A New Kind of Atheist~0r~An Irony Observed

I found out about about this Atheist Bus Campaign presently underway in the UK while doing a little blog surfing yesterday. The following observation is from Rebekah at Femina. Wish I'd seen it first and said it first. She is spot on:

"Yes, I know this is old news. But now you can’t go two steps in Oxford without being greeted by this merry little message on the side of basically every bus that zooms past - and every time I see it I just get extensively cracked up!

I mean, seriously. “There probably is no God.” What kind of gung-ho message is that?! Honestly - they’re practically begging every resident of the UK to seriously consider Pascal’s Wager . . . which you know they never would have done in a million years otherwise.

What kind of atheism is this anyways? I think they need to get out more and read a bit more Nietzsche. Nietzsche would never have settled for a peppy little message in pink that contained the word “probably”. And that little word “probably” is no doubt unsettling numerous middle aged women across the nation who had never given it a thought up until now, and are suddenly wondering every five minutes if they’re willing to bet their soul on that very uncertain message.

They’re also selling t-shirts by the way. It’s quite hilarious that now there’s a category of atheist kitsch. It must mean that all those Christian billboards and John 3:16 shirts are working far more than I suspected they were. The atheists have finally had it up to here, and are now copying the pop evangelical methods of getting the message out there! It’s kinda fun to have it go that direction for once. It used to be that across from every music store in every mall there was the Christian answer to it - full of knock-offs and almost-as-good-as paraphernalia. But it’s quite hilarious to think of the atheists then having to put up their own little kiosk with their not-quite-as-powerful answer to the evangelicals . . . tacky little key chains with humanist slogans and “I’m pretty sure there’s no Hell” bookmarks and inspirational posters that say things like, “I don’t think that Final Judgments are very nice to think about.”

It’s quite heartening, really."

We've been tracking with Socrates this week, the boys and I, studying about the Dialogues, reading The Euthyphro, and enjoying Socrates brilliant use of irony. I just have to think that he would have a bit of fun with the authors of this campaign.

The Spinach Lady Cometh

...and cometh and cometh, ever since I encouraged her, a couple of months ago, by purchasing five 1 lb bags of fresh, chopped spinach. What was a I thinking? Well, I was thinking that I appreciated having fresh, chopped spinach delivered to my kitchen door and for a better price than I could find in the market. Since she made her first sale The Spinach Lady, as she has come to be known ("Mom, The Spinach Lady is at the door."), has returned a couple of times a week, always with kind but convincing words as to why I need to buy more spinach. I've been able to refuse a couple of times but for the most part, well, lets just say we've been eating lots of spinach. That is a good thing. Besides dusting off old recipes which call for spinach and searching for new ones, I've also added spinach to a favorite recipe which previously didn't call for spinach. We've had several batches of cream of spinach soup (very good and even the kids like this), spinach/beef/cheese/potato casserole (a favorite), and spinach quiche (another favorite, thankfully).

The past several Christmases I have given Herb Cheese Bread to friends and this year I added--you guessed it!--spinach to the recipe. I checked with Dear Husband before trying this as I realized it might seem like a wacky and unwelcome addition. He approved, I added, and the result was Spinach Herb Cheese Bread, which everyone loved.

Spinach Cheese Herb Bread
(and if you don't like spinach the recipe with out it is just as grand; a true family and friend favorite)

I always triple this recipe. No sense just making 1 loaf of bread when you can just as easily make three and if you can't eat it all, freeze it or give it away. It is not too hard to find someone who will appreciate a fresh baked loaf of bread!

Ingredients
1 cup milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup warm water
1 Tablespoon yeast (I reduce this to 2 1/2 T for a triple recipe)
1 Tablespoon grated onion
2-3 teaspoons herbs (I like thyme and or dill)
1 cup grated cheese (I like strong cheddar)
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
approximately 4 cups flour (I use half whole wheat and half white)
**spinach** I use 1 pound of fresh, chopped spinach steamed and drained/squeezed for a triple recipe.

