365 little things *17-23

Hello. Has anyone else had a super fast week? I guess mine was quick because there was only school 3 days this week. That means we had time to get up to some fun stuff on the other 2 days, and you know what they say, "Time flies when you're having fun!" Haha. I had to.


Jan 17 - Clothes Bal. Chloe seems to have a revolving list of nicknames, Clothes Bal being the most recent one. Of course, she answers to all of them with licks and exuberant happiness.


Jan 18 - Dondurma. Dondurma is Turkish for ice cream in case you hadn't deduced that. :)
On Saturday, a few ladies and I from our squadron spouses group went on an outing to the Women's Market in Adana. We had a fun time shopping, and then afterwards we had lunch, and then made a stop at the ice cream shop. Turkish ice cream is tasty. This is the Kup Amaretto from Mado.


Jan 19 - Skyfall Bridge, James Bond Bridge, German Bridge, Koca Köprü, Varda Viaduct. i.e. A Bridge With Many Names. Jason, Brennan and I went adventuring on Sunday to go check out this bridge, and a canyon nearby. This is the train bridge in the chase scene in the beginning of the James Bond movie, Skyfall.  It is also the tallest bridge in Turkey. That became quite obvious as we walked across it. I'm glad there was a guard rail.


Jan 20 - "It's Starting to Look Valentiney Around Here!" Or according to Brennan, "Yay, gumballs!"


Jan 21 - Oh No, Two Decorating Pictures In A Row. I couldn't resist though, the mercury glass candle holders Andrew got me for Christmas finally made it through the mail (and unbroken!), so I had to put them out right away. Can you tell I love them just a little bit. :)


Jan 22 - A Growing Collection. Brennan picks up "treasures" almost every time we walk home from school. These are the things that haven't blown away or got knocked off by the neighborhood cat.


Jan 23- 12 minutes. That was about the amount of time that all of the laundry was done this week. That never happens around here, so I had to document the occasion.

Tuesday Travels - Kizkalesi

Back in early July we spent a few days in Kizkalesi, another Mediterranean coastal town. Kizkalesi is in the Mersin province and it's English translation is "maiden's castle."


The legend of Kizkalesi Castle is that a fortune teller told the king that his daughter would be killed by a snakebite. He thought to protect her by building this castle off the shore to protect her from snakes. The castle didn't protect her though. In the end, a snake was brought to the island in a basket of fruit, and she was bitten and died. Apparently the same story is told for a Kizkalesi Castle in Istanbul, so who knows if the tale is true or not.


This beach was definitely more crowded than the one in Karatas.


Give Brennan a pail and shovel and a spot to dig and he's good.


I think he was building a castle.


There were vendors walking around selling about anything you could imagine. That takes some skills to balance a big tray of bread on your head. Also check out the lady sitting on the left. That is one version of a Turkish swimsuit. Basically fully clothed, including a head scarf.


Brennan has such an easy time making friends. He met this little girl at the Rain Cafe, a little restaurant that was close to the hotel where we stayed. I don't know how much they understood each other, but they had fun playing games.

In Kizkalesi there is another castle onshore called Korykos Castle. With it being so crowded, and so HOT we spent our time in town on the beach, but both castles are open for touring. Kizkalesi isn't too far away from us, so we plan to go back on a slower weekend.

365 little things *10-16

January 10 - Sick Day. Jason hardly ever gets sick, but when he does, he's down for the count. Our couch was Sick Central for a few days over this one. Poor guy. Thankfully, he's much better now.


January 11 - Goofiness in 3D. Brennan loves looking at 3D books, and taking selfies on my tablet. Combine the two, and throw in Mommy as a willing participant, and you have lots of giggles and goofy faces.


January 12 - Scooting Around. I'm sure that technically he's too big for this scooter, but he still likes it, so we're good. This was Sunday, and since Jason was feeling a little better and a bit claustrophobic, we went for a drive and then came home and spent some time hanging out outside.


January 13 - There Will Be Days Like This. This was one of those days, I was busy all day, and didn't even think about picking up my camera until it was way past dark. This Dreamlite puppy is part of Brennan's bedtime routine. **♪ Dream Lite, sleep tight, starry night with Dream Lite.... ♫** Just in case it's been awhile since that song has been stuck in your head. You're welcome.


January 14 - Bunting in Progress. I've been working on some Valentine crafts this week. This doily bunting was easy, and it consisted of stuff I already had. The best kind of project!


