Frustrated

I recently returned from a very restorative trip the U.S..  When I came home I was determined to, among other things, take more pride in my housewife duties.  Plus, spring has sprung, so it's a bit of spring cleaning, and I finally ordered my new doTERRA OnGuard cleaner and couldn't wait to give it a test run, so I've been systematically cleaning the entire place.

Today my mission is to clean the cat bathroom, like really clean it.  I thought maybe that it always smelled because of reside left in the stall, since there were some butt smudges and whatnot in there.  Plus I am just kind of spring cleaning in general.  After cleaning the shower stall where the litter box resides, I dumped all the remaining litter out of the box and washed the litter box inside and out, and refilled with fresh litter.  I poured the litter straight into the trashcan, which was only about half full at the time, but the litter made it pretty heavy.  So I take the trash to the dumpster, ensuring not to let the heavy bag touch the ground and tear.  I was only about halfway to the dumpster when I felt sand going into my shoe, I looked down and there was a steady stream coming out of the trash bag.  Apparently the weight of the bag was enough to push some corner of something through the bag and make a little hole.  I moved the hole over the grass and hustled the best I could to the dumpster.  On the walk back I followed the trail, which lead all the way back to the edge of the building but not to the door, thank goodness the trail didn't start at our front door.  It's super crazy windy today and is supposed to rain later, I hoped the weather would take care of it, since I don't even think we have a broom here.  How embarrassing.

To thank me for my efforts, or as part of some curse I am under, where the house is not to smell cat poop free for even 5 minutes, there was a fresh, uncovered turd waiting for me by the time I got back from the dumpster.  Boddington also kindly re-covered all the surfaces I cleaned yesterday with fresh tear-stain drops.  That's doubly disappointing because he was doing so well with his eyes for a while on the other food, the one that made Paris sick.  I guess there isn't a food that will please both cats at once.
After coming in and sulking for a bit, I remembered that the landlord did leave us a broom, and I went back to take responsibility for my mess and try to clean it up.  I also remembered that the unit next door to us is having an open house today, and I didn't want to dissuade potential buyers by making the neighborhood look dirty.  Unfortunately that was just enough time for most of the litter to start to do it's litter thing on the patches of moisture on the ground from the morning's off and on sprinkles.  When I tried to sweep those spots, it mostly just smeared, doing more harm than good.  

I eventually managed to scrub event he smeared spots, and left it looking alright, but not quite as good as new.  The whole thing left me feeling a bit defeated.  Especially as I vacuumed really well on Tuesday, after brushing the cats, and then did some spot-cleaning vacuuming yesterday, but when I opened the patio door today (Saturday) and the wind came in, like 5 tumblefurs blew across the living room floor.  Tumblefurs is hubby's cute name for the clumps of cat and dog fur that gather around the edges of the room and blow like tumbleweeds across the floor at the slightest provocation.  It makes me wonder why I bother cleaning at all!  This blog was meant to help keep my spirits up through the transition period, and I try to post mostly positive things, but sometimes I just need to vent!  And it worked, now I can laugh at it a bit, but now time to get back to cleaning.  :)

Volunteering

I am not a great housewife, never claimed to be, but here I am anyway.  Although I do not miss having an office job (although I did at first), I do miss being with other people, doing something useful, being with other people, feeling valued for my contribution, and being with other people.  I get quite a lot of enjoyment out of social events, particularly with the American Women's Club of Dublin, but that's not everyday and it's not the same.  Since I can't work now due to my residency status, and really I don't want to at this point, hubby suggested I try some volunteering.  Not only will it help fill that void, but I can do it as little as I want, and it will look good on a  resume to show how I filled this time if and when I need to go back into the workforce.  Hopefully that won't be until after I have kids and they are back in school (I have baby fever right now).  I found a website that listed all sorts of volunteer opportunities, and decided that the one at Imaginosity, a children's museum that is on my bus route, looked like the best fit for now, due to the easy transportation and baby fever and all.

