And Then There's Momma and Daddy

 Our room is really nothing special, but it has windows, an AC unit, a bed, 2 night stands and 2 guarda ropas.  For as seemingly little time as we spend in here, it is perfectly sufficient.

I am so glad we brought some special things from home, like Grandma's quilts, to make it feel homey.

More or less, this closet is DaddyHealy's and on the other wall there is one for me.  It certainly holds much more than we need, but we use it to store other things as well, birthday gifts for next year, our box that serves as a file cabinet, medicine and medical supplies we brought from the states, some books and extra shoes we plan to use when the ones we have wear out....They are actually not entirely full, something I'm glad to admit. 

The Human Resources department from DaddyHealy's company visited our town, and even our house, this week to see what life is like here for us ex-pats.  Apparently impressed by our contentedness here, one of them later asked DaddyHealy what our favorite part about being here is.  He answered that since we've been here, even though we have far less (of everything) than we did in the states, we still feel like we have so much, we feel like we are so blessed.  It is a happy thing to know that all 5 of us know this, because blessed we are!

....And Of Course Her Too!

 H's room is not really considered a bedroom, but more of a sitting room.  I think the owners were using it as an office/sewing room.  It is quite small.  In fact, the current JD plant manager here in Horizontina is an ex-pat as well, from Mexico.  He looked at this house when  he was house hunting, but felt it didn't meet his needs because he needed a house where he could separate his 3 teenage children, and this room was just too small for a teen's bed and things.  For us, it is an ultimate solution.  A crib doesn't take much room.  This room actually suits our tiny H very well.  She doesn't need much space, and she herself is so little she's not even on the "growth curve" to show how she compares to other kids her age.  She's slightly off the bottom of the chart, which I guess must mean that 100% of the little American girls her age are bigger than she is!  She has always been small, but we hardly notice.  Brazilian kids, on average, are smaller than American kids anyway, and so she doesn't seem so small.  I also don't know many babies the same age as her, so I don't do a lot of comparing.  She is growing and developing, healthy and happy (unless you say "no!") so we just love the little bit of her that God gave us.

This crib was one of the most difficult pieces of furniture we purchased. Cribs here are typically smaller and not nearly as deep. It would be easy for a baby of 1 year to stand up and fall out of a crib. I could not leave her unattended in the crib we used when we first arrived. I am not sure how Brazilian parents deal with that, but for me, a deeper crib was a necessity. After extensive searching we found this crib that is closer to an American style and size. 

This room had no heat/cooling when we looked at the house.  Typically Brazilians only use it in bedrooms for comfortable sleeping, and as this was not a bedroom, there was no unit.  We negotiated with the owner to put a small "split" AC unit in here, since we knew H would be sleeping here.  It is the best functioning unit in the house.  The room is quickly and efficiently cooled in the summer and the unit produces powerful heat as well.  That is handy because of all the windows leaking outside temperatures into the room.

H's room actually has a panoramic view of the city, which is beautiful at night.  Our house is situated on a hill and she has by far the best view in the house.  Unfortunately, when the scene is right, the baby is sleeping, so we rarely enjoy this sight.  Behind the long closed curtains is a 3 sided sunroom that we use just to store empty boxes and suitcases.  The owner told us it's the perfect place to sit and sip a glass of wine.  I guess we're just not at that stage in life!  It's far more important for us to have this little room available for H as a bedroom, and therefore the sunroom is never used.  A shame, maybe, but a compromise we're happy to make.

I put up jungle wall stickers in H's room, just to dress it up a bit, and we use this cute white dressed to hold her clothes and a few toys. Since her room is too small for a guarda ropa, that handy DaddyHealy put a clothes hanging bar in place of the shelves on the right side of the dresser.  Luckily her dresses are short and tiny, it's just enough room.  The brown piece of furniture belongs to the house but has been useful to store all the extras a baby needs.  Making a nursery is one of my favorite things to do at a new house.  It didn't take long for a bare space to feel cozy and sweet for our baby, who is quickly turning into a little girl.

...And a Space of Her Own...

