Ode to the Deep Freeze

Oh Deep Freeze
My friend
With delectable delights
To satisfy cravings
And homesickness fight

You help us stop bugs
From spoiling our meals
And chocolate from melting
In heat that's unreal

Ice cream, chocolate chips
Bacon, bananas
Tortilla mix, cake mix
Pecans from Grandma's

Otter Pops, Easter candy
Emergency Indian food
To feed local guests
Who find our food not so good

Craisins and raisins
Strawberry jam
Yeast and roast beast
From the meat man

And now that it's hot
You make ice for our water
Since it comes from the tap
Steaming hotter and hotter

But the generator is broken
And there's no electricity
So goodbye freezer contents
We barely ate thee.

Hamilton Temple & Hong Kong

Hamilton New Zealand Temple

Graham just barely learned to walk on his own while we were away on the South Island.
Graham and Grandpa chowing down on a leg of lamb together.
The Zoo
Me in that horrible frenzied state of packing up after a long vacation and dreading the inevitable goodbye to loved ones. Yes, it's great to travel the world. But dealing with all the stuff and goodbyes isn't always fun.Superdad Rich at the airport with his buddy.
Atop the Victoria Peak in Hong Kong on our layover on the way home.
The view was spectacular. This is a place I'd like to come back and visit!
Jet lag starts to set in on the tram down the Peak.
Graham enjoying a good meal at the Hong Kong Airport. Russell asleep in the background.

Dust

So I'm teaching Sarita how to cook and read recipes. She's getting very good at it. Yesterday I gave her a recipe for Apple Crisp and asked her to make it. When I came home, there was a beautiful apple crisp in a clear glass pan waiting for us. But later when I looked at it again, I noticed a rather thick layer of white on the bottom.

"What's that white stuff on the bottom, Sarita?" I asked.

"Oh, Madam, the recipe said to dust the bottom of the pan with flour. So I did."

Of course. In Delhi dust accumulates at an alarming rate. So why wouldn't she think dusting the bottom of the pan with flour meant putting a thick layer of it down! Gotta love Delhi. Fortunately I'm stepping back and laughing more than raging these days.

Another Day in the Life of Mindy

7:00 pm (night before--to get the full picture we must start here...) I fall asleep on the floor while giving the FHE lesson. I've been totally exhausted fighting whatever disease my body has. I vaguely hear Rich and the kids pop popcorn and go to bed.

1:00 am I wake up and take out my contacts. Can't sleep because I'm still coughing and have been for over a month. I drink some herbal tea and read "A Joyful Mother of Children" by Linda Eyre for a bit. I realize that many of my frustrations are not unique to India and maybe I could get over this cough and feel better about life in general if I got some exercise.

6:00 am I wake up and tell myself I'm going to get up and take a walk. Fall back to sleep

6:45 am Isaac crawls in bed with us (next to Graham who joined us some time in the wee hours). I try to get out of bed and go for a walk without anyone noticing. Isaac asks where I'm going. "For a walk," I say. "Can I come?" I tell him he can if he gets ready in time. He does in lightning speed and we take a short walk.

7:00 am I come home to Russell nearly hyperventilating because he's been crying the whole time we were gone. "I wanted (sniff sniff) to go with Ma-Maaaaa."

7:15 am Russell and I go for a walk. I carry him most of the way. It's already getting hot. We see two dog fights on the way.

7:30 We eat breakfast. Oatmeal.

7:45 I realize I no longer have time for a shower and try to make myself look presentable enough anyway. Can't put my contacts in because one eye is too swollen. Maybe too much sleep?

7:55 Isaac and I go off to school leaving Rich with the sobbing Russell in his arms: "I want to go with Ma-Maaaaa!"

8:30 Drop Isaac off at school

8:40 Sign up Russell and Isaac for Saturday Swim Classes. I put them in the same class, mostly for logistical purposes. It's called Water Exploration, so surely they can both handle it.

9:00-10:00 Hindi Class. I learn how to say "Do Not Disturb" in Hindi: "Disturb nahee carriega." Good to know.