Have you ever volunteered anywhere before?  My experience has mostly been like this:  Place:  Please volunteer, anybody, we are desperate!  Me:  I'll do it.  Place: Great, we don't know you or what you can do but we are desperate so start now please!  That is now how it went here at all.  First I had to submit my name for consideration through he volunteer site, who then passed it on to the place.  Then the place had to review my basic info, like my age and hours of availability, and decide if they wanted to deal with me at all. Then the place sent me an email saying here is what we expect out of you, if you are okay with that then submit us this other application AND A RESUME, which I did.  Really, are resume???  The description of the position was help set up for craft time.  I don't have a resume for that.  I dug up my last version of my professional resume and added a few lines at the top about how I had volunteered for church before, then put in the cover letter an explanation of  how I was a professional before but moved, blah blah blah.  Then I had to wait to hear back from them and go for an in person interview, at which the lady said they are really informal there.  This process is not what I consider informal, but at least the interview was, and we agreed I would start after my vacation (or Holiday as they call it, which I think is more fun) and come for a few hours every Wednesday for at least a month, then take it from there.  But first I had to fill our a form to get vetted by the Garda (police background check), on which I had to list every place I have lived, and when I lived there, since I was born.  That seems like overkill, since I only had to list the last 10 years when I got my security clearance working for the U.S. Government, but at least they are being thorough with the people who will be working with little kids.

Today was my first day.  I think they forgot I was coming, and weren't really sure what to do with me.  They weren't that busy so I only stayed for 2 hours, which included getting me oriented a bit.  The next two weeks are going to be some special camp stuff while the kids are on school break, so they expect to be really busy and have some more structured stuff to do, and I think they will need me more.  The reason I started this week was so they would have a chance to show me what's up before the craziness hits. I had to wear one of their volunteer t-shirts while I was there. They have a bucket of shirts they rotate, I think even the staff has to do that, you just wear it for the day then leave it behind and pick up a new one the next day.  Unfortunately, they only had one size that said volunteer on it, and it was a little snug :(  So I wandered around for about 15 minutes and found out that this place is actually really rad.  They had a ton of interactive exhibits along with the activities, like the ones I helped with.  I am jealous I didn't have this when I was a kid!  We did have the Exploratorium, which I loved, but I think this is targeted at younger kids and have lots more stuff to climb and play on.  They even had this section that was a green screen where you stand on it and play a virtual video game and see yourself on TV.  They flashed a screen of high scores and it was all pictures of adults :) 

After wandering around I "helped" with Nursery Rhyme Time, which meant I laid out some yoga mats, then did the hand motions along with the songs while I sat in the corner in case any kids (toddlers) looked my way.  Then after a few songs they brought out a bucket of random instruments for the kids to just play with.  I actually did help a bit there, ushered some new kids into the room, helped some figure out what to do with their instruments, and just encouraged the kids to play and make a racket!

Then, after music room cleanup, it was Toddler Art Workshop time, where I helped set out supplies, did a tiny bit of helping with glue sticks, and then, after the kids left, I helped cut out more shapes for tomorrow's craft.  They keep mentioning I can lead my own craft class, so I might bring in a bunch of flower or star or whatnot cutouts that I make with my crafting supplies and have them glue them to a piece of paper to make a picture of a garden or something.  After seeing the kids today, I need to keep it easy and simple.  Or maybe I will come in the afternoon when (I think) it's geared more towards older kids.  It's kind of cool that they want me to be more active when I come next time, but I also have only spent like 2 hours total there, so that seems like it's jumping the gun a little!  I did tell the coordinator that I would make a project at home and bring it in next time to see if that is the kind of thing they are looking for.  Maybe I will be leading it soon, time to hit pinterest and look up toddler friendly crafts!

So far the people seem nice and I had some fun, so looking forward to going back next week.

