News of the week

It is a new week. I am still covering books for school and already dealing with book covers that have broken. Let’s just say, this does not make me happy.

My mom had partial corneal replacement surgery on Tuesday. The surgery went well and now she is in the recovery time. We are hoping everything goes smoothly and that she will be able to clearly see our big smiling faces when they arrive here on February 26!!!

Dimpho, aka Pontsa, Thato’s sister keeps falling, and falling and falling. She has fallen over 5 times just today. Her face bears the brunt of the scrapes and bruises giving her quite the tough appearance for such a little girl. She is already 3 ½, but looks to be only about 18 months. She does have a nice round tummy, so maybe that is throwing her off balance and causing her to fall so often J

Our swimming pool is finally blue! Darin is so proud of the clear pool, which has taken him a long time to sort out. Broken pumps, storms, and a host of other things have kept the pool from being in peak condition. We hope the clear blue water sticks around for a while so we can all enjoy it and swimming in a green pool is only something the diehard swimmers, like Tyson and Jori, seem to appreciate.

School is in full swing, which means homework is also in full swing. So far the kids are keeping up, although we have had the usual arguments of “Ma’am said….” when we tell our kids to do something and they believe we are opposing their teachers. I am not a fan of this, and while I like the kids’ teachers, when they pull out the “ma’am said” card, I kind of start to feel my blood boil a bit. Just a little bit.

Darin took Tyson and Fetsi fishing last week. They had great fun, although Darin said he would not go again without another adult or experienced fisherperson. It was a little too much fish and bait handling for him to keep up with on his own.

We are planning a trip back to the states for June/July 2014. This is something that is both really exciting and terrifying. If I can figure out how to put it in words, I will explain my terror. I think it has to do with changes, in our own lives and the lives of our friends, and also with knowing that we will have to say good-bye again.

We still have not clipped Perry the Parakeet’s wings. This causes my children some distress as they want to hold and play with Perry. Our neighbor is willing to help, but I never catch her at the right time. Otherwise we’ll wait til Papa is here as he has a lot of experiences with wing clipping.

It is hot, but so lovely here. There were a few days last week when I thought the heat might do us all in, but now it is just sunny and bright with a nice breeze. It’s still hot, but that breeze makes it bearable. We put up most of Tyson and Jori’s jungle gym, but Darin is waiting for a cloudy day to get out there and finish it. I am hoping that will happen soon as seeing things left undone kind of makes me feel twitchy.

I have been on the phone, a lot, trying to sort out some things that need to happen in order for more children to be placed here at Tshepo ya Bana. It is frustrating, to say the least, but I feel like today I finally made some headway. We’ll see if I am still feeling that way tomorrow!