Jatujak Market

In the wee hours of Saturday morning, I was filled with the anxious anticipation of seeing some one loved and greatly missed, so I couldn't sleep. Everything was ready: bed made, house clean, clutter organized. I listened for the phone call that would announce the driver had my parents in his car. It seemed that it was taking too long, so I checked online to see if the plane had been on time; it had arrived nine minutes early. Of course, I knew that immigration, picking up bags, and customs can take awhile. I also knew that my dad is not one to rush. Finally, Kuhn San called; they would arrive at our house in about forty minutes! Now came the final wait, listening for the car driving down our alley.

I read, talked with Philip, nursed Simeon back to sleep. After a busy week of homeschooling and house cleaning, I was pretty weary. I even watched an episode of "King of the Hill" with Philip. Being from the South, he can relate and finds them pretty funny; I was not impressed. Then, we heard a car crunch past our house to turn around and the end of the yaek. We grabbed our gate key and ran outside to be waiting for them. Welcome to Bangkok, Mom and Dad/Grandma and Grandpa!

We all got into bed for a few hours of sleep before the children began to stir. The best place in Bangkok for souvenir shopping is the huge outdoor Jatujak Market which is only open on weekends. The last time my parents were here, we had also gone the first weekend they were here, as we had plans for the second weekend. Since they had not been in Thailand for very long, they didn't have any idea of what they wanted to buy and had returned to the States empty handed. This time, they were ready for some shopping. Philip offered to take my parents and all the children so that I could rest. This was not an offer to be refused! I helped everyone get out the door, then settled down for an uninterrupted nap.

Jatujak Market bills itself as "The World's Largest Weekend Market" boasting 15,000 booths spreading over 27 acres. Like all else in Bangkok, it is hot and crowded, but it sells an astonishing variety of products. This is one of our main stops for Christmas and birthday shopping. Clothes, dishes, toys, plants, artwork, pets, and food abound. Bargaining is encouraged, and most prices are reasonable. Additionally, it is only a fifteen minute bus ride away from our house. While I don't particularly enjoy the market, it is a staple of living in Bangkok and I have learned to shop there quite successfully.

The market consists of row upon row of cubby-hole shops with narrow cement walkways all covered with tin roofing. With crowds shoving by in every direction, it can get a bit claustrophobic. The first time I went, I was wondering if I would ever get out of the maze, when I found the first opening to a street. I could see sky and breathe open air again. With plenty of shops along pedestrian-only road through the market, it was awhile before I was ready to dive back into the clutter of covered shops again. This kind of shopping trip necessitates a refreshing snack. It was in the market that we sampled our first coconut ice cream, served in coconut shells and topped with the fresh fruit.

We've gotten a bit better at navigating the market and are able to reliably find certain shops. However, the shops do change, and we still discover new sections every so often. Once, we wandered through the "pet section," filled with exotic, unhappy looking animals in small cages. Signs instructed, "No photos." I am fairly certain that many of those animals were illegal. We hurried to get out of that area. Another area from which I've never made a purchase is the artisan section. Everything here, with the exception of a few cheap trinkets, is out of our price range. However, looking is free. Much of the artwork is lovely, and we have observed the artists as they work: painting, wood carving, mosaics. This trip, my dad was especially fascinated by an artist fashioning elaborate life-size sculptures from junk.

Happy with their finds, my parents, Philip, and the kids, returned home to find a rest Mommy and nearly all the "Christmas" gifts from the morning put away. Time for supper together and relaxing as a family before an early bedtime. The long awaited "Grandma and Grandpa Day" was as wonderful as anticipated, with thirteen more to follow.

