One Almost Dead Cat

I am seriously tempted to wring Mia’s neck. I had just finished this post, when she waltzed across my keyboard and erased the entire thing. How? I have no idea. Where did the draft go? I also don’t know. But here I go again. Like I had nothing better to do today!!!

The title was “It Takes Longer to Live Here”. When I arrived in Brazil 26 years ago, one of the older missionaries (probably younger than I am now *sigh*) warned me that it takes longer to live in Brazil, meaning that the simple things of life are not so simple here. That’s true today, even with so many improvements and “updates”.

I was thinking about this morning as I “piddled” in the kitchen for several hours. First off, I did my Monday laundry, waiting some 30-40 minutes for the machine to fill, meaning it took over one hour for it to finish. When it did finish I had to hang it up. Don’t you love the ingenious system of pulleys that give us room to walk under the clothes? By the way,the object on the right, with the chimney, is my hot water heater. It heats on demand only. I am excited that this week, I should be picking up my used clothes dryer. I hope I can stand the electricity bills for using it!

As the clothes finished, I worked on lunch. I washed the beans and put them on to cook for about an hour. Let’s hear it for my new stainless steel pressure cooker. Isn’t it beautiful? Yes, I do polish it after every use, which is almost on a daily basis.  Once it got on, I cleaned the whole grain red rice and put it on to cook for about an hour. Then I cleaned and chopped the fresh green beans, cleaned the fish and put it to marinade in freshly squeezed lemon juice. While those were going, I could grind my coffee, make my espresso (see the Italian espresso maker on the stove?) and blend my homemade yogurt (made on Saturday) with blueberries and bananas. Then I could sit down for a while until it was time to bake the fish. I know my body thanks me for the healthy food, but I do miss opening a package of frozen veggies or a can of beans…

Tomorrow I will need to market, so I’ll go the fruit/vegetable place for fresh produce, the bakery for bread and a small market for staples. I could go to the big supermarket for everything, but their prices are high, quality low and checkout lines long and slow (like at least 30 minutes).

Am I complaining that it takes longer to do things here? Of course I am. Sorry about that. I have made my choices and I could take short cuts, I know that. Everything we do has a price to be paid. But sometimes I find it tiresome to spend so much time just to do the basics. Enough, enough. I must go iron about a foot of wrinkled clothes. Fun, fun, fun! Gotta love being Suzie Homemaker. In all seriousness, isn’t it wonderful that I get to serve my family in this way? I am privileged!