Space Issues

Yesterday we have been here 2 weeks and our tiny apartment is starting to wear on us. We are all feeling cramped because in the kitchen, bathroom or hallway there is only space for one person, so if someone is already there you have to wait or gently push them aside. In the mornings Diablo comes into the bathroom to greet me when I first wake up and he has to back out because there isn't room for him to turn around. When I try to cook in the kitchen I am constantly having to move something before I can set something else down. A couple of nights ago I was trying to wash that enormous wood cutting board in the sink because I didn't feel like taking it into the bathtub and I accidentally knocked a wine bottle onto the tile floor and shattered it. Thankfully it was an empty bottle awaiting recycling.

And let's talk frankly about the smell. There are only 5 rooms in the apartment, so pretty much what can be smelled in one room can be smelled throughout. Cooking fish for dinner the other night has proved to be a huge mistake. When you enter the apartment there is a smell of rotting fish that I JUST CAN'T GET RID OF. I have washed all dishes, we have eaten all leftovers, I have taken out all trash and I can't find the source of the smell. Fortunately I get used to it after about a minute, but it knocks me out each time I enter the apartment. And of course the litter box is in the bathroom which is directly opposite the front door. I scoop it daily, but it's a lot of trouble to trek down the stairs and next door and back up the stairs to put the used litter in the trash, so I typically do that every other day. I bought a reed diffuser for the bathroom but best I can tell it is doing nothing. It was a grocery store cheapie (relatively speaking) so maybe I need to spend more money. I thought for a while the smell may have been from our enormous pile of dirty laundry, but since I washed and washed non-stop earlier in the week I have reduced the pile considerably.

Today our landlady is supposed to come with a new vacuum cleaner. I can't wait to go around the apartment and suck up all the hair. I have banned the kids from siting or lying on the floor (Carter is fond of rolling around on the floor) until we can get a proper vacuum, because Diablo is shedding his summer coat and anything that touches the floor comes up the color of his reddish blond coat.

I know I'm making everyone want to come visit us!

The kids have been going stir crazy too. If we dash out of school and run to the bus stop we can catch the 3:20 bus, which gets us home about 3:50. That leaves us with about 4 1/2 hours before bedtime. And the kids have literally NOTHING to do. None of their toys or books are here. There's no yard or trampoline. No friends to play with. I am cursing that little stack of activity books I had staged for Haley's carry-on bag that Dan accidentally packed into storage. We really mis-planned this portion of our time in Germany. I didn't think about these weeks that we would be without anything for the kids to do. They take turns doing their German lessons on Rosetta stone, and then they play SIMS on the Ipad more or less cooperatively for a while. But right about the time I need to go to the kitchen and start dinner they start to get bored and restless. This typically results in Carter getting too rough and Haley crying. Yesterday it resulted in an ill-advised pillow fight that tore a hole in the paper lampshade by Haley's bed.

Yesterday I took Haley to a park to play after school but by 4:30 it is dark so that doesn't leave much time for play. I told the kids I would buy them a thing or two this weekend if they can think of something that would entertain them. They can use their euros Gramma gave them (thanks Gramma!) And special thanks to Terry for the Squarrels game - that has been our only diversion.

Yesterday I spent all day looking at housing. I will write about it in another post, but prayers for us to find a home to settle in would be much appreciated!