Thursday

Thursdays are our Saturdays. They are (usually) good days in our lives. Here is what this most recent one looked like:

5:00 a.m. Dog barks outside our window, waking us all up...A mutters something about the necessity of killing the dog. We all doze on and off for another hour

6:00 a.m. Little t cries. I got in to nurse him in hopes of getting him to sleep a little longer.

6:45 a.m. Little t cries (has been babbling and playing for most of the 45 minutes). I go in and change a poopy diaper and tell him to try to get more sleep.

7:00 a.m. Get over my denial that Little t is really up for the day and climb out of bed.  Taking my pillow with me, I put in a movie for Little t and curl up under the blankets on the cushion in the living room. He leaves me alone for half an hour to doze before coming to sit on my head…classic sign that he is done entertaining himself.

7:30-8ish we get the breakfast ball rolling…naan (that apparently came from all the way across the country according to A – measured by how long it took kAkA to get it), Pop-Tarts, zucchini bread…anything to fill our stomachs…we are currently out of oats and wasting away more and more each morning…

8-9 a.m. drink coffee, watch the news and Little t’s local language cartoon, read, start a load of laundry, change clothes, diaper, etc.

9:30 a.m. head outside, talk to kAkA, jump on the trampoline. Go to the other yard to swing on the swings, chase Gorgeous the Cat, play hide-and-seek in Miss R’s curtains hanging on the clothesline, gossip about last night’s wedding, chat about gardening, crack up at E’s story about getting woken up at 10.30 a.m. by the small neighbor girl standing next to her bed, soak in the sunshine, laugh, marvel at the beauty and simplicity of life in this place.

11:30 a.m. head back to our yard…sneak in a game of hide-and-seek in the office yard along the way. Jump on the trampoline, hang laundry, push Little t on his trike, admire A and kAkA’s work in the garden.

12:15 p.m. quickly heat up some lunch for Little t, poke some food down him, change his filthy clothes and put on a clean diaper.

1 p.m. Little t crashes while nursing and is laid down to have a good long (hopefully) nap.

1:10 p.m. heat up leftover pizza and make some Japanese ramen noodles for lunch. Watch Flubber and chat while we eat. 

1:50 p.m. Meet E and J with our burkas for a pryr walk around town. Totally thrilling, overwhelming, heartbreaking and addicting. Beg God for His mercy and grace and Truth to be poured out over this place and it’s people. Vow to make it a weekly thing…this place needs it…bad.

3:00 p.m. return home to a quiet house, A having checked e-mail and now working on projects. A heads back out to work on the garden.  I sit around for a few minutes before deciding to work out while Little t is sleeping.  True to form, as soon as I begin, he wakes up.

3:30 p.m. watch a little t.v. with Little t while he eats a snack and wakes up.  Then head outside to play/work in the garden.

3:45-4:45 p.m. work in the garden as much as the clingbot will let me…finally after a few minutes, distract him by letting him play in a giant mud puddle created by the overflow spout of the water tank.  I work in the strawberry bed, A plants veggies in the greenhouse, Little t sits in a giant mud puddle.  We are all playing with dirt and all happy.

4:45 p.m. Take Little t in for a bath quickly.  He splashes and laughs. 

5:10 p.m. After frantically running around to get ready, we are out the door to head to the other side of town for our weekly sauna trip. 

5:20 p.m. Drop Little t off with our German teammates and head across the street to the house with the sauna. 

5:30 p.m. finally able to breathe a little…a few minutes to ourselves…our date of the week. No talk of Little t, no worries, just time together. 

6:00 p.m. Get out of the sauna and shower

6:10 p.m. back across the street to get Little t who spent the whole 40 minutes chasing their dog around the yard. 

6:20 p.m. get in the van and head back across town.  Decide not to get chicken for dinner because it is too late. 

6:40 p.m. supper is on the table for Little t. He hams it up during the meal, he jabbers away and cracks up…laughing even harder each time we laugh.  We realize that today is Little t’s 15 month birthday. We find ourselves thankful that it has been such a good day.

7:00 p.m. We wind Little t down, change him into p.j.’s, watch a little bit of t.v. while he gets ready for bed. 

7:10 p.m. Give Daddy kisses, pray, nurse and put him in bed. 

7:15 p.m. Scrounge something together for supper.  Watch a little t.v.

9:15 p.m. We are exhausted, we chat a while and then head to bed – lights out by 10.  Good day.