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it’s the little things

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

we’ve been crossing off the TO DO list……

add neck flap to son’s cap…..take daughter’s skirt in…..purchase presents for family in Malaysia (and then spontaneously make gift bags out of funky NZ fabric)….work out time line for purchasing train tickets (too scary to actually do it yet though, even though we theoretically could buy the first two tickets already as we will be on those trains in less than sixty days—eeeeeek!)….gather together items for first aid kit/medicine cabinet….print out all our memorisation work in a smaller font and squeeze it into a more portable folder….sew patches over old stains….organise arrangements with family who is renting our house…..wonder about changing banks to make use of the no-overseas-fees offered by a rival bank…..collect boxes to pack our stuff away in…..change buttons on second daughter’s top….return another stack of books to the library…..arrange to visit out-of-town friends one more time….make a wee protective bag to keep our NZ Book in….paste our favourite poems into a book to take (we decided our newly-acquired poem habit was one we couldn’t do without)….*knit knit knit* (I have got so much done – every spare-ish moment I can be found with needles in hand….now there’s just a few hats to complete, a cardy for me and my second cotton top is half done)….apply for homeschool exemption for M6…..attend a birthday party……get hair cut…..and we have even had our first “last visit” with someone.

Fifty days to go.

And you know what? All that goes on in the midst of “normal” life continuing. There are still meals to cook, toilets to clean, books to read aloud, extra children to babysit, a funeral to attend, words to spell, bread to bake, songs to sing, arguments to referee, washing to fold, money to earn, life to live.

more mongolia

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

In the LP Guide, there was mention of a bow-n-arrow making place just north of Anak Ranch. There are some children round here, who are determined to make that not-so-far-relatively-speaking-journey. When I consider their homemade adventures and 1938-movie-watching (including all the interviews)and Robin-Hood-weapons-creations and sewing projects and writing projects too, I am inclined to try to help them. We are taking them to Mongolia, after all.

well, whaddya know?

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
We went to the library and there on the shelf was a Lonely Planet guide to Mongolia published a mere couplea months ago. I had become used to our local library offerings being at least two years out of date, ... [Continue reading this entry]

purchased!

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
After serious amounts of research in each and every instance, Rob's been making some Very Important Trip Purchases......like a steripen, a GPS unit and an Ipod (no link, because I've got no idea what he's got except that ... [Continue reading this entry]

did you hear them?

Thursday, July 24th, 2008
the two little girls, that is. You see, the last kids went for the final round of rabies/typhoid vaccinations this morning.  But then there was still a Mantoux test for the little girlies at another lab. As soon as I tried to unbutton her ... [Continue reading this entry]

to buy or rent?

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
There are some definite correlations between real estate talk and guidebook chat. In the travel world, character filled actually means pokey and dim, authentic bedding means a really thin mattress on a wooden platform, close to amenities means there's a disco next ... [Continue reading this entry]

an organised tour

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
Well....kind of. We have some good friends meeting up with us for three weeks, and so to make the most of our time together, we have plotted out a very loose and flexible plan. In case we lose the piece of paper it's ... [Continue reading this entry]

How do you eat an elephant?

Monday, July 21st, 2008
One bite at a time. Right now, it seems our bites are getting bigger and we might be in danger of suffering from indigestion if we don't slow down ;-) Here are the trip preparations we have made in just the last three ... [Continue reading this entry]

S.E.A.

Sunday, June 15th, 2008
South East Asia. Some Easy Arrangments. After the how-to-transport-the-family-in-the-UK headaches we've been wondering about for the past week, it was comforting to see a post from the school we'll be volunteering at in Cambodia.....if you click here and scroll all ... [Continue reading this entry]

a little giggle

Thursday, June 12th, 2008

"Firstly, let me apologize for my previous letter. It wasn’t meant to go to you. Although I come from a family of 12 myself, it was, as you mentioned, a strange enquiry. I beg your pardon!"

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