This whole submission thing really sucks. It's so hard to strike a balance between keeping my mouth shut and emotionally shutting down completely. The right thing to do feels the absolute worst. I assume this is all happening to make me a better person, as I'm realizing that no matter what I do I will never be able to change my mother. Nor can I get away from her, apparently.
In other news, Cambodia doesn't exactly have enough power to supply Phnom Penh's demands, especially during hot season when the government employed Lexus owners crank up their air conditioning. Cue regularly scheduled power outages! We had our first one two days ago and it lasted for exactly three hours. The next day, it was two hours in the afternoon and one at night. Today we only had to suffer through two hours in the morning and 15 minutes tonight (where I assume they turned us off accidentally.) I really wish they'd get the schedule hammered out so that we can plan the laundry around it. It's really inconvenient to be in the middle of washing a load of clothes and have to leave standing water in the washing machine till the power comes back on to finish the cycle.
Love and Peace or else!
Cleo
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Learning to breathe
learning to crawl, learning that You and You alone can break my fall. I'm living again, awake and alive. I'm learning to breathe in these abundant skies.
That pretty much sums up my life at the moment. I'm learning lots. My mom and I got into a fight this afternoon over whether or not I could put my dirty clothes in the hamper now or leave them in my room till tomorrow. I wanted them out of my room. Mature eh? We fight over the most petty things recently. I think I spent most of my life afraid of her and her temper, and now that I'm not afraid anymore I just make her more and more angry, but something in me says I have to fight back or I'm going to be walked all over. So after this fight, I was talking to Abba. Or rather, Abba was talking to me. I wanted to read a book and He wouldn't let me. He kept saying "Don't fight her Callie, don't do it." So finally we talked about it for a while. Abba showed me this letter where this guy had written to people who needed help. It said, "live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants...show proper respect to everyone...Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only those who are good and considerate, but also those who are harsh. [This part got me. It's no fun to submit to someone you don't really like.] For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering...but how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable...To this you were called."
Crazy as it sounds, I think this may be part of the reason why I'm here, or at least a good thing that can come of it. To quote someone else really smart, "Surrender don't come naturally to me, I'd rather fight you for something I don't really want than take what you give that I need."
And in the end, I realized that not fighting isn't surrender. It's not giving up on what I believe or admitting that she's right or taking the easy way out. Trust me, keeping my smart mouth shut is far from easy. And it's not letting her run me over either. It's a choice. A conscious choice, that I make, to submit because Abba asked me to. And I know he loves me, so how can this be a bad thing? I feel like something changed in me today. I feel like I grew up a little bit. And I figure that if I have to endure living here, some good may as well come of it.
The wedding was...interesting. More on that later. And hopefully pictures.
Love and peace or else.
Cleo
That pretty much sums up my life at the moment. I'm learning lots. My mom and I got into a fight this afternoon over whether or not I could put my dirty clothes in the hamper now or leave them in my room till tomorrow. I wanted them out of my room. Mature eh? We fight over the most petty things recently. I think I spent most of my life afraid of her and her temper, and now that I'm not afraid anymore I just make her more and more angry, but something in me says I have to fight back or I'm going to be walked all over. So after this fight, I was talking to Abba. Or rather, Abba was talking to me. I wanted to read a book and He wouldn't let me. He kept saying "Don't fight her Callie, don't do it." So finally we talked about it for a while. Abba showed me this letter where this guy had written to people who needed help. It said, "live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants...show proper respect to everyone...Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only those who are good and considerate, but also those who are harsh. [This part got me. It's no fun to submit to someone you don't really like.] For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering...but how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable...To this you were called."
Crazy as it sounds, I think this may be part of the reason why I'm here, or at least a good thing that can come of it. To quote someone else really smart, "Surrender don't come naturally to me, I'd rather fight you for something I don't really want than take what you give that I need."
And in the end, I realized that not fighting isn't surrender. It's not giving up on what I believe or admitting that she's right or taking the easy way out. Trust me, keeping my smart mouth shut is far from easy. And it's not letting her run me over either. It's a choice. A conscious choice, that I make, to submit because Abba asked me to. And I know he loves me, so how can this be a bad thing? I feel like something changed in me today. I feel like I grew up a little bit. And I figure that if I have to endure living here, some good may as well come of it.
