9:40 a.m.--Left for the hospital to visit Jörn (which should be the topic of a whole blogpost, but I can't quite bring myself to go there yet: summary is that he had two heart attacks, one "minor" (myocardial infarction) and one "major" (heart arrest), and is fine now, but not home yet), stopping at the Esso along Faneromeni to get petrol (gas). The 40-liter tank took 43.15 liters, which is even better than what I got in the other car a few days earlier, 56.37 liters in a 55-liter tank.
10:00 a.m.--Arrived at hospital and spent a lot of that fuel looking for a place to park, and even found a semi-legal one.
12:00 noon-ish--Drove home.
1:30 p.m.--Drove the something like 300 meters to the Italian ice cream place across from So Easy, because before I'd left for the hospital I'd told the children that if the broom and Marie's swimsuit got found, I'd take everyone to ice cream. I do not DO bribes like that. But it had to be safe, anyway, because we'd all looked everywhere for the broom, and Marie and I had looked everywhere for the swimsuit. Except that we hadn't. The broom was found IN the clubhouse outside, and the swimsuit was found in a red cloth bag stuffed into the cupboard of the toddler toy table, which we really should get rid of, considering that the youngest child turned four 10 days ago. Marie walked and Jacob rode his bike to meet us at the ice cream place. Oh, and I just remembered that I borrowed a 10-Euro bill from Elisabeth (without her knowledge) to pay for the ice cream, so I need to return that.
1:50 p.m.--Left Elisabeth with most of an ice cream cone and Marie, and let Lukas, Katie, and Helen get back in the car with narly-finished ice cream cones and drove them to their swimming lesson, getting there JUST before 2:00. One would think we were Germans.
Drove home.
2:40 p.m.--Was able to leave Elisabeth home with Jacob so that I could continue using the red car and took Marie with me to collect Lukas, Katie, and Helen from swimming lessons, then dropped Marie off at LCC for band practice at 3:00, then came home.
3:20 p.m.--Was able to leave Katie and Elisabeth home with Jacob while I took Helen to her drama class; Lukas came along for the ride.
4:25 p.m.--Took Lukas, Katie, and Elisabeth and picked up Marie from band practice and took her to Makenzy beach for the end-of-year party that had started at 3:00. (In the meantime, Jacob had taken his bike to go to HIS swimming/life-saving lesson 4:15-5:00, and he went from there to the beach party. Marie would be willing to take her bicycle, but it needs repairing, and neither she nor I know how to do it and Jacob has been saying for six months that he'll do it, but hasn't. And yes, I know, Marie and I should just learn. But we haven't.)
4:50 p.m.--Arrived at Helen's drama class, which often puts on a "show" in the last 5-10 minutes, and I often miss it, and that often upsets her, so I made an effort to be there on time. No show this time, but Lukas, Katie, and Elisabeth got to participate in the last couple of games.
5:00 p.m.--Drove to the hospital and got to see Jörn.
5:45 p.m.--15 minutes before the actual visiting hour started, we left again. We stopped at the pharmacy and I left the children in the car while getting Joern's prescriptions filled. While waiting, I walked across the street to the bank and checked our balance, was pleasantly surprised, and took out cash, because we get a hefty discount at the pharmacy if we pay cash and because we have six children.
I let Lukas walk home and we drove the couple of hundred meters home. Lukas was collected around 7:00 to go to the Prayer House, Jacob appeared around 7:30 or 8:00 to eat dinner, then went out again to watch a World Cup game with a friend, and Marie was spending the night at a friend's house. Not feeling up to wrestling the three girls into bed by myself, I just didn't. My friend Bekah came by at about 8:00 for an hour, and after that I was calmer and did put the girls to bed.
