Privacy Please!

When we returned to our African home almost four weeks ago, one of my major disappointments was the tree that had been cut down in the back garden down behind our house.

The side of our balcony used to look like this. See that big tree in the back, providing TONS of shade and privacy and refreshing green?

Gone.

Instead we had this.

Whoa. Big difference, eh? It felt so different out there I found it shocking each time I stepped foot outside.

Hello world. Look at me! A white lady wearing a tank top in the privacy of my own home!!! *gasp* A tank top in 110 degrees?! The nerve that immodest woman has!!!!!

You get the idea?!

Obviously, as a woman living in this culture, I didn’t feel so comfortable hanging out on the balcony in my normal wear-at-home clothes… tee shirt or tank top and capris.  And I hated the inconvenience of throwing something else on just to walk out onto the balcony of my own home.

I felt way to exposed out there.

And so we had this built. There was already a shorter privacy wall on the left side (see it?) but we added this taller and thicker one for the side where the tree used to be. It doesn’t give the place the same ambiance as the nice big tree, but we have privacy again. It’s great!

The other good news is that our entire electrical system is still in tact after the worker man hooked up his welding tool to our already scary electrical system. We were pretty happy about that. We learned awhile ago that when getting something ‘fixed’ in your home here it’s a miracle if something else doesn’t get broken in the process.

We’ve spent a fair amount of time out there already since then. Everything out there can get wet (This Mama included, usually!) and so the kids have a great time splashing and playing.

(Sidenote: I promise I am feeding my boy. His ribs don’t normally stick out like that. I think it’s cause he’s stretched out and screaming?! ha!)

I’m thankful. So thankful.

Quote of the Day

“Did you have a dream last night H?” I asked my boy the other day.

“Uh huh. I dreamed about my heart is the airport where Jesus lands. It’s where Jesus comes to meet us… in the airport of the heart.”

Wow.

Locked Out

This afternoon a most unfortunate thing happened.

My daughter locked this door, leaving H and I outside on the balcony and leaving her locked inside the house. Alone.

Almost as soon as I realized what had happened I called Mikey and told him he’d need to come home right away to get to her.

I happened to be on Skype with my parents (yes, had my laptop out on the balcony) at the time and they suggested I try the bedroom window. What a good idea!!

Also I started documenting the situation because I (also) happened to have my camera out on the balcony and I’m a good blogger like that.

Anyway, this is the one window that goes into the house from the balcony. The bars obviously prevented me from getting in, but at least I could call her to the window and see her.

I don’t think she fully understood the seriousness of the situation. But that means I did my job right! I sat by the window and played with her through the bars and screen.

We played Peek-

-Abo!!

She liked that. She also liked the smoothie I had for lunch and the marks you see on her cheek and forehead are the proof of that! Ha!

And she disappeared for awhile (calm my anxious heart) and returned with some food for me to eat!

And then twenty quick minutes later her Daddy came to her rescue.

And then he gave her a lecture about not locking the door.

And that was that.

Happy Ending, thank you Jesus!

Tool Belt

When we are in Ohio, we stay across the driveway from my parents in a wonderful little apartment above the detached garage that my Dad built recently. It’s a great arrangement on a million different levels, one being that the kids can go back and forth freely between the loft and the big house, as we call them.

Also, my boy spent a lot of time working around the property with his Poppi. H had a keen sense and he would know the very moment Poppi exited the house to do a project and H would run out to ‘help’ him as fast as he could. I’m not sure how much Poppi’s productivity went up or down during our visit, but my boy was having the time of his life for sure! They did all kinds of projects together and at some point H started wearing his ‘tool belt’ lots of places.  His tool belt was just a bungee cord hooked around his waist.

One morning I saw them marching across the driveway.

He had hooked one of Sweet N’s bracelets on his tool belt to bring it back to our lil’ place. Fun.

Another day, I sent him over to the big house for a roll of toilet paper. On the way back I saw him pause part-way and do some adjusting.

He had to get it just right…

.

… so he could carry the TP in his tool-belt with no hands.

Ha ha! He’s quite resourceful for a four year and old and I love it!

Bow Tie Man

When we were organizing my boy’s closet last week we discovered his old ‘bow tie’ (as he calls it and I don’t want to correct him!).  He was pretty happy about it and asks to wear it for many outings.  This day was Sunday and the kiddos were all dressed up and ready to go out for the evening to church.

Once they were ready, I parked them in front of Curious George so that I could get ready.

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Don’t ask me where these goofy faces came from…

There’s my cute bow-tie man.

And to top it all off, he drew a self-portrait of himself:

It looks still quite similar to his drawings from last fall, but I love it!

Friday Morn

It’s Friday. Which is really like Saturday to most of you. It’s the first day of our weekend!

We’ve been back two and a half weeks. And it didn’t take long to get back into our old routine of crepes on Friday mornings.

This morning (along with most every other moment I dare step in the kitchen any hour of any day) I had two little helpers.

I gave them each tongs and they were kept busy for at least 10 minutes, which is like hours in toddler world. Thank goodness I have TWO pairs of tongs. I can’t imagine what would have gone down if I only had one pair to hand over…

Anyway, the fun tongs bought me enough time to whip up quite a few of these.

Yum! I love this tradition.

Highs and Lows

Do you think I’m doing the whole best-and-worst-about-my-day thing? ‘Roses and thorns’ as some say? He he. I’m not. Although that’s not a bad idea.  But no, this post is about the weather. Specifically, the temperature. I know you get a lot of this from me, but too bad, I just can’t not talk about it!

So we have this handy dandy electronic thermometer that we brought over a few years ago. It takes the temp inside and then we strung a wire outside (not hard to do when all windows and doors have huge gaps) to take the temp outside too.

This was 7 pm a couple days ago. 91.8 inside and 94.8 outside. Whew! We must not have run the air cooler in there before I took this pic, cause the kids’ air cooler (this is in their bedroom) really cools it down to the 80s fairly easily.

Aaaanyway…

The thing also has a memory to keep track of the highs and lows until you reset it.

And we were recently gone for a year.

So we didn’t reset it for a year.

What we have now is a very accurate and fun and interesting year long record of the all-time highs and lows inside the house and outside on the balcony.

Ready?!

Lows first. The coldest it ever got outside was 55.8 degrees. Maybe not cold to you, but REALLY cold up in here. Parkas and beanies cold. Seriously. Actually,  the locals bring out the parkas and beanies at about 80 or 85 degrees. True story.

And it was a chilly 64 degrees inside. At 64 in our house I would have been sleeping under at least six blankets. I’d have two pairs of socks on. I’d also be wearing socks on my hands and two layers of clothing, and probably a hoodie besides, tied tightly around my chin. No joke. That’s really cold inside for here.

And now…

The highs! 106.3 inside. Seems hot, but our bedroom and the kitchen easily get up to 100 during the day. 100-ish in dry heat is not so bad. And also it’s just that our bodies are accustomed to it. However, 100 (and higher) and super high humidity (like in the fall months here) is like torture. Pure torture. I’d take 120 and dry any day over 100 and humid. Anyway… I’m rambling.

Wait, we’re not done.

The high outside was 127.8?! 128? 128, really?!

Oh no.

Maybe it would have been better never to be reminded of what is headed our way this summer.

Stupid temperature experiment.