The wedding was...interesting. More on that later. And hopefully pictures.
Love and peace or else.
Cleo
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Alas...
My mother neglected to bring my sanity. It was one of those things that just didn't get put in the bag. Oh well. I was never on good terms with my sanity anyway. What with him leaving me all the time, it wasn't a healthy relationship. Maybe it's best we're on a break.
My mind seems to have gone missing as well. My mind and I got along better than my sanity and I did. My body and soul are kicking and screaming for a vacation, although they'll have to consent to taking me with them or there won't be any me left to belong to.
When my mind left, he left me a little piece of him to use while he's gone. Guess he figured he didn't need that part. Either way, that little part is almost used up.
Tomorrow I'm going out to provinces for a wedding tomorrow. (Told you that little piece of mind was almost used up.) In between all the stress of trying to obey rules I don't know, I intend to do absolutely nothing of interest other than spend a day at the salon, and perhaps dye my hair. That should pacify my body and souls demands for a break. Who knows, maybe my sanity will get to missing me and come for a visit!
Love and peace or else.
Cleo
P.S.
It's a wonderful thing to be friends with the person you buy jewelry from. It means you get to borrow earrings and necklaces that you have no intent of ever buying for special occasions such as provincial weddings. Suck on that Wal-Mart.
My mind seems to have gone missing as well. My mind and I got along better than my sanity and I did. My body and soul are kicking and screaming for a vacation, although they'll have to consent to taking me with them or there won't be any me left to belong to.
When my mind left, he left me a little piece of him to use while he's gone. Guess he figured he didn't need that part. Either way, that little part is almost used up.
Tomorrow I'm going out to provinces for a wedding tomorrow. (Told you that little piece of mind was almost used up.) In between all the stress of trying to obey rules I don't know, I intend to do absolutely nothing of interest other than spend a day at the salon, and perhaps dye my hair. That should pacify my body and souls demands for a break. Who knows, maybe my sanity will get to missing me and come for a visit!
Love and peace or else.
Cleo
P.S.
It's a wonderful thing to be friends with the person you buy jewelry from. It means you get to borrow earrings and necklaces that you have no intent of ever buying for special occasions such as provincial weddings. Suck on that Wal-Mart.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Please speak slowly, my heart is learning.
So I'm learning a lot of things.
I was talking to Abba last night about how I often don't feel like I have anything to give. I am not the thinnest person here, to say the least, and every time I walk out of my house a thousand voices aussalt me and berate me for not being thinner. Recently I've felt like I have to try so hard to be a presentable person. My attitude has been all wrong. Now, I know in my head that beauty comes from within and spreads to the rest of you, but I keep going on this idea that if I could just get the outside to be better, the inside would fix itsself. Now I know this is rediculous. I know a tall, blonde girl with a model-perfect body and she is the most unhappy person I know, but somehow I believed the lie. It's hard to live every day having faith in the fact that you have a source within you that gives, even when you are empty. I feel as if every ounce of patience and kindness I have is completely gone at the end of the day, and yet there are still 5 little people who need more from me. It's then that Abba helps me the most, often in ways that I don't even recognise. As it says in Captivating "This is the part where we work out our salvation." You don't get to wait until all your wounds are healed to help other people. Because you have the Spirit, you can help people now, because it's not you doing the work. And honestly, that's a huge relief.
Still, I'll be glad when my mom gets back tomorrow. Hopefully, she'll bring my sanity with her.
