Around here

 Yup, it's one of those.  Let's see...

Buñuelos con Lizeth

Sophie's learning to knit!  Hm... do you notice that color, Boo?

We, for a few reasons, are learning Greek.  One is to say, "Take that Devil!  I'm going to live while I'm alive!"

We're also settling in with our new student, affectionately known to us as Pumpkin.  She's fitting in quite nicely.

And I have Garden Fever, for sure.  This year is going to be my Super Дача Blow-out Summer!  And I am going to, I MUST, successfully grow a delicious French melon... if it's the last thing I do.  Ha!

What we miss

G

Sitting in restaurants to eat, YMCA, sleep-overs at Tita's, being able to touch items at REI, Brewers' games, jungle gyms

T

YMCA, moving around freely without a mask, FORT WILDERNESS, friends at church, the possibility of going to football games, being free, planning to go to Ethiopia, dinner parties

S

Going to church, the Y, being free, sleep overs

A sigh

 I am Damocles.

Out of the mouth of my babes

 Ty:  "Mamá loves Papá, Gussy and Juanes."  (I had to point out to Rob that he was first on the list.)

Sophie:  We were listening to a Jars of Clay Christmas song and it said something silly about "putting on our winter skin," and she said, "My skin is not at all pretty in the winter."  I commented that surely a white person had written those lyrics.

Girumy:  "This soup warms me delightfully."

Ty:  "I hope I don't wake up from this dream!" regarding the delight caused by our surprising new addition.

What.a.day.

When your kids start off the morning with sparkling apple cider in champagne glasses, it's bound to be a great day.  Sophie's front tooth was finally fixed.  Rob brought me a mocha.  Кошка came to us.  And Sophie, and then Girumy, lost a tooth.  Oh, and it was 50 degrees.  Noice!

A spot by the sea

You know how in the olden days people were prescribed a season at the sea as a cure for so many ills?  Well, we tried it out, thanks to our dearest R____s.  It certainly worked as a cure for my mind, if not for my body.

Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.  Shoo!  Rob was a driving machine.  I nearly fainted through the mountains of southern Kentucky.  And the kids were champs!

Every day was spent at a different beach, soaking in the rays and the briny sea, walking miles in the sand.  G's opinion is that Edisto Island Beach was the best, followed by Hilton Head, Tybee and finally Hunting Island.  Apart from the superior waves for body surfing at Edisto, G caught, cleaned and ate a croaker from there.

My opinion is almost the opposite, as Hunting and Tybee were the best for walking.  The afternoon we visited HH, it was so chilly and windy for me, although Ty had a different opinion.

Sophie's favorite memory is being flipped by a wave at Tybee and having her lip split.  Her blood now mingles with the waves... all the way to Audrey?  Ty loved playing in the water and having new kinds of sticks to turn into swords and bows.  And I loved the trees dripping in Spanish Moss...

... although... well, I was quite overwhelmed by the thought of slaves, suffering under those trees, running away through those trees.  It was heavy, despite my silliness in that photo.

We also had many interesting animal sightings: (sting) rays, dolphins, fishing pelicans, terns, hermit crabs and all sorts of other creatures in the tide pools, feral cats, vultures eating a roadkilled armadillo, a horseshoe crab, pee-jumping frogs, a little lizard, oysters, and a monkey... on a leash.  

We capped it all off by a ti-zasty Thanksgiving dinner (made on about 6 square inches of counter)

and a trip to the Hwy. 21 drive-in theater.

It was so great!  You know, it was our first family vacation, ever.  Yes, we've been to Ethiopia together; but that's travelling, which is certainly not relaxing, although I LOVE it.  I hope we can do it again.  Which?  Both!  :)

Around here

Last weekend's fun continued with a day spent with our dear Samir and Lizeth.  In addition to hanging out, Samir gave the kids their first electrical engineering lesson.  Our friends had bought them an Arduino to learn circuits and programming, but it sat in the drawer for a while, since I... well, since I couldn't.  By the end of the lesson, we could all make a closed circuit with a shining LED.

We also, to enjoy this best weather, cooked lunch out on Saturday.  A week earlier, our dear Farmer Tim had given the boys some bacon, which we froze to use on our Thanksgiving turkey loaf.  The next weekend, Tim asked the boys how they had liked it, to which they responded that we were saving it.  "What?!  Here's some more.  Go home and eat it."  So, since I don't abide the smell of bacon, we decided to cook it out over the fire... and then there were scrambled eggs over the fire, pudgy pies in the fire, Neighbors' dinner over the fire... It was great!  What did we ever do without that fire pit?

What else?  Oh, Kyle came to visit and make us oh-so-happy for a bit.  Rob is seriously allergic!

And then, Girumy figured out, with an assist from papA, how to burn things with his magnifying glass and the sun.  What?!?!  He made me a Happy Gingko.