The Tricky Black Switches

While helping to clean the house yesterday to prepare for the coming of Grandma and Grandpa, Eris shouted out to me that the bathroom light went out. We all thought that it probably needed a new light bulb, so on the way back from the vegetable market, I stopped at the local Tesco Lotus Express to see if they sold light bulbs. I found one that I thought would work and brought it home. Philip locked himself in the bathroom so that the girls would not see him standing on a stool on top of a chair (something I have had to repeatedly remind them not to do) and replaced the bulb. It still did not work. Then he tried the new bulb in a different socket, and it worked. Oh dear, something was wrong with the electrical wiring, a much more complicated fix.

The girls took a shower before supper so that it would still be light in the bathroom and took their last potty trips by the light from the adjoining room. After they were tucked in bed I remembered an important fact about our house and a similar event shortly after we moved into the house and my parents were visiting.

A day or so after my parents arrived for their first visit to Thailand, the electricity stopped working for the whole upstairs floor. Without air conditioner or even fan upstairs, they moved downstairs to the girls bedroom for the night. We thought it was related to some wiring and amp issues that should have been resolved before we moved in. The next morning the landlord and some workmen arrived to see what could be done. Before much investigation had been done, the landlord remembered a switch in our bedroom downstairs that triggered the electricity for the whole upstairs. The electricians hadn't wanted the extra hassle of taking the wiring outside to the breaker box where it should have gone, so just spliced it into the switch which previously controlled only the air conditioner in our room. When my parents were trying to adjust settings on the air conditioner in their room, it reminded me of the switch in our room. I thought that since we never use our unit, I might as well turn off the switch. It was shortly after that when my parents noticed the electricity upstairs was not working. However, I did not connect the events together until after Muk figured out the mystery for us.

Our house has black "light switches" all over the place that turn on and off the electricity to certain parts of the house. There is no identifying pattern as to which switch is for which part of the house. I remembered that while I had been cleaning the outdoor kitchen, the cover had fallen off a black switch the function of which was as yet unknown to me. I replaced the cover and finished clearing the cobwebs and dust away from the area. Again, I did not connect the events until hours after the fact. Suddenly, it came to me that maybe that switch was for the bathroom and that it had gotten knocked to the "off" position when the cover fell off. Sure enough, it was "off" and when I flipped it up, light flooded the bathroom. I felt silly for not recognizing this before. But now we have an extra light bulb should we need it, and least this time we hadn't called the electricians in yet.

Six in the Bed

When we lived in Terre Haute, Philip would make the hour-and-a-half drive to Purdue University two to three times a week for classes, to teach, and to meet with professors and other students. Often this would mean he would come home very late, after the kids and I were in bed. While we missed Daddy on those days, we made them special so they wouldn't be so difficult. I took the opportunity to make meals that Philip didn't really like - spaghetti and biscuit dough (instead of yeast dough) pizza were favorites. We would eat at the small table in the kitchen or outside. Eris's favorite part about those nights was sleeping with Mommy. The other girls thought it was fun too but did not quite appreciate it on the same level.

It's been awhile since Philip's been away overnight and the girls have been when they can sleep in our bed. I consulted with Philip, and we decided we could plan a "fun night." We would watch a movie together and then put an extra mat on the floor in our bedroom (for a total of four) to have a family bed. Over a paffle supper, we told the girls. Right after supper, they cleaned up their toys, took showers, and got pajamas on. They gathered pillows, blankets, and animals. Some they brought to the study for watching the movie on the computer (we don't have a television) and others they took to our bedroom to start setting up for the night.

I picked to watch "Ratatouille." The last movie I watched with the girls was "Wall-E," and the girls still quote, "You plant the seed, water it, and grow foods like pizza!" They laughed so hard at that, so I thought they would enjoy the silliness of "Ratatouille," which is mainly what I remembered about it. Also, for some reason Hollis said she wanted to watch a movie about soup, and this one has soup in it! Well, Philip and I didn't think hard enough about all the details of the movie, especially the beginning. Meriel and Hollis were terrified by the old woman shooting at Remy the Rat and his brother Emile. They were both sobbing as Remy floated down the stream on a cookbook, "He lost his family!" We had to tell them a "secret" that all the rats would be ok, but they were still upset. They were so traumatized that they had trouble laughing at the funny parts. Eris, hundreds of chapter books ahead of her sisters, watched calmly. She started giggling on cue and helped coach her sisters into laughter.

