are made of glass!  These artisans are amazing...



And of course, the gelato... you can't go to Venice and not have it!

We liked exploring this city-on-the-water, built up on wood pilings that never rot because they stay beneath the surface of the ocean. Venice is made of 117 islands, and 409 bridges.

A perfect way to end the evening... with yummy pizza!

A rooster, raclette, and running

Technically, it's a chicken -  but what a cute creation Kas made in her school class! She stuffed it, sewed it, and glue-gunned it all herself. I love the creative projects they do here.

And our dear friends The Stewarts hosted us for a traditional French 'Raclette' meal in their home... it was delicious and so fun! Similar to fondue - there's a raclette cooker in the middle of the table with these cute little paddles for melting your cheese, while your meat and veggies are cooking on the top. You put it all over potatoes and bread - wow. Great food and great company -- we LOVE the Stewarts.

They also introduced us to my new favorite book ~ "Born to Run"... can't put it down. I'm already pretending I'm a Tarahumara tribesperson when I run... 8-)

http://www.chrismcdougall.com/book.html

I just love discovering things like this that I never even HEARD of -- these superhuman Mexican Indians who "for centuries have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it. Their superhuman talent is matched by uncanny health and serenity, leaving the Tarahumara immune to the diseases and strife that plague modern existence."  Plus, the book quotes one of my all-time favorite sayings that I've always kept in my planner: "Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.  It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed.  Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up.  It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve.  It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or a gazelle -- when the sun comes up, you'd better be running!"  (said by Roger Bannister: the first man to break the 4-minute mile). 

Life is all about discovery - it's fun to be on the journey!

And speaking of  'life's fun journey', here's Kenny, approving of my new haircut and color. It was super fun when Kas came into the bathroom last week and said, "so Mom - I see you have 2 colors in your hair these days - the top is brown and the bottom is yellow. That's interesting." That's when I knew - 10 months of grown-out highlights was long enough. Time to splurge and get it redone. 8-)

YOGA!

Well, today was a FIRST! Kassie was officially the first member of the Chalk family to have a cavity filled without getting a shot! The dentist was so impressed - he offered for her to just try it out, and if his drilling got painful, he could stop and give her a shot... she said - "just go ahead and start. I can take it." I was cracking up! He asked me if she was like that about everything - I said, yep - she's pretty amazing... easy-going all the time. So she did the whole thing without any anesthetic! Go Kas! She got to go to The American Store afterwards and pick out some sugary Fruit Gushers as a reward (I know - hello, after a cavity?? Oh well). Plus some root beer to celebrate this Friday night... when our 2 week school vacation begins! Yahoo!

Today's Faith-in-God Primary activity was a yoga class taught by cute Patty Chatterley (a professional dancer and missionary) in our ward -- the kids loved it!

Stephen passed!

We were quite intrigued when the Swiss Department of Youth and Education contacted us to schedule their visit to see how Stephen's homeschooling is progressing. We cleaned the house so it sparkled, baked chocolate pumpkin bread, and laid out all his books and programs. Madame Wearser was just lovely, and we had a great time chatting with her! She has been a teacher for 25 years, and this is her first year to be in this new job - checking on homeschooled students. Our home was her first in-house visit to do! She hadn't seen Rosetta Stone before, or Sonlight, and was very impressed with the sheer amount of reading and learning he's been accomplishing. Stephen spoke quite a bit of French with her, and we laughed about how she's looking forward to going to see other homeschooled students now, and comparing them to Stephen. She said some people come to live here for 1 year, and just do NOTHING with their kids - no schooling, letting them stay at home and play computers - and since Swiss law mandates that some form of education take place, they have to do these visits to ensure it's happening. So in the end, we had nothing to fear... all is well. Stephen was quite relieved, and so was I. 8-)  He was such a big boy talking with her and explaining about keeping up his 'social skills' with his gym classes at night. I was so proud of him.

And here are the kids' school pictures for this year!

Stephen, 11 years old

Kassie, 9 years old

Kenny, 6 years old

Up!

The kids were so adorable performing their song "UP!" at the church activity... they've been practicing it for a few months now. It's a bit hard to see the kids in their rows -- Stephen's in the back in blue, and the next pic shows Kenny in blue and Kas turned to the side in purple.

Look at these adorable ladies - the Stake Primary Presidency, who ran the show ~ each ward's primary did a musical number... it was a big success and all the kids were quite entertained by each other's skits.  Just look at these darling Swiss ladies with their happy parasols!



One of Kenny's favorite activities: baking banana bread. I think he loves the batter more than the bread!

We were blessed to have our good friend Ana come sing at our church today... what a treat! She was a soloist with the Lisbon opera for years... her rendition of "The Lord's Prayer" left everyone in tears.

A tearful moment...

This morning, I awakened the kids as always, and Kas popped out of bed cheerily and started her morning routine... (a bit unusual, since it normally takes a bit longer for her to wake up).  After I got the boys up, I came out into the front room and found such a heart-wrenching scene: Kas was sitting frozen on the couch staring at my computer screen with tears streaming down her face.  I had put Bumper's picture on the desktop last night, thinking that would be fun for us all to re-live some of our fun moments with our sweet dog... little did I know it would bring up a whole host of emotions for little Kassie, who loved him so much.  We talked about it for awhile, and she just said how much she missed him. Poor baby - that will be our first order of priority when we return... getting a new puppy.

