A day in the life of Tully

I thought I would write about what our days are like now. Dawn and I set our alarm for 5am as it starts to get light at about 5:10. We will get up and have some quiet time reading our Bible and praying. We do not always arise at 5am, alot depends on how tired we are. We then go out to exercise at 5:30. We go one block over to parque de los sauces (Park of the Weeping Willows--we think). We then run laps around it for 20 minutes. Dawn, being quite the runner, usually laps me a couple of times as I walk half and run half. We come back to the house by 6am.

The next hour is definitely the hardest and busiest of the day. I call it controlled chaos. Our goal is to leave the house by 7:10am. In one hour we get 5 showers, breakfast for 9, 7 beds made, 6 backpacks for school packed and 8 lunches placed in the stroller or in backpacks(they are made the night before). Dawn comes home for lunch. Then when we leave, I turn the key 2 full times to unlock the inner door to the house, 2 full times to unlock the outer door to the house, and then turn the key in the security gate a quarter turn. Of course when we forget something like our umbrella, we have to repeat the whole locking and unlocking process. Praise God we have not been late yet although we have been just on time most days.

My first class is grammar (gramatica) and it starts at 7:30. It goes for 2 hours. We start it with a prayer each morning. This week we could pray in English. Next week our prayer has to be in Spanish. I do not think I will be praying the opening prayer for a while. After grammar, I go to phonetics for an hour where we learn the correct pronunciation of the letters of the Spanish alphabet and the words. The Spanish language puts its emphasis on the vowels whereas the English language puts its emphasis on the consonants. That class brings us to 10:15. All students then have a 15 minute break. From 10:30 to 11:15 we have Chapel on Tuesday and Thursday. We have many pastors in school and they take turns preaching. So far the two sermons we have heard have been excellent. This is our time to worship God in our heart language because, of course, all the churches are in Spanish. We are attending Spanish church on Sunday morning, but it is difficult to pick out a few words here and there we understand. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this period is free for study. I then have a free period from 11:15 to 12:10, and Dawn has class during that time. I each some lunch and try to study although I'm still looking for a good quiet place to study at school. From 12:10 to 1:05 I have my language class, and Dawn is done for the day and heads home to get a quick hour of studying in and lunch.

After I get out of my language class, I go and pick up the girls from the nursery and walk home with them (see my earlier blog on the rainy afternoon). Dawn and I study until time to leave at 2:15 to pick up the boys at 2:30. After the boys get home, we help them with homework and Dawn does most of that. I will often go run some errands such as getting a new ink cartridge for the printer or more commonly go to the grocery store for a few items. Most houses here do not have pantries, so we cannot keep a big supply of food on hand. Praise God I have lost some weight since we have been here from all of the exercise we get. I walk a mile to a fairly nice grocery store. Often I walk that mile to the store just to buy $5-$10 worth of groceries. Overall, I feel so much better since losing a little weight--if I lose much more, I'm going to need some new pants! There is a bakery 7 blocks from us. We went to it the first morning we were here and I remember thinking it was a long walk. Now I think it is a short walk as I have gotten used to walking pretty much everywhere.

Around 5:30 we start getting supper ready and try to eat between 6-6:30. Supper is a good time for us to review our days, talk about school with the boys and remind each other of any upcoming events. After suppper Tully, Trey, Tee, and Luke usually clean the dishes. There is no dishwasher so everything must be washed by hand. I then make lunches for everyone to take to school the next day. In the meantime, Dawn is getting the girls, Gabe and Elijah their showers (no bathtubs here--see Dawn's earlier blog on cleanliness here!). By now it is usually 7:30-8:00. I may play a game of chess with the boys or talk about their homework. We usually go to bed by 9:00 in order to get up at 5am the next morning. Dawn and I have some prayer time before we go to bed each night. We pray for our family, the school, our learning of the language, our ministry partners, and for God's Psalm 91 promise of protection over all of us. Then it's lights out and we usually have no trouble falling asleep because we are tired!