Dissolve yeast in warm water (w/a pinch of sugar). Mix milk, sugar, salt, onion, herbs, cheeses, half of flour and bubbling yeast. Add spinach and the rest of the flour/enough so that the dough is the right consistency and knead until elastic. About five minutes in my Bosch, but longer by hand. Let rest for about 10-15 minutes, form into a round loaf (loaves) and let rise on a greased baking sheet for about an hour. Bake at 350 degrees about 40 minutes. Cool on a rack and baste with butter if you'd like a softer crust.

And if anyone has a great recipe that uses spinach, I'd love to have it--I still have two pounds of spinach in the fridge and The Spinach Lady will be coming soon...

Philosophy~What is it good for?

"If you should ever decide to study philosophy, someone is sure to ask you, "What can you do with it" The answer is "Nothing. But it can do something with me."

Philosophy 101 by Socrates, Peter Kreeft

It's a Wonderful Life

And it was a wonderful Christmas holiday!

We celebrated our first real family reunion, welcoming Oldest Daughter home after her first semester of college, as we celebrated TOGETHER the Advent of our Savior, Jesus.

Our traditional Christmas Eve supper of turkey and rice soup, cheeses, crackers, and all sorts of fun snack-y foods.

We also celebrated Tayta's 12th birthday with our traditional Christmas Eve morning brunch.















We slept...

Jet Lag

We played weird games with good friends





















Active Son and Artist Son submitting to the commands of Quelf.


We participated in a community service project with the youth...















Organizing donations for distribution to the poor

Post-project fellowship over good hummus, falafel, and mint tea at Hashem's

We enjoyed doing things we don't usually have time for...

Artist Son got started on his anticipated Christmas-break art project right after studies ended, and finished it the day before break ended.

Tiger, in colored pencil and acrylic

My fun-project wasn't quite so awe inspiring, at least not to most: I started coneflower, foxglove, and poppy seedlings.

On one beautiful sunny day we headed south to the ancient Nebatean city of Petra...

...and on another we had the joy of celebrating the baptism of three dear friends at the Jordan River, "Bethany on the other side of the Jordan".

(in case you're wondering, the water was really cold, but at least it was a sunny day.)


We enjoyed reading new books, individually:












And, together:



And the kids finally, finally got me to sit still and watch all of the Lord of the Rings trilogy--the extended version. All I can say is don't watch these on cold, dark nights--which is what we did--or the nights will seem colder and darker.



And now, the late nights and the late mornings must end as we return to 'real life' in the morning. I think I'll make some scones for breakfast, just to make the transition a little easier.

~Emmanuel
God with us~

The Gingerbread House, 2008

I guess we can say that Christmastime gingerbread houses are now a tradition at our house as this is the third year in a row that that we've made one, the perpetuation of the tradition being completely attributed to the two youngest members of the family, Artist Son and Tayta.

This year these two constructed the entire gingerbread house by themselves, perusing the internet for design ideas, baking and cutting the gingerbread, making multiple trips to the corner store for eggs and and powdered sugar, and convincing Dear Husband to spring for expensive imported candy canes at our You-Can-Buy-Your-Favorite-American- Foods-Here- If-You-Are-Willing-To-Pay-The-Price-Store. ("I'm supporting the arts," he justified.)

This year's house features a marshmallow/chewing gum chimney, "snow" covered Golden Graham shingles, chocolate stone facing on the bottom part of the house, an Oreo cookie path, a chocolate covered pretzel stick fence, a gingerbread tree covered with gobs of icing and miniature M&Ms, and a marshmallow snowman. And just so you can appreciate their perseverance, know that the wreath took four attempts to get the icing to just the right consistency. Oh, and a new tip they gleaned from watching a Martha Stewart internet video on making gingerbread houses: Use straight pins to hold the walls together so that you don't have to sit and hold them for half an hour while the icing dries. "Martha Stewart is so smart!" an awe-filled Tayta exclaimed. Yes, she is.

