Wednesday 6-11-14

Wednesday 6-11-14

                Time came to wake up too soon.  I got up anyways and got my coffee started. Jove and Ayla came out of the room a few moments later and I discovered Jove was sick with bad diarrhea and very bad stomach pain. I couldn’t let him go to school that way, so he had to stay home. I set him up with a movie and told him I would do my best to come back before lunch to check on him, but I needed him to be a brave big boy and stay home on his own. He wanted to watch Jurassic Park. I told him he usually gets scared, but he said he wouldn’t because he was a big brave boy, so Jurassic Park it was.

                We were a little late in leaving the house, but Ayla and I went off to school and still made it on time. Leonard was back in class today. He has been missing a lot from being sick. Well, he still had the same horrible cough and at one point when we were reading aloud, he vomited on the table and floor. It was oh so pleasant. I had to have the kids pause the reading so I could dump water and squeegee up the mess. We continued with our reading. For that class (std1) I reread after each kid so that they could all hear how it was supposed to be read. I still corrected their mistakes as they went though. We went onto our math and I had Logan come into the class to watch the kids for me so that I could run home and check on Jove. I got to the house and he was just finishing his movie, but luckily seemed to be doing much better. I got him set up with Fantasia and went back to school to continue teaching.

                I made it back to school in time to finish up with std1 and then switch over to std3. We did oral reading in std3; they were very excited because I brought them the next book in their Amish series “Climbing Higher”. They have been bugging me to bring them in.

                 As we let out for lunch Ayla wanted to come with me because she was worried about Jove. Teacher Beatrice saw her following me and she told Ayla they were going to lunch now to the kitchens. I let her know that Ayla was worried about Jove and was going to come with me today so she could check on him. She replied “But Jove is right there”. I turned around and sure enough there he was. He decided he wanted to come and check to see when we would be done for lunch. What a little stinker he can be, but at least he had put on pants since when I left him at home he was just with his t-shirt, a sweater, and a blanket.

                There weren’t any leftovers in the fridge so I had to come up with something super fast and easy. I made noodles. I had invited Logan over as well. He brought half cakes over to share with us. I fit as many noodles into the pot that I could, but cooking noodles for four people, no one got that many, but everyone did get some parmesan noodles. To mine I added lots of tomatoes, red onion (which is the only kind of onion here), olive oil, tons of garlic powder, and a nice big serving of balsamic vinegar. I let the kids try mine, and they liked it so much I had to turn their bowls into something similar. I decided to make it easy and only added the olive oil and the vinegar to theirs. I didn’t realize they liked vinegar as much as their mommy. J While sitting and eating lunch, I realized how much I depend on the quiet time in the middle of the day. It was rough, but I at least got food in my belly.

                I got back to school and started in with the flash cards. Teacher Beatrice came in and asked if I had kicked Grace from std1 out of class today. She hasn’t been in school all week. Her grandfather had come to find out what was going on. Apparently she had told him that I told her to go home the other day and she couldn’t come back yet. Teacher Beatrice went into the chekechea to ask her brother Doudi what had happened. Doudi said that on Monday when they were walking to school she turned around and decided that she was going to go back home. I can’t believe that she lied to her grandfather and included me in that lie. She will have sentences when she finally does come to school, which I would assume will be tomorrow.

                I had to stay behind at the school for about five minutes. I had left my keys at the house with the kids in my rush to get back to school, and of course the teachers didn’t know where their keys were. After lunch their keys were not returned to them. But they were able to call Teacher Vienna and find out where she had put them. I went home after that to check on the munchkins. When I got home they were right there to greet me. Ayla accused me of being gone for five hours instead of the two and a half hours. I told her I was actually ten minutes early. Jove told me that Ayla cried because she got so sad, but that he was brave enough and just got sad when he missed me. Ayla made me a bracelet and even managed to tie it. Once they were comforted in the fact that I was home, they both went outside and played (once they cleaned up all their mess on the tables). It was nice, they both stayed outside nearly all day. It gave me time to work on the marinara for dinner tonight. While cutting tomatoes and eggplant I got on Skype and talked with m mom. Even with the 10-20 second delay it is always nice talking to her.

                While kids played, I kept having to go outside. I had one kid fall from the swing, another fall down the hill, Jove was trying to take a kids picture and lied to me about it being his own, just all kinds of kid drama. So Jove had to come inside for the night after apologizing, and Ayla came in about 15 minutes later for dinner. We put Cinderella on while we ate. I have really enjoyed watching the kid movies with them in the evening. I played around on Facebook a little during dinner and saw that Ayla’s kindergarten teacher had her baby. I showed Ayla and Jove the picture. They talked about how babies look like they are covered in blood, but are still so cute. Right after that Ayla came up to me and told me how when she has a baby, if it is a boy she will name him Jack, but call him Joey for short; and if she has a girl, she will call her Cindy. It is so cute and girly how she thinks that she already has her kids names picked out. I remember thinking I had names picked out my whole childhood. Kids never realize that things change. Logan came by shortly after I finished my dinner. Of course the kids were still eating. He brought some andazi so I could try it. I have been saying I wanted to try, but could never find it. I told him about wanting to do the powdered sugar and cinnamon like Asa suggested I try. Man was it good. I did add some chicken marsala seasoning into the mix as well. The fat kid in me was so happy tonight eating the andazi with that sugar mix. I think it will be a new special treat for me and the kids. I made up a big thing of the sugar mix so that it would be ready on hand. Nothing like African donuts J

                I got the kids cleaned up and ready for bed. I wanted to read “fox in socks” to them tonight. Ayla had to complain and so did Jove because they wanted to watch Tinga Tinga Tales. I told them it was story or bed. So they chose story. Then in the middle Ayla kept trying to take over reading. I usually love it when she reads and wants to read, but I wanted to read that book tonight and she just wouldn’t listen. I did however give her the book to read the tweetle beetle section after I had read the book. I think that made us both happy because I do so love to hear her read, plus I got to read one of my favorite books. Finally we finished and I tucked them in. They were just so full of energy it was driving me nuts. It is now nearly an hour after I tucked them in and they are still in the room talking. I think I may have to go close the door so that they have a nice dark room in which to fall asleep.

                I was given a few ears of maize yesterday as a thank you for doing music for Grace on her birthday last week. She also had her shoes taken from her for a while and I helped her find them and let her borrow a pair until she got hers back. Now I have these three ears of maize and I have no idea what to do with them. It isn’t like a nice ear of sweet corn. This is the field corn we are talking about. Logan says that he has had it where it is roasted over the fire and it is okay, so maybe I will try that. But I think I will need to do something with it tomorrow, maybe the next day. I don’t want it to go bad because after all, this was someone else’s before. I must find a use for it. Any suggestions would be appreciated.