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I'm doing my blogging here now.  Please join me!

January 18: sunrise sky (January 5 at the campement)

January 16: invading our space

My guard-dog informed me that we had intruders in our airspace... when I went to check it out, I found these characters glaring down on us!

January 11: de-Christmasizing the house...

I think this is the latest in January I've ever had Christmas stuff still up! I have good reasons this year though...

First of all, Joey (our senior-in-college son visiting from Arkansas) said we should wait till he left since he liked it a lot! I like it a lot too, and have always been sad at taking it down... and besides, it's a lot of work.

Well, he left in the early hours of Saturday morning... and I thought I'd get it done on Saturday, but even today I find myself dragging my feet. (Blogging after months of absence? Seriously?)

But this is a different taking-down of household Christmas decorations for me. This year, we are planning to return to the States in June for a six-month home assignment, and then an extended period of time in the States. We don't know when or even if we will return to Africa. So we will be closing up our house, selling most of what we have here, and leaving with no plans to return.

And with our Christmas decorations, well... we have to decide which ones we will sell or give-away, and which ones will be part of the (limited-by-space-and-weight) household items we take back to the States with us.

As a wife and mom, I've tried to make our home attractive and comfortable for my family, and all these things are special to me, each in its own way. Each has been a part of celebrating the Light that has come into the world.

I'm a homeMAKER and this feels like I'm tearing a bit of my home apart. And over the next five months, this will have to happen with everything else we own.

I guess that's why it's feeling like a bigger job this year.

November 17: season of quiet

As you may have noticed, It's been quiet on this blog for quite a while now. It seems to me as though it's time to recognize a season of rest. If you're interested in keeping up with me, you can find me on facebook, or on our family blog.

Blessings,
Mary

October 7: still living...

Seems like a long time since I've had anything to say! And I don't have much to say right now, but want to note that I'm still living!
Daily life right now feels like a matter of survival. The heat and humidity are higher than I ever remember, and I'm feeling it more than I ever remember as well. And for some reason, we are having an excess amount of cockroaches these days. Not many of the huge scary ones, but numerous tiny annoying persistent ones. All over the kitchen. It's pretty gross. We put food away, clean the counters, spray... and yet they return. Again and again. Yuck.
So, do I talk about the things that happen in daily life here? It's hard to do it without sounding like I'm whining and complaining. My tendency is to endure it, and say as little as possible about it. Hence, an inactive blog.
Pictures? So much work to pick that camera and find something out there in the heat to capture...

We are looking forward to November, when the cool desert breeze blows down through Senegal!

August 29: sunset at Goree

I loved the colors reflected on the water during a five-minute window before sunset!

August 24: updated album!

Today I got the Miami, July 2009 album up to date, here's the link if you'd like to see the pictures!

August 23: catching up...

This bird is from Senegal, a sight seen from my roof on my first day back in Dakar! He was pretty cool! (It's a Senegal parrot.)

I've finally had a little bit of time to edit some of my photos from the trip to Miami/Minnesota/Wisconsin. I didn't get as many great photos as usual, probably because I was too busy having fun with the people there! Here's a link to my August facebook album with the first batch of photos... more are yet to come!

July 15: July in Miami

We're enjoying our time in Miami, having fun with family and friends. We are keeping busy, and here's a link to some of our pictures on facebook!