Celebrating fall in Beirut

A lot of my friends are posting beautiful fall pictures online, with descriptions of crisp morning frost on trees bursting with color, and brisk morning walks that make your cheeks red. They light candles in the evenings and enjoy a hot drink in front of the fireplace on Sunday mornings. Fall; what a romantic time!

I still sleep with the A/C on, and the orange tree outside our balcony is a very deep, dark green, with oranges that are starting to turn light yellow. There are flowers in bloom everywhere, the sea is still warm and the sun still bright enough that we have that constant smell off sunblock lingering in the house.

Still, this morning, I’m having hot cocoa with my ham sandwich (OK, it’s smoked turkey since Spinney’s in Jnah doesn’t sell ham in the deli, but we still call it ham) to mark the season, and later today, I will make an apple pie out of those amazing Syrian apples I bought at the market. I might even start working on the boys’ Halloween costumes.

 Just because we live right next to the Mediterranean doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate fall, right? It is after all the last day of September here too! And you can drink hot cocoa even though you are not wearing a wool sweater and stockings, but a thick layer of sunblock, right?

Knock on wood!

The focus of this past week was – not blogging, that’s for sure! Ha, ha! – getting the boys’ schooling going properly. We have now added all subjects and are running a full curriculum five days/week, full days. Math, English, and French in the morning, Science or history, Latin and Music in the afternoon, Logic and Art or Taekwondo practice in the evenings. It’s working! I mean, we have a working schedule, and the boys are studying, learning, thinking, reading, writing and creating.

Even Abraham - my energetic three-year old - has a schedule: a number in the morning, a letter in the afternoon, and art in the evening. He also likes to listen to the science lessons, and he never wants to miss his two Magic Schoolbus episodes/day (for when I need that special one-on-one time with the older boys).

When I say it’s working, I mean it’s all more-or-less working: Prof. Husband is managing his job well, we have food in the fridge, dinner on the table in the evenings, a clean kitchen by the time we go to bed, and clean clothes (that still need to be folded and put away though – I didn’t say I was super-mom!). I even managed to squeeze in a few hours of work this week without hurting anyone. Ha, huh?

OK, the house is a bit of a disaster at the end of the week, but nothing a little weekend cleaning can’t manage.

Knock on wood!

Let's talk about the weather

“What is the weather like?” 

When talking to or chatting with any of my Swedish family or friends, this question is guaranteed to come up within the first few minutes of conversation. I have never met a people so obsessed with the weather. When it’s sunny and warm, Swedes are very crafty in ways to cherish it, and when it’s not, which seems to be most of the time, they find ways to enjoy other people’s hot weather vicariously. “It’s raining here, 7°C, yes, but tell me more about your warm evenings on the balcony!”

So, for all of you interested in the Lebanese weather situation: it has cooled down a bit in the last couple of weeks – we’re below 30°C now! – but it’s still warm enough to enjoy the beach, the kids never wear anything but t-shirts and shorts, and we’re still using the A/C in our bedrooms at night. We had a couple of cloudy days last week, which – along with all the millions of recipes and craft ideas I’ve seen on Pinterest lately - acted as a small reminder that summer really is over, and that fall is here: my second favorite season of the year!

Busy, busy week!

After the Pope left Beirut safely, the demonstrations against that movie moved elsewhere, and I finished my work, the boys and I took my mother around Beirut to show her some of the sites. Then Prof. Husband arrived from the US, bringing most of our school books that I promptly had to sort through. He also brought a huge batch of clothes, new and old, that needed washed, and then it was time for my mother to go home and August to resettle into his room, so we spent the last couple of days this week sorting all these things out. I also attended a book club meeting involving some great needed socializing, and today we did a big grocery shopping at a new store in Hazmieh (Not bad at all! Great pork selection, and spacey. I can't believe I forgot to buy bacon though!). 

I have some work to do before the weekend is over and usually I prefer to do it sooner rather than later, but right now I’m thinking I might save it for tomorrow, and just spend the rest of the evening relaxing. 

I’m beat! Go figure.

Holy Pope, Batman!

You might have heard that the Pope is visiting Beirut this weekend. I am excited and a little worried. Why would the Pope come here at this time, with everything that is going on? It's not exactly safe here. I understand the symbolism of it all; faith, trust and peace, and I admire his purpose and effort very much (seems he never considered cancelling his visit), but someone just set fire to a KFC restaurant in Tripoli, and Syria is just a couple of bus stops down the road. Not the safest place at the moment.