Our sweet girl, M loves pink, probably just like most of the little girls you know.  So why not do it up pink!  Area rugs have a nice use here.  I've never seen carpet here, just area rugs, and we let each kid pick their own rug.  Our house is tile downstairs, and unusually, wood laminate upstairs.  Either way, it is cold to little toes first thing in the morning, and we're glad she can (literally) jump from bed to this cozy pink rug.

The bedroom windows have wooden shutters that do a pretty good job of keeping out the early morning summer sunlight.  If I don't have them opened by the time our maid arrives, she'll make sure sunlight is pouring in shortly.

I have to point out the naked light bulbs again.  I never in my life have appreciated light fixture as much as I do now.

After the major success of the wall stickers in D's room, we ordered some for the girls from Amazon and DaddyHealy brought them back while on a business trip.  M chose dogs, which was no surprise since she is completely infatuated with the creatures.  I am still trying to convince her that Santa absolutely, positively cannot bring live animals because it is too dangerous and scary for them to ride in the sleigh!  (She doesn't believe me, and plans to ask for one anyway).  Lucky for her, Brazilians love dogs too, and most families have at least one.  There is also a little gang of strays that roam our area, and are fun to watch from within the confines of our fenced in front yard.

For M, too, a place of her own was important.  When we first arrived and lived in our temporary house, she and H shared a room, which I really anticipated working out quite well.  In fact, my long term plan has included putting them together in a room at our house in the US as well.  Unfortunately, it didn't work out nearly as well as I had hoped.  I imagine our issues were compounded by age, H being only 13 months at the time.  When one would wake up (with a  nightmare, cutting a tooth, etc) she would wake the other.  When they napped at the same time, one would distract the other and neither would sleep.  M had no place to set up her toys or dolls without H attacking her scene godzilla-style.  Now I have the peace to say, "If you don't want H to touch it, play it in your room."  I know there are lots and lots of families in the world whose kids share rooms.  At this point in our lives, I am so incredibly grateful that we have the option to separate them, both here, and at home, and give them all their own space.

Just like D's impractical Cars night stand, M was allowed the equally impractical pink furniture.  Oh, how I wish we could take it home.  The only thing that I can think of that would make her happier is a dog of her own (which is about as likely as fitting this dresser into our suitcase).


You can see in the corner plugged in we have a small black voltage inverter and a white noise machine we brought from home.  All of our kids sleep with white noise, which has been a beautiful constant for them, really since birth.  No matter where they are sleeping, bedtime always sounds the same.  Here, especially, white noise has been useful.  It can get pretty loud at times.  When a favorite soccer team scores, fireworks shoot off all over town.  An advertising motorcycle drives by at nap time almost every day blaring announcements over a speaker down our street.  Remember those windows that don't keep out the cold?  They don't keep out the noise either.  These white noise machines just sound like a loud fan running, and it blocks a lot of the outside noise.


M also has a nice size 'closet' for all her adorable clothes and even enough space left over for all the little dress-up items. There is a lot of space in this closet that she can't reach, but that's ok, we have clothes for every season and enough sizes to last our whole stay here, so we need high shelves to store all of that for future use too.  There is no basement, no garage, and the only storage area we have is full of suitcases!  We've also used her closet as a place to display her artwork of the month.  She chooses which to post and when to change, but one has been there since we moved in, her 3 picture-story of the birth of Christ.

A Space of His Own

When you're 6 and want to build with Legos in peace, you need a space to do that.  We are very, very blessed to have a home here with 4 bedrooms.  Each child has a place they can call "mine," or as baby H would say it, "mines!"   Honestly, of all the houses we looked at, very few had more than 3 bedrooms.  Big houses are not the norm, at least not in Horizontina.  And Big families are not too common here either.  This is very much a 1 to 2 kids society.

D essentially has a window unit air conditioner, that can make (some) heat when used during the winter.  We also have the flexibility of space heaters, which I normally try to avoid in children's rooms, but on really cold nights we've used them.

