"Making Do"

There’s many times in life when we “make do,” meaning that we don’t have exactly the right tool or furnishings for the job, but we can get by with what we have. For example: we’ve used a computer printer box as a table for our humidifier to sit on in our bedroom by placing a colorful towel on top to “dress it up” a bit.

We have just moved into a new apartment over America’s Labor Day weekend. Labor Day isn’t observed here in Mongolia, but I’ll remember this was the weekend we moved into our new location. Our new kitchen has much less cupboard and counter space than our previous apartment. However, my creative husband took one of the two tables our landlady supplied us and covered it with a heavy plastic cover and has created a long counter space for us. Necessity is the mother of invention, and we've “made do”.  It works great!

However, don’t feel too sorry for me. In this new apartment, I have a new (never been used until me!) oven from Ireland which is far superior to the old Russian ovens in our previous two apartments. Recently, I made some delicious homemade whole wheat/oatmeal bread. Here it is, finishing in my bottom oven:

The top oven is a grill/toaster oven.

I went to use our new washing machine the first day we had moved in, and it wouldn’t work. After reading the manual, I found that if the washing machine has never been used, you must unlock the stabilizing posts with a wrench. Well, here in Mongolia, our tool box is awfully small. We tried using a certain kind of wrench which didn’t do anything but slip and cause frustration for 15 minutes. A few days later, we were loaned a ratchet wrench, and what a difference the right tool makes! The job was done in less than five minutes and I was off and running on my big pile of laundry.

So, I’m thrilled with the ways we’ve figured out how to “make do”, and I’m also thrilled at the new items which will make my baking and laundry easier.