Full!

Oy!  It has been so easy to say that God is good lately!  Of course, he is always good and perfect; it has just been rolling off my tongue lately, thank Him, instead of being forced out.  (Ugh!  I am still so earth-bound.)  Anyways, the point is that God has given us many tangible gifts lately, for which we are so thankful.  I barely know where to begin.

Because of technical difficulties, and quite frankly because I think that writing is underpracticed these days, I shall share some snippets in words:

So much excitement!

Smiles and hugs.  Hugs and smiles

for Mamita.

Jugos, jugos

de lulo, maracuyá, guanábana and copoaçú.

Oy!  My mouth still waters at the memory of mamoncillo.

Melting!  I'm melting in Az,

But refreshed by a l... o... n... g... day of wind in my face.

Oh, the glories of God!  Double rainbows and a technicolor sunset!

Ah!  Did you see it?  Yes!  Pink, rolling in the waves.

Zoom, zoom across the border into the middle of nowhere.

Mmm... tangy and sugary lime drank.  Yes.  Drank.

Um... we are stuck...

Um...

OK!  We're back on the track.

The smallest and hottest pepper, tasted, then cooled by 

...una serpiente de tierra caliente

y cuando se rIe se le ven los dientes.

Hay que estar demente, critica la gente

Porque come plAtano con aguardiente.

Bougie Sisters in the big city,

welcomed by Sons, Mothers (from SO far away), and Family.

A precious gift from God...

even though they don't realize that yet!

Relaxed.  So relaxed.

Grateful.  So grateful.

And home.

Then we moved on to:

Dancer Sophie's ballet recital.  She was precious.  And she even has great posture!

Followed by Fun Family Times!  Such a gift from God!

Spring fun!

Our cherry tree is blossoming!  

The tulips are so happy!  

The earth is nice and warm!  

Spring!

Thank you, God!

A little bit of Ethiopia in my life (Do you remember the tune? O Skogs!)

African Global Gateway!  I was honored to be able to read from Colossians in Amharic this year, tutored by our dear friend, M.  My daughter and I went all out with the crosses on our head!

an Ethiopian party on her head

This makes perfect sense:  My baby is teaching our Ethiopian friend how to count in Spanish!  I love it!

He must be 7!

Last week, after that freak-snow, Girumy asked if he could go out alone to shovel the back walk... you know, "since you don't like the cold, MamA."  "Uh... sure?"  I gave him the keys and off he went... and did a fabulous job.  Last weekend, the kid almost made pancakes.  Yesterday morning he made oatmeal and for lunch he made us all SPICY quesadillas.  His upper front tooth is noticeably crooked, as the new one pushes it out.  Girum is 7.

My baby!  My large man-child!

Girumy continues to be such an oldest child, for better and for worse.  He is SO responsible, usually at the expense of fun.  I get it, but it makes me sad too.  I don't want him to be such a Wendy, although I fear that it's already too late.  He has left Neverland... if he was even there in the first place.

He is a master-negotiator, which leads me to believe that he'd be a great diplomat (said, ironically, with a Russian accent).  He still says that he doesn't know what he wants to do when he is an adult, but he does know that he wants to get around in a "muscle car" and he wants to be fueled by meat.  My child?!  Ay!!!!!!

Girumy is an autodidact, which has its pros and its cons.  He continues to teach his siblings everything.  He generally likes to be in their company, not liking to risk adventures alone.

My baby is such a joy!  We continue to be SO THANKFUL to God for letting him be our family.  God, may your will be done with him!

always making planes

Super-G!

the serious student

soccer brothers

OK, so he's not always serious!

It's tiring being 7!

Girumy, we love you Michelin-starry, with 9 billion infinities!

So, the celebrations:

We began the birthday celebrations with Rob's.

And then Liz's

On to G's:  While Rob was preparing the pancakes, G and I snuggled in bed and then at the counter.  For how many more years will he want to do that?  -a big sigh-

Oh, yeah, we started off G's b-day with chocolate milk at 5:41 AM.

traditional Happy Birthday pancakes

Gifts

And more gifts

G's dinner request: eggrolls, ginger rice, Uzbek fire carrots and pickled radishes

When G opened an envelope with money in it, Ty exclaimed, "I can't believe it!  Look at all of that money!"

the requested, and best (if I do say so myself), carrot cake a la Mrs. Skogs

capped off the next day by dinner at Kopps and a guitar from our generous Linda

We ended the celebrations with more snuggling, during which time, he sleepily told me that he loves that I'm his mom.  "Do you know why?"  "Why," I asked.  And this is what the kid said, "Because you don't let us celebrate Halloween, you find us organic food and your cheeks smell like koshari."

Yep.  That about says it all!  My precious baby!

Northern fun

We borrowed a mini-van, piled in and drove, drove and drove some more.  What adventure!

my sweet family

tapping trees for sap to make syrup

4-wheeler fun through the woods

general joy at being free in nature

blowing stuff up with with my dad

sampling my dad's apple hooch

practicing our response if we happened upon a bear

a visit to camp

fiesta

and, of course, s'mores

Snow day!

Much to my chagrin, the children's delight and Linda's sense of accomplishment, we had a snow morning...

Visions of him melting.  Mwoo-ah, ha, ha, ha!

The worst two soccer players EVER!