And so is Tayta. I noticed a folded piece of paper inside the house. Thinking that the kids accidentally left it there I called their attention to it. No, it was there purposefully; Tayta had written a reminder to the future eaters of the house: "Remember to take out pins. There are 4 in all."

Running in Jordan

This weekend our family traveled four hours south to the Red Sea port city of Aqaba where we participated in the now annual Red Sea-Aqaba Marathon--no,no, I didn't run a marathon: Dear Husband, Artist Son, and I ran the 10K a Active Son ran his first 21K (half marathon). Though I've never participated in such a run in the States, I'm sure that our race experience had a distinctly Jordanian twist to it; and as I reflected on the experience I've concluded that it represented a microcosm of Jordanian culture.

Fun Runs and marathon competitions are fairly recent events in Jordan but are growing in popularity. When we reached the start line of the 10K we found an interesting juxtaposition of cultures and world citizens ready to participate. I met a British man, working in Amman temporarily, and a 60 year old German woman who trains in the Syrian forest along the Mediterranean coast. Active Son, wearing his Boise State Broncos hat, met a Boisean, a college student studying in Jordan. The race organizers must have entered a lot of local youth for free as there were many Aqaba teens with shirts and race numbers. And, I was humbled to run with some Jordanian women wearing full sweat suits and head coverings; though I wore 3/4 length running pants it was t-shirt and shorts weather in Aqaba.

As we gathered behind the start ribbon a bunch of the local youth burst out under it and the start official had to herd them all back with his megaphone. Everyone was warned against cheating with the threat that, if caught, they would be disqualified. Let's just say it really.didn't.matter. As we headed into our first intersection at which we would turn left, the local youth took one look at the open field shortcut on their left and made a dash for it. The foreigners and a few locals dutifully ran to the end of the concrete median before turning left. It struck me that for the westerners (and yes, I am going to make some generalizations) the process of getting from the start to the finish was what was important. That process was primarily individual and included rules and disciplines to be submitted to. For the locals, the social aspect was more important than the rules to be followed. One runner took a short-cut and all his friends followed suit. And while finishing was important it didn't seem too important how one arrived at the finish line, even it if meant traveling part of the distance in someone's car.

I ended up running alongside some of the local youth. As I am a foreign novelty they tried to start conversations with me. They were acting silly but if I answered in Arabic and told them that my name was Um Active Son, (Mother of Active Son) they behaved repectfully toward me. They sprinted ahead of me and when I, slow and steady, caught up with them, they'd run with me awhile and sprint another 100 meters. It was one way to finish the race.

Kilometer markers were another problem. Within about 1 kilometer of the finish the posted sign read:4 km. Yikes! I was feeling pretty fatigued so slowed down considerably, believing I had miscalculated and still had 4 km to run. I should have been begining my kick as I soon rounded a bend and was faced with the finish line. I poured it on for the remaining 50 meters. Oh well.

Active Son had his own complaint: the race route was poorly marked and he strayed off course for a few minutes before realizing his error. His error was minor; apparently some of the top contenders, mostly Jordanians, in the marathon and 21K race strayed way off course, causing them to miss their opportunity to place in the race. Active Son reported they were very upset when they arrived at the finish line.

Though we're all a bit sore, we're already planning our events for the Dead Sea Marathon in April. Artist Son thinks he may train to run the 21K with Active Son. I'm pretty sure I'll be sticking with the 10K. Oh, and this was my first time to run with an ipod. Very cool. My soundtrack for the race included a few violin concertos which Oldest Daughter has played. Most inspirational: the 3rd movement of Bruch.

A Pie Crust Epiphany

I'm not an animist but I used to feel that a pie- crust-in-process could sense my trepidation and uncertainty, deliberately cracking around the edges or ripping when I transfered it to the pan, its rebellious behavior being directly proportional to my fear. Thankfully, I made my peace with pie crusts many years ago to the extent that I was able to teach Oldest Daughter to make beautiful pie crusts a couple Thanksgivings ago. This year, Tayta was eager to learn how to mix and roll a pie-crust; helpful soul that she is, she knew that I'd need her baking help this Thanksgiving as Older Daughter would not be home.

