My Day

I thought it might be fun to take you through one of my days. This was Tuesday, March 29. I jotted down my day's events as I went along. 


If you'd like to visualize where all of this is going on you can open this link where I give you a tour of our property in a separate tab.


6:15 My alarm goes off. I know I can hit the snooze button twice before finally turning it off.

6:25 I throw my robe on and remember to carry a towel with me to place in our volunteer room. Rikke, from Denmark, will be joining us today for two weeks.
I unlock our main door and let in four staff members. Our farmer brought in 2 watermelons for sale. Both watermelons cost me $1.

6:30 I check on the kids in the nursery and make sure the nannies know their instructions. This was Joshua's first night so I check to see how he did.

6:45 Our internet connection is much better in the morning so I jump right in to taking care of paypal, gmail and other internet related issues.

7:20 I hear the doorbell. It's our new volunteer. I had been expecting a guy because of the name, but surprise! It's a girl. She's a student teacher. It's wonderful to have so many volunteers coming through to help with the kids.

7:30 My children wake up and slowly make their way from their bedrooms to the main house.

8:00 Breakfast of scrambled eggs and bread with that all-important cup of coffee.

8:20 I hold an informal informational meeting for Rikke. She's excited to jump right in despite being on the bus all night.

9:00 Rikke and I tour the property and I pass on instructions to staff members along the way.

9:45 The kindergarteners and their nanny are doing a deep clean on their room--I give them tips for getting it done really well.

10:00 Joshua's relatives came to sign the guardianship papers.
His uncle asked an interesting question. He wanted to know what we would do with a child that was unable to learn. I told him first of all that I didn't believe such a thing existed, but that if a child didn't have a natural bent for academics they would still be guaranteed a good education and the chance to learn a skill for creating a livelihood.
Two of the relatives couldn't write so we provided a ink pad so they could 'sign' the forms with their thumb prints.

10:30 I continued working on my office and computer tasks while also supervising Timmy, Jasmine and Troy in their school work.
I also gave the kitchen lady instructions for making the kids' lunch.

11:00 Tom had forgotten to pack something when he left the day before, so I packed a box quickly and sent it down with our handyman to put on the bus.

11:30 More computer work. I also helped Timmy as he studied for his GED.

12:00 Around this time I realized I was parched so I grabbed my water bottle and took that opportunity to take all my vitamins and some pain medicine.

12:30 Lunch of lentil curry and rice.

1:00  Watched my recorded episode of Dancing with the Stars. Our TV provider is a few seasons behind the U.S but it's still fun to watch since I don't know who won.

2:00 I held our weekly staff meeting. We had to discuss the issue of our fired employee. Then to lighten things up I let them all play the Just Dance Wii game. They loved it. The next time we have a light-agenda meeting, we'll have a Just Dance tournament. I'll be sure to post pictures when we do.

3:00 Since losing our manager I needed to work on the employee time cards. The front door keys were lost so we looked for those, finally finding that someone had put them in their pocket after finding them in the wrong place.

3:40 Even more office work.

4:00 I interviewed a prospective nanny. She impressed me with her command of English and her quiet but attentive spirit. She has to give notice at her job, but will work in the afternoons and eventually become a live-in nanny.

4:30 Still more office work

5:30 Because I'd had such a busy day, I asked Troy to make dinner. I supervised him as he made tuna casserole. Meanwhile, I kept working in the office.

6:30 Dinner

7:00 TV time. We also have one or two of the little babies with us during this time to give them extra 'family' time. It helps them feel more secure and confident. This day we had Nicholas with us.

7:30 TV time was put on hold while I quickly bathed the kindergarteners. I shower them in an assembly line while their nanny helps them dry off, put on lotion and get dressed in pajamas.

8:00 Bedtime story for the oldest eight children. We also pray for the night together.

8:15 Some more TV watching and relaxing.

9:30 Into bed. A bit of light reading and I'm ready to drift off.

And yet, the night's not over. 12:00 AM I wake up and turn on our water pump since that is the only time the electricity is strong enough to get the water from our borehole (well) up to our tanks.

3:30 AM Get up and turn the pump back off.

And the next day it starts all over again.