anecdotes.

Oven mitts in Thailand are worthless. All of them.

I actually requested new ones from my mom for Christmas, and this is precisely why.

I typically double them up for use. I use a hand mitt without putting my hand in, and doubling it over, thus using four layers of something intended to only use one. And last night, I did this as I grabbed the iron skillet out of the oven, where it was being kept warm while I cooked something else because we only have one burner.

I knew pretty quickly it wasn’t thick enough.

I tried to set the pan back down. But the only place I had to go was back in the oven at an awkward angle with a really heavy iron skillet, and it took me a minute.

A long, burning minute.

During our dinner party for six, I held a variety of frozen vegetables in my palm. I then slept with my hand over the side of the bed in a bowl of ice water, waking up occasionally to wonder why my hand hurt so miserably. I would then roll over and submerge my hand into the ice water again.

Bleh.

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I’m a softie at heart.

The kids have gotten a little out of hand recently; they were getting very demanding. We decided we needed to set some ground rules for a few things, and we have been working hard to do this.

But I am a softie at heart, you see. And its been a very hard week or two of saying no.

Thankfully, they are doing much better, and we are granting privileges back slowly. They are learning their thank yous, which are accepted in any language, and how to be grateful for every yes.

And yesterday, I let two of the little kids into the kitchen for a snack. They ate crackers on the floor while I cooked dinner. It was sweet little Yuh Meh Oo and her little brother, Lay Tah Oo. And they were precious.

They played quietly among themselves. They enjoyed the magnets, calmly without destruction. Yuh Meh Oo even helped with dishes when I put them in the sink–I did have to redo these as she didn’t use soap, but it was the effort that was oh-so-sweet.

They stayed for about an hour, simply laughing together. Lay Tah Oo is about 2 1/2, and he absolutely loved the curtains we have hanging up. He kept getting lost in them and laughing so very hard at popping his head out.

It was lovely.

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A friend showed us this video this week, and I love it!  Flight of the Conchords joined with a number of artists in New Zealand to perform the song Feel Inside (and Stuff Like That).

The start is a little slow, but please, please watch it. Even with incredibly slow internet that took many minutes of loading, I thought it was worth it to watch two days in a row. The kids are hilarious, and the song at the end is absolutely brilliant.

And if you buy the song on iTunes, the proceeds go to charity to help sick kids stop the spews!

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I wish Stephen had an iPhone in moments like this:

When we see three elephants while in town today. A cute little baby one, too!

When we are driving down the highway and see a truck bed full of cow carcasses; a whole assortment of bloody bones bouncing around.

When we are biking and a motorbike passes us, and the driver has a monkey on his head.