She Laughs at the Days

I wrote this a year ago, when we first moved into this house, and never hit publish. I was trying to take a video tour to add to the post so you could see what I was talking about, but it didn't turn out well, and so I was going to try again... you know how that goes. Anyway, we've lived in this house a year now. I'm using pictures I took on my first walk through it before we signed the lease. This is what it was like just before we first moved in.

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I couldn't have lived in this house two years ago, and not just because of the bats in the attic, or the flooded basement. I would have been overwhelmed by the squatty potties, the bucket showers, the way I go outside and then back inside to get to my bedroom.



 I couldn't have handled the setting up of mosquito nets every single night, because until we find someone to install screen, this house doesn't have any. I didn't know about mosquito coils and how to burn them to keep the clouds of insects ou…

Leaving the house alone is always an event for me. Aaron can get up in the morning, get himself dressed, look at his computer for a while and then casually decide to get up and walk out and drive away like it's no big deal. He'll be chased down by a few children insisting on goodbye hugs of course, and sometimes the littlest guys ask if they can go with him too. But for the most part he leaves, and comes back, and leaves again, on his own terms.

I might be jealous.

Before I leave in the morning for my one office day a week I make breakfast for at least one child and make sure they are wearing clothes. Sometimes I have to sneak out so a person doesn't cry, which is no small feat. I have to hug everyone. I have to remind everyone what they are doing for the day. I have to answer a million questions about what they can or can't do while I'm gone, even though there's another adult there to care for them. I make sure to leave money to pay for things. (They hand deli…