But it just made me think about how lucky I am to have these sweet kids - who have such a capacity to love. The Pohlman book I'm reading beautifully describes the reason I love being in my family -- because it's such an important place to be:  "Jesus chose to be born into an ordinary family as evidence of it's place in the hierarchy of life's most precious entities."  So true! He could've appeared anywhere, anytime, and as a grown man, but instead, he came as a little baby, as part of a family.  Watching my kids grow and experience all their emotions -- what a privilege and blessing to be part of such a divinely, master-planned little group of people.

One of my favorite things to do is send the kids to school on a Friday with a big bag of candy for their classmates - - today Kenny and Kassie both had their "Bon vendredi! Pour la classe" bags filled with little chocolate bars for everyone. Kenny was SO PROUD to walk in and show all his friends, who were of course crowding around him, showering him with their French praises.  So darling. Then I chatted with Kenny's teacher -- Kenny has felt like one of the boys in class just doesn't like him... he has tried to be his friend and smile but he feels like this boy is just mean to him.  I'm not sure if he's mean or just aloof or overly confident (he's the son of a prominent townsperson) but I let the teacher know it hurt Kenny's feelings. Madame Gauch said that I should encourage Kenny to bring it up in Thursday afternoon's 'Circle Time.' Hilarious - so they all come together in a circle on the carpet and talk about their 'feelings' - anything that has bothered them, something that they're proud of, etc. Oh how I wish I could be there next week when he brings up, in English (only 2 other kids understand English, besides the teacher) that this boy won't be his friend. I want to peek in the window...

PS. Kas came home happy... I'm glad she's so good about picking up and getting over things. No lingering Bumper sadness, never grudge-holding.. so easy going.

The 8-month mark

We've officially lived here now 8 months... the time is ticking away! It's amazing to think we can spend our days doing any variety of things, and yet - the time will still keep on going, regardless of our choices.  I'm enjoying a great book by Susan Pohlman, "Halfway to each other", about a disillusioned couple that was about to divorce due to falling out of love after years of married life in LA. They, on a whim, decide to sell everything and move with their 2 young kids to Italy for a year to see if they can mend things. I like it not only because it's a neat journey they take back to each other, but also, reading about the places they go to visit right here in this area where we're now living. I love how she describes the craziness of selling everything and starting over new and fresh, without the schedules and material things that their former life held... I can see similarities to our move in that way. I agree with her perception of the European people ~ on a trip to the beach, she describes experiencing something completely different from life back in America:

"I found myself unexpectedly enchanted by the unpretentiousness of them all. People here looked human. Women looked like women... their thin lips were just fine, and wrinkles were, well, wrinkles.  People here were not painfully thin and not especially toned.  No one cared.  Your body was just your body, the vessel that held your spirit.  And the spirit was what was most celebrated."

I agree with her that living in a new country helps you pay more attention to what it means to be a family... as Daron and I watch our kids, and each other, rise to new challenges and grow in unexpected ways, it definitely fills our souls and teaches us to think outside "the American Way." I'll be happy to return to America when that time comes, but I hope we'll all retain things we've learned from living abroad.

One thing we love, for sure, is the food! Here are the kids' lunch plates... they get to guess what picture the food makes, then they get their next course: their favorite meal, spaghetti carbonara. 8-)

Today, Stephen and I started studying China - wow! The homeschooling curriculum included this nifty China Kit, complete with domino cards, calligraphy set and paper, and a pictoral handbook... we're thinking we'd like to see the Great Wall in person!

Our 2nd Swiss General Conference

We can't believe it's already been 6 months since our last General Conference! We enjoyed having our dear friends, the missionaries, over to watch it with us - projected up on the wall, theatre-style. Elder Didier (who's cute Grandpa I travelled to Africa with 15 years ago when I was in the Young Ambassadors) and Elder Mayer (from France) were great guests ~ it's always a treat and privilege to have the missionaries in our home. I hope that one day when my children are out in the world serving missions, people will have them over and love them the way we love the missionaries!

Because of the 7-hour time difference, we watched the morning sessions from 6-8PM, then put the kids to bed. So we'll be reading the afternoon sessions when the Ensign comes. The kids' favorite moment from today was hearing President Monson talk about praying to find his lost money -- saying "I wanted that $5!"  We all laughed outloud. What a darling man and great prophet.

The COWS come home!

If we were to move from this place tomorrow, we would now be fulfilled - WE HAVE SEEN THE SWISS COWS COME HOME!! This morning we experienced the quintessential Swiss experience -- watching the procession of cows meandering down from the mountains where they've been grazing all summer.  OH my word - they were so hilarious with their huge bells and flowery head-dresses! The cows trek through the streets of every little town, all the way to the bottom of the mountains, wherever their destination is. These 'desAlps' festivities go on for the first 3 weekends in October. 

They'll run you over if you're standing too close!

Behold, the sheep dogs that run around with the cows... they must get a seat of glory too ~

And of course, the Swiss Alpenhorn blowers!

All this fun, just a short trainride away... we took a cute red cog railway train from nearby Nyon to St. Cergue, just up in the Jura mountains. Everywhere you look - colorful flowers cascading down from charming little windows. Or even, ya know, a full-on WAGON hanging in midair, attached to the side of a cottage! The whole celebration was complete with food, music, merry-go-rounds, and carnival-like fun!

Here's Kenny last night, singing "Une fleur collerette" - a French song he was assigned to learn for class!

And our sweet little nephew Callister - what a perfect baby!