Happy Birthday/"Birth-WEEK" to my dearest wife!
With family still (mostly) local, but no longer living in the house (or else no longer being around much at home), it's rare than any event brings us all together other than the BIG holidays.
So we do things in parts.
I heard that "Mrs. Janaro" had a good birthday party with her students at school. I'm glad for that. She loves her students and works harder for each of them, individually, than anyone knows (as is proper her particular pedagogical role, which is to facilitate the students' encounter with reality without drawing attention to her own personality).
It's been an exceptionally difficult school year, because of circumstances I cannot describe here. The timing of certain events couldn't have been worse in light of the needs of our own family. But she perseveres, and has been able to adjust to new situations and temporarily increased responsibilities. Age is slowing her down, but only a little...
She is a heroic teacher, which - among other things - means that she is underappreciated. For what it's worth, I appreciate and admire her. I'm grateful that I can listen to her when she gets home from school and encourage her.
For her birthday there were a few things we did. On Thursday night, Josefina and I took her out to dinner. It turned out to be Mexican food, and it was delicious (and thirst-quenching). The pictures don't do justice to it. I got her some little gifts too. Flowers are usually the way to a woman's heart, but in the case of this woman, a "Funko Pop!" figurine of Washington Capitals' star Alex Ovechkin is even better!
Most of "the kids" (including John Paul) came to dinner on Sunday. Agnese is still with some of her classmates, who returned from their (sadly😢) abbreviated "Semester-in-Rome" on March 4 and are serving out their "two weeks" (none of them have gotten sick).
Teresa cooked dinner and also baked this incredible cake topped with fresh strawberries. Mom didn't want candles, not because she minds the number the candles would indicate, but she's just not much for the candle-blowing-thing (and its just as well, right now, that nobody "blows" on common food😷).
Dear Eileen, I am so grateful for you, more than any words can express. I thank God for you!
