This Global Home | Day 10: Armenia

I'm Christie. Welcome to my home in Armenia! Apologies for the selfie, but I've been parenting solo this week and felt a little weird asking my neighbors to take a picture of me in front of the house.Connect with me:     Instagram

Here's our front entryway. I love burning scented candles. There's some Armenian money out waiting for the delivery guy. On days I can't get to the store but we're desperate for food, I can order online and have them brought to the door for less than $1.50 (cost of actual groceries not included). 

Toys…everywhere. Our house came mostly furnished, but we were able to bring a few things with us, like these square Ikea bookshelves. I think I have five of them. 

And speaking of books, we looooove them. Hence the need for all the shelves. 

Look, I cleaned up a bit for you! You're welcome. I spend a good bit of my day in the kitchen. You can see my post-it note with Russian on it to help me study, the large American-style fridge we are thrilled to have, and the lunchbox out and waiting for me to fill. The little ones are in bed, so that's why it's currently kid-, toy-, and meal-prep free. 

Who isn't interested in checking out someone else's bathroom? Not to be gross, but I have to tell you that EVERYTHING that goes into the toilet sticks to the inside of the bowl. All our toilets have their own brush waiting nearby. Guess who's using those brushes 90% of the time? 

Here's our upstairs hallway. Requisite family pictures hung and stick-on world map on the wall. It's important to help our kids know where in the world we are any given year, and why we can't just get in the car and visit family. "See that big whale between us and our cousins? We can't drive over him to get there!" 

Our peaceful retreat at the end of the evening. 

Unedited, un-staged photo. 

The baby has the best view of the mountains. I'm trying to bring in some cool breezes before the sun really starts to hit this side of the house. 

Speaking of a great view, our yard is ringed with fruit and nut trees. It’s beautiful and I love it. However, the water that comes out of the sprinklers in our neighborhood is fed from a pond that's downstream from a cattle farm. All the cow poop gets pushed into the stream and it drifts into the "outside" water supply. (There's filtered water inside.) So each morning as the sprinklers run, it SMELLS HORRIBLE. In addition, our fruit trees are sprayed with this each day. Then, as the fruit begins to ripen, I spend half the day yelling at kids to "Wash the fruit first! Don't eat it yet!" If they don't listen to me, they may spend the rest of the day running for the bathroom. And I'll be following behind with the toilet brush, of course.   

Every evening some crazy wind blows through our city. Since wind is my favorite kind of weather, sitting here watching the trees nearly bend in half while I'm sheltered on the porch is a soothing way to end the day.