Happy Space

When we made the decision to move here we struggled with what to do with our home and our belongings.  Of course we would bring some things with us but we were moving into a furnished apartment so we couldn't bring it all. We wanted to make sure that the Tiny American's transition was smooth so packing up his toys and what was most familiar to him was a big deal to me. I knew I wanted to bring lots of my kitchen, but had to make some modifications based on what would realistically work with the oven I was getting. Pictures and things to hang on the wall presented their own set of problems as most places will only let you use 3M tape to hang things, and yes you can hang a lot with 3M tape but some things just don't work.

We struggled with what to do with our house in Texas.  I LOVE our house in Texas and was really enjoying decorating and furnishing it so I was not happy with the option of selling it.  In the end we put most of our things in storage and rented the house to a cousin. I won't lie, I miss my house and I miss my things. Yes I know they are just things, but they are my things and I have spent a lot of time and energy gathering them all up and I miss them. Im not talking about TV's and things like that.  I'm talking about the old windows and doors that I have gathered up at junk sales.  I'm talking about the hutch that I had just refinished that my grandpa built me when I got married.  I'm thinking about the type tray that hung on the wall in my living room filled with the little rocks and shells we have collected from the places we have gone. These are the "things" that I miss.

The apartment we moved into when we first came to Taiwan a year ago was super nice.  It was  in a really nice building with lots of staff.  It was furnished and it was comfortable, but we never felt at home there.  It was dark and honestly a little depressing.  We had NO outside light.  No view of what was happening outside.  For people like us, that was a struggle.

We knew from the start that if we were going to live here for awhile we needed a different apartment. Finding one is a bit of a challenge.  Luckily we happened to mention it to the right person at the right time and we found the perfect place.  Well I say perfect, there were a couple of bumps in the road.  First it was not a furnished apartment,  second there were no closets, strange, but not a deal breaker.  I figured out what we would need for storage and a trip to IKEA solved both of these problems.

The best thing about the apartment was the windows.  Every room has floor to ceiling windows!  SO much light.  This has been great for our moods, we need sunlight!  The view is awesome and with us picking out the furnishing it feels so much more like home. We have found a couple of places to shop for "junk" to make it feel even more like ours.  I had a friend take some pictures of us around our neighborhood and this week I had those printed and hung them up.  I also printed some really cool pictures of Zane at different places we have visited in Taiwan and have those on the wall now as well.  It's amazing how much some pictures on the wall make it feel like home.

This is my favorite space in the apartment.  When I am in the kitchen J and Z and sit in these chairs and talk to me.

It's not perfect, it's an apartment, but with some time and a little patience it is quickly feeling more like a place we want to hang out in instead of the place we HAVE to be.

Dragons

 In the US we like to go for drives and just see what we see....since we moved here that has not really been an option, we walk a lot and see things that way, but we have not been able to just get in the car and go for a drive.  I have been mostly ok with that, but John LOVES to drive around and has really missed it.  Finally all the right things fell into place and he is now legal to drive here. It has given us some new freedom and has increased our area of exploration.  For our first outing on our own we decided to drive to a place that I had read about and had been wanting to visit. It was an easy drive and we easily found our way.  It is an old fountain that has 2 big dragons in it.  The fountain no longer has water, but the dragons still hang around.  There is also a very pretty park and paths with theses dragons but they were spraying the weeds or the trees with something the day we were there.  With the Tiny American running around and an unknown chemical being sprayed we decided to just visit the dragons.

You can see that they were HUGE!

Just keeping an eye on this one to make sure he isn't sneaking up on us!

No cooperation from the Tiny American.

Zane is roaring like a dragon.

This will defiantly be added to our list of places to take visitors!

No Easter Bunny In Taiwan

When we made the decision to pack up our life and move it to Taiwan it was October.  The stores were full of fall decorations and Halloween.  It was easy for me to think about what I would want for the Tiny American for the following Halloween that might not be readily available in Taiwan. What I did not think about was what other holidays would come and go that are celebrated in the States that are not such a big deal here.  The first one we encountered was Easter.  They don't do colored eggs and chocolate bunnies.  I did find some overpriced, although very yummy, eggs and bunnies at Godiva.  A friend that was coming for a business trip brought some egg dye and plastic eggs for us and I was very grateful.  Obviously Z is young enough that letting the commercial aspect of Easter pass by would have been no big deal, it was more for me I guess.  I love dyeing eggs, always have.  Dyeing the eggs with my brother and sister and cousins and then hiding and hunting the eggs the next day are some of my favorite childhood memories.  Easter isn't Easter without the smell of vinegar and boiled eggs!  My mom and my aunt made holidays really special for us and I have always tried to do the same for my kids, so letting it pass by without celebrating with Z was not a real option for me. The Tiny American very quickly figured out the hunting egg part....he loves putting things in his bucket anyway so this was a normal progression for him.   The dyeing of the eggs was mostly for me.  He is still too little to really do it, but it gave us extra eggs to hide and hunt.  Next year we will be better prepared and I think he will be ready to dye eggs himself!

I love the smell!

With his bucket full!

After a very hot easter egg hunt the day before Easter with a friend.

