November Dayblog

Outside my window…

The air here in Cairo has been worse than ever this past week, and when I look out the window I see smog and smoke. Yesterday they burned tires, and when my husband read what possible health hazards this involves he nearly threw a fit. We have one expensive, very good air purifier that we put in the boys' room. I caught myself thinking that I'm glad the baby's not born yet; imagine his little lungs filling up with this. It's on days like these that I wonder what we're doing raising our children in Cairo.

The state of our house…

Our housekeeper comes once every week, and I usually manage to keep the house tidy for a couple of days after that. Today is day three, which is when things usually start going downhill, although things don't look all that bad – yet.

From the kitchen…

We went to Carrefour yesterday and stocked up on really fresh, cheap fruits and vegetables. Usually we get a ton of meat as well that we stuff in our freezer, but for some reason they did not have that many great deals yesterday. We still got more food in our fridge that usually though, and it's nice not to have to go through all the cabinets just to get the boys a snack. I'm roasting a chicken for dinner tonight, along with new potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets and onions.

I am wearing…

Linen pants and a red t-shirt, all from Motherhood. I thought I had bought more than enough maternity clothes in the US to keep me dressed throughout this pregnancy, however after having worn all the eight shirts and five pairs of pants over and over again since August, I'm getting a bit tired of them. I still think about those lovely ladies at Motherhood in Ft. Wayne though that helped me pick everything out. I'm a lousy, terrible shopper, but knowing that I needed clothes, I basically walked into the store and exclaimed "help me!" I felt like the ladies completely understood my agony; they asked for further instructions on what I actually needed – something I gladly provided – and they did a great job finding me the perfect maternity wardrobe. If I could actually figure out the postal system here, I would send them a thank-you card.

In the school books…

August is two months ahead in a couple of his subjects; William is running a bit behind in English but has pretty much finished his first grade math; we're in no rush to get through anything in particular so I bought paint, brushes and large sheets of thick paper. The boys have been painting for days. I read out loud to them from our The Story of the World, and they paint the things I tell them about – Vikings and Charlemagne for the moment. We're also reading up on Fayoum since we're going there next week.

I am listening to…

Swedish public radio as well as Nile FM in the mornings, and the boys' constant singing: "Deck the Hall," among other songs.

On my mind…

Last night a good friend of a lot of our best friends died from cancer. She was young – our age – and left a loving husband, a four-year old and a two year old child behind. Every time I think about it I start to cry, and I didn't even really know her. I know a lot of our good friends are mourning right now though, and that this loss is unfathomable. With this child growing inside of me, and looking at our boys; I keep thinking about her husband and her children, her family. She is where she is supposed to be, but how do you keep going as a family after the loss of such a young mother? So, so sad.

The things that make me smile…

It's Thursday, and the boys have no activities today. The professor is on his way to work but will be back by dinner, and we can all relax together.