Home Sweet Home, Part 2

The rest of our house

This is the view from the front door (see it in the reflection of the mirror)--the dining area.

I love the sink by the table. Though I'm not the biggest germ-a-phob, washing our hands before meals is a must now! That little sink is short enough for all three kids to reach!

There are two doors off the right--first the living room, then the kitchen.

From the door, looking to the left: the door to the guest room and stairs to our bedrooms.

The living room

And...for fun!!!

This sits in our kitchen. Our kitchen doesn't get under 90 these days.

The "outdoor" is in the shade!!!! 100--in the shade! So, in the sun is hotter!

I haven't posted any temps this year. We did it all the time last year, cause the heat was really getting to us and hard for us. It's still hot, no doubt, and where we live is actually hotter than where we used to live last hot season! But, our bodies have certainly adjusted, and 90 just doesn't seem terribly hot anymore. I can't believe I think that, but it's true! 100 is still hot, but even when we're hot, I'd say we've adjusted to "feeling hot" and sweaty all day. It's still yucky though! ;)

The kitchen--that little space is kind of like my desk.

I like having it in the kitchen so I can listen to music and refer to websites while cooking.

But, let's be honest, you usually find me working on the computer in a cooler room in the house.

To the left in the picture is the oven and microwave. This is the largest oven I've found in India. I'm thankful I can barely get two 9X13 casserole dishes in there.

The rest of the kitchen--the stove top is over in the corner. One fun thing is that our gas line to the stove runs through the wall and is outside. This is a new thing here. It usually is in the house, taking up a whole cabinet. I like that the gas is outside--less worries of gas leaking into the house and more cabinet space. A fun little detail the contractor did!

There are SO many little details and fun things I love about our house. It truly, truly is a blessing from the Lord!!! I cannot say that enough, nor thank the Lord enough for how He provided so much more than I could ever imagine!

I still need to post on one of the best things though...our yard and the outside...coming up next!

Monsoon is Coming

We've had many days that are like this. Even days when it gets over 90 inside. And, one day we saw that outside was 111 and our thermometer is in the shade! But, we're thankful the monsoon is coming and that we're on the brink of changes in the weather. We've had about 5 big storms come through that have given us a bit of relief on these hot days (and taken out our electricity). The kids have enjoyed a few walks in their rain boots stomping through puddles too. But, we're still longing for the real monsoon season to begin.

When the rains come...the temps have gotten even this low. We have a greater appreciation and love for the rain and storms than we've ever had before. It's awesome!!!

But, while it's still hot, I wanted to note a few things that I do here that I never did in America. I do most of them because of the heat. So, before we leave the hot season, I wanted to share them with you.

1. I drink milk with ice in it. Our milk just does not get cold in our fridge, and I like cold milk. I usually drink a glass every night. I have even put ice in cereal to make my milk colder. Gross...I know. I would've never dreamed I would do this. It reminds me of Allison H.!!!

2. I walk out and about with an umbrella. I started doing it for all the grief I was getting from ladies about being in the "dup" which is Hindi for sunshine or rays. They would always ask me first, why I was out and then where my umbrella was. I started taken it with me when I'd be around these ladies, but then it started growing on me a little when I realized it's more like walking in the shade.

3. When we have guests over, we hang out in our bedrooms. We only have A/C in our bedrooms for relief when we're sleeping. It's SO hot in our living/dining room and kitchen that we move to our rooms to hang out. We've played games in our bedroom, had worship/sharing time in our bedroom and also watched movies. At first it seemed a little awkward, but quickly we all love the air and get over any awkwardness there is.

4. I start a load of laundry every night. So, this isn't really for the heat, but it is something different and noteworthy. Our machine is small, so I easily do a load everyday, sometimes two. I start it at night cause it takes a while for it to fill up with water (and time is important when you know the power is going to go off). After it agitates a little while, I turn it off and let them soak overnight. In the morning I turn it back on and run the entire cycle. There are two main reasons I do it this way. 1. So that a load is finished washing when our power goes off every morning for a few hours. 2. So that it's finished when our helper cleans the floors and she can get up all the mess from the water dumping out all over the bathroom floor.

5. When it rains, we open up the doors and windows cause it feels so good. Our floors and window sills are marble, so they can handle the water. It feels so good and we love watching the storms and rain. And, sometimes we even run outside to feel it. This one particular day, we ran out to see how big the hail was.

And....one more thing about rain. One evening during one of those storms, it was the craziest rain we've ever seen. It was like mud falling out of the sky. We thought at first it was just all the dust coming off of our roof. It's pretty dusty during the dry, hot days. But, as we talked with our landlords and other friends, we found out it really was dusty/muddy rain. There was so much dust in the air (from a desert region a little ways from here) that when the rains came down, it pushed all the dust down. It was wild to see!!! Here are a few pictures from our terrace of all the mud left behind. We actually took them 2 days after the storm before our terrace was cleaned.

Can't wait to post more pictures of the real monsoon!!!!

Beating the Heat

It's been hot here for a good solid month.

I'm not talking summer hot. I'm talking 100+ degrees hot.

At first I wondered how we were going to survive these 3 or so hot months.

But, we've adjusted well over the last month.

The other morning was so nice and cool,

so I had coffee and was reading outside in 80 degrees and wanted a fleece.

That's when I knew I had officially adjusted.

The kids love playing in the water on the porch in this tiny bit of shade we have in the afternoons.

We all drink a LOT of water. I'm talking liters and liters of water.

I know cause we have to fill and refill our liter bottles over and over that we use from the filter.

We praise the Lord for A/C's to sleep with at night. At first we were trying to hold out on running the A/C. But, the first night we woke up over and over and all three kids came into our room at different times sweaty and begging for water, we knew it was time to run them all night long.

Here are some thermometer readings from late morning and late afternoon.

One morning at 11:30am it's almost 90 inside (yes...inside our house) and about 94 outside.

Please note that our thermometer is IN THE SHADE.

At 4:30 it's 92 inside and 100 outside (again...in the shade).

The other day the thermometer feel off a ledge and was in the sun registering at 110.

And....even when it's 100+ degrees outside our boys still want to wear their boots.

They sweat so badly in those things and the inside is nasty and stinky.

But, they LOVE them SO much!!!