January 15 - Bye, Bye Banana Tree. - Well, at least temporarily. Our gardener let us know it was time to hack down our gigantic banana tree for the winter. Boo. I know it has to be cut back, and that it will grow back fast, but our backyard looks so barren without it in the meantime.


January 16 - Artsy Organization.  I've been in house fluffing mode,so today I gathered up all of the art supplies we use most often, and put them all together in a tray on the dining room table. It makes sense, since that's where we use them the most, and their colorful togetherness makes me happy. (For now.) :)

Anybody else out there doing a photo project this year? Let me know...I'd love to follow along!

Tuesday Travels - Karatas Beach

It's hard to believe we've been in Turkey for over a year now. Last year started terribly with me breaking my ankle, so we were unable to do much or go far from the house until the summer months came around. We did get out as soon as I was able, but those adventures never made it to the blog.

Well, with a new year comes a new start, and since I know you all want to see some pictures of Turkey, I'm going to backtrack and post about those trips until I get caught up. As you can see, I even got really clever, and I'm calling the catch up posts Tuesday Travels.


Are you ready?

Our first stop is Karatas Beach, located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, in the Adana Province. I don't have many pictures, because I spent most of the time just enjoying the beach, and not taking pictures.


Karatas Beach. It's pretty cool when you go to the beach in Turkey. No sooner than your feet hit the sand, a beach attendant is there to bring you chairs and an umbrella. (For a small fee, of course.)


The water was nice and warm. Brennan loves to swim. I think this summer we need to get him into swimming lessons.





Like I said, not many pictures of our trip to Karatas, but we had a fun time. It is on our list to go back to this summer.

Photo Project -The 2014 Edition: 365 little things *1-9

If you've been hanging around here for awhile, you know I'm not much on making and keeping New Year's resolutions. You may have also observed I am a big fan of photography, and like to start off the year with a photo project. This year will be no exception. Maybe I will get further through the year with this one.  And maybe, since I was the world's worst blogger of 2013, I will get back into the groove of blogging two or three times a week. This will hopefully guarantee at least one of those times. :)

Alrighty then.

Photo Project - The 2014 Edition: 365 little things begins now.


January 1 - 12:02 a.m. (Ok, so obviously I didn't take this picture. But, since I have no rules for my photo project, I'm going with it. I don't remember who did take this picture that night, so thank you picture taker, and welcome to the project!) This was how Jason and I started 2014. Having fun with friends, decked out in 1920s style! Here's to a great 2014!


January 2 - Reality Bites. Back to Reality. Time to unpack all of our bags from our trip to the States. I really detest unpacking. I may or may not have lived out of this suitcase for a few more days after this picture was taken, and Jason may or may not have put this stuff away for me in the end.


January 3 - Reading Divergent. Has any one else read this series yet? I was engrossed, and had to read all three books, back to back. Thank goodness the series was all written, because I hate to start a book and then find out I have to wait for months or years (Diana Gabaldon. Grr.) to see how the story ends. It didn't end how I thought it would, but it was still a good read.


January 4 - Goggle-y eyes. Brennan still loves to play in the bath tub. And, yes, googles are a requirement.


January 5 - In the Cartoon Zone. I'm not sure what show he was watching so intently, but he wasn't missing a bit of it! I like that he's holding Darth Vader's lightsaber. Stars Wars and Legos are his current obsessions.


January 6 - Makin' Mayo. Back in December, Jason and I decided to go Paleo. We took a break while we were in Indiana, and now we are back on the wagon again. One of the things I do every week is make a batch of mayo. It is a bit time consuming, and sometimes it doesn't turn out. This was a good batch, and later helped to make some Ranch Dip and Honey Mustard Sauce. Yum!


January 7 - Tiny Daisy. Brennan and I walked home from school this day, and he picked me a little flower on our walk. I love that he can be such a sweet boy.


January 8 - Legos, Legos, Everywhere. I mentioned earlier that Brennan's newest interest is Legos. I did not realize before now how Legos can fully infiltrate your life. These tiny plastic bits end up everywhere! This is the pile that is perpetually on the bar in our kitchen. Brennan likes to sit there and play with them while I'm chopping and cooking stuff. Thankfully I haven't stepped on one barefoot yet, but I'm sure that day will come.