10:00-11:00 Wait for the driver to arrive outside the school on a bench while I worry about the kids at home with Sarita. Feel very guilty that I'm just sitting here while I could be at home taking care of my kids. Wonder if the Hindi class is such a good idea.

11:00-12:00 Go to Marcia's House for a coffee hour. I don't drink the coffee and wait for the kids to arrive with Sarita.

12:00-12:30 The kids arrive. Russell has a poopy diaper that's soaked through because he won't let Sarita change it. I get him all cleaned up and into Isaac's pants (which Sarita had mistakenly brought along). He won't take them off all day, insisting they are his pants as he pulls them up for the thousandth time!).

12:30-1:30 We all go shopping together. Try for the third time to get into a shop called Basix that supposedly sells the only sofa beds in the city. The first time I tried to go it was closed for this strike against the government because they're tearing down buildings that aren't built to code. The second time I tried to go it was closed. On this third attempt today I find that the government had "sealed" the shop so not even the owner can get in! When I call the owner to see if it will open again, he assures me it will be "de-sealed" by tomorrow. We'll see . . . Meantime, Mom's prospect of a bed apart from an air mattress is looking dismal.

1:30-2:15 Go to the doctor to see why I'm still coughing after 1 month and two rounds of antibiotics. I don't realize until I cart the kids in and get checked in that I don't have any rupees to pay for the visit and Rich has my ATM card. I walk away frustrated. I try to change my US dollars at a nearby bank, but they don't do that there, of course. Realize I won't have time to see the doctor anyway once I try another bank, so I give up and go get Isaac.

2:00-2:30 Pick up Isaac at a playdate at a Korean classmate's house. His mom said (in broken English) she wanted Isaac over to help her son practice his English. When I arrive they are watching Harry Potter and eating pizza and there's another Korean classmate there. Isaac looks scared and/or bored. I rush him out of there as fast as I can. Isaac tells me in the car they didn't wear seatbelts on the way home from school. I say, "That's not really safe," and don't really know what else to say. Most Indian cars don't even have seat belts in the back seat. How can I require my kids to wear seat belts if they aren't even there?

2:30-3:00 Drive home. As we get out of the car the guard informs us that the garbage man will no longer pick up our garbage because it's too smelly (from our diapers--I guess we have more of them than most since we don't let our kids poop in the street). I wonder what we'll do if nobody will pick up our garbage . . .

3:00 Find that Sudhir has put two really wet and soapy rugs in the dryer and the whole mess is sloshing around in there. I ask him what this is and he looks at me blankly. I send them off on their lunch break and try to fix the mess. Just after they leave I find a square burned onto the wooden table in the kitchen hiding under a muffin tray. Make a mental note to ask Sarita about that one. This sort of stuff must be what Claudia was talking about when she kept telling me not to let them near anything you couldn't handle being broken or ruined.

3:00-3:30 Isaac lays on the rug at my feet while I feed the baby. "Mom, what does settled mean? Are we settled yet?" Everyone here seems to ask that question: "Are you settled yet?" I think for a minute, then say, "Isaac, I think settled means you feel like this is home. Do you feel that way yet?" "Yes," he says, and runs off to play. I'm so happy to hear he feels settled!

4:00-6:00 Feel too exhausted to face the projects and staff angst at home, so I decide to go to the Australian-New Zealand Mom's Group (they let Americans come as long as they aren't too obnoxious!). There's about 20 kids there, 12 moms, 3 ayahs (nannies). The "bag man" comes to show us all the designer leather bags he can make. I watch nearly all of the moms order a bag while I feed Graham baby food and try to fight fires with the kids. This bag man has funky colors, cool designs, all for $20-30. I think about how I still need to buy a generator and come up with more space for storing clothes and choose curtain fabric before I start thinking about bags. Besides, Rich would kill me if I came home with another bag!

6:00 Come home and make Mac and Cheese for the kids. I'm trying to gorge them on it before it expires in hopes that they'll be so sick of it they won't want it anymore once it's gone! Not sure if it will work. I don't plan on telling them we can get it here for $5 a box!

