La multi ani!

I am thankful for the wonderful women in my life. I primarily thank my mother. She has always been there for me -- helping and supporting me in everything I have done or tried to do until now. It's been a hard year for her, and I am so grateful she is still able to handle it all. I've always thought that if there were angels on this Earth they'd be like her, and like my grandma had once been.  On the left is a picture of Edward with the paper roses he built for me for mother's day under the guidance of his teacher -- another strong woman who works very hard to teach them all she knows. The roses are amazingly beautiful. On the right is Silkie, our hen. One of the chickens she raised this summer is lame. This evening she seemed to help her and keep her company even though the chicken is now a grown hen. 

My children are growing up so quickly, it's hard to keep up. Edward is first to wake up when the alarm rings. He actually gets up and gets dressed instead of turning it off and going back to bed. He gets to school on time and wants to be there every day to not miss out. They even have fancy shirts now that they wear  for end of year plays in school and when they go to the theatre, and look so grown-up in them. As much as I complain and try to get them to do more around the house and to do they homework on time, I hope they'll manage to stay happy and care-free for a little longer. That's partly why I've hanged on to our little zoo and refused to move out to yet another country.

Below are some pictures of my mother, Edward and David from before the winter. We are all eagerly waiting for more sun.

 

David's letter

On mother day, all children in David's class were asked to write a letter to their mother. This is David's. I translated it from Romanian.

Dear mother,

I would like to see you as soon as possible. How are you and Danny and the rest? what's new there?

We have 2 goats, I don't know how-many chicken, 2 ducks and a quail.

Last summer there was a great storm. We had to change the tiles on the roof. I believe it's because of global warming. I heard there were fires in California. Did you have any storms?

I heard the ice is melting. This means the ground could go up or down by as much as 50 m in some places, which is not a problem other that California and other parts of Earth will go under the sea level and sink.

David

He genuinely shows the approach we all take. Yeah, the ice is melting, no big deal, CA and other places might sink. Move on to doing whatever we do every day.  Note his mother lives in CA.

So many forests are cut, our politicians deny global warming AND promote work that increases carbon emissions. Somehow there is nothing we do to stop this cycle. Like with the war in Syria and with the refugees, we read the news, ignore and move on. Since the water is warm, there are bound to be stronger storms and more extreme temperatures. I wonder how bad it will get.  We are trapped in virtual reality (the internet, money, random stupid paperwork) and as we become more and more disconnected from the world we live in, it's becoming extremely hard to make changes that have impact in the real world.

But the letter is simpler than my grumbling. David misses his mother. He would very much like to see her and Danny (his brother), and he worries that the part of the world she lives in will get destroyed. I told him climate change takes time and that CA will not get to be underwater any time soon.