Luckily, we were advised by a former ex-pat to bring down comforters for everyone.  With footie pajamas and a down comforter, you can keep a kid pretty warm at almost any temperature.  Because D has the corner room (with  more windows), his is usually the coldest bedroom.  Single pane windows with no gaskets or sealing of any kind don't keep out a lot of cold.  Enter DaddyHealy and his endless supply of weather stripping (isn't he awesome?) and we have a much more comfortable boy!  We have had his bedroom down to 48 degrees at 3 in the afternoon on a very cold day here.  Thankfully, those days are not too common. 

This lucky boy has an aunt with enough foresight to buy him removable car "wall stickers" for his birthday, which turned out to be a really cool way to personalize a rented room.  At home his room is painted green.  Since that was not an option here. this was a super neat way to make this space his own.  And when it's time to vacate the house, they come down as easy as they went up.

We bought the furniture for bedrooms under the same furniture allowance from the company.  It has given us some flexibility to do wonderfully fun and impractical things, like buy a night stand that doesn't go with any of the furniture, but sports pictures of his favorite Disney characters.  I honestly don't care if he doesn't like this movie anymore in 2 years, because that's all the longer this furniture has to last.  When the plain black nightstand and the Cars nightstand are the same price, why not?  In the US we are way too practical to buy something like this.  It's a  fun treat here.

Because he's our big school boy, we decided a study desk was a requirement for his room.  It doubles as a nice place to build Legos, color, and practice magic tricks.   You can also see to the right D's "guarda ropa" or armoire.  Just enough storage space for a little boy's clothes (and Legos too).

This bookcase was left by the homeowner.  It's actually a moveable piece of furniture, but it was left in D's room and I could not think of a more perfect place.  He is our little reader.  Though he would be entering first grade in the US this fall, he is reading at a high third grade level.  He devours books.  He has told me things like "I just can't stop reading!" and "My favorite toys are my books."  What a blessing!  Long may it continue!  When he was starting to read chapter books and his peers were not yet reading Dick and Jane, we taught him to not brag but defer his abilities to his Maker.  He now tells people, "I'm a good reader because that's the talent God gave me."  We've talked about how some kids are great at sports, some are good listeners, some are smart about math or science, or very compassionate.  God has given us all a talent, and it's how we use it that matters.  A lot to grasp for a little boy, but he's considering when he grows up he could read at story time at the library.  What a cutie.  It does make us amazed and proud, and very thankful too.

At one point we had to remove all books over 20 pages from his room because after we put him to bed at 8:30, we'd find him when we went to bed at 10pm with a book and a flashlight.  We now have an understanding, and bedtime means bedtime! 

When the girls nap on weekends or holidays, he usually goes to his room and reads.  I like to give him a new book during that time and he will easily complete a 3rd grade level chapter book in the hour I make him stay in his room.  Needless to say, coming back from our US visit we'll be lugging a suitcase of books.  How I miss the library!

The Service Area

Most house listings will advertise having an área de serviço (service area) because, naturally, your maid needs a place to work.  I mean that in a completely respectful way.  We have a maid and I adore, appreciate and respect her totally.  But this really is her area.  I know where the broom is, and I wash some laundry, but I don't like to mess with her space.

Notice the utility sink is made of granite.  It seemed strange to me when we first arrived that all the utility sinks we saw were made of granite.  In the US granite is a luxury item.  Here it is a standard building material. 

The washing machine.....my beautiful 25+ year old Brastemp.  I actually love this machine.  At our first house we had a cheap plastic piece of garbage that took almost 2 hours to wash a (small) load.  This Brastemp is a mean machine.  It was made before companies considered "cost reduction."  She's tough.  She's big.  She can handle a load.  And she can do it in about 35 minutes!  That's important when you have 5 people to wash for, and your counting on the sunniest part of the day for drying!  Well, there's the little thing about how it keeps breaking.....the spin cycle keeps failing.  I refuse to call the home owner because I'm afraid he'll replace the machine with previously mentioned cheap plastic piece of garbage, and lucky for me I have an engineer/repair man on hand.  He's fixed it for me more than a few times.  I think he's really on to something this time though.  When he used toothpicks to hold the brittle wiring in place, it has held for some 14 loads of laundry.  Ya hoo! DaddyH does it again!

