I found myself telling The Fireman today "Hey Sweetie, don't do the dishes. I'm saving up hot water to wash the diapers."
Despite not having a number of modern amenities that I have taken for granted in my previous life, our little family is settling into this new life with surprising ease. There has been some complaining. There has been more than one moment where visions of nice big hot water heaters dance in my head. But, overall, losing some of our past life comforts has been surprisingly easy and (dare I breath the word?) refreshing. Shall I tell you about it?
My whole family sleeps with our heads within 5 feet of each other, separated only by a curtain. Now, this may seem like an unimaginable horror. But as parents of an imaginative 4 year old, a potty training toddler, and a newborn that requires feeding every two hours, this is a great arrangement. We don't have to get out of bed to assure Brother that there are, indeed, no green monsters lurking behind his door. When Sister needs to go potty for the tenth time at 11pm, it is approximately ten reasonable steps to get her to the bathroom and back into our own bed. When Little Brother wakes for his 2am snack, I don't even have to open my eyes to feed him and get him sleeping peacefully again. Now, please stay tuned for the next segment in The Chase Story: The Teenage Years.
I can clean my whole house in less than an hour. That is awesome. Does it matter that in less than 5 minutes that same clean house can look worse than it did before I cleaned it? I suppose it depends on who you ask. To me, no. In my heart, I know that in at least one point during the day, my house would've been presentable to the Queen of England. So, Queen, when you come to visit and there are rocks and feathers and dirt ground into my kitchen floor, and it looks like the ToysRUs clearance section was mixed with yesterday's table scraps and dumped on my living room rug, just know that at 9am this morning, the house was shining and beautiful.
Without a dishwasher, I never need more than one 5-place-setting set of dishes because they all get washed after every meal. Saving money on dishes is great, right? Okay, I admit, I am really stretching to find the good in the whole no dishwasher situation. I would rather hand wash week old dirty diapers than the dishes. Really. When my parents, who we live next to, leave their house, The Fireman and I sneak over to their house with a tub of dishes and run them through the dishwasher. This brings us such excitement and sneaky joy that we giggle. Yes, giggle.
We found out post-move that we can't get internet out here. Something about the bandwidth being maxed out for the whole Dexter area, so no new customers. Anyway, what we can do is hover around the south wall of our house (the one closest to my parents) and try to pick up a faint signal from their internet connection. This signal is available at random times of the day and cuts out with no warning. We have had luck getting a better signal off our back porch. So, at night, The Fireman and I again sneak outside, ipad in hand, to watch an episode of 24. Excitement. Sneaky joy. Giggling.
Life is busy, crazy, and wonderful here. On my to-do list for the next month: Extract 7 hives worth of honey. Slaughter lambs to put up homegrown meat for the winter. Ferment cucumbers, cabbage, and beets for the winter. Card and spin freshly shorn Babydoll Southdown wool to make into warm cozies for my family. Organize and read through Brother's Kindergarten homeschool curriculum. Try to convince The Fireman to buy me a dairy goat.
My Playlist:
Counting Crows - Colorblind
Pearl Jam - Last Kiss
Bruce Hornsby - Every Little Kiss
Matt Nathanson - Come On Get Higher
Sia - My Love