7:00 Find that Sarita and Sudhir have written angry messages in their time card book because we didn't pay them the way they wanted. Stew about that one while I get the kids ready for bed.

8:00 Sit down and try to figure out what is going on with Sarita and Sudhir and try to work out a workable solution. Graham wakes up and joins me on the floor nearby--he will sit happily forever chewing on a toy and then suddenly switch to the tummy-down position and zoom off in search of something better. His favorite things to head for are electrical outlets, of course!

9:00 Rich comes home and makes me toasted tuna and cheese sandwiches and offers good advice about dealing with Sarita and Sudhir. He lays down on the rug beside me and falls asleep.



I wrote all this down thinking that it would illustrate what a terrible day I had. Once it all came out, it wasn't all that bad. It turns out that I have bronchitis, so perhaps my feeling for the day was colored by the infection and exhaustion a bit. Anyway, it's a good life. In the end, the kids make life so joyful no matter where we live, as long as I step back from the mayhem and recognize it!

Isaac's Still Life Photo Essay

I don't want to ruin your own personal artistic interpretation of his photos, so I'll let them speak for themselves.

Just Hangin' Out

Let ya'll think our lives are all about elephants and weddings here, here's some photos of us just hanging out.

I'm really liking the floor plan of our house here. The kitchen is big-ish and looks out onto the front garden, which I've always wanted.


Russell's favorite thing to do these days is hoist himself up on the counter and make himself a honey sandwich.


Graham's favorite thing is to be anywhere he can chew or suck on something!

Graham's First Rice Cereal Meal

After another interrupted night's sleep with Graham in our bed, I said in a fit of exhaustion, "Maybe it's time to start feeding this kid rice cereal so maybe he'll sleep through the night." Rich took me seriously and when he got home he started boiling bottled water and mixing up the cereal for Graham. I tried to talk him out of it, but in the end I was pretty excited for the big moment too.



Graham thought the whole thing was great fun! He grabbed the spoon every time and slurped it all up like eating solid food was no big deal to him.



Isaac thought it was great fun too and took a fun doling out the yummy, sloppy stuff. And there, folks, is our latest milestone.


The end of this little story is this: Graham STILL didn't sleep through the night! Sigh.

McDonald's--Almost the Same

Russell inside McDonald's. The food is very Indian, but the fries taste the same all over the world!

Home Improvement

Here's a picture of our driver Maraj (left) and guard Rambir (right, holding Isaac). That thing on the ground is the closet organizer the carpenter was building in the front yard for us. The most amazing thing was that the carpenter was dressed up in a button-down shirt with nice slacks and shiny leather shoes and he still looked that way when he left!

This is Babu, our landlord's property manager. We only wish we had such a good property manager for our house! Babu came over on Saturday and supervised the painter painting the gate, the plumber/electrician replacing two of the water heaters, and the carpenter building shelves and a clothes rack in the prayer closet. My favorite home improvement was the gadgets they installed on the doors to make them automatically shut when people come in to keep the mosquitos out (which I was even more grateful for when I found out yesterday that our driver Maraj's 6-year-old daughter has malaria)! Babu thinks I'm a crazy woman with my constant requests, and he just laughs whenever I ask for yet another thing.

This is Isaac standing among some of the beautiful flowers in our garden. Our mali (gardener) doesn't speak any English, but I asked him one day through Sarita if we could plant some vegetables. The very next day he showed up with tomato transplants from someone else's garden! And yesterday I handed him some herb seed packets and he cheerfully planted them--even the cantaloupe, which he thought was papaya and he kept saying would take 10 months to grow.

This is the painter painting our newest baby gate. He changes into his painting clothes in our front yard and squats wherever he's painting. He's very Zen.

This is Isaac taking Graham for a walk on a rug we got on loan. Graham is getting so mobile (though not walking yet!). I think if he had more floor time he'd be scooting around, but no such luck with so many people to carry him around!

