Ja...

It’s Thursday evening, and I’ve starting sorting out the books on the bookshelf at the bottom of the stairs, and now I need a BREAK!! There are loads of books. So far I’ve debooked three shelves, and now the passage by the front door is littered with piles of books which have been sorted – so many different categories - we have books on gardening, the ice age, history, war, secular novels (Wuthering Heights, Nancy Drew, Lorna Doone and many many others), biographies and autobiographies of Christians, heavy theological books, family matters, to name but some.

The shops have been mostly closed this week, it’s pretty awful. I started my grocery shopping yesterday morning, when all four of us went to town because Nick needed some casual shoes, which he bought. I got toilet paper yesterday! Did some more of it this morning, and will probably do more again tomorrow if Thorpes happens to be open. It’s so weird that all the shops have irregular business hours during this whole week. Sigh. At least I’m not desperate or running out of things!

The town drunk came by last night at 23h50 to thank Nick for the birthday present, which was a box of chocolates. Not a very considerate time to come for a visit, but then again, he wasn’t sober. He really wants help though, he knows he can’t go on like this. This morning I was in the bath and Caleb was looking for something (his mask, I think). I told him I didn’t know where it was and he would have to wait before I could help him look. His reply, after a pause: “Well now I’m nearly in tears.” I notice that the boys say “ja” less and less, now “yes” or “yeah”. I hear them sometimes imitating people with a word here and there, in the way they speak. It will be funny if they pick up some of the accent! Shouldn’t be too strong though, since Nick and I are still their main influences and they hear us talking more than anyone else.

I’d better get back to my scintillating task of book sorting, so as not to have too many books scattered around tomorrow when the boys are about, it’s a disaster waiting to unfold if I do.