After the movie was over, we had another frenzy of toting blankets, pillows, and animals. We had a few re-arrangings of who was going to sleep where, final bathroom trips, and everyone settled in for the night. We had our bedtime prayers and songs. Since it was late, I thought the girls would go to sleep, but they are used to talking to each other before falling asleep. Hollis did fall asleep pretty quickly, but Meriel and Eris chattered until Simeon, unused to this, became wild. He crawled all over the bed and his sister, gleefully rolling bellies and sitting on heads. When I finally got him calmed down, I told the girls it was time to be quiet so he wouldn't get riled up again. After a few more hugs, kisses, and "Good nights" we all settled in for the night. While I don't necessarily want to share a bed, even a big bed, with five people every night, I enjoyed the security and sense of completeness of having all my children sleeping peacefully near me. Philip slipped in a few hours later to complete our family togetherness. Sweet dreams, Cardins!

The Second Viper

On Friday evening, I made a simple meal of spaghetti noodles with tomatoes and Parmesan cheese. Philip doesn't particularly care for this meal, so he ran out to get some street food. While he was gone, I stepped outside to pick up a few sticks and debris scattered in the driveway. I glanced over at a drainage hole right next to me and noticed a bright green snake eying me! He was not poised to strike; he was just lazily draped over the side of the whole with his head slightly raised. Thankfully, the kids were all in the house getting ready to eat. I hurried into the house myself and shouted out for everyone to stay inside. Then I called Philip to let him know to be careful when he came home.

I watched the snake from the house in case he decided to switch locations. He did not move the whole time. When Philip arrived home, he immediately picked up a hoe and shovel. I let the kids start eating supper because they were getting antsy. I wanted to watch Philip but found that I couldn't quite. So I just helped serve up the food and prayed and prayed. I heard the clang of metal hitting the hard ground and then a second clang. Then I heard rustling around and more clangs. Finally, I looked out the window. Philip had swung the hoe and instead of hitting the snake had scooped it up slightly. Yikes! Then he had dropped the hoe and clipped the end of the snake's tail with the shovel as it slid away.

Philip searched all around in the brush around the water tank in the failing light with his flashlight and a long bamboo pole. The snake had gotten away. I was thankful that Philip was ok, but he said he would rather have gotten bitten if it meant he could have killed the snake. The next day, Philip went through all the bushes around our house to see if he could rustle the snake out. He wanted to make sure that the girls wouldn't startle it with their play. So maybe the snake left for safer places; most Thai will not kill snakes, even poisonous ones. Maybe it's still in our yard. We reminded the girls what to do if they see a snake - run in the house and yell to Mommy and/or Daddy "Snake!" I pray daily for my children's safety. Only God can protect them. So far all snakes have been discovered by Philip or me, so I believe God is keeping them safe.

Now if anyone sees a viper with a snippet of tail missing around our neighborhood, let us know!

Sawadee Wan Dek!

Thailand hosts its national Children's Day or Wan Dek on the second Saturday of January. Military bases open for children to wander through tanks, helicopters, ships, and airplanes. Government buildings allow children to sit in the "Prime Minister's seat" and observe how their country is run. Public transportation offers free rides for children. Last year we enjoyed an airshow at the Thai Air Force Base in Bangkok. It was fun, hot, noisy, and crowded.

This year we opted to visit the Bangkok Art and Culture Center. The opportunity for the kids to do crafts with someone else to clean up is always welcome. Like everything else is Bangkok, it was crowded but not hot or noisy. We received schedule of events in Thai and went off to find the activities. On the third floor, the girls drew on paper circles and then watched as they were turned into pins for them to wear. Eris and Meriel drew rainbows; Hollis drew a monster. Simeon even scribbled on a paper and received a pin.

