Do you smell it?

As always, a cool breeze in mid- to late summer sends me back to school.  We commence again with Girumy!

Tracing and matching

He had a bit of trouble with the M, but finally did it. 

Another evening at the plot

Salad from our CSA and yard, eggs from our hens, potatoes from our garden!  Wahoo!

He would have eaten the entire bowl had I allowed it.  He even chose the potatoes over bread!  Whoa!

Father and apprenticing son, making some bean-pole adjustments

Even though I am impressed with the fact that we can eat out of the backyard, I am not sure that it raises our percentage for chance of survival if left alone out here!  (I believe that I had previously said we would have a 40% chance of survival.  And really, THAT number might even be inflated by hope!)

It's the only thing that I remember my professor saying...

I took a class in college called something like Education of African Americans from Such and Such a Year to Some Other Year.  My professor was from New York City.  He was always pacing back and forth across the front of the room, scribbling madly on the chalkboard and guzzling Pepsi from cans.  One day, his hands covered in chalk dust, he exclaimed, "Huh!  There are two things I know fo' SHO' that black people did not invent... chalk and flesh-colored Bandaids!" 

Children IN the corn

The yarden (No, that's not a typographical error.)

Morning glories for Chinita

Volunteer beauty amidst the vegetables

Stargazer lilies cradled by fuzzy sage (which my kids eat by the handful while hanging out in the garden)

Our new little friend

Like in so many French gardens, which just happens to be my new model

My hand, compared to one enormous castor bean leaf!

Our first cucumber of the season!

Like mother, like sons

Well, mostly "like mother, like youngest son;" however, Girumy is giving a good showing here.  We love to dance!  And while the kids do this move, they say, "Take it down... downtown!" 

Rob's rebuttal

This shall be my first contribution to the blogosphere to clarify the actual events of the Brewers' game, as observed by the 36 year old father.  So…

1.  “They ate and ate and ate and ate and ate”  This is true.  Here is an itemized list of Girum's tailgate food:

 (1) grilled veggie burger pattie w/ketchup
 (4) mini dill pickles
 (3) mozz cheese whips
 (6-8) salt/black pepper kettle chips
 (6-8) fresh organic strawberries
 (50,000) organic raspberries
 (1/2) chunk of muskmelon
 (1) apricot fruit leather

 “…ice cream, so much lemonade, a lot of ice cream”  My son exaggerates.  I WISH we ate that much ice cream.  Here is an itemized list of his stadium fare:

(1) 3.5 oz. package of ‘Dippin’ Dots’ shared with Other G.  My G didn’t even WANT ice cream at first because of his little rotund belly.  The child had 4 teaspoons of ice cream, ultimately. 
(1/4) container of frozen lemonade.  G lost patience with my stuggle to scrape rock hard lemon ice and decided it was time to go home. 

2.  "They spent a lot of time in the parking lot."  We spent 1 hour in the parking lot tailgating.  He loved it.

3.  “Don Joel received a ticket.”  I spent a lot of time trying to clarify this one.  ‘Bad’ tickets as given for parking violations and speeding.  'Good’ tickets as provided by Don Joel to see the Milwaukee Brewers.  When the attendant asked for our tickets, I quickly handed them over and a perplexed G asked me, "Were they speeding, Papa?"  Maybe.

4.  “There were girls involved in this dog-event.”  Upon returning to Don Joel’s house he accompanied us to our station wagon parked on the street.  The neighbor lady and daughters lost control of their two dogs resulting in a panicked G clutching my leg.  Don Joel’s daughter gave chase, too.  So, yes, girls were involved in this dog-event. 

5.  G and G happily scurried about the playground for 15 minutes or so. 

6.  “They went shopping in the stores in the stadium.”  It was Other G’s 4th birthday and don Joel wanted to get him a smaller Brewers' cap.  G determined his was just fine and he would be alright.  Just one store.  C'mon. 

7.  We arrived home at 10:06 pm and G declared that I would have to get him up a lot to pee.  Truth. 

There you have it, folks.  After a 1st inning tailgate coma he was alert and inquisitive through 7 innings.  That’s called a quality start. 

Sara's succulents live on!

Happy birthday, Other G!

Rob and G were invited to their first Brewers' game together last night to celebrate the birthday of Other G.  To prepare, Girum dressed himself for the event hours in advance, donning a "work shirt" and his Brewers' cap.

