5 years 6 months 1 day

Day 2011. This morning the alarm went off at 6:30, and Randy got up to make breakfast. He normally gets up at 7 for that. At 7:15 am I got up. It had taken me over an hour to fall asleep last night, and once again Tammy never came to our bed, only Emmy in the early morning hours. I was very tired but went to work helping the kids put their costumes on. Today they had their carnival party at their kindergarten. After they were dressed, I put rhine stones on Tammy's forehead and glitter on her hear and painted Emmy's cheeks and forehead. He was a soccer player, and Tammy a unicorn ballerina. Sammy was crying because he wanted to put his costume on as well, but his kindergarten party is only next Tuesday.

After they had left, I went back to bed. Again, it took me some time to fall asleepl. Just before 10:30 I got up before my alarm went off and got ready for my 11 am student. I then taught until 12:15 pm. Randy left earlier to pick up Sammy, as I had an early student in the afternoon, but got home as late as always, as Sammy had simply not been ready. I had just finished eating, but found some more pasta for Sammy, as he asked for it, as well as pudding. I've felt terrible all day today, but had to keep going, as it was a busy day. 

At 2:15 I started teaching again, just as Randy returned with Tammy and Emmy. They were putting their exercise clothes on that I had already laid out. Randy got Sammy ready and left the house with him at 2:30 pm to take him to physiotherapy. Tammy and Emmy were on their tablets while I was teaching.

At 3:05 pm I finished teaching and got up right away so we could leave the house. The kids put their helmets on, we grabbed our scooters, and off we went to make the 3:20 pm train. When we got to the train station, we found dout that there were no S-trains running today. It was very annoying. The next train - an old one - was gonna come at 3:36 pm, so we had twenty minutes to wait.

It was a challenge getting three scooters, two kids and my purse on the train, but we've already got some practice. After we got off the train, we rode our scooters as fast as we could to the school, where their class was taking place. In the locker room, they took their long pants off and put their sports shoes on. Then they went inside the gym. The class was just starting.

I stayed in the locker room with my phone, and also closed my eyes for a while as I was feeling so miserable. From time to time the kids would come out to take a sip from their bottle. At 4:45 pm the class was over. They came to get their sticker books to get the sticker for the week.

When Tammy came out of the gym, she had Max in her hand and was all excited. Emmy, on the other hand, was crying hard. Max is the mascott of the exercise class, and every week he goes home with a different kid that then writes a sports diary in his name. Last year Tammy had received Max early in the year, and as it was for two weeks, I had given Max to Emmy for the second week. Now Emmy was crying that he never gets Max. I kept telling him that his turn was gonna come. There are three more months ahead after all! But he still kept crying and cried for a long time, on and off all the way home.

They put their pants, shoes and jackets back on, and we left. In the past, we always rushed, but without the S-train, we had until 5:18 pm before it was gonna come, so we had plenty of time. At the train station, we stayed on the bottom. I was holding Emmy, who was crying. A few minutes before the train was to arrive, we went to the platform. And then the train was a little late.  And it was extremely crowded.

Just after 5:30 pm we were back home, and I had a student at 5:40 pm. Randy and Sammy were not home as they had left to make a bread pickup; they arrived a few minutes later. I made the sandwich Emmy wanted for him, but had no time to cut fruit yet. I started teaching and taught until 6:30 pm. Then I went to the kitchen to cut their fruit.

Sammy had been up at 5:45 am already this morning and was very tired; physiotherapy always wears him out. At first he just wanted to go to bed, but then he joined his siblings in the bathtub after all and had some fruit there. Then we got them ready for bed, and I put Sammy to bed with a prayer. Tammy and Emmy wanted to read Max's sports diary, so that's what we did. And then there was still time to read a few pages of the novel we read every night.

After I had prayed for them, they left to brush their teeth and went to bed. I sat down at my computer to get ready for my 8:10 pm student and taught until 9 pm. I had been close to canceling, given how terrible I was feeling, but teaching always invigorates me. Still, I was glad I was done. I went to the kitchen to make myself some chicken soup. After having eaten, I started working on the pictures. Now it's midnight, and I hope to go to bed soon, and hope even more that it won't take me over an hour to fall asleep tonight.