A lot of streets are blocked off, which means other streets are completely jammed, and the city is both more calm and more chaotic at the same time.

Yesterday when we were returning from our shopping, we got stopped at an intersection by some very serious looking military. Military in the street, or anywhere really, is a normal sight here, but the traffic military – or whatever they are – usually joke with the bikers or drivers and are more laid back. These men meant business. One of them was using a walkie talkie, and we were sitting there at a red light that turned green and then red, and then green again, but he was still not letting us go. Then we saw it: a huge convoy approaching from our right at a very high speed. Four military vans and two black official looking cars with dark windows. As they blew past us, almost on two wheels through the curve, I noticed a little golden yellow and white flag. His holiness. Welcome in Lebanon. May God watch over you and keep you safe.

Taking a day

While waiting for the server problems to be resolved at work, I’m taking a day to lay in bed and try to recover from this throat infection I have. It’s a weird, dry kind, with accompanying fever. 

It has been a long time since I was sick, and I’m not very good at it. Fatigue and inactivity drives me nuts, and now with the work server down, I can’t even translate or edit in bed. 

I'm doing a bad job with the kids’ school work too, unable to continuously urge them to work, since my throat hurts when I try to speak. The youngest boy has luckily spent most of the day on a play date, and didn’t have to hang around with a sick, boring mama.

Hoping for a new day tomorrow.

Stress!

I’m having one of those moments I imagine other people perpetually experience when I hear them say that they are stressed or under pressure. I very rarely feel stressed and I can’t say I’m really ever under pressure, at least not in a stressful way. But right now I’m having a bit of a stressful twinkling, because just now, seconds ago, all the work that I did today – all the translations that I have been entering into an online database since this early morning until late evening – just suddenly disappeared, right in front of my eyes. Gone. In a moment of panic, I closed the database and logged back in. The translations are still missing.

It’s the lack of control that gets me, I think. I did nothing to cause this, and I can do nothing to fix it. A moment while I feel stressed! (And contact the database administrator to see if he can fix this.)

It's that time of the year - the quiet before the storm

Prof. Husband left for the US a couple of days ago. He is presenting a paper at some North American Kant Society event in Tulsa, OK, and is stopping by his parents on the way. It’s a long trip to their house in Nowhere, IN. From Beirut, you first have to fly to a European city with connecting flights to Chicago, then take a bus to get out of Chicago, and then get picked up/drive the rest of the way. From door-to-door it usually takes about 28 hours. Yeah, that’s right. But at least this time he didn’t have to travel with kids, which makes it easier, I imagine. He said the trip went well, in any case, and now he’ll get a little time with family and struggle to fit everything I ordered into his suitcases (who would have thought that a grammar book could weigh 5Lbs?!) do some light shopping before continuing to the conference.

In the meantime, my mother is still here visiting, and several of my friends’ husbands are also off traveling before the semester begins, so tonight the ladies will get together for some food, a chat, and to relax in this quiet-before-the-storm intermission. Like a ladies launcheon. Ha ha. Get it? Launching the upcoming year. Ladies luncheon. He.

Slow school start... Bah.

Sigh. I always feel like this at the end of the school first week: like we got NOTHING done at all. All these grand lesson plans and syllabi, and five days – F.I.V.E. DAYS! – into the school year, we have barely managed to get started. Why is it always so difficult to get back into it?

Someone asked me, “But why do you take a long break like that? You don’t have to, and if you didn’t, you wouldn’t have the problem of having to get back into a school routine again.” But I do – I do have to. I need that break, and I need the change of rhythm. I need to be able to just work for a while, without having to juggle school work at the same time, and I need to do something completely different, like travel, spend time at the beach, read books just for fun, organize the house, sort and refuel in other possible ways. So no, I will not give up that long break.

Perhaps instead of stressing out about all this though, I will turn this school start into what a friend and fellow homeschooler called “stagger.” I will re-strategize and allow us to start a little at a time. Then it would be totally OK if we only got going on our math, English and French programs this week, right? Next week we’ll add additional subjects (all the boys' sports activities start back up as well next week), and the week after that, all the rest of our work (by then we’ll have all our material, so that works out). Eventually we’ll be in full roll, all the same - but without the stress. Good?

Do I win some kind of "Most Boring" price...?

I’m here. I spent *all weekend* working. Yes, that's it. And it wasn't even interesting work. Just normal... work. 

