The new nanny S

Thanks, Tasha, for reminding me that I hadn't told you a thing about the nanny situation.

my little monkeys

Basically, something happened one Sat, we spoke to the old Nanny S but I was totally uneasy about it and couldn't rest.

On the Monday after I was concerned the whole day, D and I talked this thing to death and I wrote a long email to the agent.

The next day I spoke to the agency who told me she recommends we recruit someone else. That was Tuesday.

On Wednesday morning I told Nanny S that that would be her last day. She seemed a bit surprised but later when the agent called her, she said she could see I wasn't happy with her.

And that was that.

The very next day we were supposed to go on holiday to Sabie.

Instead of a lovely peaceful morning getting ready, I had 4 ladies here and it was Interview Central.

I interviewed and then sent them to have a little chat to D (so he could get a feel for them) but I liked 3 out of the 4 ladies.

Eventually we were done with all 4 and we set off on holiday at about 11:20, if I remember correctly.

I asked D what he thought and he liked the lady I didn't and one other.

OY!

Good thing I took notes.

We discussed this thing for about two hours (in excruciating detail), prayed about it and then after about 30 mins, I said I want to offer the position to the first lady.

I'll tell you why - she reminded me the most of V, but a more organised version :)

I've said before that V had her faults as we all do but she is gentle, patient and LOVED those kids like anything.

Anyway, so I sent the agent a text with salary, etc, she phoned S and sent me a text back to say she'd accepted and would be there on the 2nd May. The first is a public holiday here.

And that was that. Easy.

hand-me-down sandals from a friend - I LOVE THEM

Everything about Nanny S has been easy.

She's patient, kind, very organised (I tell her things once and it's done right forever after that) and so punctual she's here at 7:20 every morning (her start time is 7:30).

Best of all, she's a lot more forthcoming than V so she'll speak to me if there is anything she's not sure about or wants to clear up with me.

We trained on the fly because she was immediately here in the thick of it, but I did ask her to come in specially on a Saturday so I could train her properly.

In the meantime, we just both did the best we could and through all this, the kids were troopers.

She has quite a difficult name but I'm one of those people who doesn't believe in making her use a Western name to suit me; I really feel one's name is special so we've all tried and tried, and I think we've finally got it.

Funny thing is the kids got it first :)

One thing I really like is her demeanor - she's a very sweet person but she's not afraid to speak her mind.

My blog friend from last weekend met her - do you agree?

We've had a slight bit of conflict which she handled beautifully.

I made some lemon bars for my blog friend's visit. They were a huge flop visually but they tasted good. Anyway, I put the best 4 in a container on the cupboard.

I told S and Nester that they could have the scones and when I got home, my lemon bars were gone and of course, I freaked a bit.

I sent them both a text to say where are my lemon bars and she texted back to say, sorry, they only realised afterwards that those weren't the scones.

The next morning she came to me and apologised nicely. I said it really wasn't about the lemon bars; I just like to know if things go wrong in the house because I don't want to have to ask.

She understood and she's been asking me if she's unclear about anything since then.

I used that Saturday to really talk about my philosophy about educating my kids while they're at home (which is way too long to go into here) and I see she's made a schedule about what she wants to do with them each day so that's great.

And there we have it.

D and I have the utmost peace about this and the kids are happy. They don't cry in the mornings like they used to with the first nanny S.

They've even started saying things like, "Mummy, S doesn't do it like that" as if I'm doing it wrong so yesterday I said, "Kendra, this is the way I cut apples. Deal with it" LOL

So, any questions???

And no, we still don't know what we'll do with them next year. And yes, I know I have HUGE control issues.

PS please pray for me tomorrow at 10 am :) I will be having a difficult conversation with my boss about this big task. I just can't go on like this - headaches from stress every day, etc. BTW, if you think I'm a wuss, you would be right :) I can't take stress for long periods of time and it's been over a month now.