Love and peace or else,
Cleo
I was talking to Abba last night about how I often don't feel like I have anything to give. I am not the thinnest person here, to say the least, and every time I walk out of my house a thousand voices aussalt me and berate me for not being thinner. Recently I've felt like I have to try so hard to be a presentable person. My attitude has been all wrong. Now, I know in my head that beauty comes from within and spreads to the rest of you, but I keep going on this idea that if I could just get the outside to be better, the inside would fix itsself. Now I know this is rediculous. I know a tall, blonde girl with a model-perfect body and she is the most unhappy person I know, but somehow I believed the lie. It's hard to live every day having faith in the fact that you have a source within you that gives, even when you are empty. I feel as if every ounce of patience and kindness I have is completely gone at the end of the day, and yet there are still 5 little people who need more from me. It's then that Abba helps me the most, often in ways that I don't even recognise. As it says in Captivating "This is the part where we work out our salvation." You don't get to wait until all your wounds are healed to help other people. Because you have the Spirit, you can help people now, because it's not you doing the work. And honestly, that's a huge relief.
Still, I'll be glad when my mom gets back tomorrow. Hopefully, she'll bring my sanity with her.
Love and peace or else,
Cleo
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
nothings gonna change my world
Ok, so Paul McCartney is a cool guy and everything, but "nothing's gonna change my world"??? Dang I wish life were really like that.
So about a month ago I had to go to Vietnam to get my visa renewed. The visa I came on is only renewable twice and I was past that, so I had to leave the country. Now I have a multiple-entry NGO visa, which is free. Whoot!
I went with Kati's dad because he needed to get a Visa too. That could have potentially been the most awkward thing ever, but it wasn't. So we got the cooler and filled it up with water and food and set off with one way tickets to the boarder. The bus company wouldn't sell us tickets for the way back, but more on that later. It was about 3 hours to the boarder (it used to be 4 but they've vastly improved the roads), we started at about 9 and got there at about noon, with only the minor snag that our bus didn't seem to want to get on the ferry. So we got to the boarder and the bus stopped at a little restaurant. Well Mr. Mark and I decided we'd better go ahead and get the visa stuff taken care of and eat later. We had both overstayed our visa's, Mark on accident, me because we didn't have the letter I needed for the NGO visa yet. So I ended up paying an extra $30 for overstaying my visa. Mr. Mark was supposed to have to pay...well a lot more. So we got to the window and each handled our passports. Mr. Mark had put money practically everywhere on his person, so while he had enough to pay, it didn't look like it when he opened his wallet. So he held out "all the money he had" to the guy and got away with it. (We would feel pretty bad about this, except that the money goes into the pockets of the passport control officers, and they mark you down as leaving on time. So we got our paperwork done on the Cambodian side and went to the Vietnamese side, where upon arrival, a guy grabbed each of us and took us to a table to fill out our entry/exit cards. They asked for our passports and a dollar each. I asked them what the dollar was for and my guy rolled his eyes at me, shoved the paper in my face and pointed me towards the line. I politely asked to borrow his pen and he gave me a death glare. I borrowed one from a lovely British tourist. Basically he was asking me to pay him a dollar to fill out my information and hand it to the processor, which I am perfectly capable of doing myself thank you very much. After that things went smoothly until we got back to the restaurant on the Cambodian side and found that our bus had gone to Ho Chi Minh city. Apparently they let them do that now. So Mr. Mark called their translator and had him talk to the restaurant owner and figure out what was going, as this was a conversation out of both of our ranges of total comprehension. We figured out that there were other taxis and buses that would take us back to Phnom Penh. We ended up meeting a guy who had been on our bus and was in the same predicament we were. He said he had found a guy who was willing to take us back for $5 each, which is an amazing deal. We started walking to the bus and a bunch of taxi drivers kept trying to get us to go with them, except they wanted $50 for one car to take all three of us, and they were mad that we wanted to go on the bus. I told them that if they would take all three of us for $15, $5 a head, we would be happy to get go with them. The taxi drivers said no. So they kept standing there and arguing and arguing and we finally just pushed past them and got on the bus. The bus, by the way, was completely empty, as it had just dropped a bunch of Vietnamese people at the boarder, so we had it all to ourselves. So in a couple of minutes our driver comes up and tells us that the taxi drivers are very mad at him and that they said that if he takes us the next time he comes back they will slash his tires. He asked us to get off the bus and start walking down the road and said that he would come pick us up, which he did and off we went. At the ferry crossing, which we were stopped at for over an hour, I realized that we hadn't ever gotten around to eating lunch. I also realized that about the only thing that they sell to eat at the ferry crossing, are crickets, various sea creatures with their eyeballs still attached, and sandwiches made out of very questionable meat. I decided to pass on all of the above. During our hour long wait, we picked up an entire bus load of people. Since we had the bus to ourselves at the beginning, I had a seat empty next to me, and ended up with a 21 year old guy who said he was a student in the university at Phnom Penh. He wants to be a doctor and make lots of money. After we exhausted the extend of his English and my Khmer, I got out my ipod and offered to share. I decided that if he was going to listen to western music I should at least give him a proper education, so I put on U2. He politely listened to one song then handed me the ear bud back and said (Jeremy, don't read this next part), "Thank you, this is nice. But I like Hip Hop."
