3 years 9 months 13 days

Day 1381. Yesterday I had a very tiring day. I taught from 2 to 6 pm, four straight hours with barely enough of a break to go to the bathroom. Then I made dinner and put the kids to bed and taught from 8 to 9 and 9:30 to 10:30 pm. I was pretty exhausted after that, but I have a passion for teaching and love it. I ended up going to bed just before 3 am.

I'm always tired in the morning, as you can imagine, and this morning was rather busy with kids in bed with me, including Sammy. Just before 9 am I got up to dress the kids, as the Mobile Support lady was coming at 9 am. I exchanged a few words with her, then she went downstairs with the kids. As for me, I turned my computer on to work, and even took care of a few phone calls. I hate phone calls and have to wait for a time, when I'm up to doing them. One of the tires of Sammy's wheelchair has had a flat the last few days, and I was talking to the company that made it to figure out how to resolve the situation. I also had a credit card canceled but the new one never arrived, so I was on the phone to take care of that, especially as I need that card urgently. Besides those phone calls, I spent all my time this morning scanning teaching books that I'll need while in the US but don't want to take with me. I have a few students that I'll have to continue teaching while we're traveling stateside.

At 11:15 I went to the kitchen to start cooking. After a while Randy and the kids came upstairs, and at noon we sat down to eat. After dessert, Tammy and Emmy were watching videos, while Sammy was pushing the buttons on the CD player while listening to children's songs. I was still scanning. At 1:15 it was time for bed. The boys fell asleep first, and by 1:40 I walked away before Tammy was asleep. I sat down by my computer to prepare my afternoon lesson. I had another phone call to take care of, and while listening to their recording and waiting for them to take my call, I got pretty close to falling asleep, as it was after 2 pm, when I usually try to get my own nap in. My talking on the phone then ended up waking up Sammy before 2:30 pm, and then Emmy was up as well.

However, Sammy wasn't just up, he was crying hard. Late yesterday afternoon he'd fallen and hurt himself on his right away, with a small cut under the eye and one on the lid. The first half of last night he woke up frequently crying because he was in pain. I guess that was also the reason he was crying this afternoon. I held him and comforted him, and then Sammy said that he was hurting and asked me to pray for him, and I did. He was alright again and smiling. In fact, his eye looks better today than I had thought it would. Maybe you can see it on the picture of Sammy.

I was interacting with Sammy and Emmy who were both with me, so no sleep for Mommy. At 3 pm Randy left with Sammy, as he had an appointment at the center, where the orthopedic doctor comes every half year to see everyone. Randy had to take Sammy's night braces with him; he's had those particular ones for one year, and they're in terrible shape. They said they'd get him new ones before our trip, but we're leaving in 3 weeks, so I don't see how. He also took the knee piece for the wheelchair with him that hadn't been working for the past few weeks, and they were able to make it work again. As for the flat tire, they said they'd send new wheels all together, ones that cannot have a flat.

After they had left the house, it was Emmy and me at first, then Tammy woke up as well. I gave them some snacks and let them watch videos, as I was about to start teaching at 3:20 pm. I taught until 4:10 pm, then I got them ready to leave the house with them at 4:20 pm.

We walked to the train station to take the 4:32 train, and thank God, it was not canceled today. While we were on the train, it suddenly started pouring down rain. It was still raining hard, when we got off, but we just had to go underground to take the subway for one stop. Once we were back on street level, it was raining so hard that everyone was staying inside the subway station and waiting for the rain to subside. As we still had 15 minutes until the class was gonna start, we joined the crowd standing there and waiting for the thunderstorm to pass. It was also pretty windy, and the kids starting going close to the exit and letting the rain spray all over them, which they thought was fun.

After a few minutes the rain in fact started decreasing a little. We had no choice but to make a move to get to class. Thankfully I had my little umbrella with me, but we hadn't brought theirs. I decided to put Tammy, the heavier one, on my shoulders, and hold Emmy in my arms, while also holding my umbrella over the three of us. I wished I had a picture of what we looked like! I started running in the direction of the school as fast as possible, but they were too heavy to make it all the way there. We stopped at a little concession stand as it had a roof, but it was still dripping. We were already pretty close to the entrance of the school, so I told them to run there, and we all did. We all had wet hair and more or less wet clothes.

We returned two DVD's to the library, then took the elevator up to the school and our classroom. Randy was gonna come there after Sammy's appointment, but they weren't there yet, and I could not reach Randy on the phone. There were two other kids there, siblings, who had made it in the rain. Together with them the teacher started the class at 3 pm.

We did the individual greeting song first, and Emmy was the first one to be greeted. He wanted everyone to clap. Then it was Tammy's turn, and she wanted everyone to play instruments. After the kids, it was my turn, and Emmy decided everyone was gonna shake their belly. The teacher was amazed, saying that once again Emmy had come up with something she had never heard before. What a creative kid!

Then she got pictures of penguins out, which was our theme today. While we were looking at them, Randy and Sammy arrived, as well as one other kid. Sammy also had wet hair, which he let me know, when I took him to sit with me.

We then did some penguin action songs, and the kids also had to copy a sequence of taps on a drum, that each kid got to make. Then we walked in a circle, and every time the teacher stopped drumming, everyone was supposed to freeze. At first Emmy never froze, but then she was impressed, when he did immediately.

Then she got little, round mats out, and everyone had to stand on one, when she stopped playing her recorder. However, she started taking one out every time, and the kid who didn't get one to stand on was out of the game. She put one of the mats under the chairs you see on the picture, and it was really funny, because Emmy simply pulled it out to stand on. So she put it back, and next time, Emmy pulled it out again to stand on. Then she removed it all the way so he could not do that. She was once again impressed with him.

The kids then sat down on the floor with her, and she gave them wooden sticks to play with, after we had done a song, where we used our hands to clap and hit our thighs in a certain sequence. Then she got the two sound bars out, and they went from kid to kid for them to play. Sammy went first and did not want to give up the sticks, but I was glad that he did not start crying, when I took them from him to give to the next kid, Emmy.

Then the class was over, and they got their stamps. On our way out we stopped at the library again to get a few DVD's, then left the building. Surprisingly it had stopped raining, and the sun was out again. We walked to the subway, rode it for one stop, then let them play down in the subway, as there was a huge and safe area, and we still had 15 minutes until the train's departure. Emmy was pushing Sammy around in the wheelchair, and all three were having fun. Then we took the elevator up to the train platform and took the 6:23 train home.

By 6:40 we were back home, and Randy left immediately for another pickup of some piece he needs to repair a broken bike he had picked up. Tammy and Emmy were at the table watching, while I started bringint hem food, and Sammy sat in the kitchen with me, where I put the food straight into his mouth. After some time, they all went into the bathtub, where they continued eating. While they were in the bathtub, Randy returned, which was a relief. And so he helped getting them ready for bed. I read them two Bible stories, brushed their teeth, then prayed for them and flew them into their beds. It was already 8:30 by the time I sat down by them. At 9 pm Randy took my place, while I got myself something to eat. After having eaten, I went to work on the pictures from today. Now it's 1:30 am, and I have to finish cleaning up the kitchen before going to bed.