I'd used the same flour/shortening/water recipe for years, but this year in an effort to strike all hydrogenated fats from our diet, I decided to try a canola oil based recipe. I didn't think it would be nearly as good as a crust made from shortening, but for the health benefits I was willing to sacrifice a little flakiness. The canola oil crust turned out to be successful beyond my expectations. Not only is it a healthier crust (though I would not go so far as to call anything made from oil and flour healthy) it was delicious, and so easy to make--with the added bonus that rolling it out between waxed paper left no flour mess on my counter. None! I experimented with the first crust, then gave Tayta a short tutorial. With minimal input from me, she produced five more beautiful crusts. Together we fit them to the pie plates then wrapped and froze them. How nice it was, on Thanksgiving Eve to pull the finished crusts out of the freezer all ready for filling!

Canola Oil Pie Crust
(makes two crusts)

3 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. milk

Mix all ingredients together and form the dough into a ball. Divide dough into two pieces. Place dough between two pieces of waxed paper and flatten, evenly. Roll out dough. (You may have extra dough or you may trim an amount of dough from your crust, depending on how thin you roll your crust. I like to have plenty of dough and hate to skimp when forming the decorative edge of the crust so I begin with a generous recipe.) Peel off one piece of waxed paper and transfer the crust to a pie plate, removing the second piece of waxed paper. Fill and bake.

Thanksgiving in Jordan

We take our Thanksgiving feasting seriously here in Amman, with some of our international friends celebrating with more than one feast! I can only manage one celebration but it is The Feast of the year, celebrated through the years with many of the same people and always the same food. Lots of tradition.

We've always managed to find a turkey, though we've sometimes had to pay dearly for it; our best ever was a 36 pound local turkey, brined before roasting. We still talk about that one. I've adapted my pumpkin pie by substituting sweet potatoes and I still bring some pecans and dried cranberries from the States for the beloved pecan pies and cranberry relish. Below is our traditional menu-- it doesn't vary much any more--and a few favorite recipes.

This year I will miss the presence of Older Daughter, not to mention her baking assistance--she baked all seven pies last year-- and her artistic table decorations. Tayta informs me she is ready to learn how to bake pies and decorate the tables so this will be a training year.

Our Traditional Thanksgiving Menu
Amman, Jordan

Roasted Turkey
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Southern Sweet Potato Casserole (recipe below)
Cranberry Relish (receipe below)
White Flour (only on Thanksgiving!) Yeast Rolls
Homemade preserves (apricot and fig this year)
Homemade applesauce
Sauted Vegetables (carrots, green beens, mushrooms)
Relish Plate (usually overkill as everyone is full from everything else, but it looks so nice)

Apple Pies
Sweet Potato Pies (recipe below)
Pecan Pies

Southern Sweet Potato Casserole
I've been making this annually since my mother-in-law made this casserole one Christmas and then, kindly gave me the recipe. Assessing the ingredients, this dish could probably be classified as dessert, but, hey, it's Thanksgiving! I make this once a year, only.

6 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
3/4 stick butter, melted
1 cup milk
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon

Mix ingredients together and put in a greased baking dish. Bake covered at 400 degrees F for about 20 minutes--is is assuming that you begin with hot mashed potatoes.

*Topping (and this, is what makes the dish)
3/4 cup crushed corn flakes
1/2 cup chopped nuts (walnuts of pecans)
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 stick butter, melted

Combine the topping ingredients, sprinkle over the top of the baked casserole and bake an additional 10 minutes, uncovered, at 400 degrees F.

My solution to kids trying to taking more topping than potatoes is to make this in a larger, shallower baking dish and increasing the topping recipe by 50 percent so that I can distribute it over a larger surface.

