Something funny has happened over these few years of living in Russia. Things that I once dropped my jaw at now seem normal. I find myself wanting to take pictures of "new" things like us riding in our van or the of grocery stores with aisles and carts that are popping up in the city... which is so funny because that is normal life in America. What I should be doing is taking pictures of us when we're on public transportation or of the outdoor market!

I also haven't written about our daily life much, as it also seems so normal. I feel like there's nothing interesting to share. I, of course share about our daughters because they're SUCH a big part of our life (and grandparents want to hear it all), but I will try to be better at this.

The above picture is something that works similarly to baking powder (it doesn't work as well, but it gets the job done). I had to buy 13 packets to fill this small can. When I buy 13 packets of baking powder or 20 packets of powdered suger (to equal 3 cups), I am very self conscious. I feel like everyone at the store is staring at me- especially if I have to ask for it behind the counter. Sometimes I give into this "peer pressure" and make two or three trips over time. For the advent calendar this Christmas, I needed to buy 3 little packs of paper to have enough red and green. The lady told me that I shouldn't buy 3 because it was too expensive. So I only bought 2... and even then I felt the need to explain to her that it was for a special Christmas calendar that we would use year after year. (And I went back later sneakily to buy the third pack.) Is this silly or what?! The total came to about $6. I'm constantly aware of how little people have here. It makes me want to live more simply, content with what we have. But it's also hard sometimes.

Yesterday I wanted to steam our apartment because we're all sick and our humidifier is broken. I ended up flooding the downstairs neighbors' apartment. I guess there's a crack between the tiles and our bathtub that goes down to their bathroom. We've flooded them several times from different rooms. Today we will take them cookies.