3 years 9 months 11 days

Day 1379. Yesterday we finally had some time at home - at least until the afternoon. We were close to not going to church a second day in a row, but ended up going for the kids' sakes.

This morning Emmy kept coming to me, as usual, not letting me sleep, but asking for the crayons to do some drawing. I was too exhausted to get up and kept asking him to let me sleep. When I finally did get up to go to the bathroom, I gave them the crayons and coloring pages.

At 8:45 my alarm went off, and I forced myself out of bed. I dressed the kids and left the house just after 9 am for my second visit to the dentist in a few days. I was very tired the whole trip long. It takes me just under an hour to get there, then I was there for about 45 minutes, and home by 11:45. Randy and the kids were all upstairs. I put the leftover soup from the other day on the stove, and only minutes later we were able to sit down by the table to eat.  Once again Sammy did not want to eat the lentil soup for some reason, while Tammy and Emmy ate it all. I made a quick omelet for Sammy instead, but he ate little of it as well.  However, enough to get dessert.

At 1:15 I put them all to bed for their nap and sat down by them. Half an hour later I was able to walk away. Randy had already left on a grocery run after lunch. I was glad that I wasn't teaching until 4:30 pm, but was so tired that I soon lay down myself. Sammy was up first, which was enough to wake Emmy up, and then Tammy was up as well. And so I was up by 3 pm as well. Randy soon took the kids downstairs, while I cut some apples and pears to take with us to class, as well as bread with salami. And then I prepared for my students.

I started teaching at 4:30, and only 10 minutes later Randy and the kids came upstairs, as Randy always needs plenty of time to get them ready to leave. They came into my room a few times, but it wasn't as bad as at other times. Once I was done at 5:20 pm, I quickly put my shoes on, and we went out the door. 

It was pouring down rain outside, but we had brought our umbrellas. We were partly running to make the 5:30 train, but when we got there, we found out that the train had once again been canceled. Too much rain? It happens way too often. We had to wait 20 minutes for the next train, which meant that we were going to be late again. By 6 pm we got off the train, then we still had some walking to do. Thankfully they heard us ringing the school bell quickly today and let us into the building. As the teacher is also always late, they had only just started the class, and at that point, only one other kid was there. A few minutes later two siblings joined the class as well.

At first I was playing ball with Sammy, as the balls were out. Then the teacher handed out the hoops, and we did the races we always do in the beginning, first with the kids as "horses", then them lying on the floor and being pulled by us. Sammy had a sleeveless body on today and unfortunately got his ellbows burned a little from the friction, as he cannot straighten out his arms all the way.

Then the teacher was setting up the usual contraption, just doubling up the big vaulting boxes today. At first the kids were a little hesitant to jump from one box to the next, but that soon passed. Sammy was ready to get on the rings and got on them right away. He likes me spinning him in a circle, so that's what I did. The other two were jumping off the vaulting boxes. Then they came over to also swing in the rings, as well as swing hanging off of them.

Everyone was doing somersaults on the big mat. Emmy would make them after jumping off the box, and he did them really well. Tammy's were very crooked. And Sammy loves them too. I kept doing them to him, with him laughing every time. 

Time went by really fast, and so it was time for the final races to the other end of the gym and back. Then we put our shoes and coats back on and left. We needed to make the 7:23 pm train today, and we did. They were all eating their fruit and sandwiches, while I ended up talking to a curious lady who wanted to know lots of things about the triplets.

By about 7:40 we were back home, and I only had half an hour, which was very little. They ended up sitting down at the table and eating, then I just washed their hands and faces and got ready for my 8:10 pm student. Randy had to do the rest tonight. He put their pj's on and read them a Bible story before putting them to bed. I had managed to pray for Sammy and prayed for the other two after I was done teaching at 9 pm. All three were still awake at that point.

I then continued working at my desk until 1 am. Usually I move into a more comfortable position at some point, but I was scanning school materials all night, so that I have them while in the US, as I won't be taking any school books with me. Once Randy went to bed, I moved to the kitchen, took care of the dishes, and then decided to still write this report, even though it was late. Now it's nearly 2 am, which is my typical bedtime. Tomorrow I have an intense day of teaching, four hours in a row in the afternoon, and then two hours at night.