A couple days off between deadlines, and I still haven’t caught up enough with housework to justify a real blog post.
Taking down the Christmas stuff is kind of sad. It takes me forever, as the kounouz aren’t as excited about taking down as they are about putting up. Only ten more months til it goes up again.
Spikekid is off on a 20 mile hike somewhere in the southern desert. He left yesterday, spent the night in a tent somewhere, and is now probably near done with the hike they started at 4am. ALL I can do is send worried prayers to God wondering how he can be warm. I shiver with three layers and a hot water bottle in my lap, he has a tank-top and shorts on. I MADE him pack warm stuff, he thinks I am a sissy. **UPDATE: He ‘forgot’ to pack his hat and warm gloves, and the long underwear I provided. He was cold and now he knows one should listen even to sissies**
How to stay warm, and make our last fuel fill-up last 18 months:
We are only turning in the tedfiyya for half an hour in the morning, then hot showers every other night (one is too cold to stink). Bear in mind, we are kept warm by our landlords upstairs, they are the ones having to pay to warm the sky.
I let the kids eat that horrible raman soup for lunch now, and drink hot apple cider and warmed chocolate milk. I drink tons of herb tea. We make a LOT of hearty bean soups.
Hot water bottles at night to warm the bed-pre-sleep.
Do dishes ALL day long. That is my life reality anyway with the kinzayn home, so might as well enjoy the hot soapy water.
Double duvets. Our duvet has a serious case of ‘down migration’, where the feathers congregate in the corners and in the edges hanging off the bed. I’ve been working on sewing off the edges and corners and dividing that down into squares that I sew shut.
FUNNER BUSY WORK:
Planning our trip to the US this summer (thank God for the internet and SouthWest Airlines). Special highlight: Scotland brother is bringing his sons to see America for the first time in their lives. The Jones cousins have not ever met before, so we are planning a family reunion in Tahoe to show all those seven boys (& Lil Angel, the lone girl) our favorite childhood places. I suppose it will be a little fun for the grown-up kids, too.
January 12, 2008 at 12:52 pm |
Ya miskeeneh ya Kinzi! A mum’s job is never done, so don’t feel too bad. what bugs me, though, is how some people’s homes are so spotless even with the kids at home! How do they do it?? How come THEIR sink isn’t crammed full of plates & cups after the 10th snack of the day?? I console myself by believing that these mums don’t have other jobs outside the house. Then again, those same mums would be cleaning that sink right now NOT ahem … reading blogs!! Ok, time to go!
January 12, 2008 at 1:20 pm |
Mona, thanks for the tea and sympathy! 3anjad, I don’t know how this phenomenon exists either! I bet you can you even TRACK which child it is, based on the paper/shoe, clothing, toy trail they leave behind themselves?
Oh, the sink. Yes, either they don’t work OR they don’t have fun with their kids in real life. I remember my mom had a spotless house (one HAD to in the 60s, I suppose) but I never remember seeing her. She was always cleaning. I didn’t inherit that trait, nor take in that training by example.
Heh-heh, my sink is full because the stove gas bottle is empty. I’m keeping my ear out for the sound of the tunes coming up the hill, and blogging in the meanwhile. Not like there aren’t OTHER things to do!
January 12, 2008 at 2:33 pm |
ah kinzi..the one thing im looking forward to is going back to canada and not being so cold in my own home…i have forgotten how my feet and arms look since im always wearing two long sleeve shirts…socks and my shipship on my feet…:(
and the house spotless yeh…i just finished cleaning up my apt with the help of the maid and it has been 1hr and u wouldnt know it! *sigh*
January 12, 2008 at 2:50 pm |
aaaaahhhh Sam…yes, take pictures of your bare feet next to a thermometer when it registers -10! You will love it. I’m learning now to crank the heater in teh car and it feels like good old American forced air heating.
Mabruuk il clean bayt!! who did you find to help…was it Salam’s contact? Did you serve her coffee and cookies?
hehehehe
January 12, 2008 at 3:05 pm |
When I dropped my son off for the camp out I asked him if they would come home if it rained. He looked disgusted and said that was such a girlie thing to ask. He did take a small down blanket in his sleeping back, layers, and a wool hat. Sure has been quiet around here!
Dishes in the sink: We had 20+ youth for cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate yesterday morning. Youngest daughter graciously did ALL those dishes while we visited an orphanage. Then, lunch for 17. I was too tired to face the kitchen last night and left Everything as it lay. Took three installments today and there are still a couple of cookie sheets in the sink!
January 12, 2008 at 5:03 pm |
Hope he had a nice (and of course safe/warm) trip….next he might ask to go on this trip: http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/story?id=4120791&page=1
Don’t say I didn’t give you a heads up!
January 12, 2008 at 7:45 pm |
turn the heater on a little bit longer, this time of the year amman is freezing. i miss the summer
January 12, 2008 at 9:19 pm |
Desertmom, I sit amazed. What.a.full.day. Homemade cinnamon rolls for Breakfast for 17 YOUTH. Supervise an orphanage visit. Feed 20 folks a real meal. I;m tired just reading that. May Lil angel follow in Youngest Daughter’s footsteps. I’m giggling: you are girly and I am a sissy. I guess at our age, we’ll take a compliment any way we can get it!
LUAI!!!! NOW, you don’t TELL Spikekid such things exist. Please. Never. Ever! I had a panic attack just looking at that cliff off the road. SO this is what young men do for thrills? Lord. have mercy!!!
Moey, yea, the point is to save money by leaving the heater off. As our teaching elder in church today said, the cold it’s like dust-storms: they only last for 50 days in Jordan.
I’ve discovered that driving is a great way to warm-up. I’m out driving the kids so often that blasting the car-heater actually keeps me warm for awhile!
January 13, 2008 at 4:33 am |
I don’t have a heater, I’m surviving without it