Why I'm grateful for concrete floors...

I have had many opportunities to appreciate the concrete floors in our house, but this weekend gave me quite a few more.

Our water was out on Friday morning. This happens from time to time, but remedied when the generator is turned on. It pumps water from the well into the water tower, and then we have water again.

On this particular morning "someone" turned the sink on in the bathroom. Since there was no water, they did not bother to turn the sink off.

During our school time, the water came back on. When school was finished, the kids started picking up their things. Isabelle walked into the hall, and realized that their was water in the hall. There was about 1 or 1 1/2 inches on the bathroom floor, flowing out of the bedroom and into the hall.

Our mop is like a squeegee. I was using it to push water out of the back door. The kids found the process quite interesting.

The floor slopes in various places, so the water was only on one side of our bedroom, and there was nothing on the floor that could be ruined.

Isabelle found the situation so entertaining, that she wanted Ciska (our cook) to see. She showed her and Ciska basically took over the clean up. I felt guilty, but had to admit that she was much more effective than I was.

She took the dust pan and scooped water into a bucket. After she filled up one bucket she had Gloire (her assistant) take over. Gloire finished in no time.

The other thing that happened this weekend was that Isabelle had a stomach virus. She thought she was feeling better, and wanted a little to eat. She ate a little and ran for the bathroom. She didn't quite make it. Clean-up was easier on a concrete floor than it would have been on carpet.

There have been many other spills, leaky spots on the roof, and a hole in the bottom of the bathtub. It's pretty easy to clean them up.

I think maybe concrete floors are underrated in the US!

Mail Time!

We got a package from the Alliance Women in Baltimore. It made us feel really special.
The kids were super excited to open it up and see what was inside. (OK, I was pretty excited, too.)

There were birthday cards for the boys and myself, and Valentines Day cards for all of us. The `cards were all personalized with something we would like. Isabelle's card had felt flowers that she could take off and use, and Caleb's had some animals to color. (Thanks, Megan!)
There were lots of stickers and candy, which we are slowly enjoying. (We have to make it last.)
The package took about 3 months to get to us, but it was in good condition and all of the candy was good. If you have letters or packages on the way, I will be sure to let you know when they arrive. Things have been slow because of problems with the planes here, but that makes things that do come greatly appreciated.

Princess Party

Isabelle decided to have a princess party. We worked together, but she planned most of the things she wanted to do.
She invited all of the other girls and their moms. (Plus Danielle, because she doesn't have any girls.)
The invitations told everyone to dress up in fancy clothes. As you can see people got into the spirit of the party.
We painted fingernails and toenails, did crafts, and had cookies and juice.
Now Caleb has decided he wants an animal party. We will have to come up with something...

Update

We did get resupplied with gas yesterday, and we are now back to cooking on a stove and having a refrigerator.

Our New "Stove"

When I said I wanted a new stove, this wasn't what I had in mind.
We have been out of gas since sometime toward the end of March. For the last 6-7 weeks we have been cooking on a kerosene burner.
It actually isn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I will be glad to go back to using a stove. It's more work, and it's inconvenient because you can only cook one thing at a time.
I haven't been able to make bread during this time either, except for a couple of times in an outdoor wood oven.
The gas for our refrigerator lasted until last Monday. We have only had about a week without a refrigerator.
There is good news, too. The gas is here now, and this afternoon we should have things workign again.
Our real new stove came at the end of last week. Once the gas is here and hooked up, we will be using a 6 burner stove.
But we'll keep the kerosene burner just in case.