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Peloton, worth every penny!

In October 2018, on a cool Sunday morning in Arlington, VA, I walked, with my family, to the site of the Marine Corps War Memorial, to stand at the finish line of the Marine Corps Marathon and watch the runners. The crowd was abuzz with anticipation, the sound of cowbells and music filled the air, and a line of Marines stood ready to present each finisher with a medal. There were babies, and grandpas, and loved ones, and curious onlookers. We met a woman who was gushing that she couldn't keep up with her husband and had missed him along the entire route; it was certain he would have finish time to make them proud. I could feel her joy. I stood there and a familiar feeling washed over me, a feeling I experienced the first time I stood along the route of this very race in 2010, and again several years later when friends were training for the Cape Town marathon, in Lagos, Nigeria, in less than ideal circumstances. There were few places to run long distances safely and those badasses w...
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Recent posts

It's NOT easy as ABCs

I don't do plants. I've tried a few times but have never been able to keep anything alive. My husband got me a mini rose plant the week of Valentine's Day and I laughed as I asked him if he forgot my history with plants. Fast-forward a month, the plant is still alive and springing new buds; a mini beacon of hope in these trying times. I've always said that homeschooling is not for me. Yet, here we are. Foolishly, I thought that all this time at home would give me a chance to make everything sparkling clean and organized. The joke is on me. On Thursday, I attempted to supervise three children doing schoolwork, while changing and washing sheets and towels, and deep cleaning our two bathrooms. It did not go well, there was definitely some yelling and tears. Lesson learned. There will be no more multitasking while homeschooling. Apart from Thursday's drama, the homeschooling is not going too badly. We established a routine right away, and that keeps us focused and...
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Preparing to Ride the COVID-19 Storm

Backpacks and lunchboxes get washed on the last day of school. Three weeks ago, we started stockpiling non-perishables. Why? Coronavirus. We are a family of five and we consume a lot; a little extra, just in case, is probably not a bad idea. We are concerned, not so much about getting COVID-19, but about the inevitable disruptions. We want to prepare, not panic. I grew up in Guyana in a time when scarcity was commonplace. I remember the lines for everything - food, cooking gas, toilet paper! I have vague memories of sitting for hours at a clinic, waiting for vaccinations and, I think, powdered milk, or maybe it was another place, another queue. The run on grocery stores that we are experiencing now in the U.S. gives me flashbacks. I presume that the majority of shoppers have never seen anything as widespread as this in their lives, not here in the U.S. anyway. As it happens, we were living in Lagos, Nigeria during the Ebola outbreak in 2014. Social distancing, increased...
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Not a TOP SECRET Fort

As the summer break rolled into the fourth week our tiny apartment started to feel much smaller with the kids home all day long. It was apparent that even the kids craved a little individual space  - they converted their bunkbed into a three (separate) compartment fort - desperate times call for creativity and innovation. While I wholly support the idea of some personal space, I could not embrace the aesthetics of the thing. Also, nary a blanket could be found and Mummy could not get comfortable on the couch. A fort makeover was in order. Our Fort These instructions are specific to the IKEA SVÄRTA Bunkbed and SVÄRTA Pull-out Bed  but could probably be adapted to another similar style of bunk bed. This project cost me about $60 ($20 per child). You will need: Bed Tent  - $20 Curtains - $16 Curtain Rings - $2 Tablecloth - $13 Grommet Set - $6 Binder Rings - $2 Cable Ties - $0 (I had left over from a previous project; I only needed five) Inst...
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Hardship tour, for sure!

Can't believe that, until A Perfect Fit , I had not written new blog post in over a year. Time flew, life was lived, and lessons were learned. Most noteworthy is that I've assumed a more relaxed posture towards housekeeping. I found that keeping up with the standard of clean and tidy I had become used to, having household help overseas, is unmanageable. I still clean thoroughly, if not as frequently, and we still endeavor to have a place for everything and everything in its place. Still, with three young children, I spend much of my day tidying. We attempted to ease the burden of cooking by enjoying takeout out a few more times a month but quickly realized that eating out more than a handful of times per month, even at inexpensive restaurants, has a significant effect on our food budget. For a family of five, the only way to stay under budget, $5 to $7 per person, per day, is to prepare the majority of meals at home. To put things into perspective, what we can reasona...
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A Perfect Fit

For Foreign Service families, to be unsettled is normal. The thrill of an unknown, future adventure prevails and mitigates any discontent with the present. This is how we cope. We survive, even thrive, because we look forward. We are many, but we are few. A fraction of a country's population that has chosen what can only be described as an awkward existence. We choose to jump in, family members in tow, without knowing what is on the other side. We show up at each new post and, like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle that is placed in wrong spot, not where it ought to be but blending in enough, we fit in until we are uprooted again. We do not have a road map, and retirement is the only final destination. We experience the world in all its grit and glory and our lives are enriched. Friends and relatives back home imagine that we are living their wildest dreams; wandering across the globe, living in fabulous homes, and meeting the world's rich and famous. We cannot deny our glamo...
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Give Yourself a Break

Living like we do is no cakewalk. It is hard, and requires a level of commitment that can be unsustainable. I've come to appreciate the benefit of taking a break and regrouping. It has been a while since my last post because frankly, the rigidity of my routine was wearing me down. I created a place for everything but everything was not in its place. I was struggling to keep up with the household chores. Cooking, cleaning, care of children, and the like are tasks that were previously performed by my household help and I was finding life stateside to be rather difficult. Not being able to keep up and the resulting disorder in our home brought me to my wit's end. Of course, everyone in the home was feeding off my ill temper and it was making for a very bad situation. I challenged myself with letting a few things go, with the condition that I needed to recharge and I would get back on track as soon a possible. I couldn't turn a blind eye to the toothpaste on the mirro...
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