Now, on Sunday evening, as I sit down to catch up with the outside world via my computer, I’m having one of those “The grass is always greener on Facebook/Twitter/[insert your preferred social networking site here]” kind of moments. It seems everyone had the most amazing weekend, with beautiful nature hikes, exciting travels, partying, concerts, weddings and other special celebrations. My social channels are filled with tons of fantastic pictures and status updates to admire, moments to envy, and glorious experiences to read about. Wow.

All this while I… just worked. Sigh.

Ready for another academic year!

I’m alive and well, thank you. No hospital visits or IV’s recently. No illnesses or accidents.

Because of the delay I talked about here though, and since my mother arrived for a longer visit last week, AND it turns out the other schools here don’t start until 3 September, I decided to postpone our school start until after this weekend. Good decision. Without too much effort, I’ve spent this extra week writing out our curriculum, syllabi, ordered books and other material, caught up on work, organizing the house, stocking up on food, spending some time with friends, and getting the kids  ready to start working again.

The only thing we haven’t managed is better our sleeping. We still go to bed late and sleep late. I know I need to wake the boys up earlier, but since they go to bed so late, I end up staying up really late to get that special time for myself after bedtime, and then I’m too tired to wake up early in the morning. It’s a vicious cycle that I need to break.

Oh, right, and we’re still waiting for our books to arrive. We're going to have to start with what we have though, since the books will not be here until 18 September.

But other than that, I think we’re ready.

Going to the doctor

A strange week, this was. I don’t get sick much, and I don’t go to the doctor unless I have to. Over the years, we’ve met some alright doctors, even one or two really good ones, but we’ve also been treated by several doctors that proved quite incompetent. I therefore tend to approach any healthcare taker with great distrust, and only consult one if I really can’t diagnose or remedy a health-related problem by myself.

Like this week: I had some out-of-the-ordinary problems early this week that didn’t seem to resolve on their own, and that I figured required technical analysis, so I made an appointment with a family doctor at the clinic on Thursday, early afternoon. Unfortunately, she didn’t have any of the equipment needed to analyze my initial complaint, so she sent me over to the ER. I figured this was all right – some blood work, analysis, etc. and I would be home in time to make dinner – right? This is where it all went downhill. After three different doctors and one nurse checked my blood pressure probably six times, they decided I had to be admitted and put on an IV with blood-pressure lowering medication. “An IV?! But I just wanted you to check something.” I felt helpless. In the past, I’ve had issued with blood pressure, but whenever I met an actual cardiologist, I was always advised that the best course of treatment was diet control, weight loss, exercise and life style adjustments. Now suddenly all these ER doctors want to put me on medication, starting with an IV-injection? Add to this, that Lebanon isn’t exactly known for promoting natural health care, but rather has one of the most invasive and aggressive approaches. Was this a symptom of such an approach? Were they overreacting?

I could have gone home, I guess, but the doctors were quite convincing, and practically scared me into staying, telling me I would have a seizure if I left the hospital untreated. So, after eight hours of laying on a bed in the ER with an IV in my arm, and many, many blood pressure controls later, I was allowed to go home, equipped with a prescription, and not sure what to make of anything.

This whole incident took up three whole days of this week – three, THREE, days that I was supposed to spend on getting us all set up for the new school year. (Actually four days, if you count the next day, which I had to spend delegating and performing cleaning assignments in an attempt to sort out the complete disaster that resulted from my four guys spending half a day in the house without me. How do they do it?!) So, instead of ‘school preparations+beach+work=productive week’, I got ‘a bunch of wasted time+beach+work=not so productive week’, and worst of all, no inspiring, pretty pictures, or exciting blog posts to share about the start of our new school year.

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. At least I got to go to the beach though, right? J

Daybook - Saturday, 11 August, 2012

Outside my window…

Sunny, hot and quiet. I imagine most people are at home, getting ready to celebrate Eid El Fitr tonight, which marks the end of Ramadan. After a few days of swimming and sun, I am taking a break from the beach today, trying to get some projects finished inside (where we have the A/C running, full blast).

I am wearing…

My red shorts, which I am so happy to be able to fit into – I bought them before we moved to Cairo, but this is the first summer since then that they actually fit me. I am also wearing my black&white checkered blouse, which is way too big, since I bought it one year ago, when I was at my biggest. The two don’t match, and I wouldn’t leave the house like this, but for today, it’s a good outfit.

I am listening to…

The kids got the Duplos poured out all over the living room floor and are playing all kinds of creative, imaginary games. Hearing the 3-year old alter his voice to act different characters is totally cracking me up!

