Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Hausfrau/tour guide on strike

I'm afraid I may have to go on strike soon. My big belly and this growing baby inside of it are slowing me down! Seriously, it is really hard at times to accept that I just can't do everything I used to be able to do, and that I have to rest more often, and that there's nothing wrong with that! After more than a week of nothing but playing (a long weekend in Bavaria and then hosting Dave), I've spent the last two days doing nothing other than my Hausfrau duties. I really don't mind cleaning, grocery shopping, and doing laundry, but I sware it's taking me at least twice as long as it used to because of all my "rests" on the couch. This may be hard to believe, but the laundry may be the most tiring of all. Last night, as I was complaining, Kirk asked me, "How are you going to do laundry for the next two months?" I hate to complain about our laundry situation, because I know we have it much better than many others in Switzerland, considering we have our own machines that we can use anytime of any day. But here's the trouble. The machines are in our basement. That means that I have to walk up and down the stairs dozens of times on a laundry day like today (especially considering how small the loads have to be to fit into our mini European style machines). I'm exhausted! Woe is me, I know...

I suspect my tour guide duties will also be on hold for a while. I'm feeling especially thankful this week that Dave chose to start his 10-week world tour here in Switzerland. It really was very considerate of him. I guess he had suspected that had he come any later, I may have had trouble being the hostess with the mostess, and he was right! We had such a great week with him here, but he wore me out! We did lots of exploring (as we've already posted) and traveling, as you have to do when you come to Basel. Thankfully, both Dave and Kirk were very understanding and patient when it comes to my slow pace. They had to put up with my frequent bathroom breaks, my slow walking, my regular requests to sit down and rest for a few minutes (on a bench or something), and my constant snacking demands. Somehow they never complained about my frequent requests to stop for ice cream!

I still have about 2 months to go with this pregnancy, and from now on we're pretty much Basel-bound, other than the occasional day trip. It's hard to imagine 2 whole months without traveling considering what the past 2 years have been like for us, but frankly, I'm more than happy to stick around here for a while and give my body lots of rest.