dusty old dust

Friday evening, March 19, Sam, Ben, and Kyle left for a boyscout camp out. Rob joined them when he made it through a particularly bad night of Beijing traffic. In the morning they woke up covered in orange sand. Inhaling Gobi desert dust is exotic in a creepy way. The storm sounded like a distant train coming and looked like the last day on Earth. All morning I wanted Rob to get out his guitar so we could sit on the front porch and sing Woody Guthrie's song Dusty Old Dust.

Here's how the chorus goes,

So long it's been good to know yuh

So long it's been good to know yuh

So long it's been good to know yuh

this dusty old dust is a gettin' my home

I've got to be driftin' along

By Saturday night no sweethearts hugged and kissed in that dusty old dark and I don't imagine any preachers packed their churches Sunday morning, since by Saturday afternoon the sky was fairly clear, by Beijing standards, and the kids played outside without coats for the first time since October.

I wish my camera were better at taking pictures of dust.

Sunday night mom and children went to bed happy, knowing Monday morning there would be no evil get-the-to-the-bus routine. So now I'm catching up to ISB Spring break and what went on around here. I didn't do much about blogging, since I donated my laptop to the cause of harmony in the home. I won't write too much about all the electronics abuse that occurred. Sam likes to be productive so he did some meal planning, shopping and cooking.

Here's the chicken Parmesan he wanted for Monday night, from the Emeril Legasse for kids book. We worked on it together since he got a bit involved in Edward Scissor Hands towards the end of the cooking.

Monday and Tuesday I got another bout of compound fever and was all but surrendering to despair when I took some nutritive deep breaths and thought "what would I want to do?" I gathered up the only boxes I could find and started doing what I always do three months before a move, packing books. I started in the girls' room separating give aways, throw aways, air shipment, sea shipment, suitcase books. I felt so much better when I had finished one book shelf. Never mind that I have no travel orders to go anywhere and will probably not be driftin' along anytime soon, the girls' room looked better. I just need to find a place to stash my would be shipments. I left the suitcase and air shipment books on the shelf.

Wednesday Rob took the day off so I put the brakes on my fantasy pack out. Wednesday's adventure will be it's own entry. Thursday I moved on to Kyle's books. Sam did all the shopping for me for our Mexican food night.