So after that we listened to TobyMac. (If he's gonna listen to hip hop, it might as well be decent. That and it's the only hip hop I have.)
It was an interesting trip, altho I can safely say I'm pretty glad I don't have to make it ever again.
My dad got back today. Whoot! He's majorly jet-lagged, but he did manage to stay awake long enough for a friend and I to go hang out with Abba for a bit. It's been way too long since I've done that. I'm pretty sure we're hanging out again next week too.
That said, I'm gonna go skip my homework and watch Wentworth Miller...I mean Prison Break.
Love and peace or else!
Cleo
So about a month ago I had to go to Vietnam to get my visa renewed. The visa I came on is only renewable twice and I was past that, so I had to leave the country. Now I have a multiple-entry NGO visa, which is free. Whoot!
I went with Kati's dad because he needed to get a Visa too. That could have potentially been the most awkward thing ever, but it wasn't. So we got the cooler and filled it up with water and food and set off with one way tickets to the boarder. The bus company wouldn't sell us tickets for the way back, but more on that later. It was about 3 hours to the boarder (it used to be 4 but they've vastly improved the roads), we started at about 9 and got there at about noon, with only the minor snag that our bus didn't seem to want to get on the ferry. So we got to the boarder and the bus stopped at a little restaurant. Well Mr. Mark and I decided we'd better go ahead and get the visa stuff taken care of and eat later. We had both overstayed our visa's, Mark on accident, me because we didn't have the letter I needed for the NGO visa yet. So I ended up paying an extra $30 for overstaying my visa. Mr. Mark was supposed to have to pay...well a lot more. So we got to the window and each handled our passports. Mr. Mark had put money practically everywhere on his person, so while he had enough to pay, it didn't look like it when he opened his wallet. So he held out "all the money he had" to the guy and got away with it. (We would feel pretty bad about this, except that the money goes into the pockets of the passport control officers, and they mark you down as leaving on time. So we got our paperwork done on the Cambodian side and went to the Vietnamese side, where upon arrival, a guy grabbed each of us and took us to a table to fill out our entry/exit cards. They asked for our passports and a dollar each. I asked them what the dollar was for and my guy rolled his eyes at me, shoved the paper in my face and pointed me towards the line. I politely asked to borrow his pen and he gave me a death glare. I borrowed one from a lovely British tourist. Basically he was asking me to pay him a dollar to fill out my information and hand it to the processor, which I am perfectly capable of doing myself thank you very much. After that things went smoothly until we got back to the restaurant on the Cambodian side and found that our bus had gone to Ho Chi Minh city. Apparently they let them do that now. So Mr. Mark called their translator and had him talk to the restaurant owner and figure out what was going, as this was a conversation out of both of our ranges of total comprehension. We figured out that there were other taxis and buses that would take us back to Phnom Penh. We ended up meeting a guy who had been on our bus and was in the same predicament we were. He said he had found a guy who was willing to take us back for $5 each, which is an amazing deal. We started walking to the bus and a bunch of taxi drivers kept trying to get us to go with them, except they wanted $50 for one car to take all three of us, and they were mad that we wanted to go on the bus. I told them that if they would take all three of us for $15, $5 a head, we would be happy to get go with them. The taxi drivers said no. So they kept standing there and arguing and arguing and we finally just pushed past them and got on the bus. The bus, by the way, was completely empty, as it had just dropped a bunch of Vietnamese people at the boarder, so we had it all to ourselves. So in a couple of minutes our driver comes up and tells us that the taxi drivers are very mad at him and that they said that if he takes us the next time he comes back they will slash his tires. He asked us to get off the bus and start walking down the road and said that he would come pick us up, which