Wordless Wednesday-A Walk in the Woods

the insanity continues

I am still working on eliminating weight in preparation of our upcoming move to Germany. This week I decided to go through all the boardgames (including cards, dominoes, puzzles and the like) to see which ones were missing pieces....ummm, like all of them.

We had 5 boxes of games when we arrived in Jakarta. I don't mean 5 individual boxes with one game each, like a monopoly game in it's own box, a scrabble game, a sorry game...I mean we had 5 big moving boxes full of board games, plus I found board games tucked here and there in among the other boxes. In fact we have 4 different versions of scrabble, 2 sorry games, 2 different monopolies, 2 identical twisters and more kids games than I care to think about, especially since we hardly ever seem to play any of the games.

How did we get so many games? Birthday parties, impulse shopping, forgetting I already had a (blank) game... On top of that back when I had a paying job teaching elementary school (SAHM is 24-7 with lots of love, but little money) I bought lots of games for centers and rainy day recess activities, when I quit those all came home with me. Now we have too many games.

So this week I decided to tackle the cabinets in the play room where I keep most (oh... ok...some) of the games. This is a before picture of one of the cabinets. I didn't get an after picture, more on that later. This seemed like a straight forward enough process, if the game is missing pieces and can't be played, throw it away! But wait, I have kids, lots of kids, they carry stuff off everywhere! What if I throw a game away this week and next week when I go through the upstairs closets I find the missing pieces? Then I will have thrown away a perfectly good game. So now I have a pile of games sitting there waiting for me to find the missing pieces. I put this pile in one cabinet and the games that are ready to be played (why do these all have broken taped together boxes...uugh!) in the other cabinet. See I can be organized!!

So far so good but then I decided to actually brush my teeth and comb my hair before nap time. Outrageous, I know. When I came back to the playroom there was my precious little monster sitting happily in a mountainous pile of puzzle pieces and assorted game tokens. It only takes 5 minutes to brush my teeth and hair, probably less. How could he cause that much damage in such a short period of time???? I didn't even get a picture of the organized cabinet.

Sigh..I give up. I am going to go to the grocery store, pray it isn't a durian day (more on that later) and deal with the mess another time. If I am lucky Dwi will have put it up before I get home. Of course she doesn't play any of these games so she will just shove the pieces any old place but it will look clean and tidy, at least until you open a box to play.

How Much Does Your Life Weigh?

That seems like a weird question, unless of course you are moving. Weight becomes even more important if you happen to be making an international move. All of us in the expat community face this issue everytime we relocate. We will be going to our second posting this summer so this has been very much on my mind.

Our alloted weight limit is 7200 pounds, I don't speak metric so if you function in kilos I am sorry. This is actually a pretty generous allowance. I know a family of 8 who is here in Jakarta with a weight limit of about half that, EEEK!

The weight limit for us is the same no matter how many people in the family. So if you are a single guy you can ship 7200 pounds of stuff to post. If you are married without kids you get 7200 pounds. 1 kid, 2 kids, 5 kids? 7200 pounds. To me this seems a little crazy. I have a single brother-in-law I have know for almost 10 years now and I don't think he OWNS 7200 pounds of stuff, not even if you include his truck.

7200 seems like a lot. Especially since our housing comes furnished. Now look around your house. What would you need to make a house not of your choosing, with furniture not to your taste, feel like home for 2 years? What would you need for day to day chores? Think about all the things you need: pots, dishes, glasses, towels, shower curtains, sheets, clothes, shoes, socks, toys, school supplies, sports equipment, musical instruments, cd's, video's, tv, books, artwork, throw rugs...the list seems endless. The weight goes quickly especially if you have kids.

We arrived at post pretty close to our limit and of course we went shopping while we were here. Now we have more weight than we are allowed. I have discovered the cure for being a pack rat! Just put a weight limit on your life. Now every time I go to the bookshelves I look not only for a book to read but books to pass on to others. When I pick up toys I notice which ones are sitting dusty on the shelf, they will be going to other children. I suddenly take great pleasure in throwing stuff away instead of just tossing it in a drawer to deal with later. Later is now!

