Behind the scenes again

Yesterday when a Pest Control inspector spent some time hitting our walls and wandering around our home, we wondered what he thought we did for a living as we were both at home. We're clear (mostly) on what we do, but it is still not so easy to explain it to others. As soon as we say, "Missionary", we've sabotaged any decent relationship we might hope to have with our new acquaintance as the title comes with all sorts of baggage. I usually fall back on, "My husband teaches at an international school in Tokyo." Asked for my "job" I would usually say, "Household manager". Anyone have any better suggestions? Today we've been doing preparation work. Preparing presentations for a ladies group and for our mission's national conference. We've considered audio visuals, put together a fun game/quiz, brainstormed what to include in our presentations and then narrowed it down and organised them. I've played around with iMovie to see if I can liven up our "10 minute missionary spot" for Sunday mornings. I've also arranged a whole-day babysitter for a mid-week workshop that we both want to attend (about the elephant) in a couple of weeks. Several emails have bounced in and out regarding a short but multiple book review I'm doing at the above mentioned national conference and I've written and emailed a list of prayer points for a prayer update our mission puts out. Yesterday I finalised our prayer/newsletter and sent it to be photocopied and sent out (will email it tomorrow or Thursday). Are you tired of hearing all the background work that a missionary does? How about some background "mum" work? This morning we had a delayed reaction. Monday morning - it seemed - came a day late. That is the morning that our middle son goes as slow as Telstra does when they have to fix a problem :) This morning he had a tantrum even before I got out of bed and eventually got relegated to his bunk bed (which he insisted was inhabited by three mini spiders) until he could regain control. After breakfast I accidentally discovered that he didn't like the toothpaste that he's been "using" for many days now. Actually I wonder if he's been cleaning his teeth at all! This was not a pretty scene. He's our most actively stubborn...and I'll leave the rest to your imagination. Let's just say I can no longer pin him to the ground and do it myself. I've also cleaned the bath and bathroom sinks and mirrors. How's that for a day's work? Very soon now the rest of my responsibilities will be walking in the door and requiring food, homework supervision and hopefully with some kind of inspiration for Book Week. True to form, our middle son keeps changing his mind! And our eldest hasn't yet committed to anything. The costume that my 4 y.o. and I diligently put together last week was carried to PrePrep this morning, but he refused to put it on. I hope he did so later. I've decided not to cook tonight and asked my husband to order pizza (an uncommon experience for our family). So I can go to the gym before dinner. My poor husband might cop a bit of Book Week preparation. Oh well! You know, it is two months today since we boarded a plane to fly to Australia! The time has gone very quickly.