he did and off we went. At the ferry crossing, which we were stopped at for over an hour, I realized that we hadn't ever gotten around to eating lunch. I also realized that about the only thing that they sell to eat at the ferry crossing, are crickets, various sea creatures with their eyeballs still attached, and sandwiches made out of very questionable meat. I decided to pass on all of the above. During our hour long wait, we picked up an entire bus load of people. Since we had the bus to ourselves at the beginning, I had a seat empty next to me, and ended up with a 21 year old guy who said he was a student in the university at Phnom Penh. He wants to be a doctor and make lots of money. After we exhausted the extend of his English and my Khmer, I got out my ipod and offered to share. I decided that if he was going to listen to western music I should at least give him a proper education, so I put on U2. He politely listened to one song then handed me the ear bud back and said (Jeremy, don't read this next part), "Thank you, this is nice. But I like Hip Hop."
So after that we listened to TobyMac. (If he's gonna listen to hip hop, it might as well be decent. That and it's the only hip hop I have.)
It was an interesting trip, altho I can safely say I'm pretty glad I don't have to make it ever again.
My dad got back today. Whoot! He's majorly jet-lagged, but he did manage to stay awake long enough for a friend and I to go hang out with Abba for a bit. It's been way too long since I've done that. I'm pretty sure we're hanging out again next week too.
That said, I'm gonna go skip my homework and watch Wentworth Miller...I mean Prison Break.
Love and peace or else!
Cleo
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
A Day in the Life
is an absulotely wonderful song that was written by the Beatles and recently covered by Mae. You can barely tell the difference.
Got up at 7:30, washed, dressed, got the kids up, got em dressed, went downstairs to do breakfast at 8, made eggs with this spice stuff. It's the best Noni's eaten in two weeks. Then school, lunch at noon, rest after lunch, Sweeny Todd (I started and had to quit about a third in because it was time for the kids to get up) then I went to class, then to Kati's to chat and say goodbye to the intern, then home, cuddles with Noni, and getting the kids in bed.
Í'm absolutely exausted. One day of this is no big, but every day? I'm fast running out of patience and sanity, and I've still got a chapters worth of notes to read and two posts due by last night for school.
Dad gets here tomorrow. Thank you God.
On the happy end of things, dad's bringing a bunch of stuff over for me! Now I like to think I'm a relatively un-materilistic person, but there are some things that are just nice to have. Like jeans that fit, and body spray to mask that nasty cambodian sweat smell that makes you feel more like a cow than a woman. And chocolate. My beloved Grandmother is sending me hersheys chocolate in honour of Easter. I love that woman. I'm also getting my heels. Now if heels seem vastly impractical for a third world country, that's because they are, normally. But we go to some places, especially on sundays, that just so happen to have hard floors and air conditioning, and in the midst of all the filth in this country, heels just make you feel pretty. And that's nice.
Ok, so I know this post is a messy jumble of ideas, but welcome to my brain at the moment. I am understanding my mother more and more every day. And as much as I try to be all gentle and caring all the time, it's just not happening.
I have decided that we're skipping school tomorrow in preparation for dad's homecoming. I've been sleeping in my parents room upstairs so I've gotta get all my stuff outta there, and several other things like that. If dad's not just exausted I'm gonna go to hang out with Abba and a friend that night too. It's gonna be a good day. : D
Love and peace or else!
Cleo
Got up at 7:30, washed, dressed, got the kids up, got em dressed, went downstairs to do breakfast at 8, made eggs with this spice stuff. It's the best Noni's eaten in two weeks. Then school, lunch at noon, rest after lunch, Sweeny Todd (I started and had to quit about a third in because it was time for the kids to get up) then I went to class, then to Kati's to chat and say goodbye to the intern, then home, cuddles with Noni, and getting the kids in bed.
