6 years 4 months 17 days

Day 2330. Yesterday I was glad that I didn't have my usual 9 am student. I was able to sleep until 9:30 am, then I got up and ready to leave the house. Just before 10 am I left with Tammy and Emmy. We took the subway downtown, then walked to their music school. We didn't have any scooters as there was lots of snow everywhere.  We got to the music school early, and as always the kids were playing with the foam cubes while we were waiting. Tammy got a book from the library and had me read it to her. It was about a girl who was about to lose a tooth, and Tammy could identify with it as her front top tooth has been very loose and is about to come out any time.

As always the class started late. Only one of the two other students was there. It was the first class after the Christmas break. The teacher asked the kids how many presents they had for Christmas and had them guess what she got for Christmas. Then we got started with the finger warmup. After the Do and the Fa key, she added the Sol key. Then she mentioned the end-of-semester concert next weekend and asked which of the two timeslots we had chosen. Next she asked each child what they were going to play and jotted it down for the program. Then we went through those three different songs one after another, singing it, singing the notes, tapping it and finally playing it. Then each child got to play the song they'll do at the concert at the teacher's piano up front. That all took some time, so we never played the last song we had done before Christmas. She had them all come up front as she wanted to do the two singing songs with them that they'll be doing at the concert. Then she did story-time with them.

The class was over so it was time for their weekly stickers and stamps for every time they had practiced - which was a lot for Tammy and Emmy during the past three weeks. Then we put our coats and shoes back on and walked back to the subway. We rode it for three stops, then got off and walked to the McDonald's right there where Randy and Sammy were already waiting for us. It was noon. I ordered for all of us, and they brought the food to us. The kids were happy about the new toys. We had a good time eating, and with one pm approaching, we packed up and left. Randy and Sammy took the subway downtown to go to Sammy's music class at the same school while I took the other two kids home.

Back home I only had a few minutes left until starting to teach at 1:30 pm. I set up Tammy with some crafts she wanted to do while Emmy was on his tablet. Then I taught until 2:30 pm. After I was done, we got ready to leave again. We rode the subway downtown then had to wait for a bus. It was freezing cold and snowing with wind. We were very glad when the bus finally arrived. We rode it for four stops, then had arrived. The kids still didn't know where we were going. On Friday one of Sammy's teachers had mentioned that there was a Pumuckl movie out, and Sammy loves Pumuckl. I then checked it out and saw that it's still playing in a few places just once a day and got tickets - much to Sammy's delight. I then told him we'd make it a surprise for the others and asked him to keep it secret. I was amazed at how well he did not telling but he did say "Pumuckl" a whole lot more than usual which made his siblings believe that the surprise had to do with it which was true. Once we walked into the movie theater, they figured it was a Pumuckly movie.

There was an escalator right there and the directions to our theater were to go upstairs. Then an employee came up to us and told us she'd show us the way to the wheelchair entrance. We had to leave the building again and walk down the road to another entrance. Once inside, there was an elevator we could take to the floor we needed to go. Once up there we walked to theater three and showed our tickets and walked inside. We parked the wheelchair by the entrance and went to our seats in the back in the middle. Sammy was so very excited about the movie! There was still advertisement and trailers of other movies on the screen, but Sammy couldn't wait and was not happy. When the Pumuckl music finally started, he cheered. 

It was a good, funny movie, and they all enjoyed it but Sammy was getting rather restless the last twenty minutes or so. He came over to me from Daddy, then it went better for a while. Once the movie was over, we left the building again to go home.

Unfortunately there was no bus going the opposite direction so the best way was to walk for 15 minutes to the subway that would take us straight home. While we were walking in the snow and the cold, Tammy was pretty much whining the whole time. We were all glad when we reached the subway and got on it to warm up. By 5:50 pm we were home, and I made hot noodle soup for the kids, then their sandwiches and cut up their fruit. After they had eaten, they went into the bathtub, then we read some Bible stories and I prayed for them, and they went to bed. Then it was my turn to get something to eat, sit down and relax until going back to work.

This morning I was looking forward to sleeping in, and except for getting woken up by kids a few times, I was actually able to sleep in peace, especially after the kids had gone downstairs to play. I woke up at 11:30 am and got up to cook lunch. About an hour later we sat down to eat. 

After lunch, the kids got dressed, and Randy took them all to the nearby park with the little sleds. They all enjoyed the snow and kept going up and down the little hill there. While they were there, I was working on my computer, doing the German translation of the latest newsletter and transfering everything to my new laptop. Once the kids were back, we all went downstairs to do our own little service. I had two little teachings on worship and on prayer prepared that I did, and we sang a few songs and prayed together. Then we went to the piano to practice. Yesterday their teacher had chosen the pieces they need to play by heart at the competition in February, now it's their turn to learn and memorize them, so we did them after having done their regular homework. Emmy was giving me a very hard time and ended up with no tablet for the rest of the day. After they were done, I returned upstairs to continue working on the computer.

It was going on 6 pm when they all came upstairs, and I went to the kitchen to make their dinner. They ate, then went into the bathtub. Coming back out, Emmy remembered he had homework as he hadn't been able to complete all his work in school. It was pretty late to start doing homework but it had to get done. He sat down next to me to do the two books while I did reading practice with Tammy. Because of that, there was no story time tonight, and it was nearly 8:30 pm before they went to bed. Then I got myself something to eat, relaxed a bit, and then went back to work. Now it's nearly 1 am, and I still have to load the dishwasher.