January 9 - Snowflake Ring from a 5-year-old: Priceless. Back in December there was a Christmas Shop set up at school for the kids to buy gifts for their friends and family. Brennan bought me an ornament and this snowflake ring. He asked me to put it in my jewelry box with my other rings. You know I had to say yes to that. :)

Paleo.... What?

You may have noticed me mention "Paleo" a couple of times since I've rebooted the blog. Believe me, I've been asked on more than one occasion what that's all about. You may recall I went gluten-free a couple of years back? For us, Paleo has just become a natural progression of that.

So what is Paleo? Instead of me typing out a big long guide to Paleo, below the picture is a link to an excellent article that tells all about it. It also has Lego illustrations, so it is entertaining, and well as informative.

--> Link to: The Beginner's Guide to Paleo.

If you don't want to click over and read that (Though if you are interested, you should, it's great info.) here's a picto-word gram to help you out.

Any clearer, now? For us, since we'd already cut out gluten, it was just a matter of cutting out processed sugars, dairy and legumes. Oh, and Jason cut out Diet Coke, which if you know him at all, you know that is a REALLY big deal.  Looking at the list, it does seem a little overwhelming. But it's totally doable. 

Here are some of the replacement staples in our pantry:

In place of regular flour, we use almond flour, coconut flour, tapioca starch, and arrowroot flour.

In place of refined white and brown sugar, we use maple syrup, honey, and coconut sugar.

Instead of vegetable and canola oils, we use olive oil, coconut oil, ghee, and bacon grease.

That's not so bad, right? Of course there are the beans and peas that we've had to give up, but that has just made us try veggies we don't normally buy to add variety.

The rest of pantry stocking is mostly reading labels and lots of prepping and preparing things yourself. When you start looking at labels, you'd be amazed at some of the junk that is in seemingly healthy foods. 

As for preparing things yourself, I now make all of our mayonnaise and sauces and dressing. Well, except mustard, Paleo-friendly mustard is easy to find.  The rest is just basically a combination of oils, vinegars, herbs, spices and juices. Keep an eye out and I will post our favorite sauce recipes soon!

And last, but definitely not least is the prepping. I'm not going to lie about the prepping. It is totally a pain. Mostly in the back, because there is a ton of standing and chopping stuff. You also have to plan meals so you aren't overbuying and wasting food. Since fresh is the best way to go, it's easy for your produce to go bad before you get a chance to use it. 

 In addition to chopping and prepping stuff, I try to have cook days a couple times a week. Like on Sunday, I cook up enough breakfast food to last a few days, and I try to have meats or other protein available that just need popped in the microwave for a warm up. We've found the worst thing about Paleo is the lack of "convenience" food. When you get hungry on Paleo, you really are hungry, and not just having a case of the munchies. It's "I need food right now" hungry! 

So overall, Paleo is a bit more time consuming than how we used to eat, but it's totally worth it in the end.

Happy 2014!

Happy New Year Friends and Family! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and your new year is starting off just right! We are all doing great! After a short, but much needed trip back to the States, we are settled back into daily life here in Turkey.

It was nice to be back in the USA after being gone for a year. It was nice to drive down the highway, and no other cars, buses, scooters, horse and buggies, or man pulled carts were trying to share the lane with us. There was also very little honking. I had almost forgotten that driving could actually be a peaceful experience. Of course, it was also great making the rounds and getting to hang out with our families.


This was Brennan's first Christmas in Indiana. He had a blast!


He was apparently a very good boy in 2013, because Santa found him at Grandma Brenda's house, and also left him a letter saying there were presents under the tree back in Turkey, too.


Santa was smart and left the lightsabers in Turkey!


Unfortunately, we did have to leave this little beauty back in Indiana with her parents. And who is this darling girl, you ask? Introducing Miss Paisley Elizabeth, our new grand daughter! We are over-the-top excited! She was born back in early December, and I do believe she was everyone's best Christmas present. :)


The happy parents. :)


Four generations.


I know, it's hard to stand the cuteness! Congratulations Shanny and Logan!

And one more today, just because I had to...

Tammy and Jason. This is Jason's cousin, Tammy, who also has the distinction of being one of the blog's biggest fans! We don't get to see her very often (like in over ten years), but our trips to Indiana overlapped this time, and it was great to see her! I warned her that pictures on my camera were fair game for blogging, so I totally had to follow through with that, right!?

Happy 2014!