She Laughs at the Days

I go into the still too warm bedroom 5 hours after sundown and the Baby has a blanket covering her, a tidily arranged little baby blanket that someone tenderly put over her as she slept. Only it wasn't me. I look over at the curled up form of the Girl in the bed next to her, all her blankets kicked off and rumpled at the foot of the bed, white hair streaming away from her face, and smile to myself. (She always wants to start with blankets, even in this heat.) I imagine her waking, and with maternal tenderness, careful enough to not wake her sleeping sister, arranging the blanket over her. I kiss her forehead fondly. And then I remove the blanket and put it away again before the Baby wakes up cranky from being too hot.

The day did improve after lunch. They finished their school work and played with friends and rested at the right times. Before quiet time I uttered my standard, "I will tell your friends they can't come if you haven't had a good rest." They scurried to their beds and lay as still as 4 and 6 are able. At bed time we talked about the day. I asked them to forgive me for the moments when I had been wrong, and told them I was still sad about them. We talked about the kids who always go to school hungry and how hard it must be for them to learn. I took extra time hugging and cuddling and repairing the ties between us. I was sitting in the living room nursing the Baby as the girl yelled for me to come over and over until finally I could go. She was trying to tell me the Boy had been out of bed a lot since I left the room, a bed time no-no in our house. Tired, lazy, not sure about the tattle tale aspect of it all, and just wanting everyone to get to sleep, I mildly said t

Annmarie from My Adventures in Simple Living also linked back to the refugee post. Is there anyone else I missed? Blogger doesn't support trackbacks, so if that's what you used I have no way to see it. Thanks for letting me know annmarie.

The thing about parenting is that while you are prepared for it to be hard, and expect to face a few challenges along the way, you are always surprised to discover exactly what the nature of the hard part is. Take this morning for example. The kids have developed a habit, formed over the course of a few lazy summer weeks perhaps, and maybe longer, of waking and playing around for a few hours, and waiting for me to remind them to do things like; eat their breakfast, put their clothes on, brush their teeth, make their beds, etc. This is all fine and good when lounging around at home and playing all day is the only thing on the agenda. But school started yesterday. And at 9am, when I told them to get their books out I was met with refrains of "but I didn't eat breakfast yet, I'm hungry." Yesterday we didn't start school until almost 10am. Even by my very lax home school standards that's pushing it. Kindergarten kids in this town start at 7:45am. Which leads to

This weight of sadness that sits on my chest at the sight of an empty inbox. There were the two status updates on Facebook when he landed in two different cities after all. I know he's where he's supposed to be. I know there is no internet in the jungle. I know it's hard to send your wife an update from the back of a motorcycle on a dirt road in the middle of Tak province. But I miss him. He'll be home in one week and I miss him. I want to tell him about the blood vessel that I just noticed has burst in my eye, probably from staring at this monitor for hours a day with little sleep. I want to tell him that the Baby woke up calling for him tonight. I want to ask him what settings he used to get that last picture to publish, because I resized it and want to upload it again. I want to tell him about the conversation I had with his dad this weekend, and I want to tell him the current status of my end of this little project we've begun. I want him next to me when I f

I really wanted to have the store ready by now. But alas, there is much that is time consuming about this whole business besides web design. Especially when I don't know what I'm doing.:) I really wanted to have the store done by now because then when I announced the winners of the draw I could say, "Now go on over to the store and choose your favorite bag and I'll mail it to you." Because really, how are you going to choose your favorite bag if you can't even look at them? But I will let you know who you are you lucky few who someday, when I have a store ready for you to look at, will get to choose one. I promise it will be done by September somehow, I hope. So, the first names of the lucky winners are, selected by random number generator,.... da dum dum... Balaji and Melody. I have your email addresses, so as soon as it's ready I'll let you know and you can choose your prize. I've not yet made a draw from the people who linked back to the

My dear, dear friend Rae, Who first introduced me to blogging, (I didn't even know what a blog was until she sent me an invitation to start reading hers.) has a brand new beautiful baby boy . And I had dream that she was in labor a few nights ago. It makes me feel like we are still connected over all of the miles between here and India. I'm so excited and happy for her. I just had to tell everyone. Go see him. He's perfect.