Towards an education…

I would like to start school back up in two or three weeks, but we won’t have any of our new material. In fact, we will not have our new books until the Husband comes back from the US – on 18 September. Although it may sound like it, it’s not bad planning – there’s nothing we can do about it: I can’t buy our books here, or order our school material to Lebanon, and even if I could, I will not have the money to order anything until the end of this month anyways. So what do we do during this time, as not to waste these precious first weeks of school? This is what I am thinking about right now.

Around the house…

The school room is coming together nicely, although I still have to go in for the final push and organize all the little things, like art supplies, materials, manipulatives, etc. I should probably decorate the walls too, although putting anything up on the walls is always a big challenge here. The bookshelf in the living room is almost done as well – it has over the past weeks slowly gone from a chaotic dumping ground to looking like an actual bookshelf. Even if we don’t have any new books for our school start, at least our house will be set up and ready!

From the kitchen…

Salads! Lots and lots of summer salads. A family favorite lately has been this salad, which is very colorful and popular especially among the younger members of this family.

Figuring out how to improve my blog

As you might or might not have noticed, I’ve added a new widget to my blog: the “You might also like” feature at the end of each blog post. I always enjoy it when I read other blogs, and thought it might be nice to add.

I quickly realized it doesn’t work very well for my blog though, since I’ve neglected to use labels for my blogposts. The so called related articles hence don’t turn out to be very related at all. I will work on this, promise.

Grocery shopping organized

Yesterday was shopping day: our dreaded, loathed-but necessary, bi-weekly grocery run. Yes, bi-weekly. We have developed a system where one single trip to the grocery store provides three meals/day plus snacks for at least two weeks.

Some of you might ask: Why?

Nobody in our family likes to shop: not for groceries, not for clothes. We don’t get any pleasure out of picking out cereal or choosing the kind of pasta we will have with our ragu. It’s not fun, and I always get stressed out by how much everything costs. Then there’s dealing with the 4-5 men who pack our groceries and expect tips, and worst of all, the taxi situation. Because we don’t have a car, we have to take a taxi to the store, have the driver wait, and then take us back. As you might or might not know, I’ve had bad experience with taxi drivers here in Beirut, and I just don’t like having to deal with taxis - period.

So, how is it possible? How do we go two weeks without entering a grocery store?

First of all, since there’s no way fresh produce would last two weeks, we do pick up fresh vegetables and fruit from Osama’s produce stand a couple of times during the course of the two weeks. He’s right off campus, very friendly, cheap, and has great fruit, herbs and veggies. So there’s that. Everything else though – and I mean everything: meats, grains, cleaning products, personal hygiene, dairy, etc. – is purchased during that one grocery run.

All it takes is a little planning, and I’ve decided that the time this takes is SO worth not having to go to the store more than twice/month. I start with a master list of all meals that will be cooked or prepared over the next two weeks: 14 breakfasts, 14 lunches and 14 dinners. Everybody in the family has to suggest at least one lunch and one dinner each. I also use a list that I have of some of our regular, favorite meals, cookbooks, internet sites, and I write down all the meals on one list, and the ingredients required on another list. To reduce the spread of ingredients needed, we limit meal choices to one or two cuisines – usually one/week. If we plan one Italian meal, for example, we might as well plan several, since often many of the ingredients are similar, e.g. parmesan cheese, flat leaved parsley, tomatoes, balsamic vinegar. This reduced the amount of ingredients needed for the two weeks and hence the cost, significantly. In addition to the groceries, I also walk around the house to figure out if there’s anything else needed, e.g. laundry detergent, soap, light bulbs, toiletpaper, batteries, and write that down.

When I have a list of everything that is needed, I divide it into three: one list for the boys, one for the Husband, and one for myself. At the store, everyone takes off with their own cart – the boys together – and we all meet up at the cash register when everything on our lists has been gathered. This usually takes a little less than one hour, and costs around $400.

The boys always do a great job, and they get to pick out a treat as a reward for their work. Several times their friends have asked why they can’t just stay home while we – the adults - go to the store, and they’re always shocked to hear that the boys don’t just come along, but that it’s something we rely on them to do. (Actually, most of their friends are shocked that the boys have chores that they have to do at all.)

I love coming home with all the groceries, knowing we don’t have to do it again for a while. The first 10 days after a grocery run are the best: the meal choices seem infinite, and there’s a lot of fun food to cook. When we start getting down to only a couple of boring choices though, we might order out one night (which not only spices things up but extends our two weeks with an entire meal/a day), but eventually, we run out of food entirely, and the process has to start over again.

Today though, freezer, fridge and pantries are stocked. So. What’s for dinner?