Tuesday’s Journal
After feeding Esther, I said goodbye to the boys (Joshua and Benjamin) who Daddy had dressed and fed, all ready for school. The school bus leaves at 7.20am. daily, so they dashed out the door, to try to be on time.
After that, I finished feeding Esther her breakfast, and then finished getting ready for the day.
Seba, our house lady arrived about 8.30am. and the milk came with our gardener about the same time. We measured and strained it (for cow hairs, dust, etc.) and then boiled it for 5 minutes.
(Sometimes it gets forgotten about and then I have to clean up the mess of boiled, spilled milk all over the cooker.) Then it’s left to cool, scoop off the cream and finally make it to the fridge in a jug. Seba makes pancakes for lunch, and I think about what kind of sweet thing I can make for the children’s lunch boxes for the next day.
Seba juggles her job working for us with caring for her 4 month old baby (who she still brings to work as she hasn’t yet got anyone to look after Dorcas), and she is a star. She is great at her job and tries really hard to get everything right and please us. She’s just great. I am so thankful to have her. Having someone in my house that I can trust means that I am able to leave my children in her care, when I need to go somewhere. Esther loves little Dorcas, and always goes to the same place to look for her – the place where Seba has made a little bed for her. While Esther wanders round the house lifting and laying different things, I made a start on a new prayer letter.
Esther objected to going for her morning nap, so she continued to potter about and I talked to Seba about what we could make for the lunch boxes. We decided on banana with chocolate chip muffins, as there were some bananas going off that she wanted to use up. We talked about the rest of the things that needed to be cooked today, and then I left her to get on with things and I returned to the prayer letter. Meanwhile, Esther continued to be very unsettled and went to bed later than normal for her nap.
I Skyped my mum and dad for a quick chat while the boys were at school – had to wait until it was a decent hour to ring them, first. A quick chat became much longer, as the line was not very clear and we had to phone a few times.
I needed to pop into town to collect some sandals that were left in to be repaired; also for a few other necessaries like sausages, mince and sugar(25kg).
Benjamin arrived home from school at 12.20 ish and daddy followed at about 12.25 pm – both looking for their lunch. After being fed, Glenn headed straight back to work, and I tried to settle Benjamin down for a rest (Esther went for her afternoon nap) – as we awaited the return of their big brother Joshua, from school.
When Joshua got home from school, he had a snack and a short rest. School runs from 7.45am until 2.00pm. (At this time of year, from 10.30am on is really hot until near 5.00pm sometimes.) We always aim to do his homework at this time also – usually some reading, and he is now doing spellings and number homework once a week too.
We spent a quiet afternoon, watching a short video of Max Lucado’s ‘You are Special’ and resting. Dorcas was very unsettled today, and didn’t sleep more than 10 minutes – often she will sleep for hours. This made for quite a challenging day for Seba, to cope with her crying, get her settled, and manage most of her work.
Glenn returned home around 5.30pm and we had our beef curry, amidst the rush or bath, tea, story, prayers and lights out for 7.00pm/7.30pm.
After the children were all in bed and asleep, we had a quick cup of coffee and headed out to the weekly MAF prayer meeting. It is very rare that we both go, but it was on our compound this evening, and only a stones throw away, so we switched on the monitors and went out together.
Returning from this we tidied up the kitchen (there is no help in on Wednesday’s) prepared lunch and snacks for the boys, and began to think of what the next day would entail.
Finally rolling into bed at around 10.30, I spent some time with my Lord, and finally got to one of my favourite places, the Land of Nod.