Oliver Unpacking

A lot of people ask how we are doing, are we unpacked, is there a weird culture shock with coming home, are we glad to be back, what have we been up to… so here is a post to answer all those normal questions.

Here is how the unpacking is coming:

Okay, so it is not quite that bad anymore. The kids loved unpacking and finding all kinds of treasures – some they remembered and some they did not! Now we have figured out that despite selling tons of stuff before we moved to Austria, and giving away tons of stuff before we came back, we still have too much stuff… and only about half is unpacked. Sigh. I’m ready to have another garage sale just so I don’t have to open any more boxes.

Oliver was SO happy to find his ski helmet, he promptly put it on and wore it for a whole day asking if we could go skiing. Sorry buddy, no more snow here. Although I guess there is still tons up north and it did snow after we planted our garden. He also loves the hand vacuum and uses it as often as we let him.

Oliver wore his lederhosen to church one week, and Chris decided to wear his Austrian coat and vest too. So handsome! Oliver’s nursery leaders told him how handsome he looked, and he asked to wear lederhosen two weeks in a row.

Chris bought a cast iron skillet, and our favorite thing to make in it is of course – Kaiserschmarrn! It is so good, we totally miss this yummy Austrian food, so we are perfecting it. And with this pan, I think it tastes just like Vienna. Yay!

Marion still loves to eat, and we like seeing her smile, so here is another Marion eating picture. And she likes Kaiserschmarrn too.

So about culture shock. There are some things that have felt strange. Like being able to talk to everyone. Or being in a store and realizing that everyone understands what you are saying. Or wanting to go to Naschmarkt because you know they will have that obscure spice you are looking for and Walmart probably won’t. Or wishing that boxed milk was cheap here so we could have lots of milk on hand.

But the hardest culture shock was the bread. We miss the bread. My kids tried American white bread, and don’t like it! Oliver asks for crunchy bread! So now we make all of our own bread. It has been really nice. Thanks to my sister Lisa for my Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day cookbook. If you like bread and want a really easy way to make it, buy this book. Seriously.

And the other foods we miss? Good yogurt and cheese. So we now make our own yogurt. Haven’t figured out how to make cheese yet though…

Oliver and Elora are now (sort of) used to riding in the car, and it is more enjoyable to drive with them places. It took Oliver a long time to understand why he should wear a seatbelt (since on a bus or train you don’t have to!) We love what the carseat does to Elora’s hair.

A close-up of Elora car hair. So funny.

Chris lost his sunglasses. So here he is sporting mine. Very dashing.

One favorite thing about being home? Seeing all our family of course. And in Arizona, Elora and Oliver got to go to the restaurant Sweet Tomatoes, which is a huge salad bar place – and surprisingly, they both love it! There is something fun about getting a tray and being able to put whatever you want on it. Plus there is chocolate milk and ice cream… so fun.

We got this cute chair for Marion to sit in sometimes. She likes to sit up on the counter and watch when we cook. But lately Oliver has decided that it is his favorite place to sit and play music. I can’t believe he actually fits in there!

And because we aren’t busy at all and don’t have enough to do, we decided to plant a HUGE garden this year. Okay, so to people in our town this is a small garden. But it is double what we have planted in the past. We have it all dug, planted, and the drip system set up… now we are just hoping the random hail and snow storms won’t kill all our food!

It has been interesting moving back and adjusting to everything. Our life here is very different from Vienna. And we love both places for different reasons. We have great friends in Vienna and great friends here and we are grateful that we have been led to two different places to meet so many wonderful people. I am sure there will be more ups and downs and culture shock moments, but we are happy that through it all we have seen the Lord’s hand in our lives and we hope to have many more adventures in the future, wherever life takes us!