Our Art Gallery

 The walls of our house in Shkoder really echo. I was happy enough to have nothing on the walls, but the echo was really bothering Edward, and some mornings it would affect me as well.

I looked around for some inexpensive art, but I couldn't find anything. At some point it occurred to me that I had a house full of artists. The younger children were very excited about this idea. I had bought a package of copy paper for them to use to practice drawing. Without as much space outside to play they have been spending a lot of time drawing. 

After about a month of them practicing, I bought some canvases, paint, and brushes. They couldn't wait to start! I told them that they were going to have to be patient or else their paintings wouldn't turn out well. 

Tucker wanted to do a mountain, so we found a video with how to do this little painting.

Being 5 years old, he needed a lot of help, but he has good potential. I decided to put a scripture with each painting. I copied it in Albanian and English and had them laminated. This one has Psalm 23:4 "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for You are with me."

We did this one for Willem. It's above his little bed. The elephant drawing had been in a coloring book that we had gotten here. He helped enough to feel part of things.

Greta wanted to paint a flower. She wanted to add a house when we were done, but I told her that we had better leave well enough alone.

Thatcher wanted to do this farm truck. Next to it is the scripture, "He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall surely come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him," Psalm 126:6. Hopefully this will encourage Edward and Scott as they have been going out daily to share the gospel with people on the streets.

Caleb loves to draw trucks, but we were already going to have two other paintings of old trucks, so he did this house instead.

I decided that it would be a good painting to be incorporated with our family photos. I used the scripture, "Through wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches," Proverbs 23:4.

Colby did a good job turning a real life photograph into this painting.

It is accompanied by the scripture, "The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD," Psalm 33:5.

I did this set with grapes on a vine for the kitchen. There are so many scriptures that could go with it, and there are so many neighbors here that have an abundance of grapes growing.

I decided to put John 15:4 next to it. "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me."

The older boys said that they didn't like paintings, that they look messy. After a while, Scottie gave in and did this duck painting.

I thought that it made his bed area look warm and homey.

After that, he was inspired to do another one. He said that he's not done with it, but here it is below, in progress.

Isaac couldn't help but get inspired. He is almost done with this painting of a deer.

I decided that our white and gray bathroom could use a little bit of color, so I did these next three paintings. I'm not so talented, so I had to keep my paintings simple.

Colby drew the bird and branches for me. I had been inspired to do these three by one of our tablecloths. 

The problem of our walls echoing has been solved, but there are several more paintings in the works! Edward started one last night. We are all very anxiously awaiting watching him paint it! 

You can check out our other works! If you like them, you can help us out by sharing our links on your social media accounts and asking your contacts to do the same! Thank you!

http://iamonebook.com

https://www.patreon.com/WarePublishing

https://www.waredesignworks.com

https://www.etsy.com/shop/waredesignworks

To follow us on Twitter and Instagram:

https://x.com/AmyJoyCarlton?t=Ohwl7Pf5LhWSzYG40USr2w&s=09

https://x.com/WarePublishing?s=09

https://www.instagram.com/waredesignworks/

To listen to different thoughts from Edward:

https://rumble.com/c/c-5501477/videos

https://youtube.com/@edwardcarlton?si=HUHHNoh5NX0hW-La

God bless you!

Albanian Wedding Festivities

One evening last week, we heard music being played outside. The kids told me that a neighborhood friend had told him that the people at the end of our road were getting married this past weekend. He informed them that in Albania, it is the custom to play music and have people over for the seven days prior to the wedding.

Sure enough, every night after that, we heard the music being played loudly until midnight. They kept their gate open so that friends and family could come and go. Above the gate, there was a sign that read, "Këtu Ka Dasëm" (Here Has Wedding).

The kids would look into the yard when they rode their bikes down there. A young boy told us that anyone would be welcome. I was happy for the couple and interested in what was going on, but I certainly didn't want to show up uninvited! 

We have seen and heard several wedding processions recently. It is their tradition to decorate cars belonging to friends and family. The first car has a photographer hanging out of a window or sunroof while he is filming the event.  Following this is the bridal car decorated with flowers, ribbons and maybe a vale. The license plate is covered up by a wedding tag. There are usually several other vehicles with them, often with people hanging out of the windows. From what I understand, they drive to get the bride, then go to the location of the ceremony, then back to the bride and groom's new home honking their horns each step of the way.

At 8:00 Sunday morning, the day of the wedding, the music started up again. The boys said that they had heard it playing quietly when they had woken up around 5:30. Around 8:20 am, the cars began driving down our road, honking their horns. We ran out of the house and gate, just in time to wave to the people in the last car. Our neighbor across the street was also out on her balcony watching, showing her support to the family.

Two and a half hours later, we were on our way out of our gate to go to a park. We heard the horns honking again.  The procession was back with the now-married couple. I was so excited to be able to witness this.

Above is the photographer getting out of his car.

Below is the bridal vehicle. "Urime," covering the license plate, means congratulations.

The other cars parked behind the new couple.

The bride was dressed in a modern wedding gown.  Her bridesmaids were dressed in matching traditional outfits. The men had little hats on.

All gathered together to begin walking down the road to the couple's new home.

Joining them were a few men, loudly playing very festive music on their instruments. Another man was carrying a loud speaker with music coming from it. They really made everything come alive. 

We watched them make a grand return back to their house.

When our oldest two sons came home that day, they had their own videos and stories of the wedding processions that they had seen that day. One party was throwing candy out as they drove by, so they brought a good stash of it home with them.

