A Mother's week

  Happy Mother's Day!

 We are thankful for our mothers today. We send blessings to them back in Pennsylvania, knowing our siblings are honoring them as we wish we could...in person!  We are thankful we were able to skype with both of them this week. They patiently listened to the children [& to us!] & filled us in on the news from home.


Here is a few pictures from my week. Jon already posted this picture on fb. It was sweet of him. His confidence & encouragement have gotten this mother through some tough days this last year. This is the sort of picture you get when you try to take a nice picture after church but before lunch.

No mother's week would be complete without some food prep. This was my list all lined up on the table. Tomatoes to sauce, mango to chop, beans to soak, yogurt to grow [:)], & some sour lil oranges from the neighbors to figure out what to do with. The children like to eat them like their Ghanaian friends...chew out the juice  & spit out the membranes & seeds. I stepped in just about enough of those little gifts for one week & it's only Monday!

We were very pleased to find this Banana-gram game at a yard sale. Missionaries & other ex patriots living here have yard sales when they leave. And we found some good stuff! Max was happy to trade his phonics workbook for a game today. Here are his words of choice.
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Many days our electricity is off part of the day. Sometimes for 15 minutes, sometimes more than 12 hours. On a good day, I've got a plan for supper, Jon is home & we enjoy supper on the porch before darkness comes. And this time the lights came on while we were eating. I am always thankful for that. Clean up by candlelight is not as relaxing or romantic as you might think. ;)

We like lizards. Like this one. The boys love to catch them, feel quite sad if they pull off the tails [but love to watch the tails "run" around on their own!] & delight in chasing Elle with them. We often must have the wild animal conversation. A lizard would not be happy trapped in a jar.....:)

Especially not this lizard!!! This mampam was behind the house under the cocoa trees.
Here's the story in Max's own words.
Elle & I were playing with the bamboo sticks under the orange tree. She dropped chocolate spread from her bread onto her foot. She went to wash it off & started screaming. I went to see what was wrong & saw the lizard. Mom. We ran, yelling for you,  the other way around the house to get you. [I was sure someone had broken a limb.]
We took this picture from the back porch. It had climbed the wall by that time. I went across the street to see if some men working there wanted to kill it. They  like to eat them or sell them to the natural healers. They came with a fufu pounder to kill it, but it had jumped into the bush behind our house & they didn't brave the swamp to find it.
I wasn't getting any closer & had to take the picture with Elle hanging on me...so here is a better look if you want one.

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