While we were hunting eggs and eating chocolate bunnies for breakfast the locals were celebrating their own spring holiday, Ching Ming Festival, more commonly known as Tomb Sweeping Day.  This is a Chinese Holiday that is celebrated on the 15th day after the Spring Equinox.  In Taiwan it is always celebrated  on April 5 to honor the death of Chiang Kai-Shek.  This holiday celebrates the beginning of Spring.  Translated it is the Clear and Bright Festival.  It is a time to enjoy things being green and fresh.  Spring plowing and planting begins.  People get outside and enjoy family time and they honor their ancestors by cleaning up the cemeteries and grave sites.  They go to the tombs and pray, offer tea, wine and food to the ancestors, burn incense and leave paper money.  Willow branches are often placed on the graves as well as doors of their homes during this time to ward off evil spirits that may wander through during Ching Ming.

At the cemetery.  The yellow papers on the graves are joss paper, fake money.

It cracks us up to see what people carry on their scooters. This couple had 2 very large flower arrangements.  I assume they were going to the cemetery or the temple.

It actually worked out nice that our Easter and their Ching Ming all happened at the same time this year because it meant a 4 day weekend for John.  We hung out and enjoyed our new found freedom that came with his international drivers license!

We went walking....

We went walking, what did we see?

Of course the Tiny American....my constant companion!

The dumpling makers at one of our favorite places in our neighborhood.

We walk past these 2 signs almost everyday...they are at the pineapple cake store.  One is the entrance and one is the exit sign for the drive thru.  Z loves them!  Even when we are on the bus and pass by he yells at them.

This Dragon is on the temple in one of our favorite parks.

A little hidden garden in our courtyard is one of the Tiny Americans favorite places to go.  He especially loves it at night when the lights are on.

Almost every playground has a least one of these ride on animals. They are on a giant spring and I doubt they would pass any sort of playground safety standards in the U.S.  Z of course loves them.  They are mouth smashers...he uses his whole body to make it move and smacks his face on the head every time and keeps going back for more!

Thanks for walking with us this week!

Spicy Stir Fry Noodles

Living with a fickle eater is a challenge.  We are constantly trying to get the Tiny American to eat something besides goldfish and M&M's. I know some would subscribe to the theory that if we just stopped offering him goldfish as an option he would eat other things....thanks, but he would rather starve!  He would just rather not eat.  I worry about it and about that time we will have a day where he eats  everything we put in front of him and then there are days when he eats nothing we put in front of him; on those days I think goldfish are better than nothing. I have tried sneaky ways of getting his fruits and veggies into his tummy, but if he doesn't want to eat I can't actually force it in his mouth.  He seems to be thriving and so we will assume he is getting at least enough of the good stuff and hope that at some point he becomes a more consistent eater.

One thing that he does like is stir fried noodles.  We have a favorite restaurant here that makes them and when I'm not in the mood to cook, they are one of our go to places. Their version has ground pork and big pieces of scallion in a brown sauce, they are yummy!  They are simple to make and I have tweaked a recipe to be more to our taste, we like things a little spicy, even the Tiny American likes spicy.  Last night when I made this recipe I used broccoli and red pepper for my veggies.  You could use what ever you have on hand that you would normally add to a stir fry.  Usually I would just coarse chop my veggies, but I decided to chop these really small with my Pampered Chef food chopper.  I hoped that they would stick to the noodles a little better and would make their way into his tummy without him even knowing! It worked pretty well.  I also used ground pork for this recipe, but ground chicken would work as well, for us ,the smaller the meat the easier it is for him to eat and the ground variety sticks to the noodles.

One thing that I have learned about doing a stir fry is to make sure you have everything measured and ready to go before you start.  I measure everything out and line it up on the counter in the order it goes into the pan.  My second piece of advice is to make sure your wok or whatever you are cooking in is HOT.  You don't want your oil to smoke, but you want it almost to that point. With a tiny bit of prep this is a super speedy meal to get on the table.  If you try these let me know what you think OR when you visit us in Taiwan I will make them for you!

Spicy Stir Fry Noodles

Ingredients
1/2 pound ground pork
rice noodles ( boiled and ready to use) I buy a medium width flat noodle
chopped veggies of your choice
2 cloves of garlic minced
2 eggs beaten
pinch ground white pepper
3 Tbsp veg oil

For the Sauce:
2 Tbsp Dark Soy sauce
3 Tbsp Light Soy sauce
1 Tbsp Oyster sauce
1 Tbsp Hot Chilli Sauce ( you can leave this out or add more depending on how hot you want it)

Heat your oil up in your wok/skillet.  Cook egg just until set and remove from the pan.  Cook garlic and  pork until pork is no longer pink.  Add veggies to the pan cook until they are to desired tenderness, we like ours crispy so it doesn't long.  Pour the sauce into your pork and veggie mixture and then stir in the noodles letting everything blend and warm through.  Add the egg back in, stirring to break it up.

You could always add a little red pepper flake if you really want to bring the heat up.  I wouldn't recommend that if you are sharing it with you toddler, the pepper seeds tend to make their eyes water!

I hope you try it and like it as much as we do!