Our household is plenty busy with all kinds of stuff.

Kabob is setting up an office. He and his coworkers now have a little place about a 15 minute’s walk from our apartment, where they can work, research, and plan sans kids. He’ll still be working from home quite a bit, but it’s really nice to have this separation from work and home life – the grownups get more done, and kids get more of the grownups when they’re on the clock as mom and dad, not as people who stare at a laptop.

Chickpea is reading three-letter words. We’ve taken a very laid-back approach to home schooling, just doing some here and there as we feel like it. It works well with our current schedule and life stage, but hopefully she won’t later translate school as something she does whenever she feels like it. We’ll see.

Garbanzo is finally walking – only took him 16 months. I’d venture to say he’s now walking more than he is crawling, but it’s a little premature. He goes back and forth between the two, depending on how tired he is. Walking really wipes him out – he’s been sleeping hard and eating like a maniac.

I’ve been busy – well, cleaning, for one. I’ve also always got my hand in some kind of web development, and I’m starting the book writing process. In case you don’t read the other blog, I’ve got a book deal with a publisher, and the manuscript is due January 2010.

We did think it was a hair close to this side of crazy to add one more thing to my plate – and writing a book, at that – but we figured it was better now than later. I’m sure I’ll get even busier once Chickpea’s in “real” home school. Plus, publishing a book is something I’ve wanted to do my entire life, and I just can’t imagine saying no to this opportunity – we really prayed about it, and sense that this is His leading.

So that’s us right now. Busy, as always. But good.

In other news….

About two days ago we woke up to SUMMER. It was like the sun got a memo that it was time to scorch the place, so one day it was gloriously cool, and the next day, we’re in the lovely stage of being continually sticky indoors. We haven’t turned on the ACs yet, and hope to wait as long as possible because they’re so expensive (we’ve got one in the living room, and one in the master bedroom).

Unfortunately, our room and the kids’ bedroom are the hottest rooms in the place, so we’ve already taken our comforter off the bed and are just sleeping with a sheet-thick blanket (basically, it’s our duvet cover minus the comforter inside). Soon, we’ll be sleeping on the mattress with no covers, and slightly damp from running through the shower just before hopping in bed.

We also haven’t used the dryer in over a month now. They also are very expensive to run, so we decided to perform a month-long experiment of seeing how our electric bill is affected by line drying a much as possible. I’m surprising myself by how much I enjoy line drying. It gives me a few minutes of solace to hang the clothes, and it really doesn’t take that much more time. Plus, it makes me feel all 1940s housewifey.

I’m also shocked by how much I love cloth diapers. Granted, I wouldn’t use them without certain features like flushable liners and a bidet already part of our toilets, but really, they’re not nearly as much work as I thought. And not as messy. For me, it’s really not much more than messing with poop in a disposable. It’s the poop that’s messy, not the diaper choice.

In a few weeks we’re heading a few hours south for a work conference, followed by a visa run to the next country over. Can’t believe it’s already been almost three months since we’ve returned. Visa runs are those things that are a total pain to plan, but once you’re there, you didn’t realize how much you needed a break from this country, even for an afternoon. We take a ferryboat over, hang out by the beach for a few hours, and take the evening ferryboat back. Now that we’ve done it enough times, and therefore know what we’re doing, it’s relaxing.

Kabob and I have been watching the mini series John Adams in the evening. SO good. Definitely worth seeing. It’s not little kid-friendly, but they really do make history come alive. I’m much more appreciative of the early days of America, and what all they went through to give us a country so focused on freedom.

Today we’re starting our family art project – the blank wall above the couch is driving me crazy, so we’re trying something out. All the art here is insanely expensive, not to mention not really our taste, so we found some free crates (a pile next to the dumpster) to disassemble, stain with watercolor, and reassemble via this patchwork art on sale for almost 400 times what we’re spending. We’ll see if it works out well, or if it resembles a 3rd grade craft project.

The family is waiting on me for the next step of the project, so over and out.

posted: 09 May 16
under: culture, family