At the grocery store

The grocery stores here aren't TOO unlike those in the US, but there are some definite differences. The first difference you notice before you even get in the store.

The "trolleys" are chained together, and you have to insert a €1 coin to release one.  The first few times I went to the store I only used the hand basket because I refused to pay €1 to rent a basket for my shopping trip.  Only later did I find out that you are just putting this down as a deposit (not all stores have this handy sign), and you get it back at the end when you clip it back onto the chain on the end of the next cart.  It's actually a very clever way to make sure the carts end up back in the cart storage area, and not all over the parking lot or stolen outright.

Some of the stores are also combination department store and grocery store.  Kind of like a Super Target, but the food selection is larger, and the clothes and food are on separate levels.  So you can go buy some sheets and some new shoes, then take the escalator down to do your grocery shopping.  Some also have a little cafe!

Once you get inside, the stores are mostly like you would expect, just with different brands, and flavors.

These mostly just tasted like BBQ chips but not quite as sweet.  Surprisingly, they actually listed both Roast Beef and Irish Stout (beer) on the ingredients list!  Also, don't call these chips, they are "crisps."  "Chips" are thick french fries.

Some of the candies have names you might recognize, but most of those don't taste quite the same as the US versions.

Some things use the same words but mean something different.  When people here speak of bacon, it usually means rashers, which is more like ham than bacon, and if you want something close to what you are used to, you have to look for "smoked streaky rashers" or "smoked streaky bacon."  Sometimes they just call it "American style bacon."  While we are on the topic of breakfast, pancakes is another funny thing.  "American Style Pancakes" are usually found pre-packaged and don't look very tasty to me.  I have seen a few pancake mixes, but pretty sure they are not the American style.  When they say pancakes here, they mean something more like crepes, which is confusing because they also have crepes.

We had trouble one day finding lemon juice, like in one of those squeezy lemons or a bottle, so I asked one of the store employees.  She didn't know, so she asked another employee, who sought clarification by asking, "You mean like for pancakes?"  I was totally confused by that, but we did finally find our lemon on the baking aisle.  I found out later from a cab driver two interesting things about pancakes here.  First of all, it is what they eat on Fat Tuesday, it's a big thing apparently. Second, the preferred method of eating them is with a  squeeze of lemon and some powdered sugar, like shown on the cookbook cover below.  Now the whole "for pancakes" thing makes more sense.  I still haven't tried these pancakes yet, but some day I will see what this crepe and lemon thing is about.

Some other things I find interesting are the basics: milk, eggs, bread.  I have only in the last month or so seen stores carrying something called "skimmed milk."  Up until then I have only seen "Milk" and "Light Milk," or sometimes "Low Fat Milk," which seems to be like 2% milk.  The eggs are usually stored on a shelf at room temperature (but recommend storing in the fridge after purchase), and there is a huge selection of free range eggs.  I have only seen brown eggs, and the yolk is more orange than yellow.  Some brands of bread offer both a full loaf and a "Half Pan" of bread, which is half a loaf. This works out great for us, because we can't go through a full loaf before it starts to mold.

And finally as you exit the store, I am again fascinated by the carts.  Every cart we have used have all four wheels that turn in a full circle, not just back and forth, meaning you can push the cart sideways. I actually hate that, I have trouble pushing it when it is full, but still interesting :)  Two of the Three stores we frequent have parking on a separate level than the store.  One of them is in the mall, so you see people pushing grocery carts around the mall on their way to the parking garage, which is kind of funny.  Unlike IKEA, you don't have to wait for an elevator to take you down.  They just use inclined moving walkways instead of escalators.  What's really brilliant about this is that the walkways are grooved, as are the cart tires.  The tires sink into the grooves on the walkway, and now the little rubber stopper that goes partway down the wheel is making contact with the walkway and holding the cart in place.  So genius!  They do shopping carts so much better here than we do in the US.

So if you come over for a visit and hit the grocery store, you'll get along okay, but expect adapt a little :)