Í'm absolutely exausted. One day of this is no big, but every day? I'm fast running out of patience and sanity, and I've still got a chapters worth of notes to read and two posts due by last night for school.
Dad gets here tomorrow. Thank you God.
On the happy end of things, dad's bringing a bunch of stuff over for me! Now I like to think I'm a relatively un-materilistic person, but there are some things that are just nice to have. Like jeans that fit, and body spray to mask that nasty cambodian sweat smell that makes you feel more like a cow than a woman. And chocolate. My beloved Grandmother is sending me hersheys chocolate in honour of Easter. I love that woman. I'm also getting my heels. Now if heels seem vastly impractical for a third world country, that's because they are, normally. But we go to some places, especially on sundays, that just so happen to have hard floors and air conditioning, and in the midst of all the filth in this country, heels just make you feel pretty. And that's nice.
Ok, so I know this post is a messy jumble of ideas, but welcome to my brain at the moment. I am understanding my mother more and more every day. And as much as I try to be all gentle and caring all the time, it's just not happening.
I have decided that we're skipping school tomorrow in preparation for dad's homecoming. I've been sleeping in my parents room upstairs so I've gotta get all my stuff outta there, and several other things like that. If dad's not just exausted I'm gonna go to hang out with Abba and a friend that night too. It's gonna be a good day. : D
Love and peace or else!
Cleo
Sunday, March 9, 2008
If You Could See Me Now...
I forgot how much I like to read. I don't get much time to do it at school and I had forgotten how much I love to read. A good book is like...stew. A good, chunky stew, warm, perfectly seasoned stew on a cold day where you can curl up in a large comfy chair next to a fireplace and eat it with a glass of wine. And coffee afterwards of course. they're just...comforting. They let you escape into a world better than your own. A world that has a definite beginning and end that you can figure out in a few pages. A world where everything may be terrible and out of control but you know that it's gonna be ok eventually because everything is always ok eventually in books.
One thing that I will have in every house that I ever live in, is a library. Now I'm not one to hoard books, I believe one of the most beautiful things about them is that they can be passed on and enjoyed by many people before they make their way back to you, so borrowing would definitely be allowed. As for now, my library exists in multiple places, and is always changing as I trade books with friends. Here are a few of my favorites that will be in my library someday. You should check them out.
"P.S. I love you", and "If You Could See Me Now" by Cecelia Ahearn. She's written several other really good books too.
"Inkheart", it's sequel "Inkspell", "The Thief Lord" and "Dragon Rider" All by Cornelia Funke
"A Dangerous Dress"
"Collected Poems" by E.A. Robinson
"Captivating" by John and Stacy Eldridge
"Do You Think I'm Beautiful?" by Angela Thomas
"The Five People You Meet in Heaven"
"Harry Potter" Years 1-7 by J.K. Rowling
"The Chronicles of Narnia"by C.S. Lewis
That's good for a start, I'm sure we'll come up with lots more over the years.
Love and Peace or Else!
~Cleo
P.S.
I love you...
One thing that I will have in every house that I ever live in, is a library. Now I'm not one to hoard books, I believe one of the most beautiful things about them is that they can be passed on and enjoyed by many people before they make their way back to you, so borrowing would definitely be allowed. As for now, my library exists in multiple places, and is always changing as I trade books with friends. Here are a few of my favorites that will be in my library someday. You should check them out.
"P.S. I love you", and "If You Could See Me Now" by Cecelia Ahearn. She's written several other really good books too.
"Inkheart", it's sequel "Inkspell", "The Thief Lord" and "Dragon Rider" All by Cornelia Funke
"A Dangerous Dress"
"Collected Poems" by E.A. Robinson
"Captivating" by John and Stacy Eldridge
"Do You Think I'm Beautiful?" by Angela Thomas
"The Five People You Meet in Heaven"
"Harry Potter" Years 1-7 by J.K. Rowling
"The Chronicles of Narnia"by C.S. Lewis
That's good for a start, I'm sure we'll come up with lots more over the years.
