Keeping up appearances

Hello all!  I decided that it was time to do a new post.  Today has been so busy...milk, sweeping, mopping, cleaning, laundry, making bread...I'm glad to have a chance to sit down for a bit.

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Mom and I were talking the other day about something, and I thought it might make an interesting blog.

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I have let myself go in the area of appearance and such.  Really.  Of course appearances aren't everything...we should be more concerned with what's on the inside - but when it goes too far the other way, that's not good either.  This is somewhat of a struggle for me...I'm not sure if I'll be able to adequately put it into words, but I'll give it a try.  

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Living here doesn't lend itself to prettying you up.  People look at us differently here {of course} - we're not natives, we live in a different kind of house, in general we have more money than they do, and we're white.  Since people look at us so differently already (we're the ones "Oh, from Amerika!"), I don't dress myself up as much as I would in the States.  I don't want to seem to be saying "look at me!" with my more "fancy" (I use that term loosely) American things. 

I wear flip flops quite literally everywhere I go.  Each morning my hair goes straight up in a clip.  My daily attire consists of a big t-shirt (Most of them are hand-me downs), and an old skirt or kanga I got from the market, or stretch pants.  

Sometimes I stop and actually look at myself...what happened?  It didn't happen overnight, but because three years of being with people who mostly have only a tattered, stained kanga, or tattered, stained pants to wear with a ragged, stained shirt, maybe some shoes, maybe not.  Even so, I don't have to look like a cave woman!  

So I resolve to wear some earrings {Hey, I've worked up to studs!}, and maybe put some lotion on my feet, but the next Sunday an old lady comes to sit by me.  Her kanga is worn and holey, as is her shirt, her sandals are made out of old tires...and her feet.  Her feet are slightly deformed from having such a hard life, her toenails are all split, and the skin so cracked they would be impossible to ever fix.  Then I look down at my own feet, then back at hers...and I had been worried that mine are sometimes dirt stained or not as smooth as I'd like.

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I would love to get all prettied up sometime and have somewhere to go, or have something to do that I have to get a little prettied up for.  But there isn't, which is perfectly okay, but just because some around me are like that old woman, doesn't mean I should completely let myself go.  I'm trying to do better, but I look at that old woman's feet, and it's a strange, mixed feeling.  I want to do better with myself, but as I look back at the old woman smiling at me with her toothless smile, I wonder...how can I?

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{please note: I did not take this picture, and I don't own it...I found it on flicker.com, but it maybe is just a tiny sample...}

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(NOTE: If you stay longer than 5 seconds on this blog, music should start playing.  If you don't want this music playing, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and hit the stop button. :) )

New look

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While blogging this whole time, I hadn't really found a background, etc. that I really liked.  The black and white looked nice, but it didn't really seem to fit "me".  Sooo, I found this that I like alot better!

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I saw the owl dividers, and yes, worked my whole blog design around them.  But my personal favorite is the "Hoo goes there" button.  

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How do you all like it?  Or too many owls....

{Hoo...hoo!}

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"The List" - Hmm, sounds ominous!

First off, Lee and Julia made it safe and sound to Oklahoma!  Thanks for all your prayers!

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So I've made a sked-jool (Yes, a schedule) for myself.  I think it'll be good to have what I need to do written down instead of getting most of them done, but having dust rabbits as my roommates.  In my last post, I said I'd tell some of the things that are on it.

These aren't in any particular order.

1)  I've gotten to be a little bit of a wimpy blimpy (Haha, not really...wimpy yes, blimpy not really.  I can't take credit for that phrase by the way...) so I do some cardio in the morning {all of two mornings in a row now! :) }, and a bit of yoga and stretching at night.  

2)  Cook a few meals a week.  (Doing the dishes is always a given, except sometimes an exception when I'm the one cooking the meal.  Dishes never make my list, hehe, you can't forget dishes!)

3) "Cleaning the house" sounds so quick, but people who actually do it know that it's not for the faint of heart!  Sweep the floors every day, dust on alternate days, pick up all the junk that you just put away...Yes, I think they have legs.  *shifty eyes*     

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Fridays are also mop days - Bucket of water and a towel. 

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Sweep my room, pick up clutter, dust, clean the bathroom.  Thankfully not all on the same day, but in the week.  {*cough* How long has that been there?!}

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Tuesdays and Fridays are milk mornings.  I go outside, get the milk from "Mama Maziwa", strain it, pasteurize it, and put it in jars.  

4)  Bible study - The most important of all!  Very much enjoying these parts of my day!

5) Swahili - I haven't actually gotten around to doing this one yet, but I will!  It'll do me alot of good if I actually sit down and study it some more.

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So there are a few samples of The List!

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So this afternoon I made homemade raviolis!  I actually didn't mess them up, they were pretty good.  It took all afternoon though (literally), to make that and french bread.  It would take less time, but I had to figure out different sauce measurements and substitutes, and quadruple check myself to make sure I didn't do anything wrong!  :)

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I hope you all have a wonderful day!

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Well hello February! When did you get here?

Oh February, what will you bring?  

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Well, in about half an hour we're going to town to do some last minute shopping for snacks, etc. before Lee and Julia leave, going to eat supper, then going to the airport.  Julia's going back with Lee this month to spend some time there and meet his family.  It's been so great having Lee here.  It's been wonderful to get to  know him, and have him be with our family.

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Lee, thank you so much.  Thank you for being what my sister needs...thank you for making her happy.

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~(And what a *cute* couple they make!)~ 

:D

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This month should be great!  Hopefully, I'm going to be able to get alot of things done.  I don't have enough time at the moment to reveeeal all my plans {insert evil chuckle}, but in my next post,  I'll fill you all in.  Oh yay!

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Ok, it's off to town I go! 

:)

 

Please keep Lee and Julia in your prayers as they travel!

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