Our Saturdays here are weirdly normal. Sometimes.

The work/school week starts on Sunday, while Friday and Saturday is the weekend. (Fun fact: the weekend here used to be Thursday and Friday, but right before we came, the king changed it to align with the weekend in the rest of the Middle East because kings can do that.) So, for most of the time I’ve lived here, I’ve been confused about what day it is, especially when looking at social media.

It doesn’t help that we have our (home) church on Fridays, so Friday afternoons feel like Sunday afternoons in the States, so we want to call our families, but they’re not home yet. Then Sunday is our Monday here and I get confused why people are posting stuff about church or other weekendy stuff.

And then there’s Saturday. Lovely Saturday. Weekends all around. Daddy is (usually) home from work, the locals don’t come out until the evening so the traffic is good for running errands and if we should happen to figure out what time it is in the States (day light savings time, what? #thanksobama), we have a good chance of making  internet-connection-willing calls to loved ones. There are even cartoons on TV (You know, for if I was one of those moms who lets their kids have screen time. #Iamoneofthosemoms)!

  
Something else weirdly normal about this Saturday is the holiday many around the world are celebrating. In this country, it is forbidden, which of course means the celebrations are everywhere and over the top. Stores sell surplus candy and toys, the international schools celebrate with “Storybook character” parades and many compounds offer trick or treating, haunted houses and parties with no attempt to hide the purpose.

So, even though this is my least favorite holiday no matter where in the world I am, there’s a strange home-style comfort in the pervasive normalcy of mutilating pumpkins and encouraging sugar intoxication.

Having a day that feels weirdly normal is a small grace for me in this season of life where most things in my world seem upsidedown and I’ve all but given up on making sense of anything.

Happy “This” Day to you and yours. May your Saturday(s) also be full of weirdly normal things and small graces to keep you sane.