Today has been quite a lazy day, overcast most of the day but no rain. We went out for lunch to Ardees, which was nice. Nick and I spent some time this morning chatting about the holiday club and various aspects of it, and I’ve done a load of washing. Other than that, I’ve been reading most of the day, finishing off a little book I started last night.
Back to yesterday – I had to take the boys to the library to get more books in the morning. We get 11 at a time, and they have usually begged Nick or me to read them all within the first two days of getting them! I don’t mind though, sometimes the books are quite entertaining. Emma came to pick me up just after 1, and we went down to St Helena Coffee Co for a Frappe Special and carrot cake. I left the boys at home, and she only had Niamh with her, so we could really have a nice chat. It was very pleasant and we had a good time together. Jill, the co-owner of the shop, has broken her leg and ankle in three places quite badly, so she is in a wheelchair and sits around chatting to the patrons. She chatted with us for a while as well, quite interesting about the milk shortage and onion shortage and things like that. They will have to take milkshakes and frappes off the menu, as well as toasted cheese and onion! I calculated this morning that there are 25 days left until 1 March, and we have 25 litres of milk. So we just have to ration it to one a day and we’ll last fine! No macaroni, lasagna or custard this month though. At one point Niamh had to go to the loo, so off went Emma and Niamh, and I caught some conversation of the couple behind me, which was being conducted in Afrikaans. They seemed to be looking for a boat on the sea (the St Helena Coffee Shop overlooks the docks), so I turned and said, “Wat soek julle?” She must have stared at me with her mouth open for at least 7 seconds!! She was absolutely delighted that I spoke Afrikaans to her. They are obviously from South Africa, and her husband is the Chief Medical Officer on the island. It was really fun conversing in another language, and they seemed to think my Afrikaans isn’t too bad.
The house is in desperate need of a cleaning – I thought I might vacuum today, but somehow just didn’t get around to it. I caught up on the ironing this morning though, so at least got something done! I need to buy a new mop. The old one, which I’ve used twice, is so old and dirty that it’s barely useful at all. And actually, I don’t know where it is.
We had a long swim, we are usually in the pool just over an hour. Both boys stay in the whole time, but poor little Aaron was getting very cold. They are learning to dive now. Caleb saw another little boy with armbands jump into the pool, so that inspired him to try, and of course if Caleb does something Aaron thinks it worthwhile to try too. So as of today they can both jump into the water by themselves, though Aaron is still not so sure about it, but Caleb does a beautiful belly-flop. Aaron hasn’t really got to grips with closing his eyes when he goes under water, so he comes up with his eyes open and the most bewildered look on his face. They struck up a conversation with the little boy jumper and his very young-looking granny who I assumed to be his mother.
Still eating way too many chocolates, and more keep coming. It’s terrible having to try eat one’s way through so much confectionary, but what can one do?
We bought two jigsaw puzzles for Caleb today – one a 100 piece with a Bambi scene, and the other a 200-piece of bible story pictures. He did the 100-piece one quite well with a bit of help from me, for the most part figuring it out by himself. Unfortunately we can’t get anything smaller for Aaron – he really needs to work on small ones, between 12 and 30 pieces, and we can’t find anything.
Every night we have family devotions, which Caleb reminds us about if we forget or are slow in getting to, he really enjoys them. He listens very attentively, staring intently at Nick who usually reads the story. He has some interesting insights from the stories and seems to understand. Aaron is a bit behind on the listening side, but in his defense he is usually still busy with supper when Nick starts, otherwise he is thinking about his own world based on one small detail in the story. His prayers are usually the same: “Dear Jesus, please help us to be good, and not do naughty stuff, and it’s nice to pray. Amen. That was a long one, hey?”
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