Cranberry Relish
I love cranberry and orange together so I was very thankful to receive this recipe from a fellow overseas American. Maybe not quite as good as fresh cranberries, but much better than canned!

2 cups dried cranberries
1 unpeeled orange (no seeds)
1 apple, cored (I use a Granny Smith)
4 slices pineapple (canned works fine)
1/2-1 cup sugar (start with 1/2)

Chop (I use the pulse setting on my food processor) cranberries, orange and pineapple and combine. Chop apple finely by hand and add the apple and the sugar to the other mixture. Refrigerate overnight. Optional: add 1/4 cup nuts (walnuts or pecans)

Easy Sweet Potato Pie
You can easily substitute mashed sweet potatoes for pumpkin pack/mashed pumpkin in all pumpkin recipes.

1 9 inch unbaked pastry shell/crust
2 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated milk)
2 eggs
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

In a larger mixing bowl combine all ingredients except pastry shell, mix well. Pour into pastry shell and bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue baking 35-40 minutes or until knife inserted 1 inch from edge comes out clean. Cool before serving.

Flowering Jordan

Though I'm never prolific, I haven't posted here lately as I've been working on another project. Those who know me or have read this blog, particularly in the spring, know that I am a enthusiastic wildflower aficionado and that I enjoy photographing many of my flora friends. I've been giving notecards made with my flower pictures to friends for some time, and now with their encouragement I'm launching Flowering Jordan in an attempt to market (read: sell) my cards.

I'm beginning modestly with distribution plans only for Jordan but I may try to get some cards to the U.S. if there is enough interest. Maybe in the new year. Card sets and pricing is currently only for the Jordanian market but price per card in US dollars will be about $1.50; a little more or a little less depending on the quantity purchased. Please check out Flowering Jordan, if only to see the pretty flower pictures. I'd love to hear what you think.

Feeding Teenagers-or-Easy Peasy Apple Coffee Cake

I just put coffee in the title of the cake because making it an official coffee cake gives me a good excuse to have a cup of coffee when eating it. And we are feeding lots of teenagers these days--two Bible Study groups on Thursday night and the worship band last night--so I was trying to think of a fast, easy, somewhat healthy snack cake that I could make. I made three of these cakes on Thursday and wanted to try something new on Friday so adapted this apple muffin recipe to a cake. 15 minutes from inspiration to oven and the apples go into the blender, peel and all. Couldn't be easier!

Blender Apple Coffee Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup milk
2 eggs
2/3 cup canola oil
2 cups brown sugar
5 small-medium red apples (though I've used yellow and green)
1/2 cup walnuts or pecans

1. Mix flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
2. Blend in blender: apples (cored and cut into eighths), milk, oil, eggs, sugar, and nuts. These ingredients just about max out my Bosch blender so if you have a small bender you might want to blend in two batches. A food processor may work as well, though I haven't tried it.
3. Pour into a large (10''X13''), greased, baking dish/pan.
Optional but desirable~ sprinkle with crumb topping (recipe below)
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (medium oven) for about 30 minutes.

Nice served with a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream.

Crumb Topping:

1/2 cup brown sugar (we like dark)
1 cup flour
1/4 pound butter, chilled
chopped pecans or walnuts

In a bowl, mix sugar and flour until blended. Cut the chilled butter into smaller pieces and rub the butter into the flour mixture with your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add finely chopped pecans or walnuts to taste. If you have leftover crumb topping, it stores well in the freezer and makes a nice topping for muffins.

Fall Colors?

There isn't much fall color--as in orange, yellow, or red--to be seen in our neighborhood but the bougainvillea is still lovely.

Pray for the Children of Sudan

A few weeks ago my dear Palestinian sister let me know of a need she heard of via her Sudanese sister, for clothes for the children of war-torn Sudan. Lacking adequate food, nutrition, and education, many of these dear children are now orphans, having lost their parents and other family members to the war.












