Still housebound today, Lord. Both of my two are really only just eating again so I decided to keep them home one more day, although in truth both are much chirpier than they were twenty-four hours ago. Mercifully none of the rest of us has succumbed which is great – and long may it last. Also mercifully, Dad has been more than happy to do the honours with Madison again today, bless his little cotton socks!
Of course the big news of yesterday is that we won’t have to worry about either Jess or Madison for much longer. Apparently the building where the new café is has an empty flat upstairs, and in exchange for some extra early morning hours and a reasonable rent, this space has been offered to Jess. According to Jess she will need to get up at five (or some completely ridiculous hour), work until eight when the manager comes in, then will be allowed a break for breakfast and to be able to take Jess to school, then back to work for the day.
The only downside of this plan is that Madison would need to change schools. There’s supposedly one only about five minutes’ bus ride from the café so that Jess could take Madison, and (possibly) Madison could catch the bus back by herself in the afternoon. This plan did rather make me raise my eyebrows as I could not in a million years imagine allowing Emily to take a bus and wander around in the centre of the city unsupervised. I could see Jess rapidly rethinking this plan but it seems clear that her new employer is quite taken with her and willing to help to make things work.
This benevolent new boss is giving Jess some time off this morning to go and suss out the new school and (hopefully) get Madison enrolled straight away. Jess has expressed an interest to move as soon as possible (this weekend!) so wants to get things sorted with school before they move.
What an unexpected turn of events! Here was I thinking that we would have Jess and Madison stay for quite a while longer, and in four days, they’ll be gone. Is it wicked of me, Lord, to feel a huge sense of relief? And even more wicked to silently rejoice on Emily’s behalf that her one big school problem will be sailing gently away? And, oh, the look on Andrew’s face when he realised he will be getting his garage back. Not even the prospect of humping furniture around the CBD this weekend could dampen his enthusiasm for under cover parking and quick access to his tools!
Anyway, Lord, I pray that this transition would go really smoothly and that this new move would have great benefits for all concerned and not just us selfish Copelands. I pray especially that this move would be helpful for Madison and that Jess would have the maturity and sense to know what will be prudent for her and what won’t be. I entrust this whole situation into your hands…in your name…Amen