A Day of Dilemmas

Today was one big example of how sometimes you just have to sit back and go with the flow.

Dilemma #1: Miss Priss woke up at 6:40.

Solution:  Encourage baby to snuggle longer in bed with mama using the iPad as a bribe.

Dilemma #2: Power went out early in morning and lunch time is approaching.

Solution: Remove semi-frozen chicken and cook on propane burner, toss in veggies, mix up some homemade biscuit dough, and voila! Chicken and dumplings cooked on one burner.

Dilemma #3: During deboning of chicken, baby girl decides to open the mini fridge and remove a glass Coke bottle, thus shattering it on the floor.

Solution: Grab baby and place her in the sink, immediately scrub chicken off me and blood and glass off baby.*

(*Side note to any grandparents reading this – baby just got a little scratch on the tops of each foot…which bled more than was necessary.)

Dilemma #4: Messy kitchen and bloody baby at nap time.

Solution: Ask Papa Didier for help to clean up kitchen while I apply band-aids to squirmy baby.

Dilemma #5: Papa Didier has a headache and explains he will need to go to the doctor after work to get medicine.

Solution: Provide Papa Didier with 2 Tylenol for now and a lukewarm Coke (since power is off) as a bit of caffeine to help.  I also gave him 2 additional Tylenol in a baggie for later with instructions not to take for another 4-6 hours if he still has a headache. (I totally saved him $15! I feel like could be a nurse now…just joking.)

Dilemma #6: Papa Didier informs me that the spotted bunny gave birth successfully to 11 babies, but one died this morning getting caught in the wire of the cage.

Solution: After a stunned silence (I had no clue the bunny was even pregnant as the females and males were in completely different cages), I politely thanked Papa Didier for tending to the dead bunny. Then, I take the cardboard box I had been saving for our next move and make a baby bunny nest. I even filled it with fresh grass.

Dilemma #7: While transferring babies to new bed, I notice another bunny has “ceased to be.”

Solution: Ask Papa Didier to take care of it (I am too short to reach).

Dilemma #8: Notice that the female bunny in the next cage is eyeing the newborn bunnies.

Solution: Ask Papa Didier’s advice about possibly moving the bunny to a new cage to prevent any fighting. Papa Didier informed me that she is too tired to fight. She will give birth in a day or two. (again, see #6!)

Dilemma #9: The possibility of a second batch of bunnies when I was shocked about the first.

Solution: Take the second coveted cardboard box I had been saving for our move and make a second nesting box.

Dilemma #10: Running late to band rehearsal.

Solution: Nothing. Eat lunch slowly. Drive normal speed. Show up 30 minutes late and find everyone else running behind as well. We didn’t start for another 30 minutes.

Dilemma #11: Getting to drive home in Kinshasa traffic for the second time.

Solution: Joke the whole way about cars honking at me because I don’t pull out into traffic immediately and stalled only once (please see rule #1 about driving in Kinshasa)!

Dilemma #12: Overtired, hot baby at bedtime.

Solution: Strip her down to her diaper, nurse and rock her, and put her to bed.

Dilemma #13: Still no electricity and it’s dinner time.

Solution: Let Kevin go to grocery store to pick up some meat to cook. Then, I sit back and watch him work his magic and enjoy dinner made on a propane burner!

All day long, little problems came my way. I could have sat down and cried and allowed any one of those things to defeat me, especially when they started piling up all at once. But I chose not to do that and instead, I went with the flow. I think I had a great day! Extra snuggles with my girl, delicious food, 9 baby bunnies, excellent dress rehearsal at play, a chance to practice driving, and a chance to practice my French! I had a great day, how about you?