Baby, It's Cold Outside...

And inside.

I think I've mentioned that South Africans don't have furnaces with which to heat their houses.

Before we moved here, in looking at the average temperatures in Stellenbosch, I was not bothered in the slightest. The lowest average high is 60˚F in July. Not too bad, right? The lowest average low is 42˚F, also well above freezing. But now that I know about the lack of furnace thing, I am not so excited. I hate being cold. I'd much rather sweat any day of the week.

Last night I was cold. I didn't want to get out of bed. My toes felt like little ice cubes attached to my feet--even with fuzzy socks and wool socks on, an electric blanket beneath, and a comforter above them. Ah well. I guess life could be worse.

South Africans do typically have fireplaces and space heaters. The catch is that the fireplaces are like death boxes--at least ours is! It's right next to a wool rug, and has the wimpiest screen I've ever seen for keeping the kids out of the fire. And with regards to space heaters you can literally see the electricity meter ticking off units (whatever they are) when we use them, meaning that they're very expensive to run.

Here are Auggie and Eland wearing hats indoors this morning. They impress me because they seem to always stay toasty at night. What a relief!