Can you see the flip flops drying on the washer?  Regular shoe washing is an important part of Brazilian culture.  Unfortunately, until we had a maid, my kids must have had the dirtiest shoes at school, because I didn't know shoe washing was a social norm.

Next to the washer you can catch a glimpse of our tiny dryer.  It's not vented, there is no way to attach it to a vent to outlet the hot, humid air.  Many people we talked to just let the hot, linty air blow around the laundry room.  DaddyH brought back a dryer exhaust hose from the US and when we dry, we open the window and shove it out.  Pretty high tech.

That bit in the last post about how no one has built in closets, I forgot about this wall of storage.  It's awesome and FULL!  Half of it is cleaning supplies and the rest is pretty much craft and homeschool things.

 There is also this little area for shoe storage.  After they are all clean, you  need to collect them somewhere!

The Linen Closet

Closets of any sort are not common here.  As with the kitchen, everything is portable.  So closets, too, are furniture.  More like what we would call an armoire, you can get a guarda ropa (literally, "save clothes") in any variety of sizes, shapes, colors and styles.  You can even get them custom build for your space.

There are no coat closets, no linen closets and no bedroom closets.  I was delighted that the owner of the house left this guarda ropa, located in the upstairs hall.  We must be the only expats here with a linen closet!

The Privy

Every home has a private space.  But because it's interesting, I'm sharing ours.  We have 2 bathrooms with showers upstairs and a half bath on the main level.

You might be wondering, 'How different can a bathroom be?'  Not at all, and quite a bit, all at the same time.

This is a picture of the kids' bathroom.  You'll notice there is no bathtub.  Overall, bathtubs are uncommon here.  For a long time I wondered how kids bathe, and finally got the nerve (and vocabulary) to ask a Brazilian.  They shower with their parents.  Until they are about five.   Wow, I don't think I could give up that tiny bit of privacy I get in a day.

The only tub we have is a baby tub, which we bathe H in, and usually M chooses to squeeze into when it's her shower time. I have also caught D mid-shower soaking about 20% of his body with his legs dangling awkwardly out of the tub. I don't blame him. I miss baths too. 

I am not sure if I have mentioned before the little TP issue. We don't flush it. When I say "we" I mean more than just our party of 5. In Brazil (at least the parts I am familiar with) you cannot flush your TP. Septic/waste management cannot handle TP. We have nifty covered trash cans in each bathroom for TP disposal. It may seem so very strange to you. For us, the first week was hard, several mistakes, a bit of being grossed out, emptying the trash daily, and now it is just what we do. In fact, just tonight we had a little talk with the kiddos about "when we visit the US and have to use the potty" because I don't want dirty TP ending up anywhere but the toilet when we're there!

You can see in the picture above from the master bathroom the white tube hanging down (coiled up) from the shower head.  This is a small hose with a  nozzle.  All showers have them and it's purpose is for cleaning the shower.  We use them to clean the children.


The whole subject of the shower would not be complete without mention of the shower head.  Most houses are plumbed only with cold water.  In some cases, houses have solar hot water, and in our case we have a small unit that heats water on demand using propane, but it takes ages to reach the upstairs, so typically, showers get hot water at the source.  Cold water comes into the (electric) shower head, and it instantly heats it (something like a toaster coil) viola! hot shower.  If you are anything like my husband, your immediate thought is, I don't want a toaster anywhere near my shower.  Yeah, I know some people who have received an electric shock in this vulnerable situation.  Part of me has to wonder is a hot shower is worth it.  The American in me has to wonder if it's really THAT hard to plumb in hot water.  Regardless, this is our reality right now, and if people got shocked too often, it wouldn't be widely used.  But it is, so I have to assume it's relatively safe.  Regardless, electric power to heat the water must be coming from somewhere.  Does the idea of loose electrical wires randomly plugged into an outlet over your wet head creep you out?