I passed this plea on to our youth group and three young high school women stepped up to organize a clothes drive for these needy children. With the help of others, they gathered about ten large bags of clothes and the money needed for shipping them to Sudan.

Last night we had the joy of presenting the clothes and money to our Sudanese brother. We enjoyed warm fellowship, with Dear Husband's translation help, as our Sudanese brother thanked the youth, exhorted and encouraged them, and prayed for God's blessing on them as they continue to serve Him.

Our brother encouraged us to pray for the children of Sudan, trying to imagine ourselves in their places as we pray for them--a humbling challenge for all of us.

Humble Fare

Dear husband and I had some minor cross-cultural adjustments to make when we married. We are both Americans but I'm a West Coast girl and he hails from the Midwest and the East. Where I grew up a salad could be considered an entree, even if there were no meat in it. Same for soups. Dear husband, on the other hand, had never even tasted an avocado before he met me (aren't avocados better than meat??). Additionally, my wonderful mother-in-law, also a wonderful cook, was a Sunday-pot-roast-with-all-the-trimmings kind of woman. (I still can't compete, but I certainly have learned a lot from her!)

Through the years I've learned to cook enough dishes which don't prompt my husband to look at me with a longing "where's the beef" look in his eyes and he's learned to be satisfied with a few meatless dinners. Just a few. Below is a the recipe for a favorite soup which besides being quick to fix, tasty, and healthy, is very easy on an increasingly burdened grocery budget in these days of rising food prices.

Tomato, Lentil, and Cilantro Soup

1/4 cup canola oil
2 medium onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. garam masala (Indian spice mixture)
red pepper flakes to taste
2 14 oz cans of chopped tomatoes, puree one can in the blender
8 cups vegetable stock
1 cup red (orange) lentils
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 cup-or more-chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Heat oil in a large pan, add onions, garlic, garam masala, and red pepper flakes. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until onions are soft. Add tomatoes, stock, lentils, sugar, and cilantro, simmer, stirring, uncovered about 20 minutes or until lentils are tender.

Serve with sour cream and chopped cilantro leaves. Of course, Dear Husband would prefer it served with a steak, but he'll settle for a grilled cheese sandwich.

"Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it."
Proverbs 15:17

Costumes on the Fly

Just 36 hours prior to the Fall Festival costume party, my dear children decided they would like to attend. You can probably guess the question which followed this decision: "Mom, what can I go as?" I'd given away some of the items in our costume bag and what was left was mostly too small to be of use to any of them. With no possibility of a quick trip to JoAnn's for supplies and not a lot of creative-costume-planning-energy flowing through my brain I simply shrugged my shoulders. Last minute costume panic is not my idea of a good time.

Thankfully, the kids came through, each one coming up with a costume which, I thought, fit their personalities/dispositions and which was easy to put together. This actually turned out to be no-stress fun for all of us. Imagine!

Artist Son, who is presently re-reading Lord of the Rings, decided to go as a Hobbit. The white shirt came from the costume bag, the vest and pants from Mom's closet, and the hooded cape was improvised from a brown fleece blanket I was able to find at the store. Notice the authentic furry Hobbit feet--cut from an old faux fur cap.

Tayta was Jane Austen, or your favorite Jane Austen character. She couldn't decide. We only had to buy some bobby pins and ribbon. Her dress was improvised from Mom's skirt and a thankfully-she-had-one-white blouse. Fresh cut from the garden lavender filled in her basket. She reported that only one of the kids her age had heard of Jane Austen but they had heard of Pride and Prejudice. She filled them in.

I'm sure you can guess who Active Son is impersonating. Only thing I had to by for this costume was a blue swim cap--$4. What a deal.

The Problem of Evil

It is the problem of problems, isn't it? Even approaching it in a blog post is probably, for me, complete folly. Huge subject. Infinite God. Pooh-brained me. However, circumstances in the lives of friends and conversations with several others who are struggling to make sense of this deep mystery has caused me to think anew. An author who always helps me think, Peter Kreeft, entered our home again last week, this time in the form of his book Three Philosophies of Life.



