The Simple Life

This is supposed to be Pete's sabbatical semester from teaching his normal routine, but at this point it's  really feeling like a "sabbatical" for our whole family.  We are all way outside our normal routines and feel like a little family-unit island.  We miss our friends and family back home, but I have to say it's been a nice break not having all of the regular classes, activities, sports, meetings, etc., that we're used to.

It looks like our involvement in activities may increase soon (possibly tennis lessons, language lessons, Bible study, church attendance, and more teaching engagements for Pete), but for now we're enjoying our simple life.

For the last couple of weeks, I've felt rather old-fashioned.  Pete goes out daily to hunt down our food, and I spend most of my day teaching the kids, thinking about how to cook the food, actually cooking it, washing dishes, or cleaning.  Since the laundry cycle can take a full 4 hours for one load, and we have NO dishwasher and only a very tiny sink, the ordinary chores to keep the household running take much more time than I'm used to.  Every night after dinner, the whole family pitches in but it still take more than an hour to get all the dishes done, the kitchen cleaned up, and the floors vacuumed and mopped.  But since we have nowhere else to be and nothing else that really has to be done, the work has a reassuring rhythm to it.

And in the evenings, since we don't get many English-speaking television shows*, Pete and I do what the prairie folk must have done years ago:  we get in our warm bed really early and watch a DVD.

The daily pace is slow and relaxed and even simple work is fulfilling. There is plenty of time to play games.  Most of us are content in this season of rest... although a couple are chomping at the bit to get out to explore.  The weather is reinforcing our period of isolation, though... we're experiencing over a week of temps not going over 20 degrees.  So we stay in hibernation mode! 

I love that the teaching profession allows for regular "rest" times, or sabbaticals -- I thing every profession should offer them!


* We have been surprised to learn that we can't even watch American TV shows online or through Netflix or other streaming options.  Apparently if you're not currently residing within the country, you don't get access.  We feel so shunned!