Internet Woes

Sorry for the long break in blogging. Internet is occasionally unreliable here in Jakarta. We recently changed internet providers when high speed, unlimited internet at a reasonable price became available. This option has proved so popular that just a few months after introducing this service the company has had to upgrade servers to cope with the amount of traffic. For the last week we have had only sporadic brief periods of internet access while this took place. Now all is working again and I think it seems faster than before (or maybe I am just happy to be able to check my e-mail).

Wordless Wednesday-Big Tree

Wordless Wednesday-fern

Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!

Tonight I asked the 7 year old to sweep up a mess in the dining room. This simple request brought on a angry monologue that ended with David and I giggling and the kids looking at us like we were slightly crazy, maybe more than slightly. It went like this:

"Alonzo would you sweep that up?" Mom asked.

"Why do I have to sweep the floor? Why me? Why always Alonzo Alonzo Alonzo?! Why not Cody Cody Cody! Cody sweep the floor! Why always Alonzo Alonzo Alonzo!!!!" Alonzo yelled.

(To be fair Cody was washing dishes at the time)

Mom looked at Dad, Dad looked at Mom. "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!" Mom and Dad giggled together.

This was met with dead silence. All the boys looked at each other. Alonzo finally just swept the floor because his parents are both nuts and he was afraid to draw any further attention to himself.

Who needs sitcoms? We have kids, it's a new show everyday.

**None of the boys (except maybe Dakota) have ever heard of the Brady Bunch much less watched the Marsha episode.

Wordless Wednesday-Ancol Boats

Quick Update

David's fever on New Year's Day turned out to be Influenza type b.  Basically he had the flu and he shared with the whole family.  Everyone but Colin ended up sick.  Colin amused himself by annoying the ill.  Thankfully we are all now on the mend.  David is back at work, the kids are back outside playing and life goes on. 

Wordless Wednessday - The Marlboro Man

Don't forget to eat your black eyed peas!

I don't have a clue as to why, but every January 1st Mom force fed me black eyed peas and told me it would bring good luck in the coming year. I did a little internet searching and found that this belief is fairly common across the southern US, but no real explanation as to why. Anyone know? I continue the tradition by making my kids eat them on New Year's Day. Dave made it much easier by telling the boys if they ate black eyed peas their farts would really stink. They couldn't seem to get enough after that. Boys are gross!

Well so far the black eyed peas don't seem to be doing the job (the good luck part, the farts stink to high heaven)! Dave woke up this morning feeling tired and coughing, by this afternoon he was running a fever and asleep on the couch, still coughing. I hope he feels better in the morning. I really hope none of the boys get sick. Dave just wants to be left alone when he is sick. The boys want someone to wait on them hand and foot 24/7 when they are sick.

Dave tried to call his family this morning and wish everyone a happy New Year but the VOIP wasn't working. He spent most of the morning fussing with it but it appears that a power surge wiped it out. Don't know when he will get it working again. Back to using calling cards!

I made a big pot of black eyed peas and a big pot of baked potato soup, corn bread, cookies and ice tea. We were supposed to have a bunch of friends over today to eat black eyed peas for good luck in the new year. Only a few people showed up so now we have tons of leftovers. Our fault really, we were late getting invites out, oh well. I won't have to cook tomorrow!

Happy New Year!

2008 Resolutions

Thought about not making resolutions this year since I always break them all by January 3rd at the latest. That seemed sort of wimpy and defeatist. So here goes.

1. lose weight- I actually stuck to this one last year (lost about 20 pounds!!)
2. be more organized-I think this one may take divine intervention, but gotta try! Dave says he will help, EEEK!
3. exercise-I am typing, so my fingers are moving, does that count?
4. have a positive attitude!! - I'm making the list aren't I?
5. take time enjoy to the kids everyday- laugh more, yell less! My new motto!!
   

Seems like a doable list. Did you make any resolutions this year? I would love to hear about it if you did.