The next activity was a favorite for everyone - "kids' graffiti." Each child got a paintbrush and a container of paint and was allowed to paint on the wall. Simeon joined in and was much photographed by passers-by. Eris painted some lovely flowers and boats with her name in the center. Meriel painted almost exclusively in red, her favorite color, with a a few touches of yellow. Hollis dabbed and stroked carefully in her spot; she would have been happy to paint the whole wall in her own style.


We traveled up an escalator for the fourth floor crafts. The girls practiced their scissor skills by cutting out foldable paper giraffes and elephants. Ever ready to use glue, they enjoyed gluing on the accessories. Hollis glued all the scraps together and on to the table. Ah yes, the joy of someone else cleaning up the mess! Next up was clay creations. A few more animals, a bowl, and another monster joined our menagerie. The hosts were even prepared with little paper bags for carrying home the masterpieces. Now I just have to figure out how to fire them.

The paper plate owls complete with many decorative touches are lovely. With flower eyes, paper vine wings, and paper leaf noses on a background of bright paint, each one is unique. Eris used her imagination and created a beautiful flower craft; she is not one to just do what everyone else is doing.

By this time, stations were closing for lunch. We were stopped by one lady handing lollipops and another group of people with a makeshift pinball machine handing out seaweed snacks. Meriel won a stuffed mermaid. We headed to the basement for cupcake decorating which we had been told would happen at one o'clock. Once we arrived, we learned that we could sign up the for four o'clock session. We declined and headed outside for a final activity of sand painting. Unfortunately, this was rained out, as were the bouncy houses across the street in front of MBK mall and the rides and shows at the National Stadium. We could have joined a crowd at the Pokemon show at Siam Paragon down the block, but we decided we'd had our fun. After a quick lunch of roasted chicken and sticky rice, we hopped on the skytrain and headed for home.

It hadn't rained here, so my laundry was dry and the garden is not too muddy. We'll play outside, replant some of Eris's pea plants, and eat watermelon. Philip will get pizza for supper, so I can just relax and enjoy my children. Happy Children's Day!

Motto for Wan Dek 2015: "With knowledge and morality comes a brighter future.”

A Splash of Paint

Like all children, mine love to do art projects. Most of the time they are quite happy with pulling out paper, crayons, scissors, tape, and glue to put something together of their own design. But they do especially enjoy painting. Eris and Hollis each picked out three colors of paint for Meriel for Christmas, and Meriel has been asking to use them. There is always something else that needs to be done for an afternoon activity - cleaning various part of the house, working in the yard, folding the towering mountain of laundry, starting to put up Christmas decorations, practicing Thai. Usually the kids participate for a few minutes and then I let them go off to play. It's so easy to let the fun parts of "school" such as science experiments and art projects fall by the wayside.

The other day, I encouraged the children to finish up their school work before lunch so we could do a couple of activities after. They enthusiastically compiled. Meriel even complained less than usual about reading. The first goal I had was to clean the second room upstairs. Since we moved in, it has been used as a "suitcase" room. I was so busy cleaning the whole house with the help of four children while my husband was in the States, that I just dumped everything of ours that didn't have a place to go in that room. My parents were coming, so we cleaned up the larger guest room, but we didn't have an immediate need for the smaller one. Since that time, we've never actually had a specific reason to use that room, and it has remained a dusty clutter. I told the girls that if it was straightened up, they could use it as a place to play by alone. If Eris wanted to read without being bothered by sisters or brother, or if Hollis wanted to build something with block without Simeon knocking it down. The girls were excited by this possibility, and we successfully turned the room into a usable space.