Here's the loaner rug again with Farookh in the background. Farookh came recommended to me be a friend I met from Nepal, and when I called him up he brought over 10 similar rugs and laid them out in the living room so we could see how they looked! The service here is incredible. The rugs are very expensive though, so I'm on a quest for something less fancy and more inexpensive. I was also turned off to this rug when it stained Graham's hands and face when he started drooling on it!

On Saturday we asked Sarita and Sudhir to make us chapatis (kind of like wheat tortillas) and daal (lentils with curry-type spices). Yummy!

While we were eating Isaac opened the back door and looked outside. "Look, Mommy!" he said, "The guard is eating the same things we are!" Sure enough, his wife had sent him with the same delectable treat. Only he was warming his chapatis on the heater in the garage!

Russell liked the chapatis a whole bunch, but he kept insisting, "No, NOT chapatis, tortillas!"

First Meal in New Friends House

Here we are eating our first mac & cheese meal at our patio table we got to use as a dining table while we wait for our sea shipment to arrive. The house is dreadfully loud without furniture, rugs, and curtains. I'm hoping to work on that rugs and curtains part this week and pray for the sea shipment not to be delayed too far past its Feb 9th due date. Once our washing machine and dryer arrive and we get the Internet set up, we're planning to move in and start camping out on our air mattresses and have our own space.

Produce for Pennies

Sarita and Isaac at the Ohkla Fruit and Vegetable Market--a huge line of vendors camped out on the road with their produce and rock-bottom prices. See the little boy behind Sarita with a load his size on his head?

Early Morning Munchies

One day last week Russell and Isaac were too tired in the evening to eat much dinner, and Russell kept waking up all night complaining that he was hungry. At about 3 am I threw up my hands and got everyone up for a delectable snack of peanut butter and goldfish!

Favorite Quotes from Boys in Delhi

Russell (in the middle of the night): "I wanna go home to Mama-Dada's house."

Isaac (in the car from the airport to the hotel): "Driver, I have a question."

Russell (at our vacant new house): "We have a NEW house!"

Isaac (while driving and seeing kids on parent's laps in the front seat): "Mommy, those kids aren't very safe!"

Graham (all the time): "Bwuuu Bwaa Ah-Boo" (making raspberries!)

Isaac (to the college girls from Arizona we met in the immigration line at the airport): "My best friends in Texas are Jacob and Joseph. I'm going to make new best friends in New Delhi."

Isaac (to Grandma Cutler on the phone): "I'm a superhero. Know why? I helped my mom find her camera cord when Daddy was sleeping."

Russell (with his thumb in his mouth, looking out the window of our hotel): "I see a motorcycle, and another motorcycle and another motorcycle!"

Isaac (after we had to send away the car we'd sent for because it had no seat belts and we are waiting in our room starved): "Mommy, I know why you're giving us goldfish. So we'll stop saying we're hungry."

Isaac: "I just made up a law that might be true. Don't blow up anything near your furniture. Is that right? Well, it should be a law."

Trail Mix and Growing Up

I think I may actually be a real live adult now.

Why, you ask? Because when I eat trail mix now (and this is only in the last month or so), I eat it by the handful instead of picking out the best parts (the M&Ms, of course) and leaving the rest for later. The rest are usually just raisins and nuts, which I don't necessarily dislike. But why waste your time with nuts and raisins when you can eat M&Ms? Now when I take a handful and eat the M&Ms and nuts and raisins all at once, the mixture of the three is a whole new wonderful taste that I never got before because I was so busy picking out the "good" parts.

So, I guess that means I'm growing up a bit. I'm learning that I don't always have to be the best or have the best, and sometimes what I think is the absolute best thing or choice isn't really. I realize now that taking life by the handful with all of its ugliness, beauty, mediocrity, and wonders makes for a pretty tasty existence, especially when I don't get too hung up on classifying every bite. Actually living beats thinking too much about it.

And what do ya'll do differently now that you're growing up? I know we all are growing up (or getting old, however you want to see it!), whether we'd like to admit it or not!