The Kids' Office

Everyone needs their own place to work, right?  When we first looked at this house, we fell in love with this little sunroom.  It does not have a traditional ceiling, structural wooden beams grace the ceiling.  It has a lot of bright windows.  There is a door to close it off (quiet anyone?) from the rest of the main living area.  It seemed like the perfect place for a playroom.  The kids quickly claimed it as their own.  Again, we have all hard tile floor, not too comfy for sitting on and playing.  We had brought these soft foam mats from the US, and they work perfectly.  It turns out they can be transformed into fields, or jungles, desserts and water.  Endless possibilities with a  4-year-old imagination.  Another all-important bookcase houses tons of books, puzzles and has a space to put away a few toys.  I don't think I've mentioned before how rare it is for Brazilian children to have a large collection of books.  Children's books here are very expensive, and I just get the feeling reading to your children is not promoted as heavily as it is in the States.  The few Brazilian households I've been in, I've seen very few, if any, children's books.  It's a very sad thing for me, as I've previously written about how very important books are to us.  I'm sure our collection is shocking to many, including our maid.  But I left behind precious few books when we came.  Almost all that we own are here.  Our shipment of household goods was largely books.

We used furniture budget to buy this little kiddie table.  This was one of our last purchases.  I looked and looked for a decent kids table, wishing I'd have figured out a way to make ours from home fit in the shipment, but there was nothing but incredibly flimsy plastic around.  In the end this table was special made to our specifications, and not really all that expensive.  Luckily, another expat family here on a long term assignment with all of their personal and household belongings arrived with more furniture then they could fit into their small house, and loaned us these adorable 4 chairs for our time here.  They are perfect.  This is the premier place for puzzles, candyland, coloring, go fish, tea parties, and much more.  I am so grateful for this small furniture that was made possible by a generous company and kind fellow Americans.


This room actually connects the front door to the main living area, and you can see here the stairs leading up to the bedrooms.  The owner attached a plastic mesh along the stairway to protect our little ones from falling.  It was something we requested, but he was very willing, concerned for the safety of our children.

Unfortunately due to it's ceiling and windows (which are, by the way, single pane and do not seal by any stretch of the imagination), and the front door, which shows daylight along the bottom and side, the room is not exactly temperature controlled.  On the coldest and hottest of days no one goes in here.  But kids are never nearly as bothered by temperature extremes as adults, and so they use it more often than we would expect.

I cannot imagine our house without this perfect little space.  It keeps kid clutter out from underfoot (sometimes) and allows us to separate kids for independent play.  And like everything, really, but especially everything here, it is a place for making memories.

Back to the tour-- "The Office"

Because we desire a separate bedroom for each of our kids, we are hard pressed here and in the States to find a house with an actual office.  We turned this entry way into our office, and it serves to be a great place/use.  This is just off the living and dining rooms, and is a great place to quick google-translate a kid's note from a teacher, pull the family around to skype (video call) with Grandma, or watch home videos of when the kids were even younger.  I am also a firm believer in computer in public space of the home.  It is far easier to keep an eye on what little hands are clicking on.

We bought this bookcase (one of several we have) with our furniture allowance.  Book cases are very important and often used items in our household.  I adore this one, and wish I could take it home with us.

In this picture, you can also see the 1/2 bath we have on the main level. 

Unfortunately, this beautiful 2-step staircase has produced more than one tumble for a little one, and at the bottom is hard tile.  H has actually chipped a front tooth here in Brasil (she learned to walk here), and M seems to have a tooth with a (much smaller) chip as well.  Blessedly, they are baby teeth and will be replaced eventually anyway.

I think we've always been rather thrifty, but here we have taken it to a new level.  I save all kinds of things, empty containers make great storage for small toys, the once used length of string is carefully wound and put aside for a future purpose.  I'm not sure I'll be able to find more in this town the next time I need it!  Not bad habits, just ones my generation has forgotten all about.  In the States, we live in a world of excess.  We have rubber maid tubs, we have wal-mart.  Here, we use an empty pistachio can to hold our ink pens.