The entire chapter, Job: Life as Suffering, is wonderful but here is a short passage which ever so concisely, eloquently, reasonably, and triumphantly helps to clear my fog:

"When Saint Thomas Aquinas stated in the Summa the problem of evil as one of the two objections to the existence of God, he remembered what many philosophers forget: that the solution, God's solution, is concrete, not abstract; dramatic, not schematic; an event in time, not a timeless truth. Saint Thomas stated the problem as follows:

"'God' means infinite goodness. But if one of two contraries is infinite, the other is totally destroyed. Yet evil exists [and is not destroyed]. Therefore God [infinite goodness] does not exist."

And he answered it as follows:

"As Augustine says, Since God is the highest good, He would not allow any evil to exist in His works unless His omnipotence and goodness were such as to bring good even out of evil."

(my insert) "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.: Romans 8:28 ESV

In other words, life, like Job, is like a fairy tale. To get to live happily ever after, you have to go through the dung heap. Evil is only temporary; good is eternal. Once again, in a word, "wait".

But wait in faith. Jesus told Martha, before he raised her brother Lazarus from the dead, "Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God." Seeing is not believing. but believing is seeing, eventually. Job does not wait patiently, but he waits. Job's faith is not sunny and serene, but it is faith. It is not without doubts. (Indeed , his doubts came from his faith. When faith is full, it is open and can include doubts; when it is weak it cannot tolerate doubts.) But Job remains a hero of faith. He waits in faith, and he sees the glory of God. He is blessed in the very waiting, in the dung, in the agony, and he is doubly blessed in the finding, in the end." (pp. 75, 76)

Black Apple Dolls

I've been a Martha Stewart devotee every since I , as a newly engaged young women, discovered a book jacket-less copy of her classic debut, Entertaining on the sale table of my campus bookstore. Price: One dollar. These were pre-internet days when you could find such books only at high retail in physical rather than virtual bookstores. I was at once overwhelmed and inspired by the possibilities of my future domesticity. Though I didn't know how to cook when I married--unless you count bean burritos and Rice-A-Roni with chicken--Martha tutored me through a successful, albeit exhausting, first Thanksgiving feast complete with homemade pies decorated with pastry cut-outs and a to-die-for dried fruit and nut stuffing soaked in brandy.

Despite Martha's high publicized personal problems and the discovery that her life was not as idyllic as Entertaining lead me to first believe, I've continued to be inspired by Martha's creations. The lady has style in spades. And now that she is Martha Stewart, The Conglomerate, she knows how to find others with a great sense of design style.

While sitting in the Cleveland airport last August I noticed that the TV monitor was broadcasting the Martha Stewart Show. I'd never watched it before (don't watch TV, except in airports) but I settled in, hoping to learn something new. I was not disappointed. Her guest was Emily Martin , currently the best selling artist on the craft site, Etsy. (Six figures was mentioned.) Emily demonstrated how to make her selling-faster-than-she-can-make-them dolls and with the extra bonus of a link to the Martha Stewart website which provided video tutorials and download-able templates for the patterns. Perfect for Tayta (youngest daughter)! thought I.

Here are Tayta's first two dolls--one is now resting on a bookshelf in Oldest Daughter's dorm room in Ohio. She loved making them and did nearly all the stitching by hand. I helped only with the final machine seam. Tayta has plans for many more dolls which include ideas of how to embellish them with scarfs, little purses, and hats. Thanks, Emily for sharing your great idea!

(Not sure why most of my hyperlinks remain in black; all bold, italicized words and phrases should be active links.)

Happy Birthday to a Master Gardener

In my later teen years and into my early twenties, I think my mom may have worried that she hadn't successfully imparted some important domestic skills to me~I couldn't really cook anything and I didn't show any interest in puttering in the garden. If she did worry, she needn't have: the love of a good man kindled interest in all things domestic and the latent lessons of creating a beautiful home and garden which I passively learned growing up as my mother's daughter sprung to life.

