The daily bread and that sort of thing

The kids are on holidays again, this time for five days. Matias does need these breaks from all the homework. In India's case the holiday didn't come at the best time. She has just started speaking a lot of English at the crèche, and so a couple of day’s postponement on the holiday would have done her good.

We'll move in the next couple of days. We're planning to move all our things tomorrow so the house can then be cleaned. Shame about the Internet - there's no proper connection in the new house. Looks like we'll get the same system as here, but it will take another month.

Joyce, our maid, has been down lately. She's had to spend a lot of money on doctors, and the transportation to the funeral will cost, too. This situation is naturally affecting me, too. Should I do something? What should I do? We give her a good salary, we pay her for the days she's ill, and we pay her when we are away and she doesn't work. Should we give her money? Or ask her to work an extra day per week so she would get a better salary?

India goes to bed late, sometime before midnight. I know, we should get her to bed earlier, but believe me, it doesn't help. I've tried turning the lights off and putting her to bed earlier. Yes, she does fall asleep in the dark, but not until just before midnight.

I wake India up around eight, and she's often quite tired. She's quite happy to wake up on the days we get Joyce, or "Hemppu's own Joyce" as she calls her. Today, India took two bread rolls with her in the car, and munched away as I drove. She hadn't finished the second one by the time we arrived at the crèche, and left it on the car seat.

I worked at home, like usual. My bed is so cozy that I often just sit on the bed the whole day, with my laptop keeping my lap nice and warm. I've wondered what Joyce thinks I'm doing. She must think I'm just an extremely lazy madam.

Today, Joyce helped me pack some things in the car. I was about to drive to the new house after taking Joyce home and picking Matias from school. India's bread roll was there, looking nasty, with the molten cheese fermenting away in the 26C heat.

As we were driving, Joyce mentioned that she had no bread to give her children this morning. I was naturally worried, and asked if they would get lunch at school. She confirmed they would. I had no idea that the situation was this bad. Should I have given Joyce some money? Or taken her shopping? Or given her more work? Or did she just tell me this without expecting anything? There's something I did do: as soon as I dropped Joyce off I reached to the back seat and ate India's bread.