Another day in paradise

Its just after 5pm and the late afternoon buzz is happening! We’ve just returned home from Ryan and Ethan’s football practice, Ethan is in the shower, Ryan is ready to jump in next. Aimee is changing into her jammies and Ouma is making last minute touches to the evening meal – which smells yummy! We’re going to eat dinner a bit early tonight, and in 10 minutes or so we’ll all be ready to relax into evening mode. Unfortunately, the new season of Survivor starts too late, otherwise we’d be looking forward to watching that.

We’ve spent the day on the run. This morning I helped Ryan and Jed finish the last section of a really long Math review that they’ve been doing. Then we did some other odds and ends before reading another chapter of ‘Young Fu and the Upper Yantze’, which we are really enjoying! Dieter did a math session with Ethan who had spent the rest of the morning out in the garden with Ouma, Aimee and the gardener, Uncle Gert. The garden is looking amazing after Gert has been here – he’s a very dedicated, hard working man and the little ones had loads of fun following him around the yard and helping him where they could.

At midday Dieter and I popped out for an hour or so to his weekly appointment with the psychologist. One of the major issues she discussed with him today was employment and getting back into the work place. She feels it is time to bring in an occupational therapist to assess his situation and determine how to proceed into the future.

Dieter and I popped into Steers on the way home and shared a quick burger and chips – Steers is one franchise that hasn’t lost their taste/quality over the years that we’ve been abroad. It was great!

But the best part of the day was definitely playing cards with the kids. Dieter and Aimee joined in for a couple of rounds here and there, but it was mostly Ethan, Ryan, Jed and I playing ‘Go Fish’, ‘Crazy Eights’ and ‘My ship sails’ …… all card games that Ryan and Jed have learnt from a book we found at the library. It was loads of fun! Special friends in Australia sent us a card game a few months ago and its based on the game ‘Crazy Eights’. Now that we know how to play ‘Crazy Eights’ we’ll be able to play the card game they sent us. I also LOVE reading to the kids – the older boys and I are really enjoying Young Fu’s story and tonight I read one of the Usbourne puzzle stories to Ethan which was great fun. We all love reading!