This summer the entire family enjoyed the fruit (and flower) of my mom's love of gardening, enjoying barbecues in the back yard, sitting on the front deck in the evening, and eating yummy salads made from the bounty of her tidy kitchen garden.

This oh-so-neat vegetable garden brought the neighborhood association out for a visit as the sub-division covenant specified that no vegetable gardens could be grown in the front yard. Well, this garden was kind of, sort of in the side yard and it had nasturtiums, zinnias, marigolds...

...and some exquisitely beautiful squash blossoms growing in it, so in the end, the neighborhood association let it remain.

Mom has somehow convinced her hydrangeas that they are really growing in Portland, Oregon and not Boise, Idaho.

Living is not enough...one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower

~Hans Christen Andersen

Happy Birthday Mom! Hope the weather is nice enough for you to enjoy tottering in your garden at least a little bit.

Liberal Learning

One of the things I love most about home educating my children are the many opportunities it affords me to learn, learn, learn. Yesterday I half joked with Artist Son that when I graduate my last child that I am going to throw a 'graduation' party for...myself! For, truly, I have learned so much through the process of educating my children and have received the gift of a liberal education~an education which somehow eluded me through my school and college years. And it has been more than once that the thought of formally returning to higher education has flitted across my mind. How, what, and where would I want to study? Wouldn't it be wonderful to study in a formal Great Books program? Daydreams, all, for the the time being and maybe forever, but fun daydreams all the same.

So when I saw the book below, Racing Odysseus, in an Oberlin bookstore, the subtitle caught my eye:

"A college president becomes a freshman again."

Hey, this guy really did it! He went back to college! And not just any college--he entered St. John's, the iconic Great Books college in Annapolis, Maryland. And, he was clever enough to write a book about his experience.



Racing Odysseus

I am thankful that he did. This was my 'fun' read on in the car and on the plane back to Jordan last month.

I've heard a couple people suggest that Baby Boomers (of which I am at the tail-end) want to live vicariously through their own children's college experiences, remembering their own college years as the best times of their lives. Perhaps. I do remember my college days with great fondness, yea even as some of the best years of my life, but mostly for the experiences I enjoyed, the relationships I made, the personal growing I did. Unfortunately, and likely due in part to my own immaturity and lack of foresight, I do not remember my academic experiences to be very stimulating or life-forming. Pragmatic and perfunctory are adjectives which come to mind. Academics, though only a part of the college experience, is the part I think I would like a second chance at.

When Roger Martin, the author of Racing Odysseus, entered St. John's College, he was a 61 year old who had recently survived a cancer death sentence. On sabbatical from his position of college president at Randolph-Macon college, Martin attends St. Johns for one semester so that he can write a book from a student's perspective. I thoroughly enjoyed his affable and humble "confessions of a freshman" through which he thoughtfully and entertainingly wove stories of how, through a taste of a Great Books/liberal arts education, he came to to a better understanding of what it means to be human. His book makes an compelling argument for a liberal arts education, and not without touching upon some of the areas in which it has been criticized, i.e. not preparing a student for a specialized occupation. I would recommend this book to anyone who believes it is never too late to continue learning and who in fact would embrace the chance to continue their education later in life.

Lessons Learned

In addition to all the mind-expanding lessons Oldest Daughter is learning in her first semester of college, she is learning some very practical life lessons. Here are a few she has learned this week:

1. If you don't wash your coffee mug you may end up growing a biology lab-worthy culture in it.

2. There's no such thing as free merchandise as offered on the internet (a modern day version of the 'no such thing as a free lunch' lesson).

3. Don't be so overeager to wear your new fashionista rain-boots that you depend on the internet weather forecast of thundershowers...and then end up wearing your oh-so noticeable boots all over campus on a precipitation-free day.

Thanks for the chuckles, Oldest Daughter : )