The new schedule

The babysitting is in 3 shifts from yesterday.
I am up at 6 a.m. (earlier it was 7/8 am since the maid did all the cooking and I just ate and commented on her culinary results).
I pick the milk packets which the milkman leave an hour earlier, water the potted plants (a warm-up exercise) in the balcony (most of my pre-vacation plant collection has withered unable to weather the 45 degree Celsius katthri heat) and begin cutting vegetables. I dont mind the actual cooking, it is the vegetable chopping that gets on my nerves.
By 8 a.m., the idli is steamed and the sambar is seasoned, with a dash of ghee for that special taste. Steamed rice and a veg thoren complete the lunch menu - well, not complete... a Syrian Christian's meal is generally not complete without fish or beef or poultry (at least an egg omelette). Just that I dont have to worry about making them for a week at least as the maid has prepared and stocked them in the freezer for us.
Vin gets his tea before he departs for his morning walk. He is back by the time the kids wake up. He takes care of the kids, and in between me, till he leaves for office at 9.30 am. I run the show till about 1 pm, when my partime maid takes over. (By then, the chairs are upside down, the cushions are gracing the floor, and the house is littered in the worst possible way.) She stays till 7 pm, when V comes home. I reach home at 9 pm or later this week. I have opted for the noon shift, again, this week owing to the maid problem.


We hope to find a live-in maid by end of next week. Dad has given an ad in the Malayala Manorama and we are hoping it will yield results. IF it does, my parents will bring the person next week when they come here, on their way to London.
We are trying to sleep early - from 12 midnight and later to before 11. Hope to send Ash to school tomorrrow. Wednesday is the best day for initiation into the world of studies.