My week off...

Well, from school at least. This week was a national holiday so we had the whole week off from classes. That was really nice. I still spent several hours writing characters and going over vocabulary. So much fun. Also, Da Jie had the week off so she could spend time with her family and it was time to harvest her fields. I'm not complaining at all that she wasn't here--other than we all really missed her. She does an amazing job for our family so we are happy to give her time off whenever she needs it. Plus it was really nice to have time with just the family at home. However, it totally made me appreciate even more how much she does around here. As a family we create an unbelievable amount of dirty dishes and other messes. When we first moved here I had so many reservations about having someone come in to do house work and help with the boys--only for the fact of that having been my sole responsibility for 3 years. Now I know why everyone who has done this before advised us to find a house helper. I can't imagine adding school for Stan and I into this week and all the other things that took up my time. Not to mention that my house is filthy cause I didn't do nearly the complete job of cleaning that she does for me...I didn't have time. How does she do it? I may have to learn the term Superwoman in Chinese. After all that I did this week, I'm looking forward to the end of vacation week. I will gladly trade the dishes and household cleaning for class and studying any day. I love that I can spend time with the boys and focus on the reason we are here. I know many of you who read this work full time while doing all the normal mommy activities and don't have a house helper. Please just imagine if everything you did outside your home (and some things inside your home) were done in a language you barely understood and you were without many conveniences you have used your whole life, for example: car, dishwasher, normal grocery store, etc. I have to say , I really look forward to a REAL week off...in about 18 years.