This morning, I was given a speed-talking run-down while still half-asleep in bed... He had so much to say!  From what he said, it seems that:

1.  They ate and ate and ate and ate... so much so that Girumy had to take a rest in don Joel's truck before continuing to eat.  He ate fruit, fruit leathers, ice cream, so much lemonade, a lot of ice cream... "And look at my belly, MamA, there is no more room in it because I ated (See note below.) so much ice cream and lemonade." 

2.  They spent a lot of time in the parking lot.

3.  Don Joel received a ticket. 

4.  There was an incident with a dog who was trying to open the truck's door with its teeth.  There were girls involved in this dog-event.  Um...

5.  There was a great playground inside the stadium where G and G played for a while.

6.  They went shopping in the stores in the stadium.  Again, um...

7.  And finally, they stayed out so late that even I was asleep before they came home.  Whoa!  "What a night!" as Templeton would say.  (Yes, we are re-reading Charlotte's Web, just having finished Socks.)

Now, for the photos:

Yes, he is asleep in the first inning. 

By the second inning, he was only half-asleep.

I guess he became more and more alert with the passing of time. 

*So... here we go with our next language issue.  G is generalizing the -ed of the simple past tense, regularly adding it on to irregular forms .  During his story-telling this morning, it was totally out of control.  Ay!

Like a science experiment gone very, very wrong

So, at this point the injera batter is supposed to look quite nasty and smell "grassy."  It definitely looks nasty, bubbling and frothing.  It however doesn't smell grassy.  I love the smell of grass, for example, freshly cut.  I even tolerate a special tea for the intestines that tastes like boiled grass.  The odor wafting from the batter bowl... um... is... absolutely disgusting.  What to do?

Preacher G

Yesterday, during G's... well, let's just call it "rest time," the following is what I heard when I finally put my ear to the door.  Mind you, he had been going on like this for some time before I decided to eavesdrop.

"I love Jesus.  You should love Jesus too.  We can pray to Jesus.  Why?  It's good to pray.  Why is it very good to pray to Jesus?  Because Jesus loves us a lot.  And when we get up we can sing that together.  (I think he meant "Jesus Loves Me."  I also figured out that he was pretending that Ty was there in the room with him, listening to his sermon.)  It's good to pray.  Why is it good to pray?  Jesus loves us and I love Jesus a lot.  OK?  I love Jesus a lot because that's my decision."

Injera

So... I once tried to make straight-up t'eff injera and it was a complete failure.  Then for a while I made a Swedish-American version, from Marcus Samuelsson, which had yogurt and soda water.  Yikes!  Don't tell any Ethiopian Ethiopians that I used those ingredients!  In the end, I gave in and started ordering it from one of Milwaukee's Ethiopian restaurants.

Recently I found a video tutorial and decided to give it another try.  It's a rather expensive experiment, so if I fail this time, I probably won't try again.

Stay tuned... the batter should be ready to use in three days.

Interestingly, the Eritrean recipe that I used incorporates a few different flours, the majority, however, being t'eff.

So excited to mix!  (Their smiles have since faded because they can't understand why we have to wait three days to eat injera.)

From the garden

Garlic!  Garlic!  And garlic!

Our First Tomatoes Ceremony

Deconstruction of a bride's bouquet

I hope to show you the individual plants potted together soon!

A goal

"But committing themselves to the all-wise disposal of Him that ruleth all things, with much content they abode in the condition in which they were, until they should be otherwise disposed of." -The Pilgrim's Progress

(Now, I know my astute catracho friends will notice my hypocrisy in not rejecting at least this line because of that last preposition's placement.  Let me just say that I will try to read God Is the Gospel again.  Does that earn me a pass?)

T x 4

With Tati and Almost-Tato (the couple A.K.A Tati Dru)

With Tito and Tita

Twin love

This is how I found them the other day.  Aw...

Jamming

The kids have recently been enjoying jamming po-ruski, listening to Hillsong Kiev.

Picnic at our plot

Happy kids

Hanging out

Air G! 

Happy, sprinkled brothers

Mita is not a fan of the sprinkler, so she hung out with me.

My dancing son... his moves are very good.

Clearly Girumy is at the age for lacing activities... and since we don't have any, he made his own.