It's All Grace

a journey with the Thomason family

Snowy and Sleepy

I am struggling to understand just exactly why our kids won’t sleep past 11pm. We have done everything to keep them awake for as long as possible, but this jet lag has been brutal. Today marks our 4th full day in Czech and I really don’t think the kids have moved from the West Coast time zone. Bethany played with them from 11pm-2am and I got up around 2:30/3:00 and haven’t slept since. The kids took naps around 9am this morning, but we kept them very short.

It doesn’t really get light outside until around 8:00am right now, so it wasn’t until about that time today that we saw all the white outside. Apparently it snowed last night. Clearly it wasn’t a blizzard, but it was enough to cover everything and make it look nice. This is actually the first time since we’ve been in Czech that we have seen the snow on the ground. We were gone during some of the snow around the beginning of the year. It’s mostly melted now, but it looked really fun outside today (as you can see in the photo above of our yard).

Since the kids were napping, we didn’t go to church today, so Bethany and I decided to go ahead and take down the Christmas decorations that we left up before we went to the States. We got the Christmas tree ornaments down and most of the other things around the house. A lot of it is still sitting on our living room floor, bust mostly it’s all boxed up and just needs to be put away.

Titus and I did a few errands today, one to the hardware store and then to get some groceries. I had to walk every aisle at the hardware store to find Velcro, but we did eventually figure out where it was. Six months ago that would’ve drove me nuts, but today I planned on it taking forever and knew we would be hunting for a while. I’d say that’s progress.

I’m too sleepy to continue typing so this is where I’ll leave you. Here’s to hoping we can make it past an 11pm wake up time.

January 18, 2015
Learning New Things

One of the greatest blessings of moving overseas has been the opportunity to learn new things. I honestly don’t know if we would’ve had the motivation to learn certain things had it not been for us moving to Czech Republic. For example, Bethany now makes all of our pancakes from scratch. This week she even tried a different recipe because she felt like if she was making them from scratch they should taste a certain way. I have little doubt that had we stayed in the States we probably never would’ve tried to make our own pancakes. It’s just so easy to buy the big bag of pancake mix at Costco!

Today was another day of experimenting and trying new things. Since I was awake at 4am with the kids (p.s. they were up at 11pm…that’s right, they didn’t even make it until the next day), I decided to start pursuing something I have been thinking about learning: drawing. Because of the work I do, there’s often times that I need to sketch out an idea on paper before we design it on screen. I always feel like I’m behind in my understanding of drawing, so I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to learn. This morning I started an online class on the “Foundations of Drawing” which has been helpful and challenging. One of the tasks was to copy something in sections with the thing you’re copying facing upside down. The point is to train your brain to not think about what the picture is, but just look at the lines (you have to retrain your brain to see lines and not try to constantly figure out what the picture is). Here’s what I ended up with (mine is on the right). Mine isn’t perfect, but go easy on me…I’m a first timer.

Bethany was also learning something new today. She made English muffins! A friend of ours sent us a recipe on Facebook, so Bethany tried it out for the first time today. They tasted awesome and it was her first crack at it. Baking in general I feel like is pretty tough, so I’m super impressed. Again, I really don’t think we would’ve tried making those had it not been for the simple fact that we can’t just go pick them up in the store here. Tomorrow we’re going to make breakfast sandwiches with them and I can’t wait! Here’s some photos from the process (and here’s the link to the recipe!):

Jet lag has continued to be rough, but we’re doing our best. Avery just went to bed and it’s only 5:40pm as I write this. Titus is hanging in there and I’m hoping he’ll stay up at least until 6:30 tonight. We actually went over to our friend’s house, the Yormans, to have play time and chat just so we could stay awake. They were completely understanding because they just got back from California a week ago and are a few days ahead of us in the world of jet lag.

I’ve had some relief from my toothache today and it’s been feeling pretty good. I can’t eat an apple yet, but I’ve been doing my own pain tests and so far, so good. It’s been a slow process, but I am really I got that thing fixed before we left the States. Trying to explain all of that in another language would’ve been tough!

Well, it’s time for bed. Bethany is taking the first shift tonight (e.g. she goes to bed first and gets up when the first kid does due to jet lag) and I’ll be putting Titus to sleep later when he gets tired. We’re hoping to make it to church tomorrow, but we’ll just have to wait and see how we all feel. Thank you for continuing to pray for us!

January 17, 2015
It’s Good to be Home

We made it to 2:00am today. I went to bed last night at around 7:30pm, so that’s actually a pretty good night’s sleep. And I’m learning to live with jet lag. In fact, I was really productive between 3:00 – 7:00 this morning. Went through emails, wrote people back, worked on my to-do list, got things in order for next week, did puzzles with Avery, and even had time to get a shower in there! By 8:00 I was out the door and doing a little shopping for Bethany.

I feel like Bethany and I are tag teaming the whole jet lag with little kids thing. When I’m awake she rests, and when she’s awake I usually take a break too. Unfortunately, today all three of them fell asleep in the afternoon while I was working so we had to get everyone up around 2:00pm. Now we’re hoping they’ll still sleep tonight.

