How things pile up

What a week this has been! I'm happy to say that tomorrow I have absolutely no plans. None. Wow!

Monday as usual I taught my little ones and then had staff meeting until 4. My Spanish lessons start at 4, and they usually last until some time after 8. Monday's always a long day. It became much longer this week, because most of the PCS teachers met at 9 for a prayer time. The father of one of our seniors has been seriously ill for a long time, and it looked Monday like he might not last the night. At this point he is still alive, but in fragile condition, and he has been moved to the hospital. Please pray for him and his family.

In a normal week, Tuesday is more tranquil than Monday. Not so this time. After school and yearbook until 4, I returned home to tackle the spraying and bedclothes scalding against the bedbugs (or at least probably) that had been chewing on me again for a few weeks. Since our wash machine doesn't have hot water and is on the roof so hauling hot water isn't an option, I turned the apartment's heater up to boiling and commandeered one of my large plastic trunks for laundry duty. Have you ever hand washed two sets of sheets - one of them flannel - and three fleece blankets, plus two mattress covers in scalding shower water in a plastic trunk? Let me tell you, it's quite an undertaking. Both the bathroom and I were soaked by the time I completed the chore.


When Janelle returned from church, she started making a huge batch of cookies for the youth from Dios es Amor to sell for a fund raiser. Meanwhile I went grocery shopping and then returned to help with the cookies. The cookies, by the way, were a wild success, so it looks like Tuesday cookie-making is now a feature.

Wednesday was the truly wild day. Along with two parents, I took my students to a botanical garden expo at one of the local universities. It was a hot day, and some of the kids began to complain early on about being tired, hot, hungry, and bored. The were, however, fascinated by the paper-making station where they could use paper pulp to make new paper. Unfortunately, some of them didn't get to make paper, and those that did make paper didn't get theirs, because someone else took the paper. We will be making paper in class next week though, so everyone was mollified.

When we returned to school at 3:30, I hurried back home, because Abraham usually comes by at 4:30 on the way to the bus to get to Awana at Dios es Amor. Once we reached the church, the pastor's wife asked me to take over the class of the youngest kids, because their regular teacher was at a funeral. There were somewhere between 10 and 13 kids, and a couple of them really had no interest in obeying my directions. I was glad when class ended a bit after 7 and I could join the youth group class.

Thursday, when I had my PCS students make posters about the field trip, it seemed they had all had a marvelous time in spite of the complaining. They also had plenty to tell me when I asked for notes about trip. I guess it was a successful day after all.

Thursday night our neighboring teachers joined Janelle and I for dinner. We all contributed to make tostadas and had a fun time laughing and talking the evening away.

Friday afternoon I tried calling Cal State Long Beach about two of the classes I need to take. When I'd tried calling earlier in the week, the vonage phone wasn't working. When I called Friday, I found out the office I needed is only open Monday through Thursday. The "comedy" continues.