August 7, 2012

Last post was a serious skinny on the weather. Shame. Shame. On me.
Clearly, I am no meteorologist or even able to do web research beyond wikipedia. Please realize we, like you, feel most like sharing news when it is at extremes. A bad habit. One I am unlikely to break unless I convert this to a daily journal. That is something I don't want to write and you don't want to read. Rather, we look forward to educating many of you on our life here in person while we are visiting Pennsylvania.

We have many days in the pleasant space between monsoon & drought.  I'm happy to report today was beautiful one of those. Sunny. But not blistering. Breezy. But not door slamming gales. Days like this feel like a warm Pa spring to me. Some ancient ambition, programmed by my practical Swiss-German Anabaptist mother, springs to life & I desire to clean. So far the the kitchen, spare room & both porches have suffered a scrubbing. I must say, furlough is giving me an extra nudge too.
August 14 is just days away! Cleaning aside, we are in that funny limbo between things that can be done on ahead & all that last minute stuff that will come in a few days. The list's of do-before-we-go & don't-forget-to-pack & even things-to-buy-in-Pa are worked on daily.

My hands are busy & my camera is broken (sob!). Painting a picture with words is not my talent. The pictures are, oh, so important.
Thanks to the ipod, I've been able to take some pictures. The quality is poor but I think you can still tell who is who. :)
Elle is enjoying my Morning Glory vine. She is fascinated by the delicate purple flowers & is quite sad each time they wilt in a cup of water. Somehow leaving them on the vine just isn't an option. ;)

 My dear husband had a birthday last Sunday. He had a weekend of fun planned for us all to celebrate. And then came the aching legs & headache of malaria. So we hung out at home trying to keep a little quiet so he could rest. Rory kept going in, rubbing his back. "I'm just so sad when Daddy is sick," he would say. Happily, for all of us, he perked up on Sunday. His only gift was this lovely local shirt. He insists his birthday party starts August 14 & included Phillies games & hunting. :)
He couldn't even tolerate a birthday cake! He did manage a few of the homemade noodles the children & I made for lunch Sunday.

 Jon was also able to help  with the singing for our little Sunday school time. The boys insisted on wearing their Sunday shirts even though we were staying home.

I've been wanting to post these for awhile now. We managed to find a day with (almost) no rain for Audrey & I to take the kids to Ghana University's botanical gardens. We mostly go for the wide open spaces for the kids to run in & the nice play ground.
On the way home we stopped at Maxmart for ice cream. Rory was determined to have mint chocolate chip. He's never had it before. Our standard ice cream fare isn't even ice cream, it's FanIce, a sorry replica we can get easily here. He loved it & was glowing to have a special little dish all to himself.

 Savannah, Arielle & Elle enjoyed their treat too. The server even gave them some broken pieces of sugar cone for free. It was a good field trip. The Bontrager's have become our family. The children call each other brother & sister, alternately cheering each other on & fighting like loving children do. Through sleep overs, car trips, birthday parties & school recess time on the Bontrager swing set, we've gained some awesome brothers & sisters.

To many of you we say, " See you next week!"