Here's what I want: an pencil sharpener that works and pencils with leads that don't break! It's that simple; these two things would make large parts of my life so. much. easier. And yet, this seems like too much to ask. We are drowning in pencils around here, since they seem to be the prize bag and holiday gift du jour (heck, we even gave them as Valentine's gifts ourselves this year), but the quality of these pretty, fancy-colored pencils is crappy. And good old yellow number 2's aren't any better--I don't know how many times I have sharpened one from my current carton only to have the lead crack and break off immediately. I sometimes repeat the sharpening 3 or 4 times before a lead lasts long enough to use for homework. Which is why I finally ordered an electric pencil sharpener last night, because at the very least, I can make this whole infuriating process faster, though I can't really improve it much more than that until I get some decent pencils!
Ironically, the very best pencils we have ever used came from a basement discount store in Qatar called Al Rawnaq. My boys and I love these pencils; indeed, they have one each in our tin of drawing and coloring pencils we take everywhere with us (the tin and the colored pencils also came from this same store and they're all superb). And I have one unsharpened pencil left from the package I brought home from Doha over two years ago. Funnily enough, I recently went on a search to find more of these pencils to replace our shoddy selection and discovered that they aren't sold in stores in the US. Yes, Faber-Castell Matt-Grip Super Dark triangular pencils (with or without erasers) are apparently quite popular in India and Asia and the Middle East, are shipped from China, and are almost unavailable in the United States except via the web and a foreign supplier. You should have seen me trying to do conversions from rupees to dollars last night!
So, in the end, I ordered 10 packs of our wonderful pencils and the electric sharpener, and I am planning on sighing in satisfaction when I use them together in the not too distant future. Huzzah!
Which makes me think of another seemingly inconsequential decision we made this week. We have a joke around here that if we were suddenly to become millionaires, the only thing the husband would want is a matching set of functional food storage containers. (That's right; we're high rollers.) While up in North Conway for one of the husband's conferences, we visited the Corningware, Corelle, and more outlet and realized that we could replace all our sub-standard containers with Pyrex glass in one fell swoop for less than $50. Not really millionaire money, is it? So we took the plunge and brought home 2 sets and found room for them in our cabinets, banishing the others to obscurity (and potlucks and school lunches and other places we don't care about). Problem solved! For peanuts.
All of this reminded me of something my father said when he was visiting earlier this month, alluding to the situation of farmer's wives throughout history who have dealt with daily inconveniences and things not quite working the way they should and yet made do, day in and day out. And I realized that while there are quite a few things in my life, often quite important, that I simply can't change, can't fix, there are also many things, simple things I can fix quite easily. So I should get busy fixing as many of those as I can while I wait for the rest to sort itself out. Hence, my new Pyrex and pencils doctrine: it really is the little things, often. And I'm embracing that. Finally replacing my inadequate hutch upstairs with a perfectly wonderful cabinet from Craigslist that will nicely hold all those errant linens? Pyrex and pencils, people! What else can I fix?!!
Ironically, the very best pencils we have ever used came from a basement discount store in Qatar called Al Rawnaq. My boys and I love these pencils; indeed, they have one each in our tin of drawing and coloring pencils we take everywhere with us (the tin and the colored pencils also came from this same store and they're all superb). And I have one unsharpened pencil left from the package I brought home from Doha over two years ago. Funnily enough, I recently went on a search to find more of these pencils to replace our shoddy selection and discovered that they aren't sold in stores in the US. Yes, Faber-Castell Matt-Grip Super Dark triangular pencils (with or without erasers) are apparently quite popular in India and Asia and the Middle East, are shipped from China, and are almost unavailable in the United States except via the web and a foreign supplier. You should have seen me trying to do conversions from rupees to dollars last night!
So, in the end, I ordered 10 packs of our wonderful pencils and the electric sharpener, and I am planning on sighing in satisfaction when I use them together in the not too distant future. Huzzah!
Which makes me think of another seemingly inconsequential decision we made this week. We have a joke around here that if we were suddenly to become millionaires, the only thing the husband would want is a matching set of functional food storage containers. (That's right; we're high rollers.) While up in North Conway for one of the husband's conferences, we visited the Corningware, Corelle, and more outlet and realized that we could replace all our sub-standard containers with Pyrex glass in one fell swoop for less than $50. Not really millionaire money, is it? So we took the plunge and brought home 2 sets and found room for them in our cabinets, banishing the others to obscurity (and potlucks and school lunches and other places we don't care about). Problem solved! For peanuts.
All of this reminded me of something my father said when he was visiting earlier this month, alluding to the situation of farmer's wives throughout history who have dealt with daily inconveniences and things not quite working the way they should and yet made do, day in and day out. And I realized that while there are quite a few things in my life, often quite important, that I simply can't change, can't fix, there are also many things, simple things I can fix quite easily. So I should get busy fixing as many of those as I can while I wait for the rest to sort itself out. Hence, my new Pyrex and pencils doctrine: it really is the little things, often. And I'm embracing that. Finally replacing my inadequate hutch upstairs with a perfectly wonderful cabinet from Craigslist that will nicely hold all those errant linens? Pyrex and pencils, people! What else can I fix?!!
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