Besides jet lag, I was thinking today that it’s really nice to back in Czech. Being away for a bit was nice, but it’s been nice to be home. The weather here was amazing today and even yesterday when we went to Bethany’s doctor visit our drive was incredible. The sun was shining and the air was clear so you could see for miles (or kilometers!). I feel more comfortable here than I’ve ever felt and I hope that continues. I mean, I was even excited to go grocery shopping today and I don’t know why. I guess I’m just not as nervous about it like I used to be (don’t get me wrong; I still had an issue with my debit card while checking out, but that’s pretty much normal). Again, it’s good to be home.

It’s barely 5:00pm as I finish this blog and I could fall asleep at my desk I’m so tired. I’m hoping to make it until 8pm, but we’ll just have to wait and see. If you’ve been praying for us, thank you! Transitions are always hard, even if they’re just from one time zone to another. Here’s to hoping we can sleep in until 4:00am tomorrow!

January 16, 2015
Captain’s Log: Jet Lag Edition
Wednesday, January 14, 2015

18:30 – Just arrived home in Czech Republic from America
18:45 – Kids are crying a lot from exhaustion
19:00 – Avery fell asleep
19:15 – Titus is crying still
19:30 – Titus fell asleep
19:31 – Bethany and I fell asleep.
23:30 – Avery is wide awake and crying
23:31 – Titus is also awake now
23:35 – Bethany gets up, plays with kids, makes “breakfast”

Thursday, January 15 2014

02:00 – Bethany came back to bed and I’m up with the kids now
02:30 – I’m making myself a bowl of cereal
02:45 – It may be the middle of the night, but I feel great and am loving this time with the kids!
03:00 – Checked some email; got a little work done. I should get up at this time every day!
03:30 – Bethany is awake again. Sweet family time at 3:00am!
04:00 – Started unpacking all the suitcases. SO stoked to have this kind of time in the morning.
05:00 – I got a little sleepy, so I’m making coffee.
05:30 – Woah, Avery is not happy about life right now.
06:00 – I don’t really know why I’m awake right now.
07:30 – OK, I think everyone needs a nap. Bethany just laid down.
08:00 – Time to leave for Bethany’s doctor appointment!
08:02 – Avery fell asleep in the car.
08:34 – Arrived at the doctor’s office. Avery won’t wake up so Bethany is going to carry her across the parking lot and up the elevator.
09:30 – Just leaving the doctor’s. Great appointment. We found out the gender of the baby, but Avery slept through the entire thing. I took this photo of her in the office:

09:31 – Wow, I am tired.
09:32 – Titus fell asleep.
10:00 – Sitting in the parking lot of the grocery store while Avery and Titus sleep. Bethany ran in to get a few things.
10:30 – Back home now. I carried Avery in to the house because she’s still sleeping.
10:31 – Avery is awake and crying loudly.
10:35 – Snack time! Avery is happy again.
11:15 – Avery fell asleep. Bethany went to the bedroom and fell asleep.
12:00 – I laid down for a nap.
13:30 – Titus came in and laid down next to me.
14:00 – I’m up. Avery is still asleep. Bethany is on the couch with her. Titus is still asleep. I’ve tried to wake all of them up but at this point I am a failure. I tried moving them, shaking them, turning the lights on and off. Nothing is working.

17:19 – I am blogging. Everyone is asleep still. This is not good.
17:27 – I was just running some numbers and other than about 45 minutes this afternoon, Avery has been asleep since 8 o’clock this morning. That can’t be good.
17:29 – I could really use a nap.
January 15, 2015
Back in Czech

We made it to the train that is taking us home. Other than the Lord’s grace, I have no idea how we have come this far. We are exhausted, the Paris airport was ridiculous, and the sparkling grape juice I just opened exploded on me and my computer as I was typing this.

It’s been a long and challenging day. To be balanced, our flight from Seattle to Paris was pretty nice. It wasn’t a full flight so we had room to lay the kids down in our seats and the kids actually did really great. But after landing in Paris, it just seemed liked things got a lot harder.

I originally started this paragraph by explaining about what happened to us in the Paris airport and how hard it was, but I stopped writing. Complaining is a sin. I’m writing that for my own benefit and as a way of reminder as I look back on today. My flesh really wants to complain right now, but I guess that’s to be expected when 1) I’m a sinner (saved by grace, but still battling that flesh!) and 2) I’ve been awake for almost 24 hours. No matter how tired I am or how difficult a situation, the reality is that God is still in control and He is good.

Yesterday as we were leaving Seattle, Bethany’s dad prayed for us before we got in line at security. He knew our situation and our anxious hearts and prayed specifically for our flights, my tooth pain to subside, handling of our luggage, connecting flights, and for a ride from Prague to the train station. God was kind enough to answer all of those with a “Yes.” Bethany’s dad didn’t ask the Lord to make it all easy for us, he just asked God for solutions and God provided. And that’s why I can’t complain!

At the end of the day I can praise the God of the universe for His kindness to us. We don’t deserve any of it. That’s just it…it’s all grace.

January 14, 2015