Love and Peace or Else!
~Cleo
P.S.
I love you...
Friday, March 7, 2008
Coffee
is currently keeping me alive. I think I'm addicted. I should probably do something about that.
My sister is obsessed with High School Musical and the nifty people at Disney decided to make a version with a pop up commentary. Now due to the whole english second language thing, my little sister can't really read as well as most kids her age, so guess how I spent my evening? Yup, reading the pop-ups. It actually made the movie more bearable, since I've only seen it fifty times.
In other news, American Idol was interesting. They got rid of one person I really liked and one person I didn't. I got all my homework done, altho I had to answer my own question, which was, by the way "What were the foreign policies of China and Japan in the 19th century and how did they influence the way we see these countries today?" The first part required direct quotation from the book, the second part didn't. Silly me for asking my classmates to think. So I've ended up writing two entries this week, one of which was 300 words, the other was 200. That should more than make up for the weeks that I only wrote about 75. But seriously, when the subject matter is covered by less than 100 words in the book, it's kinda hard to stretch it out.
And I'm rambling. I tend to do that when I'm tired or stressed, and I am currently both.
All in all, it's been a pretty good day. I got a lot accomplished that needed to be done. Tomorrow is gonna be clean the house day! Whoohoo! Cleaning the house mostly consists of me delegating to the children and following behind to make sure it gets done, which is far less tiring and overwhelming than doing the whole thing myself, not to mention that I feel a thousand times better when the house is clean, so tomorrow should be a good day.
I'm gonna go wash away the days dirt and settle down to a good book and a glass of tea.
Love and peace or else!
~Cleo
My sister is obsessed with High School Musical and the nifty people at Disney decided to make a version with a pop up commentary. Now due to the whole english second language thing, my little sister can't really read as well as most kids her age, so guess how I spent my evening? Yup, reading the pop-ups. It actually made the movie more bearable, since I've only seen it fifty times.
In other news, American Idol was interesting. They got rid of one person I really liked and one person I didn't. I got all my homework done, altho I had to answer my own question, which was, by the way "What were the foreign policies of China and Japan in the 19th century and how did they influence the way we see these countries today?" The first part required direct quotation from the book, the second part didn't. Silly me for asking my classmates to think. So I've ended up writing two entries this week, one of which was 300 words, the other was 200. That should more than make up for the weeks that I only wrote about 75. But seriously, when the subject matter is covered by less than 100 words in the book, it's kinda hard to stretch it out.
And I'm rambling. I tend to do that when I'm tired or stressed, and I am currently both.
All in all, it's been a pretty good day. I got a lot accomplished that needed to be done. Tomorrow is gonna be clean the house day! Whoohoo! Cleaning the house mostly consists of me delegating to the children and following behind to make sure it gets done, which is far less tiring and overwhelming than doing the whole thing myself, not to mention that I feel a thousand times better when the house is clean, so tomorrow should be a good day.
I'm gonna go wash away the days dirt and settle down to a good book and a glass of tea.
Love and peace or else!
~Cleo
Thursday, March 6, 2008
This is the Diary of a Mad White Woman...
I am, for one more week, a mother of 5, four of which I home school (with the help of my dear friend Kati, without whom I would have gone mad a whole lot sooner). If this seems like a tall order, that's because it is. My parents are currently in Puerto Rico sipping cocktails and enjoying their air conditioned hotel room. All I can say is that they better bring back chocolate. Lots of chocolate. Hopefully after this week, all will go back to the relative normalcy that is living in Cambodia with my mother, siblings, and sometimes dad.
I decided to make a blog because so many things happen to me every day that I want to tell you guys and sometimes I don't get to talk to you or I can't remember if I've told you or not. This way it's all in one place and I can just tell everyone at once. Except for the creepy people. They're not invited. And, sorry Mom, but you're not invited either. I mean, I love you and everything, but it's not really helpful to express my frustrations with you if you're just going to read them. And trust me guys, when you go back to living with your family at age 20 after having been out on your own, there are frustrations a plenty.