The second activity was a painting time. I am not an artist so I don't really teach art to the kids. Eris does appreciate more formal art activities, but the others just want to play. Simeon used a paint brush in water to splash around on his high chair tray. The others enjoyed the bright acrylic paints in red, blue, green, silver, purple, and yellow. I smiled as I watched them and wondered, "Why don't I do this more often?" Of course the answer came when everyone had finished their delightful paintings. Philip surveyed the table cluttered with pallets, brushes, paints, papers, rinsing cups, etc and said, "I'm glad that's not my job." It did take awhile to clean up, and the plastic table cover will remain flecked with paint, but the kids enjoyed it so much, I really should do it more often.

Later, I was looking at the table full of drying paintings and was struck by the difference in the three girls' paintings. Eris really can make recognizable objects. I could tell that Meriel had something specific in mind as she painted, but it was often hard to tell exactly what. Hollis splashed and smeared colors to cover every centimeter of the paper. How fun to see the different stages of development portrayed visually!

The Gift of My Baby's Curls

When Eris was a baby, Philip wanted to shave her head. He had this idea that it would grow back thicker, so when she was older she would have lovely locks. Although she didn't have much hair, I was saddened by the idea of her soft baby fuzz being lost. Besides, we would never know if her hair was thicker or stronger than it would have been otherwise. I told Philip vaguely that "maybe if he have a boy someday." He took that to heart, and three children later was ready to take me up on the offer.

We were so busy for the first months of Simeon's life, that Philip didn't even mention his plan. After we moved to Bangkok, our days were spent trying to find a house and items for daily necessities. Around Simeon's first birthday, Philip brought it up again. By this time, I had grown attached to Simeon's soft curls, and I was resistant. I didn't realize how much Philip actually wanted to do this until he mentioned a hair trimmer as a possible Christmas present for Simeon. He mentioned that with his original plan, he would have kept Simeon's hair buzzed from the time he was tiny, and I never would have had a chance to see his sweet curls. I was startled, I had thought that he had planned to shave the baby's hair once, and then let it grow back. I told him I never would have told him he could do that to our son if I'd properly understood. When I got tears in my eyes, Philip dropped it after saying that it was something he would give up for his wife.

I thought about it during the weeks leading up to Christmas and realized that I could give up Simeon's soft baby hair for Philip. Philip does not have that many strong preferences regarding our children. Especially before we had children, we had many talks about how we would raise them. While I was in medical school and residency, Philip spent much time as stay-at-home Dad. Now he has much less interaction with them throughout the day, although he remains very involved. When he does mention something he would like for the kids, I need to make sure I pay attention. In this case, the superficial appearance of my son was something I could allow my husband to have the satisfaction of changing. Simeon's hair was also starting to get into his eyes and would need some kind of trim anyway.

After I came to terms with this, I went about looking for a head shaver to give to Philip for Christmas. I didn't know what I was looking for; I thought that the number for guards on trimmers meant how much hair would be cut off, not how much would be left. To my mind, more people would want 3-12 mm cut off their hair than that much left. I only found one electric shaver that advertised being for beards and heads, but it was very expensive and had "not for children" on the box. I came to the conclusion that I would need Philip's help to know what I was looking for. On Christmas Day, Simeon gave Philip a card with a note written in it, "I wanted to give you a head shaver to shave my head, but we need help finding it. Mommy says it's ok!" Philip looked at me to double check. I nodded and smiled; his eyes brightened as he smiled back.

On Sunday, we bought the hair trimmer. Philip gave me a day to say good-bye to Simeon's baby hair. So many last things to remember to treasure, as we plan on Simeon being our last baby. After lunch Monday, it was time. I took some last pictures of his hair, including the curls in the back. Philip chose the 6mm guard and began. Eris starting crying and Meriel bawled the whole time. As his locks fell to the floor and on the high chair tray, Eris gathered them up saying she would keep them forever. I secured a few for myself, and the girls took what they could gather. Fortunately the trimmer was fairly quiet, so it did not startle Simeon. He took it well at first but then started to get tired. Philip tried to be kind by leaving some curls in the back, but it looked too much like a mullet, so I encouraged him to finish the buzz.

