Cherries!

I am so thankful for our back yarden fruit, in particular, the cherries right now.  We have used them to make a sort of compote, with honey, to put on toast and just plain and raw in yogurt.  I am thinking that I may make some sort of baked crumble with a bunch of them, but I'm a bit scared to wreck them somehow.

Soon to come are the raspberries, lots of them, about 2 black currants and three blueberries (It's the first year for those two kinds of plants, so that there will be anything to try is a miracle.), a handful of aronia berries and then grapes (although not as many as usual because I mis-pruned them last year).

Thank you, God, for your gifts.

Happy Birthday, Getayawkal and Biruktawit!!!!

PapA, making chocolate birthday pancakes at 6 something in the morning

Rob had to wake the children up!  Mita immediately said, "It's my birthday!"  Ty was suffering from squishy morning face.

Breakfast and praising God: Ty requested "Awesome" by Charles Jenkins and "Ope loye o" by Flo.  (Ty sat in a church service with me a few weeks ago and now he always raises a hand, like he saw our friend Michel do.  He would have been rocking an invisible microphone, had he not been gripping his fork.) 

Photophobic Girumy decided to get dressed up.  I dig it.

Happy twinny birthday!

Here is the salad that Mita requested, all from the back yarden.  Ty also got his quinoa and tempeh.

And Tita made strawberry cheesecake for me, um, for Mita and Tito Jare made strawberry shortcake for Ty, our resident shorty.

So, they are four.  Ty and Mita are healthy, growing and learning, thank God.  I think back to how they came home to us, and... miracle after miracle.  It's almost unbelievable.

Ty is a rambunctious rocket, blasting off hither and thither, constantly.  He understands, as much as a four year old can, which is maybe more than we give a kid credit for, the Gospel.  I mean, the kid can explain it.  If I were able to give him another name (Five is enough, I guess.), it would be David, for sure.  The child wants to go to S-- and tell the people there that Jesus loves them.  He, on his own, prays that God will let us go.  He even asks me to sing a song in that language everyday so that he can learn it and he pumps his fist with me at the part that says, "The devil and the demons; He is more powerful than they are.  Let us praise Him!"

Mita is a calm bookworm.  When she gets more expressive, I will be so happy to know what is going on inside that brain of hers.  I am thinking it will come out as impressionistic artwork.  We'll see.  Lately, Mita likes to hear the story of when she came home... how she was so scared and had to sleep with me for months, how she screamed when I left the room.  Afterwards, she always kisses me and says that she isn't scared anymore.  Thank God.  She frequently picks me clover and dandelion flowers from the yard and gives them to me as a gift.

God, thank you and help us all!

dans le jardin

"...since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse" (Romans 1:19-20).

"Amen!"

Scapes!  Scapes!  Garlic scapes everywhere!  At market last weekend, people were going nuts for scapes.  We are getting scapes in our CSA box this week.  And I had a backyard full of them!  Ah!  We still have the jar of pickled scapes that I made a year ago in the fridge, only half eaten.  So, I have made garden art out of them.  

Look at those perfect petals.  Nice, God.

And the center of this poppy!  Such intricate beauty!

I thought that I had lost this delphinium due to transplanting it during last year's dry spell, but, again, the tenacity of life!

Nature notebook work

Perfect geometry!

Working

In high school, I had to write a children's book in Spanish.  Mine is entitled El lugar de las siete margaritas, which is a retelling of some boy problems that I was having at the time, but with bunnies and skunks.  I have recently begun reading it to the kids and now they get so excited whenever they see a daisy.

G's notes

Girumy (or, Girumi, as he writes it) has just taken to writing notes.  He even made a short grocery list yesterday!  But, one of the first that he wrote was:

"MamA se pone triste aveces."

'Tis our current reality.  

First sleep-away!

As soon as G woke up on Friday morning, he came in to my room and said with SO much excitement, "Today is the day that I'm going to sleep at Tita's house!"  In order for him not to explode with enthusiasm, we had to space out the preparations, like letting the air out of a balloon slowly:

Post-breakfast laying-out of everything that he wanted to take

The mid-morning pack-up of his stuff

Post-nap trial-run of carrying all of his stuff

Early evening pick-up

I believe it was a success!

God's Garden Glory!

The seed poppies are about to bloom blue!  I am so excited about this crop.

I love Centaurea at this point.

I will never get over how cool garlic is!

Thank you, God, for this delicate beauty.

So... what a mess, no?  This is my Exercise in Letting Go.  You see, this was to be my bush bean bed; however, these potatoes, sunflowers and squash sprouted up on their own and I am trying very hard to leave them alone.  I mean, it's free food, right?  I do have some very nicely lined up veggies to counter the mess you see here; so when this freaks me out too much, I just go stare at the neat rows of parsnips and... breathe.  

Echinacea pallida, my beautiful friend!

The children

Ty:

Going on a 'doba date with PapA

So cute!

When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner next week, he said, "Quinoa, rice, tempeh and beans."  Alrighty then!

Mita:

This is Mita's usual garden activity: chilling; here, literally and figuratively.  (It was so cold this morning!)  I keep reminding myself that she is observing, like the Little Hedgehog, and so her idleness shouldn't totally freak me out yet.

It has come to my attention that Mita memorizes very well.  She is the only one who really had Psalm 23 down and yesterday I realized that she had memorized a bunch of geography facts from this little flap book that we go over every few days.  I am going to have to take advantage of this for her education.

And when I asked Mita what she wanted for her birthday dinner, she said, "Salad and broccoli!"  Again, wow.

Israel (That's what he wants to be called as of late.):

-No photo of G, as he is too busy talking to pose!-

He has taken to retelling conversations, verbatim.  Yikes!  "And he said... and I said... and he said... and..." Do you get the idea?  Ah!!!!!

He is so chatty, in fact, that a guy from church, passing by and hearing G, said, "What a loquacious child!" For better and for worse, add I.

He has also been VERY concerned with details lately, like in which car he will go somewhere, if the car's lights will be on, if he will go through any yellow lights en route, where his booster seat will go, etc.  Again, ah!!!!!!!!!!!

Attention to detail... I will have to take advantage of that for his education.