Quiet, Happy, Full, Content.

Tehur is here :-)

Tehur is our 22yr old friend from Portugal. Born in the States to a Portuguese Angolan mama and a Brazilian dad, Tehur moved (home?) to Portugal when she was almost 3.

But we met her when she was about 13, I guess. She went to school with Jesse and Trevor in the cozy days of ICSC, when Mike Bushy was leading the school and the kids all felt like a family.

Somehow, through some trying times, Tehur started dropping by our house in Lisbon for a cup of tea. Our family has forever been the better for her friendship.

Te is here with us till 1 April because she wanted a little break from Portugal and because she knew I wanted a little break from home schooling. You should have seen Heather when I told her that Te was coming. She was dancing in the kitchen and running up and down the hall. This is the friend that used to sit and read poetry with Heather. Heath adores her.

My biggest beef with the curriculum Heather uses, (apart from it's rather alarmingly ultra-conservative sentiments at times and the dreadful singing of one of the teachers on the dvds,) is the lack of creativity. Well, let me just say that Heather's creative brain has woken up since Tehur arrived. She has spent this entire afternoon writing a fairy tale and I really couldn't be happier. Go, Heather! Go, Te! Go, writing and imagining and smiling at your work!

Besides this, Colin has just had a beautiful long weekend in Zanzibar with Hunter and Tait. They attended an African music fest and Colin was in a kind of djembe players nirvana. If you didn't know, Colin plays the djembe like a fiend. His hands are fast and soft and true. He free styles with grace. I'm his mom so you may take comments with a little pinch of salt. But not too much salt because it's all are true ;-)

We just picked Colin and Hunter up at the bus station. Tait flew back yesterday since she had to get to work. I'm excited to get my boy home. It was too much to have him AND the college boys gone all at once. I'm not ready for that quite yet.

The spaghetti sauce is on the stove and there is much laughter coming from the trampoline. It's dark outside and the giggles are thick.

Sweet!

And Jesse is Doing What?

As you know, Jesse is in Belize doing an environmental science semester at the Creation Care Study Program. He's loving it.

The students just completed 2 week internships with home stays and Jesse's was pretty much a perfect fit for who he is. He stayed with a djembe-maker and his family where he learned about more than just all things djembe.

He posted about it on their group blog so here's a word from our dread head boy. You have to scroll down about 3 short stories to his post...

Peace and Love.

TaaaaDaaaah!

Jesse launched a site for his drums and other instruments!

Check it out at Jesse Djembes

Drum Boy

Jesse always has a million ideas of new things to make. Especially new drums.

Last weekend he was down to visit and he spent most of his time in his Grandpa's woodshop making two tongue drums.

This photo is of him tuning the first one. Seriously! He would shave little bits off the tongues he had carved out to perfect the pitch. It sounds really pretty.

So one night Trevor ended up picking up his guitar and Colin played one of Jesse's little djembes that he made some time ago, and Jesse played the new tongue drum.

Since I play no instrument at all, I danced. I'm sure you would have been inspired if you had seen me (!)