We have heard that there are more Albanians living abroad than in the country itself. Supposedly, tourism this summer is up 60% here. We see lots of Europeans with hiking gear. A friend also explained that Albanians come back to have their weddings here. Friends and family living abroad will also return to attend the festivities. I can understand that if people have grown up experiencing such a celebration, that they would certainly want to return for it.

You can check out our other works! If you like them, you can help us out by sharing our links on your social media accounts and asking your contacts to do the same! Thank you!

http://iamonebook.com

https://www.patreon.com/WarePublishing

https://www.waredesignworks.com

https://www.etsy.com/shop/waredesignworks

To follow us on Twitter and Instagram:

https://x.com/AmyJoyCarlton?t=Ohwl7Pf5LhWSzYG40USr2w&s=09

https://x.com/WarePublishing?s=09

https://www.instagram.com/waredesignworks/

To listen to different thoughts from Edward:

https://rumble.com/c/c-5501477/videos

https://youtube.com/@edwardcarlton?si=HUHHNoh5NX0hW-La

God bless you!

And Then There Was Gas

When we moved into our house, it was still without a stove. We were told by a couple of local people that gas was more economical to use than electric. On the other hand, we had two other Shkodrans, as they call themselves, both tell us that gas really scares them.

The owner of the hostel that we had stayed in had an extra stove. It's on the older side. She said that we could have it for a good price. Edward decided to buy it. The stovetop had two electric burners and two that worked with gas. The oven was solely gas.

It was the end of June and almost time to bake a cake for our youngest child's birthday. Up until that point, we had just been using the electric burners. Edward had already bought a gas tank. Now, he went and had the gas tank filled. He had to get a gas line as well. He came home and hooked it all up. 

It does not self-ignite and I was not at all used to that, so Edward started the oven for me that first night to bake the cake. He made lighting the oven look like a piece of cake!

The matches that we had were incredibly cheap. They would usually snap in half almost immediately or they wouldn't light. I would seriously have to go through about 20 matches or more sometimes to light the stove. The kids thought that I didn't know what I was doing, and wanted to show me and tell me how to do it, as if I hadn't played with plenty of matches as a kid, or been allowed to start our family campfires from a young age. 

Two days later, I was preparing bread and cookies for the birthday dinner. It was the first time since being here that I had attempted to make them. This was all very exciting for us. These were all little steps towards us feeling established here. However, the cookies and bread would have to go in the oven, of course, and Edward was busy working. Not wanting to disturb him, one of the older kids was pretty confident that he could start the oven.

It's missing a couple of knobs. The knob for the oven is one of those, making it difficult to turn on. You have to push in on the metal post sticking out for the knob and turn it with your fingers. What we didn't realize was that there is a place for gas to come out of the top of the oven to broil.

Being a bit afraid to start it myself, I let my eager volunteer attempt it. While he was lighting it, I had my back turned and was at the sink busy doing something. All of a sudden, I heard an explosion. I startle and scream easily, and this circumstance was no exception. Everyone was okay. My son's arm hair and eyebrows had gotten burned off in some places, but that was it. Apparently too much gas had been released inside the oven, probably due to the length of time that it took to start it without a knob and with the cheap matches. It also blew the cover off of the ignition area. 

I asked Edward to come in and start it for us. He did it with no problem. I planned to keep it going for our batches of cookies and bread, but for some reason which I can't remember, it had to be lit again that afternoon.

Not wanting to endanger my children or bother Edward again, I decided that I had better start the oven this time. We had discussed earlier that maybe lighting the tip of a rolled up piece of paper would be helpful to start the oven. I tried it out. It made it easier to not have to stick my hand so close to the gas, being so nervous. I tucked my hair into the back of my shirt, told all of the kids hovering around me and the oven to get back, and I put the lit piece of paper over the spot. 

Another loud explosion occurred, but this time I was the one in front of the oven, feeling the burst of hot air coming over me. Not knowing quite what had happened and what might happen in the next moment if the oven still had gas being released into it, I screamed, dropped the burning piece of paper onto the tile floor, and hurled myself back about four feet until my back was stopped by the kitchen wall. That hurt! We turned the oven off, put the flame out of the burning paper, and asked Edward once again to start it for us. 

I was quite shaken up from the experience. Some of the hair around my face, eyebrows, and arms were burned a little. I felt bruises on my back and hip for a couple of weeks. I was determined to finish out the baking that afternoon and to never use it again, but buy a different one. However, the next week, when I was at Jumbo for the first time (mentioned in our post, "Run-In with a Horse"), one of the only things that I bought was a long tipped lighter. It was a wonderful investment of 200 leke. It has made using the stove and oven a piece of cake!

You can check out our other works! If you like them, you can help us out by sharing our links on your social media accounts and asking your contacts to do the same! Thank you!

http://iamonebook.com

https://www.patreon.com/WarePublishing

https://www.waredesignworks.com

https://www.etsy.com/shop/waredesignworks

To follow us on Twitter and Instagram:

https://x.com/AmyJoyCarlton?t=Ohwl7Pf5LhWSzYG40USr2w&s=09

https://x.com/WarePublishing?s=09

https://www.instagram.com/waredesignworks/

To listen to different thoughts from Edward:

https://rumble.com/c/c-5501477/videos

https://youtube.com/@edwardcarlton?si=HUHHNoh5NX0hW-La

God bless you!