Monday, June 25, 2012

Easy is Better than Hard

It is daunting how quickly things become cluttered in this house. Maybe because it's smaller than I'm used to? Maybe it's because my family thinks that the nana lives here. Either way, I'm constantly picking up.

My new kitchen has beautiful black countertops and slate/grey tiles with floor to ceiling white enamel tiles. The house is completely hardwood floors except for the kid's bedrooms, kitchen and bathrooms. Beautiful - when it's clean.

The wood floors and black/grey countertops and kitchen floors show every-single-crumb or piece of dirt. The white floor to ceiling tiles in the bathrooms and kitchen? You guessed it. Show every single water spot. I have more hair on the bathroom floor after my shower than a dog groomer has after a week. Gross!

I spend day and night cleaning and cooking. Cooking and cleaning. Right now, I need to sweep up that hair in the bathroom and clean a couple of toilets (the water here isn't super agreeable with someone).

The bathtubs are really high and narrow here. They are very 'bowled' at the bottom. The base of the tub is about 2 feet above the bathroom floor, so when you step over the edge to get into the shower you have to step over and up. This makes the shower curtain sit about 4 inches into the bottom of the shower. The drains are also pretty slow. So in our master bath, you stand in about 2 inches of water when you shower. And the curtain hangs into that 2 inches - and the tub is so narrow that the curtain touches you. I HATE that it touches me. All I can think about is how many other naked people have been touching this shower curtain. It completely grosses me out. I have to get a new one - and cut the bottom off the thing. I've considered one of those rounded rods, so that I would have more space in the shower, but then the curtain would hang over the toilet - even worse. Why the master bath is 1/3 of the size of the one for the kids is beyond me. I may start showering up there.

On Saturday I ironed everyone's church clothes. They were all a mess after having been packed. The iron is outside in that little area for the servant that houses the washer/dryer. Again, it's completely protected from the elements - but it's still outside. So when I need to iron, I first have to sweep up all the little dead gnat things that are all over the ground after it rains. I think they fall from the roof maybe? I also have to sweep before doing the laundry - or walking out there for that matter.

When I cook, I have to plan well in advance. Cooking in this house is not as easy as it is at home. The oven takes good hour to reach 350f. Plus I'm short on bowls and containers - I just don't have all of my "stuff". I'm learning and improvising.

I need to make a shopping list but I dread going to the store again. Besides not finding what I need, I have NO IDEA what I am spending. I know that milk is equivalent to about $10 for 1 1/2 gallons. We are easily going through 2 liters a day.

Greg sat down for several hours last night and sorted out our "budgets". We have bills here and bills in Arizona. We have money coming in here and coming in there. We have a HUGE amount on our credit card waiting for reimbursement from the move. (The $1,400 for extra baggage is just a drop in the bucket.)

I think I am just feeling out of control right now. I don't feel like I have a handle on shopping or cooking or cleaning. I don't feel like I have a handle on our budget in either place. My kids sit for HOURS playing video games day after day, but what else can they do? I can't take them anywhere. Sure, I could call a cab - but I couldn't ask for them to take us anyplace, or ask for someone to take us home. I can't pay for anything because I don't understand the whole peso thing. What would we do? Go see a movie? We don't understand spanish. So we take strolls in the neighborhood and I anxiously wait for Greg to come home...

The kids are content. Thrilled actually. They are playing with their friends online. They have plans to play soccer on Wednesday night, mutual on Thursday night and a service project visiting the elderly on Saturday (so much for our trip to the ocean - maybe next week).

Things aren't as bad as they sound. It's just hard, and easy is so much better than hard. I miss easy.

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