So today is the one week mark of my temporary mommy-hood. Suffice it to say I'm a tad bit stressed, so I left the kids watching TV with our helper and biked down to a little cafe called Coffee Korner (why they misspelled Corner and messed up the alliteration I will never understand) and had an iced coffee. And while I was sitting there, it started to rain. Well, rain doesn't really portray the full extend of the precipitation. Poured is more like it. For a good 20 minutes. Those of you who know me well know how I feel about rain. It was very good for my soul to just sit there and listen to it. I talked to Abba a bit and listened to my ipod.
Abba, by the way, is one of my best friends (which sounds bad, but it's honest). We've been closer, but he's one of those people who's absolutely always there for me. I know he'd do anything for me and I'd like to think I'd do anything for him. I've done a lot of things to tick him off, and quite frankly, I don't always like the things he does either, but somehow I know he always understands what I'm going through. Like tonight with the rain. He knows how I feel about rain, and he knows how stressed I am, and it was just nice to be able to sit and talk with him in the rain.
On some completely random notes, I have a massive ear infection, complete with intense sharp pain, throbbing, decreased ability to hear, and fever. Smack dab in the middle of my month of motherhood. Fortunately, Cambodia is a great place to get prescription drugs without a prescription, so we've got nifty little ear drops that are working wonders.
Also, after months of living as a pedestrian a friend of mine left me electric bike when she went back to the west. It's adorable, and I've been puttering all about the city on it, much to the dismay of our regular moto drivers. My adorable little bike goes up to about 20 kilometers per hour (that's a whopping 12.5mph folks) so I still want an actual motorcycle at some point, altho this one is great for learning how to handle myself in the crazy traffic.
I think I'm out of random side notes now, altho I'm sure I'll think of some more later.
Love and peace or else,
~Cleo
I decided to make a blog because so many things happen to me every day that I want to tell you guys and sometimes I don't get to talk to you or I can't remember if I've told you or not. This way it's all in one place and I can just tell everyone at once. Except for the creepy people. They're not invited. And, sorry Mom, but you're not invited either. I mean, I love you and everything, but it's not really helpful to express my frustrations with you if you're just going to read them. And trust me guys, when you go back to living with your family at age 20 after having been out on your own, there are frustrations a plenty.
So today is the one week mark of my temporary mommy-hood. Suffice it to say I'm a tad bit stressed, so I left the kids watching TV with our helper and biked down to a little cafe called Coffee Korner (why they misspelled Corner and messed up the alliteration I will never understand) and had an iced coffee. And while I was sitting there, it started to rain. Well, rain doesn't really portray the full extend of the precipitation. Poured is more like it. For a good 20 minutes. Those of you who know me well know how I feel about rain. It was very good for my soul to just sit there and listen to it. I talked to Abba a bit and listened to my ipod.
Abba, by the way, is one of my best friends (which sounds bad, but it's honest). We've been closer, but he's one of those people who's absolutely always there for me. I know he'd do anything for me and I'd like to think I'd do anything for him. I've done a lot of things to tick him off, and quite frankly, I don't always like the things he does either, but somehow I know he always understands what I'm going through. Like tonight with the rain. He knows how I feel about rain, and he knows how stressed I am, and it was just nice to be able to sit and talk with him in the rain.
On some completely random notes, I have a massive ear infection, complete with intense sharp pain, throbbing, decreased ability to hear, and fever. Smack dab in the middle of my month of motherhood. Fortunately, Cambodia is a great place to get prescription drugs without a prescription, so we've got nifty little ear drops that are working wonders.
Also, after months of living as a pedestrian a friend of mine left me electric bike when she went back to the west. It's adorable, and I've been puttering all about the city on it, much to the dismay of our regular moto drivers. My adorable little bike goes up to about 20 kilometers per hour (that's a whopping 12.5mph folks) so I still want an actual motorcycle at some point, altho this one is great for learning how to handle myself in the crazy traffic.
I think I'm out of random side notes now, altho I'm sure I'll think of some more later.
Love and peace or else,
~Cleo
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