Tonight my heart overflows with thanksgiving for our adult children and our 4 grandchildren.
Here is an email from Isabelle this evening. It's a keeper and one to refer to again - God-willing - some time in the futrre:
Wow, that is really exciting news about the car!! I know exactly which one you mean as a friend of mine drives one (with all 4 of her kids!) and she really likes it. What colour did you get (a real “blonde question”, but well, if I asked you about other specs, you might lose me 😊
Do you plan to take the Citroen to a dealer or advertise in a paper? What are your options?
Here, everything is fine. Michael just arrived back from a business trip to Washington yesterday. He is totally zonked as he hardly slept for three days….not tired when it was night time there and working there when he felt he should be in a deep sleep. Poor chap! So today I took the children and Angelique to church alone while he caught up on some sleep. He had more colour in his face by the time we returned and we had a nice afternoon together.
Besides that, Josephine had swimming on Friday and then 3 friends of Josephine’s and 1 of Evie’s came for a sleepover on Friday night. It was a lot of fun - a totally mischievous, giggly, mattress-jumping, pillow fighting, fierce-whispering, shrieking, girls’ night. And then just as they were settled, the one girl said, “Oh! I think we’re being watched!!! I just saw a black shadow sweep across the front lawn and I could feel his eyes on me!!” ….that was followed by a chorus of “AAAAAAaaaaarghs!” and yelps, many soothing words from me (which were vehemently rejected), a few tears and finally exhaustion overtook all else. The next day was followed by pancakes for breakfast, trampolining, swapping clothes doing each other’s hair and a walk and picnic in the forest. They fed the sheep, stroked the horses, squealed at red ants and climbed trees. Pick up was at 12. It was a totally exhausting experience for me with Michael still flying home, but totally rewarding too. These things are so good also for building friendships between the girls, of course! At least, that’s the main reason for doing it. Although I did have a lot of fun too!
Besides that, the girls’ have had swimming lessons this weekend - both went well.
Josephine has a school camp coming up in the first week of June. She will be in Hannover Monday to Friday. Let’s see how that goes - I’m sure she will be fine, although she has indicated she’s a bit nervous.
Evie has got “forest week” coming up where they spend 3 days (8.30 - 11.30) in the forest, just playing with sticks, puddles, piling leaves up, going for walks etc. The children are all so creative that they can really entertain themselves for hours like this. In fact, here in Germany, it is very common to have “Forest Kindergartens” where the children are 100% outside in their “muddy trousers” and wellies. The only building is for the toilet. They even play outside when it rains or snows.
This week, we’re starting the circus training at church. Josephine wants to do Unicycles and Evie desperately wants to be a clown (and is putting in some good practise here at home).
I will hopefully be picking up my Identity Card this week and if I’m lucky, my passport will be ready at the same time, otherwise a few days later. But actually, I will be able to travel on my ID card alone. Exciting! I will start looking for a long weekend where I can fly to you soon - I’ll check with Michael’s work schedule when he can take off to look after the girls. But in the meantime, maybe you could let me know if there are any weekends (I guess in June/July?) where you’ll be away or have plans. I’m already looking forward to seeing you both, just at the thought 😊
Well, I shall round off now and tuck myself in…bed is calling.