Wow! Simeon sure looked different. The girls kept wailing, "That's not our brother!" Philip said he was startled each time he looked at him. I focused on his sweet expressions and mannerism which were unchanged. Simeon is the only one who doesn't seem to have been fazed by this dramatic change of appearance. I watched Philip carefully, pleased to observe signs of satisfaction and pleasure over getting to shave Simeon's head. The girls recovered, I still have my sweet baby boy, and my husband is happy. Losing Simeon's curls was well worth it.

Welcome 2015!

It's a new year: 2015 for most of the world; 2558 for Thailand. I've never been one to make New Year's resolutions. I feel that if I want to make changes in my life or do something new, I should just start at the time I think of it. Once I put my mind to something, I follow through, so I am hesitant to over-commit myself with a bunch of "resolutions" at once. I am also extremely recalcitrant to doing things that "everybody else is doing." Just after midnight last night, Philip did ask each of us what was something we remembered about last year and one thing we wanted to do this year, so I will share the answers.

One thing we remember about 2014:

Hollis said, "Fireworks!" (meaning the ones that had just happened a few minutes ago)
At this point, Philip went back and explained about the whole year: when it started and some highlights from it to get Hollis thinking in the right direction. Then he asked her again. "Being really noisy and wild for New Year!" Clearly, she couldn't think past the last few minutes. She's three; she lives in the moment. She had really enjoyed making a lot of noise by dumping a whole basket of toys on the floor at the stroke of midnight.

Since Hollis said two things, Meriel also had two. "Songkran and moving into our house." She has a thankful heart, and it did not surprise me that she mentioned our home. Songkran is Thai New Year celebrated in April by a week long, nationwide water fight. Eris's remembrance was simple, "Songkran." I thought about and was thankful for the Advent season that had been full of special times together. Philip noted how each of the children had grown in the past year.

What do the Cardins want to do in 2015?

Beginning with Eris, all three girls answered, "Ice skating!" I took Eris once last year, and she had fun but had a difficult time staying on her feet. I didn't want to take the other girls because I didn't think they'd have much fun sitting on the ice. But after an answer like that, I might just have to take each of them. Philip hopes to learn Thai. I do as well. While we don't have a coherent plan for this, we do have some ideas. I do believe that we will find a way to experience some success in this area.

I'm a little hesitant to share my goal for the year, mostly for fear of failure. It also seems a little silly. I share with the hope that doing so will help me to actually fulfill this desire. So here goes - I would like to learn how to play the fiddle. See what I mean by silly? A not very musical, "can't carry a tune in a bucket" mother of four, living in Bangkok trying to teach herself to play the fiddle using online resources and an iPad tuner. I've longed desired to be able to play a musical instrument. There's just something fun and almost magical about being able to produce music. It is a universal language and all cultures enjoy various forms.

But why fiddle? I took piano lessons as a child, but, while the piano is a flexible and lovely sounding instrument, it doesn't travel well. It is also quite expensive to own. Ever since I first read the "Little House" series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, I've thought it would be delightful to be able to play the fiddle like Pa. This idea was renewed by my enjoyment of Irish Trad Music, so I actually bought myself a fiddle with birthday money a few years ago. I began to teach myself but was so busy finishing residency and, after that, learning to fly that I didn't get very far. Right now, I can't work or even volunteer and I don't have a way to continue flying, so I have time to pick up my fiddle. I have been making extremely slow progress, but it is fun and rewarding. I feel rejuvenated and accomplished after I've carved out fifteen or twenty minutes to play. So maybe my dream is not so far fetched or ridiculous after all as long, as I continue in my diligence to practice regularly.

As humans, God has given us the ability to dream. He also enables us to plan and strive to fulfill our dreams, as long as they are in line with His plan for us. I don't want to shy away from the desires God has placed in my heart. I hope my sharing might prompt you to reach higher in your goals and dreams, allowing God to help you achieve more than you ever thought possible. Here's to a year filled with joy and laughter and fiddle tunes!