Well, I'm going strong on day two of All Saints
vacation. The boys are off from school
for a week and a half (they return a week from Thursday) which means that I am
working twice as much as usual. Besides
the normal 3 - 8 p.m., this week I'm also helping out 8 a.m. - 1 p.m. (and
getting paid a little extra as well).
I'm also the only au pair at this point, before the next girl arrives on
Thursday, but I'm almost convinced that it's easier to work by myself. The boys don't have as much room for
manipulation... ;)
I admit that this new schedule took some getting used
to. I usually have all morning to gear
up for the kids, but this week I have to be up and at 'em immediately. Yesterday, I was so tired at the end of the
day that I fell asleep without turning out the light. To former roommates of mine, I am certain
that this comes as no surprise. To
Mariacarla and Pasquale, however, it came as a bit of concern. I think Mariacarla, on the way to the boys'
room, passed by at some extremely late hour of the night. Seeing the light still on in my room, she
assumed I was still awake, and the next morning she asked me if I'd had trouble
sleeping. After I explained that I fell
asleep with the light on, she beseeched me to remember to turn out the light --
I was wasting so much energy! (I don't
actually know what electricity costs in Rome, but it must be pretty high.) They even offered to buy me a small night
light if I had a problem with the dark.
Ha! But really, they are so
sweet. They said they would give me
money and I could go to the light store myself and pick out a style that I
preferred. So sweet. So I promised to turn it out tonight.
Today was a little bit easier. For one thing, Mariacarla was at home all day
(yesterday she was teaching) so she could keep one boy while I played with the
other. When Pasquale is the only parent
at home (as was the case yesterday) the most he does is put the boys "in
punishment" which means the naughty one has to sit in the parents' room,
without playing, for a period of time.
It does calm things down, but it happens only after things get
intolerable. Today, both boys were on
much better behavior because they weren't able to provoke each other in the
first place. The other advantage was
that on Tuesdays there are swimming lessons.
An hour at the pool creates a welcome diversion from the humdrum of
staying at home all day.
At the end of the day, as I was getting ready for dinner and
Mariacarla was getting some grapes for the boys, I noticed that there was a lot
of the grape vine still attached. That
led to a discussion about the vocabulary, in which I learned that
"vine" is vite in Italian.
Mariacarla brought up Jesus' illustration of how He is the vine and we
are the branches (in Italian, of course).
I got so excited that I recognized the verse and started quoting it to
her in English. So I will leave you with
John 15:5 in both Italian and English.
It's a good reminder and encouragement for me, this week.
Giovanni 15:5
Io sono la vite,
voi siete i tralci. Chi rimane unito a me, ed io a lui, produce molti frutti. Senza
di me, invece, non potete far nulla.
(I like the fact that la vite for "vine" is similar to la vita for "life"...)
 |
| Grape vines from wine making last month. |
John 15:5
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me
and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
2 comments:
Love it! I also was thinking vite-vita right way. I may always refer to the the fourth gospel as Giovanni from now on because that sounds so cool! Also, I liked reading the bit about you falling asleep with the light on: I can tell you that your brother does that quite frequently! Must be genetic. ;-)
I know! The names John and Giovanni are so radically different. That makes me wonder what the original Hebrew name was. (Okay, one quick Google search later and I now know it's "Yôḥanan" or however one chooses to transcribe it.)
And that's funny, I never knew Caleb did that, too!
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