Having you around is like living with a two year old, only smaller. You want what you want when you want it and you have no qualms about yodeling at top volume when you don't get it. You have almost learned to whine. If I say no when you ask for something you start repeating, "Pease, pease, pease" in sad little pathetic tones that make me seem cruel and heartless for denying you. And then you descend into screams. It ain't pretty, but you will get over it soon enough. We hope. You think hi is a magic word. Pair an exuberant "HIee" with a smile and a wave and people stop and smile and say it back. Neighbors give you cookies. Kids stop to play with you, all because you have mastered the nuances of this one magic word. And bye-bye is a pretty cool word too. It's all encompassing in your efforts to get out the door. You point and ask, "BYE-BYE?" Or say it in pathetic tones of longing. It all points to one thing, you want to leave here now, and

Yes, this has become a fund raising contest blog. Sorry, I'm a bit obsessed. Only two more days before the contest closes. If you want to read something else today you can go over to Marriage Hacks where I am a new columnist on Mondays. It would cost about $3300/month total to feed, clothe, house, school, and care for all of the physical needs of these kids in an ideal situation. They could all live on less than that, and they do right now. This is approximately how much it would take to set them up comfortably by Thai standards. In about 6 months we hope to be able to set up something more organized with him, and work out a budget etc. For now, know that this much a month would give these kids everything need in terms of material things. So if everyone who has stopped by here in the past 4 days had donated just $2 each. We would have raised enough money to take care of everything the kids need for an entire month or two. Please don't not give just because you can't gi

****Me, I suck at the zeros. I always get them confused. 1600, not 16,000 and not as many hits as I get in a year. The fact that it took me 4 days or so to notice the mistake, also embarrassing. My jaw is on the floor. Seriously. In one day this little story has gotten more than 16 000 hits. That's about how many hits I got all of last year! :) Thank-you, thank-you to everyone who is linking. And thank-you everyone who has made a donation . The current total is right around $360. That's an amazing amount of money for these kids. My heart is full of gladness right now. Thank-you all.

It's been getting very cluttered and chaotic around here of late. In a drive my clutter hating self crazy type of way. I can ignore it to a certain extent but then I'll step on something trip over something, the doorbell will ring... and a white hot hatred of all things clutter will be ignited. But don't be fooled into thinking that because of this my house is always clean. Oh no. See, I also hate cleaning. I used to really like cleaning, back in the days when whatever I cleaned stayed that way for a while. I would get it all tidy and then sit down for a celebratory cup of tea and a good read, content in the knowledge that I wouldn't have to do that again for another week. And then there entered into my life other people. A husband, to begin with, who shocked me after we were first married by dropping his clothes in a trail that led all the way from the front door to the bathroom floor, every day after work. I could not, and still can't figure out why he can't

You may think that you do too and that's okay. I'll allow that. But only because you haven't met mine. The afternoon after I posted about our anniversary plans that fell through my friend Megan who lives all the way over in Michigan, (start a blog Megan) called me to say that if I still wanted it she had arranged for her sister to come and watch my kids and lend me her car. Is that a fabulous friend or what? Not to mention her sister. Of course, When I called the GH he had already passed the tickets on to someone else, who was very happy to get them, and since we didn't pay anything for them to begin with it was no big deal. So thanks for the suggestions. We did have a quiet dinner together, very late, after the kids were all asleep. And dessert. And the antique tawny port that has been our celebratory drink of choice since we shared a taste of it and chocolate after we brought the Boy home from the hospital the very first time. And we did dance to our wedding song

What can you do to make your 8th anniversary special, and by your I mean mine, when the free concert tickets are useless because your standby childcare people are off to the Grand Canyon for two weeks, oops, poor planning, and the car you would have borrowed to meet said husband at concert is no longer available either? Not that it matters, because there is no one to watch the kids. I have no budget for groceries for these two weeks (Plane ticket to Thailand and week of work missed makes frugality a priority.) I have a lot of rice and beans and chicken in the freezer. So here's the deal. Three little kids. Dinner at home. Husband working all day. What can we do? Hit me with your most creative ideas to make tomorrow special. Pretty pretty please?