Chasing Four Kids and a Dream

Ghost Festival

This year, a holiday called Ghost Festival fell on September 5th. It is a time when Buddhists and Taoists will make offerings for their relatives. It is also believed to be the day the gates to both heaven and hell are open for souls to come and visit. People will set place settings at the table for their deceased loved ones and family members.

People will also burn paper money, clothes, shoes, and the like for those who have died to carry with them in the afterlife.

It is a time when people will also light paper lanterns in hopes of helping those stuck between find a path to a final resting place.

Incense are also burned.

I think knowing these things are helpful in understanding the people we live with and remembering them in a very specific way. Please join us.

From Here

Almost two years ago now, some strange goings on started happening around here. My brother emailed! This may not seem strange to anyone with normal communication skills but for me, it was. For years prior to this email, my brother had sort of dropped off the face of the earth, so to speak, and it appeared that was were he was happy to stay. After lots of ignored emails or very brief responses and flat-out refusals to answer very basic questions, we all just assumed this was our new normal. Then, almost out of nowhere, he emailed. And he didn’t stop with one email. The emails and phone calls kept coming! We were all quite surprised! After all, he was like a unicorn to our kids because they had HEARD of him but wasn’t quite sure he existed as they had only seen pictures of him! Unicorn Uncle was alive and establishing contact! I wrote this song very shortly after the first few emails and the idea of having a brother again was settling in. However sad, it is a part of our family history now but the joy comes in knowing that there is a future. Vincent, this ones for you.

Goodbyes and Bridges

I wrote this song while I was washing the dishes. Ok, well, I stopped washing to write and returned to cold, flat, dirty dishwater but it was worth it. This one came about when I was thinking about saying hello to family that were going to visit and the joy that comes in seeing familiar and friendly faces. On the flip side, I also started thinking about all the goodbyes. There have been so many. So while this is a sad song, kind of, it is also one filled with reminders on how we stay connected. I hope you like it and thanks for listening.

Roots

I recently watched a short promo from Hans Zimmer (famous movie score composer) and was motivated to do this post. At one point, he says anyone can do a score. All you need is a microphone and a computer or maybe even just a phone. Well, I have a computer AND a phone so, I’m without excuse! As a sidebar, I’ve not taken this class but I’m pretty sure he’s a genius and does happen to know A LOT about music so below is the link to part of what I read and saw from Hans Zimmer. https://www.masterclass.com/classes/hans-zimmer-teaches-film-scoring

Along with listening to this promo and really thinking about it and our purpose for this website, I decided to do something I’ve never done before. Record myself and post it on the internet. Welcome, Patrice, to the 21st century! I had no idea it involved so many tabs and clicks.

We decided to start this site to record, in a more lasting way, our life for our kids and the future. The side bonus is that we get to also share this with friends and family. A few years ago, I wrote this song for our family so it just stands to be an appropriate first-song post. Hope you like it. It’s called “Roots”.

Cherries

We have ventured out to a different city this week which for us means fruit! Because where we live, fruit is normally more expensive, we like to buy lots of fruit when we go to other places where the fruit is cheaper. Today, we found cherries for less than half the price of cherries at home. The interesting part is how these beauties are packaged.

They are wrapped and layered quite nicely. The interesting thing is that they are individuality wrapped, two to a package.

I just stared, amazed, as the fruit seller started unwrapping these cherries to round off the pounds we were set to buy. So instead of helping her unwrap, I took pictures. Hopefully next time, I’ll be quicker to the draw.

The End of an Age

So when we started and bought this trekking company, we were thrilled to find that it came with gear. Well, Nathan was thrilled. He looked very much like this picture below.

I was skeptical. Where to store it all? How much to charge for rental? Where to go for replacements? Anyway, included in the gear were 2 well-worn jeeps good for nothing but driving around the great outdoors.

One was white, the other was this black one riiiiight here :

This year, in attempt to simplify, we decided to sell the jeeps. Rental was too low and risk was too high. Today, after selling one jeep last week, it looks like the last one is on its final days with our family too. Its moving on to greener pastures ie, we sold them both in record time. Today is met with saddness and excitement as a chapter in TMG history has come to an end. Farewell Jeep Musk.

New Favorite Noodles

This is my new favorite noodle place. Pick a noodle type: wheat noodles, thin or thick rice noodles. Add pork or chicken.

Read while you wait…..

Then you add your various toppings.

And enjoy until it’s all gone!

The best part is, next door they have COLD cokes in a REFRIGERATOR! First-world lux!

Fireside Barbecue

One of our favorite dinners in the winter is to have barbecue cooked around the wood burning stove in our living room.

What is your favorite part of the barbecue and favorite thing to eat?

Jada: “The lotus root and the warmth.”

Lotus Root is surprisingly good when barbecued.

Hosanna: “MEAT! It’s special because it’s barbecuing on a fire”

Ephrem: “I especially like the meat, the lotus root, and the warmth of the fire. My favorite part is that it is barbecued.”

Jubilee: “I like meat. It’s special because we’re barbecuing on the fire.”

Patrice: “My favorite part is the slow cook and the waiting in between. I especially like eating food so hot it burns my mouth.”

Patrice exhibiting her skills with the tools of the trade.

Nathan: “My favorite part is hanging around with everyone and seeing the kids enjoy the food.”

Trash Disposal

We new there would be some adjustments of daily life and necessities. In town the concept of trash disposal is simple, the trash truck plays music announcing it’s arrival. When you’re not used to it, one often mistakes it for either a Disney ride because it plays “It’s a Small World”. If not that, then you expect to run out and find an ice cream truck due to the upbeat dingle of a song.

You would think such a set up would be simple, but way too many times were we left chasing the trash truck down the road or receiving a solid scolding from the driver to not leave the trash on the curb for them to pick up themselves.

In the village, it may not have the allure of convience, but a ride in the back of the jeep down to the village incinerator followed by a roaring fire and a melting pile of goo actually seems to give everyone involved an entertaining way to dispose of our unusable refuse.

The jeep is a most exciting trash hauler.