Keeping Busy

Today being Friday, we are on our weekend.  In case you haven't noticed, in the Middle East weekends are Fridays and Saturdays. It's kind of awesome and kind of not.  Awesome in that we're on weekend and you're... not :)  Not awesome in that Sunday comes and we're back at work and you're... not :(  At the same time though, since much of what an Embassy does involves people back in DC, Sundays are a great catch-up day.  DC isn't open so emails are sent but not answered.  Phones don't ring as much.  You get the idea.  And with the time difference, Monday is much the same.  With the 7 hour time difference DC opens when we're getting ready to close up.

Of course all that really means is that Tuesday-Thursday are jam-packed, Sundays are really spent answering all that stuff that came in on Friday when we were sitting at the pool or napping at home, and everyone works through Fridays and Saturdays anyway with their blackberries or iPhones.  But not me, I don't even turn on my work phone on the weekends.  Or ever.

Today being Friday, July 17, we're also at the first day of the Eid holiday. We don't go back to work until Tuesday. A lot of people travel over this long weekend, but as is normal for us, we're at home.  Traveling around Jordan is not a fun idea on Eid breaks. Aqaba, the Dead Sea, pretty much everything is packed to the gills with people escaping Amman.  That's fine with us.  The grocery store was basically empty at 11 a.m., the same with Starbucks.

Yeah, Starbucks is open again during the day.  And we can drink in the car.  All hail the end of Ramadan.

So looking to a month from now when it's the night before school starts again and in between we have our R&R, I did some stuff that needed to be done.  Like organizing the school supplies.  I don't even know why we have shelves of school supplies.  I must have 150 brand new pens.  I'm the kind of person that when I can't find a pen I order 50.  Then I forget, can't find a pen, and order 50 more.  It's almost an illness.  We have stacks of paper.  You want unopened college rule?  Got it.  Graph paper?  Got it.  Construction paper?  Got it.  Dividers?  I did not know we have 7 full sets of dividers.  For all the lined paper we won't be using.  Because everything the kids do is done on the laptop... written, edited, submitted.  Math assignments?  Online.  Science projects?  Online.

I have an entire rubbermaid container on the floor full of unsharpened pencils, partially used pens, and a mix of markers. Those are separate from the container of markers and highlighters on the shelf.

New unopened erasers, for all the pencils we won't be using with the paper we won't be using.  Glue sticks.  Do kids beyond elementary school use glue sticks?  I have about 50 of them just waiting for the next paper project that comes home and requires glue sticks to complete.  It won't happen.  With the block schedule, the kids have gobs of time to do projects in class and therefore use class supplies for it all. Projects don't come home.  And if they do?  You guessed it... online.

I opened up new scissors.  That's a good thing.  We have about 12 pairs of scissors but none of them were with the school supplies.  I also haven't discovered where the tape dispenser or the stapler went.  They'll show up.  In the meantime we have 2 brand new scissors to lose.

There are 4 calculators, one of them scientific.  The other scientific one has disappeared in Rebecca's disaster of a room.  It'll show up. I'll probably end up ordering another one in the meantime.  Please don't ask me why, I already mentioned it might be an illness. We also have 3 Geometry sets.  At no point have we had more than one person taking Geometry at a time nor do I use them for scrapbooking or art projects or random "I'm bored" math time.

Amidst all these items, I found some things I'd been looking for.  Last year's grades for the kids (no, not this June.... last June 2014). I never did file them away but now I have.  My W2 from... yeah, 2014.  A Nintendo DS that had gone "missing" a while back.  It looks like at some point a cat peed on it.  Awesome.

A garbage bag full of crap went out.  Folders from when the kids were in elementary because I thought at some point they might be able to use them.  For all those paper assignments that aren't being done. Packaging and yellowed papers that suggest they've been there a very long time.  I think some of that lined paper might hail back as far as Manila.

There's now also a shelf of art supplies.  Becca is taking a number of art classes this coming year so having it all in one place works.  Charcoal, a full set of drawing pencils, a full set of water color paints, gum erasers, stacks of paintbrushes, etc.  All good.  If she doesn't use them this year they'll be donated along with all that lined paper to a school here that can use it.

One more posting with kids in school.  How the time has flown.

I also put away all the scrapbooking stuff today that I've had out for... a very long time.  It's not going to get finished before our next trip and I want it safely away from bladder-challenged cats while we're gone.  My rubbermaid drawers full of scapbooks and photos and mementos make me happy.  It's right next to my yarn basket which has been greatly neglected of late.

That's OK though.  I'll get to it all again eventually.

For now, I'll happily look at the organized shelves and my clean desk. I'll think about the plans we have for our R&R which is all neatly planned out, prep the letters I wrote for mailing on Tuesday, and sleep on my newly rotated mattress.  But only after trying the Pumpkin S'mores Dump Cake I made (Only instead of pumpkin... yams. And instead of evaporated milk... condensed. And I added vanilla powder and pumpkin pie spice powder as well. And I don't have marshmallow "sauce" but I do have marshmallow "fluff." It's going to be awesome, but how much you want to bet I'm the only one who's going to eat it? This is brought to you by "There's less than a year left to eat all the crap in the pantry!") and showering under my newly scrubbed showerhead now devoid of calcium build-up.

And tomorrow?  Well, I think I have some ideas.