3 years 9 months 26 days

Day 1394. I normally don't write updates on Tuesday, as it's the only day of the week, when we're all home. But today was no regular Tuesday.

With the kids being up so very early and not allowing us to sleep, Randy got up earlier than necessary. But he had to leave the house just before 9 am already to go take apart and bring home the kids' new bed that he had found online and purchased second-hand. Once he was gone, the kids took their tablets to watch or play, and Sammy sat down by Alexa to listen to children's songs and touch buttons, which he enjoys doing. As for me, I did not sit down by the computer right away, but got started doing physical labor, preparing the room for the arrival of the bed. Because of the little space we have, we needed the dining room to switch places with the kids' bedroom for the big, new bed to work out. That means that we'll have more daylight in our dining room, which I'm happy about, and less in the kids' room. I also took advantage of the situation to increase the shelf space in my pantry. I like to get things done efficiently and quickly, but unfortunately nothing got done today.

I moved the kids' beds onto our balcony and the dining room table to its new location. That freed up the floor space for the new bed. However, Randy still needed to take down the whiteboard and to switch the lamps of the two rooms out. There was not much else that I could do. I sat down by my computer to work, while we were waiting for Randy to return with the new bed. Thankfully the previous owner had a car he was willing to transport it to our place with, as they didn't live far away.

At 11:30 the doorbell rang. It was the IKEA delivery I was expecting, just a shelf for the pantry. They only delivered the boxes to the entrance of the building, where I left them for Randy to pick them up from once he returned. Randy only returned at about 12:20, while we were sitting at the table and eating spaghetti. It took him a few runs from the building entrance to our apartment to bring everything in. With him being busy, I continued taking care of the kids as if he wasn't there. After they'd had their dessert, I cleaned them up and dressed them, and they returned to their devices. It sure was the day of the most screen time in their life up to this point, and I sure hope they won't have a day like that again any time soon.

At 1:15 pm it was bed time. Randy had finished getting everything into the apartment and needed to eat and rest. I put the kids' mattresses on the floor where their new bed is going to be and sat down in the middle of the three of them, which allowed me to bend in the direction I needed to be to encourage them to sleep, and I was with all three of them at different times. And after some time they were actually all asleep, and I was able to walk away. I spent a few minutes preparing for my 4 pm student, but soon lay down as I was very tired. And then it was Emmy again who was up early and walked into the room, lying down next to me. At 3 pm we were already all up - except for Randy, who was fast asleep and did not want to wake up. So I took care of the kids for a while, but as I was teaching at 4 pm, I needed him to take over before that.

I finished just before 5 pm. Randy was trying to figure out how to put the bed back together, as the previous owners had been unable to find the instruction manual. With such a big bed, it was pretty much impossible to do. I found some related manuals online, but in German and none of them exactly what we have. Randy had no choice but to try to figure it out on his own, and that's what he did for the next few hours, until 9 pm, without getting far. I had had the unrealistic expectation that the bed was gonna be up tonight! I just don't like having this disorder for longer and especially not a week before leaving the country!

I wanted the kids off the tablets, and we ended up on the balcony, where the kids were enjoying the bubble making machine for a while. They also did some drawing. At 6:15 I went to the kitchen to make dinner, and Sammy joined me there, as usual. Then I took the food to the other two at the dining room table, as usual. Eventually they went into the bathtub, where they continued eating, then I got them out to get them ready to go to bed. I didn't want to interrupt Randy, but he then came over to help, doing what he usually does. Then we all sat down to read a Bible story.

I had to somehow find some room to put their mattresses on the floor for them to sleep. Sammy's bed was inside, while the other two were on the balcony, and I had just enough room to either side of it for the other two. As they never sleep before 9 pm anyway, Randy was gonna work until then, so I asked them to get a book to read to take to bed with them, but that wasn't very successful. Instead they were listening to stories on their headsets. I sat down at my computer close to them to get ready for my 9:30 pm student. At 9 pm Randy stopped working and ended up sitting on a chair by the kids until they were asleep.  I taught until nearly 10:30 pm, then needed some time to wrap it all up. Then I got something to eat before going back to work. And so it's now 1:30 am, and I still have to clean up the kitchen.