Day 1052. It was only 6 am, when Emmy got up and got his sister up. At 7:45 we all got up. I woke up with a bad headache and was terribly exhausted all day, until the evening. I guess yesterday was a little bit too much for me.
After breakfast we went downstairs, where we read another story in the new Bible with more text and fewer pictures. Then they wanted to draw, while Sammy wanted to play the piano. I set it all up and then went upstairs to work.
I had a real hard time being productive but managed to get the French translation done by early afternoon. It went out 5 days after the English, which is later than I'd like. Thankfully I didn't have to cook today, as we had to eat the lasagna (backup for when I can't cook) that had already expired. They all came upstairs at 11:45, and at noon we sat down to eat.
They still don't eat much, but that lasagna will soon be too little for the five of us. All plates were empty today, then they had some icecream. After cleaning them up and dressing them, they went straight to bed instead of going downstairs. It was only just after 12:30. Just before 1 pm they were all asleep, and I was able to walk away. Once again I wanted to sleep but never actually closed my eyes. And then it was already 2 pm and Emmy walked into the room. He doesn't sleep more than an hour any more at nap time. At first he was quiet, but once he got loud his siblings woke up as well.
They were tired and cranky, especially Tammy. They did not want to go downstairs but wanted to leave right away, but it was not time yet. I managed to finish and send the newsletter and then got up to get myself and everything ready for us to leave at 3 pm. Because we were gonna take the tram line that has so many old trains with stairs, we did not take any strollers with us today. As Sammy sits pretty well on the tricycle, with a seatbelt, we put him on that tricycle, Emmy sat on the other tricycle, and Tammy was walking. We went to the bus stop a small distance away and just about made our bus. Tammy and Emmy sat on seats, while Sammy stayed on the tricycle. After we got off, we had to wait for another bus. Tammy and Emmy were running around and playing, one on the outside of the window of the little waiting area, while the other one was inside, which was a lot of fun for them. Once again the busses had let us down, not running exactly on schedule, which meant we had to wait longer and were late again. After we got off the second bus, we still had to walk a little before arriving at the school.
When we walked into the classroom, the class had already started. They were doing the greeting song, and Emmy immediately jumped in, saying what he wanted to do, when the teacher asked who'd like to go next. Tammy was also ready to volunteer, and then Randy took her to go change her diaper.
On the whole it was a pretty bad class today, the second session of this one with this teacher. They were not participating at all, and Sammy wasn't either. He just wanted to play with the sink there, but when Randy could not do it any longer, he was just screaming and screaming until Randy left the room with him. One time they were supposed to jump into the hoops on the floor, but instead they picked up a hoop each and ran off to play with them. They did enjoy it, when they could take an instrument to play, but even then I had to make sure they were following the instructions to play softly or loudly. I'm glad this is a short class; I think it's just two more times.
When the class was over, we walked down the stairs and saw the public library again. And today was the day we went inside. I haven't been in a library since I was a university student. I asked about enrolling and got a free kid membership card for Tammy. With that card you can borrow up to 25 books for one month. Then we went to the kids' books section. They immediately started looking at books, and I looked at a few with them. After some time of sitting there and looking, they each got to choose one book to take home with us. Tammy took a book on babies (of course!), and Emmy a book on dogs. Daddy was excited to find some English kids' books and chose two. We checked out, the boys got on the tricycles, and off we went to make our way home.
We had to take the tram to get home, and so we had quite a walk to get there. Once again we missed the new tram and had to take the next train, which was an old one. But this time we did a lot better than last week, since we did not have the stroller. The kids sat down on seats and started watching Peppa Pig. I had Sammy as well for some of the time. After we got off, we still had a long walk back to our house. Tammy was pretty cranky and only happy once she was on my shoulders. When we reached the tiny playground by the house before ours, they wanted to go play. They see-sawed a little, then Emmy balanced on ropes and logs with my help and did amazingly well. But it was time to get home, and so I walked off with Sammy, and the others then followed us. By 5:45 we were back home.
The kids went downstairs with Randy, while I had to return Paul's emergeny call from earlier. The move in Mali is a big mess and worse than expected, so Paul keeps informing me what the latest situation is. Please pray.
I was very tired, but forced myself up and into the kitchen to make their dinner just after 6 pm. They came upstairs early and went on the balcony, and at 6:30 pm we sat down at the table to eat. I had made fresh corn, and Sammy ended up being the only one eating it off the cobb. It wasn't long until the kids got up to go into the bathtub, while I continued feeding Sammy who loves corn. In the water they ate really well, eating most of the food and Sammy eating everything and some of his siblings'. They all had squirters which they enjoyed playing with. By 7:45 they were all in bed.
I sat down by them and was able to walk away some time around 8:15 pm. I got something to eat, and then went back to work. Now it's 11:30 pm, and I can barely keep my eyes open.
