Melkam Addis Amet - Happy Ethiopian New Year!

Melkam Addis Amet - Happy Ethiopian New Year!

Enkutatash is the Ethiopian New Year which will be celebrated by the Gregorian calendar on 11 September 2010.

Yes, the Ethiopian New Year is NOT the same as ours! So the girls get to have multiple celebrations throughout the year! It is currently 2002 in Ethiopia as they use a different calendar system that the rest of the world.

Beginning Wordless Wednesday Early

Think Red for Recycle

Today I donated my first pint of blood. It was not as bad as I thought. Actually the process before donating was more painful. The questions, reading the pamphlet, redoing the questions, the health history, you get the picture. The girls wanted to come with because they wanted to watch mommy get a marfay (shot) but were unable to wait as long as it took for mommy to get a marfay (I'm sure the spelling is not correct, but oh well). So the whole process took about 40-45 minutes and the actual blood donation took about 10-15 minutes. I didn't feel dizzy, unstable, or anything. I am going to make a date to do this every 8 weeks. It's definitely a way for me to love my neighbor as well as be an example to my girls about helping people you don't know and doing good in the world. So next time you are looking to volunteer to help someone, donate blood, you actually are helping three of your neighbors!

so it's sunday

and I attempted to take a sabbath day. a real sabbath day, no cooking, no cleaning, etc. this is the most work i've done all day, writing this post. i feel kind of guilty, but in some sense, a real sense, it's nice to let your brain and body have a break! the girls freaked out a bit when i announced that i was not cooking dinner :-). of course kidist says, "daddy can cook" with daddy answering, "________________". that would be no answer. . . .the girls didn't want sandwiches, that is boring. so they scrounged around the fridge and came up with some pretty healthy left overs and they actually heated up food with supervision of course. so one successful sabbath day has been had at my house today! we'll have to try that again real soon.

didn't know what to write today so . . .

i decided to post pictures instead. One of Bayat holding veggies from our garden, both girls at the Mehaber in MN july 2010 and the girls attempting to sleep in the tent up north. I ended up being summoned about 10:30 because of the noises. Oh well. . . Enjoy

contemplations

Not going to write a whole lot tonight. . . been reading and thinking and wondering and pondering. . . what does it mean to love your neighbor?? Your next door neighbor, your neighbor across the street, the neighbor down the road, across town, in another city, state, country? A different land from which you reside? What does it mean to love your neighbor? I get something, mixed feelings, confused, etc. when I see some of what I see on the internet. (Don't really want to expand on that at the moment). I live in the land of the free, free to do, for the most part, what ever I want to do. Does that mean I should just do foolishly with the gifts that God has given me? Probably not! But does it mean that I should also shout out about what I do? Probably not! But what about bringing about awareness to those who don't know what is going on in the neighborhood! I think it very important to expose the nature of all things, especially those things that WE can CHANGE! So my ponderings, How can I love my neighbors near and far and do it in Christian love? Thanks for reading and pondering with me, because if you've read this far you might be asking yourself the same questions. Peace to all and to all a peaceful night~

Green Jalapenos make good salsa~

Today the girls and I did some canning. We made 5 pints of hot salsa with 7 jalapenos (my fingers are still burning) from the garden and 3 pints & 3-1/2 pints of strawberry jam! Overall, it was a great day with some bumpy beginnings! I've included a picture of the lovelies standing by their green garden creations :-)